Ns-Opinion

Opinion

Thursday, 21 February 2019 03:59

Re-building confidence in the electoral system - Jideofor Adibe

The title of this article is a little bit misleading because it suggests, rather wrongly, that Nigerians ever had confidence in the electoral system. Truth be told, they never did - which is why most elections in the country since independence have been contentious and marred with allegations and counter allegations of rigging. I am therefore using the word ‘re-building’ cautiously to refer to whatever shaky confidence people had on the electoral systems and processes before the unfortunate postponement of the election by one week on February 16 2019. Despite the anger and disappointment that followed the postponement of the…

Wednesday, 20 February 2019 03:45

Here’s the right lesson liberals should learn from Scandinavian ‘socialism’ - Max Boot

Red-baiting appears to be a crucial part of President Trump’s reelection campaign. He regularly accuses Democrats of wanting to turn America into another Venezuela. In the State of the Union address, he went straight from denouncing the Maduro regime to proclaiming, “Here, in the United States, we are alarmed by new calls to adopt socialism in our country.” On the present trajectory, it won’t be long before Trump, like a latter-day Richard Nixon, will be accusing Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D.-Calif.) of being “pink right down to her underwear.” Having emigrated to the United States as a small boy from…

Tuesday, 19 February 2019 04:16

How the Left embraced elitism - David Brooks

Over the past generation, global capitalism has produced the greatest reduction in human poverty in history. Over the past 10 years, American capitalism has produced 20 million new jobs. The productive dynamism of capitalism is truly a wonder to behold. But economic growth alone is not enough. Growth alone does not translate into economic security for the middle class and the less skilled. Growth alone does nothing to reverse the social decay afflicting communities across America. This reality is transforming the political debate — and shifting everything leftward. Among conservatives there are now a bevy of thinkers who are trying…

Tuesday, 19 February 2019 04:15

Tinpot emperor - Sam Omatseye

His cap fits him, especially as a measure of his ego. It points up like an airport tower as though intending to graze the sky. Ibikunle Amosun’s head gear suffers from what Sigmund Freud and his followers would call phallic anxiety. From base to top, the cap occupies a real estate bigger than his face from fore-head to chin. To his credit, few politicians have so mastered what I would call the “political look.” Some showcase their shirts, others their shoes, many their caps. But few set themselves apart like the Ogun State governor as a fop of the head.…

Monday, 18 February 2019 04:10

Google, fake news, and the crisis of truth - Bernard-Henri Lévy

Invited by Google Europe to attend a brainstorming session in Paris on the decline of truth, the rise of fake news, and ways to counter both, I began my presentation by placing the problem in historical context. I cited George Orwell’s Looking back on the Spanish War, in which the author explains that, for him, “history stopped in 1936,” because it was there, in Spain, that he discovered for the first time “newspaper reports which did not bear any relation to the facts.” It was there that he sensed that “the very concept of objective truth,” ruined by fascism in…

Sunday, 17 February 2019 05:46

Drum beating, dancers ready: Why did Yakubu stop the beat? - Festus Adedayo

It is no news that Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the presidential and National Assembly elections that were to hold yesterday. It is also no news that angers, frustration and condemnation of this decision have jammed the Nigerian electoral space. A number of contesting theories have sprung up across divides against the propriety of this decision. While those who propounded the hand of God theory claim that the cancellation was probably an unseen providential hand to redeem Nigeria through her electoral wrongs, some have offered a conspiracy theory, both with strikingly graphic defence of their claims. The…

Sunday, 17 February 2019 05:44

UCH: As CMD Alonge bows out - Folu Olamiti

Temitope Alonge, Professor and Chief Medical Director (CMD) of University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, is due to bow out of office on completion of his second term on 28 February, 2019. The world renowned Consultant Orthopaedic and Trauma Surgeon had been at helm of affairs of UCH, Nigeria's first tertiary hospital, since March 2011 when he first assumed office for an initial term of four years. He was reappointed in 2015 for a second term following his satisfactory performance. His second term, now coming to a meritorious end, turned out to be even better and more rewarding for the hospital…

Thursday, 14 February 2019 05:12

Not the ‘who’ but the ‘what’ to vote against - Abimbola Adelakun

Some months ago, one of my favourite writers in the Nigerian column writing circuit predicted that by this election season, electoral permutation based on mere geopolitical calculations would be obsolete and would have given way to the quest for competent leadership. The writer, now observing the current political terrain, must have noticed that he spoke too soon while the wheel was still in spin. This election has been less about Nigeria and her destiny but mostly about who wins the keys to Aso Rock Villa for the endgame of paving the way for another tribe. For a country where poverty…

Thursday, 14 February 2019 05:10

Surprises as we near the D-Day - Jideofor Aidbe

In barely 72 hours, the D-Day will beckon and the anxiety will shift to the H-hour. I don’t believe that February 16 will be a doomsday for the country because hanging on a cliff is apparently the country’s comfort zone. This will suggest that despite the current tension and possibility of localized violence during and after the elections, the country is likely to come out of it, perhaps not stronger or weaker, but with the usual limp and trudge. As a country we are experts at movement without motion or running tirelessly on a treadmill. As the D-day nears, we…

Wednesday, 13 February 2019 05:08

Forget Onnoghen: Let’s Talk about Buhari’s asset declaration fraud - Farooq Kperogi

President Muhammadu Buhari’s asset declaration fraud is more damning than CJN’s Walter Onnoghen's, yet it is Onnoghen who has been illegally ‘suspended’ and pilloried in the media. In this piece I’ll show you why Mr Buhari is a double-dyed scammer who should be in jail. First, it was Buhari who voluntarily said he would publicly declare his assets. The Punch of February 20, 2015 reported him to have said: “I pledge to PUBLICLY declare my assets and liabilities, encourage all my appointees to publicity declare their assets and liabilities as a pre-condition for appointment.” However, several months after getting into…

More...

Monday, 11 February 2019 04:43

Atiku and el-Rufai’s body bag nationalism - Festus Adedayo

What could have prompted Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai to make such very volatile comment attributed to him on a Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) interview programme last week? Could it be due to a boldness acquired over the years in the uncharted field of Nigerian politics? Could the governor, famous for his brutal deployment of words and blood-soaked imageries, be weaving a tapestry whose end no one can claim to know? Was he using that grisly image of body bags to illustrate the innumerable number of the dead we have buried as a country in the last three years? Knowing…

Monday, 11 February 2019 04:42

A body-bag election - Sonala Olumhense

In five days, Nigerians of voting age will clarify not only whom they are, but whom they wish to be. Four years ago, I helped bring to the leadership of Nigeria a man I had equally endorsed at 2011 election: Mr Muhammadu Buhari, as President. In 2015, there really wasn’t much of a choice. This year, there is: Anybody Else. Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo unintentionally captured the situation a few days ago during a campaign stop in Owerri. Reaching down to his evangelical side, the pastor told the crowd: “The most important thing is that when the righteous are in power,…

Saturday, 09 February 2019 05:24

Why girls beat boys at school and lose to them at the office - Lisa Damour

Hard work and discipline help girls outperform boys in class, but that advantage disappears in the work force. Is school the problem? From elementary school through college, girls are more disciplined about their schoolwork than boys; they study harder and get better grades. Girls consistently outperform boys academically. And yet, men nonetheless hold a staggering 95 percent of the top positions in the largest public companies. What if those same habits that propel girls to the top of their class — their hyper-conscientiousness about schoolwork — also hold them back in the work force? When investigating what deters professional advancement…

Thursday, 07 February 2019 04:12

Atiku’s amnesty plan for treasury looters - Jideofor Adibe

The plan by PDP’s presidential candidate and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to grant amnesty to suspected treasury looters if elected President, is, in my opinion, the way to go. At an interview on the platform, ‘The Candidate’, hosted by broadcast journalist Kadaria Ahmed, Atiku was asked if corrupt people would be granted amnesty if he became President. He replied: “Why not? I give you an example of Turkey. Turkey gave amnesty and all the monies taken abroad were brought back and the government said when you bring the money back, you don’t need to pay taxes. Invest in manufacturing,…

Page 204 of 274

Opinion

More...

Search

Most Read

Editorial

News

Business

Politics

Opinion

Features

Strangely

Crime

Wars

SCIENCE & TECH

SPECIAL REPORTS

Sports

VIDEOS