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Opinion

Sunday, 24 March 2019 04:40

Walter Onnoghen, Ademola Adeleke and tales of man’s inhumanity to man - Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, please don’t get it wrong, I’m not a Judge and I’m not about to deliver a judgment in favour of the ‘suspended’ Chief Justice of Nigeria, Mr Walter Onnoghen. I lack such capacity and jurisdiction. Besides, as the lawyers say, the matter is ‘sub judice’ i.e. under judicial consideration and therefore not meant for public discourse or discussion anywhere else other than the Court. What I’m doing here is to reiterate my initial reaction to the kangarooistic justice manner he was harassed, terrorised, convicted in the media, ahead of trial. My sympathy for Onnoghen didn’t stem out of…

Sunday, 24 March 2019 04:38

Lagos’ dangerous Igbo/Yoruba war - Festus Adedayo

Lagos, Nigeria in the 2019 Nigerian general elections had a lot in common with the Nigerian 1964 federal elections. The unifying factor between the two elections was how the ethnicities of both Igbo and Yoruba were deplored as a noticeable weapon of fighting elections. Ethnic fissures became dominant catchphrases in political campaigns of the two political periods with demonization of ethnic groups by politicians for political advantages. In the 2019 elections, Lagos became the cynosure of all eyes for its attempt at vilifying Igbo, for political advantage. In several areas of the state, hundreds of social miscreants, popularly known as…

Sunday, 24 March 2019 04:36

I will ‘borrow you’ the money - Pius Adesanmi

I was once at a dinner reception for a former Vice Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria. After his stint as VC of NOUN, he moved on to Accra to head the secretariat of the Association of African Universities and was visiting Ottawa in that capacity. We met over dinner and bonded as two Kogi citizens. The story he had to tell me about how NOUN was founded haunts me to this day. This Professor is a perfect gentleman with a very big profile in the Australia and Hong Kong axis. He commanded huge grants and was very…

Saturday, 23 March 2019 04:04

What Europe’s populist right is getting right - Mitchell A. Orenstein

On March 20, European People’s Party, the conservative bloc in the European Parliament, was to decide whether to expel Hungary’s ruling party, Fidesz. The EPP has been slow to censure Fidesz and Hungary’s autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orbán, for its assault on democracy and rule of law. Yet, Orbán’s Western critics have been equally slow to understand the social and economic policies that underpin his popularity. Consider the bold set of family policies that Orbán announced on February 10. So far, the verdict in the West on these policies, which are aimed at addressing the country’s low fertility rate and…

Thursday, 21 March 2019 05:07

Re-thinking Nigeria’s democracy - Jideofor Adibe

Presidential and National Assembly elections of February 23, 2019 and those for the Governorship and State Assemblies of March 9, 2019 seem to have underlined two points: first is the eagerness of many Nigerians to be part of the processes of leadership selection, with many queuing up for hours under inclement weather - or despite the security challenges in their areas - to exercise their franchise. This will seem to suggest that a significant portion of Nigerians still believe that their votes can make a difference – despite the emergence of terminologies like ‘organic votes’ (actual votes cast) and ‘the…

Thursday, 21 March 2019 05:06

Democracy vs. Disinformation - Ana Palacio

These are difficult days for liberal democracy. But of all the threats that have arisen in recent years – populism, nationalism, illiberalism – one stands out as a key enabler of the rest: the proliferation and weaponization of disinformation. The threat is not a new one. Governments, lobby groups, and other interests have long relied on disinformation as a tool of manipulation and control. What is new is the ease with which disinformation can be produced and disseminated. Advances in technology allow for the increasingly seamless manipulation or fabrication of video and audio, while the pervasiveness of social media enables…

Wednesday, 20 March 2019 04:54

Want a stronger economy? Support financially literate girls and women

Rebecca Patterson The recent U.S. government shutdown reminded us of the importance of financial literacy by highlighting how unprepared many U.S. households were to weather the month-long storm. According to a survey by Prudential Financial, more than a quarter of federal employees missed a mortgage or rent payment, while nearly half fell behind on bills during the shutdown. Ensuring that girls and women, in particular, understand the basics of personal finance and economics — not just to be ready for rainy days but also to plan for a successful financial life — is critical for at least two key reasons:…

Sunday, 17 March 2019 04:39

An adiye irana for Pius Adesanmi - Festus Adedayo

Like western philosophers, theologians, necromancers, diviners and the lot, traditional African Yoruba society too couldn’t understand the concept of death. One of its short-cuts of explaining this gripping moment of cessation of breath is by devising what it called the concept of adiye irana. Adiye irana is a popular concept at the passage of the dead in Yoruba mythology. Elders of the land, on their way to bury the remains of a good man, with white loins strapped round their waists and the casket of the dead following them in tow, held a big and mature cock grippingly by its…

Sunday, 17 March 2019 04:38

How to end rigging in Nigeria - Simon Kolawole

Let us perform an experiment. Let us make a Super Law that says if you are an elected public officer at any level of government, you must enrol all your children in public schools. You cannot send your children to private or foreign schools. If they are already in private or foreign schools, you must withdraw and enrol them in Nigerian public schools after you are elected into office. Also, you and your family members must receive medical treatment at government-owned hospitals in Nigeria. Your wife must give birth at a primary healthcare centre. No member of your family, including…

Sunday, 17 March 2019 04:37

Why A.I. without humans will not solve our problems - Katherine Maher

Let’s not let artificial intelligence put society on autopilot. The year 1989 is often remembered for events that challenged the Cold War world order, from the protests in Tiananmen Square to the fall of the Berlin Wall. It is less well remembered for what is considered the birth of the World Wide Web. In March of 1989, the British researcher Tim Berners-Lee shared the protocols, including HTML, URL and HTTP that enabled the internet to become a place of communication and collaboration across the globe. As the World Wide Web marks its 30th birthday on Tuesday, public discourse is dominated…

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Friday, 15 March 2019 04:34

Why Economics must get broader before it gets better - Mohamed A. El-Erian

The economics profession took a beating after most of its leading practitioners failed to predict the 2008 global financial crisis, and it has been struggling to recover ever since. Not only were the years following the crash marked by unusually low, unequal growth; now we are witnessing a growing list of economic and financial phenomena that economists cannot readily explain. Like Queen Elizabeth II, who famously asked in November 2008 why nobody had seen the crisis coming, many citizens have grown increasingly skeptical of economists’ ability to explain and predict economic developments, let alone offer sound guidance to policymakers. Some…

Thursday, 14 March 2019 04:16

Pius Adesanmi: And I cried! - 'Remi Oyeyemi

"Do not go to my grave ......I am not there. Look for me in between pages and on people's lips. Do not go to my old school. Do not go to my old house - I am not in any of those places. Look for me in your hearts and greet me there." - Kamand Kojouri (Author of "Eternal Dance") It was not a busy day. I had finished very early from the Adetokunbo Ademola Avenue office of the Atiku Abubakar Presidential Campaign in Abuja. Ayo, the guy who drives me around Abuja when my brother Olusola Sanni was too…

Thursday, 14 March 2019 04:14

Ajimobi and posterity

Traducers are at it. Malefactors seem to be in a party. They are gloating that Mr Abiola Ajimobi somehow did not succeed as governor because his party failed to produce a successor in the recent governorship battle for the Oyo State prime seat. More so, since he did not win his senate bid. In a fight against memory, such critics want to pretend that his two-term eight years as governor of Oyo State did not exist and did not count. They want to believe it, and others ride on such a hollow illusion. After Winston Churchill led the British through…

Wednesday, 13 March 2019 03:51

In our hearts lie Pius Adesanmi, the prophet who foretold his death

“I am at an age now where I should be confident that, should anything happen to me and I quit this realm eternally, somebody like you would go out of your way to find Tise and worry about her welfare,” Pius Adesanmi wrote in a mail to a friend when he slipped in the snow and hurt his ankle in January 2017. The day he was to die, he put up a final picture, a warm smile and a note to the world from Psalms 139, that he was being held by God’s right hand. Perhaps he knew what we…

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