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Opinion

Friday, 08 June 2018 03:58

Madmen in authority - Harold James

In The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money, John Maynard Keynes famously worried that, “Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.” Yet even without prescriptive theories, feigning “frenzy” or madness can also be a plausible, powerful, and rather contagious negotiating strategy. In the early 1970s, US President Richard Nixon adopted the tactic to convince the North Vietnamese that he had his finger on the “nuclear button,” and that they had better negotiate a deal to end the war – or else. And in 1986,…

Thursday, 07 June 2018 05:04

Buhari: The road not travelled - Jideofor Adibe

This piece was inspired by a video of the Kenyan National Prayer Breakfast, which recently went viral. In that video President Uhuru Kenyatta and opposition leader Raila Odinga publicly offered apologies to each other over the contentious and acrimony-laden 2017 presidential election in the country. Uhuru Kenyatta, 56, is the son of Kenya’s first President, Jomo Kenyatta, while Raila Odinga, 73, is the son of the country’s first Vice President, Odinga Odinga. In that video, President Kenyatta, who took the lead in proffering apologies, said: “We have campaigned against each other, we have said nasty things against each other, and…

Wednesday, 06 June 2018 04:55

Pro-Buhari solidarity indiscretion by Magu, Ali - NIG

The recent open show of support for the reelection bid of President Muhammadu Buhari by top officials of statutory agencies is not only distasteful, but also an unethical breach of Code of Conduct for public officials. It is also a sad throwback to the inglorious days of former military ruler, late General Sani Abacha, during which time state agencies and political parties were personalized to massage the ego of a maximum ruler. Acting Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Ibrahim Magu was recently spotted wearing a lapel pin bearing the face of President Buhari on a live interview…

Wednesday, 06 June 2018 04:53

Saraki: APC politics of self-destruction - Israel Ebije

All Progressive Congress (APC) has always operated on a political machinery lubricated with blackmail, propaganda, which facilitated the mass appeal they got at the polls ousting Mr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.In the wake of spasm of anger against the ruling party on account of failed promises, frail security situation and general anomie, the embattled ruling party has invented different sizes of frames to put up opponents or persons holding critical opinions for disgrace, disrepute and if possible destruction. The stage is set for the ruling party to self-destruct, now that it has started biting its own allies. The ongoing imbroglio between…

Tuesday, 05 June 2018 04:29

The road to Babylon - Reuben Abati

Nigeria is on the road to Babylon: a place of confusion. Three years ago, the people were convinced that they had found a messiah who will lead them to the Promised Land, and meet all their expectations. Today, everyone is speaking in different tongues; “turning and turning in the widening gyre…the falcon cannot hear the falconer... things fall apart; the centre cannot hold/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/The blood-doomed tide is loosed, and everywhere/the ceremony of innocence is drowned…surely, some revelation is at hand…” But just may be, there is still, no cause for despair. The good thing about…

Monday, 04 June 2018 04:27

Fighting corruption might be dangerous, but preparing a Nigerian budget is hell - Feyi Fawehinmi

On Nov.7, Nigeria’s president Buhari presented a 2018 budget of 8.6 trillion naira ($24 billion) to the National Assembly for approval. More than six months later on May 16—a record delay—the lawmakers returned it to the president, approved and ready for his signature. The approved budget had, of course, grown by 500 billion naira to 9.12 trillion. Whatever work was done on the budget in the intervening period between submission by the president and passage by the lawmakers was between inconsequential and non-existent. The budget became a political football and was taken hostage several times for various reasons—not least their…

Sunday, 03 June 2018 04:37

Aristo and rage of the kitchen knife - Festus Adedayo

There is really a huge lure to comment on the political today. President Muhammadu Buhari has just given a national broadcast that provokes several questions; ex-Taraba governor, Jolly Nyame was, during the week, sentenced to 14 years imprisonment; Buhari assented the Not Too Young Bill, among many other issues. Unless we want to fool ourselves, political issues drive the engine of discourses in Nigeria today, especially when the 2019 elections are less than a year away. However, social and economic issues are arguably the grease that oils the engine of the political.. Some installments ago, the social issue of spousal…

Sunday, 03 June 2018 04:36

What artificial intelligence doesn’t understand - Danielle Allen

This is speech-making season. I have found myself in front of audiences for graduations, retirements and award celebrations. All this speechifying has taught me, forcefully, the limits of machine learning and artificial intelligence. I have been giving what used to be called “occasional speeches.” This does not mean, as some might hope, that they happen only occasionally, but rather that their purpose is to respond to an occasion or event, to meet and match a moment. What kind of moments have I encountered? These bright-eyed, or maybe bleary-eyed, kids are about to leave a sheltered environment and enter the world,…

Saturday, 02 June 2018 05:03

Buhari’s three years of blood and blubbering - Yemi Adebowale

In this part of the world, our leaders are persistently economical with the truth. They do this with so much impunity. Being economical with the truth has also become a way of life for majority of the people. This is why we have remained a struggling third world country. This country will probably never get out of this mess if things continue this way. To get out of this untidiness, we must strive to get leadership and followership right. One of such debilitating mess rolled out this week by the leadership of this country was the effrontery of the Buhari…

Saturday, 02 June 2018 04:56

Movements of Nigeria’s ruling class - Edwin Madunagu

To appreciate, more fully, the current wave of political re-alignments in Nigeria and be able to make informed projections, we may need to go back to the Nigerian Civil War of (1967-1970) and the long preparation for the Second Republic (1979-1983).When the military regime of General Olusegun Obasanjo finally, in August 1978, lifted the ban on political activities imposed in January 1966, two main political tendencies emerged in Nigeria’s reconstituted national ruling class. The first tendency was thoroughly conservative and aspired, and largely succeeded to be national in composition, character and formal leadership. Call it A. The second tendency was…

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Friday, 01 June 2018 04:05

Why some politicians are perceived to be more ethnic than others - Jideofor Adibe

I was researching for the above article for my last week’s column when news filtered that Buhari had used innuendo to accept Obasanjo’s repeated challenges over his ambition to seek re-election in 2019. It should be recalled that Buhari, while welcoming members of the Buhari Support organization to the State House on May 21 said a former President (meaning Obsanajo) spent $16bn dollars on the power sector without anything to show for it. I felt that commenting on the import of that statement on the political Cold War that had simmered between supporters of the two retired Generals was more…

Thursday, 31 May 2018 04:40

How Trump’s election shook Obama: ‘What if we were wrong?’ - Peter Baker

Riding in a motorcade in Lima, Peru, shortly after the 2016 election, President Barack Obama was struggling to understand Donald J. Trump’s victory. “What if we were wrong?” he asked aides riding with him in the armored presidential limousine. He had read a column asserting that liberals had forgotten how important identity was to people and had promoted an empty cosmopolitan globalism that made many feel left behind. “Maybe we pushed too far,” Mr. Obama said. “Maybe people just want to fall back into their tribe.” His aides reassured him that he still would have won had he been able…

Tuesday, 29 May 2018 04:36

Yoruba traditional philosophy as espoused by late Odufowokan - Femi Odufowokan

Exactly five years today, 29th May 2013, my father, Mr John Abolaji Odufayo Odufowokan of Odunuga dynasty of Ijebu Land answered the call of Almighty. He died at an advanced age, about ninety years old. He was a highly intelligent man despite the fact that he had little education (standard two) but equipped with the good dose of Yoruba traditional philosophy. He was a man that usually held strongly to his positions on issues unless you could convince him with superior positions or arguments. Sometimes, I had intentionally stuck to my position while I engaged him and not expecting him…

Monday, 28 May 2018 04:50

If this is Buhari’s final 29 May - Sonala Olumhense

There is a strong possibility that one year ahead from this week, President Muhammadu Buhari will be at Eagle Square in Abuja looking considerably older and sadder. The presidential election will be held on February 19, nine months away. When he takes the microphone for the fourth time in 48 hours, it will be the formal start to his campaign for re-election. But it will be a difficult nine months, unless All Progressives Congress, does the unthinkable and denies him the re-run ticket. As an observer, I am going to enjoy watching this effort to swim dressed in an agbada…

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