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Opinion

Wednesday, 18 July 2018 03:52

Hadi Sirika and the return of Nigeria Airways - Reuben Abati

One of the usual features on Nigerian social media is the nostalgic passion with which Nigerians often distribute pictures of the old Nigeria Airways and how that company once considered one of the best in Africa was mismanaged and made to fail. Established in 1958, it was liquidated in 2003. I have seen pictures of old tickets, images of Nigeria Airways pilots and crew, and for anyone who travelled with Nigeria Airways, you cannot but be moved to pity. Pity yes, because while Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa can no longer manage an airline of its own, the…

Tuesday, 17 July 2018 05:10

Buhari’s Executive Order 006 - NIG

Perhaps mindful of the growing perception that the anticorruption crusade of his government ,which was the major plank upon which he was elected, has not been as effective as promised, President Buhari recently sought to add bite to it by issuing Presidential Executive Order 6 of 2018. The order seeks to enforce the temporary forfeiture of property linked TO anyone suspected and accused of engaging in corrupt practices. Section 5 (b) of the order defines corruption or corrupt practices as any corrupt activity ... in excess of N50 million or its equivalent in foreign currency. Paragraph 8 also states that…

Sunday, 15 July 2018 04:03

Adeosun and the certificate narrative - Festus Adedayo

At a Media and the State class which held at the University of Ibadan during the week, I told my audience which comprised Political Science students, that the governance structure in Nigeria had been so compromised by our collective corruption that no public institution is immune from integrity issues. If the students expected that I had come to dress the rostrum with platitudes, they were sorely disappointed. Every word that proceeded from my mouth was laced with distressing sound bites. Having been recommended for the talk by my media and state pedigree, the audience ostensibly expected that my media and…

Saturday, 14 July 2018 04:16

Buhari has been terrible for the North - Chinazor Onianwa

He has not done anything to develop the north since he first became the military governor of northeastern Nigeria. He has done nothing to change the plight of Northerners as shown here: 1. 12 million children are out of school in Nigeria, of which 10 million are from the north whilst Kano state alone has 3 million beggars. Buhari has never addressed the lack of educational pursuit amongst northerners. Rather he would appoint poorly educated northerners to positions of power. 2. Nigeria has the highest number of young girls suffering from Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF) in the world. And 90…

Saturday, 14 July 2018 04:10

Further notes on political alliances - Edwin Madunagu

In a previous piece on this subject (Notes on political alliances, July 4, 2018), I proposed that the following three broad objectives have propelled Leftist organisations, at home and abroad, to seek political alliances with non-Leftist formations: to fight or to prevent the emergence of certain forms of dictatorship (e.g. fascism and the one-party state); to expand the existing “democratic space”; or to capture power/accede to office. The aim of the present piece is to extend this proposition in two or three directions and then provide more historical illustrations or instances beyond the one offered in the previous piece. Although…

Friday, 13 July 2018 04:27

Much ado about coalition of opposition parties - Ayo Olukotun

“So, let nobody come and deceive you on corruption, they (APC) are more corrupt than any government I know since 1999…Fighting corruption is not the only responsibility of government” Former Vice President, and presidential hopeful, Atiku Abubakar, July 11, 2018. Anyone who remains in doubt that political campaigns, with their heated rhetoric and partisan narratives, are in full bloom only needs to read the charges hurled at the ruling All Progressives Congress, quoted in the opening paragraph, by a former member of that party, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar. A speech made on the hustings does not enjoy the coherence…

Thursday, 12 July 2018 04:35

Nationalism will go bankrupt - Anatole Kaletsky

Nationalism versus globalism, not populism versus elitism, appears to be this decade’s defining political conflict. Almost wherever we look – at the United States or Italy or Germany or Britain, not to mention China, Russia, and India – an upsurge of national feeling has become the main driving force of political events. By contrast, the supposed rebellion of “common people” against elites has not been much in evidence. Billionaires have taken over US politics under President Donald Trump; unelected professors run the “populist” Italian government; and all over the world, taxes have been slashed on the ever-rising incomes of financiers,…

Tuesday, 10 July 2018 05:26

The Adebayo Adedeji example - Reuben Abati

Professor Adebayo Adedeji, the towering intellectual, scholar, pan-Africanist, international civil servant and pioneer Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and Under-Secretary General of the United Nations (1975 -1991) died on April 25, 2018 at the ripe age of 87. He was buried on July 6, in his home-town of Ijebu-Ode in Ogun State. On July 7, the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) organised a symposium in his honour and memory in Lagos, with the theme: “Africa’s Development Agenda: Lessons from the Adebayo Adedeji years and policy options for the 21st Century.” I was privileged to…

Sunday, 08 July 2018 05:12

Nigerians suffering, unhappy, economy not doing well - Tam David-West

A die-hard Buharist and former Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Mr Tam David-West, has disagreed with President Muhammadu Buhari over the latter’s support for the establishment of cattle ranches in some designated states in the country, saying that it was not proper for the president to do ranches in non-ranching areas. He also pointed out that Buhari has allowed suffering to so much make Nigerians to be unhappy, saying that the president needs to do something fast to turn the trend or pay dearly for it at the polls. David-West also took a swipe at prominent constitutional lawyer, Mr Ben…

Sunday, 08 July 2018 05:11

Politicians, blood oath and 2019 - Festus Adedayo

South African poet, Mazisi Raymond Fakazi Mngoni Kunene (1930-2006) and his Nigerian counterpart, Gabriel Imomotime Okara, in their respective works, have demonstrated how difficult it is for an African – no matter his embrace of modernity and religious values of the west and east – to divorce himself from the hubris of occultism, black magic and blood oath which form the template of centuries of African existence. Kunene was particularly bothered by the rupture that modernity has caused on African traditions, culture and ways of life. In Piano and Drums, Okara evocatively brings out the effects of clashes between Western…

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Friday, 06 July 2018 04:56

Buhari should politicise life, not death - Abimbola Adelakun

Last week was particularly bloody in Nigeria. The scale of multifarious tragedies that hit the nation rubbed all of us raw and with a visceral force. From Plateau to Cross River, Ebonyi, and Lagos states, acts of violence left an untallied number of people dead and thousands more displaced. Amidst all the mourning that pervaded Nigeria, Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Femi Adesina, decided to sour the air more. He sidestepped the substance of Nigerians’ angst to wrestle with the All Progressives Congress’ mirror image – the Peoples Democratic Party – for turning the tragic deaths…

Friday, 06 July 2018 04:53

The famished land of the old emperor - Dare Babarinsa

Most Africans put hope on Nigeria to redeem the image of the continent. That was why there was so much jubilation across Africa and the African Diaspora when Nigeria humbled Iceland during the remarkable match in Russia during the ongoing World Cup, the most talk about event on the planet now. When Nigeria in turn was kicked out by football superpower, Argentina, Africans were sour in defeat. We deserve to win, many of us believe, but for the foul temper and poor judgment of the referee. Our boys would be home soon with their heads held high. They did their…

Thursday, 05 July 2018 05:28

Notes on political alliances - Edwin Madunagu

We may begin by recalling two key propositions that have so far emerged in the current discussions on the political responsibility of the Nigerian Left in this period. And, for clarity, by “this period” I mean the 20th year of the Fourth Republic, a period defined by the approach to a general election, worsening of the material conditions of the masses, national disunity, aggravated violence and insecurity, declining ability of the Nigerian state to discharge the elementary functions of the state (except the coercive ones) and absence of any national mobilizing project or promise by the ruling class or any…

Thursday, 05 July 2018 05:27

Sharing Abacha loot is assault on constitutionalism - NIG

New Independence Group (NIG) views the reported resolve of the Federal Government to share about $320 million returned Abacha loot among a so-called poorest of the Nigerian poor, in some 19 states of the federation, as a most egregious assault on the Nigerian constitution that must be halted immediately. More worrisome is the disposition of President Muhammadu Buhari to treat national patrimony as a family estate which he, as the putative head, can dispense with as he wishes. This instance of sharing of retrieved Abacha loot will not be the first, indeed it is the third of such unilateral disbursement…

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