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Opinion

Wednesday, 23 May 2018 05:13

Buhari, 2019 elections and different shades of opposition - NIG

Attention of New Independence Group (NIG), a socio-economic think-tank, has been drawn to the speech made by a former President, Mr Olusegun Obasanjo, to consummate the mainstreaming of his movement- Coalition for Nigeria Movement (CNM) into the African Democratic Congress (ADC), and marking the emergence of what many refer to as the alternative platform for the evolution of a Third force. We note with pleasure that the speech recognized the need to channel, in his words, “palpable anger against current misgovernance, poor performance, condonation of misconduct, incompetence, destabilising nepotism, cluelessness, denial and scapegoatism, lack of understanding of dynamics of internal…

Tuesday, 22 May 2018 04:32

The impending implosion of APC - Reuben Abati

Just take the phrase: “impending” in the title above with a pinch of salt. I use the word because in politics as in life, things happen - as seemingly absolute situations become redeemable and what originally appears impossible could be the catalyst for fresh opportunities. Otherwise, the truth is that the ruling Nigerian political party, the All Progressives Congress is already imploding, it has in fact imploded; the party is in the throes of a debilitating illness. The implosion began almost as soon as the party assumed power in 2015. The APC emerged as a special purpose vehicle – composed…

Tuesday, 22 May 2018 04:30

How to steal the populists’ clothes - Ngaire Woods

“Don’t get mad, get even.” That aphorism needs to become the new norm in democratic politics across Europe, Latin America, Asia, and Africa. Rather than complaining about populist successes, established political parties should take a page from the populist playbook. Three lessons, in particular, cry out for attention. The first lesson is to connect to the people you wish to represent by learning about them and winning their trust. The time when politicians could rely on party machines, focus groups, and traditional polling is over. The complacent assumption that people will always vote along party or class lines is obsolete.…

Monday, 21 May 2018 04:07

Liberal World Order, R.I.P. - Richard N. Haass

After a run of nearly one thousand years, quipped the French philosopher and writer Voltaire, the fading Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire. Today, some two and a half centuries later, the problem, to paraphrase Voltaire, is that the fading liberal world order is neither liberal nor worldwide nor orderly. The United States, working closely with the United Kingdom and others, established the liberal world order in the wake of World War II. The goal was to ensure that the conditions that had led to two world wars in 30 years would never again arise.…

Sunday, 20 May 2018 04:44

When Ibadan interrogated Segun Adeniyi - Festus Adedayo

At a time like this when virtually everyone in Nigeria is scrambling for material survival to enable them rise above our numerous problems of existence, if you ever come across those who still lay store by the pursuit of knowledge, please stop by and raise your thumb in their salute. I raised mine on Thursday last week at the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) book reading engagement. The event had attracted the crème de la crème of the intellectual society. Brainchild of highly cerebral former Federal Permanent Secretary, Dr. Tunji Olaopa, ISGPP has been doing the intellectual…

Friday, 18 May 2018 04:48

The task before the opposition - Jideofor Adibe

A successful and peaceful change of the government of the day is one of the indices that a democratizing society is successfully transiting to a mature democracy. This is why it was a major milestone for the country’s democracy that Jonathan and the ruling PDP lost the 2015 election to usher the second coming of Muhammadu Buhari. In this sense, if Buhari loses the 2019 election and accepts defeat, it will be another major milestone for our democracy project. But for Buhari to lose, the opposition parties have to go beyond the current lamentations about the suffering of Nigerians and…

Tuesday, 15 May 2018 04:58

Senate vs IGP: Time to sanction a lawless law officer - NIG

The stubborn refusal of Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris to obey summons by the Senate over widespread insecurity in the country is yet another unacceptable onslaught on decency and the law by a top official of the Muhammadu Buhari executive. For this, we at New Independence Group (NIG) urge President Buhari to quickly call Idris to order while also taking steps to severely punish the lawless officer, and this is assuming that his indecent and arrogant conduct does not enjoy the tacit support of the Executive arm of government, the IGP's immediate constituency. The conduct is deemed indecent…

Tuesday, 15 May 2018 04:56

2019 and the politics of campaign finance - Reuben Abati

Each Governor was reportedly asked by the ruling APC party to bring N250 million ahead of the party’s National Convention. When the public protested, recently, the party disclaimed the news even if it added that it was the responsibility of members to pay outstanding dues. The APC needs N6 billion for its pre-election Convention. In the just concluded Ekiti Governorship primaries, an APC Gubernatorial aspirant who claimed he spent N100 million, got just 11 votes! I wonder how much the eventual winner spent. This story and similar ones, underscore the politics of campaign finance, the threat it poses to electoral…

Monday, 14 May 2018 04:35

Why Marx was wrong - Peter Singer

The bicentennial of Karl Marx’s birth has occasioned a surge of interest in the man’s work, complete with the unveiling of a statue in his hometown of Trier, Germany. At a celebration of Marxism in Beijing last week, Chinese President Xi Jinping declared that, “like a spectacular sunrise, the theory illuminated the path of humanity’s exploration of the law of history, and humanity’s search for [its] own liberation.” He would go on to claim that Marx “pointed out the direction, with scientific theory, toward an ideal society with no oppression or exploitation, where every person would enjoy equality and freedom.”…

Sunday, 13 May 2018 03:58

Buhari: Back to our sick season - Festus Adedayo

It will seem that again, Nigeria is back to the narrative of her President’s health. Senior Special Assistant on Media to President Muhammadu Buhari, Garba Shehu, had on Monday issued a press release intimating the public of the president’s itinerary. He would be absent from the country for four days to attend to his health in the United Kingdom, so said the presidential aide. And the narrative crept back into public discourse. About a week earlier, tongues had gone wagging when the presidential jet, en-route Nigeria from a visit to President Donald Trump of the United States of America, had…

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Friday, 11 May 2018 04:51

APC ward congresses: A crisis foretold - Jideofor Adibe

The nationwide ward congress of All Progressives Congress (APC), held on Saturday, May 5 2015 was largely marred by crises, violence and accusations and counter -accusations of attempts to illicitly influence its outcome. Apart from a few states like Katsina where the exercise was relatively peaceful, in several others - Anambra, Imo, Kaduna, Delta, Oyo and Ondo - violence and use of thugs were widespread. In Delta State for instance, violence broke out in Ughelli south local government area of the state, resulting in the death of one Jeremiah Oghoveta, a chairmanship aspirant. In Rivers State, at least one person…

Wednesday, 09 May 2018 03:52

OPL 245: The most popular oil block - Reuben Abati

The Petroleum Act 1969 (as amended) grants powers to the Ministry of Petroleum, acting through the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to administer the licensing of oil blocks in the country. These include Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL), Oil Mining Licence (OML) and Oil Exploration Licence (OEL), which allow the awardees, local and foreign, to explore for and develop oil and gas resources within the country. So far, there are 65 OPLs and 99 OMLs. The last round of licensing bids was conducted in 2007. Of the existing awarded oil blocks and marginal fields, the most controversial and the best known…

Wednesday, 09 May 2018 03:51

Disrupting the autocrats - Simon Johnson

The dawn of the Internet, it was widely believed, would herald a new era of democracy. Information would become free, in all senses, and this would pose an existential threat to regimes based on the control of knowledge, including those that had previously tried to close themselves off from the outside world. Today, this vision looks tarnished, if not deeply flawed. Authoritarian rulers have figured out not only how to distort and control the flow of information within their own societies, but also how to confuse people in other countries and perhaps even disrupt previously well-functioning democracies. The more recent…

Tuesday, 08 May 2018 04:36

“The educator must be educated” - Edwin Madunagu

This piece is a memo to the Nigerian Left. In an ideal situation, on account of the importance I attach to the subject, the document would have appeared, first, as an internal memo to an appropriate organ of the movement. For the same reason of importance it would not have stopped at the organ or leadership level. The memo would have passed to the movement as a whole and, thereafter, to the public. However, because the situation is not ideal – and this is the subject of the memo – I am moving directly to the public. The message in…

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