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Opinion

Saturday, 13 January 2018 03:18

Bad Market: The story of Buhari - Kassim Afegbua

Integers or no integers, we have been witnessing a phlegmatic leadership for almost three years now. Even as a younger officer who became president in 1983, his exit was heralded by hallelujah songs. If he were that effective, he wouldn't be so treated. I massively supported Buhari in 2015 but I have every reason to withdraw my support following his lack of performance and indecision on certain issues. He broke his integrity code when he couldn't publicly declare his assets. He fraternized with all manners of people who brought all manners of funds to the table to support his election.…

Friday, 12 January 2018 05:52

Let us save Ortom from temptation - Dare Babarinsa

The greatest incentive to the criminal is when he believes he would never be apprehended. That is often the pattern in Nigeria and one is filled with pathos as our leaders entertain us with pathetic wringing of the hands and reckless moralizing. Some of them even quote the Holy Books. I am sure they would have been quoting verses from Ifa, but for their limited knowledge of the subject. But our leaders are in an incestuous relationship with other deities of dubious relevance and they cloak themselves with the platitude that somehow, all will be well. But it is not…

Friday, 12 January 2018 05:49

Buhari: Heading for a meltdown in 2019? - Jideofor Adibe

We are now fully in the political season. With INEC releasing the time-table for the 2019 elections, hush-hush political discussions and permutations are likely to become more brazen. One of the issues that have dominated the media recently is on whether Buhari should seek re-election or not. While some Buharists like Nasir El Rufai, have made it clear that there is no alternative to Buhari in 2019, and Buhari himself had used innuendos to drop hints that he would run, some have advised him to forget 2019. Fiery Catholic priest Fr Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministry Enugu for instance,…

Thursday, 11 January 2018 03:16

Don Waney: Too early to celebrate - Walter Duru

One of the biggest stories about the Niger Delta region of Nigeria today is the killing of a dreaded cultist, Johnson Igwedibia, also known as Don Waney, by a combined team of men of the Military and Department for State Services- DSS. In a Press Statement issued by the Nigerian Army entitled: “End of road for notorious cultist, kidnapper and mass murderer- Don Waney, signed by Deputy Director, Army Public Relations, Colonel Aminu Iliyasu, the military announced the death of Johnson Igwedibia. The statement reads in part: “The authorities of 6 Division Nigerian Army Port Harcourt wish to inform the…

Wednesday, 10 January 2018 01:33

Buhari: Between yesterday and tomorrow - Reuben Abati

I wrote the following piece, presented in italics, shortly after the postponement of the 2015 Presidential elections. It is important that the reader approaches it with an open mind, with an understanding of the context of its construction. The piece, titled “Buhari’s One Chance Campaign” never got published. One of my colleagues to whom I showed it advised against its publication. His point was that we should remain professional and not get involved in partisan politics. A member of our digital media team was so excited he wanted the article published. Anyhow, the older team member won the argument. But…

Tuesday, 09 January 2018 10:37

Herdsmen as power specialists - Lasisi Olagunju

“‘How does one man assert his power over another, Winston?’ Winston thought. ‘By making him suffer,’ he said. ‘Exactly. By making him suffer. Obedience is not enough. Unless he is suffering, how can you be sure that he is obeying your will and not his own? Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing. Do you begin to see, then, what kind of world we are creating? It is the exact opposite of the stupid hedonistic Utopias that the old reformers…

Sunday, 07 January 2018 03:19

Mr President, man shall not live by power alone - Dele Momodu

My dear President, please, permit me to wish you and your family a very happy new year. Let me also offer my words of prayers, and intercession, on behalf of your very handsome son, and his friend, who, according to reports, were involved in a terrible power-bike crash. I pray that God almighty will grant them full recovery and I believe my prayer is already answered because of my presence in the Holy Land of Jerusalem. Now to the business of the day. Kindly permit me to be as brutally frank as possible. As a stakeholder who made his modest…

Saturday, 06 January 2018 04:50

FG: Boasting goes before disgrace - Kayode Samuel

I advise this government to stop boasting and just do its work quietly. It seems that each time it boasts and seeks to taunt its enemies with its vaunted achievements, one disaster or disgrace follows soon after. Work stopped on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway shortly after it rolled out the drums announcing that the same road was nearing completion. Towards the end of last year it was celebrating that fuel scarcity had become a thing of the past only to have our Christmas ruined by those long queues. And we had barely finished dancing on how much we're said to have…

Friday, 05 January 2018 05:08

Buhari’s New Year Speech and Sagay’s outbursts - Jideofor Adibe

I was reasonably impressed with the overall tenor of President Buhari’s 2018 New Year’s message. Compared with some of his previous speeches, the broadcast was non-combative and represented an attempt to talk to Nigerians – instead of talking down to them as some of his overzealous and sycophantic aides are wont to do. Largely because the language of the broadcast was devoid of combativeness (despite the fact that the art of verbal communication is clearly not one of the President’s strengths) it was, in my opinion, a more effective way of showing the human side of the President than the…

Thursday, 04 January 2018 03:14

Debate as class struggle - Edwin Madunagu

It was Friday, January 10, 1986. I was just about nine months old as a full-time member of the Editorial Board of The Guardian, Lagos. At the close of work that day I rushed to Oshodi Bus Stop. About three hours later I was at the University of Ibadan to spend the weekend with my spouse who was then completing her Ph.D programme. I was still in her room the following morning, Saturday, January 11, when some of her friends came in with a number of the day’s national newspapers. All the papers carried the same lead story: the appointment,…

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Thursday, 04 January 2018 03:12

Fr. Mbaka and the voice of God - Reuben Abati

“I do not believe in my mind that the way things are in Nigeria, any Catholic priest has the mandate to decide which of the political contestants should be voted for…I don’t believe a priest should be doing that…If he was in my archdiocese, I will have sanctioned him long ago for the kind of utterances he makes.” – John Cardinal Onaiyekan, Catholic Bishop of Abuja Metropolitan See on Fr. Ejike Mbaka (2015) Prophecies and predictions by Christian pastors often mark the end of a year and the beginning of another in Nigeria…egged on by the media, looking for juicy…

Tuesday, 02 January 2018 04:29

Liberia: The rise of George Weah - Reuben Abati

George Weah’s emergence as Liberia’s President-elect after the December 26 run-off election generated considerable interest among Nigerians for a number of reasons. Number one is George Weah’s popularity. The first African footballer to win the Ballon D’or, FIFA Player of the Year, three-time African Footballer of the Year, ex-Monaco, ex-Paris Saint-Germain, ex-AC Milan, Chelsea, Manchester City, former protégé of Arsene Wenger, virtually every football fan in Nigeria had a feeling of connection with the Liberian football star turned politician and President-elect. In Nigeria, football is the most uniting element within the public space; thus, once it became apparent that George…

Monday, 01 January 2018 05:22

The world economy in 2018 - Micheal J. Boskin

All major macroeconomic indicators – growth, unemployment, and inflation – suggest that 2017 was American economy’s best year in a decade. And the global economy is enjoying broad, synchronized growth beyond what anyone expected. The question now is whether this strong performance will continue in 2018. The answer, of course, will depend on monetary, fiscal, trade, and related policies in the United States and around the world. And yet it is hard to predict what policy proposals will emerge in 2018. There are relatively new heads of state in the US, France, and the United Kingdom; German leaders still have…

Friday, 29 December 2017 03:25

Innoson, GTB and EFCC: Matters arising - Jideofor Adibe

There are gaps in the competing version of events proffered by Mr Innocent Chukwuma, Chairman/Managing Director of Innoson Motors and GTB Bank in their business transaction gone awry. According to Mr Chukwuma, he obtained loans from GTB which he paid off but later discovered that the bank was still making “illegal” deductions. The bank agreed to refund the over-deductions, which ran into hundreds of millions of Naira. However while the bank was willing to pay an interest rate of 7 per cent on the “illegal” deductions he wanted them to pay 22 per cent - the same rate he was…

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