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Opinion

Sunday, 05 November 2017 03:57

Buhari, slow, just like the mills of the gods - Femi Adesina

There is a saying bequeathed to mankind by the Greek physician/philosopher, Sextus Empiricus, who lived in Alexandria and Athens in the 3rd Century. It goes thus: "The mills of the gods grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine." What does this mean in everyday language? Justice may be slow, but it will come eventually. And for those who pray, it also means that God may not answer your petition immediately you make it, but He will eventually respond-at His own time. The vision is for an appointed time, and it will not delay. But if it tarries, wait for it.…

Saturday, 04 November 2017 03:55

Between kneegate and Mainagate - Kayode Samuel

I will never really understanding the kinds of things that some white folk choose to occupy themselves with. So, Britain's Defence Minister resigned because he touched a woman's knee fourteen years ago! What is that? And now the British press has coined a name for the whole charade. "Kneegate" it's called. For someone living in a country that boasts of having three huge scandals - Barugate, Mainagate, and now Magugate - all running concurrently, I find this British silly season to be some kind of a quaint comic relief...

Friday, 03 November 2017 03:43

Buhari and his unfaithful mistress - Dare Babarinsa

Absolute power loves to come in the benign habiliment of profound understatement. When General Yakubu Gowon came to power after the coup of July 29, 1966, he was called the Supreme Commander and Head of the Federal Military Government. Yet his supremacy was heavily contested and the military government was deeply divided. Then the soldiers went to Ghana under the auspices of the new military ruler of that country and they met in Aburi. From that point on, Gowon took on the title of Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces. Yet with this new sober title,…

Friday, 03 November 2017 03:38

Buhari, 2019 and the Talking Drum - Olusegun Adeniyi

One of the most astounding works of Art from Africa is the Yoruba talking drum. It is an hourglass-shaped wood with an inner cavity, covered on both ends by goat skin, and beaten by a curved stick called ‘gongo’. The fact that its pitch can be regulated makes it exceptional as messages to be passed by the drummer to the listeners. There is the ‘Iya Ilu’, ‘Omele’ and ‘Gangan’ with danceable rhythms apart from their messages. One of the greatest drummers of all times was Oba John Adetoyese Laoye, the late Timi of Ede who was on the throne between1946…

Wednesday, 01 November 2017 03:48

Worse than corruption - Moses Ochonu

Buharists are always asking us to applaud the president for every little tokenist and symbolic gesture even when such a gesture is late, ineffectual, and compelled by public pressure. It's a form of emotional blackmail of course, but no matter. Because of its track record of deception, lies, silly propaganda, hypocrisy, and duplicity, many thoughtful citizens are now not so quick to praise the Buhari administration even when it appears to have done something praiseworthy. Why is that? They don't want to look stupid days or hours later when the leaks and revelations start occurring, implicating the do-gooders themselves as…

Tuesday, 31 October 2017 04:30

The monkey business they call governance - Reuben Abati

“Have you gone to visit your brother in Ekiti?”“Who is that? I have many brothers from Ekiti state”“The Governor. Osokomole himself, ekun oko oke, the dainty irunmole who eats jollof rice.”“No. I don’t go about visiting Governors.”“I am referring to the fact that he recently escaped death. His G-Wagon suddenly went up in flames and it got completely burnt down.”“What is a G-Wagon to a Fayose who started his public career as a car dealer?”“Don’t be mean. That car is about N20 million. And Femi Fani-Kayode has said that the fire incident was a spiritual bomb. It was a mystery…

Monday, 30 October 2017 04:04

Aso Rock Villa and Maina’s maggots - Festus Adedayo

In recent times, there have been serious artillery bombardments of the two-prong pedigree upon which the Muhammadu Buhari government rode into the hearts of Nigerians and into power. Buhari stood on the dual prong of anti-corruption and restoring people’s sagging faith in government. The Economist had badly shelled what was left of the credibility of Goodluck Ebele Jonathan when it referred to him as running a “clueless government” and was an “ineffectual buffoon who let politicians fill their pockets with impunity.” So while the tag of buffoonery and cluelessness stuck to Jonathan like a leech, Buhari wore on his lapel…

Monday, 30 October 2017 04:02

European populism is here to stay - Matthew Goodwin

Yet another European country has swung to the right. Nearly 58 percent of Austrian voters cast ballots penultimate Sunday for the center-right People’s Party or the far-right Freedom Party. It is likely that the two parties will form a governing coalition. Since the 1980s, the Freedom Party has been associated with anti-immigration xenophobia, anti-Semitism and, more recently, Islamophobia. On Sunday, about 26 percent of Austrians backed the party, giving it its highest share of the vote since 1999. Though the center-left Social Democrats came in second place, avoiding an embarrassing third-place finish, less than one percentage point separated them from…

Sunday, 29 October 2017 02:32

Hameed Ali and the ‘derailed change agenda’ - Kayode Samuel

Obviously flush from his uniform squabbles with the Senate, Customs boss Hameed Ali has now taken up the job of rescuing whatever remains of the legacy of the Change campaign. It is a most commendable venture. But I feel he will be expending too many bullets on the wrong enemy if he continues to argue that the problems of this administration are caused by PDP infiltration. In the first place, there'd be no administration to speak of if PDP elements had not hopped on the Change bandwagon. Trying to get them to disembark having used them to push the vehicle…

Sunday, 29 October 2017 02:30

MainaGate and a Presidency working at cross purposes - Jibrin Ibrahim

My good friend Garba Shehu made what would have been the joke of the year on Wednesday but the theme was too serious to be funny. He blamed the Goodluck Jonathan administration for the unfolding scandal on the corruption, escape, return, reinstatement and second escape from the country of Abdulrasheed Maina of the pension scam fame. His exact words were: “some influential officials loyal to the previous government may have been the invincible hands” behind the scandal. It’s not funny because the names of the key agents in the affair, 2017 phase, are known and include the Minister of Justice,…

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Sunday, 29 October 2017 02:26

Those books in Governor Ikpeazu’s boot - Enyinnaya Appolos

If you have ever had the opportunity of seeing the trunk of Govenror Okezie Ikpeazu’s staff car, or even his spare car, and see the books in there, you would naturally wonder what the Governor is doing with so many books in his boot. The books in the Governor’s boot belongs to pupils and students he meets on his way...anywhere he goes, he shares the books to pupils and students he sees on his way. This practice didn’t start today; it actually started during the 2015 governorship election campaigns. After speaking to prospective voters then, anywhere he saw students on…

Saturday, 28 October 2017 03:48

Catalonia has always been distinct. Why is it part of Spain? - Max Bearak

To understand how Catalan people see themselves as distinct, a word from their language is instructive: seny.It is an adjective used to convey a supposedly unique Catalan sensibility: pragmatic, level-headed, and dignified. Seny is just about the last word the Spanish government and the European Union would use for the Catalans, who instigated a lurching attempt to declare independence from Spain with a highly controversial referendum this month. Spain's Senate is approved a federal takeover of Catalonia's regional government on Friday. Leading political proponents of the secessionist movement have been arrested. Whatever the government in Madrid does, the sense of…

Saturday, 28 October 2017 03:45

As the Chinese story continues to unfold... - Kayode Samuel

The only shop I'd ever been to anywhere in the world where the shop assistant did not seem impressed by the sight of dollar bills was in the eastern Chinese port city of Ningbo, sometime in 2004. The lady disdainfully waved off my money as I tried to pay for a belt and only grudgingly showed me to the currency exchange in the mall. China continues to confound. At the beginning of its reforms, western experts were certain that as the country prospered, it would seek to become more like the West. Well, China has prospered but it is obviously…

Friday, 27 October 2017 04:02

Southern governors and the demand for ‘True Federalism’ - Jideofor Adibe

The recent report of a meeting of the Governors from 16 of the 17 States in the Southern part of the country has a lot of significance, especially as scheming and brinksmanship towards 2019 gather momentum. According to reports, after their meeting which held in Lagos on October 23 2017, the Governors “restated their commitment to a united, indivisible Nigeria” and to “true federalism and devolution of powers.” The Governors also reportedly vowed “to see an effective linkage of infrastructure in the Southern part of the country and pledged to work together for the development of the states in the…

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