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Opinion

Sunday, 13 August 2017 15:59

Bishop, drugs and blood in the cathedral - Festus Adedayo

Not minding that bloodshed had already drenched the Nigerian state in recent times, (Boko Haram, ritual killings, etc) seeing another tranche of innocent blood flow inside the St. Philips Catholic Church, Ozubulu, Anambra State last Sunday, evoked tears from the eyes of Nigerians. In a country which plays tombola with statistics, the initial conflicting figures of the massacred didn’t baffle. But why a lone gunman in army uniform would forcefully drag worshippers to meet their God that prematurely is yet a topic for discussion. Death toll was put at 13 worshippers and 40 injured. Most dominant of reasons for the…

Sunday, 13 August 2017 04:07

Bola Tinubu: The pains of a godfather - Remi Oyeyemi

For the Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu (ABAT) LLC, these are trying times. These times are sour and very discomforting. The times are painful and full of regrets. The “greatest political strategist of our generation” as his employees and ardent supporters would like to refer to him is reeling from debilitating political injuries. There is gnashing of teeth and mopping of lips in the ABAT LLC. Even, for those who are not fans of the mercantilist made for profit political outfit called ABAT LLC, the garish groans oozing out of Bourdillon has been eliciting…

Saturday, 12 August 2017 04:00

Buhari as a metaphor - Gboyega Adejumo

Buhari achieved the seemingly paradoxical feat of being both too slow and too fast: he was too ponderous when he was campaigning for the mandate in 2015 and too rash when he eventually got elected. When he eventually became president, he became too slow in tackling the main issues of rebuilding a divided polity, the economy, the trust and in building the much needed consumer and foreign confidence in the economy. He was too fast in placing Northerners in every aspect of national position, completely shattering the very basis of an already fragile unity. Too fast in picking mostly imaginary…

Friday, 11 August 2017 04:11

Ango Abdullahi, Northern Nigerian colonial economy and Niger Delta oil - Farooq A. Kperogi

In my May 6, 2017 column titled “Top 8 Popular National Lies that Won’t Die in Nigeria,” I called attention to out-and-out historical lies that vast swathes of Nigerians treasure and reproduce intergenerationally, and that are, I said, almost “impossible to uproot.” One of such lies, I pointed out, is the idea, popular among northern Nigerians, that the Northern Region’s resources financed oil exploration in the Niger Delta. I wrote: “Professor Ango Abdullahi actually repeated this lie recently. He said this, ironically, while exhorting Emir Sanusi II to ‘go and read history.’ The truth is that not a dime of…

Friday, 11 August 2017 04:10

Confusion or confederation? - Tola Adeniyi

We are talking of Confederation based on the current 6 regional zones which the Abacha government bequeathed to Nigeria and some people are talking of something totally irrelevant to the end goal. We are talking of a peaceful political solution that will terminate the humongous funds being currently squandered on cost of governance and the so-called National Assembly which is the worst culprit in the equation is talking of Constitution amendment. We are talking of an arrangement that will put a stop to internal domination and free all the federating units from the yoke of imperialistic unitarism and some people…

Thursday, 10 August 2017 03:41

Beware of the Bad Samaritans: A review - Seun Kolade

Bad Samaritans:the Guilty Secrets of Rich Nationsand the Threat To Global Prosperity By Ha-Joon Chang Random House, 2007 276 pages. You’ve probably heard the Gospel of Free Market: if a country wants to break the cycle of poverty and achieve economic growth and prosperity, it should deregulate, open up its market, welcome investors, and unleash the power of the private sector. Nationalisation is anathema; protection is heresy; subsidies are so passé. This pervasive neo-liberal orthodoxy is driven with unrelenting vigour by the “unholy trinity” of International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Ha-Joon Chang,…

Thursday, 10 August 2017 03:39

Murder in the Cathedral - Olusegun Adeniyi

First performed in 1935, ‘Murder in the Cathedral’ is a play by the 20th century British playwright and social critic, T. S. Eliot which tells the story of the assassination in 1170 AD of Archbishop Thomas Beckett by loyalists of the then British monarch, Henry II. In writing the drama, Eliot was said to have drawn heavily from the account of Edward Grim, a clerk who witnessed the tragic event in Canterbury Cathedral and recorded it for posterity. Although the play dwells largely on a confrontation between the Church and State, with Archbishop Beckett willing to pay the supreme sacrifice,…

Tuesday, 08 August 2017 03:22

Osinbajo’s vision and the climate of fear - Reuben Abati

“Where have you been?” “I have been around” “I was just wondering why you have not said anything since the Acting President proclaimed that those of you who are asking for the restructuring of Nigeria are a bunch of government appointment seekers.” “So?” “Yes, so?” “Well, if you must know, I actually think that the Acting President is right.” “Chei. I don’t believe you. Ekwetaghi m gi!” “He is the Acting President. He should know what he is talking about. He has access to security reports. The intelligence agencies would have monitored all the persons asking for restructuring and they…

Tuesday, 08 August 2017 03:20

Nigeria is an Egungun Federation - Lasisi Olagunju

This system of eight Egungun eyeing six bean cakes can’t breed peace. Where I come from, everyone is challenged to be fair to everyone. Everyone is equally tasked to take on any unfair arrangement. That explains this noise about federalism and restructuring. It is true there is too much unexplained grammar in the call for restructuring. But the meaning is not about private hunger and cries of famine. It does not include personal advantage. It is not about scavengers and scavenging. It is to re-channel justice to serve just causes. It is what we were taught from the days of…

Tuesday, 08 August 2017 03:19

Joe Igbokwe, Nnamdi Kanu, and the Emperor's new clothes - Olalekan W. Adigun

The story is told of an Emperor whose obsession with clothes was second to none. His love for clothes was so much that he spent all his money on being well dressed. He cared less about state functions like warfare, people’s welfare, recreation, going to the theatre, or going for a ride in his carriage, except to show off his new clothes. He reportedly had a coat for every hour of the day, and instead of saying, as one might, about any other ruler, "The King's in a meeting," here they always said. "The Emperor's in his dressing room." The…

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Sunday, 06 August 2017 16:16

Porcupine Fayose’s arrows and Nigerian Army - Festus Adedayo

Oh, you do not know the porcupine? It is a species of rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, which protects it against predators. With backward-facing quills like needles, when threatened, the porcupine shoots the spines which pierce the skin of its predator and are painful to remove. We may think that, because they have demonstrated acute inability to turn Nigeria’s fate around, Nigerian political office holders lack strategic approach to political power. No, we are dead wrong. They may not have the strategy of sustaining power or making their imprints on the sand of time, but the…

Friday, 04 August 2017 03:55

That Naija Bet odd on Buhari’s return - Tonye Bakare

Naija Bet is running a betting odd on when President Muhammadu Buhari would return to Nigeria. Odd? Buhari has spent more time in the United Kingdom than he has done in Nigeria since the beginning of 2017. He was in London between January 19 and March 10. After a staying in Nigeria for less than two months, the president jetted out to the UK once again on May 7 and is yet to return. His prolonged stay in the Queen’s country has generated a lot of controversies. But who foresaw that his imminent return to Nigeria will be the subject…

Thursday, 03 August 2017 04:08

Their excellencies’ tent - Dare Babarinsa

The return of the six Epe school boys was a significant victory in the fight against organised crime in Nigeria, especially in Lagos. There is no doubt that the kidnapping industry is a well-organised empire where the heartless and the wicked dominate. They are the ones who could get the arms, the safe houses and the secret bank accounts where the money is salted away. They must have learnt one or two things from those brilliant government thieves who stored the loot in the soak away pits or the latrine. The Epe boys of Model College, Igbonla, Epe, are home…

Wednesday, 02 August 2017 03:53

Of herbal healing, spirituality and public health - Reuben Abati

The other week, July 20 to be precise, I was the reviewer of an important book on herbal healing. Herbal healing is often dismissed as a form of sorcery and in these days of obsession with Pentecostalism, many Africans still consider traditional medicine a taboo. To disprove this, a Catholic monk, Fr. Anselm Adodo began an experiment in 1996 when he set up in Ewu, Edo state, an institution titled Pax Herbal Clinic and Research Laboratories “to serve as a centre for genuine African holistic healing that blends the physical and spiritual aspects of the human person, and to serve…

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