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Opinion

Thursday, 23 March 2017 16:39

The sons, daughters of Ile Ife: Butchered, paraded, prisoners of war - Femi Fani-Kayode

Permit me to begin this contribution with an aside. The barbarians that launched a terror attack in Westminster, London yesterday in which four people were killed and many more injured are the same type of people that attacked and beheaded the sons and daughters of Ile Ife in their own homes and on their own land earlier this month. They are also the same type of people that butchered the people of Southern Kaduna on Christmas eve and Christmas day, that massacred the people of Agatu last year and that butchered the people of Zaki Biam a few days ago.…

Tuesday, 21 March 2017 17:18

Travelling dangerously in Nigeria - Reuben Abati

A fortnight ago, I was in Ondo state to attend an event; that was the day the heavens chose to open up. The rainy season seems to have started early this year, and whenever it rains, even mother earth opens up to drink water from the skies, the heat wave of the dry season abates, a certain balance is restored to the environment, man, animal and nature are re-united in a silent cosmic communion. It didn’t just rain on this particular day. It rained cats and dogs. On the first leg of the journey, I had travelled to Akure through…

Tuesday, 21 March 2017 02:26

Saluting Bene Madunagu at 70 - Edwin Madunagu

Our subject is known officially as Professor (Mrs) Bene Edwin Madunagu; but in the Nigerian Left she is simply Comrade Bene. In other spheres she is variously called Bene, Ben, Mumsy B, Mummy and Auntie Bene. To those old enough to remember the name she was given at birth, and insist on calling her so, she is Benedicta. In this tribute I shall refer to her as Bene, Bene Madunagu or Comrade Bene. Bene Madunagu, who turns 70 today, Tuesday, March 21, 2017, is also variously described as a feminist, a human rights activist, a humanist, a scholar and teacher,…

Monday, 20 March 2017 02:38

Nasir El-Rufai’s gift - Sonala Olumhense

Six weeks ago, in this column, I diagnosed the Muhammadu Buhari government as having fallen. With the leaking to the press last week of an explosive memo sent to him by Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State, it might be said that the Nigeria leader has a lifeline. But the very courageous and incisive memo was not written last week, or even this year. It was written in September 2016, five months before I adjudged Buhari’s government to have collapsed. The governor’s intervention, it turns out, followed a similar strategic reading of the tea leaves and excellent recommendations he sent…

Monday, 20 March 2017 02:37

Time to call South Africa to order - NIG

The xenophobic attack on Nigerians living in South Africa between February and March 2017 expectedly generated a lot of anger and outrage across the country. While the umbrella body of students in the country held a protest to register their displeasure, and threatened retaliation, militants in the Niger-delta threatened to destroy all South African business concerns in the country if they did not close down before a set date. While these threats have not yielded anything near what they promised, they signify nonetheless, the increasing frustration with the attitude of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the incessant attacks on…

Sunday, 19 March 2017 16:30

Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria and national butchering - Tola Adeniyi

I begin this piece with the report of the 2014 ‘national’ election of the executive of Miyetti as recorded by Google and to convince Nigerians that MACBAN is just a Business Association like the Carpenters Guild, like the Fishermen association of Delta, like the farmers Association of Igbeti. The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, according to Premium Times report has elected new set of ‘national’ leaders to run the activities of the organization for the next four years. The election was conducted Saturday in Sokoto at the national congress of the body. MACBAN is the apex body…

Sunday, 19 March 2017 16:27

The trial of Hameed ‘Netanyahu’ Ali - Simon Kolawole

Retired Col. Hameed Ali was sitting gently on his sofa and watching TV on August 27, 2015 when some news flashed on the screen: he had been appointed the comptroller-general of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). He was shocked. The previous day, he was with President Muhammadu Buhari and had not the slightest idea that he was going to be appointed CG. As a long-time associate of the president, Ali was expecting to be made chief of staff — a position he had served Buhari for years in various presidential campaigns — or chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes…

Saturday, 18 March 2017 03:04

Why those who tried to create a wedge between Buhari, Osinbajo failed – Femi Adesina

But for the honesty and principled nature of Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, mischief makers would have mounted a wedge between him and President Muhammadu Buhari, during the president’s 49-day recent medical vacation in the United Kingdom when Osinbajo functioned as acting president, Mr. Femi Adesina, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the President, has said. In this interview, Adesina spoke among others on how Osinbajo disappointed those who tried to create problems between him and Buhari. between content ad His take on comments by Afenifere chieftain, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, he and Alhaji Lai Mohammed did not tell the truth…

Thursday, 16 March 2017 16:36

Apostle Suleiman and the logic of ‘fallen angels' - Jideofor Adibe

While the term ‘fallen angels’ does not appear anywhere in the Bible, it is generally used by Christians to describe one-third of the angelic hosts who joined angel Lucifer in his rebellion against God (Revelation 12:3-4, 9). Lucifer (also known as Satan) and his accomplices subsequently fell from heaven (Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28) and are equally known as demons or devils. It is quite common for many people to blame the devil whenever matters of moral (and even criminal failings) are uncovered. I am not by anyway suggesting that Apostle Johnson Suleiman, founder and General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministry,…

Wednesday, 15 March 2017 16:41

Two old soldiers on the march - Dare Babarinsa

The careers of both General Adeyinka Adebayo and Brigadier Samuel Ogbemudia, both of whom passed on last week may have been due more to happenstance to the normal progressions of history. It is to the eternal credit of the two men that when they were confronted with challenges at a time of national peril, they carried out their charges with credit and competence. Unlike other governors who served with General Yakubu Gowon, the two men came to power through circumstances thrown up by the turbulence and twists of Nigerian history.General Adebayo was the first governor appointed by General Gowon. He…

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Tuesday, 14 March 2017 08:10

Buhari’s return: Matters arising - Reuben Abati

As someone who has been in that corridor recently, I do not share the view of those who insist that President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent 50-day medical vacation was mismanaged by his handlers, up to this point. I said this much during a recent interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today with Seun Okinbaloye. In the face of the people’s rising and insatiable expectations, it is often an uphill task to balance so many considerations in a country that is so divided on all fronts. The duty of the President’s handlers is to prevent such unnecessary news that could destabilize the polity,…

Tuesday, 14 March 2017 02:31

How fake news wins - Aleksander Dardeli

In response to the wave of fake news that inundated the recent presidential election campaign in the United States, much attention has been devoted to those who produce or spread those stories. The assumption is that if news outlets were to report only the “facts,” readers and viewers would always reach the right conclusion about a given story. But this approach addresses only half of the equation. Yes, we need news organizations to deliver reliable information; but we also need those receiving it to be savvy consumers. For decades, the US government has supported programs to foster independent media in…

Monday, 13 March 2017 02:51

Living with populism - Shlomo Ben-Ami

"We must educate our masters,” Robert Lowe, a British statesman, told colleagues after the passage of the Second Reform Act of 1867, a law that added over a million voters to the Parliamentary Register. For Lowe, an educated populace was the best means to secure participatory governance in Britain. But 150 years later, the educated “masters” of liberal democracy have apparently learned little. Lowe, one may assume, would not be impressed with the populist trends pulling the wool over their eyes. As the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum and the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States demonstrated,…

Sunday, 12 March 2017 03:22

Call me a Buharist no more - Ope Banwo

Now that President Buhari has arrived safely from his indefinite leave of absence, I hereby resign as a Buharist (instead, I choose to be non-aligned going forward). Hello dear friends, I had promised I would NEVER abandon President Buhari or withdraw my support for President Buhari, while he was obviously fighting for his life in London, despite the many lies of his officials. Now that he has arrived safely, and walking on his own feet, I have decided what I consider to be the honorable part to take at this juncture, which is to STOP being a partisan observer of…

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