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Opinion

Sunday, 24 April 2016 01:06

Confronting the curse of oil

Reuben Abati The monthly Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting was held the other day in Abuja, with the representatives of state governments again cap in hand, asking for their share of federal revenue - read: oil revenue, or better still, national cake, or our money. A paragraph in the report by the online newspaper, Premium Times, caught my attention and here it is: “But at the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee, FAAC, meeting, representatives of the 36 state governments went home SAD (emphasis mine), as they were handed parlous shares from a total N299.75 billion statutory allocation for the month,…

Friday, 22 April 2016 02:16

The Senate, CCT and the politics of Saraki’s trial

Reuben Abati The present Senate serving the Nigerian people runs the risk of being remembered as the worst since 1999. Public Relations Consultants and media officials of this particular Senate have done their part flooding both the print and the online media with details of how productive the Bukola Saraki-led Senate has been, and they have been quite aggressive in telling us about 30 important Bills which when passed, will change the face of Nigeria and deliver change. The Senate according to one report has considered over 125 bills, debated over 48 motions, and passed three bills. But nobody is…

Saturday, 23 April 2016 01:35

‘Yuanising’ the Nigerian economy

Jideofor Adibe The talk in town these days is about President Buhari’s recent trip to China and the deals, loans and currency swap that resulted from that trip. Of particular concern to many people, is the reported naira and renminbi (also known as the Yuan) swap deal, which is expected to ease trade transactions between China and Nigeria. But beyond the rhetorics and the obfuscation around technicalities, what is this deal all about? And will it really ‘crash’ the value of the dollar against the naira as some people believe? In this piece, we will look at the pros and…

Thursday, 21 April 2016 03:01

Mixed Metaphors: Fits and starts

Sonala Olumhense As confirmed by the Kaduna State government, they were killed when soldiers opened fire on Shia Muslims they claimed had tried to assassinate the army chief. The sect, members of Sheikh Ibraheem Zakzaky’s Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), denied the accusation. It has also said that hundreds more of its members are still missing. It is painful to hear the Nigeria military’s attempt to justify the mass killing of hundreds of unarmed people, and now it also turns out they were also buried in an attempt to cover up the crime. What is more regrettable is that this…

Wednesday, 20 April 2016 02:18

Don’t believe the lie: There is no war against corruption in Nigeria (2)

Femi Aribisala In Buhari’s first coming, he bamboozled Nigerians with a so-called War Against Indiscipline. This entailed treating Nigerians, young and old, like primary school children. We were forced to queue at bus-stops under the watchful eyes of soldiers wielding whips with orders to flog publicly those deemed unruly. Late-coming civil-servants were required to do frog-jumps. The pathetic thing about this was that the government actually believed such charade constituted cogent public policy. Once Buhari left, Nigerians stopped queuing. So much for the War Against Indiscipline. The truth of the matter is that President Buhari is a retired military officer;…

Tuesday, 19 April 2016 02:12

PMB's foreign trips: My takeaway

Babatunde Raji Fashola In making this public intervention, I seek to highlight the benefit of global relationships and cooperation in a world that is changing daily as a result of globalization and transborder economics, social and even criminal activities where no one is safe, except all are safe, and to leave the dispassionate observer his opinion after deep reflection on the value, or lack of it, of the President’s foreign trips. This way I hope every Nigerian who cares about our country will have some information about what their President is doing about the things that concern them. First I…

Monday, 18 April 2016 01:55

Yuan swap deal: Sublime or ridiculous?

Simon Kolawole Watch out all you dollar hoarders: the Chinese yuan is coming for you. Many financial analysts think the dollar under your pillow may soon be worth less than the rate at which you bought it. They think you run the risk of vomiting most of what you have swallowed since the forex crisis started. With the yuan going to be directly available to Nigerians — effectively eliminating the “middleman” called dollar — it is safe to say the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has made a bold move in its controversial management of the exchange rate crisis, a…

Sunday, 17 April 2016 00:51

What I learnt from tickling apes

Frans de Waal Tickling a juvenile chimpanzee is a lot like tickling a child. The ape has the same sensitive spots: under the armpits, on the side, in the belly. He opens his mouth wide, lips relaxed, panting audibly in the same “huh-huh-huh” rhythm of inhalation and exhalation as human laughter. The similarity makes it hard not to giggle yourself. The ape also shows the same ambivalence as a child. He pushes your tickling fingers away and tries to escape, but as soon as you stop he comes back for more, putting his belly right in front of you. At…

Saturday, 16 April 2016 01:45

The changing face of change in Nigeria

Jaye Gaskia Thanks to the endless monologue of the ‘Change government’, its ‘disunited governing party’ [remember Fela’s Beast Of No Nation – who and who unite for united nations?], and their ‘Common sense revolution’; we now know too much about our past and particularly our recent past. We have managed to acquire far too little understanding of our current challenges and present hardships; and seem to have absolutely no clarity about our future, even of the nearest future! This seems to me to be the most apt summation of the outcome of nearly one year of change. Yet as the…

Friday, 15 April 2016 02:36

Who governs Nigeria?

Reuben Abati During the Jonathan administration, an outspoken opposition spokesperson had argued that Nigeria was on auto-pilot, a phrase that was gleefully even if ignorantly echoed by an excitable opposition crowd. Deeper reflection should have made it clear even to the unthinking that there is no way any country can ever be on auto-pilot, for there are many levels of governance, all working together and cross-influencing each other to determine the structure of inputs and outcomes in society. To say that a country is on auto-pilot is to assume wrongly that the only centre of governance that exists is the…

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Thursday, 14 April 2016 00:58

Dubious lawyers, dubious senators et al

Joe Igbokwe A fierce battle is going on in Nigeria today between the Agents of Change and the Agents for the maintenance of status quo. It is one of the worst battles I have witnessed ever in Nigeria in recent times. It is a fierce battle for the soul of Nigeria between those who want their original country back and those who want to keep Nigeria as the conquered territory to be pillaged and milked with reckless abandon. It is a war between truth and falsehood, a war between darkness and light, the war between reason and unreason, and war…

Wednesday, 13 April 2016 02:12

Don’t believe the lie: There is no war against corruption in Nigeria

Femi Aribisala Aribisala at Unilag What we have is a government attempt to decimate the opposition and create a de facto one-party state under the guise of fighting against corruption. I was invited to a Roundtable on Corruption by the Law Faculty of the University of Lagos, only to discover that some “Buharideens” had highjacked the occasion and were inclined to use it as a platform to promote the onslaught of “democratic dictatorship” in Nigeria. The topic was on corruption in Nigeria, but the mast-head in the hall was more specific. It read: “Winning the War against Corruption”. This was…

Tuesday, 12 April 2016 01:20

Much ado about ‘16 years damage': Was Nigeria paradise before 1999?

Paul Uwadimma If you see the way those in APC controlled federal government talk about how the country was destroyed in the past 16 years ostensibly by the PDP administration that held sway within the period you will be pardoned to think that Nigeria was paradise before 1999 and PDP came and turned it to hell. I decided to make this intervention when it occurred to me that children born in 1999 are now over 16years old and are already in the universities. These are children whose impression of Nigeria was formed in the last 16 years. These 'children of…

Monday, 11 April 2016 01:15

Another desperate memo to President Buhari

Dele Momodu Your Excellency, Assalam Alaikum. It has been over six months since you graciously invited me to your office in Abuja. I must note once again that I was truly honoured and humbled by our one-on-one meeting. We spoke and interacted like two old buddies. What was more, I was all alone with you without a third party in the room. We spoke candidly and cracked jokes freely. I remember presenting you with an advance copy of my forthcoming book and you even requested me to autograph it for you which I did with such pride and gratitude in…

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