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Opinion

Saturday, 25 February 2017 16:45

Why Osinbajo is succeeding where Buhari failed - Farooq Kperogi

Why Osinbajo is succeeding where Buhari failed - Farooq Kperogi There finally seems to be some movement in the country. A new life has been infused into the country. There is now legitimate reason to be hopeful. Why has it taken the ascendancy of Osinbajo to the acting presidency to achieve this? The answer is simple: symbolic presence. Buhari lacked symbolic presence in the 20 months he was in charge. His presence was barely felt in the country. Nor was his voice heard. It took him six months to appoint ministers. Attahiru Jega notified him of the impending expiration of…

Friday, 24 February 2017 15:51

The evolution of Yemi Osinbajo - Jideofor Adibe

Acting President Professor Yemi Osinbajo has been receiving deserved kudos for the way he has been holding forte since Buhari went on medical vacation in England on January 19 2017. In this round as Acting President, Osinbajo seems to have brought a new style, which he had not displayed previously. As Vice President, Osinbajo started on a somewhat shaky note. For instance one of his first faux pas was his comments on the Federal Character Commission. Daily Trust of June 28 2015 had reported that the Vice President criticised the setting up of the Federal Character Commission and had declared…

Friday, 24 February 2017 02:25

Buhari: R for Respect, R for Resignation - Pius Adesanmi

Recently, Justin Trudeau was in the province of Quebec for a townhall meeting with citizens. He has been holding townhalls across Canada. An Anglophone Quebecois woman asked him a question in English, he responded in French saying he preferred to respond in the official language of the province. Although French is the language of Quebec, there is an Anglophone minority in that province. English and French being the two official languages of Canada, the Anglophone minority woman deserved to have her question answered in English. The national outrage was swift and major. The Prime Minister was condemned everywhere. Such was…

Thursday, 23 February 2017 17:59

Why is Buhari still in London? - Martin Patience

As Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari was beginning his latest visit to London more than a month ago, a new series of Big Brother Nigeria was getting under way. A former military ruler known for his no-nonsense style would appear to have little in common with a reality TV show where contestants engage in attention-seeking behaviour. But both subjects were soon generating headlines for the same reason - neither of them were in Nigeria. It turned out that Big Brother was actually being filmed in South Africa - a decision that led Nigeria's information minister to launch an investigation. While the…

Thursday, 23 February 2017 02:51

The future of public stealing - Dare Babarinsa

One of the conventions since 1998 is that those who will vie for or be appointed into high public offices should at least be cleared by the security agencies, especially the Nigerian Drug Laws Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Department of State Security (DSS). In his quest to look for a successor beyond Vice President Atiku Abubakar, President Olusegun Obasanjo was said to have relied heavily on security reports on those angling for the job.The man who was given a clean bill of health in the end was Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, the then governor of Katsina State whose prudence and…

Wednesday, 22 February 2017 02:49

If we’re going to play God with gene editing, we’ve got to ask some moral questions - Christine Emba

"We are as gods and we might as well get good at it.” So wrote futurist Stewart Brand in the introduction to the first Whole Earth Catalog in 1968. At the time the statement seemed tongue-in-cheek. Nearly 50 years later it’s much less of a joke. The past 30 days have seen several unheralded but consequential strides in the scientific quest for god-like control of our destiny. Last week, National Academy of Sciences and National Academy of Medicine published a report on human genome editing that allows the manipulation of sperm and egg cells to create changes that could be…

Tuesday, 21 February 2017 03:33

I want to go to London… to see Buhari - Reuben Abati

When 15 million plus Nigerians voted for President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2015 General elections, their expectation was that he would be available to serve them 24/7/365, and that those who fielded him as their candidate had done their home work to avoid what is curiously becoming the Katsina problem in Nigerian politics. Katsina! But we have now found ourselves in a situation whereby our President is now in London, for more than one month sir, ma, and we are here, and we have an acting President, who according to everybody, including the extremists and the mischievous, and the politically…

Sunday, 19 February 2017 18:34

Arrest of Audu Maikori and the misplaced call to pray for the tyrant - Femi Fani-Kayode

Permit me to begin this contribution with an aside. It is only a weak, insecure, paranoid, wicked, heartless, ignorant, lawless and callous government that refuses to identify, apprehend, prosecute and hang the bloodthirsty, psychopathic and murdering Janjaweed Islamist Fulani militants and herdsmen and instead arrests an innocent and accomplished young man like Audu Maikori who simply had the courage to cry out to the world about the barbarous genocide that the people of Southern Kaduna and members of his ethnic group and religious faith are being subjected to all over the north. I am convinced that my old friend Governor…

Saturday, 18 February 2017 14:33

Yemi Osinbajo: When an Acting President acts well Acts - Reno Omokri

I am loving the vice president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo right now and for good reasons. In the absence of President Muhammadu Buhari, Pastor Osinbajo-led the Executive Council of the Federation’s meeting and ministers were forced to deliberate for seven hours! It is the longest meeting ever under this administration and my reaction to it was WOW! This is my kind of man! I have previously said that Nigeria actually attains more progress when President Muhammadu Buhari travels out of the country and Vice President Osinbajo has again vindicated my judgment. Only on Monday the 13th of February, 2017, while in…

Saturday, 18 February 2017 14:30

Buhari and his London visitors - Dele Momodu

Fellow Nigerians, let me warn quickly that a new circus has come to town and there is a theatre of the absurd ongoing in the city of London. The patrons are very important personalities from Nigeria who have turned the supposed illness of our dear President Muhammadu Buhari into a stage play. At the rate these medical tourists are going, Nigeria may be empty of all its fat cats as they jostle to pay obeisance lest anyone accuses them of nonchalance and of plotting against the President or wishing him dead. Yes, we can be that petty in this clime.…

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Thursday, 16 February 2017 15:33

The controversy over Trump’s phone call to Buhari - Jideofor Adibe

Virtually all the leading newspapers in the country reported on February 14 that President Buhari spoke to Donald Trump the previous day “at the request of the American President”. Several of the reports quoted Senior Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity Mr Femi Adesina as saying that “President Trump encouraged President Buhari to keep the good work he is doing and also commended him for the efforts made in rescuing 24 of the Chibok girls and the strides being taken by the Nigerian military” (Punch, online February 14, 2017). The story was naturally followed by scepticism –…

Wednesday, 15 February 2017 17:14

Must read: Advice on Buhari Media Centre - Aliyu Tilde

I will start this long piece by a short story. It was one Saturday in August 2002 and Buhari was just few months into politics when his lifetime personal assistant, our indefatigable friend and brother, Malam Sarki Abba, told me that “Malam Mamman” wanted to see me. When I met Mamman Daura in his Kaduna house that morning, he expressed gratitude over the assistance Sam Nda Isaiah and I were giving Buhari in the The Buhari Organization (TBO). Then he said, “We have decided that both of you be given, as an appreciation, a token of N50,000 monthly to cover…

Wednesday, 15 February 2017 02:57

The virus of hate speech - Kayode Komolafe

In a recent discussion of the virus of hate speech that is plaguing the public sphere, a lawyer was reported as saying that there are more important issues worthy of attention. Now, that could amount to underrating the power of ideas as a motive force of history. The power of words and how they are deployed should never be treated with levity. Words could be a tonic for the soul; words could also be irresponsibly employed as weapons with lethal consequences. During World War II, former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill proved to the world how words could be deployed…

Tuesday, 14 February 2017 17:35

Valentine, Baba’s vacation and other stories - Reuben Abati

“Happy Valentine’s day, my friend” “You don’t wish someone Happy Valentine’s day with ordinary mouth, my friend” “Are you a woman? The gifts are for women, not male friends.” “You see, yourself? You are a bush man just like one of my friends who got a text message from his girlfriend, and he started asking what is the meaning of bae and boo. The girl used those words and our friend was lost.” “Bae. Boo. I have no idea either.” “Of course, you are old school. You better stay away from young girls.” “I don’t carry girls. I am a…

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