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Opinion

Sunday, 01 January 2017 04:49

Boko Haram and premature celebration - Idowu Akinlotan

With the capture of Ground Zero, the elegant name given to a part of the previously impenetrable Sambisa forest where Boko Haram was bivouacked, President Muhammadu Buhari has fittingly congratulated Nigerians and the military for the defeat of the sect. The death toll, not to talk of the displacement of north-easterners, was excessive and almost unbearable. The economic wastage the insurgency induced was also telling. In all ramifications, including the huge sacrifice made by troops who fought the militants, the insurgency was a tragedy of excessive proportions. With the almost mystical and even forbidden Sambisa forest breached and Ground Zero…

Saturday, 31 December 2016 02:52

2016: Year of hunger in Nigeria - Paul Onomuakpokpo

If there were ever a time the famed resilience of the average citizen was lent full expression, it was in the outgoing year. It was a year the citizens were at the brink of despair over which they are still dangerously hovering on the cusp of another year. The year was rendered perilous not by insecurity that manifested through the officially trounced Boko Haram, increasing kidnapping and marauding herdsmen and their wanton killings. It was rather so by the failure to meet a basic need of human nature: food. From the east, west, south to the north, there was the…

Friday, 30 December 2016 17:12

Boko Haram and the limits of propaganda - Farooq Kperogi

This is sad! But I told you guys just yesterday that "easily falsifiable lies are counterproductive in the long run." How can you launch a "surprise" attack that "dislodged" terrorists but couldn't seize their huge cache of war equipment, couldn't arrest their ringleaders, couldn't liberate any of the hundreds of people held in captivity, and only recovered the terrorist leader's "Qur'an" and "flag"? What sort of "dislodgment" is that? So, in the midst of the "surprise" attack, the terrorists somehow managed to run with their heavy equipment and captives without being caught? And people believed this? Apparently, an abandoned Boko…

Friday, 30 December 2016 02:50

As 2017 beckons - Jideofor Adibe

The year 2016 ended on a bang for Buhari after a sluggish and uninspiring start for the government. The news that Nigerian soldiers had flushed out Boko Haram elements from their stronghold in the Sambisa forest was probably the government’s most glorious moment since it took power some 18 months ago. The news of the “defeat” of Boko Haram was not just a big military moment for the Nigerian army; it was perhaps even more importantly a psychological victory against the insurgents. In military-speak, the Sambisa forest could be regarded as Boko Haram’s centre of gravity. There is another sense…

Wednesday, 28 December 2016 16:52

A day with the gay community - Reuben Abati

I was invited to deliver the keynote address at this year’s special event on “Human Rights, Sexuality and the Law”, an annual symposium organized to promote awareness on issues relating to the plight of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and/or Intersex (LGBTQI) Community in Nigeria. When this was announced on social media by the organizers, The Initiative For Equal Rights (TIERS) and @YNaija, hell practically broke loose within the LGBTQI community. I was dismissed as a wrong choice, and the organizers were accused of being insensitive to the feelings of the community. A broad-based protest was launched on twitter…

Tuesday, 27 December 2016 14:58

The Morning after Christmas - Reuben Abati

“How was your Christmas Day?” “Comme ci, comme ca” “What’s that?” “I am speaking French. You mean you don’t even understand elementary French?” “No, I don’t. Speak English. How was Christmas?” “Low-key. Like this, like that”. “For me, it was a dead-end Christmas” “God forbid. May we never have a dead-end Christmas. I reject it in Jesus name.” “If you like, summon the Holy Ghost. We have never had a Christmas like this one. On Christmas eve in Lagos, come and see people just going about, many of them aimlessly. The kind of shopping that heralds Christmas was absent. For…

Tuesday, 27 December 2016 02:29

When leaders are true to their lies - Ricardo Hausmann

What does the Venezuelan domestic payments crisis have in common with the death of the North American Free Trade Agreement, announced by Wilbur Ross, US President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to be the next US Secretary of Commerce? These two seemingly disparate events are linked by the odd relationship with the truth that both Trump and the Chavista regime seem to share. All governments lie. A few believe their own lies. But things get dangerous when they act in order to be true to their lies. That is the trap into which Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government has fallen, and it…

Monday, 26 December 2016 16:27

Buhari's Christmas Day lies - Reno Omokri

On Christmas Day of 2016, President Muhammadu Buhari hosted leading citizens of the Federal Capital Territory led by the minister of the FCT, Muhammad Bello, and during the visit he returned to his old habit of blaming and said, and I quote, "there was no money saved, no infrastructure built, and power is still our main problem." This is patently untrue and without mincing words, President Buhari lied. Former President Jonathan left $2.07 billion in the Excess Crude Account when he handed over to President Buhari on May 29, 2015. He also left Foreign reserves of $29. 6 billion for…

Monday, 26 December 2016 02:30

Dalung and ministers Buhari ‘spended’ months to search for - Azuka Onwuka

If Channels TV did not show the videotape of the Minister of Youth and Sports, Mr Solomon Dalung, telling the House of Representatives Committee on Sports that “the funds spended were properly spended,” anybody alleging that a Nigerian minister made such a statement would be accused of concocting a malicious story against a minister. Dalung is said to have a university degree in law, a postgraduate degree, and worked briefly as a lecturer. Before those who love to hide behind a finger start reminding us that English is not our mother tongue, please, in what language was he taught in…

Sunday, 25 December 2016 01:17

Politics no be 'yam' - Dipo Famakinwa

A friend of mine, a politician in Ekiti State who tried many times to become Governor, and then many times a Senator without success, told me one day that if you really wanted to succeed in politics, you must be willing and prepared to go to your bank, withdraw all your money, sell some of your property, especially houses, borrow more from friends and family, put the money together in front of your house, set it on fire in the presence of a cheering crowd, and still be ready to dance and dance and be happy like nothing happened. Another…

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Saturday, 24 December 2016 16:28

Tragicomedy of a corrupt 'anti-corruption' govt - Farooq A. Kperogi

This column has lately become more passionate about goings-on in Nigeria’s political and economic spheres than is usual. I can’t help it. The country is perilously adrift. Hopes are sinking. And time is running out. I simply can’t afford the luxury of indifference and blithe unconcern. In spite of the awful performance of the Buhari government on the economic front so far, it was usual for people to say that the one thing that was still going for the government was the president’s integrity and intolerance of corruption. No more. The past few weeks have shown that the president isn’t…

Saturday, 24 December 2016 01:27

Time to scrap the EFCC - Jideofor Adibe

This piece was motivated by two inter-related developments: the first is the furore caused by several corruption allegations against some top officials of the Buhari government and the reported directive by the President to the Attorney General of the Federation to investigate the involvement of any top government official accused of wrong-doing. The corruption allegations against top officials of the government coupled with similar allegations against some members of the National Assembly would seem to suggest that despite the government’s anti-corruption postures and rhetoric, corruption, or at least allegations of it, still thrive as in any other past regime. The…

Friday, 23 December 2016 16:26

Year 2017 and Committee of 127 - Tola Adeniyi

It is not my practice to go public with my predictions and prophesies. But those close to my chambers know that I have been making very accurate predictions and prophesies since over 50 years ago. Those with deaths hanging round their necks and those that would be governors and ministers up to 10 years after my prophesies and predictions have had my predictions actualised. Nobody needs any prophesy about Nigeria in 2017. Morning shows the day as the saying goes and the morning for Nigeria has shown not only the day, but also the days to follow. The country or…

Friday, 23 December 2016 02:04

Christmas in a time of recession - Olusegun Adeniyi

That most Nigerians are going through one of the most depressing periods of their lives is to put the situation mildly. Indeed, there are perhaps only few people in our country today not affected by the economy and the seeming hopelessness that pervades the land. What compounds the problem is that there is no sign in the horizon that the challenge will go away quickly given the choices being made (or perhaps more appropriately, not being made) by those elected to preside over our affairs. To be honest, this is not the kind of piece I planned to write today.…

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