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Opinion

Tuesday, 15 November 2016 15:08

Buhari, Fashola and an administration bereft of ideas - Reno Omokri

A few days ago on the 11th of November, 2016, Raji Fashola, Nigeria’s super minister of power, works and housing, who is more famous for spending ₦78 million on his website in 2014 (an amount then worth $500,000) said that the 7% GDP growth Nigeria enjoyed under the Jonathan administration was solely the result of high oil prices rather than any policy of that administration. Fashola said; “I say this in the context of those who are tempted to lay some claim to any form of credit about why our economy was growing at seven percent for almost a decade,…

Tuesday, 15 November 2016 01:42

Tribute: the other side of Olaniwun Ajayi - Folu Olamiti

In the wee hours of 4 November, 2016, I got a pop up on my mobile phone alerting me that Pa Olaniwun Ajayi had passed on. My mind raced quickly towards Pa Ayo Adebanjo, wondering how he would receive the breaking news at his age. The two were inseparable "twins". Pa Olanuwun and Pa Adebanjo were close political disciples of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. I had admired their closeness a great deal, studying then at close range. At every meeting, the two would appear in style, a reason I sometime got tempted to tag them the ‘Musketeers’. Papa Awo was very…

Monday, 14 November 2016 01:34

America, their America - Tola Adeniyi

The world has just suffered a nightmare. A nightmare the like that has never been experienced on a global scale, I mean in the Euro-American world. But why should I be concerned about the elections in a country that appropriated the name of a whole continent, two continents in fact and called it its own. For starters, the United States is not America; it is not the continent of America. It is just one of the many countries in America just as Canada and Cuba are. Just as Columbia and Haiti are. Just like Mexico and Brazil. All the citizens…

Sunday, 13 November 2016 15:58

Nigeria-US relations and Donald Trump - Reuben Abati

I do not share the view of those who assume that by some kind of miracle, in the shape of electoral-college defections, Hillary Clinton would still, on the strength of winning the popular vote, supplant Donald Trump as US 2016 President-elect. We might as well begin to live with the reality of a Trump Presidency, sad and traumatic as that outcome may be. And coming to terms with that, despite our disappointment, calls for a forward-looking approach on the part of the Nigerian government. The United States remains Nigeria’s most strategic partner. More than one million Nigerians live in the…

Sunday, 13 November 2016 01:31

Red Card, Green Card – notes towards the management of hysteria - Wole Soyinka

I shall begin on a morbid note. One of the horror stories that emerged from the Daesh (ISIS) controlled parts of Iraq was the gruesome tale of the mother who had a daughter affected by wanderlust, even in that endangered zone. One day, when she looked for her to attend to some home chores, she found that she had gone missing yet again. As she searched, she shouted in frustration: “As Allah is my witness, I’ll kill that girl when I catch up with her”. A neighbour overheard and reported her to the Hisbah. The mother was summoned by the…

Saturday, 12 November 2016 01:55

Babangida Aliyu @61: Saluting the audacity of a man who saw tomorrow - Israel A. Ebije

A human being is not necessarily defined by knowledge and skills but by content of their character. The ability to combine knowledge and skills, wrapped in character within acceptable norm of the society is indeed the best gift any mortal can hope to get. Character therefore establishes more than good social life, it also helps leaders to selectively expose themselves to best practices towards serving humanity. As the former Governor of Niger state, Dr. Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, celebrates his 61st birthday today November 12, 2016, I salute the man who has been able to saddle his horse of life, riding…

Friday, 11 November 2016 15:16

The sad news of Trump’s triumph - Reuben Abati

"Democracy is tricky; it sometimes ends up as a parody of itself. When the people clamour for change, they can vote with their hearts, and prove impervious to plain sight reason, and overlook likely pitfalls. We can only hope that Donald Trump does not become the symbol of the change that Americans are seeking. That would be sad indeed for the free world.” – Reuben Abati, “Anything Can Happen in America”, The Guardian, March 6, 2016. Earlier this year, I had written a piece titled “Anything Can Happen In America”, from which the quote above is excerpted, but I had…

Friday, 11 November 2016 01:35

Lessons from the 2016 US Presidential election - Jideofor Adibe

It certainly came as a surprise to many people. Though all national polls in the USA indicated that the race was tightening in the run-up to the elections, almost all indicated a Hilary Clinton win. With 279 Electoral College Votes to Hillary’s 228, the world increasingly has to come to terms with a Donald Trump presidency. There are several lessons we can learn from the election: One, Trump’s victory could signal the ascendency and ultimate mainstreaming of right wing populism. This is a growing phenomenon in Western democracies, which is epitomized in backlashes against multiculturalism, growing anti immigration sentiments and…

Thursday, 10 November 2016 01:50

Trump Tsunami: Mirror of soul of US and grand opportunity for Africa - Babson Ajibade

That Trump would win was never in doubt, to some minds. America has lived a false reality for far too long. Make no mistake, there won’t be a spike in racism, bigotry, sexism or any other negative attitudes in the US. These decadences are at the same level they have always been in the American society. The only difference is that related incidences will be more visible, implying that they have been going on underneath and people were fooled into thinking they did not exist. Trump is not as stupid as was assumed. He spent many years and many millions…

Wednesday, 09 November 2016 02:07

Economics in a time of political instability - Michael Spence and David Brady

Over the last 35 years, Western democracies have seen a rapid rise in political instability, characterized by frequent shifts in governing parties and their programs and philosophies, driven at least partly by economic transformation and hardship. The question now is how to improve economic performance at a time when political instability is impeding effective policymaking. In a recent article, one of us (David Brady) shows the correlation between rising political instability and declining economic performance, pointing out that countries with below-average economic performance have experienced the most electoral volatility. More specifically, such instability corresponds with a decline in the share…

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Tuesday, 08 November 2016 17:52

Populism for the rich - Ian Buruma

I recently joined a tour in Bucharest of the Palace of Parliament, the gigantic folly built in the 1980s on the orders of the late Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceauşescu, who was executed before he could see it finished. The statistics rehearsed by our guide were staggering: the third biggest edifice in the world, 220,000 square feet of carpet, one million cubic meters of marble, 3,500 tons of crystal. The enormous marble stairways had to be rebuilt several times to match exactly the steps of the dictator, who was a small man. To construct this neoclassical monstrosity, an entire swath of…

Tuesday, 08 November 2016 01:53

Printed electoral materials: APC and the justification of nonsense - Oraye St. Franklyn

I'm sure I'm as appalled and irritated as a good number of you out there, seeing the unintelligent concoction of nonsense as justification for nonsense, in the face of a glaring act of criminality by members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Rivers State in printing election result sheets on behalf of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for an election that the APC is also contesting. I mean, what could be more damning and damaging of the values of a political party and the society governed by it, to find it excusing acts of criminality and trivialising high…

Monday, 07 November 2016 15:41

The new Oyo State education policy: Ruin or legacy? - Yusuff Olayode

It saddens that education has lost its glories. A peep into the system of education in Nigeria reflects that a more efficient curriculum needs to be in place. However, every time new effect is added to Nigeria’s education policy, our people begin to politicize priorities, resulting in divided opinions that point to the fact that some are not even after the success of the country. To counter a policy, it is important one weighs the glories available from it, with the bad that may at the end emanate, giving a clean mind the opportunity to have a stand. This is…

Monday, 07 November 2016 02:19

The consequences of a Trump shock- Simon Johnson

With the United States’ presidential election on November 8, and a series of elections and other political decisions fast approaching in Europe, now is a good time to ask whether the global economy is in good enough shape to withstand another major negative shock. The answer, unfortunately, is that growth and employment around the world look fragile. A big adverse surprise – like the election of Donald Trump in the US – would likely cause the stock market to crash and plunge the world into recession. There is always a great deal of insight in the International Monetary Fund’s semi-annual…

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