Ns-Opinion

Opinion

Sunday, 20 August 2023 04:42

Article of faith: Necessary evil - Femi Aribisala

If, according to God’s kingdom dynamics, the ways of God are antithetical to the ways of man, then God must consider evil to be good for man. Evil did not just happen, God created it. He says: “That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else. I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.” (Isaiah 45:6-7). Evil is not of essence. Evil is created. The good God is…

Friday, 18 August 2023 04:55

Engaging Nigerien military president is like having sex with someone you hate - Azu Ishiekwene

A good number of people, including me, seems opposed to Nigeria leading the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to war in Niger. In one of the most telling anti-war metaphors, a Nigerian columnist and Editor, Lasisi Olagunju, likened military intervention to rubbing buttocks with the porcupine. Doves everywhere are flying the flag of peace. Protesters are also waving placards reminding Nigeria’s President and ECOWAS Chairman, Bola Tinubu, not to start a war he cannot finish. As if he doesn’t know, Tinubu has also been reminded, among other things, that there’s already too much trouble at home – insecurity,…

Thursday, 17 August 2023 04:53

Akpabio has no motivation to be different - Abimbola Adelakun

Many an unflattering adjective has been deployed to describe the vulgarisms of Senate President Godswill Akpabio. None of it matters. If you thought his predecessor, Ahmad Lawan, was too servile in his dealings with the executive, Akpabio leaves you with no doubt that he would be a lickspittle. In the video his aides made of him attending the plenary session last month, Akpabio’s cap carried an inscription of the Bola Tinubu campaign insignia. For a man who would lead the legislature—a branch of government that presumably serves the democratic function of checking and balancing the excesses of the powerful executive—to…

Monday, 14 August 2023 04:24

Economists reconsider industrial policy - Dani Rodrik, Reka Juhasz & Nathan Lane

As policymakers around the world embrace industrial policy in pursuit of a wide variety of objectives – supply-chain resilience, green technologies, geopolitical advantage, good jobs – the debate over its effectiveness is reaching fever pitch. Typically, this debate is portrayed as one where sound economics is squarely on the skeptics’ side. “There is a strong case against industrial policy in economics,” intoned one recent commentary, and embracing it “just wastes money and distorts the economy.” But this is an increasingly outmoded view. While it is generally true that mainstream economists have responded to industrial policy with knee-jerk hostility since at…

Sunday, 13 August 2023 04:27

Obi, Atiku, Tinubu: Judgment Day beckons - Festus Adedayo

The Nigerian Presidential Election Petition Court has reserved its judgment. Apprehension and expectation are playing hide and seek in the air. Judgment Day is here. Theologians, writers and musicians have painted poignant colours of the judgment day. From the 1998-direct-to-video film of John Terlesky with that same title – Judgment Day – depicting disaster in the air as a giant meteor that would soon hit the earth, to the Italian Renaissance painter, Michelangelo’s fresco painting which he labeled The Last Judgment, judgment day has never been a tea party. Rastafari-influenced Donald "Tabby" Shaw, Fitzroy "Bunny" Simpson and Lloyd "Judge" Ferguson…

Sunday, 13 August 2023 04:25

The essence and the power of true worship - Taiwo Akinola

It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD …. then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God ~ 2 Chronicles 5:13-14. Introduction Worshipping God is a very crucial aspect of Christian life. Albeit, it is like its real essence is fast becoming elusive for many people. In fact, what’s sometimes…

Sunday, 13 August 2023 04:24

Article of faith: God is not a problem solver - Femi Aribisala

Contrary to what many Christians may have been led to believe, God is not a problem-solver even though He solves problems. If we define God as a problem solver, we will be frustrated and disappointed when he adamantly refuses to solve our problems. The psalmist says: “Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all.” (Psalm 34:19). Nevertheless, we often groan like David: “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?” (Psalm 22:1). The confidence we have in adversity is the presence of God. He says: “When you go through deep waters,…

Friday, 11 August 2023 04:29

Tinubu’s list, Gbaja-nisation and Nigeria’s politics - Azu Ishiekwene

If President Bola Tinubu hit the ground running, it was because problems chased him into office. Yet, it wasn’t long before he tripped on a matter in which his genius has been acknowledged: forming his cabinet. One of his credentials for eight years as governor of Lagos, and even outside public office for 16 years, has been his gift for spotting talents and putting them to work. He campaigned on this record in the last election. You can therefore imagine the disappointment in some circles when he not only waited 60 days, nearly exhausting the time allowed by law, but…

Friday, 11 August 2023 04:28

As Tinubu intensifies war against the Southeast - Ikechukwu Amaechi

On Monday, August 7, the Senate confirmed 45 of the 48 ministerial nominees sent to it by President Bola Tinubu. Surprisingly, it deferred the confirmation of three nominees – former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai; a former senator from Taraba, Sani Danladi; and a nominee from Delta State, Stella Okotete – because of undisclosed security concerns. Tinubu transmitted the names of the 48 nominees in three separate correspondences to the Senate on July 28, August 3 and August 4, the last list containing the names of Festus Keyamo, former Minister of State for Labour and Employment from Delta State…

Thursday, 10 August 2023 04:25

Insincere government, rogue ideas - Abimbola Adelakun

If there is an issue everyone—and I mean everyone—agrees on, it is that the cost of running the government needs urgent and radical pruning. One of the most topical issues in the public service system, administrative cost, is also where the government’s indecisiveness is highly exemplified. So it was no surprise when, on Monday, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, reported President Bola Tinubu’s justification for having an even more expanded cabinet. Ajaero, during their meeting with the president on the pressing issues of the fallouts of his policies, had tasked him with reducing the number of tentative…

More...

Wednesday, 09 August 2023 04:31

Africa in rebellion: Is a second anti-colonial liberation on the horizon? - Denis Rogatyuk

Africa is the cradle of human civilization and the planet’s richest continent in terms of natural resources. But according to Ibrahim Traore, the president of Burkina Faso, younger generations cannot understand why, despite its riches, Africa continues to be the poorest region of the world. Across the continent we have seen uprisings and armed rebellions by anti-colonialist military leaders who have sought to reclaim their sovereignty from European imperialist powers, particularly France. Guinea, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger are just some of the countries that make up the collective of former French colonies in West Africa. They have long served…

Monday, 07 August 2023 04:59

The irresistible rise of the rest - Andrew Sheng and Xiao Geng

Will the United States be number three in the new world order? In his forthcoming book, former journalist Hugh Peyman argues that it will: China’s economy has already surpassed that of the US by some measures, and India’s will do the same by mid-century. He also argues that “the Rest” more broadly will pose a growing challenge to the West, which in turn continues to underestimate the challengers. Peyman is hardly the first to predict the rise of countries that are not included in the geopolitical West (a group that includes Japan). The British economist Angus Maddison knew back in…

Sunday, 06 August 2023 04:06

Tinubu: There is need to abort the suicide mission to Niger - Niyi Osundare

It all began as a roadside rumour before blasting its way to the front pages of Nigerian newspapers, and the talking points of the electronic media. Now it has become a news item discussed with torment and trepidation by many Nigerians still struggling to cope with the political dysfunctionalities, socio-economic problems, and numerous anxieties of present Nigerian life. The ‘subject of discourse’ is the coup d’etat in Niger, our neighbour to the north, and the present plan by ECOWAS, under your leadership, to force the restoration of democratic governance in that beleaguered country. What has got many Nigerians talking –…

Sunday, 06 August 2023 04:05

Tinubu’s lost war in Niger as Sigidi - Festus Adedayo

Yoruba have a way with the Sigidi, whose closest modern translation is the robot. So when the Sigidi – a moulded clay effigy – at the height of its self-destruct, asks that it be taken to the river to swim, Yoruba say a catastrophe is in the offing. They render this as, Sigidi nse’re ete, o ni ki won gbe’hun l’odo lo we. Just as the modern robot is credited with the power to take some human actions, the Sigidi too, in the belief of the Yoruba, could. It was one of the insignias of operation of the babalawo. It…

Page 39 of 280

Opinion

More...

Search

Most Read

Editorial

News

Business

Politics

Opinion

Features

Strangely

Crime

Wars

SCIENCE & TECH

SPECIAL REPORTS

Sports

VIDEOS