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Opinion

Monday, 04 September 2023 04:29

Inequality and democracy - Joseph E. Stiglitz

There has been much handwringing about the retreat of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism in recent years – and for good reason. From Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and former US President Donald Trump, we have a growing list of authoritarians and would-be autocrats who channel a curious form of right-wing populism. Though they promise to protect ordinary citizens and preserve longstanding national values, they pursue policies that protect the powerful and trash longstanding norms – and leave the rest of us trying to explain their appeal. While there are many explanations, one…

Sunday, 03 September 2023 04:33

The wind that blew Dapo Abiodun’s rump - Festus Adedayo

Akinwumi Isola’s Efunsetan Aniwura, (1981) his first play written in 1961-62 while he was a student at the University of Ibadan, is highly celebrated. It is a historical drama which reflects proceedings of the 19th century reign of the heroine, second Iyalode (Queen of women) of Ibadan, Efunsetan Aniwura. Aniwura – one with a surplusage of gold – a fiery, Egba-born but wealthy Ibadan slave owner and merchant, held the title from 1867 – 1874. The unwritten law among the coffle of slaves she kept was that no female slave must get pregnant. Thus, when Adetutu, one of her female…

Sunday, 03 September 2023 04:31

Creating a conducive atmosphere for God’s intervention - Taiwo Akinola

And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth. And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying. And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi …. And straightway the damsel arose ~ Mark 5:39-42. Introduction Every good thing that has ever happened in your life happened because something changed.…

Sunday, 03 September 2023 04:29

Article of faith: The God of all providence - Femi Aribisala

God schedules each day of our lives before we even begin to breathe. Every day is pre-recorded in His book. (Psalm 139:16). Each man is created for a specific purpose in the counsel of God, to play a specific role in life. The righteous are: “A chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, (God’s) own special people, that (they) may proclaim the praises of Him who called (them) out of darkness into His marvelous light.” (1 Peter 2:9). But the wicked are made for the day of doom. (Proverbs 16:4). “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go…

Friday, 01 September 2023 04:27

Saving Abuja from Wike, really? - Azu Ishiekwene

Abuja is not in a hurry to change. However, in a city famous for its bad habits fostered by wayward politicians, I think the dial may have moved a bit in the right direction. It’s hard to say if this slight movement has been fortuitous, or whether it had anything to do with the threat of the new minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to tackle lawbreakers with an iron hand. I have noticed that one week after Wike’s swearing in, more traffic lights in and around the Central Business District began to work. More than I can…

Thursday, 31 August 2023 04:54

Why Gabon’s coup plotters can count on popular support - Jason Burke

The routine is now very familiar: the sudden putsch, the president confined, the nocturnal statement by new, camouflaged rulers. Today it is the turn of Gabon to wake up to find a military coup has brought sudden and unexpected political upheaval in a country that had been considered relatively stable. On this occasion, the men in uniform introduced themselves as members of the Committee of Transition and the Restoration of Institutions. If successful, the coup will be the eighth in west and central Africa since 2020 to lead to a violent – or at least coerced – change in regime.…

Thursday, 31 August 2023 04:52

Unemployment figures: NBS go explain taya! - Abimbola Adelakun

Since the National Bureau of Statistics published figures that put the unemployment rate at 4.1 per cent, they have faced sweltering criticisms. Earlier in April, they announced they were changing the metrics used in calculating the unemployment rate in the country to align with the International Labour Organisation guidelines. Since last Thursday when they released a jobs report that revised the unemployment rate (previously calculated at 33.3 per cent as at Q4 2020) to 4.1 per cent for (Q4 2022 and Q1 2023), they have been criticised for asserting that the Nigerian unemployment figures are at par with some of…

Monday, 28 August 2023 05:10

Tinubu and the balablu of frauds - Phrank Shaibu

English humorist, satirist, and author Terry Pratchett, once said “If you do not know where you come from, then you don’t know where you are, and if you don’t know where you are, then you don’t know where you’re going. And if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re probably going wrong.” Origins are important because they give a sense as to where you may end up. But it is quite surprising that a nation of over 200 million people which prides itself as the Giant of Africa is being piloted by a man who has no known origin and…

Sunday, 27 August 2023 04:27

Interrogating Obaseki’s epistle to Tinubu - Festus Adedayo

On October 21, 1968, a letter was written by a group which went by the name, Egbe Mekunnu Taku, literally, Association of the Adamant Poor, to the then Military Governor of the Western State, Major General Adeyinka Adebayo. The letter explains, and succinctly too, the anger of poor and impoverished people all over the world against governments’ punishing policies. Angered by Adebayo’s jerking up of tax, from a flat rate of three, to six pounds, the association, which comprised mostly farmers, the bulk of whom were taxable workers of the time, literally dared the leopard in its den by lighting…

Sunday, 27 August 2023 04:25

Repositioning yourself for God’s intervention - Taiwo Akinola

Then Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall, and prayed unto the LORD …… Then came the word of the LORD to Isaiah, saying, Go, and say to Hezekiah, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years ~ Isaiah 38:2-5 Introduction Undoubtedly, man is a comprehensive package of God’s supernatural acts (Genesis 1:26-28). He was originally created to operate in a realm beyond and above the natural, in the class of God (Psalms 82:6; John 10:34). Notwithstanding, man still…

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Sunday, 27 August 2023 04:24

Article of faith: Unrighteous money - Femi Aribisala

Most Christians do not bother with the words of Jesus. If they did, they would not be Christians. Churches carefully avoid Jesus’ words. They are not words on which a large congregational empire can be built. When the people heard the words of Jesus, they left in droves. When Peter understood the message of Jesus, he prevailed on Jesus to change it. Jesus’ words provide the small gate and narrow road that leads to life that only a few will find. (Matthew 7:14). Deceitful money So let us look at one of those weighty words of Jesus that Christians prefer…

Friday, 25 August 2023 04:55

Gas car rigmarole, questions Tinubu can’t ignore - Azu Ishiekwene

It was not meant to be this way. But like a good number of things Nigerian, the story is hardly complete without a twist in the tale. And so it has been for at least three years now with the story of the gas car that was supposed to lessen, if not end, Nigerians’ petrol misery. Sometime in 2020, state oil company, Nigerian National Petroleum Company (now NNPC Limited), launched what it advertised as the National Gas Expansion Programme (NGEP). The major objective of the programme, according to NNPC Group CEO, Mele Kyari, was to harvest gas for car fuel.…

Monday, 21 August 2023 04:31

Pareto and the roots of politics - Alberto Mingardi

Many political disputes in recent years have been framed as battles between economic rationality and eruptions of irrationality that we label populism. But cognitive psychologists and economists would point out that political irrationality is hardly confined to populist insurgents. As a general matter, most political leaders are focused on practical matters and do not necessarily think deeply about the ideas they expound. Among the early modern cartographers of political irrationality was Vilfredo Pareto, who died one hundred years ago, on August 19, 1923. Born in 1848, that year of liberal hope (and revolution) across Europe, Pareto died after witnessing the…

Sunday, 20 August 2023 04:45

Does Shiroro fallen soldiers’ blood matter? - Festus Adedayo

When death became ubiquitous and cheap as air, afflicting the young and the old in their scores, Yoruba of old said it had become three-for-a-penny. There was what they called iyo olo’kan (one-penny salt). Ookan was a penny and the least of the denominations of the money of the time. A mound of salt was sold for a penny. Death that harvested people in their prime, unannounced, they also likened to creepy, parasitic mistletoe – afomo. It is a leathery-leaved parasitic plant which grows on apple, oak, and other broadleaf trees in the forest and also sticks to trees, either…

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