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Opinion

Wednesday, 17 May 2023 04:30

ChatGPT’s lessons for economic development - Ricardo Haussmann

Spoiler alert: I am not going to talk about how ChatGPT responds when prompted about economic-development strategies. It basically regurgitates reasonable, but mediocre ideas that it has seen in its training set. But ChatGPT’s design, which has given it far greater capabilities than its creators anticipated, offers a valuable lesson for tackling the complexities of economic development. For more than a decade, deep neural networks (DNNs) have outperformed all other artificial-intelligence technologies, driving significant advances in computer vision, speech recognition, and translation. The emergence of generative AI chatbots like ChatGPT continue this trend. To learn, AI algorithms require training, which…

Monday, 15 May 2023 03:58

Change must begin with the leader - Hassan Gimba

This writing was first published on 6 July 2020. With changes of leadership soon at the federal and state levels, I see it as relevant. The first part in particular. However, do we forget the lessons in the second part? The world is changed by your example not by your opinion – Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Lyricist and author of The Alchemist. Allah (SWT) said in the Qur’an that He does not change the condition of a people until they change what is in their hearts. It is a verse widely quoted out of context by people wanting to give their…

Sunday, 14 May 2023 03:30

Will north, the Shrew, bite the APC’s nose? - Festus Adedayo

The ongoing fight-to-finish for principal officers’ positions in the 10th National Assembly by the All Progressives Congress (APC) has only one fitting corollary: It is the famous mythic, destructive squabble between the Shrew, Squirrel and a seemingly impartial arbiter, the Tortoise. Unless carefully resolved, what appears to be a fancy of conquest by the APC, leading to the party magisterially pronouncing who would be its legislative Man Fridays, seems to have boomeranged full throttle at its teething stage. Only last week, the party’s National Working Committee, (NWC) in a peremptory, you-may-go-jump-inside-the-lagoon manner, announced its choice of former Minister of Niger…

Sunday, 14 May 2023 03:29

Finding the right partner for marital success - Taiwo Akinola

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her … She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life ~ Proverbs 31:10-12. Introduction: The family unit is the basic building block of the human society. When it flounders, every other thing follows that pattern. No wonder, the state of happiness that a group of people, a nation or even a Church community enjoys is determined by the degree of harmony in the individual homes that make it up. Many people today…

Sunday, 14 May 2023 03:27

Article of Faith: Sin and sickness - Femi Aribisala

Jesus went to a hospital, saw a man who had been sick for 38 years, and asked him if he would like to get well. The man might have answered sarcastically: “No, I love being sick” “If I don’t want to get well what would I be doing in a hospital?” But is it really an offensive question? Let me present this as a parable. A university professor asks one of his students in the Department of Architecture: “Do you want to be an Architect?” Why would he ask him such a question? Why would he be studying Architecture if…

Friday, 12 May 2023 04:13

Dangote refinery challenges global narrative - Azu Ishiekwene

It started like a grudge match. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, was dealt a bad hand in a failed transaction. Later, he vowed revenge. Not in a pound of flesh, but by venturing to make his own success where he had been ambushed. At issue was the decision of the government of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007 to reverse the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries (two of Nigeria’s moribund refineries) to Blue Star, the Dangote-led consortium. Blue Star had paid about $670million for the plants in the twilight of the Obasanjo administration, and gone away thinking it…

Thursday, 11 May 2023 04:26

Khalifa Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu: Five years on - Abdul Samad Rabiu

As I reflect on the fifth anniversary of the passing of my father, Khalifa Sheikh Isyaku Rabiu (Khadimul Quran), I am filled with both sadness and gratitude. While it is difficult to believe that five years have already passed since he left us, I am grateful for the time that we had with him and the legacy that he left behind. Khalifa was a man of great faith and determination. He was a devout Muslim who dedicated his life to serving Allah and spreading the teachings of Islam. He was also a successful businessman who built a global empire through…

Thursday, 11 May 2023 04:25

Ekweremadu: The man who ‘loved’ Nigeria - Abimbola Adelakun

In the opening pages of his book, Who Will Love My Country: Ideas for Building the Nigeria of Our Dreams, Ike Ekweremadu unapologetically declared his love for Nigeria saying, “I love Nigeria and will forever love it.” The book contents, the regular sweet nothings Nigerian leaders preachify but which they cannot stretch themselves to live by, now take a new meaning in the light of his fall from the grace of deputy Senate presidency to a convicted prisoner. When you consider the past 11 months when he and his wife, Beatrice, were tried in a London court for organ trafficking,…

Thursday, 11 May 2023 04:24

Technology for me, not for thee - Harold James

Capitalism relies on competition. In practice, however, this core principle is often violated, because ambitious capitalists will naturally seek to eliminate competition and secure a commanding market position from which they can keep new would-be competitors at bay. Success, in this respect, can make you rich and establish your status as a visionary; but it can also make you feared and hated. Hence, China – arguably one of the most successful market economies of the twenty-first century – has been waging war against its own tech giants, most notably by “disappearing” Alibaba Group co-founder Jack Ma from the public stage…

Wednesday, 10 May 2023 03:34

For Kole Omotoso at 80 - Niyi Osundare

FOR KOLE OMOTOSO AT 80 (With the world still learning how to borrow a wondering leaf) I That number sounds so heavy I can hardly lift it with my tongueIts span springs a distance un-measurable By the stretch of any ruler The sun’s silent steps across The infinity of the skyThe concourse of the clouds Which drill and drop the rains Night after night after night We sleep in the songsWhich sleep in us, dance with the dawn Whose drum provokes our day We rise, unaware, As those songs sizzle into see-sunsStir into seasons when the tree’s green promise Yellows…

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Tuesday, 09 May 2023 04:05

Inaugurating a new President on May 29 is not absolute. Here’s why - Aloy Ejimakor

On May 4, 2023, I tweeted on my Twitter handle that “Given that the FINALITY of election result is decided by the Court, except where the INEC-declared result is uncontested, it’s unconstitutional to swear-in a winner whose victory has not been affirmed by the Court. Where’s the law that says such a winner must be sworn-in? None!” Since then, I have received a barrage of direct messages and requests to publicly speak more on this. So, to those who asked me and in the public interest, below are the short answers to your many questions: Yes, inauguration of a new…

Tuesday, 09 May 2023 04:04

A visitation and the allure of ‘reconciliation’ - Wole Soyinka

Before it gains traction and embarks on a life of its own, I wish to state clearly that the word “Reconciliation” inserted into some reports of Peter Obi’s visit to me on Sunday, 7 May, is a most inappropriate, and diversionary invocation. Let me clarify: I know the entity known as Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party. I can relate to him. I know and can relate to the Labour Party, on whose platform he contested election. There are simply no issues to reconcile between those two entities and myself. However, I do not know, and am unable…

Monday, 08 May 2023 04:14

My phone conversation with Dangiwa Umar over Tukur Mamu - Hassan Gimba

My column of last week with the title “Like Mamu, like Abdulsalami and the billion naira firefighter” drew the attention of retired Colonel, Dangiwa Umar. The respected senior citizen was more particular about the first part because I mentioned him. In the piece, I pointed out that Tukur Mamu, publisher of Kaduna-based Desert Herald and an aide to Ahmad Gumi, a popular Islamic cleric, was arrested in September last year and taken to court on a 10-count charge bordering on terrorism financing. He was accused of receiving ransom payments from families of hostages on behalf of the Boko Haram terrorist…

Sunday, 07 May 2023 03:51

Tinubu, judicial corruption and Madman of Gadarene - Festus Adedayo

In Port-Harcourt, Rivers State last week as guest of Governor Nyesom Wike, President-elect, Bola Tinubu, promised to fight corruption. To delink judicial officers’ minds from corruption, Tinubu’s blueprint of fighting this goblin, he said, would be to incentivize judicial officers. “You don’t expect your judges to live in squalor, to operate in squalor and dispense justice in squalor. This is part of the changes that are necessary. We must fight corruption but we must definitely look at the other side of the coin. If you don’t want your judges to be corrupt, you got to pay attention to their welfare.…

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