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Opinion

Sunday, 28 August 2022 06:56

Encountering Obasanjo, Tshisekedi and the war in Congo Kinshasa - Festus Adedayo

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC’s) Presidential Villa is a highly fortified palace. Like in many parts of Central Africa, the Congolese have turned their disadvantaged hilly and mountainous topography into aesthetic wonder. At every point in the expansive Villa, you confront menacing-looking, gun-toting soldiers who radio authorities before allowing you entry. White-painted effigies of four lions by the Villa gate compliment this menacing ambience. The Villa itself is an old but well maintained structure, painted white and probably built in the 1970s. Language barrier limited the satisfaction of my curiosity as to whether Mobutu Sese-Seko ruled from this same Villa.…

Sunday, 28 August 2022 06:54

Purity, power and covenant progress - Taiwo Akinola

O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever ~ Deuteronomy 5:29! Introduction: Every masterpiece has its proper price. The place of purity in the formation of destiny can never be overemphasized. Purity of heart is so vitally important to our lives and destinies to the extent that all our salient legacies on earth are secured only by it (Proverbs 20:7). Painfully, God laments the dearth of purity in the hearts of men till today (Deuteronomy…

Sunday, 28 August 2022 06:53

Article of faith: House on the sand - Femi Aribisala

I had always wanted to build my own house. I would buy “House and Garden” magazines and look at so many different house designs. As a child, I wanted to be an architect. As an adult, it was clear the nearest I would get to fulfilling that dream would be by designing and building my own house. I disliked even the best houses I saw. There was always something missing; always something out of place. But I knew that one day; I would build a house that would put all other houses to shame. Mission unaccomplished Finally, one day, my…

Friday, 26 August 2022 06:55

Have the hustlers finally ousted Kenya’s dynasties? - Azu Ishiekwene

One of the ironies of politics is how easily fiction becomes reality, and reality, precedent. Before our eyes, the president-elect of Kenya, William Ruto, who has played all sides of Kenya’s politics for at least three decades, has just won an election by claiming to be an outsider. Ruto’s electoral epic of “hustler vs. dynasty” appears to have wiped off all memory of his 30-year involvement in the good and bad of Kenya’s politics. This legend won him a razor-thin victory over Raila Odinga in the August 9 presidential election. Legends still work. Ruto is proof. It’s a tribute to…

Friday, 26 August 2022 06:51

Obi, Shettima and Atiku at the NBA Conference - Abimbola Adelakun

At the annual Nigerian Bar Association conference, several presidential candidates presented their respective agendas to the public. The Tuesday event was one of the few moments in this electioneering season when we will hear anything close to “issue-based” campaigns. By next month, when electioneering kicks off officially, one can expect to be assailed with a deafening noise of candidates struggling to outdo one another in their pander towards the lowest common denominating instinct of their followers. They will have to shed conviviality and antagonise each other to amuse their followers. In the coming months, they will be on campaign grounds,…

Thursday, 25 August 2022 06:38

Nigeria's slippery political terrain - Bola Bolawole

The convergence of social media and civil society organisations as agenda setters, ombudsman and crusaders all rolled into one comes with opportunities and challenges that many still struggle to grapple with. The new media, as they are called, and their new social critic counterparts struggling to fill the void created by the exit of the Tai Solarins, Ayodele Awojobis, Gani Fawehinmis, Fela and Beko Ransome-Kutis of this world mean different things to different people. No matter how lofty an idea, it is also prone to abuse; social media and CSOs are no exceptions. Calling a dog a bad name to…

Tuesday, 23 August 2022 07:04

Who are these OBIdients? - Femi Fani-Kayode

Let me make this clear from the outset. I am a member of the APC and a supporter of Bola Tinubu. This contribution does not in any way derogate from that and my analysis is more of an academic and intellectual exercise than anything else. I am NOT a supporter of Peter Obi and I have NO intention of becoming one. I am however interested on what his supporters represent and stand for and that is the subject of this essay. They are worthy of my attention only because their rise and relevance in the political configuration of our nation,…

Monday, 22 August 2022 06:53

The imperative of a power shift, a Tinubu presidency and the degeneration of PDP - Femi Fani-Kayode

The greatest threat to Nigeria's national unity is the refusal to shift power to the South next year. Nothing could be more dangerous to our national cohesion than another 8 years of Fulani rule after President Muhammadu Buhari. The Northern Governors of the APC themselves made this point and saw this danger and consequently insisted on a power shift to the South. To my utter surprise and consternation they did not just say no to another Fulani but they went further by saying no to ANY Northerner including those that were not Fulani. To them it was a matter of…

Monday, 22 August 2022 06:49

Nigeria and presidential democracy: Any better alternative? (1) - Hassan Gimba

Since man became aware of himself and realised that whether by mutual arrangement or contrived by nature, there are always leaders and followers, communities fashioned out ways and means in which to live together under organised systems to regulate and conduct their affairs. From primitive father figure leadership to the animalistic instinct of the strongest leading the flock, man has experimented with many ways in which to live in harmony with one another and with the larger community. Since then, nations have tinkered with various forms, some of which developed into absolute monarchy (absolutism), limited monarchy (constitutional monarchy), direct democracy…

Sunday, 21 August 2022 06:35

Time to kill NBC - Festus Adedayo

The hypothesis which states that words, either written or spoken, are the worst enemy of despots and totalitarian regimes has been tested overtime. Words are lethal, superior to mortars and armaments of war and penetrate deeper than bullets. Words are equally known to eventually precipitate the collapse of despotic regimes. It then stands to reason that dictators must wage war on words. Merve Buyuksarac found out the above when it was almost too late. Crowned Miss Turkey in 2006, Merve’s brush with the imperial power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan began like a joke. On her Instagram page, assuming that poetic…

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Sunday, 21 August 2022 06:33

Destroying the horns of the wicked! - Taiwo Akinola

And the LORD shewed me four carpenters. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it ~ Zechariah 1:20-21. Introduction: The Bible clearly informs us that the whole world yet lies in wickedness (1 John 5:19). The political wrangling and the insecurity situations in many nations today, the incessant misunderstandings in many…

Sunday, 21 August 2022 06:31

Article of faith: Living in the consciousness of God - Femi Aribisala

Which is more challenging, to follow Jesus or walk before Him? We are required to do both simultaneously. But there is no question that it is more difficult to walk before God than to follow Him. When we follow Jesus, we can still be up to no good, in the mistaken belief that He would not know exactly what we are doing unless He looks back. Thus, Judas followed Jesus while, at the same time, stealing money from the common purse. But if we walk before God, we must walk in the consciousness of Him. We will always be aware…

Friday, 19 August 2022 07:29

Politicians and the jeopardy of trial by ordeal - Azu Ishiekwene

“I’m going to waste my vote,” a friend told me recently. “And don’t argue with me,” he added. “It’s my right to do so.” I defied him. Regrettably, even though I also recruited help nearby to press home my point, my unsolicited advice fell on deaf ears. My friend’s mind was made up and nothing would stop him. What he intends to do, according to him, is to vote for a candidate in the 2023 presidential election that he knows would lose. He did not name names, though in the countdown to next year’s election, I have heard the suspect…

Thursday, 18 August 2022 05:55

Freedom vs. Fatwa - Abimbola Adelakun

Last Friday, author Salman Rushdie was stabbed at a literary event in New York. The attack culminated the many years of harassment by religious fundamentalists over his 1988 novel, The Satanic Verses. When the book was published, Muslims took umbrage over its contents and demonstrated their feelings through public protests and book burnings. Several countries banned the book, Iran synthesised the rage into a Fatwa. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, head of the theocratic regime of Iran, sought a soft target after an attritional war with Iraq (and the resultant economic fallout had brewed domestic disaffection against him) and capitalised on the…

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