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Opinion

Friday, 14 October 2022 05:34

Pathetic stories washed up by floods - Azu Ishiekwene

Back in the day, weather forecasts were a joke. And I mean literally. The weather forecast segment which used to come at the end of the news bulletin on Nigeria’s national broadcaster, NTA, was the butt of cruel jokes amongst folks. Often when the forecasters said it would rain, we said they meant the opposite. Seven out of 10 times, we were right; and the other three times, it drizzled on one side of the street and was stone dry on the other. That was in the early 1970s and 1980s when either as a result of poor predictive tools,…

Thursday, 13 October 2022 06:18

ASUU strike: Gainers and losers (1) - Bola Bolawole

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Emmanuel Osodeke, has given hope that the eight-month-old strike action by his members may soon come to an end – whether gloriously or ingloriously, I must add! The intervention of the House of Representatives, led by its speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, must have broken the ice so much so that Osodeke could confidently announce that he (interpreted, ASUU?) has sighted light at the end of the tunnel: After eight wasted months, which is like three academic semesters! My son, who is in the first semester of Part Three at the Obafemi Awolowo…

Monday, 10 October 2022 05:53

Security implications of ASUU strikes - Hassan Gimba

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) was founded in 1978. Its predecessor, the Nigerian Association of University Teachers (NAUT), was formed in 1965 covering academic staff at the University of Ibadan, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, University of Ife and University of Lagos. According to its founders, ASUU is a trade union whose objectives include regulation of relations between academic staff and employers, encouraging the participation of its members in the affairs of the university system and the nation, and protecting and advancing the socio-economic and cultural interests of the nation. It is supposed to be…

Sunday, 09 October 2022 05:33

The Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta at Obajana - Festus Adedayo

Lokoja, the capital of Kogi State, is facing one of its worst disasters ever. Four persons, which included a three-year-old baby, according to press report, were swept away to their deaths last week by a flood which broke its barriers. Ibaji Local Government Area of the state is the worst hit by a flood that broke the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers coursing through Lokoja. Travelers passing through the 196-kilometre-Lokoja-Abuja highway which connects the North and South got stranded and the road literally cut off. The Niger and Benue rivers had broken their banks, resulting in a flood…

Sunday, 09 October 2022 05:31

Nurturing the spirit of excellence - Taiwo Akinola

Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm ~ Daniel 6:3. Introduction: The development of excellence is not a day’s job. To get ahead with excellence, you must start with a dream and pursue it with courage. Therein lies the spirit that sets the preference, making the difference and causing men to excel in life (Daniel 5:10-12; 6:1-3). Commitment is the regular price of excellence. Many people today have unwittingly accepted the durable myth that the potential to excel in…

Sunday, 09 October 2022 05:30

Article of faith: Prayer for Nigeria at 62 - Femi Aribisala

Arugbo ojo. (Ancient of Days). Alewilese (He who speaks and acts). Alese lewi (He who acts and speaks). Awimayehun (He who cannot be contradicted). Adanimagbagbe (The Creator who never forgets His creation). Oyigiyigi (Great and Mighty God). Alagbada Ina (The God covered with fire). Afunni ma s’iregun (The God who blesses without asking for a reward). Alagbawi eda (defender of mankind). Olowogbogboro (The one whose hand can reach everywhere). Ajasegun (The Conqueror). Oba t’ao ri, sugbon t’a ri ise owo re (The God who is unseen, but whose works are evident). Atererekariaye (The God who covers the whole earth). Onise…

Saturday, 08 October 2022 10:34

Still on Ukraine - Femi Mimiko

My piece, “This is not a bluff,” published October 5, 2022, has elicited a lot of comments, on this platform and elsewhere. I try here to do a response, in outline form, with a few rhetorical questions. The multiple issues raised on the writeup, and addressed here, are of course, not taken in any particular order. The hope is that this approach does not undercut the logic of the presentation. Now, let us admit without conceding, the claim by many pundits in the West, echoed here at home, that Putin is delusional. How does an intelligent person handle a delusional…

Saturday, 08 October 2022 06:22

Putin and M.B.S. are laughing at us - Thomas L. Friedman

Wars bring together surprising alliances. Today, we have America and its NATO allies backing the brave Ukrainians fighting to save their country from being torn to shreds by Vladimir Putin. And we have Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Bernie Sanders, the House progressive caucus and the whole G.O.P. all working — deliberately or because they are dupes — to ensure that Putin has more oil revenue than ever to kill Ukrainians and freeze the Europeans this winter until they abandon Kyiv. In another dark corner, Putin and Saudi de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are also probably hoping that…

Thursday, 06 October 2022 11:38

Why is Africa playing with fire? - Azu Ishiekwene

There is fire in Ouagadougou. And who’s to say where it’s catching next? For the second time in eight months, the military in Burkina Faso struck in a palace coup that removed military leader Paul - Henri Sandaogo Damiba. The coup leader, Captain Ibrahim Traore, cited the same excuses Damiba gave for seizing power in January as reasons for his removal; namely, that the government has proved incompetent in containing the spread of Islamic insurgency, leading to increasing loss of lives among military and civilian populations. Things couldn’t get worse for the land-locked country (pop 22m) where 45 percent of…

Thursday, 06 October 2022 11:21

‘This is not a bluff!’ - Femi Mimiko

I think so too, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was NOT bluffing when he spoke about his determination to protect what he called the territorial integrity of his country, ‘by any means possible!’ Beyond this broad rhetoric, he spoke specifically about the usability of the fearsome nuclear arsenal of the successor State to the defunct Soviet Union. And now that the four eastern and southern territories of Ukraine – Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson – are getting incorporated into Russia, the term ‘territorial integrity’ has suddenly attained a higher meaning. The point in all of these is that Russia is…

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Thursday, 06 October 2022 06:33

Is Atiku reaping what he sowed? - Bola Bolawole

“What goes around, goes around, goes around/Comes all the way back around” – Justin Timberlake “For they shall sow wind and reap a whirlwind” – Hosea 8:7 “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” - Galatians 6:7. When the five PDP governors giving their party’s presidential candidate, ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, goose pimples met last Sunday in Enugu, it immediately dawned on me that what goes around also comes around. He who sows the wind usually ends up reaping a whirlwind and whatsoever a man sows, he ends up reaping.…

Tuesday, 04 October 2022 05:45

Pound foolishness - Jim O’Neill

After earning my PhD in 1982, I spent the first 20 years of my professional career immersed in the tumultuous world of foreign-exchange markets. Today, current events are bringing back both happy and embarrassing memories. I learned three things about currencies during that time. First, everyone may get their 15 minutes of fame (the Andy Warhol principle), but they shouldn’t expect it to last any longer than that. The forex market – the world’s biggest fruit and vegetable stall – tends to make idiots of those who think they’ve found the magic forecasting formula. That points to the second lesson:…

Monday, 03 October 2022 06:13

Now that the campaigns have begun... - Bola Bolawole

Now that the campaigns towards the 2023 elections have started, what will the candidates campaign with? The stars of the campaigns are the presidential candidates – Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP). Thousands of elective posts will be up for grabs but the star prize is the presidency, followed by the governorship and then the National Assembly seats. Will the campaign be issue-based; if so, what will the issues be? Will they be issues that speak to the pains of the people…

Monday, 03 October 2022 06:10

Frustrations of a dancing wannabe president (2) - Hassan Gimba

In June this year, writing under the title ‘Of Atiku’s sucker punch, Wike’s tantrums and APC’s only door,’ we said, “In reality, the primaries had long been done with because Atiku started early. He had those in control of delegates on his side. Anyone conversant with Nat Geo Wild documentaries on how animals hunt might have seen lions in action. The lions have those who lay in ambush to disorganise herds and those who shepherd the prey to the trap, akin to wingers in a football derby lobbing the ball to their main striker to score. Atiku’s people, like Adamu…

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