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Opinion

Sunday, 25 September 2022 06:39

Article of faith: The contradictions of faith - Femi Aribisala

When Jesus was born, an angel brought good tidings of great joy to all men. But soon after, something contradictory happened: “A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted because they are no more.” (Matthew 2:18). Similarly, when Jesus was going to the cross on the way back home to the Father, instead of rejoicing with Him, some people were crying: “A great multitude of the people followed Him, and women who also mourned and lamented Him.” (Luke 23:27). There always seems to be dissonance between the perspectives…

Friday, 23 September 2022 06:06

Do campaigns have to be bloody to win? - Azu Ishiekwene

If this were a compulsory exam question, a number of politicians would simply answer: it depends. On what? On what is at stake. What the opponent does and how. And, of course, how far the resources of the one at the receiving end can go to exact revenge, sometimes in spite of the rules. As campaigns for the 2023 general elections in Nigeria begin, everything is at stake. From the office of representatives in state houses of assembly to the positions of 28 governors, 469 national lawmakers, and the president. In all, about 1,520 positions are up for election and…

Thursday, 22 September 2022 06:18

Lest NANS protests become another #EndSARS - Bola Bolawole

University students under the aegis of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) have begun to make good their threat to shut down the country over the intransigence of the Muhammadu Buhari administration on the strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which is more than eight months old already! The students’ action can be described as being in support of ASUU and helping to mount pressure on the government to make it hearken unto the striking lecturers but, in actual fact, it is more than that: the students themselves being the major victims of…

Thursday, 22 September 2022 06:17

No Shettima, Nigeria does not need another ruthless leader - Abimbola Adelakun

One hackneyed fallacy regularly bandied around in the Nigerian social media spheres is that people fail to retrospectively learn from their experiences because “history was removed from the Nigerian school curriculum.” As a cure for this inability to introspect, commentators suggest re-introducing history into the school curriculum. Listening to them, one gets the impression they take history lessons as a pre-packaged set of factoids, already interpreted and unnuanced, and handed out to be weaponised by those who need them to win low-stakes arguments on social media. Learning history is a lot more, of course. It is a process that, perhaps…

Thursday, 22 September 2022 06:16

Shehu Mahdi and his Northern Christian brothers and sisters - Okey Muogbo

If you have never fully appreciated the meaning of "hate speech", then listen to the vomit of Shehu Mahdi against Northern Christians and the people of the Southern part of Nigeria. How does his brain work? People of that mental frame existed in the crude and unenlightened pre-colonial era and the first republic time. That an old man like Mahdi could in front of the camera pour out such uncivilized bile is a confirmation that something is wrong with his brain. He should be taken to medics who should break his skull, remove every trace of his present brain and…

Wednesday, 21 September 2022 06:39

How Nigeria’s state lost the trust of its citizens - David Pilling

One measure of the trust that a nation’s people have for the state is the amount of tax they are willing to pay. However grudgingly, under an unwritten social contract people agree to part with a share of their income in the belief that the state will spend it more or less wisely. The public goods provided range from schools, hospitals and roads to police, national defence and the running of the government itself. Everyone benefits from improved services, a better educated and healthier population, safer streets and protected borders. On this measure, trust in Nigeria’s state is at rock…

Wednesday, 21 September 2022 06:30

ASUU strike: The right of students to protest and the duty of security agencies to protect them - Olarinre Salako

I have read a few comments, including the one by Otito Atikase - my former mate in FUTA and our Students Union President then, arguing that the Nigerian Students starting their protest in Lagos amounted to political partisanship. Those pushing such arguments are wrong. I provide my rationale below: (1) Nigerian students under the umbrella of National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) can protest anywhere in the Federal Republic of Nigeria. They can however add zonal arrangement to their protest. But they have to start from somewhere within the Nigerian geography. (2) There is an interconnectedness in Nigeria, indeed in…

Wednesday, 21 September 2022 06:29

Emilokan or Emilojebi? How 23 years of political domination sabotaged Lagos economy - Justice Faloye

When you hear APC Lagos State government declaring the closure of two major markets from September 22nd 2022 for flimsy reasons, and trace their wilful economic destruction back to their 2015 intentional destabilization of our foreign exchange markets that led to the greatest divestment since the Civil War, one can't but wonder whether this is not a repeat or continuation of how the Europeans colonised our indigenous civilisations by destroying Nigeria’s economic foundations. Some call it weaponizing poverty but it is economic treason against our popular sovereignty, and instead of Emilokan claim to presidency, arrogance of failure, what we should…

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 04:03

The mint and the other room - Aba Saheed

Leaked Memos: Your Pre-Eminence, the Most High, the Highest of the Highest, the Emperor of Emperors, the father, grandfather and great grandfather of the empire, Your Excellency, Salutations Sir! I lay flat on my belly as I most humbly and unworthily write this Memo to your Pre-eminence sir. I beg you in the name of God in Heaven who is your partner and friend. I recognize you as the god on earth and I am sure the God in Heaven with whom you share space on earth will let you consider my request sir, knowing fully well that I am…

Tuesday, 20 September 2022 04:02

We the Obidiots, Zombidients and Zombidiots: This is our story - Owi

They say we are rude, uncultured and without class. That we drown civil discourse with incoherent noise and troubling fanatism. We have been relegated to the rear of “real” political discourse and have been likened to discordant tunes or clanging cymbals. They ask for respect, civility and graciousness. They say we are disorganised, disunited and lacking in focus. They say our collective hopes and aspirations for 2023 are nothing but a fleeting dream or a castle in the sky; after all, “who knows Peter Obi in the north?” However, to dismiss the Peter Obi counterculture as mere political ineptitude propagated…

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Monday, 19 September 2022 06:46

Why is the North always coming in late? - Bola Bolawole

The news media were awash last week that the North’s governors and traditional rulers have come around to support state police after a meeting they held in Abuja; the reason for their about turn was given as the worsening security situation in the North. These are the same leaders that have often risen in stout defence of the administration of Muhammadu Buhari, threatening critics with mayhem and insisting, against the grains of evidence and acting like the ostrich, that the North is more secured under their own son, Buhari, than it was under his predecessor, the Ijaw man Goodluck Jonathan.…

Monday, 19 September 2022 06:44

An agenda for national rebirth (5) - Hassan Gimba

Last week, we stated that “a leader creates and nurtures others to be leaders. He must possess a clear vision and focus, know what he wants for his country, and should be courageous enough to follow his dream. Apart from possessing integrity and honesty, a good leader has humility, is fair and just with the capacity for self-sacrifice and perseverance. A leader is one whose national interest subsumes his.” We also saw how the late prime minister, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, made his Private Secretary, who became Nigeria’s President in the Second Republic, Shehu Shagari, refund to the federal government, from…

Sunday, 18 September 2022 06:47

Baba Lekki rallies as Okon is nabbed for oil theft - Tatalo Alamu

To the Oriyangi Police Station on this wet and soggy morning where Okon is being detained on allegations of oil theft, petroleum pilfering, bunkering, illegal storage and pipeline sabotage thereby contributing to the economic adversity of the nation. He had been nabbed by undercover policemen while laying a pipeline that ran through a major house of worship and an orphanage around the Mowe-Ibafo axis. The Oriyangi Station is located on a scraggy escarpment which abuts a ravine filled with water and murky sludge close to Arepo village. In its heydays, the gorge was reputed to be the abode of a…

Sunday, 18 September 2022 06:45

University education as mere meal ticket... - Bola Bolawole

Last week, the news went viral of a graduate of the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo state who, on account of his failure to secure a job six years after graduation, returned his certificate to the school and demanded a refund of the money he paid as school fees. It is a well-known journalism parlance that when a dog bites a man, it is no news but when a man bites a dog, bedlam! So, this bad news got copious mention in both social and traditional media. Not long afterwards, the alumni association of the university in question…

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