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Opinion

Friday, 19 February 2021 06:09

Solitude: A ravaging silent killer - Michael West

People living in solitary and lonely lifestyle are dying daily. The death rate is increasing but silently. Quite a number of such deaths have been recorded in January alone. The situation is worse for those who have attitudinal or relationship issues with their family members and neighbours as nobody asks after them even days or weeks after they're not seen around. To loners with short fuse, neighbours keep their distance for fear of being snubbed or engaged in quarrels. A senior lecturer in a federal university died in his official residence without anybody knowing. His family lived abroad and he…

Thursday, 18 February 2021 05:21

Random musing across the land - Bola Bolawole

I understand a bill is undergoing processing at the House of Representatives that, if passed into law, will make a university degree or polytechnic HND the minimum academic qualification for anyone wanting to practice as a journalist in Nigeria. To start with, gone were the days when journalism profession was for drop-outs or diploma holders. These days, there is hardly a reporter who is not a degree or HND holder. Many are even Ph. D or Master’s degree holders. The journalism profession today is awash with professionals of all hues – lawyers, architects, engineers, doctors, surveyors, bankers, financial experts –…

Wednesday, 17 February 2021 04:31

Poor countries’ technology dilemma - Dani Rodrik

Recent patterns of technological change in the rich world have made it more difficult for low-income countries to develop and converge with income levels in the developed world. These changes have contributed to deepening economic and technological dualism even within the more advanced segments of developing countries’ economies. Economic development relies on the creation of more productive jobs for an ever-rising share of the workforce. Traditionally, it was industrialization that enabled poor countries to embark on this transformation. Factory work may not have been glorious, but it enabled farmers to become blue-collar workers, transforming the economy and society as a…

Tuesday, 16 February 2021 05:16

The pandemic: How well will vaccines work? - Leader, The Economist

Even miracles have their limits. Vaccines against the coronavirus have arrived sooner and worked better than many people dared hope. Without them, the pandemic threatened to take more than 150m lives. And yet, while the world rolls up a sleeve, it has become clear that expecting vaccines to see off covid-19 is mistaken. Instead the disease will circulate for years, and seems likely to become endemic. When covid-19 first struck, governments were caught by surprise. Now they need to think ahead. To call vaccination a miracle is no exaggeration. A little more than a year after the virus was first…

Tuesday, 16 February 2021 05:15

Banditry: A trip to the lion’s den - Usman Yusuf

I have been on record writing and speaking up about the deteriorating insecurity particularly banditry in the nation. It is well known that Zamfara State has been the epicenter of banditry in Nigeria with its people bearing the full brunt of the atrocities of these criminals. The state is near and dear to my heart because Gusau it’s capital city is where I spent my formative secondary school years, it is also the ancestral home of Ahmad Abubakar Gumi. It was therefore without any hesitation that I accepted his invitation to accompany him to the state on his nationwide advocacy…

Monday, 15 February 2021 03:55

Can Navalny take down Putin? - Nina L. Khrushcheva

Unlike the protests that roiled Russia in 2011-12 in response to Vladimir Putin’s third presidency, today’s protest movement has a charismatic and sympathetic leader. But Putin has spent the last decade consolidating a police state, and he is prepared to use every available tool to retain power. There are arguably two moments in the last century when a wrecking ball was taken to Russia’s political regime. In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution toppled the country’s teetering monarchy. And, in 1991, an abortive coup by Marxist-Leninist hardliners against the reformist Mikhail Gorbachev accelerated the tottering Soviet Union’s collapse. Does the wave of…

Monday, 15 February 2021 03:54

Universities need to wise up - or risk being consigned to history

John Naughton The thing about pandemics, observed the historian Yuval Noah Harari, is that they tend to accelerate history. A couple of years ago, appalled by the environmental, financial and working-time costs of running research conferences, I wondered aloud how long it would take for many of these events to be conducted online – and gloomily predicted that it would take another decade. And then in early 2020 along comes the coronavirus and – bang! – suddenly everything is on Zoom. Even, as every sentient being on the planet must know by now, meetings of the planning and environment committee…

Sunday, 14 February 2021 04:16

Buhari, it’s time to resolve Nigeria’s cow problem - Niyi Osundare

This letter, my second to you in five months, will begin with a very, very absurd question: Mr. President, will Nigeria drift into another civil war under your watch simply because the ‘Giant of Africa’ does not know how to manage its cows? Yes, absurd: For, absurdity is the faithful cohort of the grotesque and irrational, the conspicuously invisible and falsely true. No war has ever taken place without a potent dose of the absurd in its mix of causes. No calamity has ever happened without a touch of the irrational. The distance between travesty and tragedy is perilously short.…

Sunday, 14 February 2021 04:15

Community policing: Panacea for Nigeria’s insecurity problems? - Bola Bolawole

Last Tuesday, February 9, 2021, a workshop on community policing held in Lagos titled “Mass sensitization of the members of the public on community policing” with the theme “Understanding community policing: A framework for action”. Organised by the Nigeria Police Force in collaboration with two private sector organisations – Unite Consult Limited and C. O. Luke & Co. - the workshop was originally scheduled to be held at the Adeyemi-Bero Hall, Lagos State Secretariat, Alausa, Ikeja but ended up at the Banquet Hall of the Governor’s office within the same vicinity. Adeyemi-Bero allowed more accessibility to members of the public…

Sunday, 14 February 2021 04:14

Bala Mohammed’s paradise for AK-47, cows and Fulani - Festus Adedayo

At the risk of being charged for excessive hyperbolism, “AK-47,” “cows” and the word, “Fulani,” are the most notorious clichés on parade in Nigeria today. And, come to think of it, they are woven together in narratives of the affliction that threaten to tear Nigeria asunder today. As if by coincidence, the three also bear very similar traits that unite them. While the Fulani herdsman is one of the most ubiquitous tribes in Africa, encircling the region like a contagious pestilence and sowing tears and sorrows in their trails, the cow is a common denominator on every dining table on…

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Sunday, 14 February 2021 04:13

Okon runs riot in Ghana - Tatalo Alamu

You can trust Okon Francis Okon to mess up on the big occasion. As soon as the rogue was informed that he would be making his first international trip to Ghana, he became uncontrollable with excitement. But despite the spiritual and alcoholic fortifications, the mad boy developed a nasty fear of flying on the morning of the trip. The weather-beaten scallywag crept into snooper’s bedroom shaking and palpitating like an old corn mill. “Oga, Ghana, I no fit go again. I don visit Muri dem airport. I no fit enter dem iron bird. Dem Calabar gods no go gree make…

Sunday, 14 February 2021 04:12

Holy Ghost power for flight (2) - Taiwo Akinola

The Lord is their strength, and he is the saving strength of his anointed ~ Psalms 28:8. Introduction: The place of the anointing of the Holy Spirit in accessing power for flight cannot be over-emphasised. In His out-workings, the anointing of the Holy Ghost strengthens, prefers, protects, defends, guides, enthrones, destroys yokes and bursts barriers. Furthermore, the anointing provokes and empowers great endings in any circumstance we may find ourselves anytime. Today, as you read this piece, may you be supernaturally repositioned to drink from the brook of the Holy Ghost, in Jesus Name. Amen. Genuine supernatural flight, bringing strange…

Friday, 12 February 2021 04:36

Nigerian bandits have their cake and eat it - Azu Ishiekwene

The fight against terror in Nigeria has been a theatre of the absurd. What began as a tiny spark of itinerant fanatics taking a pledge against western education mutated into a full-fledged non-state army currently ranked as the third deadliest globally. Yet, banditry is another fast-growing franchise. State response has also been as bewildering as it has been absurd. It has ranged from denial to extra-judicial killings and from regional joint task forces to the use of prayer warriors and mercenaries. And when you thought absurdity had reached its limits, a new idea has been added to the toolbox: compensation…

Friday, 12 February 2021 04:35

Paternity fraud: Okorodas on ‘trial’ - Michael West

Rather than receive empathy and consolation for being cheated and betrayed, hard knocks, castigations and reprimands have become the lot of Anthony Okorodas following the public declaration of his marital crisis that bothers on the paternity of his three grown-up children in his failed marriage. The narrative now is akin to a situation in which the cheated is being blamed, the guilty is defended and the victims being vindicated. In this wise, Okorodas, who was allegedly cheated and betrayed by his former wife, Celia J. Ototo, is now being vilified for being "selfish," being economical with the truth and for…

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