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Opinion

Friday, 14 June 2024 04:42

A reckoning in June - Azu Ishiekwene

It’s been 31 years since a seismic event triggered by the June 12, 1993 election nearly brought Nigeria to its knees. The presidential candidate of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), M.K.O Abiola, was on the cusp of a resounding victory when the military government of General Ibrahim Babangida interrupted and later annulled the election. That action sparked nationwide protests that ultimately consumed Babangida’s government and his successor, General Sani Abacha. It set the stage for a transition that,over Abiola’s dead body, produced Nigeria’s luckiest former military leader, Olusegun Obasanjo, as civilian president in 1999. Every May – and later June…

Thursday, 13 June 2024 04:43

Should Nigerian politicians earn N62,000? - Abimbola Adelakun

Each time a country goes through minimum wage negotiation, you can take it for granted that the argument to put politicians on that same salary scale will come up. It is a common argument, one that the Victorian Socialists Party in Australia included in their campaign promises. Granted, they were an upcoming party—the equivalent of the many political parties in Nigeria that exist through their press releases until elections are around the corner—and were unlikely to win anyway. Still, asking politicians to feel what they dish out is a universally resonant sentiment. In 1816, when the United States Congressmen voted…

Wednesday, 12 June 2024 04:39

What the left and right get wrong about imperialism

Campus leftists in the West and nationalists in the global south never tire of pointing out the evils of imperialism. Yet few include the Soviet Union on their list of villains. This is odd: the Soviet empire stretched over 11 time zones, oppressing its vassal states so egregiously that all declared independence the moment they had the chance. Airbrushing this history makes it harder to understand the present, when the man with the world’s fourth-largest army is trying to reassemble a version of that empire, minus the Marxism. When Vladimir Putin described the liberation of the Soviet Union’s former subjects…

Monday, 10 June 2024 04:32

Let’s talk STD – sexually transmitted distinction - Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

In a country and a season in which candour is not always seen as a virtue, those who make it the currency of their daily lives are either idolised, endangered or idolised into endangerment. On the Nigerian streets, a person who addresses issues of public significance with candour can be described as having “broken the table”. As a figure of speech, this usage is back-handed compliment for bucking a national habit of dressing up reality in a bodyguard of avoidance. Tables, however, can be useless without a chair or a bench. When the table gets scattered, the bench that accompanies…

Sunday, 09 June 2024 04:35

Throw back: The Ibadan compass - Aba Saheed

It was not the best of days for cab driver Suberu as he meandered his way through the thick traffic caused by those struggling to get fuel into their vehicles. He had spent the previous night in a nauseating queue just to get twenty liters of petrol. He inched his way through Foko and made a right turn to Agbokojo when a woman visibly drenched by her own sweat flagged him to a stop and asked to be taken to Idi Arere. At Idi Arere, Nimota disembarked and handed over a dirty piece of l00 Naira note to Suberu. “You…

Sunday, 09 June 2024 04:33

El-Rufai, June 12 and Abacha woken from the dead - Festus Adedayo

Yesterday, General Sani Abacha clocked 28 years in the grave. Abacha’s sudden expiration at the thick of his maximal and maniacal rule reminds Nigerians, especially those who were old enough in 1998 when he died, of how human beings should never play god. Abacha ruled with iron fist, after his seizure of power. He summarily executed dissidents and political opponents while those who held other views disappeared without trace. A very interesting equation was when he ordered the deaths of Generals Oladipo Diya and Abdukareem Adisa for plotting to sack him. As Epo Akara, the Ibadan Awurebe musical lord, sang,…

Sunday, 09 June 2024 04:31

Enjoying divine security and protection - Taiwo Akinola

For, behold, I have made thee this day a defenced city, and an iron pillar, and brasen walls against the whole land …. they shall fight against thee; but they shall not prevail against thee; for I am with thee, saith the LORD, to deliver thee ~ Jeremiah 1:18-19. Introduction: Security of lives and properties is very crucial to life itself. Whatever we are or have can only be enjoyed in an atmosphere of security, peace and tranquility. Hence, since prehistoric times, many individuals, organizations as well as nations have continuously committed huge resources and advanced technologies to prevent breaches…

Sunday, 09 June 2024 04:30

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, 07 June 2024 04:21

Why minimum wage is a bad idea - Azu Ishiekwene

I’m opposed to minimum wage. And I know I’m saying this at the risk of losing readers. The minimum wage hurts the poor and vulnerable in whose name and interest Labour claims to strike. Sounds foolish, right? How can more naira in the pocket of the Nigerian worker currently on a minimum wage of N30,000 be bad? In a country where each of 469 lawmakers earns N13.5 million monthly, minus allowances, and office holders in the executive branch use large convoys and maintain large personal staff at the public expense, why should there be any fuss about the government paying…

Thursday, 06 June 2024 04:46

Towards seamless transmission of electricity in Nigeria - Richard Olumakaiye

Anyone paying attention to the electricity sector in Nigeria would recognise the dire need for infrastructural upgrade and improvement of the transmission network nationwide. Traditionally, infrastructure has always been a governmental responsibility - especially in sectors like roads, airports, affordable housing, and utilities. As public finances are currently being stretched, private capital via Public Private Partnership needs to spring up and close the gap in funding to rescue the transmission infrastructure by constructing new transmission lines, upgrading, and installing new substations with the potential to increase electricity reliability. Nigeria has twenty-three (23) power-generating plants connected to the national grid with…

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Tuesday, 04 June 2024 04:44

Minimum wage: Righteousness exalts a nation, hypocrisy doesn't - Kola Oyefeso

Both parties being the Government and Labour are not sincere and it is a wonder why the Labour Movement feels it is only the minimum wage that should concern them. How do we explain that Labour not call for strike when Government had no qualms buying N150m SUV for each of its lawmakers, ‘dashed’ judiciary and legislators billions of naira when they didn't ask for it, got the Senate President to allocate humongous amount that ran into hundreds of billion naira into the budget for his constituency and the same Senate President was the one negotiating a palty N60,000 minimum…

Monday, 03 June 2024 04:41

Inaugurating a long road to nowhere - Dele Sobowale

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what each man wishes, he also believes to be true” – Demosthenes, 384-322 BC, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 224 If you honestly believe that the Lagos-Calabar Road will be completed in seven years, then you probably have rocks where brains should be; and you represent one of the cardinal reasons Africa might never develop for centuries to come. Nothing is more distressing than watching highly educated, erudite, well-informed and apparently patriotic media commentators destroy their reputations once they become officials of the ruling party. The transformation first struck me when President Yar’Adua was…

Sunday, 02 June 2024 04:49

Tinubu’s bragging right and his 200 needles - Festus Adedayo

In Africa, when a man loses his virility, he is subject of scorn, ridicule and disdain. Male impotence or infertility is not only disdained but tabooed. In a continent where child-making is almost an obsession, Africa couched a number of hurtful epithets for one who loses his virile member. Failure to get this critical member standing up leaves sour overtones of frustration, pain, social ostracism, stigma, marital instability, discomfiture and even sometimes, suicide. Among the Yoruba, virility victims are named Okobo. The rural Shona tribe in Mhondoro-Ngezi area of Zimbabwe could not stand the virility challenge. To ward off this…

Sunday, 02 June 2024 04:48

Nigeria, we hail thee! - Terhemba Shija

There is a way Gboko boys hail you, when you yourself know they are mocking you. "Ortamen, m nau ichivir" meaning, "Elder I send my respects." The sarcasm of the appellation becomes striking when you discover that the person being addressed is anything but an elder. During my years in Lagos, I occasionally encountered Janjaweed Area boys who called out to me menancingly; "Chairman, we hail you! Anything for the boys?" Of course, I was neither their chairman nor any person of consequence in their hierarchy of Area boys. I feel extremely sad that the Nigerian government has without any…

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