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Opinion

Sunday, 06 December 2020 04:50

My Lord, I am counsel for the accused, General Olusegun Adeniyi... - Festus Adedayo

British statesman and Liberal politician, William Ewart Gladstone and this white friend of my Shaki, Oyo State-born friend, who we call Kollysho, seem to be in a consensus of mind about the dead and their treatment. Kollysho and his white friend both live in Maryland, United States of America and one evening, during the reign of Sani Abacha, they had driven round town. While discussing life matters generally, my friend pulled up at a Shell gas station in Baltimore. The white friend was aghast that Kollysho would choose to buy fuel from Shell. It was at a time when activists…

Sunday, 06 December 2020 04:49

In everything, give thanks! - Taiwo Akinola

In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:18. Introduction: This is December, the year is leaving us speedily, yet we must thank God who has brought us thus far in it. And, at this time of the year, it is incumbent upon all deep thinking men to soberly reflect on all of God’s mercies received, and to celebrate the Lord. In particular, the year 2020 will go down in history as one of the most precarious years in recent times. Nevertheless, God’s mercy has preserved us (Numbers…

Saturday, 05 December 2020 05:34

A land flowing with milk and blood - Dare Babarinsa

When the cowardly Boko Haram terrorists group came to the rice field of Borno State, the farmers thought they were friends. They gathered the farmers to a central spot as if they had a message of peace for them. After all, most members of the Boko Haram terror gang are also natives of Borno State. That has made the group, despite its bestial campaign, to continue to stay alive. This time around, they had not come to ask for taxes as they had done sometimes in the past. They came for blood. Gun-wielding insurgents surrounded the farmers and one by…

Friday, 04 December 2020 05:28

Message from the dead Borno farmers - Azu Ishiekwene

That the slain Borno farmers did not get military clearance is an inconvenient truth, but the real error of judgement was taking the government at its word. In his inaugural speech on May 29, 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the military chiefs - the same military chiefs there today - to relocate to the Northeast, the main theatre in the war on Boko Haram. The previous government had done poorly on security and Buhari said the only way to take the country back from the terrorists and military authorities who deployed troops to fight with bare hands while diverting money…

Friday, 04 December 2020 05:27

A lesson for ‘fathers-at-large’ - Michael West

Parenting is all about commitment and responsibility. It is rewarding if dutifully done and could be devastating and regretful later in life if neglected, taken for granted or denied. Some fathers and mothers are guilty of dereliction of parental duties over their children. It is much higher on the side of dads who act recklessly during dating periods and those that indulge in extramarital relationships. Our society is replete with stories of abandoned, disowned and displaced children. Many homes are nurturing children that are not biologically theirs not through acts of infidelity but as an act of kindness to give…

Friday, 04 December 2020 05:25

The financial equivalent of a vaccine - Harold James

While the advanced economies can rely on their central banks to support massive fiscal stimulus in response to the Covid-19 crisis, many developing countries' hands are tied by higher borrowing costs. This is both unfair and unsustainable, pointing to the need for a new, truly global monetary mechanism. Covid-19 is dramatically widening a global divide that was evident long before the current crisis. Only some countries have been able to cover the costs of the pandemic and lockdowns with large fiscal measures, owing to support from central banks that are buying up large quantities of government debt. Most other countries…

Thursday, 03 December 2020 04:53

The North’s Frankenstein monster - Bola Bolawole

As the Yoruba would say, “iyan ogun odun n gbona”; meaning that a pounded yam prepared 20 years ago can still remain fresh, as if it was prepared a while ago. So also with a statement made eight years ago by retired General Muhammadu Buhari, the then presidential candidate of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), which later became one of the legacy parties that formed the All Progressives Congress. The statement was published by The Nation newspaper under the headline “Buhari faults clampdown on Boko Haram members”. In it, Buhari argued for special treatment for Boko Haram members just…

Thursday, 03 December 2020 04:52

Sultan’s bravery meets reality - Abimbola Adelakun

Last week Thursday, while at the fourth quarterly meeting of the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council in Abuja, Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, delivered a damning verdict on the abject state of insecurity plaguing northern Nigeria. According to media reports, the Sultan specifically stated that the northern region was the worst place to live in the country. This was not the first time that the Sultan would complain about the decay of northern Nigeria. In February, while at a security meeting in Kaduna, he also warned that the setting up of a security outfit, Operation Shege-Ka-Fasa, by the Coalition of Northern Groups,…

Monday, 30 November 2020 04:37

Tell Akeredolu to watch it! - Bola Bolawole

Last Thursday I went to bed early, hoping to rise up later in the night to scribble this but my phone rang at some minutes after 10.00pm and an old classmate broke the unsavoury news of the murder of Oba Adegoke Israel Adeusi, the Olufon of Ifon in Ose local government of Ondo State, by those he called Fulani herdsmen. The Kabiyesi, he said, was returning to his domain from a meeting of the “L’oba-l’obas” (Ondo State traditional council members) in Akure, the state capital. Ifon is the capital of Ose Local Government; it used to be under Owo until…

Monday, 30 November 2020 04:36

A tale of two economies - Stephen S. Roach

As financial markets celebrate the coming vaccine-led boom, the confluence of epidemiological and political aftershocks has pushed us back into a quagmire of heightened economic vulnerability. In Dickensian terms, to reach a “spring of hope,” we first must endure a “winter of despair.” Suddenly, there is a credible case for a vaccine-led economic recovery. Modern science has delivered what must certainly be one of the greatest miracles of my long lifetime. Just as Covid-19 dragged the world economy into the sharpest and deepest recession on record, an equally powerful symmetry on the upside now seems possible. If only it were…

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Sunday, 29 November 2020 05:42

Philip Shekwo, Sultan of Sokoto and Nigeria’s sad reality - Festus Adedayo

By now, virtually all Nigerians must have arrived at same juncture of opinion, something in the neighbourhood of what lawyers call unanimity of purpose, on how we fare at this critical time. Overtime, our opinions had been variegated, like the different seeds in a walnut pod. Politics, tribe, religion and dictates of our tummies had specified where we stood. Now however, we have realized that we are under siege and if we don’t speak up, we stand the risk of being consumed by the tide of the time, all of us. “One and all, we have got to face reality…

Sunday, 29 November 2020 05:41

Possessing the gates of the enemies (2) - Taiwo Akinola

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure ..... think on these things ~ Philippians 4:8. Introduction: It is quintessential to biblical Christianity that we all become exact in the spiritual art of warring and possessing the gates of our enemies. And, as pointed out in the immediate past edition of this column, the believer must govern his mind in a military way against the brute forces of negative thoughts, negative imaginations and fear. By all means, we must keep Satan out of the lobes of our minds. The reason…

Friday, 27 November 2020 05:47

The meeting and aborted demonstration - Aba Saheed

I cannot now recall who invited me to the meeting, but I do remember that the convener mentioned that those of us in our late 70s and above should gather to discuss the modus operandi of our joining a massive protest demonstration planned by the youths taking place at the end of November. ‘’It is going to be mother and father of all protests and Septuagenarians, Octogenarians as well as nonagenarians must join in in a solid show of solidarity with our disenchanted youths.” It was scheduled to be a combination of physical and virtual meeting and the venue was…

Friday, 27 November 2020 05:46

In search of Lai Mohammed - Azu Ishiekwene

I have known the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, for a long time, I think. Before I got close, I was first drawn to him when he was chief of staff to former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, even though I had known him earlier at the Nigerian Airports Authority. But my interest grew from knowing to fascination and from fascination to respect when Mohammed became National Publicity Secretary of Action Congress of Nigeria, a legacy party of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). In that position, which he held for many years and after which there has…

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