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Opinion

Sunday, 03 May 2020 05:41

Insult as treason and other Nigerian Idi Amin Dada stories - Festus Adedayo

Two pieces of literary works - Williams Stevenson’s thriller, Ninety Minutes at Entebbe and the film, The Last King of Scotland (2006) – plot the graph of the gradual emergence of despots. They were both x-rays of Ugandan despot, Idi Amin Dada of Uganda. Stevenson’s was an account of the June 27, 1976 hijack of an Air France Flight 139, hijacked by terrorists and flown to the Entebbe Airport, Uganda and the July 4, 1976 reprisal codenamed Operation Thunderbolt, by a hundred Israeli commandos who, within 90 minutes, killed Ugandan guerillas and freed 103 hostages. The Entebbe crisis was one…

Sunday, 03 May 2020 05:39

Unraveling the puzzles of earthly life (3) - Kola Oyefeso

Man is fearfully and wonderfully made we read in Psalms 139, but how many have really pondered on the true meaning of this statement. We seem to be generally obsessed with our physical nature and we believe all we see is all that exists. Very very few, if at all, are aware of man’s spiritual nature. The purpose of this discourse is to bring us to the awareness of our spiritual dimension, beyond what the stethoscope can pick, and what the surgeon can see with his scalpel, upon dissecting a man either as a living being or cadaver. This is…

Sunday, 03 May 2020 05:38

Mama Igosun runs riot - Tatalo Alamu

After days of dreary and dismal weather, it was a different Friday morning. The sun rose early and shone with remarkable vigour as if to make up for the forlorn weather of preceding days. Some ebullience and optimism had returned to the nation. After five weeks of a distressing lockdown as a result of the raging pandemic, the heart warmed at the prospects of a partial relaxation. Snooper himself has been in a pernickety mood. The possibility of some prized delicacies returning to the menu, baring Okon’s penchant for sadistic mischief, sent one virtually swooning with expectations. The last time…

Friday, 01 May 2020 05:55

Making do with the warriors in white - Dare Babarinsa

Rotimi Ireti Akinola is my friend. He is one of the few Nigerians who look trouble in the face and match boldly forward to embrace it. Akinola is a teacher of doctors. He is one of Africa’s leading gynaecologists and obstetricians and he is currently leading a national campaign to stem the tide of cervical cancer. Akinola is also a professor at Lagos State University College of Medicine as well as a specialist gynaecologist at Lagos State University Teaching Hospital, LASUTH, Ikeja. Of course, Adeyanju, his wife and closest collaborator is also a professor. I wonder even now why Akinola…

Thursday, 30 April 2020 05:52

Revisiting Kyari, Adewole tango... - Bola Bolawole

So much has been said about Mr Abba Kyari, the fallen Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari. He has been painted as hero and patriot who died on active service and, therefore, deserves to be lionised. Many people in government, including Buhari himself, belong to this school of thought. It will, therefore, not be surprising if, even before we have seen the end of Coronavirus, government announces what it will do to immortalise Kyari. Nigerians are wont to always call on government to lionise or immortalise just about anybody. I have read calls for the immortalisation of Mr Richard…

Thursday, 30 April 2020 05:51

Tough love: How to think about moral hazard during a pandemic

Covid-19 confronts humanity with a host of testing moral decisions. When hospital capacity is limited, which patients should get access to life-saving equipment? For how long should virus-limiting restrictions on public activity remain in place, given the immense cost of such measures? To this list, some add another: how generous should public assistance to struggling households and firms be, when such aid could encourage the abuse of state-provided safety-nets? Worries like these, concerning what social scientists call moral hazard, have been relatively muted during the pandemic, and appropriately so. But hard questions about risk and responsibility cannot be put off…

Wednesday, 29 April 2020 04:56

The world’s economic visionaries can’t see past tomorrow - Daniel Moss

As the world’s most powerful central banks meet this week, one thing is apparent: They’re in survival mode. Little else matters for economic policy beyond weathering the coronavirus pandemic. The risk is that policy makers commit to a range of measures without an exit strategy. This is nowhere more apparent than Japan. On Monday, the central bank introduced a number of crisis-busting policies: abandoning limits on purchases of government bonds, doubling the target for buying corporate debt and commercial paper, and easing the commitment to 2% inflation. The latter puts to rest the career-defining goal of Bank of Japan Governor…

Tuesday, 28 April 2020 04:55

The decay, the exodus and now the pandemic - Ajileye Omoniyi

The decay in the Nigerian health care sector had been festering for decades. The cause of the rot has always been a multi-headed hydra that has refused to be slain. Some have said that it is just a reflection of the larger society with poor planning, corruption, incompetence, nepotism and an inefficient system that has clogged the wheels of progress. No progressive nation takes its healthcare system for granted. All nations need a healthy citizenry to ensure that productivity is maximized and the future generations are guaranteed a solid future. The most populous black Nation had not always been in…

Tuesday, 28 April 2020 04:54

Coronavirus and hunger: the bigger killer?

Editorial Famine is riding alongside pestilence, on the tail of war. Though coronavirus leaves no part of the world untouched, its impact will be harshest in places that were already suffering. Yet the problems it brings with it may prove more deadly than Covid-19 itself. Even in the richest countries, coronavirus has left families in hunger; for the poorest, it could mean starvation. The head of the World Food Programme warns that we are now on the brink of a hunger pandemic, with the prospect of multiple famines “of biblical proportions” within a few months, across three dozen countries. Households…

Tuesday, 28 April 2020 04:51

The price of power: Modesty, decadence and inevitability - Leslie Xavier

Adding colour to the game was perhaps the biggest mistake the keepers of cricket made. Colours make things flashy but take the focus away from the inherent beauty hidden in black and white, or in cricket’s case, whites There is a stillness in existence this afternoon. The statement was a note to myself as I stared out onto the canopy of the trees outside my study window — a favourite place to collect my thoughts before letting the keyboard bear the brunt. I could see dashes of red in the green. Gulmohars are here. Summer. Afternoons are a mirror image…

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Monday, 27 April 2020 05:29

Analysis: For Big Oil, this crisis will be different, and it may be irreversible

The price of oil has gone negative after weeks of oil sands output selling for less than a pint of beer per barrel. Banks are preparing for a wave of oil bankruptcies by setting up their own oil companies to operate seized assets. Regulators in Texas are considering setting limits on the state’s production, an approach more reminiscent of Soviet-style central planning than a Republican-controlled regulatory body. An oil company executive just admitted, ″No one wants to give us capital because we have all destroyed capital and created economic waste.” And the energy sector’s valuation is shrinking to such a…

Monday, 27 April 2020 05:28

Government under Covid-19: A pandemic of power grabs - Leader, The Economist

All the world’s attention is on covid-19. Perhaps it was a coincidence that China chose this moment to tighten its control around disputed reefs in the South China Sea, arrest the most prominent democrats in Hong Kong and tear a hole in Hong Kong’s Basic Law. But perhaps not. Rulers everywhere have realised that now is the perfect time to do outrageous things, safe in the knowledge that the rest of the world will barely notice. Many are taking advantage of the pandemic to grab more power for themselves. China’s actions in Hong Kong are especially troubling. Since Britain handed…

Monday, 27 April 2020 05:27

Questions Kyari should have answered... - Bolanle Bolawole

In addition to coronavirus, the demise of Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, is the rave of the moment. Controversies over Kyari’s death and roles in government have raged – where he died, when he died, how he died and how he was buried. Whether he was patriot or villain has also polarised commentators. Today, Babafemi A. Badejo adds his voice in questions he would have loved Kyari to answer. Read on: “Its family name is Coronavirus. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), gave its first name as Covid-19; realized from an amalgamation…

Monday, 27 April 2020 05:26

Further lockdown vs increase in criminality: Whither shall we choose? - Kola Oyefeso

It is hard to read the lips of President Muhammadu Buhari because he is either a man of few words or publicly shy. All the same, well meaning citizens owe the Country the obligation of speaking out to enable Mr President listen to those who are not obligated to tell him what he likes to hear. On this premise I proceed: The initial lockdown is no doubt welcomed and a desideratum. It serves too essential purposes. The first is to create awareness among the populace that Covid-19 is real and what we need do to stay safe and in the…

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