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Opinion

Monday, 02 March 2020 05:19

OAU: Where integrity is two-edged sword - Bolanle Bolawole

Three years ago when Mr Eyitope Ogunbodede was appointed vice-chancellor of Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly the University of Ife) aka Great Ife, I announced that “another white man” had taken over at that great citadel of learning; the first being Mr Anthony Elujoba, the acting VC who had been drafted by his peers to take over the mantle of leadership from the then substantive VC, Mr Tale Omole. Omole’s twilight at OAU had been blighted by crisis over his alleged desire to have as successor one of his deputies, Mr Ayobami Salami (now pioneer VC, Technical University, Ibadan, founded by…

Sunday, 01 March 2020 05:24

Sanusi, human pepper soup and imprisonment of unscience - Festus Adedayo

Emir of Kano, Mr Sanusi Lamido Sanusi’s speech at the recent 60th birthday ceremony of Kaduna State governor, Mr Nasir el-Rufai, a recent protest by beggars against the continuous arrest of their members by officials of Lagos state government and the ban on street begging by urchins, popularly referred to as Almajiris, by Kano State government, are a tripod that put into context the famousThe Beggars’ Strike by Aminata Sow Fall and the two holy books of the bible and the Quran. Sanusi, unarguably a gadfly of the North, has consistently put the North, in relation to the rest of…

Sunday, 01 March 2020 05:13

Nigeria through the lens of Coronavirus - Simon Kolawole

In eight weeks — between January and February 2020, to be specific — a disease killed 118 Nigerians. According to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), there were 2,633 “suspected” cases, 609 “confirmed” and nine “probable” during the period. The NCDC disclosed that as at February 23, the disease had spread to 27 of Nigeria’s 36 states, affecting 115 local government areas. Fatality rate was 17.1 percent. The worst-hit states are Edo, Ondo and Ebonyi — the trio taking a 72 percent slice of the total number of cases. You are forgiven if you did not know the extent…

Sunday, 01 March 2020 05:12

Mama Igosun solves The Amotekun Riddle - Tatalo Alamu

To the outskirts of Majidun where Pabanbari, a hit and run mobile radio station given to incendiary early morning broadsides against the authorities, is hosting Mama Igosun to a question and answer session sponsored by Otito Koro (The truth is bitter) a local self-determination movement known for its no-nonsense fiery denunciation and bitter invectives against the status quo. Mercifully, the long expected rains had arrived in the dead of the night clattering on the rooftop like a noisy burglar. As a result of the downpour, the whole world felt calm and sedate unlike the scalding heat of the previous week…

Friday, 28 February 2020 05:03

‘Insecurity’ in Nigeria: What can the Left do? - Edwin Madunagu

Reflections on the current “insecurity” and “threatening state failure” in Nigeria – and what the Nigerian Left can do – recently led me, in a tortuous manner, back to a formulation on revolutionary intervention which I thought I had transcended long ago. We shall first discuss the formulation and then come to “insecurity” and “threatening state failure”. The formulation was provided by a Leftist revolutionary about 115 years ago. The revolutionary was young (about 27), idealistic and romantic. But he was idealistic and romantic not simply because he was young, but essentially because he was brilliant and came to revolutionary…

Thursday, 27 February 2020 06:03

Amotekun: Not yet ‘Uhuru’! - Bola Bolawole

South-west security outfit code-named “Amotekun” may have survived threatened abortion, widely-expected still-birth, vicious Fulani attacks and scantily-concealed bellicosity of the Federal Government; it may appear to be well and alive, loved by the mass of Yoruba people home and abroad; and supported by other conscionable Nigerians; the truth, however, is that it is not yet ‘uhuru’ or freedom, as it were, for Amotekun. Witness spirited efforts by Federal authorities controlled by non-Yoruba desperately and virulently struggling to whittle down Amotekun and reduce it to toothless, disjointed and segregated “community police”! And South-west governors appeared to have acquiesced! Truth be told,…

Tuesday, 25 February 2020 03:29

Adapting to a fast-forward world - Mohamed A. El-Erian

The world is going through a period of accelerating change, as four secular developments illustrate. Firms and governments must make timely adjustments, not only to their business models and operational approaches, but also to both their tactical and strategic mindsets. Firms and governments must increasingly internalize the possibility – indeed, I would argue, the overwhelming probability – of an acceleration of four secular developments that influence what business and political leaders do and how they do it. Decision-makers should think of these trends as waves, which, especially if they occur simultaneously, could feel like a tsunami for those who fail…

Monday, 24 February 2020 04:43

Much ado about Service chiefs... - Bolanle Bolawole

...and his bishoprick (office or charge) let another take – Acts 1: 20. The jury is in: A preponderant number of Nigerians want the Service chiefs dismissed from office. When we say “Service chiefs”, we mean Chief of Army Staff; Chief of Air Staff; Chief of Naval Staff; and the largely ceremonial, administrative and make-up-the-number Chief of Defence Staff (a General who commands no troops in the real sense of the word but sits in a big office behind a laptop and move memos). That is my own understanding; so pardon me if I am not totally correct as I…

Monday, 24 February 2020 04:42

Between Social Democracy and Democratic Socialism - Daron Acemoglu

Now that US Senator Bernie Sanders has emerged as a leading contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination, his brand of democratic socialism warrants closer scrutiny. Simply put, it is neither a close approximation of the "Nordic model" that Sanders often invokes nor a solution to what ails the American economy. It used to be an unwritten rule of US politics that a socialist could never qualify for high national office. But now a self-proclaimed “democratic socialist,” US Senator Bernie Sanders, is the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Should America embrace the change? Democrats have made the primaries…

Sunday, 23 February 2020 04:58

Gaidam’s Boko Haram bill and Buhari’s obsession with Abacha - Festus Adedayo

The terror evoked by the complex narratives that surround Boko Haram is far more than the terror from the bombs Abubakar Shekau explodes and the terror in thousands of Nigerians killed by the insurgent group. The complexity of the knotty issues that surround the terror group demands more urgent need to untie them, far more than the actual war itself. It would seem that the moment Nigeria is able to decode the knotty and naughty narratives of Boko Haram, conquering these blood-thirsty hounds surrounding Abubakar Shekau would be a fait accompli. The latest of those complex narratives is one spun…

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Sunday, 23 February 2020 04:57

The Tragedy of the Abba Kyari Surrogate Presidency - Farooq Kperogi

Premium Times’ February 17 unmasking of National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno’s secret memo, which revealed that Abba Kyari, Buhari’s Chief of State, exercises presidential powers on Buhari’s behalf, is only the official confirmation of what I have written in many columns and social media updates in the past two years. The truth is that Buhari has no cognitive, emotional, physical, not to mention intellectual, capacity to be president. And, since nature abhors a vacuum, Abba Kyari has filled the void that Buhari’s emptiness has created. Sometime in the midpoint of last year, a northern retired general told me Abba Kyari…

Sunday, 23 February 2020 04:55

Okon explores Boxers’ Uprising in Yoruba land - Tatalo Alamu

And whilst we are still on the issue of the desecration of our values and institutions by politics, it is meet to report on even more ominous developments. The chickens are coming home to roost faster than we expect. It is not possible to harvest yams after you have planted cassava. In the ever turbulent and politically combustible west, it does appear as if the Amotekun Revolt will be accompanied by the Yoruba equivalent of the Boxers’ Uprising. The week began with the news making the round that a prominent Oba in Osun State has beaten his royal colleague in…

Saturday, 22 February 2020 05:24

Buhari’s presidency: Divided they stand! - Bola Bolawole

Can two walked together, except they be agreed? – Amos 3:3 Four theories swirl around Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and his regime. The first is that some years back, on one of his numerous and long-drawn trips to London for medical treatment, Buhari died and his remain were flown to Saudi Arabia for burial; but presidency cabal conspired to bottle up the news. Determined to continue to hold on to power, they sourced a Buhari look-alike to pose as Buhari and continue to rule over Nigeria. Enter Jubril of Sudan! Proponents of this theory, chief of whom is Nnamdi Kanu, self-styled…

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