I found ex-Lagos State governor, Babatunde Fashola’s explanation to the media after last Wednesday’s Federal Executive Council meeting very interesting. Answering questions on his Ministry, Fashola made disclosures on how helpless and hopeless those of them who are Ministers could be. Yet, they are the ones the public hold accountable for the failures of governance, especially as it pertains to ministries and or parastatals under their wings. Fashola, whose wings were clipped with the removal of the Power ministry from his portfolio, now has Works and Housing to answer for. How many abandoned projects does he have? Reporters said there…

A Yoruba officer walked up to Mr Oladipo Diya at the height of his 1997 crisis with his boss, Mr Sani Abacha. “Sir, what is happening?” The very senior officer looked away from the colonel and told him there was nothing. “Sir, did you say there is nothing?” The officer asked with a tone of rhetorics and switched to deep structure Yoruba. “Sir, ti owo ko ba se san mo, a a ka l’eri ni” (if you can no longer swing your arms, fold them on your head). The General looked away; the colonel left. That was on December 13,…

Economic theory does not provide a clear answer regarding the overall impact of technological progress on jobs. And even if automation has traditionally been beneficial in the long run, policymakers should never ignore its disruptive short-term effects on workers. While Brexit captures the headlines in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, the silent march of automation continues. Most economists view this trend favorably: technology, they say, may destroy jobs in the short run, but it creates new and better jobs in the longer term. The destruction of jobs is clear and direct: a firm automates a conveyor belt, supermarket checkout, or…

Again, the paternity of the Nigerian state came up for consideration last week. Who exactly owns Nigeria? Is it the exclusive preserve of politicians, their kith and kin, their hangers-on or Nigerians? Put differently, because politicians compete for offices that become vacant in the process of nationhood, are those offices, by that very fact, strictly their birthrights, to the exclusion of any other Nigerian? If those interrogations do not capture this ownership issue appropriately, the question can be put in another context thus: Who owns non-elective political offices? Are they spoils of politics, mechanism for developing the nation or rewards…