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Opinion

Friday, 24 November 2017 03:31

The fall of Africa’s most hated First Lady - Sisonke Msimang

I spent a lot of time in Zimbabwe in the mid-2000s, as the head of a human rights organization that worked across Southern Africa. Even at the height of the political turmoil in 2008, when opposition figures were assaulted in the aftermath of a stolen election, I was often struck by how deeply respectful Zimbabweans were of their president. Many people were obviously unhappy with Robert Mugabe’s leadership. Still, it was not unusual to hear people reference his role in the independence movement, to point out his clear intellectual gifts and his efforts to advance education. They had no such…

Friday, 24 November 2017 03:29

Lessons from Zimbabwe’s military ‘non-coup’ - Jideofor Adibe

The exit of Robert Gabriel Mugabe from power in Zimbabwe confirms the ageless aphorism that nothing lasts forever. The confusion started on November 14 2017 when tanks rolled towards Zimbabwe’s capital Harare even as the military continued to deny it was a military takeover of power. Mugabe was detained in his home and pressure mounted on him to resign. After some resistance, Mugabe eventually bowed to pressure and resigned, paving the way for the installation of his Deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa, as Zimbabwe’s new president. Mnangagwa, 73, is expected to serve out Mugabe’s tenure which ends next year. Beyond the current…

Thursday, 23 November 2017 03:50

The architect who made a difference - Dare Babarinsa

Mr Alex Ekwueme occupied a unique space in Nigerian history. As the first elected Vice-President, Ekwueme was the face Nigeria advertised to the world that indeed the Igbos were back into the mainstream of Nigerian politics after the gruesome Civil War that ended in 1970. After that war, he made more money and decided to show the way to other Igbos who had come into wealth. By the time he was made the Vice-President to Mr Shehu Shagari, his philanthropy was well known. He single-handedly built the vocational centre, in Oko, his home town which has now been turned into…

Thursday, 23 November 2017 03:47

China’s vision for the next 30 years - Zhang Jun

Every five years, the Communist Party of China convenes a National Congress, where two key decisions are made: who will lead China for the next five years, and what path to development those leaders will follow. The CPC’s recently completed 19th National Congress did all that and more. Beyond choosing the next Politburo Standing Committee, the 19th Party Congress reelected President Xi Jinping as CCP’s leader and added his eponymous ideology – “Xi Jinping Thought” – to the Party’s charter. The Congress also produced a blueprint for the country’s future development until 2050, one that reflects the changes that economic…

Wednesday, 22 November 2017 04:04

The climate crisis? It’s capitalism, stupid - Benjamin Y. Fong

Even casual readers of the news know that the earth is probably going to look very different in 2100, and not in a good way. A recent Times opinion piece included this quotation from the paleoclimatologist Lee Kump: “The rate at which we’re injecting CO2 into the atmosphere today, according to our best estimates, is 10 times faster than it was during the End-Permian.” The End-Permian is a pre-dinosaurs era of mass extinction that killed 90 percent of the life in the ocean and 75 percent of it on land. It is also called the Great Dying. Although those who…

Tuesday, 21 November 2017 03:39

Go, Mugabe, go - Reuben Abati

Since August, I have been the anchorperson of a programme on television called ThisDay Live where we discuss political matters - local and global. The programme is available on Arise News TV ‪at 6pm‬, ‪9pm‬ and sometimes ‪at midnight‬ every Sunday. Two days ago, we discussed the situation in Zimbabwe, the elections in Anambra, Nigeria’s decision to hire Malaysian experts at a cost of N485 million to figure out new pathways for Nigeria’s economic growth (with all the experts in Nigeria oh!), the proposed expansion of President Buhari’s cabinet, the burial of 26 teenage Nigerians by the Italian authorities without…

Monday, 20 November 2017 03:32

Democracy beyond the Nation-State - Kemal Dervis

According to the Harvard economist Dani Rodrik, it is impossible to have full national sovereignty, democracy, and globalization simultaneously. The concept of a “political trilemma of the world economy,” which Javier Solana also recently explored, is useful, but incomplete.Rodrik’s argument, elaborated in his new book, is that too much globalization erodes the sovereignty of democratic nation-states, by increasingly subjecting them to economic and financial forces that may not correspond with the wishes of the domestic majority. By this logic, an authoritarian state may function better in a globalized world, because it is unconstrained by, say, electoral concerns. With less globalization,…

Sunday, 19 November 2017 03:11

The Tithe: No controversy - Oluwamuyiwa Okuseinde

Since the hoopla about tithing surfaced, many who know my teachings on the subject in the last one decade or so have requested my opinion on the matter. My usual response had been to direct them to the Bible and to the two mini books I have written on the subject. I feel there is no point engaging in any debate with anyone. God has warned us to beware of such arguments from scoffers who would abound in the last days. But in the last one week, a dear friend and brother has put so much pressure on me, literally…

Sunday, 19 November 2017 03:10

Wise men still come from the East - Femi Adesina

At his incarnation, wise men gifted in astronomy came from the East, all the way to Bethlehem, in the south of Jerusalem, to worship Jesus Christ. They are today known as the Magi, who gave the newborn gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. There is a lot to say on the significance of each gift item, but that is not the purpose of the writing today. Maybe, another day, as the need arises. What we need from that nativity story is that the wise men came all the way from the East, following a star that led them to Bethlehem.…

Friday, 17 November 2017 03:37

The method in el-Rufai’s madness - Olusegun Adeniyi

At an “Education for all is responsibility of all” summit on 14th February 2013, the then Kaduna State Commissioner for Education, Alhaji Usman Mohammed shocked his audience by disclosing that of a total of 1,599 teachers selected from across the state who were given primary four tests in Mathematics and Basic literacy; only one of them scored 75 percent, 251 scored between 50 to 75 percent and 1,300 scored below 25 percent. When the same examination was conducted for 1,800 primary school pupils, according to Mohammed, most of them failed woefully. “We are not surprised about the performance of the…

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Thursday, 16 November 2017 03:53

Buhari’s visit to the Southeast - Jideofor Adibe

Buhari’s two- day visit to the South-east is a proof - if one is still needed- that the race for 2019 has begun in all earnest and that he will - unless God decides otherwise - be a candidate in the election. The late Mandela was the only African leader to decline his right for a second term in office. Earlier, in what appeared to be more than a mere coincidence, Buhari announced plans to make more political appointments and promised that in doing so he would allow the Governors and party apparatchiks to make in-puts. In his previous appointments,…

Thursday, 16 November 2017 03:51

One hero and a media in winter - Dare Babarinsa

Dapo Olorunyomi, who turned 60 last week, is a giant who bestrides two worlds. He was one of the heroes who led the troops in the war against dictatorship of General Sani Abacha. He is still in the thick of things today when the media is in poor, if not failing health, as the harbinger of the brave New World. Olorunyomi was Deputy Editor-in-Chief of TheNews, the iconoclastic news magazine that came out in the final years of the General Ibrahim Babangida dictatorship. It was a heady period when we believed the possibilities of our country were endless. Now in…

Wednesday, 15 November 2017 04:02

Looking back: 40 years ago - Edwin Madunagu

Late in the evening of August 6, 1977, eight Nigerian socialists, resident in Calabar, met in that city and formed the Calabar Group of Socialists (CGS). Calabar was then the capital of “old” Cross River State covering the present Cross River and Akwa Ibom States. Attending this foundation and inaugural meeting were Eskor Toyo, Eboney Okpa, Udo Atat, Assim Ita, Ita Henshaw, Bassey Ekpo Bassey, Bene Madunagu and Edwin Madunagu. The meeting took place in an apartment which today houses the Senior Staff Club of the University of Calabar but which at the time was a guest house allocated to…

Wednesday, 15 November 2017 03:59

Versions of nihilism, Jihadism and far-right fanaticism viewed as responses to the same malaise

The similarities between different schools of terrorismIs it correct to find parallels between violent white supremacism and neo-Nazism on one hand, and the nihilist fury of ultra-militant Islam on the other? A Franco-American scholar, Scott Atran, is convinced that these deadly phenomena are two sides of the same coin. Unless people grasp that point, he thinks, our ability to cope with either scourge may be limited. Of course there are superficial resemblances which anyone can see. In August, when a fanatic drove his car into a group of liberal, anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia, he was copying a tactic that…

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