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Opinion

Friday, 08 September 2017 03:41

Nnamdi Kanu and the ‘Redeemer Complex’ - Jideofor Adibe

This piece was motivated by a number of related events around Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB): (a) The number of crowds he commands since his release from detention - whenever he goes in Igboland. And these were not rented crowd! (b) The photo of Nnamdi Kanu’s feet being kissed, apparently by an IPOB member, which has gone viral on the social media and the related stories/fabrications of some of his followers who claimed that they were cured of various ailments simply by touching Kanu’s garments or shaking his hands. (c) Nnamdi Kanu’s threat that the…

Thursday, 07 September 2017 02:38

You’ll never be famous - and that's o.k - Emily Esfahani Smith

Today’s college students desperately want to change the world, but too many think that living a meaningful life requires doing something extraordinary and attention-grabbing like becoming an Instagram celebrity, starting a wildly successful company or ending a humanitarian crisis.Having idealistic aspirations is, of course, part of being young. But thanks to social media, purpose and meaning have become conflated with glamour: Extraordinary lives look like the norm on the internet. Yet the idea that a meaningful life must be or appear remarkable is not only elitist but also misguided. Over the past five years, I’ve interviewed dozens of people across…

Tuesday, 05 September 2017 03:36

Saving the International Economic Order - Paola Subacchi

This autumn, the IMF and the World Bank will once again hold their annual conference in Washington, DC. At a time when the liberal international economic order that these institutions underpin is under threat, they cannot afford to stick to business as usual. This autumn, International Monetary Fund and World Bank will once again hold their annual conference in Washington, DC. At a time when the liberal world order that these institutions underpin is under threat, they cannot afford to stick with business as usual. Instead, they must consider deep reforms – and that will require abandoning the paternalistic, even…

Tuesday, 05 September 2017 03:34

Akwa Ibom churches as parastatals - Reuben Abati

Religion was not quite a major divisive issue in the community in which we lived in the Old Cross River State in my days as a student there. On Sundays, students felt free to attend church service either within the campus or outside. I do not recall any major religious upheaval in the largely Christian community that the old Cross River was. In those days, there was the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (Olumba Olumba), the indigenous Qua Iboe church, the Presbyterian church, the Anglican Church, the African Church, the Apostolic Church, the Foursquare Church, the AME Zion and…

Monday, 04 September 2017 03:42

The palace coup in Ibadan - Festus Adedayo

A number of attempts have been made to reconstruct the events before and on the night of April 20, 1990, when a bloody attempt was made to overthrow General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida by Major Gideon Orkar and co at the Lagos Dodan Barracks fortress of the wily ex-Head of State. Two previous bloody attempts of that type – Col Bukar Suka Dimka’s and the putsch commandeered by the Five Majors – have also been repeatedly analyzed in Nigerian history. An unwritten code permeates all of them and the art of upsetting status quo, which can also be found in Floyd…

Thursday, 31 August 2017 15:49

Ohaneze, Northern Elders, Afenifere and Nnamdi Kanu - Jideofor Adibe

The move by the Federal Government to re-arrest Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB) is, as expected, generating interesting conversations, grandstanding and competition for the moral high ground. The Federal government on Friday August 25 2017 asked the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja to revoke the bail granted Nnamdi Kanu on April 25, 2017 on the ground that Nnamdi Kanu has flouted his bail conditions. The stringent bail conditions given by Justice Nyako included that the IPOB leader must not hold rallies, must not grant interviews, must not be in a crowd of more than…

Thursday, 31 August 2017 03:39

Kabiyesi, where is your certificate? Dare Babarinsa

It would take years before the full implications of what happened on Sunday August 27 in Ibadan to manifest. On that day, Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State installed 21 new persons as monarchs in Ibadan to superintend over the affairs of the city and its satellite towns and villages. With this masterstroke, he has tampered with age-long traditional system in Ibadan that has become ossified for generations. For better or for worse, something has happened in Ibadan that has shaken the traditional elite class. Twenty-one men have just been installed as Kabiyesi. And they were not even princes! Ibadan…

Wednesday, 30 August 2017 03:36

The new nuclear danger - Joschka Fischer

As someone who was born in 1948, the risk of a nuclear World War III was a very real part of my childhood. That threat – or at least the threat of East and West Germany both being completely destroyed – persisted until the end of Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Since then, the risk of nuclear-armed superpowers triggering Armageddon has been substantially reduced, even if it has not disappeared entirely. Today, the bigger danger is that an increasing number of smaller countries ruled by unstable or dictatorial regimes will try to acquire nuclear weapons. By…

Wednesday, 30 August 2017 03:34

Who do Nigerians say they are? - Feyi Fawehinmi

I recently wrote about how Nigeria badly needs social scientists to figure out some of the seemingly intractable problems facing the country. Now, I’m no social scientist but I recently decided to take my own advice and carry out a small experiment on my unsuspecting social media friends. Stay with me. I asked people on Facebook and Twitter to complete a short survey. It was to be filled in anonymously as I wanted people to be as relaxed and honest as possible. All I requested was the geopolitical zone they came from, their age bracket, sex and religion. No priming,…

Tuesday, 29 August 2017 05:13

JAMB and the politics of cut-off marks - Reuben Abati

I have followed with keen interest the controversy over the announcement of cut-off marks for Nigeria’s admission processes for the 2017/2018 session, with many commentators and the general public insisting that it is unwise, insensitive and retrogressive, to reduce the cut off mark for admissions into our tertiary institutions: 120 for universities, 100 for polytechnics and monotechnics, and a tentative 110 for Innovative Enterprise Institutions (IEIs). Whereas the complaint has been that there is a dumbing down and lowering of standards, which is of course an obvious reaction, I argue that there is need for a better understanding of the…

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Tuesday, 29 August 2017 05:12

Hate speech: Time to reflect, restitute and reposition - Israel A. Ebije

Hate speech is an integral aspect of a people gravely fragmented, failed in articulating collective aspirations. It is usually programed to illicit anger, hate, which ultimately dangerously affect corporate existence. Hate news in Nigeria has cultural, religious flavor, which is used as veritable seasoning for political meal of hate on the person or persons in power at a point in time. It is indeed instructive that most hate messages are coated in fake news to achieve desired effect. The pervasive media anchored on social media platforms facilitate the unbridle dissemination of hate and its fake components with speed and resultant…

Monday, 28 August 2017 03:37

Planned Kanu's re-arrest, Ohaneze Ndigbo's response and the rest of us - Charles Ogbu

On 26th day of August, 2017, OHANEZE Ndigbo President General, Mr John Nnia Nwodo, released a statement in which he fiercely rebuked minister of Justice and Attorney General of Nigeria, Mr Abubakar Malami for calling for Nnamdi kanu's re-arrest even while the genocidal quit notice-issuing Arewa Youths and the composers and distributors of the anti-Igbo hate songs yet walk the earth as free men and even enjoy protection from security agencies. For those who are yet to fully grasp Nwodo's message, let me break it down in my own words: Nwodo was simply saying, Nnamdi Kanu, IPOB and by extension,…

Sunday, 27 August 2017 02:31

I won't make Jesus bow down to Xi Jinping - Derek Lam

Since I was 16 years old, I have wanted to be a pastor. I was raised in a Christian family in Hong Kong that urged me to live by biblical principles. I was taught to love my neighbor as myself and that all human beings are created in the image of God. Those teachings about love and equality are what inspired me to study theology at Chinese University of Hong Kong. They have also informed my democratic activism for the past six years — and it is for that reason that I am likely to be jailed next month and…

Friday, 25 August 2017 17:11

Now that Buhari is back... - Jideofor Adibe

President Buhari returned to the country on Saturday August 19 2017, after being away from the country on medical leave for over 100 days. It is nice to welcome him back. I watched his broadcast of Monday August 21 2017 live and had the privilege to discuss that broadcast with Professor Pater of the Mass CommunicationsDept, Bayero University, for NTA’s Good Morning Nigeria. What can we make of the broadcast?Like everything else, people’s assessment of the broadcast often depends on where they stand on the political divide. There are however a few incontrovertible takeaways: the President is not on life…

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