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Opinion

Monday, 26 June 2023 01:33

Healing Nigeria in the spirit of Adha - Hassan Gimba

This week, Muslims the world over will celebrate the eid-ul-adha or the “big eid” or “big Sallah”. We are, however, more interested in its meaning, implications and bearing on us as a nation. We need to look at spiritual milestones, hoping to find the seemingly elusive panacea for our ills. Eid means feast, festival or celebration, while adha loosely means “sacrifice” (animal sacrifice), “offering” or “oblation”. It so got its name because it commemorates Prophet Ibrahim’s (AS) devotion to Allah (SWT) and his readiness to sacrifice Ismail, his son, for His love. The Qur’anic story has it that Ibrahim (AS)…

Monday, 26 June 2023 01:32

Lawless kids and fears of terrorism in Kano - Yushau A. Shuaib

“And fear the fitnah (affliction and trial) which affects not in particular (only) those of you who do wrong.” – Quran 8 verse 25 The above is a verse from the Holy Quran, which my late father, Imam Abdulhameed Shuaib Agaka usually cited when trouble brewed and the community kept silent, without seeking to address it. The Qur’anic verse cautions society against failure to act when atrocities are being committed because the repercussions of silence and inaction could be severe (painful), not only for the perpetrators but the society at large. Since the return to a democratic system of government…

Sunday, 25 June 2023 03:59

Titanic’s crash and anger of Olokun, the sea goddess - Festus Adedayo

The world is in a mourning mood. After a fruitless five-day search for a missing deep-sea submersible vessel with five passengers on board, its wreckage was eventually found last Thursday. The five occupants on board were killed in the process. The search had been spearheaded by a robotic diving vehicle deployed from a Canadian ship. The five were on a voyage to see the century-old wreckage of the famous Titanic by the time this catastrophic implosion occurred. The robotic vehicle had found the debris of the submersible Titan on the seabed, “some 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the bow of…

Sunday, 25 June 2023 03:49

Walking and working in the ability of the Holy Spirit - Taiwo Akinola

For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake ~ 1 Thessalonians 1:5. Introduction The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God actively working in His people today. Nothing moves except as He directs; nothing happens except as He permits; and nothing will be except as He allows. Indeed, every day can be exciting for the Christian who intimately knows the reality of being filled with the Holy Spirit, lives constantly…

Sunday, 25 June 2023 03:47

Article of faith: It is all about God (2) - Femi Aribisala

The Bible says: “Of (God) and through (God) and to (God) are all things, to (God) be glory forever.” (Romans 11:36). Therefore, everything in this world must be ungodly. Everything in the world is man-made and gives glory to man. So, everything in this world must be counterfeit and not of God. Accordingly, John tells us: “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and…

Saturday, 24 June 2023 03:21

Generations of the Nigerian and African Left: History and historicity - Biodun Jeyifo

“Out of relative obscurity, every generation must discover its mission and either fulfill or betray it.” – Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth “This generation will not pass away before all these things take place”. – Jesus of Nazareth, Matthew 24/34. What we are doing today is a momentous event in the history of the Nigerian Left. Although it is the launching, not of a richly endowed foundation, not the opening of a magnificent physical edifice of the Left but a (mere) online website, it is still an occasion of great historical significance. This is because this online website…

Friday, 23 June 2023 04:28

Buhari’s legacy puts Tinubu in tight spot - Azu Ishiekwene

Those familiar with road travel before fancy luxury buses and jeeps displaced wooden-back Bedford light trucks, famously called mammy wagons, might remember this ubiquitous message in cursive, bright colours scrawled on the rear and sometimes on the sides of trucks plying highways in Nigeria’s Southeast: “No condition is permanent.” I’m not quite sure what the motivation was. My guess is that it was a message of comfort to the despairing and a warning to those who take life too seriously: No condition is permanent. True in life as in politics, that message rang again this week with wide-sweeping changes announced…

Friday, 23 June 2023 04:27

The myth of ‘suffer now, enjoy later’ - Abimbola Adelakun

This time eight years ago, Nigerians still basking in the euphoria of having a martinet president began to ascribe all kinds of wonderful happenstances to his body language. So excited were the supporters of former President Muhammadu Buhari about the country’s potential under him that they attributed some magicality to otherwise routine happenings. Civil servants resume work at 8 am as expected of them? It was Buhari’s body language that motivated them to their newfound sense of responsibility. Did the electricity company supply power for 18 hours a day instead of their habitual six hours? Yes, that must be Buhari’s…

Thursday, 22 June 2023 02:52

FCT, the fragile legitimacy of leadership and 25% vote threshold - Erasmus Morah

On Saturday, 25 February, Nigeria conducted an election for the position of President, which was widely regarded as the most fiercely contested in the country since 1999. On 1 March, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu, candidate of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as the winner and President-elect. On 29 May, the Chief Justice of Nigeria swore him in as the Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces and 16th president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. While the reaction of the international community was mixed, the two major opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party and the Labour…

Tuesday, 20 June 2023 04:40

The internet is not the enemy - Andrew Sullivan

We live in an age of wonder in which half the world now has access to a technology – the internet – that supports people’s health and education, can be a lifeline in a time of disaster or disease, and was designed to be open to everyone but owned by no one. And the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted both its importance and its potential by forcing the world to connect remotely, contact-free, and in real time. Unfortunately, we also live in an age of fear and suspicion. You don’t even need to “doomscroll” to find claims that the internet is…

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Sunday, 18 June 2023 03:26

A honeymoon with Tinubu - Festus Adedayo

This season, President Bola Tinubu is harvesting big pods of cocoa from his plantation. His co-farmers are looking at him with concentrated envy. And jealousy. Exhilaration is in the air. In the last two weeks, he has shown tremendous energy to change the status-quo. His sack of Nigeria’s CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is exciting the Nigerian economy. That Agbor, Delta State-born banker’s exit marked an end to one of the most turbulent eras in the CBN. Getting rid of him has signaled a very strong, positive impact on the capital and foreign exchange markets. When the CBN announced an end…

Sunday, 18 June 2023 03:24

Greater works than these shall he do! - Taiwo Akinola

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father ~ John 14:12. Introduction It is very clear to my mind that Jesus Christ gave us an amazing prophetic promise in John 14:12: “He that believeth on me, the works that I do …. and greater works than these shall he do”. This is simply breath-taking, isn’t it? From basic physics, we learn that work is done when force covers a distance; otherwise, it is mere…

Friday, 16 June 2023 03:40

Plugging gaps in the students’ loan scheme - Azu Ishiekwene

Within minutes of the release of the video of President Bola Tinubu signing the students’ loan bill into law, it was trending on Twitter as was the name of Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, who sponsored the bill in his former life as Speaker. Apart from the Nigeria Maritime University which was charging N81,500 per semester in 2019 – the highest in a federal university – the average tuition is about N45,000. State universities charge between N60,000 and N120,000, while polytechnics and colleges of education charge less of course, but only slightly less than federal universities. Strangely, the word, “tuition,”…

Thursday, 15 June 2023 03:49

Student loans and the measure of poverty - Abimbola Adelakun

On Monday, the President signed into law a bill establishing an education bank that will provide interest-free loans to “indigent students.” The clumsily titled bill, “An Act to Provide Easy Access to Higher Education For Nigerians Through Interest-Free Loans From Nigeria Education Bank Established in this Act with a View To Provide Education for All Nigerians and for Related Matters” has reportedly been in the works since 2016. According to presidential aides, the initiative will help “indigent students” fund educational pursuits in public institutions, be they in universities, polytechnics, or vocational training centres. People object to student loans for many…

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