Fayose – 1, EFCC – 0 – Abimbola Adelakun
Given the gragra of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over their invitation of the immediate past Governor of Ekiti State, Ayodele Fayose, one would have thought that the moment...
‘The spirit of error’ in Nigerian politics - Reuben Abati
About this period, four years ago to be precise I had gone to visit a notable politician and a member of Peoples Democratic Party. Politics was very much in the...
Thanks for not raping us, all you ‘good men.’ But it’s not enough - Victoria Bissell Brown
I yelled at my husband last night. Not pick-up-your-socks yell. Not how-could-you-ignore-that-red-light yell. This was real yelling. This was 30 minutes of from-the-gut yelling. Triggered by a small, thoughtless, dismissive,...
Buhari, Atiku and the allegory of danran and gbafe - Festus Adedayo
There is this twin concept of danran and gbafe in the rich oral tradition of Oyo monarchy that is told to successive kings, right from the days of the Old...
How will Buhari and Atiku debate corruption? – Abimbola Adelakun
By the question of debate, I do not just mean the televised event where one man stands against his opponent and both make a pitch for the vote of the...
What Is threatening science? Jeremy J. Baumberg
Scientific knowledge and technological innovation, as Yuval Noah Harari emphasizes in his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, are among the key drivers of economic progress. Yet there is...
2019: Atiku vs. Buhari - Reuben Abati
There has been some clarity about Nigeria’s 2019 Presidential election, with the end of the October 7 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of...
Atiku can defeat Buhari. Here’s how - Farooq Kperogi
I’m frankly not excited about an Atiku presidency. In a previous widely shared Facebook status update, which I developed into a full-length column (see link in comment section), I dismissed...
Matthew Kukah and banditry that is Nigerian politics - Festus Adedayo
In the last few weeks or so, the blood pressure of Nigeria must have risen tremendously. Though it is a quadrennial affair, this year’s ritual of ascendancy to political offices...
On differences within the Nigerian Left - Edwin Madunagu
For almost a year now, since I resumed writing for publication in the media, I have deliberately referred to the Nigerian Left – my primary concern in this ideological and...
Nigeria’s certificate scandals - Reuben Abati
The number of persons involved in certificate scandals under the Buhari administration may speak to something far deeper in our society, even beyond the administration, but it is to say...
Present at the destruction - Mark Leonard
At the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly this month, there was a widespread sense of foreboding among world leaders. The anxiety went beyond standard concerns about what...
Osun election as Nigeria’s dirty mirror at 58 - Festus Adedayo
It is a few hours to Nigeria’s 58th independence anniversary and right there, by the tip of our noses, providence is using an otherwise small muck to dramatize the huge...
‘United’ or ‘Nations’? Balance is UN’s existential question - Ted Anthony
After the world’s leaders spent thousands upon thousands of words on the subject this past week, the foreign minister of Papua New Guinea boiled it down to just six of...
Decent men don’t do these things - Theresa Brown
Sexual assault is excused as normal and forgivable. It’s not. Ask the women who’ve experienced it. I have a story. So many women do. Mine took place when I was...
Takeaways from the Osun Election - Jideofor Adibe
The September 22 2018 governorship election in Osun state is one of the closest political races in the country’s political history. According to official results, Mr Ademola Adeleke, candidate of...
Wike, PDP and Buhari's re-election - Gabriel Akinadewo
"I don’t know why anyone who wants to be president will be afraid of a venue. Then you are not prepared for the election“Let me warn the party, if you...
Adeleke and the modern Nigerian tragedy - Abimbola Adelakun
All Progressives Congress is reeling from the shock that their party was almost entirely trounced by the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke (aka “the dancing senator”), at the...
Osun: Election as theatre - Reuben Abati
What is going on in Osun state right now is nothing short of political theatre. It is keeping us all entertained, but it has also turned so many observers into...
Who really creates value in an economy? - Mariana Mazzucato
After the 2008 global financial crisis, a consensus emerged that the public sector had a responsibility to intervene to bail out systemically important banks and stimulate economic growth. But that...
Shittu, Adeosun and the NYSC - Festus Adedayo
From the look of things, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) may kick-start the redemption in public service integrity that Nigerians have always craved for. Beginning with the whistle blown...
Olu Falae @80: Still going to farm before dawn - Sina Kawonise
I had known Chief Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation and Minister of Finance, only by reputation. When, on Nigeria’s return to democratic rule in 1999,...
Between HSBC and Buhari - Jideofor Adibe
Since the report that HSBC, one of the world’s largest banking and financial services companies, took a dim view of the Buhari government’s economic policies, operatives and supporters of the...
Bola Ajibola: Before he bows out - Tola Adeniyi
This is a special tribute to a very special man. A very unusual man. A most under-celebrated icon of immense and immeasurable proportion. A man who towers well above several...
Lessons from Adeosungate - Reuben Abati
Nigeria’s former Minister of Finance (2015-2018), Kemi Adeosun threw in her letter of resignation on Friday, September 14, to bring to a temporary closure, the public outcry and the embarrassment...
Please, students, take that ‘impractical’ humanities course. We will all benefit - Ronald J. Daniels
Last fall, on the campus of Johns Hopkins University, where I serve as president, I happened to overhear a conversation among a group of students. One student was telling the...
MTN and the multibillion-dollar perils of Nigeria’s regulatory minefield - Feyi Fawehinmi
Nigerian officials like to tell a story about the telecoms revolution that began in Nigeria in 2001. It involves how Vodafone, the British telecoms giant, had been offered the chance...
The real problem with Free Trade - Jayati Ghosh
For most critics of globalization, trade is the villain, responsible for deepening inequality and rising economic insecurity among workers. This is the logic driving support for US President Donald Trump’s...
Tinubu the Ap’ejalodo and his strange fish friend - Festus Adedayo
There is this story that helped to tame the greed of pre and post-colonial Yoruba society, as well as any tendency within it to play God. Set in an African...
Revisiting ‘democracy and dictatorship’ - Edwin Madunagu
Let us begin by quickly recalling two bits of Nigeria’s recent history. First, at the close of 1983, a military junta overthrew and supplanted the elected civilian government of Shehu...
2019 and the road to Damascus - Jideofor Adibe
We have now fully entered the political season – with its embedded bazaars, festivities, speeches, permutations and configurations. Most of the activities in the political space are configured to bring...
The slippery slope of regulating social media - Peter Suderman
Speech on Twitter and Facebook should not be treated like a collective good that should be subject to political control. The promise of the internet, and social media in particular,...
2019: A brief manual of Nigerian politics - Reuben Abati
The political primaries are scheduled to hold between this month and the next and definitely by the end of October 2018, the hustling and jostling in Nigeria’s political arena would...
China is losing the new Cold War - Minxin Pei
When the Soviet Union imploded in 1991, the Communist Party of China (CPC) became obsessed with understanding why. The government think tanks entrusted with this task heaped plenty of blame...
Four more years of Buhari? Nigeria deserves better - Thomas Mösch
Nigeria's President Muhammadu Muhari has announced he will run again in the 2019 election. He has just started his work on important reforms — but that's exactly the problem, says...
The Buhari-Punch tango - Festus Adedayo
A very pathetic story which crept into the media a few hours to this weekend, suddenly took away the appetite of sane citizens of the world. According to the story,...
Between the VP and Ex-VP - Tola Mobolurin
I do hope those on this platform are not confused by the political fencing game between the VP, Mr Yemi Osinbajo and the ex-VP, Mr Atiku Abubakar. I hold no...
“In defence of history” - Edwin Madunagu
I cannot now remember exactly how I first encountered this phrase: “In defence of history”. But I think it was during my days on the Editorial Board of The Guardian...
Buhari, 2019 elections and the law - Reuben Abati
President Muhammadu Buhari reportedly declared in China, last Sunday, that he believes in the idea of free and fair elections, and that he is committed to this pillar of the...
The three tribes of austerity - Joseph E. Stiglitz
No policy is as self-defeating during recessionary times as the pursuit of a budget surplus for the purpose of containing public debt – austerity, for short. So, as the world...
