Questions for the Nigerian Left - Edwin Madunagu
My most recent published article, “Recalling Tai Solarin’s prediction”, which appeared in the first week of this month, ended with a series of questions. I reproduce four of them that...
Be afraid! Be very afraid!! - Dare Babarinsa
Few people would have expected that Omoyele Sowore would linger on in the public space after his poor showing at the last presidential election in which he scored less than...
We are back to Abraham Adesanya - Lasisi Olagunju
Mr Abraham Adesanya was diligently accused by Mr Sani Abacha of shooting himself on the streets of Lagos on January 14, 1997. Again, on September 18, 1997, US ambassador, Mr...
Orji Kalu: Igbos defending thieves just because they are Igbos? - Charles Ogbu
Sometimes, just reading commentaries on trending stories fills me with more disgust than those stories themselves. How do you describe a situation where SOME people from a region crying of...
Sowore and parable of a rat that saw tomorrow - Festus Adedayo
Many commentators on the attempted abduction of rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, right inside a courtroom of the Federal High Court, Abuja by men of the State Security Service (SSS), self-styled...
Mr President, can you see your face? - Simon Kolawole
“In pursuance of the primary objective of saving our great nation from total collapse, I, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari of the Nigerian Army have, after due consultation amongst the services of...
Buhari’s plan for Sowore, social media bill, and Aisha Buhari’s hypocrisy - Farooq Kperogi
Minutes before I started writing this column, I watched disturbing videos showing officers of Nigeria’s DSS physically assaulting Omoyele Sowore in the process of illegally re-arresting him after a judge...
Sowore: Jungle justice in the Temple of Justice - Israel Ayegba Ebije
The re-arrest of Omoyele Sowore and his co defendant Olawale Bakare by Department of State Security (DSS) is an all time low in the history of Nigeria. The commando move...
The world is doing much better than the bad news makes us think - Arthur C. Brooks
“Major portions of the world are in conflict and some, in fact, are going to hell,” President Trump said two years ago in a speech before the United Nations. Most...
Time to do something different - Dare Babarinsa
It is almost normal now to take the television for granted. Yet when we were young, everyone appreciated the magic of the television. In recent months, old veterans have been...
Inequality could be lower than you think - The Economist
Even in a world of polarisation, fake news and social media, some beliefs remain universal, and central to today’s politics. None is more influential than the idea that inequality has...
Recalling Tai Solarin’s prediction - Edwin Madunagu
Nigeria’s 2019 elections, particularly the recent governorship contests in Kogi and Bayelsa states, have forcefully brought back a prediction which the late Tai Solarin made about 40 years ago in...
Clipping the wings of Alapere canal - Bola Bolawole
Akure is the Ondo state capital. The panegyric of the people runs thus: Akure l’omi meji/O p’ejeji l’Ala/ Ala se bi ere bi ere/Ala d’omi ebo. Translated: Akure has two...
The billionaire problem - Simon Johnson
Writing in the 1830s, as the Industrial Revolution gathered pace, Honoré de Balzac anticipated the broader social concern: “The secret of great fortunes without apparent cause is a crime that...
From Daura to Lagos, they eat up the little ones - Lasisi Olagunju
"You were given job slots, you gave them to your children. You were given ten forms for jobs, you gave them to your mother's children. You cannot end well..." The...
As nepotism soldiers on - Sonala Olumhense
The most important news story in the Nigerian press of the last five years was published last week. But it was neither news, nor story. It didn’t make the front...
Zamfara leads, will others follow? - Bolanle Bolawole
The saying, usually, is: Who bells the cat? The story is told that rats met one day and the agenda was how to put a halt to the havoc the...
What should economists be doing? - Kaushik Basu
Economics is now at a stage when we need to examine the assumptions in the woodwork that are hindering our ability to understand and map the new world of digital...
Between the Nigerian police and Abdullahi’s Hate Bill - Festus Adedayo
In fulfilment of the Socratic dictum which says that an unexamined life is not worth living, I want to begin this piece by playing the devil’s advocate to the Hate...
We need a major redesign of life - Laura L. Carstensen
It’s time to get serious about a major redesign of life. Thirty years were added to average life expectancy in the 20th century, and rather than imagine the scores of...
What goes round comes around... - Bola Bolwaole
If a writer does not generate hostility, he is dead – Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, Nobel Laureate in Literature (2001). In any man that keeps silent in the face of tyranny,...
The failing judicial system (1) - Ebun Olu-Adegboruwa
My phone rang repeatedly so I thought it must be something very urgent and serious. The caller on the other side was furious and agitated. He wanted me to step...
The coming Nuclear crises - Richard N. Haass
We are entering a new and dangerous period in which nuclear competition or even use of nuclear weapons could again become the greatest threat to global stability. Less certain is...
Between Secondus and Modu Sheriff... - Bolanle Bolawole
Recent events must have PDP leaders thinking which of Mr Ali Modu Sherriff (aka PDP’s undertaker), and incumbent, Mr Uche Secondus (aka “Se ko dun”: Cook PDP well and let...
Kogi’s ta-ta-ta-ta-ta and Nigeria’s head of the Medusa
Three things appear very tragic in last week’s Kogi governorship/senatorial elections. They are, first, the video that went viral of the young Kogi ladies chanting the panegyrics of Governor Yahaya...
The revolt against populism - David Brooks
Have you noticed that the world is on fire? Crowds are chanting “Death to Khamenei” in Iran while the regime kills them en masse and shuts down the internet. Throngs...
Okon bids Tam David-West goodbye - Tatalo Alamu
It has been a monsoonal autumn of patriarchs and matriarchs in Nigeria with the heavy floods sweeping away many of the nation’s illustrious sons and daughters. The toll and harvest...
Caveat lector - Babafemi Ojudu
Let me make myself clear from the onset. There is no mistake in the combination of the two words above. I am not concerned here about buyers but readers. So,...
Will democracy survive Buhari’s regime? - Abimbola Adelakun
To understand how badly Nigeria’s democratic ethos has sunk, look no further than the desperation of the advocacy organisation, Soico-Economic Rights Advocacy Project. They resorted to begging the Archbishop of...
Back to my roots... - Bola Bolawole
Last Friday I went back to my roots – Owo in Ondo State. Mission was to give Mrs Felicia Aboyinbogun - Iye Bimbo (Bimbo’s mother) – a befitting burial. Just...
Is economic winter coming? - Raghuram G. Rajan
Now that the old rules governing macroeconomic cycles no longer seem to apply, it remains to be seen what might cause the next recession in the United States. But if...
A love that endures - Dare Babarinsa
It is significant that more than four decades after he left power, Mr Mobolaji Johnson, who died October 30, remained relevant in the affairs of Lagos State and Nigeria. He...
The growing threat of water wars - Jayati Ghosh
In 2015, United Nations member states adopted the Sustainable Development Goals, which include an imperative to “ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.” Yet, in the...
Still on Makinde and Ibadan’s recurring house of horror - Bolanle Bolawole
Just like the prodding of a respected younger professional colleague moved me to take a look at the Ibadan house of horror last week, so also has the intervention of...
A living wage for capitalism - Jim O’Neill
Higher nominal wages for low-paid workers can boost real earnings, increase consumer spending, and help make housing more affordable. And insofar as raising the minimum would increase companies’ wage bill,...
Nigeria is a messed up country, right? - Festus Adedayo
This is confession time: My pessimism about Nigeria is as huge as its expansive landscape. Like Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born, I believed that the...
Baba Lekki bids farewell to the original Eko Boy - Tatalo Alamu
To the old Campos Square, right in front of the ancestral homestead of the Wrights where Baba Lekki has assembled the most outlandish cast of contrary characters that Lagos has...
Let us set free our imagination - Babafemi Ojudu
As bizarre as it may appear, the story I am about to tell is real. This is far from fiction. A friend of mine told me the story and I...
No, not everyone is beautiful, and we’d all be better off if we stopped saying we are - Heather M. Jones
After I recently made a comment on Twitter calling out a well-known game show host on his privilege, I received a lot of support from people who also found his...
Rethinking productivity - Diane Coyle
Today, about four out of every five dollars spent in the OECD economies purchases services or intangible goods. This “dematerialization” of economies demands a more nuanced understanding of what drives...