Democracies in danger - Ngaire Woods
Recent unilateral decisions by the Indian, American, and British governments are part of a worrying trend in the world’s leading democracies. But instead of resorting to outrage, democrats everywhere should...
Will drones cure our insecurity? - Bola Bolawole
Very soon, Nigeria’s airspace will be awash with drones. Virtually all the states in the Middle Belt and Southern part of the country that have been whacked by Fulani herdsmen...
When Leninists overreach - Nina L. Khrushcheva
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have for years flexed their foreign-policy muscles and consolidated power at home. But Russia and China now appear increasingly isolated on...
Babangida: The Prince at 78 - Festus Adedayo
One of Nigeria’s arguably most impactful rulers, Mr Ibrahim Babangida, was 78 years old yesterday. Combatant Officer of the Nigerian Army who joined the force in 1962, IBB, the acronym...
Preliminary notes on RevolutionNow - Edwin Madunagu
For the Nigerian Left, the strongest lesson of what may now be called Nigeria’s RevolutionNow – that is, the August 5 mass protests organised by some young fragments of the...
Pastor Adeboye still owes Nigerians more - Abimbola Adelakun
In July, a group of musicians/artistes took their peaceful protest to the Redemption Camp where they challenged General Overseer of Redeemed Christian Church of God, Mr Enoch Adeboye, to speak...
Can ethics be taught? - Peter Singer
Can taking a philosophy class – more specifically, a class in practical ethics – lead students to act more ethically? Teachers of practical ethics have an obvious interest in the...
Sowore, Alaafin Aole and murder in Wukari - Festus Adedayo
There is this folk song sang mostly by women and children on the streets of Yorubaland since 1789. It runs thus: During the reign of King Abiodun, plenty abound in...
Anyone but Jonathan, right? - Okey Ikechukwu
Our present national predicament reminds me of the last days of Socrates, the Greek wise man. After an ignorant mob condemned him to death, for urging the people to be...
Honourable minister, your face is familiar - Dare Babarinsa
The current face-off between Mr Omoyele Sowore, a presidential candidate in the last general elections, is an indication that certain things are missing in the corridors of power. I am...
Nigeria and its Fourth Republic: Failing to learn or learning to fail? - Mathew Kukah
Perhaps, for the sake of argument, let us console ourselves by saying that we are in a republic or even a Democracy. However, we know that we definitely fall short...
#RevolutionNow: Sowore wasn’t properly advised - Richarmond O. Natha-Alade
It was another sad day, the day when youthful exuberance met another doom; the day we may continually remember another youth, not as martyr or hero but as scapegoat of...
Toni Morrison taught me how to really read - Alyssa Rosenberg
I was, apparently, late to learn to read as a child, a fact that seems hilarious to me in retrospect. I held off, determined to keep up the ritual of...
How not to think about job creation - Ricardo Hausmann
Just because a tire is flat at the bottom does not mean that the hole is there. The same can be said about labor markets. Concern about the scarcity of...
Sowore, a vampire state and its dead whale - Lasisi Olagunju
In July 1968, a year into Nigeria's civil war, one of the divisional commanders fired a note, from the war front, to the Head of State: "What really are we...
The inequality of nations - Michael Spence
Eighteenth-century British economist Adam Smith has long been revered as the founder of modern economics, a thinker who, in his great works The Wealth of Nationsand The Theory of Moral...
Lie-gerian Army’s 1000 unmarked graves - Festus Adedayo
Bankole Folorunso Adedayo was my blood brother. Born in 1973, he was a soldier of the 1 Brigade, Nigerian Army, Sokoto. In 2000, a terse posted letter arrived the News...
The fall of the Economists’ empire - Robert Skidelsky
The goal of economics is to replace the particular languages that obstruct the discovery of general laws with the universal language of mathematics. This is the apotheosis of a Western...
Obaseki in the mouth of the boa constrictor - Festus Adedayo
Ghanaian traditional Ewe poetry, reflected in My Song Burst, one of the poems in the anthology authored by Senanu and Nigeria’s Professor Theo Vincent, is an invocation of the god...
So Buhari, is this you? - Tope Fasua
In 2015, after President Muhammadu Buhari won the elections, friends with whom I had supported his quest were so excited to get invites to Eagle Square for his inauguration. I...
Yes, dictators are ascendant. But people all over the world are fighting back - Jackson Diehl
By now it’s old news that the world is living through a retreat of democracy. For a dozen consecutive years, the number of countries where liberty has declined has exceeded...
My adventure in COZA - Abimbola Adelakun
On Sunday in Abuja, I attended the Commonwealth of Zion Assembly church and ended up with some sensation. My quest was a purely academic one. I study Pentecostalism and Pentecostal...
National and state Assemblies: Where are you? - Tola Adeniyi
It is curious, and certainly most embarrassing that our elected members of National and State Assemblies throughout the federation have kept unusually quiet in the face of the horrendous horrors...
The age of cynical voters - Slawomir Sierakowski
We all know that politicians are cunning and cynical, but could the same now be said for the electorate? Many of those who voted for US President Donald Trump did...
Ominous clouds rumbling across Nigeria - Tatalo Alamu
Once again ominous clouds are rumbling across Nigeria. The lights are going out and may not return for a long time. It is not yet Christmas, but fireworks and huge...
The exploitation time bomb - Jayati Ghosh
Worsening economic inequality in recent years is largely the result of policy choices that reflect the political influence and lobbying power of the rich. There is now a self-reinforcing pattern...
A “technically” incompetent Chief Justice of Nigeria - Farooq Kperogi
A trending video clip of the senate confirmation hearing of Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad where he betrayed mortifying ignorance of the meaning of the term “technicality” aggrandises...
Dead burying their dead and el-Rufai’s dishonest demographics - Festus Adedayo
Tragedy struck when he was assassinated mid-life in 1987. However, the 43 years life of Jamaican reggae music star, Peter MclnTosh, otherwise known as Peter Tosh, put a considerable weight...
Is immortality worth it? - Martin Rees
Almost everyone would welcome an extension of their healthy lifespan, and some scientists are looking at increasingly extreme ways to achieve that. But any major breakthrough in this area could...
The president and his hoodlums - Dare Babarinsa
Next week, Mrs Funke Olakunrin, beloved daughter of Mr Reuben Fasoranti, would be buried in Akure, Ondo State capital. Last week, Funke was alive and well. This week, she is...
Obasanjo, Soyinka, others should enjoy their Buhari, quietly - Lere Olayinka
I can excuse 40 year old Nigerians and below for voting Buhari in 2015 because they never really experienced a General Buhari between 1984 and 1985. Unlike the likes of...
Nduka Obaigbena at 60: reading the heart of his art - Aliu Akoshile
Only few Nigerians have earned a national acclaim with their first names. Those who are old enough still will remember the late Nigeria’s former Head of State, Mr Ramat Mohammed....
What’s driving populism? - Dani Rodrik
Is it culture or economics? That question frames much of the debate about contemporary populism. Are Donald Trump’s presidency, Brexit, and the rise of right-wing nativist political parties in continental...
Why you gain nothing from ethnic or religious bias - Pat Utomi
I'm a Christian from Niger Delta, but most of the things I've ever achieved occurred through the help of non-Christians and non-Niger Deltans. 1. I was actually looking for a...
As herdsmen become ‘the only criminals in Nigeria’ - Charles Kaye Okoye
Fasoranti's daughter... The first person that broke her death to the press was Yinka Odumakin. "She was killed by SUSPECTED herdsmen." Yinka Odumakin says an eye-witness told him. What does...
The art of wait and see - Keyu Jin
Following yet another "truce" between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Sino-American negotiations over trade, technology, and related issues appear to be back on. But those hoping...
Fasoranti and rise of Nigeria’s un-Nigerian President - Festus Adedayo
The killing on Friday of the daughter of Mr Reuben Fasoranti, 94-year old leader of Afenifere, a pan-Yoruba group, may yet be throwing up two apparent equations in a post-Fulani...
Who speaks for the Yoruba in the killing fields of Nigeria today? - Femi Aribisala
Bola Tinubu, Yemi Osinbajo and other APC opportunists can no longer speak for the Yorubas in Nigeria. President Buhari cares for his people. But although he is president of Nigeria,...
El-Rufai’s ‘two-country’ lie - Abimbola Adelakun
On Saturday, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai, spoke at Northern Youth Summit organised to deliberate on developing northern Nigeria. He painted a picture of Nigeria’s defective growth and development. El-Rufai...
Islam and religious imperialism - Tola Adeniyi
I was named Muhammadu Saheed on the 8th day of my birth. I was boarded in a Quran school at age 4 and graduated at age 10 with a talk-of-the-town...