Getting Nigerian Passport with tears – Simon Kolawole
By their PRO you shall know them. Sometime in February this year, I got a distress call from a friend’s wife in the UK. She said there was a spelling...
Facebook’s Libra must be stopped - Katharina Pistor
After years of disregarding privacy, exploiting user data, and failing to control its platform, Facebook has now unveiled a cryptocurrency and payment system that could take down the entire global...
Buratai’s bruises on Nigerian troops - Festus Adedayo
Whether Chief of Army Staff, Mr Tukur Buratai, failed to think through his statement last Tuesday condemning Nigerian military troops who are on the frontline of fighting Boko Haram insurgency...
The Festus Adedayo they thought they could pull down - Festus Adedayo
I was just informed a few minutes ago of the withdrawal of the appointment offered me as Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Senate President, Mr Ahmed Lawan. I...
Wobbly start for Ihedioha - Jideofor Adibe
There must be something about political power that makes otherwise good men to act contrary to expectations once in power. And it can be very dispiriting. Let me mention immediately...
The wave that could carry Trump to re-election - Matthew Continetti
Political professionals are so focused on the micro-details of the 2020 elections that they miss the macro trends favoring President Trump as he kicks off his re-election campaign in Florida....
A slavish parliament and the road to Buhari’s life presidency - Farooq A. Kperogi
On June 11, 2019, Nigeria inaugurated what promises to be the most servile and least independent National Assembly in Nigeria’s entire history. The new Senate President and new Speaker of...
Boycotting killers’ bloody beef in Kumuyi’s cow country - Festus Adedayo
As one of the two guest lecturers at a June 12, 1993 election commemorative anniversary and celebration of the unique proclamation of the day as Democracy Day in Nigeria by...
Dino Melaye: Not ‘distinguished’, but a damn good senator - Kehinde Ogunwumiju
Hmmm! How did you arrive at the conclusion that Dino Melaye is an Idiot? Yes he is dramatic. He is flamboyant. He is theatrical. His dress sense is loud. He...
The end of the polling booth - Tina Rosenberg
We’ve been thinking about elections backward. “The ballot belongs to the voter, not the government,” said Phil Keisling, the former secretary of state of Oregon. “As long as it can...
How do populists win? - Daron Acemoglu
At first blush, a populist message of "us vs. them" might seem less effective than a message of "all of us together," given that elections are won with broad coalitions....
The end of the world as we know it - Joschka Fischer
After three decades of moving toward a single global market governed by the rules of the World Trade Organization, the international order has undergone a fundamental change. The United States...
Oyo’s N3,000 school fees debacle - Festus Adedayo
Did Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State realize that, in his first official pronouncement on May 29, 2019 stopping the payment of N3,000 by school pupils, he had unwittingly provoked...
As the visa noose tightens - Muyiwa Adetiba
On Monday, I had a conversation with a lady who calls me daddy and whom I am proud to regard as a daughter. She is a manager in a bank....
Democracy is in retreat in Africa — and not just in Sudan and Algeria - Patrick Gathara
The past few weeks have been a wake-up call for pro-democracy activists across Africa — a painful reminder that three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall precipitated a...
Will Buhari’s 2nd term witness mainstreaming of separatist agitations? - Jideofor Adibe
With right-wing populism being mainstreamed across the world – there is a genuine fear that separatist agitations (micro-nationalism) may be mainstreamed in the country if President Muhammadu Buhari does not...
The new Oyo governor, and others like him - Abimbola Adelakun
Last week, some 29 governors were inaugurated throughout Nigeria. As expected, most made policy announcements that I believe foretell the direction their governments will take. From the populist to the...
Osun, economic summit is serious business! - Abiodun Komolafe
In a few days’ time, Osun will be organising an Economic and Investment Summit to “redirect and recommend strategies which will drive meaningful youth employment, enhance food security, agricultural development,...
Internally generated poverty - Pat Utomi
I am sure we have heard the news. Forbes thoroughly slaughtered Nigeria as an investment destination, naming our dear country as where to go if you really want to lose...
Nigerians don’t want to die, but we die in droves anyway - Dayo Dasilva
Yes! No one wants to die in Nigeria, whether rich or poor, not even the old and elderly. This reflects much in our timid and fragile life in which we...
Making globalization work for Africa - Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
Making globalization more inclusive will require policies that help African economies to converge with high-income countries. African policymakers should focus on accelerating regional integration, bridging gaps in labor skills and...
Allegory of the talking bird and Nigeria's zero quality of mercy - Festus Adedayo
A couple of weeks ago in Abuja, a medical doctor, Daniel Eitokpah, had attempted to revive one Arowosaiye, said to be a gospel artist with the Redeemed Christian Church of...
Buhari’s inauguration: Another missed opportunity - Jideofor Adibe
President Muhammadu Buhari made world history yesterday when he probably became the first elected President in the world in modern times to be inaugurated into office without giving an inaugural...
We must all be Fulani - Fredrick Nwabufo
Conspiracy theories are the palm oil of Nigeria’s politics. They give taste to falsehood, tension, fear and unrest. And often, they are ignorantly eaten, regurgitated and spewed by the unwary....
The global consequences of a Sino-American cold war - Nouriel Roubini
What started as a trade war between the United States and China is quickly escalating into a death match for global economic, technological, and military dominance. If the two countries'...
Buhari’s second term: Ain't no stopping us now, we're on the move - Femi Adesina
Those who were young (men-about-town) in the 80s will remember the 1979 hit track by McFadden & Whitehead, titled Ain't no stopping us now. The lyrics goes thus: Ain't no...
Devil is Nigeria’s largest employer of labour - Dele Sobowale
“The Devil finds work for idle hands.”— Old adage. One report which we don’t need United Nations, World Bank, International Labour Organisation, ILO, or any other global or domestic organisation...
Who will be Nigeria’s last President? - Festus Adedayo
I have this haunch that by the time President Muhammadu Buhari leaves office after his second term, there may either be no Nigeria as properly so called or the nagging...
Looking again at “revolution” - Edwin Madunagu
The word, “revolution”, is currently enjoying a political and lexical rehabilitation with Nigerians, especially the youths. Though still seen as treasonable, “revolution” is no longer easily associated with evil or...
The courts must declare Atiku president (2) - Femi Aribisala
When APC discovered that Mr Atiku Abubakar had the authentic votes of the 2019 presidential election, retrieved from the INEC back server, the party went into panic mode. Their first...
Knives out for Obasanjo - Jideofor Adibe
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has a way of falling out with every government in power – and he has literarily played a role in the making of most of the...
No Yoruba president in Nigeria for another 20 years - Femi Aribisala
It will be the turn of a Southerner to be president again in 2023. That Southerner must, without controversy, be an Igbo man. If Nigeria were to survive the ticking...
Power? No, thanks, I’m good - Tim Kreider
The wish to have power over others is altogether alien to me; I just don’t get it, any more than I get why anyone wants to have kids or play...
Your Excellency, the chickens are home to roost - Festus Adedayo
In the next few days, specifically nine days from today, the party will be over between many of the current state governors and their mandates to steer the ships of...
As Buhari jumps into the ‘true federalism’ bandwagon - Jideofor Adibe
President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent call for ‘true federalism’ has left many people confused and wondering what his real intentions were. At an award ceremony organised by the All Progressives’ Governors’...
Microfinance Banks and NIPOST’s core mandate - Abiodun Komolafe
I read an interesting Editorial piece in The NationNewspapers of Monday, May 6, 2019, entitled: ‘Postmaster or Banker.’ The newspaper specifically advised Nigerian Postal Service (NIPOST) to “focus on its...
I don’t watch Game of Thrones – which makes me a lot more interesting than you - Arwa Mahdawi
Whenever too many people like something, it’s obvious there’s something wrong with it. Right? Hell is other people talking about Game of Thrones. And hell, I have discovered to my...
Can’t we outsource Nigeria to Miyetti Allah? - Festus Adedayo
When the news filtered in that the Muhammadu Buhari government, embarrassed into a scamper by the spate of killings of innocent Nigerians in Zamfara State and other parts of the...
Whatsoever a man soweth - Simon Kolawole
Eleven years ago — to be specific, on July 7, 2008 — the title of my column was: “One Day, the People Will Rebel”. I warned that the extravagant lifestyles...
Critique of abstract politics - Edwin Madunagu
About the middle of 1985, the tendency to which I belonged in Nigeria’s Marxist Left met somewhere on the campus of the former University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University,...