Our Columnists
-
Rasool Is Africa’s Missed Opportunity To Tackle The Bully
The anti-Pretoria lobby in the US has had it for South Africa for a long time, especially following that country’s stand against Israel in the ongoing war on Gaza.
The question is not where US President Donald Trump has not touched in less than 100 days in office. It is how the world is coping with the shock and devastation of his touch and the trail of chaos it is leaving behind. Because of its vulnerabilities, Africa was never far from Trump’s reach. When […] More
-
Putiny! Growing Autocracy And Oligarchy In America
Americans and America’s allies are waking up to a new reality that nothing is beyond the reach of President Trump to tinker with or destroy.
America stands at a crossroads. The nation that has long prided itself as a beacon of democracy now faces an unprecedented challenge to its fundamental character, under its 47th President, Donald Trump, who is determined to refashion the US constitution as if it is one of his Trump towers. Feelings and expectations around the globe […] More
-
Rivers State Emergency Rule: A Different View
Those opposed to the proclamation should say how to leave Fubara in place and extract the water of peace from the coconut of Rivers State without breaking the shell on the head of the people.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s proclamation of emergency rule in Rivers State on Tuesday surprised me for reasons different from those for which he has been severely criticised. The mildest criticism is that Tinubu’s failure to call the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, to order was responsible for the crisis. The more severe […] More
-
The Thing Between Godswill And Natasha
It is not Akpoti-Uduaghan’s right to a fair, impartial hearing alone that was at stake, even though the absence of that should have been sufficient to discredit her punishment.
Many years ago, when my teacher said nothing sells like sex, crime, and money, I didn’t fully understand what he meant. Yet, over the years, I’ve repeatedly seen that a judicious mix of these socio-economic ingredients is a spellbinder. Apart from the tragic news about banditry, the suspense in Rivers State, and the heightened prostitution […] More
More Columns
-
African Lessons Zelenskyy May Use In Ukraine
But as petty and detestable as Trump is, he was on point that it would be foolhardy to expect the current war to end without Ukraine giving up anything.
The live drama staged in the Oval Office on February 28 between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was such that Zelenskyy might never have rehearsed in all his former life as a comedian. Except that it wasn’t funny. It was unprecedented. You would need to go back 64 years to find […] More
-
Babangida’s Revisionism Is A Giant Bowl Of Spaghetti
Those who sat in that room at the Transcorp Hilton Hotel in Abuja to share Babangida’s lies at the public presentation of the biography represent the worst of Nigeria.
Nigeria’s former military leader, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), prepared a giant bowl of spaghetti and invited the rich and powerful all over Nigeria to witness him eat. The food was prepared first for the rich, and then disseminated on social media for common consumption. It preparation dated back to years of intricate scheming with ingredients […] More
-
Babangida’s Long Journey To Sorry
After 32 years of deflecting, dissembling, dodging and denial, the former military president finally gets as close as possible to remorse, then stops short of saying sorry for his betrayal of his country by blaming several dead and a few feeble living.
You cannot quarrel about how a man tells his story. It is his business. However, the pseudo-autobiography of the former military president, General Ibrahim Babangida, is more than the retired general telling a story of his own life. A Journey in Service is a long, tortuous journey to penitence, which arrives at its destination, if […] More
-
Ribadu’s Storm Over Canada Visa Refusal
If the country’s status has moved from visa-on-arrival up to the early 1970s in many Commonwealth (and even non-Commonwealth countries) to a status of cautious admission and even outright hostility toward ranking government officials, Ribadu does not need to invoke hell.
Many Nigerians experience visa refusal daily. They don’t need the National Security Adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, to invoke hell against any country to make the point. Unfortunately, Ribadu’s fury after the Canadian High Commission refused visas to Chief of Defence Staff General Christopher Musa and other officials for the winter Invictus Games in Vancouver Whistler […] More
-
Understanding The Nonsense About State Creation
States are not in short supply, yet because of primordial greed, the campaign for more will not abate until each of Nigeria’s 350 ethnic nationalities has one.
Many years ago, when my son was completing paperwork for a job with the Lagos State government, he was required to fill out a form that included his State of Origin. He paused. It had been marked a compulsory field, and he wanted to know if not filling it would affect his chances. I said […] More
-
From America First To America Alone: The Lab Meets The Street
He has hinted at annexing a sovereign country, criminalised migration, and dragged his largest trading partners, including his neighbours, to the negotiation table at gunpoint.
It’s nearly 20 years since Mark Steyn wrote a non-fiction book, America Alone: The End of the World as We Know It. Steyn, a Canadian newspaper columnist, could not have known that the kicker of this book title, which extolled America as the last bastion of civilisation as we know it, would become the metaphor […] More
