EVERY society has its stock of critics and cynics. Quite often, the former are preferred to the latter because in the course of their criticism, some critics would throw in alternatives or proffer solutions to problems; while the cynics never see anything good in a situation.

PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to America to see President Barack Obama was quite obviously the most controversial foreign trip taken by a Nigerian leader in recent history. It was famous for its jamboree atmospherics, though he came back with a $2.1 billion World Bank loan to fix our embattled North East even when Boko Haram is far from being subdued.

Watching Obama in Kenya, I’m brought to think about the African story and Nigeria’s place in this world. Despite many of our self-styled and self-proclaimed heroes and founding figures, Nigeria is yet to figure out a unifying culture and purpose which if taught to our children would enable peace and prosperity, moulding our country into a global sphere of influence, a voice to be reckoned with on the world stage.

DAYS before President Muhammadu Buhari embarked on his official visit to America at the invitation of the US President, Barack Obama, many Nigerians appeared anxious. It was clear they could not be sure what would be the outcome of that visit. Their anxiety level had been raised by some commentators who could neither see nor be bothered by what the trip would achieve.

YOU wouldn’t be off the mark to conclude that President Barack Obama’s greatest nightmare is what to do to preserve his signature law, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), from being overturned by Republican legislators with their majority in Congress; or that he dreads losing momentum in the economic near-miracle he has achieved in America; or how to ensure that a fellow Democrat succeeds him in office. None of these is true.

Thank you for transporting the grand recollections, hopes and outlook that we shared during our days in what we knew as the greatest citadel of learning in Africa. In search for greener pastures, shortly after we left Obafemi Awolowo University, I stumbled on a closely held secret. Our academic curriculum was enormously designed by and after the University of Michigan.

I AM interested in President Muhammadu Buhari’s trip to the United States last week not because of the over N2 billion allegedly spent or the long retinue of aides that tagged along with the official delegates. I am not interested in whatever controversy arose from the trip or the brick bats in the social media.

The NFF calls it the Federation Cup, yet I have come across thousands who prefer to remember it as the Challenge Cup, that competition that ignited football in this country and brought out the best in our clubs thanks to its knock out, no second chance format.

It is ironical that despite the raging public debate on whether or not to sustain the regime of fuel price subsidy, our government may have, regrettably, once more, inadvertently doubled the existing N50/litre subsidy. The Petroleum Product Pricing Regulatory Agency’s template indicates that as at June/July 2015, the “subsidy free” price of petrol hovered around N140/litre; thus, the regulated pump price of N87/litre, implies that motorists currently pay over N50/litre less than the actual recovery price.

AMERICA has long been regarded as Nigeria’s strategic ally. In fact, Nigeria has essentially been modelled after the USA. When oil boom derailed our economy in the 1970s and 1980s, we set out to transfer the economy to the private sector. We removed government from the business of doing business. Before then in 1979, we […]