Tacking poverty in Nigeria: Onus on crony billionaires, not self-made musicians! By Olu Fasan
Senator Oluremi Tinubu, Nigeria’s irrepressible first lady, recently made two controversial interventions on the country’s socio-economic situation. First, she told the jobless to start selling akara, roasted corn or kuli-kuli to eke out a living. Then, she admonished rich young musicians to help the poor. She received a torrent of criticism for the comments. Yet they […]
Nigeria or North?
THE words of President Muhammadu Buhari above remains his best lines to a badly divided country till date. They were reassuring to segments of Nigeria already feeling alienated by the negative triumphalism of some scions of the far North following the outcome of the March 28 elections which I captured in “Arewa songs of conquest.”
The time for genuine electoral reform is NOW!
THE spate of surprisingly unanimous yet lamentable 2015 governorship election petition decisions handed down by the Justice Mahmud Mohammed-led Supreme Court has made the case for genuine and lasting electoral reform a matter of national urgency, bordering on an emergency.
Where are Nigerians in the fight over the 2016 budget?
IT is pertinent to ask where ordinary Nigerians who have no millions kept away as egg nests and have nowhere to go but live out the nightmare that being a citizen seems to have become in today’s Nigeria – it is indeed important to ask if such Nigerians have been considered in the struggle that has led to the failure or refusal of President Muhammadu Buhari to give assent to the budget sent to him by the National Assembly several weeks ago. It is useless now denying there is a tug of war currently going on between the President and the leaders of the National Assembly. It is a war of will that both parties involved in have been shy to take into the public arena. They would rather do their battle indirectly, through proxies or by making oblique remarks that are neither here nor there.
The conscience of a First Lady
A lot was said last week about Aisha Buhari’s book launch, intended as a means to raise funds for the families of the Chibok girls, Buni Yadi boys and other victims of insurgency.
President’s trade mission to China
The template for public expectation from President Muhammed Buhari’s recent visit to China was formally defined by Femi Adesina, in the President’s Media Adviser’s press release, which was published a day before Nigeria’s star-studded delegation departed Abuja in April. However, the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun had told Reuters and London’s Financial Times, just before the China trip that Nigeria was actually in negotiation for a $2.5bn World Bank loan to partly fund the 2016 budget, because of the more favourable terms.
