MANY analysts of the economics and politics of developing countries (Nigeria included) have agreed to the simple fact that what is needed for success is simple – sensible politics and common sense economics, to be backed by sound administration.

WHY do militant Muslims keep looking for excuses to inflict murder and mayhem on various societies and make themselves objects of near-universal loathing?

Nine years ago, there were long queues in Nigerian cities especially Abuja.
It cost more than 20,000 to purchase a sim card when Nigeria introduced GSM telecommunications. Globacom stormed the scene more than one year after and crashed the price to N5,000.

JUST why don’t our leaders learn the lessons of history? Why are they condemned to lunacy, by doing the same thing over and over and yet expecting to arrive at a different outcome? We have entered the fourth week of the disappearance from the public space, of President Goodluck Jonathan’s wife, Dame Patience.

THE press in Nigeria has been attacked for poking its big nose in the affairs of others. It lambasts public officials with impunity and it attacks any governmental action with the supreme benefit of hindsight; it formulates bold policies without having to take responsibility for their implementation.

Urban renewal is an activity that signposts a city is ready to leave behind the past and move into a newer phase of development.

And so, once again, the wife of a serving president flies off to Europe in search of a cure for a non-life threatening problem.

IN the last few weeks since what I here call Central Bank of the Few under Lamido Sanusi announced its intention to introduce N5,000 bill into the economy, Nigerians have variously cajoled, begged, pleaded with and even threatened the Bank and its management against the planned introduction.

The uproar which greeted the publication of this year’s National Honours list has been very unfair to the majority of the those honoured. Most critics ignored the fact that many people on the list have eminently earned their recognition and rewards. A few are borderlines.

A FEW years ago Nigerians were voted the happiest people on earth. We did not reject the Award which lumped all of us, happy and unhappy ones, together. However, that is no longer true today.