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State of the Nation with Olu Fasan

The meaningless symbolism of June 12 as Democracy Day

On June 13, 20192:21 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

IN principle, there is nothing wrong with setting aside a day to celebrate an epochal event in a nation’s life. Every country does it. But the official recognition by President Muhammadu Buhari’s government of June 12 as “Democracy Day”, the first of which was marked noisily but vacuously across the nation yesterday, is a political symbolism that lacks substance.

The reckless alarmism about ‘coup plot’ against Buhari

On June 6, 20194:52 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

NEARLY four months after this year’s presidential election, the animus between the two leading candidates, President Muhammadu Buhari and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, and their parties is stronger and more deep-seated than during the campaign. Otherwise, how else can one explain the recent sensational, yet unproven, allegation by the Buhari government that Atiku and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were plotting a coup against the president?

Buhari failed in his first term, he mustn’t waste his second

On May 30, 20192:29 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

YESTERDAY, Wednesday, May 29, President Muhammadu Buhari was sworn in for his second and final term in office. How time flies!

Decent wages will loosen Nigeria’s poverty-inequality traps

On May 23, 20193:47 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

FEW issues have dominated global policy discussions like poverty and inequalities. In 2014, the French economist, Thomas Piketty, raised the tempo and tone of the debate with his book Capital in the twenty-first century, which lays bare in granular detail the nature and causes of inequalities. Last week, the Institute for Fiscal Studies in London launched a five-year review, chaired by Professor Angus Deaton, winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Economics, to undertake the “most comprehensive scientific analysis of inequalities yet attempted”.

The political deceit behind failure to restructure Nigeria

On May 9, 20193:17 amIn State of the Nation with Olu Fasan, Viewpointby NwaforComments

AGITATIONS for restructuring Nigeria are long-running, recurring and persistent. The clamour is, in fact, so persistent that, since Nigeria returned to civil rule in 1999, no government or ruling party has been able to ignore it.

Nigeria can’t ban imports amid poverty and hunger

On May 2, 20193:57 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

NIGERIANS are poor and hungry. The government is in denial, but deep poverty and hunger are ravaging Nigerians. This country has acquired the shameful sobriquet poverty capital of the world, because it has the world’s largest concentration of extremely poor people.

Lord, give Nigeria bold and incorruptible judges

On April 25, 20194:09 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

EVERY Easter, like the one celebrated this week, Nigerian leaders send messages to Nigerians, exhorting them to be good citizens. Yet, if the leaders examine themselves, they would realise they are the ones who need exhortations: to be good leaders. Indeed, few people need the redemption and renewal that the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ brought to humanity more than Nigerian leaders!

Nigeria’s deep fiscal quagmire and tax conundrum

On April 18, 20195:14 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

LAST week, most Nigerian newspapers were awash with stories about the International Monetary Fund’s 2019 Article IV Consultation with the country. This is an annual process in which the IMF scrutinises a country’s economic management and reports its findings.

The enemies within: Why Nigeria is not working

On April 11, 20196:40 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

ALL nations were once poor and chaotic, but several have successfully transited from poverty to prosperity, from anarchy to order and stability. Some are, however, still stuck in extreme poverty and chaos. A modern example of the former is China. In 1951, China was an impoverished backwater, today it’s an economic superpower. Nigeria, sadly, is an acute example of the latter – still stuck in extreme poverty and chaos.

Atiku’s 2019 bid: Between the messenger and the message

On April 4, 20197:44 amIn News, State of the Nation with Olu Fasanby Urowayino WaramiComments

EMINENT statesmen from the North and South of Nigeria publicly endorsed the candidature of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar in this year’s presidential election. Leaders of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum, the Northern Elders Forum, the Middle Belt Forum, Afenifere and Ohanaeze Ndigbo came together under the umbrella of the Leaders and Elders Forum of Nigeria and gave their collective backing to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party. They said Atiku “demonstrated the deep understanding of the critical needs of the country at this time and possesses the capacity to proffer clear solutions in that respect.” The former vice president, the elders concluded, was the only candidate who could “retool Nigeria on the path of development as a true federal entity”.