A Nigerian newspaper and Online version of the Vanguard, a daily publication in Nigeria covering Nigeria news, Niger delta, general national news, politics, business, energy, sports, entertainment, fashion,lifestyle human interest stories, etc
By Olu Fasan COMETH the hour, cometh the man! Well, in Nigeria, the hour has come, but not the man. All over the world, the coronavirus or COVID-19 pandemic is demanding visible national leadership, requiring leaders to engage openly with their citizens. As someone said: “Faced with the global pandemic, people are looking to their
Read More
By Olu Fasan EARLIER this month, shortly before the global outbreak of the Coronavirus, also known as COVID-19, the price of oil tumbled from $68 to $30 per barrel. It’s a double whammy for oil-dependent countries, but particularly Nigeria, one of the world’s most volatile economies. With oil accounting for 96 per cent of
Read More
By Olu Fasan THE deposed Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, ascribed his dethronement to the will of God as he did his enthronement. “The one who gives, has taken,” he said. But, in truth, Sanusi’s dethronement and his earlier enthronement were products of political machinations, of calculated human actions, to which God was merely
Read More
By Olu Fasan AS I was about to write this week’s column, the news came via Twitter that the Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, had been dethroned. He was deposed on March 9, just over a month after he warned that: “If the North does not change, the North will destroy itself.” Sanusi’s dethronement
Read More
By Olu Fasan FIRST, it was the United States. On January 31 this year, President Donald Trump imposed an immigrant visa ban on Nigeria, describing the country as “posing the highest degree of risk” to American national security. Then, it was the European Union: it recently announced that it planned to impose visa restrictions on
Read More
By Olu Fasan Nigeria has had two types of leader. One is the accidental type; the other the intentional. The accidental leaders never sought to be president but had it thrust on them. But the intentional leaders desperately wanted the office, pursued it tenaciously, and finally secured it. President Muhammadu Buhari is the only one
Read More
By Olu Fasan ASK Nigerians, and the overwhelming majority would say this country’s problem is leadership. Nigeria, they would tell you, suffers from bad leadership. But if you ask me, I will say the problem is also acute failure of followership. In fact, I would say that the problem of complicit followers is worse than
Read More
By Olu Fasan Nigeria: WHY do most countries have prime ministers and not executive presidents? Of the 193 member states of the United Nations, only about 46 have a presidential system, where full executive powers are vested in one person. Out of the 50 sovereign states in Europe, 34 are parliamentarian; so are nearly 40
Read More
By Olu Fasan LET’s start with a basic point but allow me to use metaphors in making it. Here’s the point: Britain is Nigeria’s father, and Nigeria is Britain’s baby. If that sounds controversial, then consider this: Without Britain, there would have been no Nigeria. When George Goldie came here in the 1800s, he didn’t
Read More
THE Yoruba are quintessential federalists. They are the Californians or Texans of Nigeria. California and Texas are powerful American states that have positioned themselves as bulwarks against the erosion of federalism in the US. For instance, Texas sued the Obama administration 48 times and, so far, California has sued the Trump administration 32 times. Both have won several legal battles to safeguard the federalist principles. The Yoruba are doing something similar in Nigeria: fighting to move this country towards true federalism.
Read More