Broken politics: Deeply flawed primaries point to a messy 2027, by Olu Fasan
The morning foretells the day. Early signs can indicate how a day will unfold. In that sense, the recent presidential, gubernatorial and legislative primaries foretell a very messy general election next year. Over the past two weeks, the media have been awash with endless stories about deeply flawed party primaries. The primaries betray a political […]
Creating a just Nigeria through the ‘veil of ignorance’
THE theory of political justice is based on two conceptions. The first is the ‘might-is-right’ school, which describes the illegitimate or amoral exercise of power over individuals or communities. The second is the contractarian perspective, based on the notion that a political community should be founded on consensus among its people, and serve their best interests. Nigeria is a product of the former, the might-is-right school. This country was created, built and continues to exist on the whim and self-interest of the powerful, not on high ideals or virtues.
Two routes to national unity, only one really suits Nigeria
NIGERIA is not a ‘nation’. At best, it is a union of nations, or a ‘state’ of nations. It has the elements of statehood, but not of nationhood. A state is a political construct, with sovereignty and power of coercion; but a nation is a body of people with a common descent, language and culture. While a state can be multinational, consisting of culturally different or heterogenous entities, a nation is defined by its cultural similarity or homogeneity. Crucially, a nation is an affair of the heart; but a state, unless it forges a shared identity, can be no more than a geographical expression!
Buhari apologised for wrong reason in his budget speech
By Olu Fasan PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari is reputedly too obdurate to apologise. But he recently did. Well, except that it was for the wrong reason! Presenting his 2020 Budget to the National Assembly on October 8, the President said: “I will start by asking you to pardon my voice”, adding: “As you can hear, I […]
What Buhari’s eminent economic advisers should tell him
PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari recently constituted a high-calibre Presidential Economic Advisory Council, EAC, chaired by Dr Doyin Salami, former adviser to the IMF and, for eight years, a member of the Central Bank’s monetary policy committee, with other members, including Professor Chukwuma Soludo, former CBN governor. For a president who largely shunned economic technocracy in his first term, and who only recently appointed an entirely political cabinet for his second term, this was a pleasant surprise.
If Nigeria was a PLC, it would be sold for N1 and restructured
Olu Fasan THERE is a well-known practice in the business world in which a large multinational corporation could be sold for £1 or $1, the token price tag serving only as a symbolic proof of exchange. But why would a corporate entity be sold for a token sum? Well, that often happens when a company, […]
