How not to read Governor Adeleke’s victory, by Rotimi Fasan
At dawn on Sunday, the 17th of August, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke of the Accord Party had been announced as the winner of the governorship election that started less than twenty-four hours earlier. With just over half a million votes cast in his favour, the ebullient governor was returned to office for another four-year […]
The tax reform bills and political gamesmanship, by Rotimi Fasan
Now the Nigerian Governors’ Forum have warmly embraced the Tax Reform Bills, one hopes the likes of Bala Muhammed, the Bauchi State governor and Ali Ndume, the Senator representing Borno South, will quit their barefaced politicking and unnecessary self-promotion in the name of defending the interest of the north. After the avoidable controversy that was […]
When obidients feed on their own entrails, by Rotimi Fasan
The Yoruba have a saying that chickens do not feed on each other’s entrails (Edi? ki j?`fun ara w?n). But that does not apply to the obidients, followers of Peter Obi, the Labour Party presidential candidate in the 2023 elections. They claim membership of a so-called movement that is basically a simulacrum, existing mostly in […]
Peter Obi’s alarm and gbajue politics, by Rotimi Fasan
No Nigerian old enough to know what the times say will forget 2024 in a hurry. It was a frightful year; the year when all the negative effects of the policies President Bola Tinubu had put in place to address the country’s many problems were most jarring in their effect. The pump price of petrol (the […]
Nigeria is the unfortunate parent of ungrateful children, by Rotimi Fasan
In physical terms and, perhaps, its sheer lack of social character and cohesion, Nigeria has been described memorably as a mere geographical expression. But as an anthropomorphised social formation, she could well be compared to a woman, victim of multiple rapes and mental torture, that is eventually shot and left for dead by a deserted […]
Afe Babalola, Farotimi and a dangerous culture of wokeism (3), by Rotimi Fasan
Colin Kaepernick was an American National Football League player with the San Francisco 49ers. He played for six seasons. He was and still is a civil rights activist. During a game in 2016, he knelt, refusing to stand as is the custom, when the American National anthem, the Star-Spangled Banner, was being played. He was in […]
Afe Babalola, Farotimi and a dangerous culture of wokeism (2), by Rotimi Fasan
A lot has been said about the manner Dele Farotimi was arrested and how he has allegedly been unfairly treated. What are the details of this? CCTV footage exist of armed security operatives entering his office and they would appear to have seized the phones of his staff. We cannot quite tell from the footage what […]
Afe Babalola, Farotimi and a dangerous culture of wokeism (1), by Rotimi Fasan
LESS than 24 hours to the planned protest against the arrest and detention of activist and Labour Party stalwart, Dele Farotimi, the authorities responsible for his detention took the wind out of the sails of the disaffected community of his supporters comprising human rights activists, professional agitators and opposition politicians, home and abroad. They arraigned him […]
The Nigerian tax reform bills and their malcontents, by Rotimi Fasan
The manner the Northern political establishment, represented especially by governors of the far North and most of their legislators, have reacted to the introduction of the tax reform bills explains why President Bola Tinubu’s proclamation of the removal of petrol subsidy within hours of his assumption of duty as president on May 29 last year, should […]
Tinubu should stop taking every IMF prescription as the gospel(2), by Rotimi Fasan
The likes of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, then Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy and now DG of the WTO; Charles Soludo, then Governor of the CBN and now governor of Anambra State and Oby Ezekwesili, a former Vice President of the World Bank, are Nigerian-born apostles and advocates of the World Bank- and IMF-style […]
Tinubu should stop taking every IMF prescription as the gospel, by Rotimi Fasan
AT a recent gathering of so-called stakeholders of the Nigerian economy at the Lagos Business School, a Deputy Director of the International Monetary Fund, IMF, Catherine Patillo, remarked that the reforms made in the last 18 months of the Bola Tinubu administration are not working. This claim was made with neither sympathy nor concern for both […]
America, Nigeria and the politics of deception, by Rotimi Fasan
One more thing made clear by the outcome of the American presidential election of November 5 is that politics and many other things connected to it are aspects of the human sciences driven by human actions that can be explained, but not always with mathematical precision. When pollsters make projections within “the margin of error” and […]
Gowon, Peter Obi and his supporters, by Rotimi Fasan
When former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, marked his 90th birthday on October 19, he was celebrated far and wide by both friends and foes. He was a war-time dictator and could not be expected not to have those who love him and others who still have an axe to grind with him for his […]
Honourable Alexander Ikwechegh and the “foolish” Bolt driver, by Rotimi Fasan
THE report about a member of the House of Representatives assaulting a Bolt driver was one I had read earlier in the day the news broke. Even after I had seen a footage of the despicable encounter and the infantile utterances of the supposed legislator, I still didn’t think it was strong enough to displace the […]
Nigerian governors for federalism, by Rotimi Fasan
THERE is a curious assertion of statehood, the rights and powers of states against the extent and limit of federal control in our so-called federation that has emerged in the last couple of months. Suddenly, some individuals and groups are waking up to the realisation that Nigeria is not all about the Federal Government, that the […]
Tinubu, the IMF and the Nigerian economy, by Rotimi Fasan
Nigeria’s wobbly economy appears to have humbled everyone. If they are to be taken seriously, not even the big men of the immediate past and the few others used to feeding off the sweat of the struggling majority are spared. Food prices are soaring even as the cost of energy increasingly spirals out of reach. A […]
