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N210 trillion: Nigeria’s numbers problem

N210 trillion: Nigeria’s numbers problem

By MAHMUD JAFAR The easiest way to rile Nigeria on the matter of public finance is to throw a number of endless zeroes at us and call it missing money. Nobody needs to explain the ledger from which it was drawn, or the accounting convention that produced it, or whether the sum describes cash that once […]
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Agriculture:  Returning to boost Nigeria’s economy

Agriculture: Returning to boost Nigeria’s economy

AGRICULTURE used to be the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. But as oil revenue increased, successive governments out of lack of leadership vision ignored this economic multiplier until President Goodluck Jonathan made it a top priority of his government. Happily government’s agricultural programmes have recorded appreciable gains that can easily ensure self-sufficiency in food production and possibly economic stability in the face of dwindling oil price.

The Yorubas (3)

The Yorubas (3)

AMONG the Yorubas,the clutch bag is an essential accessory on the male because that is where he carries the money he will use to spray celebrants and others at the party.

Democracy, Deferred: Postponed election, an embarrassment of bad choices, by Chimamanda Adichie

Democracy, Deferred: Postponed election, an embarrassment of bad choices, by Chimamanda Adichie

This time, Buhari’s prospects are better. Jonathan is widely perceived as ineffectual, and the clearest example, which has eclipsed his entire presidency, is his response to Boko Haram. Such a barbaric Islamist insurgency would challenge any government. But while Boko Haram bombed and butchered, Jonathan seemed frozen in a confused, tone-deaf inaction. Conflicting stories emerged of an ill-equipped army, of a corrupt military leadership, of northern elites sponsoring Boko Haram, and even of the government itself sponsoring Boko Haram.

Buhari: Trivializing the irrelevant

Buhari: Trivializing the irrelevant

AS Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka put it the other day, ‘this intervention has been provoked, not so much by the ambitions of General Buhari to return to power at the head of a democratic Nigeria, as by declarations of support from directions that leave one totally dumbfounded.’ Nothing best describes the upsurge of vociferous but futile calls for Nigerians to forcefully swallow hook, line and sinker the arrival of a long awaited messiah in Buhari