Many years ago, the philosopher, Aristotle, observed that the difference between the educated and the uneducated is like that between the living and the dead. To Aristophanes, it is the dissimilarity between broken and unbroken horses. As President of the US, Lyndon Johnson declared: ”At the desk where I sit, I have learned one great truth. The answer for all our national problems; the answer for all the problems of the world — come to a single word. That word is education.”

If the Boko Haram is not tackled by the collective will of the people, nothing any government can do, the government can only act to the extent the people give it liberty to perform, even if you bring in the best generals in the world to govern.

IT is no longer news that the Federal Government has announced a reduction in the pump price of premium motor spirit (PMS), popularly called petrol.

While I have made my position known on my Twitter handle that ‘a little over 10% reduction in cost of the final (crude oil) product (PMS) in response to an over 50% drop in the cost of the raw material is a good try and that Nigerians can get a better deal’, I am constrained to make this further intervention for a few reasons.

Let me admit that the two main parties talk around the major development challenges—corruption, insecurity, economy (unemployment/poverty, power, infrastructure, etc) health, education, etc. However, it is my considered view that none of them has any credible agenda to deal with the issues, especially within the context of the evolving global economy and Nigeria’s broken public finance. The UK Conservative Party’s manifesto for the last election proudly announced that all its programmes were fully costed and were therefore implementable. Neither APC nor PDP can make a similar claim. A plan without the dollar or Naira signs to it is nothing but a wish-list. They are not telling us how much each of their promises will cost and where they will get the money. None talks about the broken or near bankrupt public finance and the strategy to fix it

The banks depend on the GSM network which has been glaringly inefficient and over subscribed, and shows no appetite for progress and efficiency because of a suspicious cosy relationship between the regulators and the GSM companies. Has computerization come before its time? I am not sure; but it’s alright for the young ones and hell for older folks. But how about banking in the villages, in this push for a cashless society?