The Nativity: Why Mary belongs to us all
By Valentine Obienyem As our chaplain, Fr. Chigozie Jidere, proclaimed today’s Gospel on the genealogy of Jesus, my mind went to the story of Hecataeus of Miletus. Within the colossal inner halls of the temple of Amun at Egyptian Thebes, Hecataeus boasted to the priests that he could trace his lineage back sixteen generations to […]
Together, we can make progress against neglected tropical diseases
In Nigeria and across Africa, neglected tropical diseases, NTDs, are a daily reality for many children, families and communities. Despite efforts to control and eliminate them, trachoma, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), lymphatic filariasis, leprosy, onchocerciasis (river blindness), soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis continue to threaten Nigeria’s citizens. NTDs disable and disfigure more than one billion people around the world. Beyond the lives impacted, NTDs also limit economic productivity and development, helping to perpetuate a vicious cycle of poverty.
Fact-checking journalism gains momentum
The facts are the focus as part of a trend in journalism spreading from the United States to many places around the world.
Foreign policy decisions – Let’s make haste slowly
THE Russian Federation on the one hand, and the US and her NATO allies on the other hand, are presently engaged in a cold war of sorts over the Russian annexation of the Crimea part of present day Ukraine. Economic and diplomatic sanctions have been announced against Russia; the Russians, on their part, have placed sanctions on some US interests.
Rebased GDP, World bank and Nigeria’s realities
FIRST it was the World Bank Country Director, Marie-Francoise Marie-Nelly who claimed that 100 Million Nigerians were living in destitution. Then the Bank President, Dr. Jim Yong Kim while speaking at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in Washington early this month, rated Nigeria among the world’s extremely poor countries. Dr. Kim’s grouping of Nigeria in the same poverty bracket with the likes of India, China, Bangladesh, DR Congo, Indonesia, Pakistan, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Kenya, was hotly disputed by Nigeria’s Finance Minister, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. This is in spite of the fact that the country stands to benefit from the Bank’s policy aimed at ameliorating the economic hardship in those middle-income countries — including a $100 billion increase in lending.
Of big country, economy and cynics!
HOW does this affect the price of fish?” was the cynical rider to a newspaper report early in the week that Nigeria has overtaken South Africa as Africa’s leading economy. This followed the cheery news coming from the National Bureau of Statistics, which confirmed, of course, what many had long believed- that the Nigerian economy has been understated.
