Opinion

CONTRADICTIONS have become the hallmark of our national engagements almost at every level especially in our public life since the advent of democracy in 1999.

UP to now, it has been assumed that the number of people who speak a language guarantees its survival. This means that the more people speak a language, the greater its chance of surviving into the future.

IN many respects, Africa is on the cusp of a new dawn. Never in the history of the continent has technology and society had such a close relationship as we see it today, as the activities of citizens, companies and governments continue to generate information and data at a rate unforeseen in human history.

THERE is one Nigerian who is absolutely certain to be probed, but it is not whom you might first suspect. That person, and I write this so he knows it for certain, is Muhammadu Buhari, Nigeria’s current President. History will probe Buhari in ways even he cannot now think of subjecting anyone.

Sir: It is really disconcerting the way the EFCC is being castigated from every angle by some politically exposed persons and members of the public. One would ordinarily think that the activities of the EFCC would be applauded by all and sundry considering their doggedness in the fight against corruption.

Sir: Democracy could borrow strict adherence to orderliness of the military occasionally to strengthen its institutions. This is by no means to suggest the superiority of a military regime to democratic dispensation.

WHEN, in appreciation of the enormous challenges facing Nigeria, which his government alone cannot handle, President Muhammadu Buhari, the other day, appealed to the media to assist him in rebuilding the country, he merely reminded journalists of a responsibility they have seemed to have overlooked in recent times.

IT is heartening that action on rebuilding the devastated North-East region of Nigeria, long at the mercy of an insurgency that has claimed more than 20,000 lives and left over one million people displaced from homes, is being intensified. Certainly, the traumatized citizens, especially women and children in that area, need the succour urgently.

CONSANGUINEOUS relations are usually celebrated in Nigeria, because when you are related by blood to a person, there are family obligations and expectations that you look out for one another.

Why subsidise petroleum products in the first place? Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other organisations, which import petroleum products into Nigeria claim that because of both Federal Government’s partial regulation of the domestic market and the continued devaluation of the naira, landing costs now exceed approved selling prices.

THE Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Lagos, witnessed a gathering of the cream of the Nigerian media on Thursday, July 30, 2015 in celebration of an icon of print journalism, Mr. Sam Amuka, publisher of the Nigerian Vanguard. Mr. Amuka, a former editorial executive of the Daily Times and The Punch newspapers, before venturing into newspaper proprietorship, widely known as ‘Sad Sam’, his pen name as a distinguished columnist, was being celebrated by a younger generation of journalists on the occasion of his 80th birthday with the launch of a book of essays in his honour.

NIGERIANS could be forgiven for believing (erroneously) that ours is an incredibly complex country and that governing and taking it to prosperity is nothing short of rocket science.