politics

an image of Burkinabe leader Ibrahim Traore

How to Crown an Impostor

Africa, politics /

Traoré is not Sankara, a fact that may be lost on Burkina Faso’s predominantly young population, as well as millennials and Gen Zs across the continent, whose forlorn search for role models tempts them to canonise an impostor. Of course, both are soldiers, similar in age and rank and usurpers of constitutional rule. But that’s where the similarity ends. Like the demagogues before him, Traore and significant sections of the military and political elite from Maurice Yameogo to Blaise Compaore have been complicit in the misery of their citizens, feeding them instead on a diet of pseudo-ideological jingoism and Western bashing, but offering no genuine alternative

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photo of bayo onanuga and akinwunmi adesina

Adesina, Onanuga and the Matter of Being Better Off

Economy, politics /

In two years, Nigerians will ask themselves if their lives have improved in the last four years of the Tinubu government. It’s a question that strips economics of its jargon, whether GDP or HDI, and goes straight to bread-and-butter issues.
If President Joe Biden’s claim of a better life for Americans, even though essentially statistically correct, was insufficient to save him, then the Tinubu administration must roll up its sleeves

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Image of Rasool and Trump on a backdrop of AU leaders

Rasool’s Expulsion Was Africa’s Missed Opportunity to Tackle the US Bully

Africa, International Affairs, politics /

During my visit to Israel last December, the talk at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs was that South Africa took a bribe of $2 billion from Iran to mount a case against the Benjamin Netanyahu government at the International Criminal Court (ICC), an allegation that diplomatic sources in Pretoria have denied

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an image of Wike, Tinubu and Sim Fubara

Rivers State Emergency Rule: A Different View

politics /

Parallels have been drawn between the state of emergency in Rivers State and the one in 1962 during the Western Region crisis, especially as the latter was believed to have led the country down the slippery slope that eventually ended in the removal of the Tafawa Balewa government and the Civil War. The underlying currents may be similar – local politics gone rogue – but the consequences or potential consequences are not.

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natasha akpoti-uduahgan and godswill akpabio

The thing between Godswill and Natasha

politics /

After weeks of trying to see, hear, and say no evil, I’m compelled to overcome the temptation of abstaining by yielding. It’s not an easy road, believe me – not for those genuinely trying to make sense of it, not for the busybodies and certainly not for the parties involved. It’s heartbreaking that despite the perennial underperformance of the legislature, managing the libido of its menfolk has piled on the hazards we must endure

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images of Obasanjo, Omar al-Bashir, Patrice Lumumba, Haile Selassie, Mugabe and Zelenskyy

African Lessons Zelenskyy May Use in Ukraine

Africa, History, International Affairs, politics /

Africa’s experience teaches a different, nuanced lesson. From the betrayals of Haile Selassie during Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia to the murder of Patrice Lumumba of Congo, the continent learnt the hard way that only fools test the depth of a river with both feet. Unlike his predecessor, Viktor Yanukovych, Zelenskyy was just the fool the West needed

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an image of General Ibrahim Babangida and his book - A Journey in Service

Babangida’s Long Journey to Sorry

History, politics /

Those too young or indebted to Babangida to see clearly may believe what they choose. But it would be defamatory of reptiles to call the man a chameleon. When General Yakubu Gowon said in the Foreword that being a soldier and a politician was a virtue in Babangida, the old man was being economical with the truth. As Marshal Davout, one of Napoleon’s most outstanding soldiers, said, the best soldiers abhor politics. They take a professional stand… Instead of the five-letter word – sorry – Babangida tried vainly to use 111,281 words to exorcise the demon within. He failed. In his book On Writing, Stephen King, one of my favourite authors, said honesty is necessary for good writing. Babangida’s pseudo-memoir fails that test

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