politics

An image of Putin and Trump on a backdrop of the Russian and American flags, with Trump clapping

Putin As the President’s Medicine

When Putin came, it was different. Not only did Trump wait for him on the tarmac, applauding as the Russian president walked the red carpet to meet him, they both travelled in the Beast, a rare privilege that bypassed a carefully planned last-minute attempt to prevent a one-on-one summit.
For Putin, the special one, Trump wangled a one-on-one….What is it about Putin that fascinates Trump so much?

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a cartoonised image of Bayo Ojulari looking confused

What Happened In the Matter of Bayo Ojulari?

The problem with Haske is two-fold, each fold highlighting Ojulari’s naivety. Reports indicate that even though Haske’s company had had problems with NNPCL over some turnkey projects, it was to Haske that Ojulari turned to provide jets that flew the board and management for a retreat in Kigali, Rwanda. If there had been a lull in Haske’s business with NNPCL, Ojulari’s tenure has been something of a Haskean revival

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Two images of Trump, with one side directed at the BRICS coalition, and the other directed at the 5 West African countries visiting the white house

Again, Trump’s Way or the Highway

A global trading system dominated by the dollar is no longer fit for purpose. Trump doesn’t think so. He believes the US can continue to eat its cake, preferring bullying and unilateralism to dialogue and multilateralism. The BRICS (now BRIC+) has a combined GDP that is two and a half times larger than the EU’s. It would be foolish of BRICS to underestimate its advantage or indulge Trump’s tantrums

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AI-generated image of stylised, landscape-mode political cartoon, depicting President Trump aggressively shouting “WHITE GENOCIDE”—emphasized by bold exclamation marks—contrasted with President Ramaphosa’s more subdued, explanatory posture

Inside the Oval Office, Trump’s new Lair

Trump wanted only one thing. He wasn’t interested in resetting trade talks or bilateral issues. He wasn’t interested in repairing ties between South Africa and the US or hearing firsthand the other view about the so-called genocide against white farmers. He wasn’t interested in conciliation. He was interested in only one thing: having Ramaphosa for lunch

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an image of Burkinabe leader Ibrahim Traore

How to Crown an Impostor

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

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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