The part of this headline in inverted commas is not original. I borrowed it from one of the most memorable lines in Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels, a satirical exploration of the virtues and vices that dot the lives of mortals in Western Europe of the 18th Century.But more than one recent events in our national life have reminded me of [...]
Vanguard editorial, in my view, belongs in the heavyweight echelon of Nigeria's commentariat. The weight of its punch is to be judged not only by the resonance of the message over the years; but also its economy of phrase - the uncanny facility to say a lot in so few words, packing so much into so little a space.But its [...]
Some people would wonder why anybody would bother about the image of Nigeria at a time majority of the people are groaning under the weight of economic hardship. I was almost feeling the same way, when I received a call from Ikem Okuhu, the restless and acutely brilliant CEO of Brandish Magazine to join a panel to discuss the subject [...]
Sustainability seems to be the new kid in town. It is the current buzzword and appears fashionable, particularly, amongst Nigerian financial regulators and the financial services sector. But why is this the case and what are the implications? Arguably, the growing interest and buzz around sustainability are linked to the Nigerian Sustainable Finance Roadmap developed by the Financial Services Regulation Coordinating [...]
Of all the vote-catching strategies laid out by the ruling All Progressives Congress in the lead up to the 2015 general elections, its promise to prosecute an all-out war against corruption was unquestionably the most compelling and believable. This is because its presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, is widely known as a man of integrity with very strong aversion for corrupt [...]
I have followed Pastor Tunde Bakare, presiding pastor of the Latter Rain Assembly (LRA), for over a decade now. I have watched his passion for national development get misunderstood repeatedly.I was much younger then, but I heard how Gbenga Adeboye, the great multitalented entertainer (God rest his soul), spoke about this same Bakare. I have heard of his escapades during [...]
“Where have you been?”“I have been around”“I was just wondering why you have not said anything since the Acting President proclaimed that those of you who are asking for the restructuring of Nigeria are a bunch of government appointment seekers.”“So?”“Yes, so?”“Well, if you must know, I actually think that the Acting President is right.”“Chei. I don’t believe you. Ekwetaghi m gi!”“He [...]
In the past three or four decades, the travel trade business has gone through series of up and down associated largely to the absence of stiff regulation to hedge and control entry and exist regimes into the sector. The business adjudged as a multi-billion naira profitable run for both foreign and local airlines operators and the key downstream drivers popularly [...]
Last week, the chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) finally admitted what Nigerians had known for a long time. John Odigie-Oyegun, speaking while receiving those who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Delta State branch to APC, said, “Economically, things are difficult, there is no question about it.”As psychologists will tell us, a stage after the loss of [...]
What is fiscal federalism? In economics, it is a subfield of public finance that studies the financial relations — revenue and expenditure — between the different levels of government in a federation. In his 1959 seminal book, The Theory of Public Finance, the German-born American economist, Richard Musgrave, propounded the theory of fiscal federalism, arguing that to address the inequality [...]
