By Bolanle Bolawole

For the first time since Independence in 1960, Nigeria’s economy expanded slower than its population between 2015 and 2020. Nigeria’s GDP per capita declined by 0.02 per cent, 4.16 per cent and 1.78 in 2015, 2016 and 2017 respectively; in 2018, 2019 and 2020, it declined by 0.68, 0.38 and 4.57 per cent respectively. Nigeria’s annual GDP growth rate also declined from 6.22 in 2014 to 3.10 in 2022. Under Buhari, Nigeria’s economy fell into recession twice.The exchange rate of Naira to US dollar in 2015 was N197 but today the rate on the black market where most Nigerians source their forex is well above N700 to the dollar. Merging the official and black market rates by the Tinubu administration has only led to Naira devaluation, driving the former to meet the latter upstairs! According to the Debt Management Office (DMO), Nigeria’s debt profile stood at N12.12 trillion as at June 2015 but now stands at about N81 trillion. On the Global Human Development Index (HDI), Nigeria ranked 152 out of 187 countries in 2014 but dropped to 163 out of 191 countries by 2022. We can go on and on!

By Dr Godknows Igali

On that Saturday morning, June 17, 2023, the sky was exceptionally sunny in the middle of the rainy season over Yenagoa, the Bayelsa state capital, the wettest of all of Nigeria’s 36 states. Though the weather was sparklingly bright, a most sombre mood which had attracted not less than 5,000 young men and women gathered in Yenagoa’s “Peace Park” to bid farewell to a quartet of the state’s and indeed Nigeria’s hopeful future, whose brusque exit has become a metaphor for the country’s love for that beautiful game called football. So sadly was the fact that Mr. Eze Igali, 38 years old and his immediate younger brother, Kurotimi, 36 years old and two other first cousins, Philemon, 38 years old and Clement, 32 years old were to be sent off from human existence just like that.

By Azu Ishiekwene

It doesn’t make sense to weigh tragedies on a scale. How do you measure them? Leo Tolstoy got it right in Anna Karenina when he said whereas all happy families are alike, every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.

By Barr. Ezugwu Okike

It is not today that Nigerians began to regret the abolition of slave trade. When an extraordinarily stupid opinion is expressed on social media, you would often see people regretting abolition. The holder of such opinion, if the ugly trade was still in vogue, would be sold outright. A man, in one of such outrages against public stupidity, was valued at a good bottle of whisky. Another would have gone for a head of tobacco. The brutal wisdom running through this line of reasoning is that the transatlantic slave trade enabled a community get rid of its worthless and senseless sons. It was not altogether bad after all.

By Bola Bolawole

The allegations – or do we call them the road to prosperity – that human rights activist and legal luminary, Comrade Femi Falana, has forcefully pushed into the public domain in the past one or two weeks are too weighty to be ignored by the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. It is like you have a problem and someone says not just that “I have a solution” but “this is the solution!” You either try his solution or tell us why his touted solution is not the solution. Falana’s argument is that subsidy should first be withdrawn from the rich; that if and when this is done, there will be more than enough funds in the kitty to fund government activities and there would be no need to inflict more pain on the long-suffering Nigerian masses who are the ones always being called upon to tighten their belt. Falana also posits that there is so much corruption and wastages allowed the rich and powerful; that if the leakages in the system are plugged and the low-hanging fruits, which he enumerated, are brought into the basket by the government with little or no effort - except the political will and honesty of purpose to act against the concerned members of the ruling class - then, there will be no need to multiply the misery and sorrow of hapless Nigerians.

By Bolanle Bolawole

On Tuesday, 13 June, 2023, I was at the University of Ibadan where I delivered a public lecture titled "The task before Nigeria’s 16th Head of State, Bola Ahmed Tinubu” at the 31st anniversary of the Resurrection Morning Star Society, Chapel of Resurrection of the university. Following is an abridged version of the lecture: