Browsing Category
VERITATEM with Obadiah Mailafia
Religion and Freedom
The Trump administration recently placed Nigeria on a special Watch List of countries where religious freedom has been grossly violated. The list includes Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and…
The Economic Consequences of The Peace
The 20th century began in Sarajevo. The 21st century also began in Sarajevo. On a sunny summer day on June 28, 1914 a Serb nationalist fanatic, Gavrilo Princip, assassinated the Austro-Hungarian Crown Prince Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his…
Beware, the Spirit of Unoka
A fortnight agoPresident Buhari submitted a request to the Senate to approve an external loan of US$29.96 billion (N10.7 trillion). It’s the second time such a request would be presented, the first being in 2016, when the Senate rejected…
Why is it that Africans never plan for the future?
A few weeks ago a dear American friend and former colleague sent me an email. Permit me to quote him verbatim: “Hello brother Obed. I trust that you are fruitfully engaged these days. I read an article earlier today that immediately brought…
Why are the French so obsessed with African civilisation?
WHY are the French so obsessed with Africa and its civilisation? I am compelled to ask this question because a few months ago French President Emmanuel Macron was quoted as saying: “With a family that has seven or eight children in Africa,…
What is hate-speech?
We live in strange times. Blatant travesties are being repackaged as wisdom and virtue while right is being made an object of derision and scorn.The new hate-speech law being proposed by the APC-dominated National Assembly is an…
Poverty capital of the world
LAST April, the international charity, Oxfam, revealed that the number of extreme poor in Nigeria had skyrocketed to 94.4 million people, with three million having been added to that unhappy lot in a mere span of six months. As some of my…
Fiduciary duty of care over Chinese loans
HE IMF and other Western agencies have raised issues with regards to China’s open-cheque approach to Africa. I am an admirer of China and do not buy much of the Western propaganda against Beijing. The reason why the Chinese are in Africa if…
From Russia with love
THE Russia-Africa Summit which took place in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi recently has come and gone. And from all I gather, it was a successful event, aided no doubt by the sumptuous signature caviar, washed down with the best of…
Leadership and moral conscience
The art of leadership is difficult enough in normal times. In an age of upheavals, the complexities are infinitely more daunting. Political leadership is the one vocation to which many are called but few are really chosen. Today, sadly, the…