Ideas and agenda for economic growth and human development in sub-saharan Africa
In a rentier economy dominated by patron politicians feeding off the proceeds of crude oil, Aliko Dangote stands apart as one who is, at least, making his money from actually producing things. A non politician, an industrious businessman making things happen in a difficult environment, a patriotic Africanist determined to do business only in Africa,…
It seems Saraki is trending on social media now. Will he attend his summon today by the CCB, or will he not? Why doesn’t he just go and clear his name? He should resign. He should go to jail. Abbla bla. If he resigns his senate presidency or even his senate membership as a…
A few days ago I was calling on citizens to reflect on what has turned out, unwittingly, to be a powerfully revolutionary statement from a bus conductor on the streets of Lagos. The fellow had angrily remonstrated with a passenger asking for “change” after paying his fares. Perhaps the passenger’s face was familiar, and…
Introduction The modern nation of Nigeria was born in 1960 amidst fanfare. As of then, forty six years had elapsed since the British amalgamation, in 1914, of the Northern and Southern Protectorates of Nigeria. The nationalist fathers fought a good fight, and it is instructive that diaspora students were at the heart of those nationalist…
(2nd edition) Author: Michael E. Porter Publisher: Palgrave, New York, 1998 855 pages Unlike David Landes’ Wealth and Poverty of Nations, which was unashamedly an euro-centric take on the political history of development, and unlike Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs and Steel, the award winning anthropological history of development weakened by its far reaching environmental determinism,…
The sorry tale of the Nigerian state is such that much, if not all, the talk about the 2015 election has been how a strong man can come and fix the corruption problem in Nigeria. The debates and discussion have been constructed in terms of agreement or disagreement with this “strong man” solution. Even ardent…
One of the reasons why Nigeria is still backward is not entirely blamable to corruption. The lack of governance models. And a large swathe of the citizenry, even the supposedly educated ones do not help those in need of comprehension, in understanding that salient truth about modelling. Maybe that’s due to not having a good…
Africa remains the zone of turmoil and the world’s poorest inhabited continent. It is a place blessed with every type of mineral resources, including coltan used in mobile phones, copper, forming 75% of the brass casings of allied shells fired at Passchendaele and the Somme in the WW1, uranium for the nuclear bombs dropped on…
I have deliberately refrained from the use of the phrase ‘political consciousness’ for two main reasons. One, because politics is associated, especially in country like Nigeria, with corruption and reckless looting of the commonwealth, attended by impunity and callous abuse of power. As such, people who wish to be associated with higher virtue, often spurred…
Today I had two persons in a group I belong raising concerns and making inquiries, on separate threads, about what should be our attitudes to partisan politics. The first question addressed the worry that this group, and the members thereof, can become an instrument for the self-interest of aspirants or holders of poltiical office. The second…