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Power play in Senegal

It was former New York Governor, Mario Cuomo, who coined the phrase, “You campaign in poetry, but govern in prose.” He used the metaphoric expression to describe how electioneering requires idealistic and elevated rhetoric (poetry), whereas the actual business of governance involves grappling with tough choices grounded in grueling day-to-day realities (prose). Political leadership in Senegal has come full circle from the poetry of electioneering to the prose of governance. That country’s experience signposts the curse on godfatherism in African politics. Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and former Prime Minister, now Speaker of the national parliament, Ousmane Sonko, used to be longtime allies with a strong bromance that carried the day in the country’s 2024 presidential election. They were both held in prison on charges widely perceived to be political, and were released by ex-President Macky Sall on equally political amnesty just 10 days before the court-ordered poll. They...
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Bandits and brutes

 Horror!!! That is the word to describe the recent kidnap incident in Oyo State and its fallouts. Terrorists stormed three schools in Oriire council area of the state penultimate Friday, 16th May, and abducted more than 30 pupils and some teachers. It was a coordinated assault by gun-wielding criminals on Community High School, Ahoro-Esiele; Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yawota and LA Primary School, all in Oriire local government  area near Ogbomoso. Efforts by security operatives were underway as at the weekend to rescue the abducted persons.  The incident marked morbid benchmarks in Nigeria’s security experience. It was the first mass school kidnap in the Southwest geopolitical zone, against the backdrop of such incidents in northern areas that government has been battling with. It happened in broad daylight, at about 9a.m., not in the solitary hours of night as was typical of school attacks in the North. (Students and teachers were jacked from classrooms, hence ...
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Mission miscarried

Twelve weeks into the war against Iran by the United States and Israel, the end isn’t anywhere on the horizon. The world’s economy reels yet from its effects and, in Nigeria, the average citizen stews in existential pressures of runaway inflation. American President Donald Trump remains all bluster, but he is not near getting a handle on the crisis. Actually, his bluster isn’t holding up to reality any more. It gets clearer by the day that this is one mission miscarried, with an exit strategy elusive.  As at last week, both sides of the battle line dug their heels into conflicting stances on which convergence appeared remote. Early in the week, Trump dismissed Iran’s counter-proposals to U.S. terms for ending the war as “garbage” and unwelcome. “I have just read the response from Iran’s so-called ‘representatives.’ I don’t like it – TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE,” he said in a Truth Social post.  Same day, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian struck a defiant note against the backdrop o...
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Mandela’s ghost

In 1994 upon taking office as South Africa’s pioneer president under black majority rule, the late Nelson Mandela espoused a vision of his country as a “people-centered society.” Speaking before a joint session of a multiracial legislature in Cape Town, the legendary freedom fighter said government would aim at “freedom from want, freedom from hunger, freedom from deprivation, freedom from ignorance, freedom from suppression and freedom from fear.” Before that address, thousands of black South Africans lined Cape Town’s streets to cheer as scores of white-helmeted motorcycle outriders slowly led the new president’s car through downtown and up the cobblestoned path to the Parliament building. Standing atop a red carpet leading to the building that was once exclusively for whites, Mandela placed his right hand over his heart – no longer holding a clenched fist in the air as he did for many years of liberation struggle – while a military band played the national anthem. It was a new dawn ...
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Beyond Jilli bombing

Nigerian troops, in their battle against terrorists, recently bombed Jilli market in Gubio council area of Borno State that shares a border with Geidam council area of Yobe State. The mission was conducted by the air component of the Joint Task Force, Operation Hadin Kai. Scores of persons were killed and many others injured, with controversy trailing the mission amid allegations of civilian casualties. The airstrike on Saturday, 11th April, targeted Islamist militants that had turned the market into a notorious hub for their enterprise. Nigeria has battled an insurgency started by Boko Haram militants in the Northeast some 17 years ago, with casualties recorded among gallant troops and community populaces assaulted by the terrorists. Boko Haram splintered in 2016, and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) emerged  as a successor platform. Armed terrorists have plied attacks across the country and morphed into new groups – Lakurawa being the most recent. The military explained...
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Trump card

Eight weeks into hostilities by the United States and Israel against Iran, the endgame is up in the air and the effects yet crushing on the global economy. Nigerians aren’t being spared. A two-week ceasefire struck on 8th April between Washington and Tehran expires this Wednesday, as the gladiators prospect for enduring truce terms. Israeli attacks on Iran’s proxy militant group, Hezbollah, in southern Lebanon had threatened the ceasefire, but that has been defused with a 10-day truce between Israel and Lebanon that took effect last Thursday. Pakistan led efforts in bringing the combatants to the negotiation table, and its officials were as at late last week running the rounds between American and Iranian authorities and consulting with other Gulf states that have a stake in the war, so to get the foes talking again. U.S. President Donald Trump voiced optimism that the war would end soon, and that a fresh round of talks would yield “amazing” results. That was cold comfort, though, beca...
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Endgame in Iran?

 When it rains, it pours. Hostilities persisted last week in the war between the United States and Israel on one hand and Iran on the other, despite a shift of deadline by US President Donald Trump for a threatened Armageddon. Bluster ruled the turf on both sides, and you never really know how close to an endpoint the war is. Meanwhile, the international community roiled in the cost of living crisis the war has foisted on global economy. Israel reported late in the week that it had killed a senior Iranian military figure in targeted air strike. Admiral Alireza Tangsiri was commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) navy and reportedly was the engine room of Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. US Central Command, confirming the killing in a post on X, advised Iranians serving in the IRGC navy to “abandon their post and return home to avoid further risk of unnecessary injury or death.” Washington boasted that Iran had neither a navy left at this point nor a navy l...
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