Point One

 About the most scandalous issue of the moment is a sex video involving five pupils of Chrisland Schools on Victoria Island, Lagos, and for which all branches of the elite group of schools in the megapolis was temporarily shuttered by the state government. It has been reopened. The moral horror in the video is that it had to do with underage pupils while they were away in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, to represent their school in the World School Games between 10th and 13th March, 2022. The video showed a girl said to be aged about 10 years having a romp with a boy barely older, with others in same age bracket constituting a live audience while one of them shot away at the steamy scene. Though the incident happened since early March, there was an apparent attempt by the school management to discreetly deal with the issue, but the video got leaked and went viral online early last week. It has since been made known that the pupils involved have been suspended by the school amidst ...

 Sigmund Freud was the 19th Century Austrian neurologist and founder of psychoanalysis famed for his theory of the subconscious. In layman’s construct, one major thesis of Freud’s intellectual enterprise is that the human mind is structured into two parts, namely the conscious and subconscious levels. His theory compares the mind to an iceberg: the conscious part is like the tip of the iceberg that is visible above the water but is only a tiny fraction of the massive expanse of ice hidden beneath the water, and which compares with the subconscious level of the mind. Whereas the conscious level governs premeditation and pretentions in human actions or inactions, utterances and the like, it is the subconscious level that gives reliable insight into underlying factors surrounding any particular situation. In other words, it is the subconscious level of the mind that factually explains, and holds the key to unravelling knotty state of things. A peephole into that subconscious level are...

 Sri Lanka is a remote island nation in South Asia that is rarely in the news such as commands global attention. But there were recent developments in that country offering universal lessons in leadership. By early last week, many cabinet ministers in the country’s government – a blend of presidential and parliamentary systems – had handed in their voluntary resignation over the worst economic crisis experienced in decades, which triggered defiant protests by citizens. The tiny nation of 21.9million people has been in turmoil for some weeks over a foreign exchange crisis that compelled devaluation of its local currency and sent the cost of basic goods such as food, medicine and fuel galloping. There’ve been long lines at gas stations, supermarkets and pharmacies that stretched the public’s patience, worsened by hours-long power blackouts. Public anger boiled over into violent street protests in the capital, Colombo, penultimate week, with demonstrators hauling bricks at security ag...

 Early this March, the House of Representatives rejected a bill by one of its members seeking to bar public officials from sending their children or wards to schools abroad unless under exceptional terms. It was a repeated time the legislature turned down the proposal by Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo), who had unsuccessfully sponsored a similar bill in the eight National Assembly. The same lawmaker had in February sponsored another bill prescribing a seven-year jail term or N500million fine, or both, for public officers who spend taxpayers’ money on foreign medicals. That health bill scaled through to second reading by the ninth House, unlike in the eight NASS where it was roundly rebuffed. The education bill by Ogun that was rejected proposed that a public officer could only send his/her children or wards to foreign schools after obtaining specific approval from the Education Minister, and after the officer concerned had provided documentary evidence of capacity to pay the fees without r...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has incurred the reputation of an international monster and outlaw since he launched his country’s invasion against neighbouring Ukraine penultimate Thursday, almost renascent of how the late Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 to trigger the Persian Gulf War. But there will be no global war – the touted World War III – resulting from this invasion. Much as the Russian aggression has been trailed by moralist babble and fury, it is playing out within international realpolitik and will be sorted out ultimately within that context. At the end, all parties will be losers and there will be no winners. But the realpolitik will hold up, take my word. By his invasion of Ukraine, Putin returned for an encore of Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from the same country in 2014: another motif in the wider Russo-Ukrainian War that has dragged on through geopolitical history. Only that he will stop short of annexing or occupying Ukraine, ev...

 A proposed bill seeking to prescribe seven years in jail or a fine of N500million, or both for public servants who spend taxpayers’ money on foreign medical treatment is brewing in the House of Representatives. It will be among the most radical and impactful pieces of legislation to be passed by that chamber if it pulls through. Sponsored by Sergius Ogun (PDP, Edo), the bill seeks to amend the National Health Act, 2014 to make provision for sanctions against any public officer who violates the provisions of the Act, especially its Section 46. The section to which amendment is sought reads: “Without prejudice to the right of any Nigerian to seek medical check-up, investigation or treatment anywhere within and outside Nigeria, no public officer of the Government of the Federation or any part thereof shall be sponsored for medical check-up, investigation or treatment abroad at public expense except in exceptional cases on the recommendation and referral by the medical board, and whic...

Morality is in advanced stage of decay among a section of our youthful populace in Nigeria, and its putrid smell is choking life and feeling out of society. Citizens are in shock over the bold-faced bestiality that characterises the trend, with many mulling the question: where and when did we leave our humanity behind? The entire society itself has lost moral compass and came a long way to this point, as concerted erosion of ethics over the years has bred an emergent generation of   heartless immoralists now on the prowl and heralding the death of humanism. Society is at crossroads and in frantic quest for a redemptive path to moral rebirth. Only that the quest is a long way back to sanity.  Many Nigerians were horrified when the police in Abeokuta, early last week, paraded four youngsters accused of having killed and beheaded a girl for ritual purposes. The youngsters, aged 18 to 20 years, were caught penultimate Saturday dawn burning the severed head of their victim – a...