Nigeria: Poverty Wins, Buhari Loses

 By Dan Agbese

Some political promises are difficult to keep. The nature of politics induces political leaders to make promises they know they can only keep with soundbites and indifferent public applause. 

*Buhari 

You are not about to hear it from me that President Muhammadu Buhari has clearly failed in one of his core promises dear to the people: wrestling down poverty. He promised to take 100 million people out of poverty in ten years. To show that he meant business, sometime last year he appointed some experts to help him work out a formula for keeping his promise to the people. He does not have ten years, of course, but he has enough time to devise a mechanism or a formula that could be working in his name long after he leaves Aso Rock.

What Is Wrong With Africans?

 By Tochukwu Ezukanma

In his Philosophy of History, the 19th Century German philosopher, Friedrich Hegel, wrote so disparagingly about Africans, “The African exhibits the natural man in his wild and untamed state; there is nothing harmonious with humanity to be found in his character”. 

And “the undervaluing of humanity among them reaches an incredible degree of intensity: cannibalism is looked upon as quite customary and proper. The devouring of human flesh is altogether consonant with the general principles of the African race.” We can disregard Hegel on the grounds that, as of the 19th Century, the Europeans’ prejudiced and inadequate knowledge of Africa could not have given an accurate and objective account of Africans.