Columnist

NEWS, STORIES AND REPORTS of internal feuds have rocked major countries on the eastern flank of Africa for nearly four years like in a relay race, with one happening after the other. Tales of killings, human displacement, food crises of famine proportion, epidemics, disruption of medical services, school closures, economic doldrums and power vacuum were […]

BEFORE THE JUNE 2010 report on Africa by McKinsey, a global consulting company, Africa was largely ignored by many pundits, influential media, global policy analysts, investment consultants, international investors, diplomats and even influential politicians in the West. US President George W. Bush, in one of his most famous blunders while in office, once referred to […]

BERLIN’S NOTORIETY FOR building walls predated the 155-kilometre-long wall, the construction of which started from August 13 and was completed on October 3, 1961, within a period of less than two months. The wall, which surrounded West Berlin, was meant to prevent people from escaping to the West from East Berlin. In other words, the […]

ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL, after all, and South Africa’s politics is typical. In a country where the new high road to power is the street and the new sentiment for seizing power involves suborning local people and inciting them against migrants, politics is taking the rest of the country down the path of irreversible decline. […]

THE SEA CHANGE SWEEPING ACROSS the Sahel has just reached the northern tip of the Western coast of West Africa. This time, it didn’t happen by coup d’état but it took the form of a democratic process. The change in leadership occurred despite spirited attempts by the incumbent to retain power against the dictates of […]

  EMERGING PRACTICAL evidence in both historical and contemporary contexts in Africa are now providing a strong basis to contradict or disprove some widely-held assertions in political theories and practice. The idea of democracy in practice with particular reference to Africa is hereby under a critical searchlight. If democracy is indeed about “the people” or […]

________________________________________________________________ Editor’s Note: After taking some time out, Dr Oyeleye returns to continue the series, now in its fifth part, on the subject of ECOWAS, its internal dynamics and politics, and its relationships with the West.  ________________________________________________________________   SURPRISES PROMISED by Captain Ibrahim Traore are unfolding in rather rapid successions. About a fortnight ago, the […]

PENULTIMATE WEEKEND, the West African regional economic bloc, ECOWAS,  made a spirited attempt to draw the countries that earlier announced their voluntary exit back into the fold. That announcement came with carrots and candies: that all the sanctions imposed on the countries concerned were unconditionally and unilaterally lifted. The announcement, which was more of a […]

TIME FOR SCORECARD. It is now 2034. The epitaph in front of the edifice that once served as the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in Abuja has this message: “Here stands this monument as a reminder and testament of a grandiose dream and an aspiration of some past leaders and […]

The purported approval by the House of Representatives of the release of food from the national strategic reserves in response to food price increases is an interesting decision with far-reaching implications, from the legislative chamber as well as the executive branch of the government. It begs the questions bordering on circumspection and insight in public […]