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Voice of Emancipation: Thriving in a Global Crisis

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By Kayode Emola

The last year has been a nightmare for the common man, finding himself responsible for footing the bills of high inflation, high interest, and the cost of living crisis, in the midst of a number of trying situations. Many Western leaders want us to believe that these all stem from the conflict in Russia; yet they cannot justify how, in these same circumstances, the rich are getting richer, and energy companies are declaring hefty profits. Whilst at the same time, the poor around the world have been left behind to fend for themselves through all of these tribulations.

Many of us are oblivious to the wider picture, unconcerned with the global financial tsunami that is currently stirring. However, we are all feeling the effects of inflation and the rising costs of everyday items; none of us is insulated, even in our ignorance. Therefore, I am going to discuss a few of the global events and potential ways to mitigate the challenges. For those who are conscious, this may serve as a precaution to prevent them from falling into a ditch; whilst for the less aware, maybe a note of caution will manage to bring them back on track.

It is undeniable that inflation is biting hard, causing prices of everyday goods to spiral out of control. A large contributory factor in this was the recklessly excessive printing of money by countries in Europe and America during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, with their economies suffering, it raises speculation about whether this has given the West a hidden agenda in terms of their approach to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.

Unquestionably, in the circumstance of war, certain parties are guaranteed to profit, namely, those whose business interests lie in the production of munitions. One may therefore infer that such parties would have a vested interest in prolonging the conflict, rather than dispensing with rapid and decisive intervention.

No one can justify Russia’s use of force; however, a more meaningful approach could have been taken to avert the war. Russia had amassed troops at the border of Ukraine for over a month, thinking that this will give it leverage in negotiating with NATO and the European Union (EU) for Ukraine’s continued exclusion from these entities.

Perhaps if the United Nation had intervened in time, the situation could have been de-escalated in a timely and professional manner. Instead, Russia felt unheard by the Western democracies; and, as a result, we all are paying the high price, whether we like it or not. The thought that the war is likely to go on for several more years is one that should chill the spine of every person around the world.

What is currently Happening?

Recently, we have seen the impact caused by the current crisis on the banking sector. Rising inflation has caused central banks to raise interest rates worldwide. Peripheral banks that had sold long-term products at lower interest rates now have to pay the difference themselves, thereby potentially jeopardising their own financial stability.

Secondly, banks that have invested in long-term government bonds have seen the value of those bonds fall. This has not only put customers’ money at risk, but the market response to the two conditions has caused two internationally renowned global banks (Silicon Valley Bank and Credit Suisse) to have to be forcefully taken over. Furthermore, the Germany-based Deutsch bank is also having trouble. It takes only one event or mistake for everything to spiral out of control, and the whole house falls like a pack of cards.

People have seen their electricity and gas bills triple in recent months; and pump prices of diesel and petrol have been similarly impacted. An average household in the UK that was previously paying less than £80 per calendar month are now paying in excess of £300 pcm just to keep their homes warm. Despite all of this, major energy companies are still declaring serious growth and profit. Just this week, it was reported that the chief executive of British Gas, Chris O’Shea, had been awarded a performance bonus of £1.4m last year, bringing his salary for 2022 up to £4.5m. Yet concurrently millions of ordinary people are unable to afford to even heat their homes.

Not only are energy costs increasing aggressively, but the central banks’ rising interest rates have led to mortgage rates returning to levels not seen since 2006, prior to the financial crisis. This has caused monthly mortgage repayment figures to rise by over £450 pcm, in some cases, a situation which is clearly unsustainable in the long run.

For my Yoruba folks, what does this mean for our survival? The mere fact that we are in Nigeria already sets us at a disadvantage when attempting to navigate the choppy waters of the global crisis. Despite the enormous challenges facing the country, the Central Bank of Nigeria last week increased its interest rates to 18%.

It is becoming clear that we must find a way to create our own financial system, in order to mitigate against soaring interest rates and inflation. We must put measures in place to ensure that the disastrous naira redesign policy, which devastated millions of our people, cannot recur in the future. A self-contained financial ecosystem built on blockchain technology would allow us to protect ourselves from hostile government policies. This would also help our people safeguard money for a rainy day.

Ultimately, we Yoruba need our own financial system. However, this is likely to be impossible until we exit from Nigeria. In the meantime, whilst we await the birth of our Yoruba nation, I implore us all to be aware that we are living in precarious times wherein only the prepared can survive. This is not the time to embark on frivolous spending, but rather the time to be careful and judicious with our finances. Protect your upside and ensure that your downside is covered, so that when the storms get heavier, you will be able to not only survive but thrive, when others are complaining.

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Opinion

The End of a Political Party

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By Obianuju Kanu-Ogoko

It is deeply alarming and shameful to witness an elected official of an opposition party openly calling for the continuation of President Tinubu’s administration. This blatant betrayal goes against the very essence of democratic opposition and makes a mockery of the values the PDP is supposed to stand for.

Even more concerning is the deafening silence from North Central leadership. This silence comes at a price—For the funneled $3 million to buy off the courts for one of their Leaders’, the NC has compromised integrity, ensuring that any potential challenge is conveniently quashed. Such actions reveal a deeply compromised leadership, one that no longer stands for the people but for personal gain.

When a member of a political party publicly supports the ruling party, it raises the critical question: Who is truly standing for the PDP? When a Minister publicly insulted PDP and said that he is standing with the President, and you did nothing; why won’t others blatantly insult the party? Only under the Watch of this NWC has PDP been so ridiculed to the gutters. Where is the opposition we so desperately need in this time of political crisis? It is a betrayal of trust, of principles and of the party’s very foundation.

The leadership of this party has failed woefully. You have turned the PDP into a laughing stock, a hollow shell of what it once was. No political party with any credibility or integrity will even consider aligning or merging with the PDP at this rate. The decay runs deep and the shame is monumental.

WHAT A DISGRACE!

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Opinion

Day Dele Momodu Made Me Live Above My Means

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By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

These are dangerous days of gross shamelessness in totalitarian Nigeria.
Pathetic flaunting of clannish power is all the rage, and a good number of supposedly modern-day Nigerians have thrown their brains into the primordial ring.

One pathetic character came to me the other day stressing that the only way I can prove to him that I am not an ethnic bigot is to write an article attacking Dele Momodu!

I could not make any head or tail of the bloke’s proposition because I did not understand how ethnic bigotry can come up in an issue concerning Dele Momodu and my poor self.

The dotty guy made the further elaboration that I stand accused of turning into a “philosopher of the right” instead of supporting the government of the day which belongs to the left!

A toast to Karl Marx in presidential jet and presidential yacht!

I nearly expired with laughter as I remembered how one fat kept man who spells his surname as “San” (for Senior Advocate of Nigeria – SAN) wrote a wretched piece on me as an ethnic bigot and compelled one boozy rascal that dubiously studied law in my time at Great Ife to put it on my Facebook wall!

The excited tribesmen of Nigerian democracy and their giddy slaves have been greased to use attack as the first aspect of defence by calling all dissenting voices “ethnic bigots” as balm on their rotted consciences.

The bloke urging me to attack Dele Momodu was saddened when he learnt that I regarded the Ovation publisher as “my brother”!

Even amid the strange doings in Nigeria of the moment I can still count on some famous brothers who have not denied me such as Senator Babafemi Ojudu who privileged me to read his soon-to-be-published memoir as a fellow Guerrilla Journalist, and the lionized actor Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD) who while on a recent film project in faraway Canada made my professor cousin over there to know that “Uzor is my brother!”

It is now incumbent on me to tell the world of the day that Dele Momodu made me live above my means.

All the court jesters, toadies, fawners, bootlickers and ill-assorted jobbers and hirelings put together can never be renewed with enough palliatives to countermand my respect for Dele Momodu who once told our friend in London who was boasting that he was chased out of Nigeria by General Babangida because of his activism: “Babangida did not chase you out of Nigeria. You found love with an oyinbo woman and followed her to London. Leave Babangida out of the matter!”

Dele Momodu takes his writing seriously, and does let me have a look at his manuscripts – even the one written on his presidential campaign by his campaign manager.

Unlike most Nigerians who are given to half measures, Dele Momodu writes so well and insists on having different fresh eyes to look at his works.

It was a sunny day in Lagos that I got a call from the Ovation publisher that I should stand by to do some work on a biography he was about to publish.

He warned me that I have only one day to do the work, and I replied him that I was raring to go because I love impossible challenges.

The manuscript of the biography hit my email in fast seconds, and before I could say Bob Dee a fat alert burst my spare bank account!

Being a ragged-trousered philanthropist, a la the title of Robert Tressel’s proletarian novel, I protested to Dele that it’s only beer money I needed but, kind and ever rendering soul that he is, he would not hear of it.

I went to Lagos Country Club, Ikeja and sacked my young brother, Vitus Akudinobi, from his office in the club so that I can concentrate fully on the work.

Many phone calls came my way, and I told my friends to go to my divine watering-hole to wait for me there and eat and drink all that they wanted because “money is not my problem!”

More calls came from my guys and their groupies asking for all makes of booze, isiewu, nkwobi and the assorted lots, and I asked them to continue to have a ball in my absence, that I would join them later to pick up the bill!

The many friends of the poor poet were astonished at the new-fangled wealth and confidence of the new member of the idle rich class!

It was a beautiful read that Dele Momodu had on offer, and by late evening I had read the entire book, and done some minor editing here and there.

It was then up to me to conclude the task by doing routine editing – or adding “style” as Tom Sawyer would tell his buddy Huckleberry Finn in the eponymous adventure books of Mark Twain.

I chose the style option, and I was indeed in my elements, enjoying all aspects of the book until it was getting to ten in the night, and my partying friends were frantically calling for my appearance.

I was totally satisfied with my effort such that I felt proud pressing the “Send” button on my laptop for onward transmission to Dele Momodu’s email.

I then rushed to the restaurant where my friends were waiting for me, and I had hardly settled down when one of Dele’s assistants called to say that there were some issues with the script I sent!

I had to perforce reopen up my computer in the bar, and I could not immediately fathom which of the saved copies happened to be the real deal.

One then remembered that there were tell-tale signs when the computer kept warning that I was putting too much on the clipboard or whatever.

It’s such a downer that after feeling so high that one had done the best possible work only to be left with the words of James Hadley Chase in The Sucker Punch: “It’s only when a guy gets full of confidence that he’s wide open for the sucker punch.”
Lesson learnt: keep it simple – even if you have been made to live above your means by Dele Momodu!

To end, how can a wannabe state agent and government apologist, a hired askari, hope to get me to write an article against a brother who has done me no harm whatsoever? Mba!

I admire Dele Momodu immensely for his courage of conviction to tell truth to power.

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Opinion

PDP at 26, A Time for Reflection not Celebration

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By Obianuju Kanu-Ogoko

At 26 years, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) should have been a pillar of strength, a beacon of hope and a testament to the enduring promise of democracy in Nigeria.*

Yet, as we stand at this milestone, it is clear that we have little, if anything, to celebrate. Instead, this anniversary marks a sobering moment of reflection, a time to confront the hard truths that have plagued our journey and to acknowledge the gap between our potential and our reality.

Twenty-six years should have seen us mature into a force for good, a party that consistently upholds the values of integrity, unity and progress for all Nigerians.

But the reality is far from this ideal. Instead of celebrating, we must face the uncomfortable truth: *at 26, the PDP has failed to live up to the promise that once inspired millions.*

We cannot celebrate when our internal divisions have weakened our ability to lead. We cannot celebrate when the very principles that should guide us: justice, fairness and accountability,have been sidelined in favor of personal ambition and short-term gains. We cannot celebrate when the Nigerian people, who once looked to the PDP for leadership, now question our relevance and our commitment to their welfare.

This is not a time for self-congratulation. It is a time for deep introspection and honest assessment. What have we truly achieved? Where did we go wrong? And most importantly, how do we rebuild the trust that has been lost? These are the questions we must ask ourselves, not just as a party, but as individuals who believe in the ideals that the PDP was founded upon.

At 26, we should be at the height of our powers, but instead, we find ourselves at a crossroads. The path forward is not easy, but it is necessary. We must return to our roots, to the values that once made the PDP a symbol of hope and possibility. We must rebuild from within, embracing transparency, unity and a renewed commitment to serving the people of Nigeria.

There is no celebration today, only the recognition that we have a long road ahead. But if we use this moment wisely, if we truly learn from our past mistakes, there is still hope for a future where the PDP can once again stand tall, not just in name, but in action and impact. The journey begins now, not with *fanfare but with resolve.

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