Better Societies

Subsidy Removal As Elite Banditry, Reverse Robin Hoodism By Farooq A. Kperogi Twitter: @farooqkperogi I really wanted to stop talking about subsidy removal for two reasons. One, senseless, right-wing, anti-people economic populism has become hegemonic in Nigeria as a direct result of careful, deliberate, sustained, artful, and largely unimpeded propaganda by out-of-touch and unfeeling World Bank/IMF ideologues in Nigeria such as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Peter Obi, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Akinwumi Adesina, and others. Two, because corrosive right-wing populism now enjoys an unchallenged rhetorical high ground, opposing it comes across as deviant, unreasonable, and tone deaf. Most people whose quality of life is being eroded, and in some cases outright exterminated, by the withdrawal of the state from the quotidian life of the citizenry (which subsidy removal represents) have been brainwashed into supporting the policy. They fight people who question the wisdom in exposing vulnerable populatio...

 EL-RUFAI’S ACCIDENTAL MESSAGE By Prof John Gambo Laah “The words we use have power. The power to clarify and inspire as well as the power to confuse and annoy” Eblin Group One can swear by any name that Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the former governor of Kaduna State did not expect that his speech to a selected group of Muslim clerics would get to the general public. The speech was meant to whip up religious sentiments and prove to the target group that El-Rufai had accomplished the major goal that El-Rufai set for himself. Since the video was made by a participant or by someone in attendance and not by unmanned satellite or drone, making the video go viral is a clear indication that some of the participants (probably majority) were not impressed with his sermon at the eleventh hour. The body language of the current governor, Senator Uba Sani who sat next to El-Rufai, showed that he was not equally impressed. Mallam El-Rufai must be feeling betrayed. The saddest thing about betrayal is ...