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Jan 11, 2025 | 
thisdaylive.com | Simon Kolawole
BY SIMON KOLAWOLEA year ago, Mr Olanipekun Olukoyede, chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), openly lamented the “craze and quest for gratification, bribes and other compromises” by some of the commission’s investigators. “They are becoming too embarrassing and this must not continue,” he said. Monday last week, the EFCC dismissed 27 officials over alleged fraudulent activities and misconduct.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
thecable.ng | Etim Etim |Simon Kolawole
“With long life, I satisfy him and show him my salvation” – Psalm 91:16One of Nigeria’s preeminent public servants; celebrated journalist, writer, artist and poet, Frank Abiodun Aig-Imoukhuede, OON, turns 90 on Wednesday, January 8, 2025, a significant milestone in a long and chequered life. His family is rolling out the drums to celebrate him for his unparalleled attainments and memorable contributions to Nigeria.
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Jan 7, 2025 | 
thecable.ng | Okoh Aihe |Simon Kolawole
The tech industry promises to be very interesting this year. It will bring excitement, it will also inflict pain. Nations will go after each other and try to sabotage each other’s growth where possible. Others will expand growth and dominance and even extend it to conquest as manifest display of strength. The weaklings will lap up the crumbs from the master’s table and remain ever so grateful in that beggarly position.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
thecable.ng | Simon Kolawole
What I would call a routine conversation with a former Nigerian leader inspired this write-up. After expressing his concern about certain developments in the polity, the retired general said he was worried about how Nigerians keep promoting ethnic and religious sentiments at a time the country needed all the unity it can afford to make progress.
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Dec 1, 2024 | 
thecable.ng | Simon Kolawole
BY DONALD AMAESHIFor the 2024 academic year, The New Institute (TNI), Hamburg, brought together a diverse group of scholars worldwide to contribute to rethinking capitalism. The One Kindred One Business Initiative (OKOBI) model, currently championed by the Imo State Government, Nigeria, was selected as a promising framework that challenges conventional varieties of capitalism and offers a unique perspective grounded in the African context.
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Nov 30, 2024 | 
thecable.ng | Simon Kolawole
It’s been very difficult for me to comment on the VAT component of the tax reform bills because of lack of data. President Bola Tinubu has proposed to increase VAT derivation from 20 percent to 60 percent. This has led to political pushbacks and media war. Proponents argue that the bill is so good it will incentivise states to become more productive to benefit from derivation payments. That easy? Opponents, particularly from the north, say it will cripple every state, apart from Lagos. That bad?
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Nov 23, 2024 | 
thecable.ng | Simon Kolawole
Call her naïve but she spoke the minds of millions. I am talking about the woman interviewed by TVC during the Ondo state governorship election last weekend. Asked how the voting went, the woman, speaking in Yoruba, said: “Everything went peacefully. We have voted and we have collected money. Everything went well.” A lady (probably her daughter) sitting next to her was trying to restrain her from talking about the money part, but she resisted, repeating the same line about the voting and the money.
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Nov 9, 2024 | 
thecable.ng | Simon Kolawole
The late Archbishop Benson Idahosa was once asked to comment on the “proliferation of churches” in the country. His rhetorical response was as cynical as it was clinical: “Why are people not complaining about the proliferation of beer parlours?” This came to mind recently when the old debate about whether or not we should pray for Nigeria was re-ignited.
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Nov 2, 2024 | 
thecable.ng | Simon Kolawole
Just when you are tempted to give up on Nigeria, something happens and your hope survives another brutal assault yet again. The incident involving Hon. Alex Mascot Ikwechegh has once more assured me that Nigeria is not a lost case. We know what is right, even if we fail to do it. We know what is wrong, even if we fail to condemn it. Above all, we can still speak with one voice when we experience a common affliction — regardless of our differences.
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Oct 28, 2024 | 
allafrica.com | Simon Kolawole
Praise the Lord! President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has directed ministers and heads of departments and agencies to reduce the number of vehicles in their convoys to three and their security personnel to a maximum of five. This is to "reduce the cost of governance" (I prefer to call it "government's running cost" because "governance" is broader and deeper). We don't know how much this directive will save the treasury in these hard times since the government did not state any monetary value.
