Baba Aye's

November unfolded with threats from Donald Trump to invade Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” in defence of “cherished Christians” whom he claimed were facing a genocide in the country. This immediately sparked discussions across the country and beyond. The story made the headlines of all major newspapers on Monday, November 3, all except one  — the Nation, owned by President Bola Tinubu. By the end of the week, Trump reiterated not only his insidious threats; he put Nigeria on the United States (of parts of North) America’s list of countries of particular concern (CPC) for the second time. Senator Ted Cruz, who boasts that he has “fought for years to counter the slaughter and persecution of Christians in Nigeria,” introduced a bill for religious freedom and accountability in Nigeria two months earlier. According to him, jihadists have murdered 52,000 Nigerian Christians and destroyed 20,000 churches and institutions since 2009, the year the Boko Haram Salafi-Jihadist group took up arms a...

The Bola Tinubu administration has been on the saddle for two years. How do you see the state of the nation in these two years? My point of departure in responding to that question would be to draw from Malcolm X. He said something to the effect that there are two nations in every nation. The nation of the exploited and oppressed on one hand and the nation of the exploiter and oppressed on the other. For the poor working masses in Nigeria, the last two years have been terrible. Life has become terribly worse, and mere survival a great challenge. The cost of living has shot through the roof. The take home pay of workers cannot take them home. The 2024 minimum wage is meaningless. It is merely nominal. In real terms it is a wage cut compared to the 2019 minimum wage. But for the super-rich. Tinubu has been a blessing. As Oxfam pointed out in its inequality report earlier this year, this class of Nigerians wealth tripled between 2023 when Tinubu came to power and last year. Their riches...

INTRODUCTION The West African Health Sector Unions’ Network (WAHSUN) occupies a pride of place amongst the five sectoral networks of Public Services International’s affiliates, on the African continent. This is largely because it was the first to be formed. We do feel privileged that the Network has been invited several times by our sister networks and the PSI, to throw some light on the experience of building WAHSUN. This year’s English Speaking (East & West) Africa Sub-Regional Advisory Committee (SUBRAC) meeting provides yet another veritable platform for us to present perspectives on the origins, growth and development of WAHSUN. We shall equally seize that opportunity of looking at where we are and how we got here, to rub minds on what might be the next steps to take in building on the initiative, drawing on earlier discourse in this direction. This is particularly important as the 2 nd Biennial WAHSUN Conference is scheduled to take place in barely two months’...