That We May Not Be Taken For Granted, Again, By Uddin Ifeanyi
The biggest disservice done this space by the almost 7 years of the Goodluck Jonathan administration was not its signal lack of qualification for the job at hand — although how this fate befell us still remains one of our darker mysteries. Its main damage was that by contributing to…
The Military and Our Freedoms, By Ifeanyi Uddin
A democracy may entertain questions on how the notion of popular sovereignty may be best put to play. The range of possibilities runs from direct democracies (small communities legislating by referendums), to republics (where popular rule is exercised through representatives elected in regular polls). However, that the people rule and…
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Market Sentiments, the Oil Price and the Naira’s Exchange Rate, By Ifeanyi Uddin
Two developments (the first, over the last three weeks, and the other, work in progress of sorts) underscore the role that sentiments could play in driving divergence between the actual direction of a measure and the trajectory suggested by its underlying processes. Global oil markets have recently presented us (denizens…
Beyond Politics, the Economics of an Ordinary Day, By Ifeanyi Uddin
The more I dwell on the matter, the more I am persuaded of Aristotle’s error. Daily jaded by events around me, I have no doubt that I am beyond politics. Similarly, I am assured by the same concatenation of increasingly fortuitous circumstances that I am nothing if not an economic…
Are There Low Hanging Fruits Ahead? By Ifeanyi Uddin
I had conceived this piece before the fateful events of this last weekend. In the understanding that we would be voting next week, this was meant as a contribution to the post-election dialogue. It is still directed at those who agree with me that in the last five years, our…
How Do We Fund This Year’s Budget Deficit? By Ifeanyi Uddin
Having previously argued that by holding back the full pass through of lower crude oil prices in the international market to the price of fuel at our different filling stations, the incumbent administration was missing out on a chance to teach a useful lesson to the local consumer on the…
National Debt, GDP, and Non-oil Incomes, By Ifeanyi Uddin
"Debt" is an involved concept. The reasons for this vary as do the views of any number of persons one talks to on the matter. At the most basic conversational level, one cannot ignore the fact that most scriptures look askance at the practice of creditors charging interest on their…
Banking In Austere Times, By Ifeanyi Uddin
The banking industry again came under pressure last week. Over the last five years, monetary policy has withstood the worst of adjustments to the myriad macroeconomic constraints endured by the country. With the Treasury continuing in business as usual, the nation's banks have seen profits decline (or fail to rise…
Budget 2015: Hopes and Delusions, By Ifeanyi Uddin
Actions, it turns out, do speak louder than words. In the immediate aftermath of the fall in global oil prices, the consensus amongst most commentators was that Nigeria would be a leading casualty. The current edition of The Economist describes this vulnerability as due to almost entirely to the twin…
February 14, 2015 and the Space for Ideas, By Ifeanyi Uddin
Across our political space, one gravamen is repeated to the point of monotony: how money now dominates our politics. The conversation around this takes place with varying degrees of sophistication. It includes the excited disputation by the newspaper vendors’ stand (close to the bus stop) about how much each got…
