News Archives - Maroonsquare

Interrogating the Concept of Restructuring for Progress or Balkanizing to Retrogression; Using Sudan and Yugoslavia as Case Study

6Aug

By Chijioke UwasombaNo Comments

Articles, Economy, News

Interrogating the Concept of Restructuring for Progress or Balkanizing to Retrogression; Using Sudan and Yugoslavia as Case Study

At The Maroonsquare two-day Discourse on National Development held on the 1st and 2nd of July, 2021 held at the Science Auditorium, Federal College of Education (Tech), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos with the theme; Identity Politics and the National Question in Nigeria sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Issues of National interest that includes insecurity, agitations by different minority groups within the Nigerian entity and facts with solutions were brought to the fore. Ms. Oliseh Kadishi in her paper discusses the issues surrounding the idea of whether a broken Nigeria will bring progress to the various nationalities in the Nigerian entity, considering the experience of other nations. Ms. Oliseh in her paper concedes to the fact that the history of the creation of the Nigerian state...

Language, Identity and Power in the Framing of Nigeria as a Monolithic Binary

4Aug

By Adagbo OnojaNo Comments

Discourse 2021, News, Politics

Language, Identity and Power in the Framing of Nigeria as a Monolithic Binary

At The Maroonsquare two-day Discourse on National Development held on the 1st and 2nd of July, 2021 held at the Science Auditorium, Federal College of Education (Tech), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos with the theme; Identity Politics and the National Question in Nigeria sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Issues of National interest that includes insecurity, agitations by different minority groups within the Nigerian entity and facts with solutions were brought to the fore. Mr. Adagbo Onoja discusses the extent of the narrative of a monolithic North and South in the context of agitation for a middle-belt Nigeria. In his paper, he further argued that the contenders for power are those that frame the identity of power in the context of North and South. This is because as a result of suc...

The National Question and Self-determination in Nigeria

4Aug

By Adewale AdeoyeNo Comments

Discourse 2021, News, Politics

The National Question and Self-determination in Nigeria

At The Maroonsquare two-day Discourse on National Development held on the 1st and 2nd of July, 2021 held at the Science Auditorium, Federal College of Education (Tech), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos with the theme; Identity Politics and the National Question in Nigeria sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Issues of National interest that includes insecurity, agitations by different minority groups within the Nigerian entity and facts with solutions were brought to the fore. One of the speakers, Mr. Adewale Adeoye discusses the issue of the National Question & Self-Determination in Nigeria. In his paper, argued that the Nigeria state is a state made up of nationalities that were fused together by the process of colonialism. And further that without colonial intervention, each nationali...

11Aug

By maroonsquareNo Comments

Economy, News

America: A Declining Empire

Regardless of the outcome, the election will not stop the rise of hypernationalism, crisis cults, and other signs of an empire’s terminal decline. The terminal decline of the United States will not be solved by elections. The political rot and depravity will continue to eat away at the soul of the nation, spawning what anthropologists call crisis cults — movements led by demagogues that prey on an unbearable psychological and financial distress. These crisis cults, already well established among followers of the Christian Right and Donald Trump, peddle magical thinking and an infantilism that promises — in exchange for all autonomy — prosperity, a return to a mythical past, order and security. The dark yearnings amon...

Insecurity in Nigeria, Christians on the Rope

13Feb

By maroonsquareNo Comments

Articles, News

Insecurity in Nigeria, Christians on the Rope

Archbishop Matthew Kukah is no stranger to Nigeria's intellectual public space. To an average Nigerian elite, especially of the Christian stock, Kukah is Nigeria's version of the Adolfo Romeros of this world. But to equate him with the Adolfo Romeros of this world is to exaggerate his strength as he is not of the same tradition as the Liberation Theologians, whom Adolfo Romero shared a space with. For the Catholics in Nigeria, he is their brightest star, and the recent state of insurgency in Nigeria, with the claim by the Nigerian Christians that they are at the receiving end from combined forces of Jihadism, Matthew Kukah did not disappoint in this article about the persecution of the Christians in Nigeria. Arcb. Matthew Kukah © Richard Akinwunmi Homily at the Funeral Mass of S...

9Aug

By Edwin MadunaguNo Comments

Articles, News

Revisiting ‘The People’s Revolution’

By “the people,” Leftists include, principally, “those people who do not exploit other people, but are themselves exploited; those who stand at the lowest point of the social ladder, those who are essentially excluded from the governance of their country; those who, strictly speaking, have little or nothing to defend in the present social order; and those who cannot liberate themselves without liberating society as a whole”. I have constructed this definition from several sources including Comrade Eskor Toyo, Comrade Biodun Jeyifo, and Karl Marx himself. It is an ideological and political definition: simple, but not simplistic, and designed for popular education. Of the terms in this definition, only “exploitation” is technical. To this we can also give a simple definition provided...

#RevolutionNOW: The Coming of the Nigerian Spring?

5Aug

By maroonsquareNo Comments

Articles, News

#RevolutionNOW: The Coming of the Nigerian Spring?

5 August 2019 “We need to get our people to believe that a Nigeria that is just and humane is possible” White Fang The dominant issue in the Nigerian political hemisphere of recent has been the #RevolutionNOWProject. As is typical of such protest, opinions have been split not just among the ordinary man in the street, but even among those who ought to be sympathizers to the organizers of the protest. The Maroonsquare tracked down White Fang, one of the members of the advocacy committee of the Coalition for Revolution (CORE) to put in context, what has given birth to the idea of #RevolutionNOW and other issues of concern. Excerpts below Maroonsquare: How do you react to the perception in the public domain that one of the leaders of the protest being a former presidential candi...

The Catholic Church does not need the Priest

13Jun

By James CarrollNo Comments

Articles, News

The Catholic Church does not need the Priest

Against the background of sexual scandal rocking the Catholic Church, one of her parishioners James Carrol has called on Pope Francis to abolish the institution of priesthood in the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church has been on a long quest over sexual abuse of minors by Catholic priests. I. “The Murder of a Soul” To feel relief at my mother’s being dead was once unthinkable, but then the news came from Ireland. It would have crushed her. An immigrant’s daughter, my mother lived with an eye cast back to the old country, the land against which she measured every virtue. Ireland was heaven to her, and the Catholic Church was heaven’s choir. Then came the Ryan Report. Not long before The Boston Globe began publishing its series on predator priests, in 2002—the “Spotlight”...

The Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007) and Nigeria’s Debt Management

23May

By Onyeisi ChiemekeNo Comments

Discourse 2019, News

The Fiscal Responsibility Act (2007) and Nigeria’s Debt Management

At The Maroonsquare Discourse on National Development held on the 28th and 29th of March, 2019 held at the Science Auditorium, Federal College of Education (Tech), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Onyeisi Chiemeke discusses the Fiscal Responsibility Act and the issue of Nigeria's rising debt profile. Below is an excerpt of the paper delivered. It is a fundamental fact of the history of modern economies that certain stimuli are requisite to incentivize any economy. In this regard, every fiscal system requires such stimuli as subsidies or loans to walk on the path of growth. Good examples of such stimuli are subsidies and loans. While subsidies may not be as patent in form as loans, because of its nature of being a government intervention scheme that doe...

Nigeria’s Debt Crisis: A Journey to Where?

16May

By Prof. Sylvester Odion-AkhaineNo Comments

Discourse 2019, News

Nigeria’s Debt Crisis: A Journey to Where?

At The Maroonsquare Discourse on National Development held on the 28th and 29th of March, 2019 held at the Science Auditorium, Federal College of Education (Tech), Akoka, Yaba, Lagos sponsored by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. Prof. Odion-Akhaine discusses the issue of Nigeria's rising debt profile. Below is an excerpt of the paper delivered. How about the future? We must learn from the past. We must all show collective responsibility to prevent a return to the past. We must all commit ourselves to protecting, rather than squandering the future of our children. We must all agree not to remove the solid blocks on which our nation stands by accumulating debts that we cannot repay. May God never let us go through this painful path again (Obasanjo, 2005). &...