The Green

Photo: WSJ The United Kingdom is set to increase its nuclear weapons stockpile by raising the number of warheads from 180 to 260 by the middle of the decade. The move is part of strategic reforms meant to better position Britain in a rapidly evolving international political landscape that is seeing the tectonic plates of global power realigning and shifting towards the East. The hypocrisy of the Western nations in this regard is astonishing considering the severity with which they pursue programs aimed at stifling and dismantling the nuclear programs of nations seeking to develop one. How is the West morally justified to impose heavy sanctions on countries like Iran and North Korea for daring to develop nuclear warfare capabilities, when they are in fact adding to their dangerously over bloated arsenal? Such irresponsible behaviour is immoral on so many levels. This double standard characterises the relationship much of the developed world has had with everyone else. The world is ...

Image: UNDP One in three women globally, around 736 million, have been subjected to physical or sexual violence in their lifetimes, according to new analysis by the World Health Organization (WHO). What a damning statistic and what a searing indictment of men as perpetrators of such evil against women; indeed an indictment on a society that has failed women. Many of the obnoxious acts carried out against women are etched in centuries of culture where women are regarded as subservient, second-class citizens. And unfortunately our systems have evolved far too slowly to disavow this appalling societal malady. A truly global scourge more pronounced in low-income countries and conflict regions but eerily represented even in the most sophisticated of nations. Violence against women according to the WHO report starts at an early age; the most heinous assault on the purity and foundation of our humanity. How have we allowed this sinful malaise to persist for so long? What lies at the hea...

  All the kinds of news coming out of Nigeria today I believe is precisely why many Nigerians opted for a change in 2015. We were fed up with the constant news of unbridled corruption, kidnappings, bombings and deaths. Alas, things appear to have gotten only worse. It is still the same cycle of injustice, disregard for citizens’ rights and a very lethargic response to tackling institutional corruption. I must say, I truly believed the current administration would go about the task of fighting corruption with such veracity that government as we know it would become unattractive to the kind of folks it usually draws. It however seems like for every step the Buhari administration takes forward, it inadvertently takes two steps backwards. This administration has been a failure on practically every front that I criticized previous ones for. But more fundamentally, a government that is incapable of protecting its own people has failed in one of its most primary responsibilities. The ...