Iwa Salami, University of East London Muhammadu Buhari was re-elected as president of Nigeria in late February, winning 56% of the vote share in a poll shrouded in controversy. After polling day was delayed by a week on the eve of the election, the result was met with allegations of election irregularities. Turnout was low, and only 35% of those registered voted, compared to 44% when Buhari was elected in 2015. The competition was fierce. The race for the presidency was between the incumbent, Buhari, and a pro-market multimillionaire, Atiku Abubakar, the opposition leader. Before the poll, investors predicted victory…
Author: Pride Team
Leila Demarest, Leiden University A close race was predicted between Muhammadu Buhari and his main rival Atiku Abubakar. In the end, the incumbent won the Nigerian presidential election with almost four million votes. After the results were declared, Atiku cried foul, pointing out numerous flaws and manipulations of the electoral process. He also threatened legal action although it remains to be seen if the Peoples Democratic Party candidate will file suit within 21 days of the vote as required. Meanwhile, international leaders have already congratulated Buhari and his All Progressives’ Congress. This is to be expected. External actors have often…
Martin Davies, University of Melbourne There has been a spate of articles and reports recently about the increasing importance of critical thinking skills for future employment. A 2015 report by the Foundation for Young Australians claims demand for critical thinking skills in new graduates has risen 158% in three years. This data was drawn from an analysis of 4.2 million online job postings from 6,000 different sources in the period 2012-2015. From The New Basics report by the Foundation for Young Australians. The report found employers can pay a premium for many enterprise skills. For example, evidence of problem solving…
Lisa Kramer, University of Toronto A high-stakes legal drama featuring cryptocurrencies has been unfolding in a Canadian court recently. The antics that led to the litigation almost defy credulity, and they highlight the need for new regulations to better suit a financial marketplace that includes virtual currencies. News broke in early February that Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX was seeking creditor protection, leaving in financial limbo about 115,000 people who had entrusted the firm to maintain their deposits of cash, Bitcoins and other digital tokens worth an estimated C$250 million. The company’s need for bankruptcy protection arose when its founder and…
“Don’t worry, just vote me as the governor of the state – You will witness a political El Dorado You will never witness any problem in the state. You will enjoy voting me so much that you will want me to be an immortal ruler of this country. I will rebuild all dilapidated schools and colleges. I will build many bridges and recreational centres. I will not even take a penny from the state purse. Investors will rock the state during my tenure. Just vote for me!!!” The man cried like a kid whose lollypop had been snatched by a stringent…
As at this time last week, Nigeria and the global business community were expecting the verdict from the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on the outcome of the keenly contested 2019 presidential elections. The curtain has been unveiled and we are all aware that the incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari, will preside over Africa’s largest economy for another four years. In line with our philosophy of knowledge-sharing and client leadership, we partnered with an elite group of consulting firms under the aegis of Perchstone & Graeys’ Crystal Ball™, a proprietary research tool that forecasts key socio-economic events that influence and shape the state of…
Camaren Peter, University of Cape Town In 1967 one gigabyte of hard drive storage space cost US$ 1m. Today it’s around two US cents. Computer processing power has also increased exponentially: it doubles every two years. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to technological progress in the 21st century. There have also been tremendous advances in communication technology; robotics; nanotechnology; genetics and artificial intelligence, among other things. This merging of digital, physical and biological worlds has come to be known as the “fourth industrial revolution”. So far, relatively little attention has been paid to the…
Lisa Denny, University of Tasmania Sensationalist claims that 40% of jobs in Australia won’t exist in the future are unhelpful for young Australians thinking about entering the workforce. The reality is some jobs will no longer exist, new jobs will be created and most jobs will undergo some form of transformation. The skills we need for work are changing, but young Australians can plan for these changes. Fears of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) wiping out future work are well founded – new technology is changing the way we work. But as the current workforce grows up alongside an ageing…
Ross Harvey, South African Institute of International Affairs Botswana has an elephant poaching problem. The numbers far exceed previous years according to a new survey. The survey was conducted between July and October 2018 by conservation group Elephants without Borders, in collaboration with Botswana’s Department of Wildlife and National Parks. The survey reported a total of 1677 observed carcasses in the survey area of northern Botswana. The surveyors visited carcasses that were of concern – reported as possibly poached – which numbered 104 out of a total of 128 “fresh” carcasses. Dr Mike Chase, who managed the survey, wrote that:…
Reading 1 1 Sm 26:2, 7-9, 12-13, 22-23 In those days, Saul went down to the desert of Ziph with three thousand picked men of Israel, to search for David in the desert of Ziph. So David and Abishai went among Saul’s soldiers by night and found Saul lying asleep within the barricade, with his spear thrust into the ground at his head and Abner and his men sleeping around him. Abishai whispered to David: “God has delivered your enemy into your grasp this day. Let me nail him to the ground with one thrust of the spear; I will not…