Happenings

Akin Oyebode I do not come to venerate Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, for he is not a saint. As much as I admire him, there are flaws too obvious to ignore. But this is not a time for psychoanalysis; it is a time to set truth apart from fiction. When the (suspended) CBN Governor made his submission on how our nation was being robbed at the Senate, the response was predictable; ignore the message, and go after the messenger. I read the Financial Reporting Councilreport that formed the basis of Governor Sanusi’s suspension and I thought it useful to leave a few comments. While most of the accusations in the report are ambiguous and unclear, some of the more sensational are easily explained. 1. The CBN paid N38.223 billion to the Nigerian Security Printing & Minting Company in 2011 to print bank notes, whereas the entire turnover of NSPMC in that year was N29.37 billion. The CBN uses four companies to print notes; NSPMC and three foreign companies. If NSPMC recorded 75% of the total am...

Reuters A NASA image released this week shows a recent night view of the Korean Peninsula. Apart from a spot of light in Pyongyang,  North Korea  is mostly cloaked in darkness, with China (top left) and South Korea (bottom right) on either side.   One of the most stunning—and revealing—photos ever taken of  North Korea  was a 2002 satellite image of the peninsula at night, shown by U.S. Defense Secretary  Donald Rumsfeld  in a Pentagon briefing. The photo showed the lights of South Korean conurbations, and even large clusters of fishing boats, in stark contrast to an almost entirely black North Korea. Other than a small spot of light in the showcase capital Pyongyang and the outline of the country, North Korea wouldn’t have been visible at all. “South Korea is filled with lights and energy and vitality and a booming economy; North Korea is dark. It is a tragedy what’s being done in that country,” Mr. Rumsfeld said. Fast forward to 2014, an...