When the government is in the process of introducing a programme, it is no longer enough to map out the budget implications, as if the programmes, in the final analysis, are implementable sans people. Advocacy ought to precede public pronouncements. Take the recent withdrawal of petrol subsidy for example. The bitter pill would have been easier to swallow if a massive advocacy programme had been unleashed.   The steep increase in the price of petrol and the attendant public outcry could have been better managed. Truth be told, subsidy removal was one of the banana peels strewn in the path…

Summary The Middle East is undergoing a historic transformation with unprecedented opportunities to build new relationships, de-escalate tensions, and foster conditions for stronger integration. At the same time, the region remains on edge because of ongoing tensions in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and other conflict zones, a civil war that broke out recently in Sudan, along with the overarching challenges presented by fraught relations between Iran, Israel, and several Arab Gulf countries — with the longer-term implications of the still-fragile Iranian-Saudi rapprochement yet to be fully assessed. It is difficult to predict where these countervailing trends will take the broader region…

The U.S. Army has said it is seeing an upward trend in recruiting but has refused to provide numbers to bolster the claim. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth told Congress that the branch has improved upon its numbers from last year in its bid to reverse a severe recruiting crisis, but would not fulfill a request to provide the actual data when it was requested by Military.com According to the outlet, requests to the Army for quarterly recruiting data were made in early April, and the branch has declined for weeks to be forthcoming with the numbers and has provided no reason for their refusal.…

"The house don't fall when the bones are good," we are instructed by that sage of Arlington, Texas, and Nashville, Tennessee, Marin Morris. The bones of the U.S. economy are looking good as we hurtle toward the warming months, which means the house of the U.S. economy is not about to fall. The U.S. Census Bureau, which is the division of the Commerce Department that is—for obscure reasons—assigned the duty of tracking new home sales and construction, said that construction spending rose 1.2 percent in April compared with March to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $1.908 trillion. During the first four months of…

Nigeria is a state party to the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement but was among the last of 54 countries to sign due to uncertainties about the deal’s impact on its domestic market. The free trade agreement will hopefully drive the continent’s industrialisation agenda and bring prosperity to Africans. But Nigeria’s dependence on crude oil exports and the challenges facing its manufacturing sector could suppress the benefits. The country must engage strategically with key partners like China, and negotiate mutually beneficial deals that can increase its competitiveness under the AfCFTA. Such negotiations could be part of a broader Nigerian strategy…