Movie Theaters Are on Life Support – How Will the Film Industry Adapt?

EntertainmentFilm & TVNewsOpinionMovie Theaters Are on Life Support – How Will the Film Industry Adapt?

PilotnewsSeptember 23, 2020

Since the start of the pandemic, the film industry has been in free fall. As deaths have continued to climb, so have studio losses, with crowded theaters – once a source of collective entertainment and escapism – now seen as petri dishes for the virus. Familiar blockbuster franchises whose summer releases studios banked on to balance bleeding ledgers have been barred from shuttered theaters. The 25th James Bond film, “No Time to Die,” the 7th “Mission Impossible,”...

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Why Foreign Countries are Scrambling to Set Up Bases in Africa

Foreign PolicyMilitaryOpinionWhy Foreign Countries are Scrambling to Set Up Bases in Africa

PilotnewsSeptember 23, 2020

Recent media reports claim that a covert Kenyan paramilitary team is responsible for the unconstitutional killing of terror suspects in nighttime raids. The reports are based on interviews with US and Kenyan diplomatic and intelligence officials. The team was trained, armed and supported by US and British intelligence officers. It has been reported that since 2004, a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) programme has been operational in Kenya without public scrutiny. For its part, the British...

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Boko Haram Arms Stockpiling Indicates Long-Term Threat

ColumnsCrime & SecurityOpinionWest AfricaBoko Haram Arms Stockpiling Indicates Long-Term Threat

PilotnewsSeptember 19, 2020

On September 2, Boko Haram (ISWA) militants reportedly killed 10 Nigerian soldiers in Borno state. Such bloodshed has become so commonplace that it often fails to garner much interest. International news outlets spilled little ink to report the incident. Nevertheless, the failures of the region’s militaries—as well as the Lake Chad Basin Commission’s Multi-National Joint Task Force (MNJTF)—to combat Boko Haram merit greater attention from policymakers and the international community. The widespread and persistent human rights abuses...

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Nigeria Launches Community Policing Initiative

ColumnsCrime & SecurityOpinionNigeria Launches Community Policing Initiative

PilotnewsSeptember 15, 2020

In the face of apparently soaring levels of crime and violence, the Nigerian government has launched a community policing initiative. Abuja has set aside N13 billion (about $35 million) to fund the launch and is recruiting some 10,000 constables, according to Nigerian media. The Chief of Police for Ekiti state is hinting that the new constables will be deployed in the areas from which they come. Locally based, the constables would develop ties with community leaders and,...

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Making sense of the forecast of the end of times

ColumnsDon OkoloOpinionMaking sense of the forecast of the end of times

PilotnewsSeptember 14, 2020

From the rockies to the Hudson, to the Potomac, beyond the great sand spread of the Sahara, to the river Naija, the end is on its way ―Don Okolo Life as we know it could be coming to an end. That is not a figure of speech. I have consulted with the shamans and medicine men, from the world’s renowned rainforests, from the swamplands of the Pantanal, to the critter-burdened monsoon regions of the far...

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Nigeria Security Tracker Weekly Update: August 29-September 4

National SecurityNewsOpinionNigeria Security Tracker Weekly Update: August 29-September 4

PilotnewsSeptember 9, 2020

Below is a visualization and description of some of the most significant incidents of political violence in Nigeria from August 29 to September 4, 2020. This update also represents violence related to Boko Haram in Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. These incidents are included in the Nigeria Security Tracker.   August 30: Police killed two Shiites in Kaduna, Kaduna. August 30: Vigilantes killed three kidnappers in Damaturu, Yobe. August 30: Sectarian violence led to two deaths in Anambra West, Anambra. August 31: Gunmen...

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Hopeless State of Hopefulness: Enduring a Mob of Blood-Drunk Humans in Blue Garbs

ColumnsDon OkoloOpinionHopeless State of Hopefulness: Enduring a Mob of Blood-Drunk Humans in Blue Garbs

PilotnewsSeptember 5, 2020

If I were God. I would end it. If I were God, I would have the haters careening through the gates of hell proper…alive. ―Don Okolo I have had time, forty-something years and counting, to muse upon the fate of man the world over. And I have come to believe that a section of humanity would never rise from the quagmire of filth and disdain…from the vise-like grip the rest of the sultry smut have...

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South Africa’s Ramaphosa Tackles Corruption and Strengthens His Hand

AfricaCorruptionOpinionSouth Africa’s Ramaphosa Tackles Corruption and Strengthens His Hand

PilotnewsSeptember 3, 2020

South Africans have long feared that corruption would move from “retail,” small-scale and individualistic, to “structural,” as it is in some other African countries, where corruption infuses the political economy. Those fears accelerated during the 2009-2018 presidency of Jacob Zuma, which was characterized by nepotism, cronyism, and patronage networks, altogether labeled “state capture,” and blatant corruption within some state-owned enterprises fully reported by the media. Corruption also fueled Zuma’s efforts to remain in power and to undermine...

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Nigerian Schools: To Resume or Not to Resume?

EducationNigeriaOpinionNigerian Schools: To Resume or Not to Resume?

PilotnewsSeptember 2, 2020

And if schools resume next year or even a few years later with the same problem still in place, is this the kind of normal we should go back to? ―Ebuka Onyekwelu In normal times, by next week, Nigerian primary and secondary schools are supposed to be resuming for a new academic session in line with the age-long school calendar. But the year 2020 is nothing ordinary or normal by any strand of imagination given...

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Niger Attack Demonstrates Islamic State in West Africa’s Growing Reach

National SecurityOpinionWest AfricaNiger Attack Demonstrates Islamic State in West Africa’s Growing Reach

PilotnewsSeptember 1, 2020

The Sahel and Nigeria were previously distinct areas of operations for jihadist groups. However, the lines between these areas of operations are now blurring. It may, therefore, become harder in the future to determine which of Islamic State West Africa (ISWA)’s branches carried out an attack when such an attack occurs between Niamey, Niger and northwestern Nigeria. On August 9, the Islamic State’s ‘province’ in the Sahel, known as Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS),...

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