Thursday, March 3, 2022
Donald Burness, Writer And Scholar, Dies At 80
Monday, February 28, 2022
Nigeria: Emerging Ray Of Hope In Igboland
By Jude Asike
One possible approach to look at the incoming government of Chukwuma Soludo in Anambra State is to look at it as an account of the change of many things in Igboland, Nigeria. This is invariably to say that with the emergence of Soludo as the next Governor of Anambra State on March 17, 2022, things will positively change for the better in Igboland.
*SoludoThe failure of leadership, lack of genuine goal and vision for Igbo persons in Nigeria will be corrected through a proper understanding of good governance and development initiatives in Anambra State. Anambra is always gifted in producing great leaders of thought, and Soludo is here to move the people of Anambra to the next level.
Saturday, February 26, 2022
What, Exactly, Does Nigeria Want From Ndigbo?
By Ikechukwu Amaechi
The usual refrain on the lips of Nigerian leaders, particularly those who successfully prosecuted the brutal civil war against the breakaway Biafran Republic is the indivisibility of the country.
One of them, General Ibrahim Babangida, in an interview with Arise Television on August 7, 2021 to mark his 80th birthday anniversary, put it rather bluntly: “When we were in the military, we talked about certain issues concerning Nigeria: the unity of Nigeria as far as we were concerned was a settled issue.”
Understanding Nnamdi Kanu’s Trial
By Adebayo Raphael
Since Nnamdi Kanu’s abduction in 2021 by Nigeria’s transnational Gestapo, the consequential rage of members of the Indigenous People of Biafra has been, to a considerable extent, not up to scratch. Instead, there seems to be a diminishing rage, IPOB itself on the brink of becoming another fossilised group in the graveyard of reactionary opposition.
Friday, February 25, 2022
Who Will Save Nigeria From This Impending Implosion?
By Lillian Okenwa
Well-known for his intellectual and legal sagacity, Hon. Justice Chukwudifu Oputa is a man greatly admired. His sense of style was impeccable but near bohemian sometimes. I still remember nearly half of his face covered by a huge pair of dark designer sunglasses he wore on the day we went to locus in quo (Latin, for a place where the cause of action arose) at Zango Kataf in the Southern part of Kaduna State during the famous Oputa panel in 2001.
It’s unlikely you’ve seen anything like those sunglasses. I also remember how peeved he was with my cameraman in 2005 when we went to interview him in Lagos for a video documentary I produced for the Supreme Court Nigeria. After introducing my team and exchanging pleasantries, he took a look at Leke’s skin cut and said he doesn’t understand what is wrong with young men these days. He told us how young men in his days took time to groom their hair, and truly although His lordship was already balding, his well-groomed hair stood out.
Tuesday, February 22, 2022
Retooling Igbo Language In Era Of Digital Pedagogy
By Chris Uchenna Agbedo
Today, the 21st day of February 2022, the United Nations through its organ, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) marks the International Mother Language Day (IMLD) originally proclaimed by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1999, a special day which the UN General Assembly ratified in its Resolution of 2002.
Following that landmark proclamation, the United Nations General Assembly, had in its resolution A/RES/61/266 of 16 May 2007, enjoined Member States “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. The UN General Assembly, by the same resolution proclaimed the following year, 2008 as the International Year of Languages, to “promote unity in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism,” thus designating UNESCO as the lead agency for the Year.Monday, February 21, 2022
Biafra, Or An Oasis Of Prosperity?
By Obi Nwakanma
Let me be on the record, and say that I align myself ideologically with those who seek the right to self-determination as a fundamental human right. This right is enshrined in the charter of the United Nations of which Nigeria is a signatory.
*Odumegwu-Ojukwu taking the oath of office as Head of State of BiafraThese facts are so clear that it begs the question, why is the Nigerian government persecuting, and criminally violating the rights of those like Nnamdi Kanu who has devoted his life to the pursuit of what he sees as his right to be free of the Nigerian enterprise? The answer is: the word, “Biafra” gives Buhari and his ideological fellow travellers the excuse to wallop the Igbo.
Soludo’s Challenge
By Obi Nwakanma
Charles Chukwuma Soludo is a brilliant economist. He made a Nsukka first in the years when to make a first-class at the University of Nigeria was like a camel passing through the eye of a needle. These days the University of Nsukka is poorly run, and badly situated/oriented, and there is a narrowness to its own self-image that degrades it radically.
One hopes that the rise of its great alums, like Dr Soludo, a former student, and former Professor of Economics at the University of Nigeria might help push a “Nsukka renaissance.” In a sense, Nsukka gave Soludo his first rodeo.
*SoludoOne returns to the fountain of one’s intellectual growth to fetch the waters of life. But though Soludo might have been taught by the likes of Okwudiba Nnoli, I’m a little worried about his centrist, middle of the road politics: Charles Soludo was known among his fellow students in those years of Students Union Politics at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as something of an “establishment figure,” who ran with the hares as a student member of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in the 1980s as an undergraduate student.
Wednesday, February 16, 2022
As Electric Bill Is Now More Than The Minimum Wage…
By Abolade Ademola
The electricity tariff of Laaga residents (in Ikorodu, Lagos) has gone so high that everyone cannot afford it. As a resident of the community, I will like to add my voice to this challenge and bring it to the notice of Ikeja Electric and NERC.
In Laaga community, located around Ewu-Elepe, a suburb of
Ikorodu, residents have been made to pay an estimated bill that is more than
the minimum wage of the entire country, Nigeria.
The steady rise in the bill is very discomforting in a country where the rate of inflation keeps rising without a commensurate rise in income.
The residents of a community with few pre-paid meters have been suffering in silence for some months now but it has become very unbearable with the bill sent for January 2022 in the last few days, a whopping sum of N23,000 only! It is such an exasperating amount that everyone is lamenting this outrageous amount that was sent.
Tuesday, February 8, 2022
Nigeria: Government As Purveyors Of Fake News Today
By Emmanuel Onwubiko
“A few lines of reasoning’s can change the way we see the World.”— Steven E. Landsburg.
I was actually ruminating on a very important theme that traverses all of humanity and indeed already indulged in my compulsive lifestyle of deeply reflecting on my newly acquired books (75% of my annual income go into buying freshly minted, topnotch books, hard copies) and one of the most recent copies occupied my consciousness because of the opening quotation aforementioned.
*Information Minister, Lai MohammedTitled Basic Economics: A Common sense Guide To The Economy, this quotation rather led me to think much more about the threats to the Nigerian economy by the widespread use of fake news by all kinds of government officials with dominant reference to Federal Government officials. Lies, misinformation and outright fake news are increasingly being forced down the throats of millions of Nigerians by those who run the government and therefore have seamless access to our humongous commonwealth and patrimony which they misapply as their whims and caprices dictate to them.
Monday, February 7, 2022
Soludo And The Made-in-Anambra Work Ethic
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
There is palpable fear amongst the serious commentariat in addressing relevant issues because most of the viral news attributed to esteemed personages may have been cooked up by the feeble minds of the fake news industry. Anambra State Governor-elect, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has had many words put in his mouth by these fake news manufacturers.
*SoludoIt’s therefore interesting seeing Prof Soludo while interacting
with the members of his transition committee laughing off one of the fibs that
quoted him as saying that he would not spend more than N20 million for his
swearing-in ceremony.
Soludo cleared the matter thusly: “I have made a wish that not even One Kobo of Anambra people’s money will be spent on the swearing-in ceremony. It is a wish, and I mean it. What are we spending money on? Just a few people coming to the inauguration and witnessing it, then I will open office and get down to work immediately. I do not wish any event, dancers or players and all that. I just want to show up for work, like every first workday. Though it is going to be a Friday, which is the weekend, I’m going to work for over eight hours that day. No ceremony, no event, no party, nothing. Not even 10 Kobo will be spent. So the people who are saying N20million has been budgeted should go and tell us where they will get that money. It is going to be work, work, work, and that is what we epitomize.”
Friday, February 4, 2022
Who Is Bola Ahmed Tinubu?
By Bisi Olawunm
Since he made his debut in politics as an activist in the prodemocracy agitations of the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) in the early 1990s, Bola Ahmed Tinubu – latterly Asiwaju, Jagaban – has been in the eye of the storm arising from what is seen as his identity crisis. There have been speculations and claims, as well as innuendoes, about his name, nativity, parenthood and educational records. To many people, the only thing that is real, without contention, about Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the physical person.
In the past few weeks, the intensity of the interrogation of who Bola Tinubu is has revved up several notches as it suddenly, as it were, dawned on people that this person may emerge Nigeria’s number one citizen, come 2023. Bola Tinubu is an enigma of sorts, a curio – a subject of phenomenal curiosity and angst. The puzzle is: How could someone be so well known, in terms of public visibility and public office attainment – as a former senator and governor – and yet so unknown, or with contentions, in terms of his antecedents? We have shell companies, usually engaged in shrouded transactions. Is Bola Tinubu a shell persona, an artificial creation to obfuscate transactional reality?
Wednesday, February 2, 2022
From World Poverty To Corruption Capital
By Matthew Agboma Ozah
To say the least, President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s fight against corruption has been unrelenting and vigorous. Even though, we hear more poetic statements than seeing actions and convictions. However, one area the government has made a mockery of the corruption fight is not only in what seems like a selective or media trial jamboree.
*BuhariBut the fact that, the country consecutively for years keeps dropping in global corruption ranking. This has shown that moral values are fast diminishing among the people and especially so in the political class and public office holders. As it were, integrity, honesty and dedication to duty have collapsed in the society. At the moment, the menace of corruption in Nigeria, especially in terms of the threat it poses to the country’s development is beyond explanation.
Tuesday, February 1, 2022
Insecurity In Nigeria: What Exactly Is Govt Getting Right?
By Ladesope Ladelokun
The President handed Nigerians the marking scheme with which to assess him some five years ago when he told Nigerians at virtually every campaign stop that he would fight insecurity, work hard to revive an economy in a tailspin and declare a total war on the vermin called corruption.
*President BuhariBut it must be said that it is not the best of times for Nigeria at the moment. The most populous black nation is mourning. It is mourning the demise of peace in a country where human life is not worth more than a kobo a dozen and left helplessly bleeding by elephantine corruption.
Thursday, January 27, 2022
Toxic Dust On Orlu-Owerri Road
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye
Recently, I visited Imo
State and was on the Orlu-Owerri road. It is heartwarming that the road is
being rehabilitated because in August when I used it on my way to a wedding, it
was in such a dilapidated state.
But, sadly, the insensitivity of the firm handling the reconstruction work is turning what is otherwise a laudable project into a traumatic experience for the people. The dust that envelopes that road all day is so thick that even though most vehicles switch on their headlights on bright afternoons, it is still very difficult for drivers to see oncoming vehicles just a few meters away.
*Gov Uzodinma flags off the reconstruction of Orlu-Owerri RoadAnd because of this
thick cloud of dust, the motorists practically “drive blind”. One wonders what
it is usually like driving at night when the dust and darkness merge to
compound the situation. I shudder to imagine the implications of this.
But this is not even the really scary part of the story.
Tuesday, January 25, 2022
Slavery In Mauritania And The Shame Of A Continent
By Osmund Agbo
In November 2017, the world watched in utter disbelief, some cringed-worthy footage aired by CNN where dozens of men in detention facilities were being auctioned off for as little as $400 each in Libya. If you think that was a fluke, the crew was also told of the existence of similar auctions taking place at nine other locations in the country.
The victims? People that look like me that belong in the
melanin-rich subset of Africans. The traffickers were our brothers, a shade or
two lighter from the north. But that’s just a tip of the proverbial iceberg.
Slavery is alive and thriving in Africa by Africans.
What if I tell you that the last country in the whole wide world to outlaw slavery is a country in the continent of Africa. Yes, that is Mauritania, in 1981. To put it in perspective, that was some 116 years after the US Congress ratified the 13th amendment which stated that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.”
Monday, January 24, 2022
Soludo And The Challenge Of Managing Expectations
By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu
“She said he made love to her like an intellectual. In the political jargon of those days, the word ‘intellectual’ was an insult. It indicated someone who did not understand life and was cut off from the people.” – Milan Kundera, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting, p. 6 (1978)
*Soludo
Months before assuming office, Governor-Elect of Anambra State, Chukwuma Charles Soludo, has done a world of service to perceptions of south-east Nigeria and traditional ideas of politics in the region.
Saturday, January 22, 2022
Regenerative Agenda For The Youth
By Banji Ojewale
"We must never underestimate the potential of our youths. Throughout history, God has called youths to rise up and change their world through the power of the gospel"
—William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry.
After a timidly truculent tea-cup turmoil triggered to truncate the recent Lagos IMPACT 2022 crusade of Pastor W. F. Kumuyi, leader of Deeper Life Bible Church, the event finally held to unexpected success and wild multimedia acclaim and coverage. The programme was planned to spiritually and psychologically reorient the youngsters of our age for a positive influence on society.
But on account of those Kumuyi invited as ministering guests, the cleric and his church were pummeled, pilloried and pulled down. Those who launched the war argued that by summoning these personalities, the octogenarian man of God was enfeebling the brand the whole world has come to know for its legendary holiness stand.
Friday, January 21, 2022
A Toast To Willie
By Chuks Iloegbunam
Governor Willie Obiano’s direction of Anambra’s affairs will end on March 17, 2022. But his imprint on the state for eight straight years will endure. Not only endure, but also assume legendary proportions with the passage of time. Historians will wax lyrical on his double tenure and ascribe to him the quotable, poetic words Julius Caesar uttered in celebration of one of his famous war victories: “Veni, vidi, vici.” Willie Obiano came. He saw. He conquered.
*Chief Willie Obiano
The man’s story is the stuff of epic fiction. Born on August 8, 1955 to a catechist father (Philip Obiano), and a fish-seller mother, Christiana Obiano (Mama Willie), he took to banking after earning an honours degree in Accountancy in 1979, and a Masters in Business Administration from the University of Lagos. His banking career started at First Bank Plc in 1981. Leaving the bank, he joined Chevron Oil Nigeria Plc as an accountant and rose to become its Chief Internal Auditor. He returned to banking as the Deputy Manager in charge of the Audit Unit of Fidelity Bank in 1991. He rose to become an Executive Director of the bank before he retired, relocating to Houston, Texas, and determined to thoroughly enjoy his well-earned retirement.
Tuesday, January 18, 2022
Nigeria: The Dilemma Of The North
By Sola Ebiseni
In spite of the undeniable clear identity of the Middle Belt and its incomparable gargantuan geographical space, those who still fantasise the old monolithic North would not budge. They keep wallowing in the preservation of the North and would not agree that the empire the British helped them create have long served its useful purpose.
The empire is in a constant state of flux either from the exigencies of statecraft which ensure its fragmentation in state creation or the unchecked influx of tribes of all nations in common brotherhood bound either by religion or cultural occupation which puts the earth and its fullness at the unpartitioned disposal of all. In that situation, it requires no research into history to acquire citizenship.
Contact The Editor
SEARCH THIS SITE
TRANSLATE
MOST POPULAR
-
By Patrick Ebewo MOTION PICTURES WERE REPORTEDLY FIRST SCREENED IN NIGERIA in August of 1903, when Nigerian nationalist Herbert Macaul...
-
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye The recent statement by the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi, tha...
-
Dim Oma! By Mrs. Bianca Ojukwu How do I sum up 23 years in one page? I don't know. How do I describe you? I cannot. Not in any ...
-
Chinua Achebe's There Was A Country : Reflections from the Nigerian Diaspora DATE: Monda y 10 December 2012 T...
-
President John Dramani Mahama Of Ghana To deliver The First Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum Lecture At Bard College, December 10, 2013 ...
-
By Banji Ojewale There is a small but vocal circle of Nigerians who do not believe that their country needs more of the quickening touch ...
-
By Abiodun Ladepo "Yes I have killed the woman that messed up my life; the woman that has destroyed me. I am at Shalom West. My name...
-
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye At the recent Strategic School Management and Outstanding Private Schools Merit Awards organised by the House o...
FOLLOWERS
POPULAR SINCE THE LAST 30 DAYS
-
By Olu Fasan The strength of any country consists of its natural resources, human resources and capital assets, namely, the economic wea...
-
By Tonnie Iredia According to Section 39 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999,"every person shall be entitle...
-
By Dele Sobowale “FCCPC warns Ikeja, Eko Discos to halt metre replacement amid compliance concerns — Report , November 14, 2024. The st...
-
By Tonnie Iredia No democratic nation is expected to undermine any of the easily recognizable 5 pillars of democracy. These are: (i)the ...
-
By Ikechukwu Amaechi A lot has been agitating my mind in recent times on the state of our union and why evil seems to continually thrive o...
-
By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu The news of the death of the controversial Liberian warlord General Prince Yomi Johnson has just reached me. The ma...
-
By Tonnie Iredia With the recent decision of the Supreme Court granting financial autonomy to local governments in Nigeria, the latter...
-
By Kelechi Deca In 2022, Nigeria had its first comprehensive Multidimensional Poverty Index, MPI, report, measuring households’ monetary p...
-
By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye The recent statement by the General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi, that...
-
By Owei Lakemfa Unto us, a man-child is again born by the United States, US, electorate. Donald Trump is actually a reincarnation sent t...
Blog Archive
- December (26)
- November (46)
- October (38)
- September (29)
- August (27)
- July (27)
- June (36)
- May (22)
- April (18)
- March (15)
- February (28)
- January (30)
- December (48)
- November (32)
- October (40)
- September (53)
- August (57)
- July (37)
- June (52)
- May (55)
- April (80)
- March (82)
- February (58)
- January (43)
- December (70)
- November (80)
- October (54)
- September (66)
- August (57)
- July (30)
- June (24)
- May (24)
- April (12)
- March (15)
- February (13)
- January (7)
- December (20)
- November (22)
- October (13)
- September (20)
- August (6)
- July (11)
- June (22)
- May (19)
- April (13)
- March (7)
- February (4)
- January (5)
- December (5)
- November (8)
- October (13)
- September (16)
- August (9)
- July (5)
- June (5)
- May (6)
- April (7)
- March (3)
- February (8)
- January (1)
- December (4)
- November (12)
- October (8)
- September (9)
- August (13)
- July (12)
- June (7)
- May (9)
- April (12)
- March (8)
- February (9)
- January (12)
- December (17)
- November (42)
- October (54)
- September (26)
- August (63)
- July (54)
- June (32)
- May (38)
- April (29)
- March (44)
- February (39)
- January (31)
- December (35)
- November (41)
- October (54)
- September (26)
- August (25)
- July (23)
- June (15)
- May (16)
- April (20)
- March (44)
- February (74)
- January (42)
- December (51)
- November (39)
- October (27)
- September (32)
- August (24)
- July (30)
- June (104)
- May (89)
- April (67)
- March (49)
- February (43)
- January (30)
- December (76)
- November (56)
- October (24)
- September (22)
- August (19)
- July (21)
- June (12)
- May (13)
- April (9)
- March (10)
- February (11)
- January (4)
- December (12)
- November (20)
- October (16)
- September (10)
- August (4)
- July (2)
- April (2)
- February (2)
- December (6)
- November (3)
- October (1)
- September (3)
- August (4)
- July (1)
- June (1)
- May (3)
- April (3)
- March (1)
- February (2)
- January (2)
- December (3)
- November (3)
- October (6)
- September (2)
- August (2)
- July (4)
- June (4)
- May (4)
- April (2)
- March (10)
- February (3)
- January (3)
- December (3)
- November (3)
- September (3)
- August (1)
- July (1)
- June (3)
- May (1)
- April (4)
- March (2)
- February (4)
- January (5)
- December (52)