Achebe’s ‘Arrow of God’ Chosen By The BBC For ‘The Big Jubilee Read’

The Big Jubilee Read is a reading for pleasure campaign spearheaded by BBC Arts and The Reading Agency that celebrates great reads from across the Commonwealth, to coincide with Her Majesty The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Pastor Tunde Bakare And The Lies Of A Failed State

 By Chuks Iloegbunam 

Pastor Tunde Bakare of The Citadel Global Community Church recently spoke through his hat while preaching a sermon. He told his congregation that, during the January 15, 1966 military action that toppled the First Republic, the soldiers that took Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa removed his turban, poured wine on his head and force-fed him with the alcohol. For abominating him, Balewa, just before he was shot, pronounced a curse on Ndigbo, to the effect that no one from the ethnic group will ever bear rule over Nigeria. Mr. Bakare’s story, fanciful as it sounds, is a pack of lies. This article, therefore, is to educate Mr. Bakare and others of his misguided persuasion with the truth, of which Jesus, the Christ said in John 8: 32: “Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.” 

*Awolowo, Azikiwe, Balewa

 

On the mundane level, no one removed any turban from Sir Abubakar’s head. The turban is a headdress. Soldiers invaded the Prime Minister’s official residence at around 3am, when the man was in bed. Did he sleep turbaned? Do people sleep in their headdresses? Apart from that picture in which presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari appeared in suit and tie, wearing a wan smile and looking almost comical with his receding hairline, there hardly is another photograph of the man in which a cap does not adorn his head. Would his traditional fondness for full dressing gear ever mean that he went to bed in a hat? Do women sleep with all those accessories they routinely assembled on their heads for public events? Tafawa Balewa’s turban was not removed because he wasn’t wearing one when his adversaries closed in on him.

Is Nigeria Now A Killing Field? — GPAAN

 Press Release

The Guild of Public Affairs Analysts of Nigeria received, with horror and utter disgust, the gory news of the invasion of a train of Nigeria Railway Corporation on its way from Abuja to Kaduna by a horde from hell on 28th March 2022.

We have waited this long to make a statement because we had hoped that the government of President Muhammadu Buhari and the heads of the security agencies would have resolved the problem so we could have a positive statement to make. But alas!

Terrorists rigged explosives on the rail track, to cause the train to hobble to an unscheduled stop in a most unlikely place in the bush. As soon as the trip was disrupted the killers boarded the disabled coaches, shooting sporadically.

Kaduna Killings And A Silenced Nation

 By Ayo Oyoze Baje

“Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction are in their paths’’     – Isaiah 59:17

The recent heartless, blood-letting attacks of terrorists on the Abuja-Kaduna rail line and train, twice within 72 hours, in addition to the Kaduna airport have brought to mind my opinion essay titled: ‘Southern Kaduna Killings and Our Fragile Unity’. It was published by several newspapers on January 15, 2017. The aim then was to draw the needed attention of the powers that be, that more was being said than done in reining in the rampaging monster of killer herdsmen on innocent citizens. That was precisely so in several Sothern Kaduna villages such as Gad Biyu,  Agwan Ajo as well as  Zango Kataf, Jema’a and Kaura local councils, as perpetrated and escalated from August of the previous year, 2016.

Bola Ige: Perhaps, Closed Files Should Remain Just That — Closed?

 By Wole Soyinka 

Barely three months have passed since the twentieth anniversary of the murder of the late Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Bola Ige, an occasion that I utilized to remind President Mohammed Buhari, of a subsisting election pledge.  That pledge was to re-open the files on the spate of unsolved political assassinations that had plagued the nation in recent decades. Prominent among those cases was that of the Minister of Justice, murdered on his way to take up a prestigious position with the United Nations. 

*Soyinka 

Presidential response was swift . Buhari ordered  the Inspector-General of Police to re-open those files and resume investigations.  The nation has patiently awaited even a hint of Work in Progress. Most, I am certain, expect no less than a revaluation of prior investigative efforts. None, to my knowledge, has attempted to rush the Chief of Police and his team into judgment.  We all take solace in the knowledge that the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they arrive.  Eventually. 

Nigerian Women Can Lead!

 By Dakuku Peterside

In the year 2008, I co-edited a book with the title, African Women Can Lead,  published by  Kachifo  Publishers  under its prestige imprint. The book was a collection of essays and presentations made for three editions of the Development and Leadership  Institute, DLI, Women in Politics and leadership programme.

*Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala

We chose the book’s title after a rigorous debate by the advisory board of   the programme. The thrust of the debate then was that more African women should be given a chance to lead as it will help address the prevalent inequality and empower women to contribute more to advancing society. Recent events where many Nigerian women are playing critical leadership roles globally on merit have made the book’s title a prophetic choice.

Sponsors Of Terrorism Should Be Tried Now

 By Femi Falana

Sometime in August 2019, a gang of 10 soldiers led by an Army Captain ambushed and killed the  three police officers who had arrested an alleged kidnap suspect, Bala Hamisu (a.k.a.Wadume) in Jalingo, Taraba State. 

The cold murder of the police officers was designed to cover up the involvement of the soldiers in the several killings and illegal collection of hundreds of millions of Naira as ransom by the kidnappers who had terrorised the people of Taraba State for about three years.

*Falana

The suspected killer soldiers were charged with terrorism in the Federal High Court by the Nigeria Police Force. But in  a complete abuse of his powers under section 174 of the Constitution,  the Attorney- General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN filed a nolle prosequi and withdrew the charges pending against the soldiers at the Federal High Court. 

They have since been shielded from prosecution without any legal or moral justification. Our demand for the arrest and prosecution of the suspects has been ignored by the Federal Government.

Pastor Adeboye On Make-Up, Jewelry, Wigs And Bleached Hair

 

*Pastor Adeboye 

The elders have a say, "if children of the same mother enter into a room to talk and come out smiling, they have not told each other the truth." 

Alright, so in the next three minutes, you might not be smiling as I am going to tell you the truth, because am your daddy. Strictly speaking I have searched the scripture, there is nowhere that I have found where it is written, if you wear make-up, you will go to hell or you will not make it to heaven, I can’t find it in the Bible. It is not to be found anywhere at all, but I have done my own research. 

There are, however, two places in the whole Bible where references were made to painting of face; only two places, and the two places are bad. One of the places talked about Jezebel. How many of you will name your daughter Jezebel? As recorded in 2 Kings 9:30, the day Jezebel was going to die, she did make up properly, painted her face, decked her face with jewelries, but at the end of the day, dogs ate her! 

The second place is in Jeremiah 4:29-30 where God was speaking in anger to daughters of Zion, He says: "when I make up my mind to deal with you, you can paint your face as you like, it is not going to deliver you."

Read it in your Bible. Those are the only two places I found, and they are terrible references.

It Is Not Within The Statutory Powers Of The Police To Demand For Driver's License

 By Solomon Akobe

It is no longer breaking news that Police Officers in Nigeria have been banned from demanding for Custom papers and tinted glass permits. But, for those who are not yet aware, it is necessary to state that the ban was made public via a tweet on Sunday by the Nigeria Police, Force Public Relations Officer, Muyiwa Adejobi. The said tweet reads in part:

“No policeman should demand your customs papers. Except they are on joint operation, but not just on mere routine checks. We have suspended issuance of tinted glass permits, so we don’t expect our men to disturb Nigerians on this. We are to stop any vehicle with tints, search the vehicles, and its occupants, but not to delay for not having tinted glass permits.”

The above is the Police's tweet that have got Nigerians talking commendably about the current Police hierarchy.

Lessons From W.F. Kumuyi’s Global Crusades

 By Banji Ojewale

It wasn’t fulfilling for Mahatma Gandhi,  a Hindu and father of modern India, to read the Bible and be challenged by Jesus Christ’s Sermon on the Mount.

*From Left: Mrs Kumuyi, Pastor Kumuyi and another pastor in Ghana

The Lord’s lofty teachings touched him, as he believed they seemed to surpass his own faith’s call on man to a lifetime of exalted moral values. But Gandhi held that merely mouthing these principles was disingenuous, if it ended in the mind.

The outworking of the precepts of religion by its votaries must confer on it drive, dignity and distinction. He wrote in his autobiography, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, “…morality is the basis of things and that truth is the substance of all morality…A virtue achieves its potential only in its application and it ceases to have any use if it serves no purpose in daily life.”

Soludo’s Solemn Submission

 By Chuks Iloegbunam

The Governor’s promise to Ndi Anambra came in the 14^th of his 50-paragraph inaugural address of March 17, 2022: “I feel your pulse,” he intoned. “For your sake I keep awake at night, sometimes having palpitations about not letting you down. Well, since God is the Miracle Worker, I will look up to Him in prayer and faith as we all start the work ahead of us. I see and feel all the humungous challenges… But here’s my promise: I will give it my all. I will work very hard every day, with you, to make Anambra proud. Every kobo of your tax money will be deployed to provide you maximum value.”

*Prof Soludo being sworn in as Governor of Anambra State in Awka on March 17, 2022 (pix: Vanguard)

A cynical listener, whether via the electronic/social media or physically present at the Government House concourse in Awka, would have been forgiven for responding thus: “There’s nothing new in the sight of a bow and arrow carrying Hausa man.” That’s an Igbo way of saying that Nigeria’s politics is like a raft tossed about in an ocean of flowery promises. 

Nigeria’s Decaying Universities: Blame Govt, Not ASUU!

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

I have always had this lingering suspicion that apart from representing the deep-seated contempt that has come to define government’s attitude to the   welfare of public sector workers, its shoddy, often, disdainful, treatment of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and its demands for improved working conditions might have been carefully conceived as a long term project to continue provoking ASUU to embark on industrial actions until it fatally hurts its case before Nigerians.

The expectation, it would seem, is that as students continue to spend several months at home due to prolonged strikes, which might sometimes lengthen the duration of their academic programmes, parents and other stakeholders who bear the brunt of these constant disruptions will gradually review their sympathy for the teachers and begin to confront them as the problem instead of the government whose continuous reneging on agreements it freely entered into with ASUU created the mess in the first place.

Nigeria: The Ritual Murder Of Bamise Ayanwale

 By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha

As the world marked International Women’s Day last week, news of a missing 22-year-old Ms. Bamise Ayanwale swept through social media, with a video of another woman Caroline Oni wailing frantically in front and around a BRT bus belonging to the Lagos State government. This wailing brought a personal dimension to Bamise’s plight and further deepened the tragic image of loss, frustration, and desperation. 

*Late Bamise 

Caroline Oni, Bamise’s madam and adopted mother wailed loudly that her ward had boarded Bus 240257 that fateful night from Chevron Bus stop in Lekki heading for Oshodi and alerted the family that she was in danger. Apparently, she was right. She could not be reached on phone shortly after. A week later, her body was found in a morgue having been deposited there by the Police. The Police reported that her body had been found on Carter Bridge a week after her disappearance. It beats the imagination for a 21st Century man to believe that the harvested body parts of a human being can fetch them wealth and power!

All Votes Belong To Political Parties In Nigeria

By Femi Falana

On Tuesday, March 8, 2022, The Federal High Court (coram Inyang Ekwo J.) sacked the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi, his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, along with 15 lawmakers in the state over their defection from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

In sacking the governor and his deputy, the learned trial judge ruled that the votes polled by a political party could not be transferred to or utilised for the benefit of another political party or member of another political party. In acknowledging that the Constitution was silent on the implication of the defection of a governor or his deputy, the learned trial judge said that “such a lacuna was not to be celebrated or even mischievously flaunted as failure of a remedy for situations of such nature.”

Before the decision was handed down last week, the High Court of Ebonyi State had dismissed the suit filed by the APC and its flag bearers, Senator Soni Ogbuji, Justin Ogbodo in the 2919 governorship election who had prayed the Court to declare them the winners of the election since the PDP candidate had abandoned the mandate of the people by joining the APC. It was the view of the presiding Judge, Henry Njoku J.  that his jurisdiction to entertain the matter had been ousted by section 308 of the Constitution, which has conferred immunity on Governor Umahi and his deputy. 

The Invasion O f Ukraine Was Inevitable:

Understanding Russian Concerns And The Folly Of Western Diplomacy

By Arthur G.O Mutambara 

*Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Paris

Developing the future of knowledge involves understanding the ‘relationship between what we know and what will happen, for the purpose of improving both, for everyone’.  

This endeavour demands a questioning and contrarian mindset that challenges conventional wisdom. It requires a festival of ideas that cherishes the diversity of views, becoming a crucible for new knowledge and thought leadership. 

Gov Umahi: Impunity Of The Highest Order, Executive Rascality Taken Too Far –NBA

*Gov Umahi 

Statement Of The President Of The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) On The Situation In Ebonyi State 

The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) has noted with utter dismay, the unfortunate and totally unacceptable reaction of His Excellency, Dave Umahi to the Judgment of the Federal High Court, Abuja delivered on 8th March 2022, coram Honourable Justice Inyang Ekwo which inter-alia ordered him and H.E. Mr. Eric Kelechi Igwe to vacate the offices of Governor and Deputy Governor, respectively, of Ebonyi State on grounds of their defection from the Peoples’ Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress. 

Henry Kissinger On Ukraine: How The Crisis Ends

 By Henry Kissinger  

(PUBLIC discussion on Ukraine is all about confrontation. But do we know where we are going?)  

In my life, I have seen four wars begun with great enthusiasm and public support, all of which we did not know how to end and from three of which we withdrew unilaterally. The test of policy is how it ends, not how it begins. 

*Dr Kissinger and Donald Trump

Far too often the Ukrainian issue is posed as a showdown: whether Ukraine joins the East or the West. But if Ukraine is to survive and thrive, it must not be either side’s outpost against the other – it should function as a bridge between them. 

Russia must accept that to try to force Ukraine into a satellite status, and thereby move Russia’s borders again, would doom Moscow to repeat its history of self-fulfilling cycles of reciprocal pressures with Europe and the United States.

Tribute To Donatus Duru: Late Editorial Board Chairman, Independent Newspapers

 
*Donatus Duru, late Chairman, Editorial Board, Independent Newspapers 

By Ade Ogidan 

It has been most difficult for me to script this mournful message in respect of my darling friend, colleague and confidant, Donatus Duru, who passed on exactly eight days ago, at the General Hospital, Gbagada, Lagos. 

The difficulty has to do with my poor mental disposition in accepting that Duru, the Chairman of Editorial Board, Independent Newspapers Limited (INL), will now be referred to in the past tense. 

When I assumed duties in 2016 as Managing Director and Editor-In-Chief of the media house, I knew very well that the task of repositioning the company would be highly challenging. I had earlier held fort as General Manager, Commercial; and Managing Editor. 

But Duru, in his characteristic candour and valour, came in as a reliable ally in charting the path for the newspapers' sustainable redemption. 

Air Peace, Emir of Kano Tango: Sense Of Entitlement Taken Too Far

 

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Pondering over the Emir of Kano, Air Peace tango this week, I couldn’t help but remember the wisecrack by Sarah Churchwell, the 51-year-old professor of American Literature, who wrote: “People who are given whatever they want soon develop a sense of entitlement and rapidly lose their sense of proportion.”

That is exactly what is happening in this contrived hullabaloo.

For those not aware, the story is that the Emir of Kano, Aminu Ado Bayero, who was returning from Banjul, Gambia, missed his early morning flight from Lagos to Kano.

Nigeria, A Country With Too Many Sovereigns

 By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Colonial rule in Nigeria was conducted through Indirect Rule. It was a system of “native administration” patented in Northern Nigeria, which became the model exported by the British across their colonies. For all practical purposes, this system of government gave to most Emirs and other rulers in Chiefly communities, “more power than they had in pre-colonial days.” 

*Allen Onyema 

The result was the establishment of “native states” at the top of which sat these local potentates, many of whom enjoyed powers of life and death over their kinsfolk. The end of colonial rule did not much change this as they reached working accommodation with the post-colonial elite for self-preservation. Powered by twin failures of both leadership and nation building, the result in Nigeria, where it all began, is one country with a multiplicity of sovereigns.

The on-going dispute between the Emir of Kano, Alhaji Aminu Ado Bayero, and Air Peace, a private airline in Nigeria, dramatises this. The claim on behalf of the Emir is that he flew Air Peace from Banjul, The Gambia to Nigeria, on February 24, landing in Lagos about 05:45 hours. He was at the head of a ten-person traveling party who had a connecting flight to catch to his home in Kano, north-west Nigeria scheduled for 06:15 hours the same morning, a mere 30 minutes after they landed. Five out of the ten members of the Emir’s traveling party were business class passengers.