Jika Attoh: An Ovation!

 By Chuks Iloegbunam 

“From all indications,” said Jika Attöh. He was dark, and dapper. He spoke English with an uncommon fluency. We also communicated in Igbo, which made me wonder if he was of the ethnic group. It was in answer to my question that he said, “From all indications.” I failed to see the indications, for neither Jika nor Attöh was Igbo. The year was 1976. We were standing in line inside a hall at the Faculty of  Arts building of the University of Ife (Obafemi Awolowo University), all freshmen, waiting to register for our courses in the English Department. Jika told me he was from Onitsha, which was about 15 kilometres from my hometown of Abatete. His full name was Ifejika Michael Elvis Attöh. Of the Attöh surname, he explained that the origin was Ghanaian. He warned that it wasn’t spelt correctly unless two dots hung over the ö in it!  Our friendship started on that day.

When on October 25, 2023, Ikeddy Isiguzo called for my confirmation of the terrible news, I instantly told him to perish the thought. “I tagged Jika to a WhatsApp message I posted this morning,” I said. Then I spoke more sensibly: “Who told you?” The story had appeared on a WhatsApp forum. I advised that he played no part in spreading it without confirmation. I dialled Jika’s number, expecting to hear the usual Babandidi or Misti Shooks, but it rang out. The prospect of calling his wife carpeted me. I tried a mutual friend’s number in Enugu without connecting. Less than ten minutes later, Oseloka Zikora called. “Terrible news,” he said in a subdued voice. He was in Namibia. Jika’s wife had got him by WhatsApp and, could he please pass the message on to Babandidi? Suddenly, calls started pouring in from all over, to ask if it was true, or to express condolences.

Pogrom In Plateau: Why?

 By Ray Ekpu

It was an unmitigated disaster. As Christians were preparing to mark the anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ, tragedy struck in three local government areas of Plateau State. Over 20 villages in Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin Ladi Local Government Areas of the State were attacked, almost 200 persons, men, women and children, massacred and 1300 houses set aflame while at least 88 persons were rushed to hospitals with varying degrees of injuries. About 10, 000 of the survivors have been displaced. They are now refugees in their own country, uncertain where their next meal will come from or whether the attackers will come to where they are to complete their devious assignment.

Those who survived the pogrom can thank Mother Luck but most of them lost their relations. Here are the wailings of some of the survivors. One of them said: “My entire 21 relatives were wiped out.” Another said that as they attacked “We pretended to be dead but as my son tried to crawl away the Fulani attackers noticed that he was not dead, they killed him.” One woman said: “While escaping with matchete cuts I didn’t know that my baby had fallen from my back.” 

2024: Governments As Our Enemy

 By Ugo Onuoha

A happy new year wish will be in order though it is certainly obvious this will be a thoroughly unhappy and extremely troubling year for a majority of Nigerians. From the 1960s, and especially since the return of democracy [read rule by civilians], governments at all levels, have steadily proved themselves to be enemies of the people. 

At least since 1999, the expectation has been that we will experience government of the people, by the people and for the people. No. That has remained an illusion. What we have had has been government of the rulers, by the rulers and for the rulers. The government as a force for good does not apply in our clime.

Killings On The Plateau: The Shame Of A Nation

 By Etim Etim

The brutal killings of over 160 Nigerians in three local councils in Plateau State on Christmas eve and Christmas Day by terrorists have once again illustrated the failure of the Nigerian State to protect its citizens. Over 20 villages across Barkin Ladi, Bokkos and Mangu LGAs were attacked in what has become a pattern of a failed or a fast-failing state. 

I am sad, pained and aggrieved by the flagrant failure of the security agencies to thwart the terrorists’ plots or arrest them after their heinous crimes. Many Nigerians, including a retired general who had once served as the Commander of Operation Safe Heaven on the Plateau, Gen. Henry Ayoola, believe that there are elements in the security agencies that collude with the terrorists and are complicit in these killings.

Nigeria: Birthday Drivels And National Celebration Of Inanities

 By Alade Rotimi-John

The provocative and obscene celebration of birthdays by public personages is fast becoming a rude national pastime. The general Nigerian audience has bemusedly endured a siege of insults for quite some time now respecting the intolerable mischief of a lewd and soulless parade of stunts. There is a total extinction of all taste even as the celebrants are vulgar, gross and illiberal.

*Mrs. Tinubu, Akpabio and his wife at Akpabio's 61st Birthday Bash

Aside from the moral contamination incident on the celebrations, their lessons are morbidly and intellectually degrading as they generally present a distorted or superficial view of the sordid Nigerian condition. Many of the ceremonies have laid bare the social insensitivity of the celebrants who are reputedly of high estate. Even as their object is to covet general praise and admiration, they have ironically received in large measure a backlash in contempt and in a free-flowing gnashing imprecations from their fellow men and women.

A Peep Into 2024 Nigeria

 By Owei Lakemfa

The  year 2023 held a lot of hope for Nigerians as the Buhari administration  which had put the country on autopilot, was programmed to end its tenure by mid-year. Indeed, the past year had begun as a traumatic one with a currency change   which impoverished the people as they could not readily access their  bank accounts or money.

The Naira, rather than be a means of exchange became a commodity traded in the streets. The local currency was  so  scarce that people paid as high as 15-20 per-cent as commission for Naira notes.  Unfortunately, in the first seven months of the Tinubu administration, governance has not changed in a fundamental way. If  anything, the economy for the people got worse with the ill-advised and ruinous increases in PMS prices and the water boarding of the of the Naira. These are the major factors   that  pushed inflation  to 28.2 per-cent. Also in 2023, the Tinubu government was unable to end the scarcity of the Naira leading to it being traded in the streets, sometimes at rates as high as 10 per-cent.

Let’s Bring Back The Short Story

By Banji Ojewale

Art is a lie which makes us see the truth—Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish artist

To prepare for this short essay on the short story, I have had to rescue from my home library two old local magazines that, in an earlier generation, sought to offer vibrant voice to this literary genre. First pushed out as a monthly in March 1985, one of the publications was simply called Mc.Quick Short Stories, with a cover price of N2. If you were willing to part with that ‘pittance’ for that product, you were guaranteed an animating literary excursions with some of the greats in the industry.

So, I have in front of me Vol. 1 No. 1 1985 edition of Mc.Quick Short Stories. Wale Adeniran is the Publisher. Kole Omotoso is the Editor-in-Chief, and Femi Omowumi, Odia Ofeimun, Seun Ige and Labo Yari, in tow as Associate Editors. Graphic arts and illustrations are handled by Abiodun Araba, Victor Olusa and Akin Adejuwon. As you close-up on Mc.Quick, you run into the inner world of some of the eminent short story exponents of the age. Leban Erapu, the Ugandan intellectual, has an entry he calls, Guns and Books. He looks at Africa’s political scene, and intrigued by its internal rumblings, wonders why the problems they mischievously engineer remain unresolved. 

Tribute to Arákùnrin Rotimi Akeredolu, Aketi

 By Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo

It came as a rude shock to us in the Afẹnifẹre as the news of the passage of the Governor of Ondo State, Arákùnrin Olurotimi Akeredolu, filtered through the airwaves… Yet another illustrous, forthright and resolute democrat, passes on, in a land lacking leader that are deficient in audacity, bravery daring determination, endurance, fearlessness finesse, fortitude, gallantry, grit heroism, prowess spirit, spunk tenacity and valor.

Late Akeredolu

Aketi stood for what is right and just, a defender of the people and his people will forever appreciate his profound efforts that most often result in politically induced attacks on the people of Ondo State.

Who Dares Rechristen The University Of Ilorin?

 By Tunde Olusunle

Whenever I’m privileged to visit Ilorin the Kwara State capital, I include in my itinerary a visit to the University of Ilorin (UNILORIN), as is popularly abbreviated. My passion, maybe obsession with the institution is informed by a number of reasons. Principal among these is the fact that I had two academic excursions to the revered school, during which I obtained a bachelors honours and a master’s degree in English, respectively.

I was graciously offered a place on the doctorate programme by the university but had to weigh up the cost of shuttling between my home in Abuja and Ilorin. This was years before information technology truly broke down physical hedges and activated the options of real-time, virtual communication. What with Skype, Zoom, video call, and similar possibilities?

New African Magazine Unveils 100 Most Influential Africans Of 2023

 

New African magazine released today its annual listing of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2023. The list celebrates the achievements and contributions of Africans from various fields and sectors, who have made a positive impact on the continent and the world. The list features a diverse and inspiring group of men and women, who have demonstrated excellence, innovation, leadership, resilience, and vision in their respective domains. They include politicians, entrepreneurs, industrialists, environmentalists, creatives, scientists, educators, sports personalities, and more.

Nigeria: Survival Of The Fittest And Profligacy Of Government

 By Emmanuel Onwubiko

The English philosopher and psychologist, Herbert Spencer, coined the phrase “survival of the fittest” (1820-1903). He is famous for his doctrine of social Darwinism, which asserts that the principles of evolution, including natural selection, apply to human societies, social classes, and individuals as well as to biological species developing over geologic time.

*Akpabio and Tinubu

In Spencer’s days, social Darwinism was invoked to justify laissez-faire economics and the minimal state, which were thought to best promote unfettered competition between individuals and the gradual improvement of society through the “survival of the fittest.”

Pray, Nigeria Needs Patriotic, God-Fearing Judges: Where Are They?

 By Olu Fasan

A few years ago, I wrote a piece titled “Lord, give Nigeria bold and incorruptible judges” (Vanguard, April 25, 2019). That was when state security agents invaded the homes of some judges and seized bags full of foreign currencies, and an incumbent Chief Justice of Nigeria was sacked, arrested and arraigned before the Code of Conduct Tribunal on corruption charges.

Nearly five years later, I’m repeating the prayer, and I urge fellow Nigerians to join me in saying it. For the rot in Nigeria’s judiciary is deepening and there’s fear of endemic perversion of justice. Even normally reticent senior judges and lawyers are no longer silent!

African ‘Democrats’ Strangulating Continent’s Democracy

 By Olusegun Samuel

I am using the word ‘democrats’ in a guided manner in this article because our so-called democrats got elected, though some of them have spent decades in power and are all through constitutional means.

*Buhari and Museveni

With the current situation in Nigeria, some parts of Africa and the rest of the world, a strong central government might not necessarily be the solution. Neither do we need a powerful, all-knowing ‘monarchical’ ruler to oversee the affairs of a nation. This is certainly the scenario we find ourselves in Nigeria- my native country- despite being in a so-called democratic government.

Nigeria: What Goes Around Comes Aground

 By Banji Ojewale

The universal principle is that what goes around must come around. It’s not so in Nigeria. With us, when what goes around goes around, it does more than coming around. As it makes its return trip, it comes aground, grounding us, leveling us, merging us with the miry mud. That’s been our history, extinct and extant. We create institutions and leaders from this back-and-forth process to form an endless cycle of vulnerable links in governance that remind us of the late poet, Christopher Okigbo: AN OLD STAR departs, leaves us here on the shore, Gazing heavenward for a new star approaching; The new star appears, foreshadows its going Before a going and coming that goes on forever… (Path of Thunder).

*Buhari and Tinubu 

 It is a villainous star, a kind of abiku that gives short-lived joy to the home where it surfaces at birth. Our present is nothing but a horrid replay of our unpleasant encounters with the past. We sowed the wind yesterday; but today we’re reaping what’s greater than the wind. What goes around comes aground.

Nigeria: Corruption And Politics Of ‘Winner Takes All’

 By Jerome-Mario Utomi

This piece primarily stemmed from a recent Nigeria-focused conversation with a Delta state born but Florida, United States of America (USA) based practicing Lawyer who studied in England, Finland, Sweden, and Norway among others. 

Aside from using the opportunity provided by the conversation to explain how today politics in Nigeria is not tailored to the development of the country, but to the individual players and their various interests, the Legal luminary highlighted the corruption challenge in the country with a sustainable strategy to arrest the monster. He deeply advanced approaches to sanitizing the nation’s political space in ways that will not only change the economic and public leadership narrative in the country but pave the way for well informed, self-contained and quietly influential Nigerians to participate in politics while bringing coordinated development in the country. 

Tinubu’s Foreign Policy: Driving Nigeria In A 4D Wagon

 By Owei Lakemfa

Ambassador  Yusuf Maitama Tuggar, the Honourable  Minister of Foreign Affairs, stepped out on Thursday December 21, 2023 to explain to  Nigerians the four-dimensional space built by the Tinubu administration for the country’s foreign policy. Tuggar, 56, a player in the oil and gas industry had in the last six years, been Nigeria’s Ambassador to  Germany.

*Tinubu

This opportunity  of  a wide audience including the diplomatic community, intellectuals, active and retired public servants   to examine  the new policy, was provided by the ever thoughtful and visionary Association of Retired Career Ambassadors of Nigeria, ARCAN. 

The ARCAN, led by Ambassador John Kayode Shinkaiye,   one of the country’s greats in African diplomacy, asked me to chair the occasion which had the succinct theme:   ‘The Foreign Policy Agenda under Tinubu Administration.’

CBN: Cash Scarcity Is Here To Stay For A While

 By Dele Sobowale

“Cash Scarcity: People are hoarding bank notes – CBN.” VANGUARD, December 14, 2023.

Governor Cardoso and his new team at the top of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, can be forgiven if the current cash scarcity being experienced has caught them by surprise.

They were not in office in March, when it was predicted on these pages that another round of cash scarcity was inevitable; after the one induced by the CBN then. Before going into the reasons why we are not free of this problem yet, permit me to make one observation; which will be helpful to the current CBN Management.  Statements such as “people are hoarding cash” are more emotional than technical or professional; and they seldom solve the problem.

Wike And Fubara: Tinubu’s Sham Agreement

 By Ugoji Egbujo

The agreement between a pimp and a prostitute ought not to be written. Because if the pimp and prostitute still have any trace of honour left in them, they wouldn’t want the transaction made legible for their grandchildren to read. However, when shame has fled and taboos have become doormats, a pimp can demand a written document.

*Tinubu and Wike 

And when they have a contractual dispute, a bishop might step in to ask the prostitute to sleep with more clients to satisfy the covenant. If reminded of the sinfulness of fornication and trade in flesh, the bishop might say that he did it in the interest of peace and to safeguard trade customs. Peace and custom are laudable virtues but when shallow peace is purchased at the cost of normalization of evil, society is imperiled. 

A Court For Kangaroos

 By Chidi Odinkalu

“Because judges are part of government, acting on our behalf, we are entitled to require them to abandon their priesthood and to present their activities for assessment by laymen.” David Pannick, KC, Judges, p. 17 (1987)

The Guardian’s obituary on Bernard Levin, the celebrated Times columnist who died in 2004 after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease, described him as “a passionate and eclectic journalist with a legendary capacity for work, whose career made him a host of friends – and enemies.” Among these enemies, few were as determined as the legal profession.

David Pannick, KC, recalls that Mr. Levin’s settled view was that “the legal profession had an infinite capacity for deluding itself.” He had good reason. When Rayner Goddard retired as Lord Chief Justice in 1958, Bernard Levin’s evisceration of his judicial record inspired “a clandestine meeting at which the higher judiciary considered whether the uppity columnist might be done for criminal libel.” The idea was eventually dropped. 

The Burden Of Emerging Infectious Diseases

 By Ogodo Audu

Nigerians were shocked when the World Health Organisation (WHO) recently officially declared a fresh outbreak of corona virus disease in Benue State, revealing a total of 25 newly confirmed cases. It, as usual, stressed the importance of vaccination, emphasising that the virus remains prevalent. This has happened despite the millions that had been vaccinated in that state and confirmed immune in the heat of the COVID-19 virus infection years back.

It is the outbreaks of all sorts of infectious diseases in the country that brought the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) to Nigeria; it is the largest biomedical research facility administered by the U.S. Department of Defence (DOD). The WRAIR centre for military infectious disease research combines scientific expertise with product development to prevent a range of diseases of strategic importance to the U.S. military and the world.