75 Years Of The Universal Declaration Of Human Rights

 By Chidi Odinkalu

On this day 75 years ago, on December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights “as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations”. Forty-eight of the 58 countries eligible voted to approve the Declaration. The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Soviet Union, South Africa, Ukraine, and Yugoslavia abstained, while Honduras and Yemen absented themselves from the vote altogether. There were no votes against its adoption.

  The previous day, on December 9, 1948, they had adopted the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide and just three and a half years earlier, in June 1945, 50 countries had signed the Charter of the United Nations establishing the foundations for a new global order at the end of a profoundly ruinous war. In the three years separating the adoption of the UN Charter from the Universal Declaration, more countries emerged to independence, including Korea, India, Indonesia, Philippines, Myanmar, Pakistan, Syria, and Vietnam. In the decade that followed, the cascade of decolonisation arrived Africa.

Journalism’s Future At Risk

 By Ray Ekpu

Last week my colleagues in the media industry bestowed on me the treasured trophy of honour twice, first on Thursday in Lagos and next on Friday in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State. The Lagos event was organised by the National body of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), led by its president, Mr. Chris Isiguzo.

About 20 of us were given what was elaborately called media icon awards. And the awardees included such a renowned journalist as Senator Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi, a former minister and a former Senator, Mr. Henry Odukomaiya who in addition to being a well-known practitioner was also a creative manager of the newspaper business and Professor Ralph Akinfeleye, an eminent teacher of journalists, among others.

Methodist College Uzuakoli: 100 Years Of Excellence In Education

By Chima Mbubaegbu

On December 10, 2023, a thanksgiving service in the College Chapel will kick-start the  year-long centenary celebration of Methodist College, Uzuakoli (MCU), that will culminate in a week of activities in December 2024.

Why should this celebration matter to anyone other than MCU students and alumni?
It matters in this case because, established in 1923, MCU was the first secondary school in the present South East of Nigeria and the third or fourth, east of the Niger.

Henry Kissinger: A Curse On Africa, Asia And Latin America

 By Owei Lakemfa

Henry (Heinz) Alfred Kissinger, the most infamous United States Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, passed away  peacefully  at 100 on November 29, 2023 and is guaranteed a marked grave. Not so for the tens of thousands Africans, Latin Americans and Asians who experienced violent deaths in their youth and had no tomb stones in their names due to the policies formulated and implemented by Kissinger.

*Kissinger 

A prolific author, brilliant academic and highly cerebral intellectual, he, like his fellow German, Adolf Hitler, used his knowledge and skills to perpetuate unspeakable crimes against humanity.

The Sick Continent

 By Dan Agbese

Africa is a baffling continent sitting on mounds of paradoxes. The paradox of rich but poor continent is a familiar theme. It is rich in human and natural resources; yet its 54 independent nation-states are dependent on other less divine-favoured countries to even feed their own people.

Africa is a sick but lucky continent. Its paradoxes attract economic and other experts who periodically diagnose its ailments and go on to offer sane expert prescriptions on how to heal it. The problem, and this is one of the many paradoxes, is that the continent continues to get sicker. It is either the failure of the diagnoses or the ineffectiveness of the prescriptions or both. The question is why?

Liberia Practises True Democracy, Why Can’t Nigeria?

By Olu Fasan

Nigerians are quick to react to events in other countries and draw parallels with realities at home. But, despite such inquisitiveness and international awareness, Nigeria never learns the right lessons from other nations. A case in point is Liberia’s recent presidential election.

Everyone hailed President George Weah for conceding defeat in a remarkably close election instead of using his incumbency to rig the election. Indeed, President Weah deserves kudos for conducting a credible election and allowing a peaceful transition of power. But here’s the main lesson: Liberia’s political system allows the will of the majority to prevail.

The Phenomenal Growth Of Higher Education In Nigeria: My Strategic Role

-------------------

The Chairman's Opening Remark At The 11th Convocation Ceremony Of The Michael Okpara University Of Agriculture, Umudike, Umuahia, Abia State

On

NOVEMBER 24,  2023 

BY

SIR PROF. IHECHUKWU MADUBUIKE, OON

Former Minister Of Education 

Former Minister of Health 

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

 Protocols: 

A Historical Perspective

 Before the  Justice Cyril Asquith Commission of August, 1943, a compliment of the Elliot Commission ( June1943) and much later, the Ashby Commission on Higher Education in Nigeria in 1960, the educated elite in Lagos and other parts of West Africa had, as far back as the 1920s began a clamor for higher education in Nigeria under governor Dealtry Lugard. Lord Alfred Dealtry Lugard, imperial governor of Nigeria,1914- 1919, refused to accede to the request, insisting that the local elite must fund such a higher institution.[1] The taste for higher education further triggered the setting up of these commissions. 

Inflation Is The Worst Economic Evil, Yet Tinubu Fuels It!

 By Olu Fasan

The first test of any government is its ability to manage the economy. For without a strong economy, a government can’t improve people’s lives; it can’t generate jobs, reduce poverty or tackle insecurity. Hence, a former British prime minister said: “The economy is the start and end of everything”, and an American political strategist coined the phrase: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

*Tinubu

However, this universal truth eludes Nigeria’s new president, Bola Tinubu. His overall economic orientation, dubbed ‘Tinubunomics’, smacks of economic illiteracy. My focus here is not ‘Tinubunomics’ itself, a subject for another column, but Tinubu’s attitude to inflation, the worst economic evil. 

Supreme Court Verdict: Tinubu Is The Diego Maradona Of Nigerian Politics

 By Olu Fasan

Professor  Wole Soyinka, Africa’s first literature Nobel laureate, published his critically-acclaimed novel, Chronicles From the Land of the Happiest People On Earth, in September 2021. So, he probably didn’t have the 2023 presidential election and Bola Tinubu, who emerged president, in mind when he wrote the book. However, reading the novel, one gets the impression that Professor Soyinka foreshadowed the election and its aftermath.

*Soyinka and Tinubu 

In a post-publication interview with the Financial Times, Professor Soyinka said he wrote the book “to confront Nigeria with its true image”. Indeed, Sir Ben Okri, the recently knighted Nigerian-British writer, described the book as Soyinka’s “magnus opus on the state of his homeland”. Of course, when someone writes a novel, he or she has no control over how the reader interprets it, more so when the novel is verisimilitude, having an appearance of reality. Therefore, for me, Professor Soyinka’s novel provides a powerful framework for analysing the 2023 presidential election, the Supreme Court verdict and Tinubu. 

Active Citizenry: If Nigerians Don’t Hold Their Leaders Accountable, Who Will?

 By Olu Fasan

Nigeria is one of the very few countries where politics is the most attractive human endeavour, where holding a political office is more profitable than running a business. In Nigeria, politics is the quickest route to wealth, thanks to outrageous salaries and allowances – Nigeria’s federal legislators earn far more than their American counterparts – and corrupt self-enrichment.

In Nigeria, politics is largely a quest for private gain rather than public good. But nothing entrenches these perversities more than the lack of strong institutions and active citizenry. For not only do the system and the citizens allow wrong politicians to get to power, there’s virtually no institutional or societal pressure to hold elected politicians accountable. 

The Terror Of Being Nigerian

 By Obi Nwakanma

Last year my son made plans to buy a ticket and fly down on his own to Nigeria, and spend the summer with his uncle in Abuja and in the village, East of Nigeria. He was twenty, young, and raring to go. He wanted to explore Nigeria on his own.

It was I that stopped him from traveling to Nigeria, much to his chagrin. I had to beg him to stop. News coming out of Nigeria scared the bejesus out of me. Still does. Kidnappings. Assassinations. Disappearances. The sheer terror of being Nigerian today is so overwhelming that just thinking about it gives one a headache. My son, needless to say, was very disappointed.

Buhari ‘Bankrupted’ Nigeria, But Who ‘Made’ Him President?

 By Olu Fasan

Last week, I wrote about the lack of accountability in Nigerian politics. I submitted that most Nigerians are unquestioning about their leaders, and uncritically accept whatever they’re told. Nothing proves this better than the self-serving narrative that Bola Tinubu’s government pushes about what it inherited from the Buhari administration, and the sympathy some Nigerians profess for Tinubu.

*Tinubu and Buhari 

Recently, Nuhu Ribadu, National Security Adviser, said the Muhammadu Buhari government bankrupted Nigeria. “We have inherited a very difficult country, a bankrupt country,” he said. Governor Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State later said: “Tinubu inherited an administration that was almost comatose.” Tinubu himself set the tone earlier in a speech titled “After Darkness Comes the Glorious Dawn”, saying: “We are exiting the darkness to enter a new and glorious dawn.” Unmistakably, the Buhari administration he succeeds is “the darkness”. 

Malawi’s Path To An ‘Award-Winning Judiciary’

 By Chidi Odinkalu

Joyce Banda, Malawi’s fourth (and first female) president, was in Nigeria earlier this month as guest of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University in Awka, Anambra State in South-East Nigeria, where she spoke at the 12th annual lecture in memory of the man after whom the university is named. It was also the 119th birthday of Nnamdi Benjamin Azikiwe, Nigeria’s founding president, and the month of the 26th anniversary of the death in 1997 of Malawi’s founding president. 

 At the lecture, Joyce Banda described Malawi’s judiciary as “award-winning” and many Nigerians in the audience, embarrassed by the contrast with theirs which wallows in infamy, broke out in spontaneous acclamation. The story of how Malawi’s judges became “award-winning” should be of interest to Nigerians.

Economic Consequences Of Ravaging Wars

 By Steve Obum Orajiaku

The concept of balance is encapsulated in Sir Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, which is “every action has an equal and opposite reaction”. Nothing can be further from the truth for certain feelers to claim that any raging war does not leave its indelible far-reaching impacts on the global spectrum. Sometimes, it could be quite devastating and demeaning that the effects can equal the recorded casualties of war.

The pain of loss of life and property (the former particularly) is inconsolable as it is irreparable. Then, when the dust finally settles and while the roundtable resolution talks are ongoing, the biting privation is grinding deeper to the marrow of the ordinary people. Indeed, when two elephants fight, the tender grass suffers. There has never been any truce talk that effectively restores or sufficiently replenishes all lost valuables on the battlefield.

Kogi, Imo And Bayelsa Off-Cycle Elections: Applauding Dysfunctionality

 By Alabi Williams

Year 2023 began with a lot of trepidation over the general elections. Nothing seemed very sure, especially as the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), prevaricated on its choices. That caused them to resort to self-help at different levels. In all, new experiences emerged and suggestions are being canvassed on how to raise the integrity bar in the next elections.

The three off-cycle elections in Kogi, Imo and Bayelsa have also come and gone. Off course, there will be disputations at the tribunals on how the playing-ground was tampered with to make it cumbersome for some players. Some take-aways have emerged to further the conversation on the precarious nature of this democracy. For some, there were no elections in many places and the exercise was a bug joke. For others, it is the smart politicians that took the day.

Fixing Nigeria

 By Sola Ebiseni

ON this page October 31, with the title, “Now the day is over”, one of the favourite collections of the Songs of Praise in our days in Primary and Secondary schools, we sought to remind political actors of matters arising after the judgement of the Supreme Court ending the tortious journey of the 2023 presidential election.

We reasoned that vacuum is inconsistent with life which experiences perpetual changes even as it is ironically constant and permanent. Heraclitus it was who illustrated the reality of life’s perpetual flux with the phrase “you cannot step twice into the same river”. For those of us born and brought up by the riverside into which we revelled diving and swimming,  this allegory brings permanent memories and perfectly simplifies this ancient philosophy. 

Let Us Reset By Deporting Saudis

 By Owei Lakemfa

A dozen years ago when I first lodged at the prestigious Corinthia Hotel, Khartoum overlooking the confluence where the White Nile River and Blue Nile River are in eternal embrace, a waitress approached me. She was intrigued by my dressing and as such, could not place where I came from. I told her I was wearing a unique Nigerian dress. She told me I have a Nigerian brother working in the hotel who is always excited to meet Nigerians.

She gave me his name and the floor his office was located, and I checked him on my way downstairs. When I enquired about him, this Sudanese emerged from his office and when I introduced myself as a Nigerian, his face lit up. I told him he looks every inch a Sudanese. He said he was born Sudanese but that his father had migrated from Kano. As a Muslim trying to fulfil his religious vows to visit Mecca on a pilgrimage, his father had travelled by road to Sudan trying to reach Mecca. Unable to continue, he had settled in Sudan and raised a family. However, his father always told the children they were originally Nigerian.

Dimgba Igwe, The Enigmatic Born-Again Journalist

 By Onoise Osunbor

(First published in Sunday Concord, February 21, 1988)

“If there is one achievement I have successfully accomplished, it is to prove wrong the myth that you cannot be a successful journalist and be a born-again Christian.”  These are the words of Dimgba Igwe, the Sunday Concord Staff Writer among the prizewinners at the first UAC Merit Award for Journalists. 

*Dimgba Igwe 

People often perceive journalists as permissive, loving wine and women, but that is not the life of Dimgba who is deeply religious—a real born-again Christian.  Stylistically, he is an impressionistic writer who applies his pen like a brush in the hands of a painter, carrying the reader along as he tells his story.  One of his works is a masterpiece he wrote on Dakar, the capital of Senegal.  And he wrote it without talking to anyone.  He says: “The story I have done that I am likely to read over and over again is the one on Dakar.  

Judicial Mercenarism

By Chidi Odinkalu

In July 1977, the Organisation of African Unity adopted a Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa. It offered a definition of a mercenary to include someone who “is motivated to take part in hostilities essentially by the desire for private gain and in fact is promised by or on behalf of a party to the conflict material compensation.” The drafters of the Convention for the Elimination of Mercenarism in Africa probably did not foresee that it would encompass the conduct of judges.

Yet, at the beginning of this month, the immediate past president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Olumide Akpata, took to the floor of the International Bar Association, IBA, conference in Paris, the capital of France, to invite the association to take an active interest in a new species of judicial subornation in Nigeria which can best be described as judicial mercenarism.

One For Zik….

 By Obi Nwakanma

Today, let us celebrate worthy men. This past Thursday, November 16, was the birthday of a giant of history; a man whom the colorful Ozuomba Mbadiwe could have called “a Caterpillar,” who showed the light, so that Africans may see the way. Incidentally, that was the motto of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s newspaper, the West African Pilot: “Show the Light, and the People will find their way.”

*Zik

It was the message at the core of his anti-colonial nationalist organizing. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe – “Zik of Africa,” as he was very fondly called – was the leader of the African anti-colonial Nationalist Movement, from 1937 to 1957, culminating in decolonization, with the independence of Ghana, that year, and home rule for the regions in Nigeria also that year, and full national independence subsequently in 1960.