So much storm was generated by the defection of Femi Fani-Kayode from the PDP to the APC, a defection which came to public focus on the day some Nigerian soldiers were killed in Monguno, Borno State (with several others missing) after an ambush by militants from the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic Read More…
THE SOUL-NUMBING trend is in your face. Homicide has become our everyday companion. It wasn’t always like this. Life used to be sacred. It was not considered fashionable for acorns to be devoured before they became trees. Now, we are inundated with gory tales of gruesome stabbings, decapitations, gun violence and more. If you turn Read More…
THE NEO-COLONIAL TRAJECTORY of almost all African states, the neo-liberal policies they pursue and their anti-people programmes, lead in virtually all cases, to constant conflicts between African political leaders and workers. So it is rare for workers to eulogise their political elite. So, for them at the continental level to collectively eulogise and honour a particular African president is Read More…
THE CIVIC SPACE IS shrinking by the day as my countrymen and women contend for the soul of the nation. Nigeria is pregnant. Veteran political midwives predict a long and painful labour. But they do not foresee a stillbirth as happened in 1993 under the watchful eyes of one former student of the redoubtable Eme Read More…
I CANNOT BELIEVE I am writing this. The events are a nightmare that will not go away. Pa Joseph Oritseretsolokumi Ayomike, an 83-year-old man of culture and immense intellect, and his wife, Dr. Chinyere ‘Chichi’ Shirley Ayomike, opera soloist/duetist, Technical Vocational Education and Training, TVET, expert, and a senior lecturer at the Delta State University, Read More…
THREE NEWS-BREAKS, the re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB); the storming of the residence of Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Sunday Igboho, and the passing of the Petroleum Industry Bill by the National Assembly — nearly consigned the seminal treatise enunciated by former President Goodluck Jonathan at the 13th Joe-Kyari Gadzama Read More…
“Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts”; says Dalai Lama XIV. “Differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.” Such sentiments are desperately needed in Nigeria today. Different parts of the country have been vending different positions on the problem with Read More…
It was fun at first sight. The first time I set eyes on Toni Kanayo Onwordi, famously known as Toni Kan, I found fun oozing from his every pore.He blazed into the Lagos writing circle with uncommon confidence that was at once assured and very questing. He was like the leader of the Jos Brigade, Read More…
Some years ago, as Secretary General of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity, OATUU, I had diplomatic immunity provided directly by my host, Ghana, my country, Nigeria and the African Union which extended to me the privilege of its diplomatic passport. With the AU passport, I entered and exited countless African countries without visa Read More…
WHEN THE HEADLINES caught fire with news that four oil firms including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) were planning to acquire a stake in Dangote refinery which goes into operation soon, many tongues started wagging. The interest of international companies is understandable, after all Dangote himself has interests in other countries. But a state-owned Read More…