THE world gathered this week under the United Nations to talk peace, security and socio-economic justice, but hawks circled and beneficiaries of a skewed world sat silent in cold complicity. It was the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, and even as the world on Thursday, September 21, complemented the UN objectives Read More…
Tag: Owei Lakemfa
Babysitting France in Africa
FRANCE is a problem. In Africa, it is a man-child fighting hard to retain its feeding bottle. The United Kingdom-based Socialist Labour organised a virtual conference of Africans to discuss this and the current crises in Africa, with an emphasis on the Francophone countries. Co-ordinator Tokunbo Oke, in commenting on the theme, “The Niger Coup: Read More…
Gabonese Coup: The fault is not in the electorate
THE scenario has various strands of familiarity. I mean the military coup of Wednesday, August 30, 2023 that removed Gabonese President Ali Bongo Ondimba. An elected African dictator in a well-fortified Presidential Palace finds his palace has become his prison. It is like the fish realising that the water it is swimming in is boiling. Read More…
Kay Laro: The diplomat as humanist
I WAS to attend the International Labour Organisation, ILO, Conference for two weeks in 2011 and was late in making accommodation arrangements in Geneva. I turned to Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, then Nigerian Deputy Ambassador in Vienna, Austria, to see if he had somebody who could check out the hotels and make a booking. Olukanni had Read More…
When the American hawk decides to devour the Nigerien chick
The threat of the mighty United States of America, USA, on Tuesday, August 7, 2023, to invade the little Niger Republic is not for its love of democracy, Nigeriens, or Africans. It is basically in the nature of hawks to circle the sky looking for prey, especially chicks. There were American and French troops in Read More…
Let me breathe, I don’t want to die
Two different but related cries ring in my head. “Let the Poor breathe” and “I don’t want to die.” The first is the cry across the country as the masses are being suffocated by inflation and over 90 million poor get hungrier. The second is the plaintive cry of young medical doctor, Vwaere Diaso, whose Read More…
Before marching to Niamey, let us pause
THE new military rulers in Niger Republic, the country which marked Independence Day on Thursday, August 3, 2023, have a Sunday ultimatum from the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS. It is that they give up power and restore elected President Mohammed Bazoum to power or face serious measures, including possible invasion. ECOWAS also Read More…
The coup in Niger and the Moncada Barracks attack
EXACTLY 70 years separate the July 26, 1953, suicidal attack on Moncada Barracks by Cuban youths who wanted to remove the military from power, and this Wednesday’s coup in Niger Republic which removed elected President Mohamed Bazoum and restored military rule. The coup plotters, styling themselves as the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Read More…
A nation that lost its way
AS an aspirant in 2022, the President of the Nigeria Bar Association, NBA, Yakubu Chonoko Maikyau, made a pilgrimage to Keffi, Nasarawa State. He needed the blessings of one of the most consummate and influential law professors the country has ever produced: Onje Gye-Wado. The latter from 1999, was for four years, Deputy Governor of Read More…
Oladipo Diya: The man who rode on a tiger’s back
In the rascally days of the military, when generals were wedded to coups, a military officer arose in their ranks called Oladipo Donaldson Oyeyinka Diya. He was unknown to the public until January 1984 when the coup plotters led by General Muhammadu Buhari, who had overthrown the Shagari administration, announced him as the Military Governor Read More…
