The news of the death of the veteran singer and rapper, Olanrewaju Abdul-Ganiu Fasasi, a.k.a Sound Sultan, on the 11th of July, 2021, struck many with unexplainable sorrow. For some, it was their first time encountering his name, while it came to the knowledge of some that he suffered a rare type of cancer called Angioimmunoblastic T-cell Lymphoma. Hearty comments about how wonderful the late singer was, flooded the internet. Pleasant nostalgic memories from friends...
It was another headache-exuding gathering of some casual political analysts. My sighing and yawning meant nothing. My dad was invested in the ongoing conversation with his friends. The other day, they were in our house. Two neighbours came knocking because they thought there was a fight. “No, they are just discussing,” I smiled at their curiosity. This time, my dad and I were coming back from his monthly checkup at the hospital. He received a...
By John Campbell, Guest Columnist and Blogger The Buhari administration’s June ban on Twitter in Nigeria, combined with proposals within Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC) to allow the federal government to establish a “code of conduct” for Nigeria’s media to counter, among other things, “fake news,” rightly sets off alarm bells within the human rights community. Nigeria is challenged on multiple fronts: a jihadi insurrection in the North East and increasingly in the North West; quarrels over water and...
“Clearly defined position of Southern Governors are of mammoth benefit to the people and struggles of Southern Nigeria. ―Ebuka Onyekwelu Many people are conversant with the 1914 merger of the Northern and Southern protectorate of Nigeria by the British, to create what country is called Nigeria as it is known. Over the years, the Southern protectorate has almost completely withered, broken down into sub-regions, and then, states. With no significant source of unification, Southern Nigeria...
Two truths are told: One of them Is entirely bull-pucky ―Don Okolo I couldn’t wait another day for my mind to undo the straps holding it down. The manacles of a particular enslavement had successfully snaked through the synapses of the once intransigent, Teflon psyche to rope it firmly. Coffee and all the bourbon in the world, the usual panacea, couldn’t do it. Every effort at untying the hardened braces to grant me my freedom...
In 2021, which is exactly twenty-two years after democracy and partisan politics was reintroduced in Nigeria, political parties in Nigeria still lack internal functional mechanisms and certain rudiments of a working system. Partisan politics is still a do or die, fraught with confusing court injunctions, hooliganism, and brigandage. Political parties are still largely made up of men who can do anything for power; people who do not care one bit, about how to get the...
I have now taken a closer and more subjective view on the current crisis rocking the All Progressives Grand Alliance –APGA. And although I have been very critical of the way the party has been going about without due recourse to various interests within the party to harmonize and aggregate the same, it, however, remains the truth that APGA must not be destroyed by both the leadership and those that are aggrieved in the party....
Basic interpretation of the quintessence of a democratic government is that it is a government that is sanctioned by the people; one which goes about in performance of its duties, as the people pleases. In other words, a democracy is a government that is literally owned by citizens, within the territory of which the government exerts authority. When we put this into perspective with regards to Nigeria’s own brand of democracy, what we see is...
By Michelle Garvin, Guest Columnist and Blogger On May 31st, the people of Somaliland went to the polls to participate in long-delayed parliamentary and municipal elections. The largely autonomous region in the north of Somalia, which had a different colonial history from the rest of the country and declared its independence in 1991, is building an impressive history of credible elections and peaceful transfers of power. While Somalilanders were peacefully making their will clear at the...
“Nigerian government thinks that it can do just about anything that it deems fit but the world has moved beyond that stage ―Ebuka Onyekwelu The evident political incompetence of the current Nigerian regime gives it away as a government that lives in the past. Even a casual observation of the choice of language used by known pillars of the administration smacks of empty arrogance with no substance in view. Clearly, not only does it appear...
