Browsing: Azu Ishiekwene

The last batch of six states – Ebonyi, Bayelsa, Nasarawa, Zamfara, Gombe and Ekiti – was created by the military head of state, General Sani Abacha, on October 1, 1996.

Compared with a number of other hotspots around the world in December 2020, however, Nigeria was not even among the three riskiest places. According to global medical and security specialists, International SOS, Libya, Syria and Afghanistan were the deadliest places to be. The group also projected that these places would retain the record by the end of 2021.

The situation in Europe, especially in Italy and Spain, was particularly dire as the virus overwhelmed their sophisticated medical systems. While researchers and scientists struggled to crack the pathogen, dead bodies that could not be accommodated in morgues began to spill onto church pews and public places.

The former president had discarded election results and written a version that tightened his grip on power. How he thought he could reinvent the Mansa Musa legend in a country riven by violence and poverty only he can tell.

Back in the day, I would not dare have dinner without first taking my bath. My mother said it was “unclean” to eat before brushing your teeth in the morning and taking your bath; or to have dinner before taking your bath, as if you had just been rescued from the pits or planned to eat with all parts of your body.

Last week, Mohammed, furious at Twitter’s decision to start its first Africa office in Ghana, decided it was time to level the ragged edges and crush the journalistic snakes and con artists in Nigeria by heaping on them the blame for Twitter’s decision. It was hard for him to swallow.

I thought that was obvious and required no special gift to see. The tension sucks. There is tension between those in government and those who are not. Even among those in government, there is tension between the cabal and the fringe players. Tension between those who think policies ought not to be governed by fear and those who think government by fear modelling is the only way.

It’s sad that anyone should take the law into their own hands, and sadder still that even one innocent person should suffer injury or die from such senseless attacks. One of the law enforcement officers interviewed, Ade Adelekan, obviously with Nigerian roots, described the south London incidents as “shocking” and went on to say that the “absolutely horrific news would devastate our community.”

Stopping short of naming names, Monguno pointed a finger at the last service chiefs who after overstaying their tenure as insecurity worsened, still earned promotion as ambassadors. They now join the ranks of ambassadors still waiting to be posted, most of them, one year after their appointments were announced.

At least, three Swiss newspapers – Luzerner Zeitung, Aarguaer Zeitung and St. Galler Tagblatt – fetched their headlines from the gutter, making slight changes only after they were called out for racism.

In the first two years or more of his presidency, I remember a number of videos shared with me on the Akufo-Addo promise. On a tour of the US, he met with the conference of US governors and awed with his presentation. On another occasion, he wowed French President Emmanuel Macron with his speech on: “Ghana Beyond Aid.”

My friend wasted no time is declaring that for him, it is and always will be Maradona. He spoke about the Argentine’s prodigious talent, talked about his imagination and gushed, above all, about his artistry and genius.

Ghana is in seven days of mourning, but Nigeria is crying more than the bereaved. Among Nigeria’s political elite, there has been a “condolence contest.” And among the wider public, the outpouring of grief and tribute on social media makes Ghana look like Rawlings’ distant second home.

We saw that in Mali a few months ago when the military cited fraudulent elections as the reason for toppling President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, leaving the regional body, ECOWAS, confused and stranded. Alpha Conde followed in Guinea by manoeuvring himself in place for a third term presidency.

Reminiscences: My Journey Through Life is not an autobiography  and should not be so mistaken. Yet, in six parts comprising 21 chapters and 218 pages of this memoir, the author uses the autobiographic technique of fact focus to render, connect and weave strong emotional threads which help to sustain the reader’s interest.

During two recent off-cycle state elections in the south of Nigeria, for example, the US Embassy threatened to invoke visa restrictions on candidates, agents or security officials who impede the electoral process. It was not an empty threat and the junket-obsessed political elite knew it.

How did Lagos, a city of refuge, become a shooting range against defenceless young people waving the flag and singing the anthem?

Interestingly, it was a private company, Megawatts Nigeria Limited, that sued the registered trustees of Gbagada Phase II Residents’ Association, on grounds that it is not a member of the association even though it is based there. The company also argued that it is wrong for any demands to be made on it because it is responsible for its own security, waste, water and other services.

To make matters worse, Obaseki was not just up against one Goliath. He was taking on Goliath Plus, an array of modern and ancient forces comprising the ecclesiastical armies of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and the revolutionary guard led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was the common glue. A decorated unionist and two-term governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole once made trenches his home.