Two weeks ago, this column in a piece entitled “Neither at War Nor in Peace” lamented that Nigeria has entered a new normal. We are neither a nation at peace or in a declared war. Instead, we are perennially in a state of psychological and physical siege. Even in...
CHIDI AMUTA On Sunday
In the new world, we differ decisively from our children. We read and reflect; they see instant images and decide or judge based on appearances and move on. We are coming from the age of ideas nurtured by the culture of print. We are conditioned by a habit...
Nigeria has hit another milestone. It has graduated into a hybrid state, a distinction it shares with very few other nations. Simultaneously, Nigeria is at war and in peace. The United Nations has observed that literally the entire northern half of the country is a virtual war...
The raging war between Israel and Hamas will not end before tomorrow’s Christmas is over. The unfortunate war has instead yielded two principal casualties: the first is the nativity festivals of Christmas which have made Bethlehem a favourite destination for Christian pilgrims. Home to the historic shrines...
In my adopted home state of Rivers, they do not “play” politics. They wage bitter “fights” over politics. Political outcomes are more of spoils of murky wars than victories of democratic rituals. While the contest for power and supremacy rages, instruments of violence are fair. People are killed routinely....
The size of President Tinubu’s delegation to the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai has raised a bit of dust. On closer examination, I think it was unnecessary noise based on incomplete understanding of the president’s sense of mission. In these matters, context is everything. There is a sense in...
When Henry Alfred Kissinger turned 100 on 27th May this year, I wrote this tribute in salute to a man who is undisputedly the greatest statesman and diplomatic centurion of the 20th and perhaps even the 21st century. I reproduce here a slightly amended version of that tribute as the world salutes...
After the first six months in office, the Bola Tinubu presidency has spent enough time to acquire a definable footprint and an evolving identity. It now has a character, style and flavor. There is no point rehashing what names people of the street have started calling the new...
The kingdom which is being referred to here is the Kingdom of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Every king enjoys preeminence in his Kingdom and he has the authority to establish a government or a rulership that portrays his vision and mission. Going straight to...
An academic colleague and close friend in an American university asked me to contribute some thoughts to a faculty discussion platform on the changing face of journalism especially as reflected in the interplay between legacy and social media as well as the interface between ‘fake news’ and factual...
As a political destination, Rivers State never ceases to excite and intrigue. It is capable of infinite political possibilities and great drama. In just one day this past week, the state gravitated from order to near anarchy and back into tenuous normalcy. Any one who has studied its political...
The subdued public anxiety over the final outcome of the 2023 presidential election petitions has ended. Predictably, the Supreme Court has acted faithful to what has become its extant tradition. It has done the obvious and predictable. It simply just turned its back on the minutiae of evidence and...
President Bola Tinubu is confronted with two identity fights united by politics. His political opponents have kept him busy with matters of personal identity and paper qualifications. Everything from his parentage, educational background, university records, work and career trajectory to his National Youth Service record is up for hostile...
Book Title: “The Price of Sonship” by Apostle Mercy Review by LINDA ASIMOLE ELLAH This Book – A Must-Read! Do you know that there is a school of God called the “Wilderness University”? The author wrote: “It is ironic to see men and women who...
On a number of occasions, I have felt the irresistible pull of homeland. Maybe it is the subliminal summons of my ancestors or the pull of my birth chord long buried beneath that immortal kola nut tree at the backyard of what used to be my mother’s hut. When...
My brother and friend, Kayode Komolafe (the man we all call KK) is an uncommon patriot. With an unassuming depth as a public intellectual, KK is equally disarming in his witty humour, a matter to which I shall return some day in the future. But he is unfailingly felicitous...
Ordinarily, it would be hazardous to judge the judgment of five eminent Federal judges over an issue as life threatening as the results of a Nigerian presidential election. Apex power is involved. Big money is at stake. Livelihoods are up on the hoist. The instruments of state and...
The immediate past president of Gabon, Mr. Ali Bongo Ondimbo, has joined the new crop of video -posting toppled rulers. The luxurious expanse of his gold plated presidential mansion in Libreville has shrunk into a tiny sitting space surrounded by book shelves and inconsequential furniture. From here, he has...
The APC was birthed out of Mr. Buhari’s resilient appetite for presidential power. Its victory in the 2015 presidential election satisfied that hunger and lavishly fed it for eight years. His victory then was a product of both his northern regional cultic followership and a nationwide rejection of...
On President Tinubu’s ministerial nomination list, I am surprised at our surprise. I am even more disappointed by our collective sense of disappointment. The note of public consternation is palpable and almost universal among Nigerians across all divides. Not only was the list late in submission, it was incomplete...