Lindsay Barrett and Mia Mottley: The Pull of the Diaspora, by Owei Lakemfa
Lindsay Carlton Eseoghene Barrett was a twenty-five-year-old Jamaican when he came from Britain to Nigeria in July 1966 on a few weeks’ visit. Those weeks have stretched to over sixty years, with the playwright, poet, journalist and photographer becoming one of the best-known Nigerians. He was eighty-five years on September 15, and not unexpectedly, I […]
The Ozymandias complex in the Tinubu administration psyche, by Owei Lakemfa
The transformative Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway is mired in endless controversies. This is the fate of great monuments and, I dare say, great leaders. So, my primary concerns here are not the hullabaloos about its actual cost and absence of biddings or, its ever changing designs as it meanders through coast and land. My interest here is its […]
ECOWAS needs our collective wisdom, not a shared amnesia, by Owei Lakemfa
A dozen Heads of State of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, met in Lungi, Sierra Leone on July 19, 2026. They issued the usually bland communique on a single currency, supported the illegal violation of a sister country’s sovereignty and made false declarations on the region’s political situation and democracy. The West African […]
Victor Eburajolo: Mega employer who fought Nigeria’s deliberate de-industrialization, by Owei Lakemfa
Forty years ago, on July 24, 1986, Victor Ogebyiwa Eburajolo was forty. He was a sought-after expert in the Nigerian industrial complex. A lawyer, business strategist, planning tactician, industrial and labour relations expert. He was then the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Textile Employers. The textile industry had sixty-two companies and over 750,000 workers, not counting those […]
Jimoh Ibrahim is uninformed: UN intervenes in nation’s internal affairs, by Owei Lakemfa
I do not support the call by Oyo State Governor SeyiMakinde that international bodies like the United Nations (UN) should participate in probing the 56-day abduction of 39 pupils and six teachers in the state. In receiving the freed victims, he called “on the appropriate international human rights and accountability mechanisms, including those within the United […]
No governance without consultation: Demilitarizing and demythologizing the Nigerian Government, by Owei Lakemfa
I did not expect my column ‘When uneducated minds change the education system’ to attract so much reaction. A parent said that in my review of the new education curriculum imposed in September 2025, I did not draw sufficient attention to some facts. The most fundamental, she said, is that government imposed new trade subjects on the […]
