Zelensky, Netanyahu and Trump: A prostrate world at their feet, by Owei Lakemfa
There are one hundred and thirty active wars lit around the world today and three outstanding men can be linked to many of them. But President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine has emerged the best tactician and strategist of the threesome. Always playing the victim, he just pulled off a major tactical link between the two most […]
Laoye Sanda: The man who saw tomorrow
By Owei Lakemfa THE story of Laoye Oluwole Sanda reads like fiction. It is that of a man who decided to dedicate his entire life to the emancipation of society so that others may have a better tomorrow. While almost all in his generation planned to generate wealth for themselves and their families, this highly […]
Many things we don’t know or may never know
By Owei Lakemfa THE United States of America, US, this Monday placed visa restrictions on some Nigerians who allegedly undermined the February and March 2023 general elections. The US in a statement by its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said it took the decision as part of its commitment to supporting and advancing democracy in […]
National Assembly sovereignty: Joke taken too far
By Owei Lakemfa AS an undergraduate in Great Ife, the Obafemi Awolowo University, I was a member of the Students Representative Council, the parliament. Whenever we met, the generality of the student body surrounded the venue to observe. The idea was that the parliament represented the students, so they have a right not only to observe, […]
Battered, occupied, exploited, but the Saharawi remain unbowed
By Owei Lakemfa I got word that my elderly friend, His Excellency Mohammed Ould Salek, the Minister-Adviser on Diplomatic Affairs to President Brahim Ghali of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, better known as Western Sahara, was in Nigeria. He was the Special Envoy sent by the Saharawi President on April 28, 2023 to bid farewell […]
Obaro Ikime: The intellectual as hostage
By Owei Lakemfa General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the Dean of Coups in Nigeria, finally staged a coup for himself on August 27, 1985. The veteran coup plotter could sniff coups years away. On December 17, 1985, he rounded up over 100 military officers for allegedly conceptualising a coup. Some, including his childhood friend, Major General […]
My democracy is not your democracy
By Owei Lakemfa WE were gathered. Some intellectuals, social activists, journalists, serving and retired diplomats. The primary issue was democracy. Is it universal and is there just a single, or multiple roads to democracy? Is the British democracy which calls itself the Mother of Parliaments, superior to the American version; is the latter better than […]
Nigeria, Africa’s giant advancing backward
By Owei Lakemfa Census is very serious business as it requires the general mobilisation of the populace. In many cases, the nation is placed under an emergency. One of the earliest accounts of census was given by Dr Luke in his Gospel in which he wrote that Emperor Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a […]
Harry Belafonte: Unconquerable warrior marches on
By Owei Lakemfa Harry Belafonte did not seek social justice; social justice sought him out. When they met, he was ready for a life-long struggle to bring justice to the United States or more correctly, to bring the United States to justice even when he knew this might cost him his lucrative career, if not […]
Elections as crime scenes: Decriminalising the electoral process
By Owei Lakemfa TWICE did I hear Aisha Dahiru, alias Binani, of the All Progressives Party, APC, declared the winner of the Adamawa State gubernatorial elections and the first female to be elected governor in the country. Twice did this turn out to be a hoax – a sick joke played on Nigerians. The first […]
When the American fox complains about the Mexican dog
By Owei Lakemfa MEXICO has drug cartels which can also be violent. One of the most infamous drug lords, Joaquin Archivaldo ‘El-Chapo’ Guzman, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel is serving a life sentence in the United States, US. The drug cartels are a problem to Mexico which has other related challenges. First is the […]
Bola Ajibola departs and traducers sing late Nimi Brigg’s praises
By Owei Lakemfa Prince Bolasodun Adesumbo ‘Bola’ Ajibola, former Attorney General and Minister of Justice, and ex-judge of the International Court of Justice, ICJ, passed away on April 9, 2023 at 89. Deservedly, lots of encomiums have been showered on the late founder of Crescent University and former Nigeria High Commissioner to the United Kingdom. […]
Iran – Saudi Arabia: Winning world peace with wrong peacemaker
By Owei Lakemfa THE world seems unaware that a peace process of seismic proportions is under way. Islam is a religion with over 1.8 billion followers but its two broad movements, the Sunnis led by Saudi Arabia and the Shiites led by Iran have been in disagreement for long, sometimes leading to violent confrontations. A […]
A nation that lost its way
By Owei Lakemfa 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, […]
Oladipo Diya: The man who rode on a tiger’s back
By Owei Lakemfa 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 way of the world
By Owei Lakemfa LAGOS, the most cosmopolitan and politically progressive state in Nigeria on March 18, 2023 engaged in the degenerative politics of exclusion. The debilitating disease of campaigning that a non-full-blooded native cannot be governor, is an incapacitating one. Ten days later, a different philosophy of politics evolved in Scotland where the parliament elected […]
