Infantile Infantino should exit for trying to sell the World Cup, by Owei Lakemfa
Gianni Infantino, the Federation Internationale de Football Association, FIFA President who stole into office about a dozen years ago on the back of a coup against Sepp Blatter, may be on his way out. He has become like an orphan caught with his hand in the till. The 2026 World Cup had been quite successful. It […]
Three new Presidents in an old, skewed world
IN our skewed world infected with conflicts, growing inequalities and the right of might over right, we produced three new leaders in the last three weeks, none of which has promised to take a different direction.
Aregbesola: Governance as festival of the mass
By Owei Lakemfa WITNESS to history. Animated discussions. Banters. Back slapping. Roaring laughter. Seeming riot, but orderly. Various groups, including the elderly and children. Then the crowds burst into songs and dances. They herald the arrival of the host. He is clad in white with a traditional white dog-eared cap. He flashes his white teeth, […]
Three murders in three continents, same justification
Three murders in three continents, same justification
We love Buhari, but he shouldn’t stay a second longer
By Owei Lakemfa MANY of us love President Muhammadu Buhari, so we cannot wait to see him leave office on May 29, 2023. This primarily is because he has done his best for the country. But as all honest Nigerians can see, his best is not good enough. It is like piling a load even […]
In search of the government
By Owei Lakemfa MISSING. I am on my way to the police station to report that the Nigerian Government is missing. The absence of government in the country is glaring. A week ago, I thought it was on sabbatical. Midweek, I concluded that with terrorists, bandits, criminals and some ministers acting with impunity, the government must […]
United Nations’ Guterres: Chief servant of many masters
THE tours through Europe and Africa from April 26, 2022, by Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General, raised once again the powers, importance and relevance of the world body.
Government on sabbatical
By Owei Lakemfa We may never know what happened. But let me tell you what we know. On Sunday, April 24, 2022 in Owerri, the Imo State capital, there was a traffic snarl and unfortunately, officers of two Federal security agencies, the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence, NSCD, were […]
Jesus lost elections, so can Bishop Kukah lose to Buhari
By Owei Lakemfa WHEN a government like that of Muhammadu Buhari, President and Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian Armed Forces, is doing very well, it is manifestly immoral for a Bishop to divert its attention, especially with unsolicited homilies. That is the problem I have with Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of the Sokoto Archdiocese. He has […]
Veto: UN dribbles self in search of relevance
THE United Nations General Assembly, UNGA, deliberations and resolution on the veto power that was held on Tuesday, April 26, 2022, was two years in the making but was all hot air without substance.
When unarmed people stopped a bloody coup
I WAS invited by the Venezuelan Embassy in Abuja, along with some diplomats, civil society activists and journalists on Thursday, April 14, 2022, to watch a documentary on the aborted military coup 20 years ago. The documentary centred on the bloody coup and how the populace in their millions marched on the coup plotters holed up in the Miraflores Presidential Palace.
Pastor Bakare’s beer parlour gossip and other irrelevancies
By Owei Lakemfa Tunde Bakare, a 67-year-old pastor would have been Nigeria’s Vice President had President Muhammadu Buhari won the 2011 election in which the former was his running mate. Even now, Bakare claims God had revealed to him that he would succeed Buhari as president. Perhaps because the assurance is so certain, he is […]
Yemi Ogunbiyi showed me the still waters
By Owei Lakemfa WE were young, eager youths, mostly teenagers, crossing from secondary schools into the tertiary institutions. In fact some, like me, were leaving home for the first time. It was the tail end of 1978. We were not just the first set of students to be admitted through the Joint Admission Matriculation Board, […]
Imran Khan fallen, but not in the streets
SOMETIMES the difference between a coup and a democratic process can be so narrow as to be interchangeable. The move to oust Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan had been in the offing for some time, but there were questions of methodology, and how the populace may react.
It’s time to dissolve the Nigerian electorate
By Owei Lakemfa It was a symbolism. As the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, led by contented men and women in rich flowing robes, with siren blasting, gathered to disturb the peace of a troubled Abuja, bandits were staging a raid at the Kaduna Airport, a two-hour drive away. The APC chieftains were gathered for […]
Tragedy indefinable: Murders in a derailed train
By Owei Lakemfa Musa-Lawal Ozigi was a bearded, ebullient but serious minded Nigerian patriot who exuded confidence in a better society and had a positive effect on his compatriots and those around him. He was a lawyer and my comrade in the Labour Movement. On Valentine’s Day, February 14, 2022, he wrote me a letter. […]
