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 […]
Stopping the elites from replacing Nigeria
By Owei Lakemfa I leapt for joy last week. News about Nigeria is usually depress- ing. But this one was elating. I had in my column titled: ‘A country led by the blind and deaf ’ highlighted the case of 14-year-old Habiba Gwaram, a student of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State. On February […]
Georgia’s common-sense Woman President
By Owei Lakemfa The world this Monday marked the 2021 International Women’s Day with the traditional elite emphasis on women getting more leadership positions and not necessarily what they do in power or with power. A case which deserves attention is Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili who transformed from being the French Ambassador in Georgia […]
A country led by the blind and deaf
By Owei Lakemfa THE story of 14-year-old Habiba, a student of Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, is heart-wrenching. Bandits raided her home three months ago, killing her uncle and abducting her father and elder sister. Then on February 26, 2021 bandits invaded her school, abducted her and 316 other girls aged between 12 […]
Nobel Prize for peacemakers and warmongers
By Owei Lakemfa THE Nobel Peace Prize, perhaps the most prestigious annual award in the world, suffers from a chronic illness: the inability of the award committee to define what is peace. It is like one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. The loose framework; that the prize be awarded to those who have […]
Sheikh Ahmad Gumi for beginners
By Owei Lakemfa The abduction of 317 school girls of the Government Girls Secondary School, Jangebe, Zamfara State, last Friday, February 26 is even more tragic because we as parents and adults once again failed to protect the Nigerian child. It is distressing that this is the fourth mass abduction of children in their schools […]
The Fidel Castro children are here
By Owei Lakemfa CLARA Margarita Pulido Escandell is a 61-year-old Cuban who breathes Africa. When I first met her and she discovered I had a trade union background, she enquired about the African Labour leader, Alhaji Hassan Sunmonu, the founding President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC. Sunmonu had spoken at the university in Legon, […]
Bala Mohammed school of anarchism and disunity
By Owei Lakemfa THE Nigerian state has never been as divided and besieged in its 107-year Amalgamation, as it is witnessing today. The 1966-67 crises which led to the three-year Civil War was roughly between two parts of the country. In the present crises, all parts of the country are in turmoil. The North East […]
The corona vaccine wars: The poor will die first
By Owei Lakemfa UNITED Kingdom, the small but mighty country which has the history of invading 178 or 90 per-cent of the countries on earth, has taken on the European Union, EU, in a COVID-19 vaccines war. The war which is the first of expected post-Brexit wars, is on account of the former’s voracious nature […]
If Nigeria can learn basic lessons, so can Africa
If Nigeria can look back at its 2017 folly, re-strategise and return with a way forward in its quest for leadership in the AU, so can Africa By Owei Lakemfa THERE is a widespread belief that Africa’s problems are basically leadership. It does not seem it can be otherwise because it is a continent of […]
Laws, enforcers, principles and principalities
By Owei Lakemfa THERE are people you meet who not only leave a lasting impression on you but also change your perspectives on issues or particular institutions. I had a cynical view of the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, until I met Yomi Onashile. I was from 1990-92, Secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, B Zone […]
A People, United: Conversations with the Saharawi foreign minister
By Owei Lakemfa MOHAMMED Salem Uld Salek descended the stairs of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, SADR, Embassy in Abuja with an agility that belied his seven decades on earth. The foreign minister reminded me of our last meeting in June 2019 during the visit of the SADR (also known as the Western Sahara) President […]
Nigeria is worth dying for, but not in vain
By Owei Lakemfa FELIX Aondaver Kura was a unique Nigerian. At 36 he had neither drank alcohol nor smoked in his life. He was a calm, unassuming and courageous Nigerian youth who had read Linguistics at the Benue State University. After graduating in 2009, he served in the mandatory National Youth Service Corps Scheme in […]
Again, entombed humans triumph over death
By Owei Lakemfa IF you have ever been trapped in a lift; lights suddenly going off, darkness everywhere and perhaps having to breathe with others trapped in the lift, you will know how harrowing an experience it can be. But at least people know you are there and efforts are made to rescue you with […]
Buhari’s Trumpian Complex and Nigeria in search of dialogue
By Owei Lakemfa HUMANITY was given the earth as a sustainable security. Our entire lives depend on it. However, human beings constitute the greatest danger to earth. In realisation of this, strategic thinkers developed the idea of establishing forest reserves to stem the earth’s destruction and try to preserve life as we know it. Forest […]
Biden and the kicks of a dying horse
PRESIDENT Joe Biden’s arrival at the White House two days ago was like light breaking at the dawn of an enforced darkness. It dispelled the gloom that had enveloped the United States, US. It signalled for the many that with their country waking up from the Donald Trump nightmare, they and their children may have […]
