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 […]
After the presidential election, came the rains
By Owei Lakemfa AFTER the presidential election on Saturday, February 25, 2023, the rains came down in Abuja. No, they were not pitiful tears even when Nigeria, an otherwise prosperous country has been reduced to a beggarly state. Rather, they were rains cleansing the country, starting with a thorough wash of the county’s seat of […]
Epitaph for the living
By Owei Lakemfa A NUMBER of European leaders harbour the quixotic thought that as the first year of the War in Ukraine rolls by today, February 24, 2023, the Ukrainians will militarily defeat Russia. They prefer a continuation of the war, and, their writing the epitaph of Russian and Ukrainian youths who will be killed, […]
Hapless Nigerians caught in party and Supreme Court politics
By Owei Lakemfa The raging arguments today include whether or not President Muhammadu Buhari should have obeyed the Supreme Court ruling on the continued use of the old currencies. One argument is that it was the Federal Government that was sued, not the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN. But our forebears have a wise saying: […]
It’s easy defending criminality when you’re not the victim
By Owei Lakemfa I EXPECTED a backlash when on February 3, 2023, I published a piece: “Recreating the Holocaust in their own image.” It came as expected. The various reactions reinforce my position that our world can be a far better place if only otherwise decent humans would not rationalise evil. But it is quite […]
Affliction strikes Nigerians the second time
By Owei Lakemfa I AM walking back from the position of many Nigerians that these are the worse of times for the country. It would have been difficult to dispute what appears to be a truism. We are buffeted by rampant cases of terrorism, banditry and sectarian violence. Inflation is over 20 per cent, we […]
