Louis Ogbeifun points oil workers, labour towards tomorrow, by Owei Lakemfa
Life is in flux and labour in Nigeria is caught in its crosswinds. To navigate the strong currents of change, and produce a compass, the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, PENGASSAN, Port Harcourt Zone, turned to the union’s 2003–2005 president, Louis Brown Ogbeifun. They asked the 71-year-old former manager, Employee Relations of […]
Academics, politicians and rogue elements
By Owei Lakemfa The country heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday, October 13, 2022 as the eight-month strike by academics which shutdown the public universities was suspended. Days before the suspension, many Nigerians were in a jubilant mood as all indications were that the agreement midwifed by the House of Representatives was acceptable to government […]
Smart Europeans, daft Africans
By Owei Lakemfa SMART Europeans. After building their wealth from resources taken from the colonies, including gold, diamond, rubber, cocoa, cotton and human beings, they decreed that the only way to prosperity is through ‘market forces’. They taught gullible Africans that only the perfect market delivers, while state intervention stagnates. They are never in short supply […]
Umahi: Impunity, falsehood and denials as governance
By Owei Lakemfa GOVERNOR David ‘Dave’ Nweze Umahi of Ebonyi State reminds me of the colonial District Officer who was a law unto himself. I know Abakaliki, the state capital, was a major centre for slave trade four centuries ago, but Umahi governs the state as if it were still a slave colony where people have […]
Floods anywhere is a challenge to humanity everywhere
By Owei Lakemfa THE Confluence Hotel in Ganaja, Lokoja used to be my favourite spot whenever I visited Kogi State. Its main attraction to me was sitting down to watch the Rivers Niger and Benue warmly embrace in an eternal wedlock as their waters flow down south to the Niger Delta before emptying themselves into the […]
This is the face of poverty in Nigeria
By Owei Lakemfa Poverty is often presented as statistics. But what the Yusufu Bala Usman Institute did on September 21, 2022 was to produce a book, The Face of Poverty in Nigeria, which focused on the faces behind the statistics. As one of the reviewers, I summarised the Nigerian situation thus: If you are poor in […]
