Owei Lakemfa

Visible Articles 5 10 15
Governance not based on personal relationships

Governance not based on personal relationships

By Owei Lakemfa IN the last 10 days, our country has been forced to its knees by horrendous massacres such as the over 100 killed by bandits in Katsina, Sokoto and  Plateau states and the steep rise in COVID-19 casualties, including the infection of dozens of health workers. Tragically, these have not been the focus […]

When an antelope prised itself from a lion’s mouth

When an antelope prised itself from a lion’s mouth

By Owei Lakemfa PRESIDENTS of the United States, US, in most cases, tend to see themselves as lions at liberty to devour leaders of smaller or weaker countries who they treat as antelopes. That mentality was jolted 59 years ago when a supposed antelope in the mouth of a lion not only fought to prise […]

Standing up to be counted

Standing up to be counted

By Owei Lakemfa THE Northern governors in their collective wisdom a week ago, decided against a lockdown of the region. The reasons for this, according to their Chairman, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State, include that the people are mainly farmers who need to tend to their farms; the Ramadan season is approaching, and the […]

America’s pointless battles against WHO

America’s pointless battles against WHO

By Owei Lakemfa THE World Health Organization, WHO, which is coordinating and leading humanity’s war against the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, is ironically under attack by the United States, US, itself, the country most devastated by the virus. US President Donald Trump sees the world as a stage in which he must play the lead role. […]

Death does not kill

Death does not kill

By Owei Lakemfa A MAN was very poor. So much that even when he worked hard, begged and scavenged, he remained hungry. He decided that his best option was to die. So he went in search of death. He knocked death’s door but was told he could not be admitted because he was a living being. […]

The world will not be destroyed by fire or virus

The world will not be destroyed by fire or virus

By Owei Lakemfa A VETERAN journalist called me on April 4 to confirm if indeed the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ, issued a statement advising government against approving the Fifth Generation Mobile Technology, 5G, claiming it is dangerous and linked to the outbreak of COVID-19. The NUJ also reportedly rejected the invitation of Chinese doctors in […]

Nigerians either surrender to soldiers or control them

Nigerians either surrender to soldiers or control them

By Owei Lakemfa DODAN Barracks, which was the seat of military regimes, is in Obalende, Lagos; the area I grew up. There were three gates I knew: the State House, Keffi and Obalende gates with the last being the general entrance. In those days, the guards at the Obalende Gate in the evenings could be […]

Inhumanity in the season of human tragedies

Inhumanity in the season of human tragedies

By Owei Lakemfa WE have gone just a quarter into 2020.  Yet we have lost at least 43,000  souls to a tiny virus that has become an unseen and unwelcome guest which forces itself on us. Some 900,000 humans have been unwilling hosts.  It is an adversary that dictates we maintain forced spacing in a […]

Come and I will increase your heavy burden

Come and I will increase your heavy burden

By Owei Lakemfa THESE are times people are burdened. When many, with the future appearing bleak due to partial or full lockdowns, need help to get by. This is when religious leaders should be praying for all, or at least their followers, and strengthening them. Yet these are also the times some clerics are sowing […]

Nigerians are in this together

Nigerians are in this together

By Owei Lakemfa IN the war against the Coronavirus, Covid-19, the television screens show various countries fumigating public places and streets. I have neither seen nor heard of a single case of fumigation in our country. I commuted between the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja last week. They are the […]

Coronavirus: Destroy biological weapons, we’re mere humans

Coronavirus: Destroy biological weapons, we’re mere humans

HUMANITY, despite its giant strides in knowledge, and over the planets, lies prostrate before an almost invisible enemy, the Coronavirus (Covid-19) The nuclear weapons, stealth jets, sophisticated weaponry and armies of the human race are no match for a virus that is not as big as a spec that human eyes can see or detect. […]

I will ask questions with stones: Odia Ofeimun at 70

I will ask questions with stones: Odia Ofeimun at 70

By Owei Lakemfa GLOBAL writer, poet and humanist, Odia Ofeimun is from a lineage with close affinity with leopards. There was an unwritten rule between the humans of Iruekpen-Ekum, Edo State and that   feline family that neither will attack the other. If today, there are no leopards left in that part, it is not because […]

Is it peace in Afghanistan, oh Donald, son of Trump?

Is it peace in Afghanistan, oh Donald, son of Trump?

By Owei Lakemfa THE Afghanistan government of  President Ashraf Ghani had to be pulled by the ears and dragged to the peace-implementation table where its American masters are seated with their old adversaries, the Taliban rebels. The complaint of the Afghan government and why it opposed the peace deal for the country was because it […]

Eyinnaya Abaribe: No Nigerian should kneel for anybody

Eyinnaya Abaribe: No Nigerian should kneel for anybody

By Owei Lakemfa IN a land sycophancy struts. A clime truth is forced to walk on its head. Terrestrial men and women say yes to power. In a climate of distrust where fake and false news are in unholy matrimony. A place the Rubber Stamp Assembly, RSA, proclaims itself the patron saint of accountable governance. […]

Don’t mind Erdogan the gambler

Don’t mind Erdogan the gambler

By Owei Lakemfa TURKEY under President  Recep Tayyip Erdogan has two boiling pots on the same fire. It is fighting a war against Syria, having invaded that country since October 9, 2019. Like a parasitic virus, it was an opportunistic invasion; moving in to replace the departing American forces. It assumed that after fighting repeated […]