On the evening of 5 April 2012, the prime-time bulletin on the television news of the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), announced to the country that the president, Ngwazi Professor Bingu wa Mutharika, “had been taken ill and had been flown to South Africa for specialist treatment.”

At a recent symposium in Lagos on ‘Corruption in the Nigerian Judiciary’ the speakers persuasivelypresented facts and figures to amplify the popularly held opinion that Nigerian judges are probably the most corrupt group in the country. In truth, none of the speakers said anything new. After all, some 6 years earlier, a survey by the United […]

“Traditional democracies will end up on the garbage heap of history” – Alberto Fujimori, 1938-2024, Peruvian President, 1998, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 37. I started the VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS in 1965 and got it published in 2007 – 42 years after. The first quote which caught my attention was by Dr Samuel Johnson, […]

Penultimate Saturday, Vanguard Media broke the news of the passing of football legend ‘Chairman’ Christian Chukwu. Minutes later, the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF through its Secretary General, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi, issued a condolence message commiserating with the family and the football fraternity over his death. In his reaction to Chukwu’s death, his team mate and […]

On April 15th, 2025, I had a book reading hosted by the Center for Gender and Social Policy Studies at OAU. There were two panels, one led by students who had read some of my writing, and another by senior academics. I had a delightful time discussing feminism and gender, policy advocacy, lack of accountability […]

There must be something to this name. While we shed tears following the passage of legendary Green Eagles captain, Christian Chukwu, there are soothing words from his name sake, Air Vice Marshal Christian Chukwu (retd). Many similarities. These Chukwus hail from Enugu State. Both were given national honours. They survived air crash and went through danger battling […]

In 1980 or 1981, I learnt a very important lesson that shaped my life. My father had given me “pocket money” and money for provisions for the new term. My brother, Ufuoma, escorted me to Igbudu Market, Warri, Delta State, to buy provisions. When we got to the market, we saw women doing “try your luck” (amateur […]

My dear Admiral, may your days be long. They called you out of retirement into an unconstitutional but juicy job. Tread carefully because a good name is better than many riches.  Critics have said that a man of conscience would have rejected that job. Because such a man wouldn’t partake in the dismantling of democracy and usurpation […]

What is the true picture of the security situation in the country? This is a question I get asked a lot these days by Nigerians in the diaspora. No matter how one cuts it, many of these guys still care about the country. Many nurse the hope, romantic maybe in the circumstances, that Nigeria will one day […]

It was a day of mourning. Thursday, April 17, 2025 was exactly 200 years France imposed an evil tax on Haiti for daring to stop slavery and securing its independence. Haiti, until today, is in deep crises mainly due to the debilitating effects of that criminal tax and, interferences by Europe and the United States, US. […]

THE situation is bad. As in, VERY BAD. In the last few weeks, there has been an upsurge in wanton killings by armed non-state actors that we now refer to as herdsmen. From Uromi in Edo State to the wetlands of the various states of the Niger Delta, these gun-wielding felons have held the peoples of this […]

Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s junketing president, chose the week Donald Trump, America’s ultra-protectionist president, unleashed a global trade war to go on a “working visit” abroad. As the world reeled from Trump’s tariff blitz, the deepest and most sweeping in a century, leaders of most other countries were hands on deck at home. President Emmanuel Macron […]

In the wake of the disappearance, on Monday, of Crypto Bridge Exchange Smart-Treasures, widely known as CBEX, a digital asset platform, grief and regret have enveloped the land and understandably so. In the coming days, some will commit suicide, having watched, in some cases, entire life savings, pensions and hope for a more secured financial […]

In the subtlety of everyday conversation, we rarely pause to consider the weight our introductory phrases carry. Three expressions in particular—”I think,” “I believe,” and “in my opinion”—slip from our lips with such frequency that they’ve become nearly invisible to us. Yet these seemingly interchangeable phrases colour our statements in distinctly different hues, revealing volumes about […]

Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, could not have been wrong when he said that the Nigerian Bar Association was hypocritical in its opposition to the declaration of emergency rule in Rivers State. He attributed this to the loss of the monetary support the NBA was to get as sponsorship of its 2025 […]