Seven words that quietly damage credibility, by Ruth Oji
I was reviewing a colleague’s presentation draft when I noticed something curious. She had written, “I just think we should maybe consider this approach,” in a slide note, which she planned to say aloud. This was a senior consultant with fifteen years of experience, presenting a recommendation she had spent weeks developing. Yet her language […]
Buhari and the Lion of Bourdillon
ONE month ago, the APC had whipped its supporters into frenzy in believing it is bound to win an election it really has no chance of winning. In truth, if the election had been conducted then for chairman of the EFCC, Muhammadu Buhari would have been declared winner by a landslide. However, with postponement of the election, a lot of water has passed under the bridge. Even Buhari’s self-styled credential as Mr. Integrity has unraveled.
Letter to Iran, affront to White House
IN a space of one week, U.S. Republican law makers in Congress acted most disrespectfully to President Barack Obama in particular, and the White House in general. First, it was Speaker John Boehner’s undiplomatic snub when he unilaterally invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress, without the courtesy of informing the White House about the invitation.
One dead, many wounded as C-River communities fight over land
CALABAR—A long-drawn-out land squabble between Kasuk Qua and Ikpai Qua clans in Calabar, Cross River State, has claimed the life of a 21-year-old villager, Asuquo Duke with many others wounded. Niger Delta Voice gathered that hostilities broke out between the two communities at a sand quarry in Ikot Uduak, last week. Counsel to Kasuk Qua, Barrister Orok Ironbor, stated that fight erupted following the contravention of a subsisting Zone Six Police Command order barring the contending from the land in contention, which was allegedly infringed by the Ikpai people, who kept on excavating sand from the pit located on the land.
Akpabio, wife build bungalow for widow
IKOT OBIO NDOHO— WHEN the Akwa Ibom State Governor, Obong Godswill Akpabio, breached protocol while on a state function, September 14, last year, by making a spur-of-the-moment stopover at the rural Ikot Obio Ndoho community, Mkpat Enin Local Government Area of the state, his security aides and other members of his entourage were taken aback.
Going back to school
By Paul Bassey As you are reading this, I am seated in the expansive and tastely furnished Aida Conference Hall of the Cairo Marriot Hotel. A quick glance around the hall that sits 101 other “African football students” I can see General Dominic Oneya, Dr Bolaji Oj-Oba, Mazi Amanze Uchegbulam and Samson Adamu. As Instructors, […]
Join the troops, say: “never again!”(1)
I HEARD it first when President Goodluck Jonathan visited our heroic and patriotic troops in the liberated communities in Nigeria’s northeast. “Never Again” appears to be the rallying battle cry in this second Nigerian civil war.
Will PDP or APC rescue the economy?
The 2015 election is barely two weeks away and yet, not even close followers of events in the political space can satisfactorily articulate distinctive differences in the ideology of the two major contestants. Instead, Nigerians have been fêted to a reality edition of an otherwise Nollywood dramatization of a “rofo rofo fight” between two wives in a polygamous setting. Ironically, the protagonists expect the favoured husband to make the louder and less civil combatant his favorite!
I apologise, I did not speak with the king
The story that the King Mohammed IV of Morrocco declined a phone request from Nigeria President Goodluck Jonathan is no longer news. This broke early last week and has been widely publicised both in print and broadcast media, in and outside Nigeria. At first “contact” with the news, I had reservations about the authenticity. This probably was because I saw it first on the social media.
GEJ, Alams, Nwobodo and “authority stealing” (1)
Although the dictionary included dishonesty among the definitions of corruption, President Jonathan had insisted that it is only stealing. I fully accept his definition of what happens in official circles. My mentor on this was the Abami-Eda himself, Fela Anikulapo – who left us with a track titled “Authority Stealing”. Jonathan, it can be assumed from his utterances and conduct, appears not to be prepared to fight corruption. But, will he wage war against stealing? Given the facts available to me, the answer is “definitely No!”
Ohaneze’s endorsements and other matters
As the days grow shorter towards Nigeria’s general elections, two weeks hence on March 28, the stakes grow higher; campaigns fiercer, more laced with calumny and denigration, and the posturings are dense with hyperbole. In the high stakes game to win hearts and minds, politicians throw everything into the grinder, including the devil’s poop, to make a special kind of smoothie for public consumption.
