I mourn for Nigeria’s heroes of democracy, both the living and the dead. The recent honors bestowed by President Tinubu on them have left a bitter taste. Wole Soyinka, a literary giant, now shares the same honor as Godswill Akpabio, a symbol of political expediency. Frank Kokori’s posthumous recognition brings him alongside Nyesom Wike, a man whose […]

A nation ravaged by inflation, joblessness, insecurity, and an overwhelming cost of living crisis, words matter. On June 12, 2025 Democracy Day Nigerians didn’t expect magic, but they hoped for empathy. What they got instead was a soundbite that landed like a hammer on a bruised nation .On Democracy Day, instead of a show of leadership, President […]

I had a lengthy talk with a friend recently. We go way back to the early 70s. He was my senior in primary school. We lost touch but got reunited in the 90s. One day, we went to a restaurant to eat. I ordered rice and chicken. I peeled the skin off the chicken before eating the […]

I encountered the relic of his presence long before I met Sam Amuka, known as Uncle Sam. Inside a room in the far corner of the old Kudeti PUNCH building, predominantly constructed of plywood and steel frames, there was a wooden armchair that had been a fixture in Uncle Sam’s office when he served as managing […]

Yesterday, I got wind of the fact that my adorable Uncle Sam Amuka, the universally respected veteran journalist and owner of this newspaper (who turns 90 today), was going to get a national honour. And sure enough, when President Tinubu’s Democracy Day address was read out during a joint session of the National Assembly, Uncle Sam’s […]

YESTERDAY was June 12. That date has become something else in the history of our dear country. At the risk of telling you what you what you already know, the presidential election of June 12, 1993 was adjudged by Nigerians and watchers of Nigerian politics worldwide to be the freest, fairest ever held in the […]

Africa has been so torn by violence that it has witnessed some of the most stupid wars in contemporary history. One that deserves a gold medal in this wise is that in Sudan where the Sudanese Armed Forces, SAF, and its offshoot, the Rapid Support Forces, RSF, conspired to deny the civil populace its April 11, […]

Exactly 32 years ago today, the presidential election of June 12, 1993 was annulled by the military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida that conducted the poll. Over three decades after that seismic decision, the truth, the whole truth, about why the election was annulled and who actually annulled it remains unknown. General Babangida’s long-awaited memoir, A […]

Over the years, I have had strong personal relationships with five great Igbo personages, who were and still are global personalities in their own right – Rear Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Professor Ben Nwabueze, Dr Pascal Dozie, Professor Anya O. Anya and Dr Uma Eleazu. Though three of these great men are now of blessed memory, these […]

There is something they say about digging yourself into a hole. It usually takes more  time to claw your way back. That is, if you ever want to see light again.  The Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, did not intentionally dig itself into a hole. Some people, given the responsibility to curate the day-to-day operations of the […]