I saw this little narrative online: They asked the Pharoah: “What made you a tyrant?” He said: “Nobody stopped me”. Someone recently asked me why the former Rivers Governor and current FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, struts around like an emperor. My wry response was: “Because he can.” Long story short: If you allow individuals who have […]

Last week, on this page, I reproduced a letter from Rescue Rivers, a group I founded, to President Tinubu. The opening paragraphs:    We, the People of Rivers State and as concerned citizens of Nigeria, are writing to express our utmost outrage and condemnation of your recent [unconstitutional] declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers […]

I felt so alarmed and insulted when a State Of Emergency was declared in my home state, Rivers, on March 18 that I hastily set up a protest group called Rescue Rivers. Please find below a letter we wrote to the head of state and copied to the National Assembly and ‘ International Community: Dear President Tinubu, […]

I came across this seriously sad poem online. It was written by Chinedu Nnadi Nwangwu; and I love it and have decided to share it. “Weep, Nigeria— For the soil is heavy with blood, And the sky hangs low with despair. A land where godfathers pull strings in dark rooms, Turning the law into a puppet […]

By Donu Kogbara I am so upset about the unfair imposition of a state of emergency on Rivers State. I have totally lost faith in President Tinubu, FCT Minister Wike, their supporters and the National Assembly. I have complained extensively about this crisis on YouTube. Today I am feeling too emotionally drained to write anything, so let me […]

Mariam Shekari, the daughter of Stephen Shekari, a former Deputy Governor of Kaduna State, and Rifkatu Irene Shekari, a graduate of Cornell, a top-class Ivy League American university, has been a loyal and amiable Personal Assistant to me for a long time. She lost her beloved brother George on Monday. I invited her to submit a tribute […]

As a youngster living in London full-time, I often participated in a BBC World Service quiz programme called Focus On Africa. It was great fun and my second favourite work assignment ever (the first was writing reports about wonderful tourist destinations for British Airways’ glossy in-flight magazine. I’d fly to Mauritius or wherever first-class, then […]

I am chatting online, via zoom, with Zeinab Badawi, the Khartoum-born doyenne of British broadcasting and President of London University’s School of African and Oriental Studies. We are discussing her book – AN AFRICAN HISTORY OF AFRICA FROM THE DAWN OF HUMANITY TO INDEPENDENCE – which became an instant bestseller when it was published in the UK […]

I am still reeling from the death of Chief Edwin Clark, the great Niger Deltan who went to meet his Maker earlier on this week. He was 97; and the last time I saw him, the grand old man was fading; and I knew that his end was nigh. But despite expecting it, I was […]

On Wednesday, I attended a valedictory session in honour of the late Stanley Shenko  Alagoa JSC, OFR, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court…which is where the ceremony took place. I was invited because I am close to some of his relatives and I felt immensely privileged to be there while the Chief Justice (Madame Kudirat […]