I spent the second half of July in the UK and was booked to return to Abuja at the beginning of August. But almost everyone I spoke to urged me to stay put because the #EndBadGovernance protests were due to kick off nationwide on August l; and violence and general mayhem were expected. Long story short, hardly […]

In February 2022, I interviewed Onyeka Owenu for The Africa Report, a foreign magazine. Onyeka died this week, so let me share that interview with you as a small tribute to a late great friend. The last two lines, at the end, make me weep. We are sipping Gold Blend Expresso coffee in Onyeka Onwenu’s apartment […]

Dementia humiliates and robs sufferers of joy and dignity.  Dementia kills slowly and silently and relentlessly; and because my mother was semi-comatose for ages and completely lost her mind, her mobility and the power of speech nearly a decade before she actually passed away on July 22,  2023, I describe her gradual departure from her […]

When my dear friend, Professor Philip Efiong, told me on May 21  that his mother Josephine had just passed away aged 88, I was consumed with sadness and regrets…not just because we had lost a wonderful mother and sweet auntie, but because we had lost yet another Biafran leader. And soon, there will be none left. Mrs […]

No day goes by when I do not feel rudderless and bereft without him. No day goes by when I do not wish that I could be a far better human than I am, in order to live up to the very high moral and intellectual standards he set Wednesday July 3  was my late father’s […]

When I was told that my dear friend and beautiful, brilliant senior sister, Dr Doris Amachree Fisher, had passed away, I was stunned. I simply couldn’t believe it because though she had been battling to overcome a serious, life-threatening health challenge for a while, I had been absolutely sure that she would win the battle conclusively […]

I often remember a song I was taught as a child.  The most memorable line was: “When I point my finger at my neighbour, there are three more fingers pointing back at me”. I recently chanced upon a video interview featuring Dele Farotimi, the radical lawyer/activist. He was talking about colonialism and Nigeria’s relationships with foreign […]

Last week, I told you about my visits to the impressive Genocide and Holocaust memorials in Kigali (Rwanda) and Jerusalem, Israel. Then I asked why our government has not established any museum or exhibition to commemorate victims of the Biafran civil war. I’d like to share a couple of contrasting reactions I received from Vanguard readers, the […]

I returned from Kigali a few days ago. The highlight of my trip was a harrowing visit to a museum commemorating the million or so Rwandese people who were slaughtered during a genocide that shocked the world in 1994. Two hundred and fifty thousand victims of that vicious Tutsi/Hutu conflict are buried on the premises, so it’s […]

On May 30, 1967, fifty-seven years ago, the secessionist Republic of Biafra was declared by Lieutenant Colonel Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the then governor of Nigeria’s Eastern region.  My family was personally involved in the civil war because my father was Ojukwu’s ambassador in London. Onyekachi Wambu’s family was also involved.  Onyekachi is a journalist, writer […]