By Donu Kogbara AS millions of Nigerians suffer through the worst by-product of climate change they have endured since 2012 – savage floods that have submerged hundreds of villages, towns and farms nationwide – the Humanitarian Affairs Minister, Sadiya Farouk, has sparked controversy by claiming that Jigawa is the worst-hit state and that at least […]

By Donu Kogbara ONCE in a while, I publish other peoples’ articles on this page, if I feel that they are especially informative or interesting. And I’m proud to present to you today a piece on NDDC that was written by Boniface Dumpe, a fellow Ogoni from my village (Bodo City, Rivers State) and a […]

By Donu Kogbara I WISH Nigerians were voting this weekend because I am suffering from acute election fatigue and want the whole drama to end NOW. The authorities who created such a long gap (circa 8 months) between the 2022 party primaries and 2023 polling days had good reasons for dragging things out for the […]

By Donu Kogbara POLITICIANS can’t afford to be snobbish or uncompromising because they need every single supporter they can get; so I’m sure Peter Obi will not thank me for saying what I’m about to say. Since I’m not looking for anyone’s vote, I can afford to be snootily frank and point out that some of […]

By Donu Kogbara The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the title character of a German legend. When I was a schoolchild in the UK, my classmates and I had to learn a wonderful dramatic rhyming poem about the Pied Piper off by heart; and I still remember most of the words 50 years later! “The […]

LIZ Cheney, an American Republican legislator, has deliberately lost her re-election bid last week. I say “deliberately” because she and everyone else knew that she didn’t stand a snowball’s chance in hell of retaining her seat in Congress if she challenged former President Donald Trump (the de facto Republican Party leader) in a part of […]

By Donu Kogbara AS the Peter Obi bandwagon gathers momentum, I am immensely irritated by status quo merchants who doggedly insist that significant change is impossible and keep dishing out pessimistic analyses of Obi’s chances of winning the presidential election. One of my friends is convinced that Obi’s popularity is a mirage that only exists […]

By Donu Kogbara THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has said Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is no match for its presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar. This claim was contained in a statement signed by Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary of the party. The statement described Tinubu’s All Progressives Congress party, APC, as moribund, decrepit and crippled, adding that […]

By Donu Kogbara A LOT of politicians and pundits are extremely upset with President Muhammadu Buhari at the moment because he has expressed a desire to choose his successor. And I think we can all understand why Buhari’s “consensus-candidate-by-force” plan is so unpopular. Many professional commentators have no skin in the game and are therefore […]

By Donu Kogbara I AM not going to impose ANYBODY on this state! I WILL NOT DO IT! See what happened in Edo State…See what happened in Anambra and even here in Rivers with somebody (Rotimi Amaechi) that Dr Peter Odili created (and was later humiliated by). “You think me I will suffer the same […]

By Donu Kogbara WHEN Godwin Emefiele, the Central Bank Governor, decided to join the crowd of aspirants who are jostling to replace President Buhari next year, we were told that his expression of interest form (going price N100 million) was bought from the APC Secretariat by grateful rice farmers who benefitted from his allegedly marvellous […]

By Donu Kogbara JUSTICE Mary Ukaego Peter-Odili turned 70, yesterday, and retired from the Supreme Court after a long and distinguished legal career. In addition to thanking and praising her devoted husband, Dr Peter Odili, former Governor of Rivers State – as well as the current Governor, Chief Nyesom Wike, and several mentors, professional colleagues, […]

By Donu Kogbara TWO videos are doing the rounds in numerous online fora. One features Dr. Hakeem Baba Ahmed, the spokesman for the Northern Elders Forum, saying (at a public lecture last year, apparently) that his region possesses the numerical strength to determine who will follow President Muhammadu Buhari and that “the heavens will not […]

By Donu Kogbara WHEREVER I go nowadays – social gatherings, work events, etc – I ask the people I meet which of the many presidential aspirants they prefer; and the answer is almost always “Osinbajo or Peter Obi”. And though some of those I have spoken to say that they don’t find Obi/Osinbajo as particularly […]

By Donu Kogbara THE nation is heading towards primaries at which every political party will select its presidential candidate (the Independent National Electoral Commission – INEC – has decreed that this selection process must be completed by early June). Last week, I focused on the most senior presidential hopeful, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (who had […]