Anglican archbishop stands by his catholic brothers in Christ, by Donu Kogbara
Last week on this page, I hailed Cardinal John Onaiyekan, the Catholic Emeritus Archbishop of Abuja, for speaking up when President Tinubu responded callously to Catholic bishops’ concerns about widespread poverty and insecurity. Daniel Bwala, an accident-prone presidential spokesman, accused Onaiyekan of speaking only for Catholics. “NOT SO!” was the robust rejoinder from Christian leaders from […]
Daddy Tinubu
By Donu Kogbara CHATHAM House, an independent policy institute in the heart of London, describes itself as “a trusted forum for debate and dialogue (that has) provided thought leadership on key issues that defined the 20th century.” Its numerous achievements include crafting the multilateral institutions and mechanisms of global financial stability after the Second World […]
The upside of poverty
By Donu Kogbara I have an impecunious young friend. He’s married with two children and doesn’t earn much because he works in a supermarket. His wife also has a low-income job and I help them from time to time because they really struggle to pay rent, school fees and other bills. A couple of days […]
Refreshingly intelligent discourse
By Donu Kogbara MAJOR General Barry Tariye Ndiomu (retd), the recently appointed Interim Administrator (IA) of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, PAP, visited Senator Douye Diri, the Bayelsa State Governor, in Yenagoa on Tuesday. Ndiomu, a native of Bayelsa, was visibly touched by the warm welcome he received from Diri. But the thing that struck me […]
My heart is heavy
By Donu Kogbara I HAVEN’T been myself since I discovered, last weekend, that Dillibe Onyeama, author, publisher and brother of Geoffrey Onyeama, the current Minister of Foreign Affairs, had passed away, aged 71. Dillibe was the son of Charles Dadi Onyeama, the iconic first-ever Nigerian judge at the International Court of Justice in the Hague. […]
Flooding fiasco
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 […]
Resolving NDDC’s performance dilemma
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 […]
Election fatigue!
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 […]
Undesirable bedfellows!
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 […]
The Pied Piper
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 […]
Heroine of the month
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 […]
