Fayose’s insufferable political rascality, by Ikechukwu Amaechi
Nigeria is at a crossroads – politically, economically and socially. There is no easy way out of the bind. You believe President Bola Tinubu’s preachment of ‘Renewed Hope’ at your own peril because blind trust is always a risky proposition. And that is what the administration wants Nigerians to do – trust blindly. They want […]
Nigeria: What does Buhari really want?
By Ikechukwu Amaechi ON May 29, that is tomorrow, President Muhammadu Buhari will mark his fifth anniversary in office. Questions will concentrate the minds of many. What does the North want out of Nigeria? Is there an exclusive Northern agenda? If there is, to what extent does that agenda promote national unity? These questions could […]
Confusion reigns as govt obfuscates on Chinese medical team
By Ikechukwu Amaechi MANY Nigerians are still in denial over the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging the entire world. And they are not just ordinary Nigerians. Governors Ben Ayade of Cross River and Yahaya Bello of Kogi have openly called it a hoax. To drive home his point that the coronavirus hullabaloo is a ruse, […]
FGPL: How not to resolve a nine-year dispute
By Ikechukwu Amaechi FOR starters, FGPL is the acronym for First Guarantee Pensions Limited, FGPL, one of the 20 licensed pension fund administrators, PFAs, in Nigeria’s pension industry. When the National Pension Commission, PenCom, snootily declared on Monday, May 4, that the decade-long FGPL crisis had been resolved, I remembered one of the famous admonitions […]
Between covic-one-nine and COVID-19
By Ikechukwu Amaechi I had a discussion that bordered on the novel coronavirus sometime in March with a childhood friend who lives in the US. He was scared that the pandemic which had exploded there may really get out of hand despite the US going into the crisis with what Fintan O’Toole, Ireland’s celebrated columnist, described […]
Imo: Hopelessness in the era of hope
By Ikechukwu Amaechi AS someone from Imo, it is extremely difficult to ignore the tomfoolery in the state in the name of governance, no matter how hard one tries. Since the Supreme Court torpedoed the inalienable right of the people to choose their leaders, I have refrained from commenting on the regrettable odyssey because yelling […]
Abba Kyari, victim of blind loyalty?
By Ikechukwu Amaechi WHEN the tributes, most of them effusive, started pouring in on Saturday, April 18, for President Muhammadu Buhari’s late chief of staff, Mallam Abba Kyari, I was nonplussed. Here was a man perceived as a public enemy by many who held him responsible for whatever in their estimation was wrong with the […]
Playing religious politics with coronavirus
By Ikechukwu Amaechi JUSTIFYING his decision to extend the restriction of movement in Lagos and Ogun states as well as the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, for another 14 days, President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday admitted that the coronavirus pandemic is no child’s play. “This is not a joke,” he intoned. But what he said next […]
Sanwo-Olu: A lesson in leadership
By Ikechukwu Amaechi I STRONGLY believe that Nigeria is yet to see the worst of the coronavirus pandemic. As Chinua Achebe would say, it is still “morning yet on creation day,” and, therefore, it may be too early to pat anyone on the back for a job well done. But I am tempted to do just […]
COVID-19: When men of power eat the humble pie
By Ikechukwu Amaechi The Latin phrase, annus horribilis (horrible year), which according to Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia, was used in 1891 in an Anglican Church publication to describe 1870, the year in which the Catholic Church defined the dogma of papal infallibility, was brought to modern prominence by the British monarch, Queen Elizabeth II. […]
Ihedioha at 55: Lest we forget
By Ikechukwu Amaechi IN his open letter to the dethroned Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, in Daily Trust on March 12, elder statesman, Ahmed Joda, advised the former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, never to challenge his dethronement in court. “I suggest to you that if you are contemplating the legal […]
Yes, my 79-year-old mother was kidnapped
THE question I have been asked repeatedly since my mother, Ezinne Apollonia Amaechi, was abducted by three gunmen right inside her living room in my village on Tuesday, March 3, was if we paid ransom to secure her freedom. And my answer is yes, we paid because other than the grace of God which sustained her in captivity, payment of ransom was the only guarantee we had to ever see her alive again.
David Lyon: The governor that never was
Wherever he is now, David Lyon will be wondering what went wrong. And did things go awfully wrong for him? Yes, they did. If not, as you read this, he would have been a week old in office as the governor of Bayelsa State. But he is not. Instead, he is out in the political […]
When a PFA goes beyond the call of duty
WHEN the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, Pensions Limited came on board six years ago, the idea was to have a Pension Fund Administrator, PFA, exclusively responsible for pension assets of all police personnel, according to the Pension Reform Act, PRA 2014.
Why are Nigerians living in denial?
By Ikechukwu Amaechi Nigerians: WHEN the discourse is on Muhammadu Buhari and the state of affairs in Nigeria under his watch, opinions are sharply divided along ethnic and religious lines. My write-up last week on “What will be Buhari’s legacy?” expectedly elicited such strong responses. The president is a very divisive figure. Those who claim […]
Amaechi as Buhari’s poster minister
By Ikechukwu Amaechi, On Monday, January 20, the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, was back in Lagos for personal inspection of the Lagos-Ibadan corridor of the Lagos-Kano rail project. The huge project costs billions of dollars. And it is almost a monthly routine for him to fly down to Lagos to tour the site. The […]
