Government worker Iorliam Shija sits in one of the ramshackle bars along the banks of the Benue river in central Nigeria sipping from a gourd filled with frothy burukutu. The vinegary alcoholic beverage has been made here for generations from the fermented grains of sorghum and millet and consumed as a traditional alternative to beer. […]

THE history of music in Nigeria would be utterly incomplete without the inclusion of Commander Ebenezer Obey-Fabiyi, a Juju maestro that has bestrode the landscape for more than 40 years. He is one of Nigeria’s oldest living and active Juju musicians and is reputed to have churned out a musical repertoire of 660 songs, a feat yet to be equaled by any African musician in history.

IN an attempt to give insight into what royalty really means, an unknown author once wrote: “A crown! What is it? It is to bear the miseries of a people. To hear their murmurs, feel their discontents, and sink beneath a load of splendid care.” That insight perhaps is the closest description of the man, Prince Bola Ajibola. Though born into royalty, the Olori Omo Oba of Owu Kingdom has spent virtually all his royal life serving humanity and dispensing justice.  

CHIEF Mbazulike Amaechi, popularly known as ‘the boy is good’ is the only surviving minister of the First Republic. He was born in Ukpor in the present day Nnewi South Local Government Area of Anambra State on June 16, 1929. As a young boy, Mbazulike Amaechi developed the passion and desire of liberating his people. He had a burning zeal of extricating his dear country Nigeria from the clutches of the colonial masters.

SINCE today’s generation of Nigerians ignorantly regards virtually all successful people of his age as politicians, some may think he is one. That is certainly a misconception that reflects how today’s Nigeria sees being in politics as possibly the surest path to fame and wealth.

WHEN former Military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, set out in his convoluted transitions to civil rule programmes (1985 to 1993) to look for those he termed “new breed politicians” to take over the political landscape from the politicians that he and his fellow military adventurists had chucked out of power, it was not clear what he expected of them.Hon. Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, Dr. Chris Ngige, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Malam Nasir el Rufai, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) and so many other political products of the new millennium have defined for us what it means to be a Nigerian new breed politician.

HE is regarded as the journalists’ journalist. There’s no gainsaying the fact that anytime the history of journalism is written, Aremo Olusegun Osoba’s name will definitely resonate.

WHEN Professor Anya Oko Anya, 82, MFR, FAS, NNOM, Academic, and Administrator, was sired on January 3,1937, he was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth. Reason: His father was reasonably well off and had a lorry in 1940.

BORN November 20, 1938, Attah is the former Governor of Akwa Ibom State since the return to civil rule from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007. Attah who was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, but later joined the All Progressive Congress, APC.

IF you called Dr. Christopher Kolade, 87, CON, academic, diplomat, administrator, and elder statesman a jack of all trades and master of all, you are not far from the truth. Why? He is among a few people who traversed multiple spheres of life and excelled in all.

BEING the first female Chief Justice  of Nigeria, CJN, is not the only thing  that sets apart Honourable Justice Aloma Mariam Mukhtar.  So many aspects of her career progression have profound symbolism.

SOMETIME in 2007 when he was still  the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Malam Nasir Ahmad el Rufai (OFR) paid a friendly visit to Vanguard corporate headquarters in Apapa. As usual, after a session with the editors he was hosted to a lunch at the newspaper’s legendary Canal Restaurant.

LONG before she was decorated with the silk in 1981, Chief Folake Solanke, SAN, CON; already had the gift of the garb.

DAVID Nweze Umahi, an Engineer, accomplished captain of industry and religious leader, was born to the humble family of Elder and Deaconess Joseph Umahi Nweze of Umunaga Uburu in Ohaozara Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.

THE strides of Odonlagbon of Warri Kingdom, Delta State, Chief (Dr) Leemon Ikpea, from his modest surroundings, days gone by, where he scarcely had resources to pay his school fees to the present day where he takes the chair in a multi-billion naira corporation, bestriding oil and gas services, engineering, construction, travels and tours, super market chain, tool and equipment fabrication, manufacturing, all under the Lee Group of Companies, substantiate his choice as Vanguard Businessman of Year.