The rape and violation that took place in Edo State penultimate Saturday was predictable. It has happened in Nigeria before. We are familiar with such scenarios. As a matter of fact, it was a re-enactment of what Nigerians saw and experienced in the presidential election of 2023. Then, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) violated and stepped aside its rule books in order to hand down to Nigerians an election result that did not reflect their voting pattern in that election. The commission manipulated and altered election results to suit its predetermined purpose. Nigerians shouted their voices hoarse, but the…
Author: Amanze Obi
There is no disputing the fact that the Bola Tinubu presidency, so far, has been a tale of woes. The entire country is squirming with discomfort. There is hunger. There is hardship. It has become increasingly difficult for the man in the street to eke out a living. Nigerians, as a matter of fact, look dazed. They are caught in a lurch. You will be right if you describe them as doomed voyagers. When this hopeless state began, many thought that it was going to be short-lived. They reasoned that Tinubu, the one-time governor of Lagos State who set the…
It was an impromptu dialogue. None of the participants had foreknowledge of it. Everyone just ran into it. Yet, each and everyone of us was very willing to get involved. We got involved because it was all about Nigeria. We were just willing to dissect the issues, whatever they could be, from our different standpoints. But the real point of convergence was that we were all concerned citizens. We were all genuinely concerned about the future of our country. We all seemed to be chorusing questions like: How do we get out of the blighted star that Nigeria has become?…
Treason, that word that used to be dreaded in Nigeria’s public sphere, is fast becoming hackneyed. It has become something of a cliche so much so that its dread and dreadfulness have been lost to misuse and overuse. We owe this culture of trivialization and frivolity to the Bola Tinubu administration. In the bid to determine the meaning of meaning, a quest that tasked 20th Century intellectualism to no end, the Nigerian government of 2024 is disrupting and toying with the meaning of treason. A new meaning and connotation is being imposed on a word whose import is clear to…
The governance regime that was imposed on Nigeria through the fraudulent elections of February 25, 2023 has, not surprisingly, turned out to be a fugacious compact. Nigerians were never part of the sleight of hand. And so, they have mercilessly been left in the cold. Some eighteen months after a duplicitous electoral commission led Nigerians by the nose, the country has found itself in the throes of extreme authoritarianism. We are in a situation where political power, as in all dictatorial conditions, is held by one man who controls not only national politics but also the people’s thoughts. This disorder…
Comrade Joe Ajaero, the President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), is in the eye of the storm. Soon, he will become a prisoner of conscience. He is being dressed for the slab, ready for slaughter. Already, he has been adorned with the garb of a terrorist. The nameless and faceless international terrorist government said it has been looking for could well be Joe Ajaero. The plot to implicate him is thickening. The story, when it begins to unfold, will flow from only one end. Government will seize the stage with unpleasant tales. A beleaguered Ajaero will only be seen…
The “Igbo-Must-Go” episode that played out in Lagos in recent weeks was no happenstance. It was premeditated. It was a well-worn bellicose strategy aimed at whittling down what is perceived as Igbo influence in Lagos. The belligerent undertone of the campaign spoke volumes. The campaigners were baying for blood. The target was the then-forthcoming hunger protests. It was imagined by the hate-mongers that the Igbo could overrun Lagos if their boisterousness was not put in check. Lagospedia, the group that launched the vicious anti-Igbo campaign, was therefore hobbled together by the goons of the Bola Tinubu presidency as a response…
The real Bola Ahmed Tinubu is still unfolding. The #EndBadGovernance protests, which the country is currently witnessing, tell a lot more about Nigeria’s President. He has been leading a clan for more than 30 years running. They are a boisterous, pretentious and sanctimonious group whose approach to every national question is defined by pig-headedness. The gallery has always been their primary habitat. They are adept in indulging in appeal to the people fallacy. When any national issue comes up for mention, they will stop at nothing to make you believe that their position on the matter has the support of the…
The Series has returned. It will, in the coming weeks, keep a tab on the country’s compulsive march towards the abyss. The hellhole is in sight. It is a product of the state capture that Nigeria experienced in 2023. This series, by the way, was given birth to on 6th November, 2023. It was a chronicle of how the Nigerian state was captured by the cabal that installed Bola Tinubu as president through the overtly manipulated presidential election of 2023. Five months after, I ended the first part of the 22-week-long series with these lines. “Having grabbed power the way…
Some five weeks ago, I had, in this column, broached the issue of the proposal for the creation of Anioma state out of the present Delta state. My intervention came in response to the submission made by Senator Ned Nwoko to the Senate for the creation of Anioma state. The agitation for Anioma state has long been on the cards. But Senator Nwoko brought a fresh and refreshing dimension to bear on it. He wants Anioma state, when created, to be made the sixth zone of the Southeast geopolitical zone to make up for the zone’s deficit in the distribution…
I was at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals, just recently. The Complex is located in the Dangote Industries Free Zone, Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos State. It is futile trying to describe what I saw. Even the most descriptive essayist cannot paint a precise picture of the wondrous world that the complex can pass for. Before I embarked on this adventure of discovery, I had a mental picture of what the Refinery was like. But I have come to realize, through actual contact, that my imagination, however fecund, could not have roamed far enough into capturing the complexities of the technological marvel.…
