Author: Austin Emaduku

The Nigerian ruling class, the “owners” of  Nigeria, those who run the nation like the boardroom of a conglomerate have once again sounded the “drums of war.” This time, the drum is in the form of what has become the currency redesign and swap imbroglio. As usual, ever guilible Nigerians, not seeing the woods for the trees have taken sides in the war. They have dug trenches, ready to claw at each others throats on the streets. The reality however, is that it is not war but subterfuge, a deflection carefully designed and calibrated to take our gaze off the…

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 “not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more.” These were the famous last words uttered by Brutus before delivering the mortal stab that snuffed the life out of his best friend Julius Caesar. Caesar, who at the time, was still struggling to fend off  his foes was heart broken and lost the willpower to continue to struggle, when he turned and saw his good friend raise a knife and struck him, leading him to gasp, “etu Brute?” That singular stab out of the many he had received proved to be the most fatal and he gave…

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“Culture is a way of life” is the  most popular and commonly accepted definition of what culture is. Everyone who has attempted even an elementary research on the subject of culture has encountered this definition. One online article offers the following definition which I believe is most suitable for our purpose in this piece. It says this about culture. ” Culture can be defined as all the ways of life including arts, beliefs and institutions of a population that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture has been called “the way of life for an entire society.” As such,…

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A few days ago,  I took a ride with a couple of friends to my maternal grandmother’s village to render assistance over a land purchase issue. Along the way, we saw a group of Igbe traditional worshipers performing some religious rituals  in a stream by the roadside. The three of us in the vehicle were Christians or at least profess the Christian faith. One of us on sighting the worshipers, started off demonising and pouring expletives on the worshipers and  their mode of worship. As often happens when I witness such occurrences, my training as a philosopher and study of…

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I have read the entire section 29 of the 2022 Electoral Act with particular attention to and several readings of sub sections 5 and 6, just to check and test my comprehension. It all seems fairly straightforward in terms of everyday English language but    social media have been awash with different interpretation of the section since news of the judgement of the Delta State PDP Governoship candidacy  broke, even when the analysts have not seen the detailed text of the judgement. As usual, most of the interpretations,  debates and sentiments have been influenced by the POLITICS rather than the JUSTICE…

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“One day we are bed-fellows , the other night we are both enemies. Alas our common communion was nothing but a pot of poison.” Ambs. Raymond Ugbeh I have recently been wondering and have often asked aloud: From what substance are some human beings of these days moulded? How are people able to change colours like carmeleon  and make 360 degrees turn in conviction and ideology in a twinkle of an eye, without a dizzying swirl of conscience? How do people easily return to their vomit and lap it all up without any feeling of nausea? Seeing that…

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The Nigerian Senate has reportedly taken a decision to send a delegation to visit Senator Ike Ekweremadu and his wife in London. The purpose is to ensure that the Senator by virtue of his being a serving Senator and a former Deputy President of the Senate is given fair treatment in his current travails. In this regard, all relevant diplomatic apparatus of state are being mobilised in aid of the Senator and his family. The Senate has by a resolution directed the Nigerian High Commissioner to London to ensure that the sick Miss Ekweremadu does not lact the best of…

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“Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame..” -Philippians 3:19 “Anywhere belle face” was a popular phrase used in football fields around Warri/Wado City areas of Delta State in my growing up days. I don’t know if it is still in currency, but it was a term often used to describe any unskilled or fumbling, kick and follow, football player who lacked the ability to shoot the ball in a direction other the the one in front of him. It didn’t matter if the target was far away from that direction. In…

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Some days ago, I made a Facebook post titled “Unwittingly Marketing the Obi Brand” in which I admonished those opposed to the Peter Obi candidature of the unintended consequences of making Obi the epi centre of their campaign instead of concentrating on marketing their candidate. Today, I am compelled to expand that admonition, make it universal, to cover all those who support particular candidates but devote more  time and efforts advertising the “fault lines” of the opposition candidate than they advertise the strong points of their candidates. When you devote so much time and cyber ink to highlight the shortfalls…

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Nigeria is standing on the edge of a dangerous cliff. It is just a matter of time before it tips over. Rather than the current emotional and politically driven call for a “Revolution”, we all really need to calmly analyse and situate the cause(s) of our problems. In any case, a revolution without a vanguard is a recipe for anarchy. Besides, we are too fatally fractured as a people to achieve a broad-based revolution acceptable to all. The best we can achieve in such a situation will be strife, anarchy and uncontrolled fragmentation. With the perennial mutual mistrust and prevalent…

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