At a time Nigeria requires a robust conversation about its politics, economy, ethnic relations, unity, and indeed, future, the country’s over-indulged lawmakers, egged on by a president who is anything but a democrat, are placing a deathly ban on free speech. This proposed ban must be opposed and defeated by any means necessary! Two dangerous bills are currently in the National Assembly seeking not only to establish an “Independent National Commission for the prohibition of hate speeches” but to curtail free expression and take state repression of alternative voices to a whole new level by making the right to hold…
Author: Chido Onumah
A coalition of media and civil society group will on Thursday, November 7, hold a colloquium to address the shrinking media and civic space in Nigeria and attack on journalists, media organizations and civic activists. The event holds at NECA House, Ikeja, Lagos, at 4:00p.m. Coming barely a week after the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the colloquium will draw attention to the sustained attacks against journalists and free speech in Nigeria. “Still two months to the end of the year, 2019 has turned out to be the year when the muzzling of journalists and independent voices and constriction…
Introduction Information rules the world today. More often than not, the type of information we receive affects our choices, our relationship with others, the quality of life we live, the kind of influence we have on others, the extent to which others influence us, the kinds of activities we undertake and the roles we decide to play in society as citizens and participants in the democratic process. While Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about everyone’s “right to freedom of opinion and expression,” it is important, according to UNESCO, to equip citizens with competencies needed to…
A book of essays in honour of frontline journalist, Dapo Olorunyomi, will be unveiled on Monday, May 27, at the Shehu Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja. Mr. Olorunyomi, who was among the team that founded the hard-hitting TheNews/Tempo magazines in the 1990s, is the publisher of foremost online newspaper PREMIUM TIMES. The book, edited by Chido Onumah and Frederick Adetiba, has over 90 contributions from a spectrum of Mr. Dapo’s teachers, colleagues, associates and mentees. The Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, a long-time associate of Mr. Olorunyomi, is expected to lead dignitaries to the event. Other special guests are the Secretary…
In the last one year, the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) has been embroiled in a crisis that has severe consequences for the company, and of course, the generation and distribution of electricity in the country. The crisis includes allegations of corruption against NBET CEO, Dr Marilyn Amobi, and victimization of staff, including two whistleblowers—Mr. Waziri Bintube, General Manager/Chief Financial Officer and Mr. Abdullahi Sambo—Deputy General Manager/Head of Internal Audit—who have put their careers and wellbeing on the line in order to end what, according to them, is monumental financial malfeasance at NBET. On February 26, 2018, the Nigerian…
Pius Adesanmi, Carleton University’s Professor of literature and African studies who died in the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash near the town of Bishoftu, Ethiopia, on Sunday, March10, was a consummate intellectual and civic activist. Pius was visible in academic and intellectual circles around the world as he was on social media and other social circles. A tribute by a mutual friend, Prof E.C. Osondu of Providence College, Rhodes Island, USA, captures the very essence of Pius’s rather short but extremely remarkable life. “Pius was a rare being, ebullient, a razor-sharp mind. He was what the Yoruba call an Omoluabi…
Although she wears the look of an angel, what lies beneath the pleasant façade is the exact opposite. To say Dr. Marilyn Amobi, Managing Director/CEO of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc, is utterly imperious and saucy would be putting it mildly. Besides the abiding tyrannical behaviour and cheekiness, she is as Machiavellian as they come—ever contriving and plotting to have her way, and if not, take down anyone, staff or non-staff, perceived to be standing in the way of her often unfavourable and harmful style of running NBET. Those she can’t take down she dresses down conveniently with…
First, a confession. I am Igbo, whatever that means! I was born in 1966, a year before the Nigerian Civil War that lasted for 30 months, from July 1967 to January 1970. And depending on who is counting, or writing the history, the casualty figures in that internecine war could be anywhere between two and three million or more. I can’t believe am posting this, 105 years after amalgamation and the creation of Nigeria, almost 60 years after independence, 49 years after the civil war ended and the country proclaimed, “no victor, no vanquished,” and embarked on the 3Rs: Reconciliation,…
A Coalition of Nigerian civil society groups has sent an open letter to Nigeria’s Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami (SAN), urging him to intervene and forestall attempts by the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB) to erode the confidence of Nigerians in the fight against corruption. In the letter dated 14 February 2019, the CSOs—African Centre for Media & Information Literacy; International Centre for Investigative Reporting; Centre for Impact Advocacy; Public and Private Development Centre; Right2Know; Media Rights Agenda; Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre; Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism; Social Development Integrated Centre; Civil Society Network Against Corruption; Network on Police Reforms…
