A controversial fora for intelligentsia debates and in-depth commentary on a broad spectrum of global issues.
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Before senatorial zones, before zoning bargains, before military shortcuts, oil calculations and administrative gymnastics, territorial identity in Eastern Nigeria followed a clear and logical order. That order was colonial administration with all its known and understandable imperfections. Under that system, Ohaji, Egbema and Oguta sat firmly within the Owerri administrative universe, alongside territories that extended
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A Legal and Economic Critique of Systemic Monopoly Power under the FCCPA, 2018. By Charles Ude Esq. Introduction: This paper examines the legal and economic implications of monopoly power and abuse of dominance within Nigeria’s competition law framework. It interrogates the emerging dominance of the Dangote Group across strategic sectors of the Nigerian economy, most
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For more than two decades, Imo State has carried a peculiar political burden. Since the return to civil rule in 1999, no sitting governor has managed to determine who succeeds him. Each outgoing administration has tried, and each has failed. Not because succession is impossible in theory, but because Imo politics has proven uniquely hostile
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In Nigeria’s long and troubled democratic journey, one debate keeps resurfacing whenever elections approach or appointments are made: should governance and representation be driven by experience or by character? While experience has its place, Nigeria’s lived reality increasingly shows that character, not experience, is the more decisive requirement for leadership in today’s political environment. Nigeria
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A Life of Grace, Grit, Wanderings, Reinvention and Destiny On Tuesday, 16 December 2025, I stand on the sixth floor of life. Sixty years, preserved not by chance, not by strength alone, but by the unmistakable, omnipotent grace of the Almighty Architect of the Universe. This is not merely a birthday.It is a testimony. I
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“That his line will continue forever and endure before Me like the sun.”Psalm 89:36 As I stand on the threshold of my 60th birthday, stepping boldly into the sixth floor by the grace of the Almighty Architect of the Universe, this verse resonates with a depth I can no longer ignore. It is not just
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Bienvenue au Sixième Étage. 16•12•2025 On the 16th of December 2025, I, Hon. Duruebube Chima ‘Oblong’ Nnadi-Oforgu, will step boldly into the Sixth Floor. A new chapter. A higher realm. A milestone carved not by mere years, but by battles fought, storms survived, destinies shaped, and divine grace overflowing. This is not just a birthday.It
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Mobutu Sese Seko’s rise in Zaire was anchored on the construction of a powerful cult personality, where he projected himself as the “Messiah of Zaire,” “The All-Knowing Leader,” and the embodiment of national destiny. Similarly, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s political machinery has cultivated a growing aura of cult worship, symbolized by the “Emilokan” doctrine, mandatory
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A Testimony of Survival, Discipline, and Divine Mercy (Oblong @ 60 – Lecture Series, as I Approach the Sixth Floor) As I approach my 60th birthday, the sixth floor by God’s grace, I have spent considerable time pondering how best to thank God for sparing my life, and how to give a proper advisory testimony
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HERE IS THE ANALYSIS: Northern Nigeria has 19 states and 19 governors. Out of these, 10 governors are Fulanis, while the remaining 9 governors represent over 300 other ethnic groups in the region. Now, consider this:The Hausa ethnic group, with a population of over 66 million according to World Atlas—that’s over 55% of the entire
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INTRO: THE TRUTH NOBODY WANTS TO SAY ALOUD. From the moment Fredrick Lugard forcibly stitched Nigeria together in 1914, one ethnic group has poured its sweat, genius, mobility, enterprise, and blood into keeping this artificial creation alive.Ndi Igbo. While others stood still, we moved.While others debated identity, we built cities.While others feared the new Nigeria,
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As we grow older, life quietly teaches us a bitter but necessary truth: not every friend you started with is meant to journey with you to the end. Some relationships enrich you. Others drain you. And a dangerous few lurk in the grey zone, smiling in your presence, bitter in your absence, and secretly waiting
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Politics in Nigeria is a battlefield of perception, where reputation, influence, and propaganda intertwine. Within this often turbulent arena, Senator Hope Uzodinma, the Executive Governor of Imo State, has risen as a complex, consequential figure whose political evolution mirrors the transformation underway in Imo itself. Yet beyond the politics, beyond the battles and rivalries, something
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Colonial Nigeria was marked by its own policies of racial segregation. Ikoyi was an epitome of this: it was designated as “European reservations” and reserved for white officials and businessmen. Nigerians were not allowed to live there. The MacGregor Canal was built, in part, to separate Ikoyi from the rest of Lagos. Public facilities and
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For years, Nigeria’s spiralling violence, especially in the Middle Belt, has been framed almost exclusively through the lens of religion. Recent assessments by the U.S. Congress amplify this perspective, presenting the crisis as a campaign of Christian persecution. While this interpretation captures part of the truth, it fails to grasp the deeper, more decisive forces
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For decades, Nigeria has wrestled with the temptation to frame every national crisis through the lens of religion. Analysts, politicians, and commentators often reach for religious explanations because they appear familiar, emotive, and ready-made. But reducing Nigeria’s escalating insecurity to a “religious war” is not only misleading, it obscures the far deeper, more dangerous forces
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For decades, Nigerians have been deliberately miseducated. Many genuinely believe that anti-Igbo hostility began in 1966.That is false. Extremely false. Historically dangerous. The truth, hidden, buried, and whitewashed, is that the slaughter of Easterners began long before independence, long before the coups, and long before Biafra. Let us pull back the curtain. 1. THE FIRST
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THE SHADOW SYNDICATE: How Nigeria’s Governments Became Too Compromised to Name Terror Sponsors, From Jonathan to Buhari to Tinubu Foreword This article is an expanded, updated and heavily enriched version of my earlier investigations dating back to 2017, when Nigeria was drowning under the insecurity, corruption, and internal betrayal of the Buhari administration. Regrettably, more
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“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” – 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 (NKJV) PROPHETIC REVELATIONS AND NATIONAL WARNINGS Trump is displeased with Nigeria’s move toward BRICS because Nigeria is Africa’s largest market; joining BRICS threatens the dominance of the US dollar. He
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Senator Hope Uzodimma’s trajectory in Nigerian politics has been one of steady ascent, strategic positioning, and undeniable influence, culminating in his emergence as arguably the most powerful and top-ranking Igbo politician in this political dispensation. His latest appointment by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu further cements that status. President Tinubu has named Imo state Governor Senator
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Why This article Matters, And Why Now. This article is not merely a narrative of political activism; I have tried my best to break it down as much as I can to aid readability and understanding. it is a chronicle of a people’s trauma, resistance, and survival in a country that has treated them with
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There is a slow-burning crisis in Nigeria that rarely makes headlines, yet it is more dangerous than inflation, insecurity, or corruption. It is the frightening tendency of seemingly educated Nigerians to abandon rational thinking and collapse into emotion, sentiment, and ideological indoctrination at the slightest provocation. I first observed it during heated debates about Gaza.
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How Nigeria’s Internal Failures, American Geopolitics, and Hidden Sponsors Brought Us to the Brink, And Why Vigilance, Strategy, and Exposure Must Be Our Next Weapons There is a dangerous storm gathering over Nigeria. A storm fed by half a century of unresolved injustice in the East, a decade of escalating jihadist violence in the North,
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Nigeria did not wake up one morning to find IPOB on the streets. Nigeria created the conditions. Nigeria watered the soil, planted the seeds, and nurtured the roots of a crisis that has now lasted decades. To understand the burning wounds of the Southeast today, you must first walk through the ashes of yesterday, the
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Why the World Is Alarmed, Why the Center Can No Longer Hold, and Why National Re-negotiation Has Become Urgently Unavoidable. There comes a moment in the life of every nation when reality refuses to be masked by propaganda, by the empty chants of “one Nigeria,” or by the forced optimism of a political class feeding
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A NATION BUILT ON DEMOGRAPHIC FICTION. Nigeria’s census crisis did not begin today. It is not a modern accident. It was engineered, deliberately, strategically, and with ruthless colonial precision, by the British long before independence. Every nation must confront its historical truths. Nigeria, unfortunately, has spent decades running away from one of its most dangerous
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Who is really paying for Nigeria’s bloodbath? We talk endlessly about “terrorists”, “Fulani herdsmen”, “bandits”, “unknown gunmen” – as if they are ghosts who appear from thin air, armed to the teeth, fuelled, fed and endlessly resupplied by magic. They are not ghosts. They are funded. And the sponsors are not barefoot militants in the
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This article is an edited, expanded and fully updated version of an investigative piece I first published in 2017, at the height of the insecurity, confusion, and national hopelessness that characterised the Buhari administration. At that time, Nigeria was engulfed in violence and uncertainty, and many of the warning signs we highlighted were ignored, dismissed,
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Prof Chidi Osuagwu of the Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Imo State, at this year’s Ezumezu Lecture, a colloquium organized by the Obowu Development Association (Federated), on the 16th of August, in Obowo, discuses identity crisis with its debilitating effects in Africa and Nigeria. In his paper entitled Obowu Identity. Recovery and Rectification in Post-invasion
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A lot happens in Nigeria that, if you did not witness it yourself, you would swear it was impossible. Some events are so bizarre, so grotesque in their violation of common sense and morality, that even D.O. Fágúnwà’s magical adventures in Ìrìnkèrindò Nínú Igbo Elegbeje pale beside them. Yet these are not tales from another
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When you visit an ECD school in Zimbabwe today, it’s a beautiful sight. You’ll see tiny kids running around in colorful uniforms black and white children, same classrooms, same toys, same lunchboxes. At that level, there is no race, only innocence. Move up to primary school same thing. Black and white pupils still sit together,
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A Revealing Exposé for Viral Effect – From the Stable of Oblong Media. There is a frightening truth lurking beneath the surface of Ala Igbo, one so uncomfortable, so deeply rooted, and so dangerously ignored that many prefer to pretend it does not exist. But reality does not disappear because a people are afraid to
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In every society, leadership carries a sacred responsibility that goes beyond titles and public appearances. True leadership requires speaking boldly when circumstances demand clarity and direction. When leaders remain silent in moments of crisis, their silence does not stay neutral. Silence becomes a message on its own, and often that message communicates approval, weakness, or
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For those of us that are 50 years old and above and who had the privilege to live in Owerri during our growing up, life in the old school days was sweeter, more secured and more loving than what obtains today. Some times when I take a retrospective look at when we grew up in
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Good governance is not always loud. Sometimes, it works best in silence. Governor Hope Uzodinma may not have the most likeable personality or the loudest megaphone, but if you take a closer look, you will see his fingerprints on real structural shifts happening across Imo. If sustained, this model could make Imo the economic anchor
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Nigeria’s political landscape is loud, complex, and often divided along emotional, sentimental and ethnic lines. Yet, in the midst of this fragmentation, one man from the East is quietly stitching together a new national fabric.His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Hope Uzodimma, CON., has emerged as the most strategic bridge-builder the East has produced in recent memory.
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The Trump administration is dangerously misreading the conflict and its causes. In less than 48 hours, President Donald Trump went from announcing that he would designate Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” a State Department label that admonishes countries that fail to protect religious freedom, to announcing that he was preparing a military intervention to
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The recent Prime Business Africa piece (“ISIS Dares Trump: ‘Act On Christian Genocide!’,” 8 Nov 2025) highlights ISIS propaganda about attacking Christians and tries to box U.S. policy into that frame. It doesn’t provide casualty data or a full victim profile of ISIS violence. Treat it as a rhetorical provocation, not a statistical account. Nigerians,
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Once again, the merchants of moral sermon from across the Atlantic have mounted their pulpit, wagging fingers and quoting scripture about “religious freedom” in Nigeria, as if Washington suddenly found a conscience between its drone strikes and regime-change escapades. Now, Nigeria is being told it’s on the CPC blacklist, accused of “religious persecution.” Oh, how
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I am not engaging in rhetoric or supporting or opposing, as many Nigerians are doing right now. I want to present the facts I have gathered through research and personal investigation. I spent forty-five years in the political space of Nigeria, serving as an elected member of the Federal House of Representatives, representing Ikeja Federal
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When you look closely at what is going on, you begin to see the pattern. The same people who cried “genocide against white farmers in South Africa” are now crying “Christian persecution in Nigeria.” And just like before, the goal is not compassion, it is control. It is about using religion and fear to justify
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In 2015, Sudan’s then-president Omar al-Bashir made a shocking claim, that the CIA and Mossad were behind ISIS and Boko Haram. The Western press dismissed it as delusional rambling from a man accused of war crimes. Yet, nearly a decade later, pieces of that puzzle are fitting disturbingly well. What if Nigeria’s endless insecurity is
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I will continue to sound the warning to Nigerians. Despite the apparent Christian persecution narrative being promoted internationally, what we face in Nigeria today is a national insecurity crisis that knows neither tribe nor religion. It cuts across regions, driven by economics, politics, and power struggles, not purely faith. The tragedy is national, and addressing
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Politics in Nigeria is a battlefield of perception, where reputation, influence, and propaganda intertwine. Within this often turbulent arena, Senator Hope Uzodinma, the Executive Governor of Imo State, has risen as a complex and consequential figure whose political journey mirrors the evolution of modern Nigerian politics. From Senator to Strategist Before his emergence as governor,
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It is time Nigerians stopped taking every foreign pronouncement as gospel truth and began to read between the lines. Too many times, we have watched the same script play out, only the stage changes. The same voices that now pretend to be saviours were the ones who once stood aside while our people bled. In
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For over a decade, Nigeria has been trapped in a vicious cycle of bloodshed, from the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast, to the farmer-herder conflicts ravaging the Middle Belt, to the killings and abductions now spreading into the Southeast.Yet when one looks beyond the headlines and propaganda, a clearer picture emerges: our security crisis
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“The recent U.S. talk of invading Nigeria under the guise of fighting bandits and protecting Christians hides a deeper geopolitical agenda, to roll back China’s influence, check France’s growing presence, and reassert America’s dominance in Africa.” America’s “Nigeria Option”: The Real Agenda Behind the Headlines When the Americans suddenly start talking about “invading Nigeria to
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Good governance is not always loud. Sometimes, it works best in silence. Governor Hope Uzodinma may not have the most likeable personality or the loudest megaphone, but if you take a closer look, you will see his fingerprints on real structural shifts happening across Imo. If sustained, this model could make Imo the economic anchor
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For years, Nigerians have been told half-truths about port development, dredging costs, and economic feasibility. But a closer look reveals something more sinister: a deliberate, well-orchestrated strategy to centralize Nigeria’s maritime economy around Lagos, keeping the South-South and South-East perpetually dependent, economically stifled and logistically marginalised. As the multi-billion-dollar Lekki Deep Sea Port surges toward
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The shocking testimonies about killings, ritual desecrations, and mass bravado cannot be read in isolation. To understand how young men came to commit such crimes, we must first follow the chain of events that pushed them deep into the shadows. For years a pattern of heavy-handed federal operations, selective prosecution, and public spectacles of arrest,
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In a world where love and friendship are just a click away, it is easy to forget that not too long ago, the search for companionship required a great deal of patience, creativity, and effort. From pen pals to Facebook, the journey of human connection has taken many forms, each shaped by the technology and
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It is time for Nigerians to confront an inconvenient truth: presidential leadership from the North–Southwest political duopoly has woefully failed our nation. Far from producing a utopia of shared prosperity, unity, and security promised decade after decade, it has instead delivered economic ruin, mass poverty, and social decay. This failure is not because the North
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The 30th of August 2017 will remain etched in the political history of the South East as a day when a peaceful path was still possible. On that day, statesmen like Alex Ekwueme, former Vice President of Nigeria, and Ben Nwabueze, SAN, prevailed upon Nnamdi Kanu to reconsider his hardline stance on outright secession. It
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Across Africa, the winds of change are beginning to stir. In Madagascar, disillusioned youths have taken to the streets in defiance of a corrupt and unresponsive government, demanding reform, accountability, and a future worth living for. The protests, sparked by crippling water and electricity shortages, quickly transformed into a broader movement against systemic corruption and
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When U.S. Senator Ted Cruz declared that “Officials in Nigeria are ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists,” he did not invent a new accusation, he merely amplified a truth that Nigerians themselves have long whispered, lamented, and, in some cases, publicly confessed. Yet, the fury that greeted his statement
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Angela Merkel’s recent revelation about how Poland and the Baltic states sabotaged her attempt to negotiate with Russia in 2021 is perhaps one of the most striking confessions to emerge from Europe’s political class since the onset of the Ukraine conflict. It exposes a deep fracture within the European Union and a dangerous undercurrent of
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In the midst of one of the bloodiest assaults on Gaza in modern history, a controversial plan has quietly emerged, one that recasts Gaza not as a homeland under siege, but as prime real estate for global investors. Titled “The GREAT Trust: Gaza Reconstitution, Economic Acceleration and Transformation,” the 38-page proposal envisions the total demolition
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There is palpable anxiety within opposition ranks over a chilling possibility, that the 2027 general election may once again be handed to the ruling APC on a platter, not because of superior strategy or governance, but because of the opposition’s chronic disunity, ego battles, and unending internal crises. The sense within the opposition camp is
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Cletus Ibeto’s charge is simple and incendiary: his cement was better and far cheaper than Dangote’s, but envy and political muscle, allegedly routed through President Olusegun Obasanjo, shut his factory down. He says if his plant were still running, no Nigerian would be paying today’s punishing prices; in his words, the market would never have
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In 1997, General Sani Abacha hosted Muammar Gaddafi in defiance of U.S. and UN sanctions, a daring Pan-African stand that shook Washington and symbolized Africa’s brief moment of strategic defiance. Here’s the untold story of that visit and the mysterious deaths that followed. A Bold Gesture of Defiance In 1997, while much of Africa bowed
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I came across a viral piece online calling for a permanent boycott of Air Peace and United Nigeria Airlines, accusing Allen Onyema and Obiora Okonkwo of “betrayal capitalism.” The argument is simple but incendiary: that these airlines, both Igbo-owned, exploit the desperation of Igbo travellers to return home during Christmas, charging fares six to eight
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Sixty-five years after independence, Nigeria continues to stumble under the weight of a federal structure that has become more of a liability than a blessing. With 36 states and 774 local governments, the country spends more on sustaining bureaucracy than on building infrastructure, investing in industry, or ensuring food and energy security. The reality is
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Imo State stands at a critical juncture, facing a crisis of representation where our state and federal legislators, as well as our senators, stand by as silent bystanders, indulging in political correctness while our state burns. These individuals, elected to defend and uplift the interests of the people, have become mere placeholders, contributing little to
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Sixty-Four Years of Independence from Great BritainWhat exactly is there to celebrate on October 1st? Independence from Britain was secured, but freedom for Nigerians was never actualized. We exchanged an external master for a far more brutal, internal one. The chains of colonialism were replaced by the shackles of kleptocracy. The Giant of Africa is
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Sixty-five years after the Union Jack came down, Nigeria marks Independence Day in an atmosphere of fatigue rather than fulfillment. We are long on anniversaries and short on achievements that are felt in homes, markets, and on our highways. If independence means the power to set our own course, then the honest question is simple:
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Nigeria today feels like a nation in a permanent state of siege. The statistics, the headlines, and the government’s glossy brochures cannot mask the grim truth that ordinary Nigerians already live with daily, insecurity is not abating, it is evolving, multiplying, and spreading into every corner of the country. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration boasts
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In 162 days, the highest court in Nigeria failed to determine the case brought by eleven PDP governors against the Federal Government. The matter was straightforward yet historic: a challenge to the removal of Governor Fubara and the appointment of a sole administrator in Rivers State. The file has remained on a dusty shelf, untouched.
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Only a few months ago, Bola Ahmed Tinubu seemed untouchable. As he basked in the glow of his second year in office, boasting of reforms and consolidating power, the prevailing mood among his allies was that the path to 2027 was clear. The opposition was fractured, the PDP was hemorrhaging members, and his party, the
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The shooting of Charlie Kirk, the way the media has reported it, and the FBI’s shoddy handling of the investigation are all reminders of how so-called conspiracy theories take root. When events are managed with such gaps, contradictions, and inconsistencies, conspiracy theories don’t just appear, they thrive. After all, there is no smoke without fire.
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Benjamin Netanyahu has become a political firebrand whose every move escalates regional instability. He attacks anyone who stands in his way, dragging allies and adversaries alike into his confrontations. In Washington, his influence is unmistakable. The Epstein files, often whispered about in hushed tones, were used as leverage to bring Donald Trump to heel. The
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A MUST READ. For those above 50, who had the privilege to live in Owerri during our growing up old school days, life was sweeter, more secured and loving. Some times when I take a retrospective look between now and those days, when we grew up in “Old Owerri” I am compelled to affirm that
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PRESS BRIEFING ON THE STATE OF THE NATION. Opening. Gentlemen of the Press, I thank you for honouring this invitation at such short notice. I speak to you today not merely as a loyal party man, but as a statesman, a patriot, and one who has served this country at the highest levels
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Among the peoples of Africa, the Igbo of Southeast Nigeria stand apart for their unique political philosophy. For centuries, the Igbo thrived without kings or centralized monarchies. We built a society in which every village was autonomous, every adult man had a voice, and authority flowed upward from the people, not downward from a throne.
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Why History Must Be Taught – And Remembered. They say those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. But in Nigeria, we’re not just forgetting, we’re sleepwalking into a repetition. Here’s a story you won’t find in your average schoolbook, but it should be there. In 1804, King Yunfa of Gobir (present-day Sokoto) welcomed
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Interest is the idea of involvement, attachment, participation, drive, inclusion and consumation of a person or group’s intentions to invest in a cause of action, process or project deemed favourable for the advancement of objectives and goals towards growth, development, coexistence, survival and sustenance over time, space, location and agreement or covenant bound on livability,
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STATESMEN who have taken part in fundamental decisions affecting their country seldom write in the press as they would say things that could jeopardize the very existence of their country. However where the very existence of the country or a part of it is threatened then it behoves all statesmen to speak out. I am
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Bad roads are more than just an inconvenience, they are a death trap, an economic bottleneck, and a daily reminder of failed governance. According to Statisense’s 2025 State Performance Index (NGF 2025), twelve states stand out for all the wrong reasons: they have been ranked as the states with the worst road quality in Nigeria.
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The late Dr. Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, fondly remembered as the “weeping governor” of old Imo State, remains a shining example of purposeful governance in Nigeria. In less than five years (1979–1983), Mbakwe laid down an industrial, infrastructural, and educational foundation that still dwarfs the combined achievements of almost 24 years of the Fourth Republic across
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When Zik, the spirit man, left Onitsha province, Awka District, to Umuahia and appointed Dr. M. I. Okpara as the premier and late Dr. Akanu Ibiam as the Govenor of Eastern Region of Nigeria, people did not have much qualms about Ibiam. After all, they said, the post of a Governor was a ceremonial one.
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Coupled with the sweeping Nigerian Tax Reform Bill, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has now signed into law the audacious Regional Dawn Commissions Bill, effectively reintroducing regionalism, this time with a modern twist and without raising the usual dust. What once seemed politically impossible in Nigeria’s convoluted federal structure is now law, and remarkably, it sailed
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If there is one thing that sticks out like a festering sore, it is the consistent failure of those elected or appointed from our zone to deliver the true dividends of democracy. This, to a people and a zone that gave many of them their very first financial lifelines, their first opportunities, and their first
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For decades, the political West has built its power on illusions: illusions of endless wealth, illusions of military superiority, illusions that wars could be won with “shock and awe” strikes and flashy technology. But the war in Ukraine has torn away the mask. Behind the propaganda, the United States and NATO have been exposed as
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The much-publicized Trump–Putin summit in Alaska has shaken the global order in ways the mainstream media refuses to admit. Far from being a ceremonial handshake, the Anchorage Alaska dialogue was a geopolitical earthquake, exposing the decline of Western influence, the desperation of Europe, and the undeniable reality that Russia cannot be excluded from the global
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Nigeria didn’t start on a clean slate in 1960.It inherited cracks from 1914 — over 250 ethnic groups forced into one map, weak institutions, and an economy built to serve Britain, not Nigerians. Yes, leadership failures since independence are real. But to ignore the colonial blueprint of division, dependency, and broken foundations is to tell
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The misconception that the Tiv people and other minority tribes of the Middle Belt belong to “the North” was deliberately created by the British colonial government in conspiracy with Northern elites. This was done after the Tiv and other tribes of the Middle Belt united against the Europeans during slavery and also brought an end
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Once again, Owerri Zone leaders walked into Government House full of hope, only to walk out with nothing but rhetoric. Governor Hope Uzodimma has played the masterstroke, reminding them that in politics, power is never gifted, it is seized. With a calm but cutting tone, Governor Uzodinma told them what he has said all along:
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Introduction. Among the Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria, dance is not merely performance, it is history in motion, a mirror of communal identity, and a school of values. In Ihiagwa, Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State, one of the most enduring and iconic cultural traditions is the Ogbudu Amogu dance. Far more than a
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I am a proud Hausa man. A Muslim. A student of Political Science. A researcher, a writer, and a lifelong seeker of truth. I have read countless books on Africa, our ancestors, our heritage, and the struggles of our forefathers. I have studied justice, equality, respect, and love, not tribalism, not bias, not hate. And
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The El-Rufai, Atiku Coalition That Came, Saw, but Did Not Conquer Once hailed as the firebrand of Northern Nigerian politics, Nasir El-Rufai now finds himself in a curious twilight—boasting of a coalition that would sweep APC into the dustbin of history, only to be swept aside by the very electorate he presumed would rally behind
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When the weight of words spoken is weightier than whatever response it may attract, my people say Oro p’esi je. The English say such wordless period is an ineffable moment. In its literal rendition, perhaps saying it better than the English and more graphically too, the Yoruba say ‘word has killed response’. Even at the
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A PhD candidate fixated on the date of convocation, yet unwilling to engage in the foundational work—research, publications, and academic rigour—is likely to resort to unwholesome shortcuts to obtain the certificate. This analogy aptly captures our current obsession with achieving a $1 trillion economy in Nigeria. Setting ambitious targets without laying the groundwork invites manipulation:
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Founded in 1909 by a team of geological explorers led by Sir Albert Kitson, Enugu was just like one of those “evil forests”, or at best, a farmland used by surrounding villages. It was the discovery of coal on top of Udi escarpment that attracted residents to the area. Enugu or Enu-ugwu, which consists of
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For decades, the South-East has cried out against marginalization, from abandoned highways to shortchanged federal allocations. Each administration in Abuja has promised to “integrate” the region, but most have delivered little beyond half-completed projects and empty speeches. Today, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, like those before him, has draped himself in the language of inclusion. But the
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The recent news of an EFCC bust linked to the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library once again raises an uncomfortable question: why is the EFCC relentless in hunting so-called “internet fraudsters” but appears paralysed when it comes to the real vultures bleeding Nigeria dry? From Abuja’s gilded neighborhoods to Dubai’s luxury condos, the evidence of high-level
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As the 2027 Imo State Governorship Election approaches, the expectations of Ndi Imo are crystal clear: the state needs a leader who is not just politically ambitious, but genuinely humane, a man or woman with empathy, integrity, and the courage to act in the interest of the people. For too long, Imo has been governed
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Birth of a Landmark – Sam Mbakwe’s Vision (1983–1985). The Imo Concorde Hotel was the brainchild of Dee Sam Onunaka Mbakwe, the first civilian governor of old Imo State (1979–1983). Conceived as part of his bold industrialization and tourism drive, the hotel was envisioned as a world-class hospitality facility that would place Owerri on the
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For years, I’d heard murmurs about the rehabilitation of the once-iconic Concorde Hotel in Owerri. Words like “revival” and “rehabilitation” were tossed around, but what I finally witnessed was nothing short of transformational, a complete rebirth. This wasn’t a renovation. This was a resurrection. The Concorde Hotel, once a towering symbol of prestige in the
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Against the backdrop of heightened social media tensions promoting unfortunate apprehensions and hate narratives between Ndigbo in Lagos with their egalitarian Yoruba hosts, Aka Ikenga, the Igbo Think Tank has called for caution, wisdom, and responsibility on all parties and nationalities involved. “We request and encourage all responsible citizens and critical stakeholders of development and
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Nestled in the leafy heart of Lagos’ highbrow Ikoyi district lies a symbol of continuity, class, and legacy, Ikoyi Club 1938. For nearly nine decades, this prestigious institution has stood as Nigeria’s most exclusive recreational and social club, weaving the threads of colonial history with modern Nigerian elite culture. From its origins in British imperial
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I still find it baffling that my decision to do a term of four years, if given the mandate to rule this country, is generating so much agitation. By this feeling, we are doubting the fact that a sincere leader can achieve much in 48 months. I have never been desperate in the pursuit of
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