Column

The One Thousand And Second Reason For Peter Mbah’s Re-election

The One Thousand And Second Reason For Peter Mbah’s Re-election

(Also published in New Telegraph, Sunday October 11, 2026) By SHEDDY OZOENE During the just-concluded 22nd All Nigeria Editors Conference in Enugu, copies of a book titled ‘A Thousand and One Reasons Why Dr. Peter Ndubuisi Mbah Should Be Re-elected as Governor of Enugu State’, were distributed to delegates by Mr. Onyekwere Nwobodo, Special Adviser on Media to Governor Peter Mbah. The 222-page book compiled by Governor Mbah’s aides, was unveiled by the governor on September 9 at the International Conference Centre, Enugu. It is essentially a compendium of the achievements the administration wants voters to consider as it seeks…
Read More
Eziokwu, Echi Nọ Ebea N’Enugu State (1)

Eziokwu, Echi Nọ Ebea N’Enugu State (1)

By TUNDE OLUSUNLE "My brother Tunde," Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah, the attorney and daring disruptor who is reengineering Enugu State said to me as he received me into his office in "Lion Building," the seat of government in Enugu, the famous "coal city" capital of Enugu State with a warm handshake. "We've kept you so long here now that in the traditional African society, you would have been due for a new wife. I'm happy madam is not here to hear us, though," he smiled as he waved me to a seat. He courtesied the gentleman we had both sat…
Read More
APC And The ‘Top To Bottom’ Campaign Slang In The South-East

APC And The ‘Top To Bottom’ Campaign Slang In The South-East

By SHEDDY OZOENE Two weeks ago, I visited a National Assembly candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from one of the South-East states at his Abuja home. He had just returned from his state, where the 2027 campaigns were already gathering momentum, and I wanted to find out how he was coping. My first observation was that he looked unusually tired for a campaign that had barely started. He looked almost as if his return to Abuja was an escape from the heckling back home. “My brother, e no easy o,” he told me.Obviously. It was written all over…
Read More
Sex Without Consent: Why Many Lagos Men Will End Up in Jail

Sex Without Consent: Why Many Lagos Men Will End Up in Jail

By SHEDDY OZOENE Penultimate week, the Lagos State Government threw married men in the state a bombshell: husbands who have sex with their wives without their consent could face prosecution and, in some circumstances, life imprisonment. It came, as they say, from the blues; at a time when our attention has been taken over by insecurity and scary prospects of the impending 2027 elections. Lagos suddenly reminded married men that there may be another danger waiting for them at home. The warning was given by the Director of Public Prosecutions of the Lagos State Ministry of Justice, Dr Babajide Martins,…
Read More
Tinubu’s Dark Past Imperils Nigeria’s Sovereignty

Tinubu’s Dark Past Imperils Nigeria’s Sovereignty

By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI Tinubu’s dark past imperils Nigeria’s sovereignty: In Tinubu, the western hegemons have finally got what they had always desired in a Nigerian president – a vulnerable leader hobbled by his past. With Tinubu as president, Nigeria doesn’t stand a chance because the worst thing that can happen to a people is to be in a debilitating bind where a president’s dark past becomes an albatross imperiling the country’s sovereignty. President Bola Tinubu It is indubitable, all pretensions to the contrary notwithstanding, that this is not the best of times for President Bola Tinubu. Granted, he is a…
Read More
The Drums of War and Nigeria’s Endangered Voters

The Drums of War and Nigeria’s Endangered Voters

By SHEDDY OZOENE Every election season in Nigeria has traditionally been a time for persuasion. Political parties sell their programmes, candidates present their records and promises, and voters weigh their options. That civic tradition is now under threat. As the country moves towards the 2027 general elections, a darker pattern is emerging. Some politicians and their supporters, often protected by their closeness to power or influence, are increasingly suggesting that victory for their preferred candidates—usually candidates of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC)—is non-negotiable and that those who stand in their way could face consequences. When the discussion moves away…
Read More
Tinubu: Time To Resign Or Be Impeached

Tinubu: Time To Resign Or Be Impeached

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO NOBODY should leave the deserved impeachment of Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to Senate President Obong Godswill Akpabio. He cannot see the importance. Nigerians should demand the removal or resignation of Tinubu for wanton disregard of the 1999 Constitution with which he was sworn into office and which he swore to uphold. If Akpabio becomes an obstacle to the process he should be swept away with Tinubu. Tinubu has got used to picking and choosing parts of the Constitution to obey. His appointments are riddled with examples of Tinubu's abhorrence of federal character provisions, exclusion of parts of the…
Read More
Osun: Tinubu’s Poor Attempt at Playing Janus

Osun: Tinubu’s Poor Attempt at Playing Janus

By SHEDDY OZOENE In Roman mythology, Janus is the god with two faces. One looks to the past, the other to the future. Over time, the name has come to describe anyone who presents two sharply contrasting sides. In the recent Osun State governorship election, President Bola Tinubu’s dual posture fitted the description perfectly. Except that unlike Janus who successfully stood in firm defence of Rome against the Sabines, Tinubu threw himself into the battle to stop the Adelekes, and failed spectacularly. It clearly rankles him that, unlike in Lagos where he reigns unchallenged, Tinubu has been unable to build…
Read More
Uche Nnaji: Running Against The Odds

Uche Nnaji: Running Against The Odds

(As published in New Telegraph newspaper, Sunday 16th August, 2026) By SHEDDY OZOENE For over six weeks, the certificate controversy involving former Minister of Innovation, Science and Technology and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in Enugu State, Chief Uche Nnaji, threatened to derail his determined effort to contest for the governorship of the state. The controversy took a more serious turn on July 1, when Nnaji was arrested in Abuja and detained by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).  He was subsequently arraigned at the Federal High Court, Abuja, on Monday, July 13, on a…
Read More
Osun: The Mourning After

Osun: The Mourning After

By FESTUS ADEDAYO (Published by the Sunday Tribune, August 16, 2026) Speaking after an infrastructure inspection, Governor Ademola Adeleke openly backed President Bola Tinubu’s 2027 re-election bid. He warmly referredto him as "our own son, father and leader." He went further to declare: "I am the governor of the ancestral birthplace of Mr President. How can I have my own in the saddle and think twice before embracing him?" Yet, even as those words echoed, in the election that held yesterday in Osun State, Governor Adeleke’s fate and that of Osun State were being systematically framed, for better or worse.…
Read More