Politics

By FAROOQ A. KPEROGI The unfailingly abiding emotional investment I have in the wellbeing of common people springs forth from my experiential and mediated identification with the twinge of hunger and misery that poverty breeds. As people who read my columns know, my father, who died on December 31, 2016, was an Arabic/Islamic Studies teacher at a government-owned primary school for almost four decades. His salary was modest and often not guaranteed both during military regimes and civilian administrations. So, my siblings and I grew up in relative deprivation. But there were choices he made as a father that earned…

By IKECHUKWU AMAECHI Five days after Comrade Joe Ajaero, former General Secretary of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE) and Deputy National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), made history as the first NLC President to be elected unopposed at the 13th National Delegates Conference in Abuja, on February 8, 2023, I sat down with him in Lagos for an exclusive interview. Still basking in the euphoria of his victory, he was hopeful and bullish as he discussed the labour movement, what Nigerians should expect of his presidency and the impending 2023 elections. He was analytical and measured.…

By CHUKA NNABUIFE FOR whatever reason, some goons are raising dust about Anambra State's keenness to hold local government (LG) elections. When the state proved how dubiously fallacious such communications are by setting the ball rolling ahead the September 28, 2024 LG elections in Anambra, the adversary switched to other complaints. The truth is that Gov. Chukwuma Charles Soludo and the entire Anambra State government along with the Anambra State Independent Electoral Commission (ANSIEC) deserve thumbs up for the way plans for the polls is going so far. They have demonstrated clear understanding of what is on board. Even the…

By SHEDDY OZOENE  Fela Anikulap-Kuti, the inimitable Nigerian musician, was a trail-blazer in many parts. He created the music genre called Afrobeat; he rendered the lyrics of his popular tunes in pidgin English, and he deployed his music to fighting social ills and the government's oppressive policies. He had a running battle with the Nigerian police, more than any other establishment. As their regular guest, he must have visited police detention centres over a hundred times in his chequered life.  After one of his controversial arrests and detention at Alagbon Close, a cul-de-sac of a street in Lagos Island that…

By RT. HON. CHIMA OBIEZE The most important tier of government in Nigeria and I believe, anywhere else, is not the Federal Government nor the State Government but the local government. This is true because the greatest duty of government is the welfare and security of the citizens. The tier of government that is closest and has direct impact on the people is the LG. Often times, for political reasons and convenience, leaders of political parties in the State handpick touts, political thugs and people who they believe have the capacity to use violence to make their party win elections…

By AZU ISHIEKWENE We met last on April 21. I went to Asaba from Lagos to promote my new book, Writing for Media and Monetising It, at Delta State University, which, according to JAMB statistics, is one of the country’s highest subscribers to Mass Communications in 2021. Senator Ifeanyi Ubah was on the flight to Asaba that morning. I didn’t see him until we entered the arrival hall. He seemed to have added some weight for a man his height. I teased him about his robustly prosperous looks. He replied that journalists like me tend not to add weight because…