Author: Editor
Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri with Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia Renowned lawyer and elder statesman, Chief Mike Ahamba, SAN, has said that contrary to the erroneous thinking in some quarters, the National Assembly is vested with enormous powers by the Constitution more than the President. Ahamba who made the assertion in Owerri while fielding questions from newsmen after the launch of his book, Getting it Right for Nigeria, however, regretted that the National Assembly, most times failed to utilise the enormity of powers at its disposal because of political and ethnic sentiments. The legal luminary also contended that the thinking that the Constitution could…
By Owei Lakemfa I was invited by the Venezuelan Embassy in Abuja, along with some diplomats, civil society activists and journalists on Thursday, April 14, 2022, to watch a documentary on the aborted military coup 20 years ago. The documentary centred on the bloody coup and how the populace in their millions marched on the coup plotters holed up in the Miraflores Presidential Palace. On hand to welcome guests was the Venezuelan Ambassador, David Vasquez Caraballo, who was part of the history and featured in the documentary. On April 11, 2002, when the coup was executed, he was the leader…
By Osmund Agbo Last week, Nigerians received with mixed feelings the news of President Buhari granting pardon to 159 prisoners serving jail terms for various offenses in Nigerian prisons. The pardon, we were told, came on the heels of an approval by the Council of States (CS) on Thursday, April 14, 2022. In a follow-up statement, the presidential spokesperson and former president of Nigerian Guild of Editors, Mr. Garba Shehu, explained that the exercise “was a culmination of a rigorous process, regulated and guided by the law which was not, in any way designed to achieve a political purpose.” Oh…
Stephen Ukandu (News/Features Editor) A pro-Igbo group, Igboekulie, has urged the major political parties in the country to cede their 2023 presidential ticket to the South-East geo-political zone for equity, unity, and national stability. The group argued that only justice for Igbo would foster national unity and cohesion. It contended that nobody of Igbo extraction had had the opportunity of presiding over Nigeria as President since the current democratic dispensation 20 years ago, therefore, equity demanded that Igbo should be supported to produce the President in 2023. Igboekulie in a statement jointly signed by Benjamin Obidegwu, and Prince Ben Onuora,…
By Benjamin Obidegwu & Ben C. Onuora Amidst debilitating poverty, epileptic power supply, perennial ASUU strike, galloping inflation, unrelenting depreciation of the Naira, unprecedented terrorism, and violent deaths across Nigeria, elected and appointed leaders in Nigeria have spent the past two months politicking joyfully! Hopefully, they are fully aware of the serious threats to the existence of Nigeria as a nation, posed by these attributes of a failed state. The field of aspirants in the two dominant political parties of PDP and APC is so crowded that we expect the party leaders to present Nigerians with credible candidates of proven integrity…
Nonsochukwu Uwa, Owerri A former Governor of Anambra State, and presidential aspirant under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Peter Obi, on Thursday said that under the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, “Syria has become better than Nigeria.” Obi made this statement during his interaction with the leadership and delegates of the PDP, at the State Secretariat along Okigwe Road in Owerri, when he came to inform them of his presidential ambition. He pointed out that part of the challenges of the country was that it was running an economy based on sharing formula and not a production-based economy. The presidential…
Michael Onwuka (Enugu) Reactions have continued to trail the cost of presidential and governorship expression of interest and nomination forms ahead of the 2023 general elections. A governorship aspirant in Enugu State on the platform of All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Mr Chukwunonso Ogbe, says the high cost of nomination forms by political parties will lead to political monopoly. Ogbe said this on Thursday in an interview with Ikengaonline in Enugu. Recall that the All Progressives Congress (APC) had pegged its presidential expression of interest and nomination forms at N100 million while that of governorship is N50 million. The Peoples…
Stephen Ukandu, Umuahia A leading presidential aspirant of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Peter Obi, has decried the rate of poverty in Nigeria, saying that Nigeria has more people living under poverty than China and India put together. The former Anambra State Governor who said this when he came to Abia to consult with the leadership of PDP ahead of the party primaries, said that unless something urgent was done to change the narrative, insecurity would continue to worsen in the country. “Nigeria has more people living under poverty than the two biggest countries in the world – China…
By Azu Ishiekwene Most parents like to think that their generation’s burden was the heaviest. And that today’s children are too soft and spoilt by the easy life to be up to any good. Well, I disagree. Or let me put that a bit differently: I don’t agree completely. The debate about just how far astray today’s children have gone was sparked afresh by the juvenile sex video of students of Chrisland School, VGC, Lagos, who had gone for the World Schools Games in Dubai between March 8 and 14. Since that video was leaked a few days ago, the…
Stephen Ukandu (News/Features Editor) The war of words between Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Adewale, and the apex Igbo socio-cultural organisation, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, over his anti-Igbo comment has continued with the monarch telling Ohanaeze that “no monarch in Nigeria feels the pains of the Igbo” more than he does. Trouble started when the monarch reportedly said in a public function that Ndigbo could not be trusted with the Nigerian Presidency in 2023, a remark he has flatly denied. Ohanaeze Ndigbo had descended on him asking him to learn from more intelligent and cosmopolitan monarchs. “We will therefore restrain from hoisting…