Nigeria’s now perennial insecurity has been damaged by political laziness. Every two- penny politician has developed a habit of weaponizing insecurity as political language. In the process, very little effort or rigour is devoted to the reality of what we are dealing with. Even those who are paid...
CHIDI AMUTA On Sunday
Among the pantheon of today’s political godlings, perhaps Senate President Mr. Godswill Akpabio is the epitome of the spirit of the times. An embodiment of power and delusion, Akpabio’s pronouncements on the state of the nation resonate with echoes of emptiness and grand hallucinations. The impression is...
In more sensible places, President Tinubu’s job approval rating is so woeful that he should have been job hunting by now. In the United Kingdom, the opposition would have called for snap elections to test his popularity and probably throw him out of 10 Downing. In the...
It is time to pay homage to the place of my beginnings. I was born and grew up mostly in Aba. Something in me still looks nostalgically back to and draws inspiration from those beginnings. It is the beauty of every yard as a shop in front...
Nigeria’s litany of troubles has finally anchored on two basic existential matters. Insecurity and hunger. We are all very unsafe and now the vast majority of our people are very hungry and angry. Of the two urgencies, the rise of mass hunger is indeed a novel addition to...
The United States presidential election in November is looking more like a referendum. Though intended as a democratic ritual, it could end up as a choice between democracy and authoritarianism. That at least is what the rhetoric and track record of the two most likely...
President Bola Tinubu has just jetted out to France on a ‘private visit’. He is not back in the country till sometime in the first week of February. We are not told when precisely to expect him back in the country. That is the much information that...
Two weeks ago, this column in a piece entitled “Neither at War Nor in Peace” lamented that Nigeria has entered a new normal. We are neither a nation at peace or in a declared war. Instead, we are perennially in a state of psychological and physical siege. Even in...
In the new world, we differ decisively from our children. We read and reflect; they see instant images and decide or judge based on appearances and move on. We are coming from the age of ideas nurtured by the culture of print. We are conditioned by a habit...
Nigeria has hit another milestone. It has graduated into a hybrid state, a distinction it shares with very few other nations. Simultaneously, Nigeria is at war and in peace. The United Nations has observed that literally the entire northern half of the country is a virtual war...
The raging war between Israel and Hamas will not end before tomorrow’s Christmas is over. The unfortunate war has instead yielded two principal casualties: the first is the nativity festivals of Christmas which have made Bethlehem a favourite destination for Christian pilgrims. Home to the historic shrines...
In my adopted home state of Rivers, they do not “play” politics. They wage bitter “fights” over politics. Political outcomes are more of spoils of murky wars than victories of democratic rituals. While the contest for power and supremacy rages, instruments of violence are fair. People are killed routinely....
The size of President Tinubu’s delegation to the COP28 Climate Summit in Dubai has raised a bit of dust. On closer examination, I think it was unnecessary noise based on incomplete understanding of the president’s sense of mission. In these matters, context is everything. There is a sense in...
When Henry Alfred Kissinger turned 100 on 27th May this year, I wrote this tribute in salute to a man who is undisputedly the greatest statesman and diplomatic centurion of the 20th and perhaps even the 21st century. I reproduce here a slightly amended version of that tribute as the world salutes...
After the first six months in office, the Bola Tinubu presidency has spent enough time to acquire a definable footprint and an evolving identity. It now has a character, style and flavor. There is no point rehashing what names people of the street have started calling the new...
The kingdom which is being referred to here is the Kingdom of the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Every king enjoys preeminence in his Kingdom and he has the authority to establish a government or a rulership that portrays his vision and mission. Going straight to...
An academic colleague and close friend in an American university asked me to contribute some thoughts to a faculty discussion platform on the changing face of journalism especially as reflected in the interplay between legacy and social media as well as the interface between ‘fake news’ and factual...
As a political destination, Rivers State never ceases to excite and intrigue. It is capable of infinite political possibilities and great drama. In just one day this past week, the state gravitated from order to near anarchy and back into tenuous normalcy. Any one who has studied its political...
The subdued public anxiety over the final outcome of the 2023 presidential election petitions has ended. Predictably, the Supreme Court has acted faithful to what has become its extant tradition. It has done the obvious and predictable. It simply just turned its back on the minutiae of evidence and...
President Bola Tinubu is confronted with two identity fights united by politics. His political opponents have kept him busy with matters of personal identity and paper qualifications. Everything from his parentage, educational background, university records, work and career trajectory to his National Youth Service record is up for hostile...