On the dichotomy of kingly power and clerical obligations, there is an undisputed demarcation. Unto kings is given the power to guarantee the orderly governance of the state and the welfare of citizens in a republic. But the ultimate preoccupation of the divine is the good of all humanity....
Chidi Amuta
Nelson Mandela must be churning in his resting place. An exemplary life lived and a myth created on a dream and a vision is now literally reduced to ashes. The rainbow nation with prosperity for all races as a vision has been badly damaged . Its previously thriving post-apartheid...
Our federal capital could as well have been a perfect setting for a series of gangster movies from Hollywood. Perfect scripts. Excellent casting. Professional rehearsals. The dry runs are already provided by the existing government bureaucracy with its rituals and pomp. The voluminous costumes of agbadas and starched kaftans...
In the feverish race towards the 2027 elections, no one is concerned that many Nigerians may be left out of the democratic process. Yet democracy by its definition and nature ought to be a majoritarian enterprise. The originators of democracy designed it to be inclusive; a unifying platform that...
The Tinubu presidency is caught in a web from its own DNA. A grand Ponzi scheme born and bred in the bowels of the presidency has burst into the open. A famous con man ostensibly hired by highly placed officials has been exposed. His elaborate scheme of floating a...
The saving grace of the democratic state is the prospect of positive change through periodic elections. For those who live in a democracy, the classical belief is that the next election offers the populace a chance to change their lot for the better by trooping out to queue at...
The raging insecurity all over Nigeria has altered our reality. We now count our lives in days, weeks and months. At the beginning of each month these days, most of us receive these silly “Happy New month” greetings and prayers. We now celebrate our lives in bits and pieces,...
When a republic is held to ransom by an affliction that appears intractable to its government, the populace is left hopeless and helpless. About the viral insecurity now holding Nigeria hostage, the Tinubu government is in consternation and quandary. And the Nigerian public is in total darkness as to...
As we trickled into Yemi Ogunbiyi’s cosy bungalow in the Staff Quarters at Ife, we were greeted by pulsating calypso tunes playing from a real stereo equipment. The trending hit songs of Lord Kitchener and Mighty Sparrow were softly booming in the background. A rich whiff of good food...
In times when our national conversation becomes too heated, fuzzy and bogged in intractable controversy, I prefer to take matters to the barber’s shop at Ikeja Bus Stop. That is my definition of the Public Square. In that place, fact, fiction and faction meet and mix in a noisy...
Democracy and adversity are strange bedfellows. Hungry and deprived people either troop out to vote or look the other way at election time. Deprived people who observe the ritual of elections do so in the forlon hope that perhaps a new political cast could alleviate their condition. But more...
In the countdown to the 1993 presidential election between the National Republic Convention(NRC) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP), I served on the think tank of Chief M.K.O Abiola’s campaign. Our search for a unifying national resonant theme came down to one thing: the need to imbue Nigerians with...
I have fallen victim to two sets of phone calls in recent weeks about political developments in Nigeria. Between foreign friends and associates on one hand and my local elite readers and friends on the other. The foreigners have uniformly expressed consternation at recent political developments in Nigeria. They...
Chidi AmutaUnited States President Donald Trump seems intent on fulfilling a self- appointed tragic destiny. Every step he takes to avoid being thought weak is leading him towards the inevitability of a disgraceful end and an apocalyptic legacy. Worse still, every step he has taken to show strength has...
A blistering urgency currently envelopes Nigeria. It is an urgency of war, the clear and present danger of an imminent national meltdown. It is a common truth that Nigeria is desperately embattled on all fronts. It has been so for far too long. Our leadership may not agree that...
Nigerian politicians have once again carried out another successful coup against the people. They have fired up a nationwide frenzy about the 2027 general elections just as the democratic space in which those elections will take place is dying. Those yearning for paradise had better hang their hopes up...
Africa’s latest showcase for world democracy is still unfolding. In yet another landmark of African democracy farce, Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazaville has just been re-elected for yet another term. At age 82, the official result of the just concluded presidential election indicated that Nguesso defeated everybody else...
What is popularly referred to as the “turn by turn” syndrome is a very Nigerian political affliction. It just requires that the political baton of leadership and pre-eminence be periodically passed from region to region, ethnicity to ethnicity and perhaps faith to faith. Perhaps it is now time to...
The solution is an urgent subversive engagement. There is no time left. The general election is barely nine months away. And there is as yet no credible opposition in sight. The proposed rival ADC remains a pipe dream weighed down by the gigantic ambitions of its dreamers and proponents....
The occasional temptation to clandestinely steal a kiss here, stroke a breast there or pinch a drooping bum there can lead many healthy males into behaving like unguarded adventurous youngsters. Sexual sin is what happens when female attraction points are left carelessly loose and at the easy disposal of...