Author: Azu Ishiekwene
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Danger of the Single Story (DSS) – By Azu Ishiekwene
There’s a part of my job that can swallow you whole. Journalists are brought up on a diet whose main ingredients are a deliberate blend of crime, sex, and money. Everything else is a side dish.
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Ruffled feathers: Rejoinders to my article on Israel-Iran war – By Azu Ishiekwene
The proper thing to do when readers respond to a newspaper article is to respect their right of reply. There were two irate responses to my article last week, “Not the Iran We Thought It Was: What Has Changed in the Persian Gulf.”
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Not the Iran we thought it was: What has changed in the Persian Gulf?- By Azu Ishiekwene
On paper, it looked like a mismatch. Iran is not only one of the oldest and most established places in the Persian Gulf but also at least 75 times the size of Israel, with a population nine to ten times larger.
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A tribute to Uncle Sam at 90 – By Azu Ishiekwene
I encountered the relic of his presence long before I met Sam Amuka, known as Uncle Sam. Inside a room in the far corner of the old Kudeti PUNCH building, predominantly constructed of plywood and steel frames, there was a wooden armchair that had been a fixture in Uncle Sam’s office when he served as…
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Understanding the Flight Announcer – By Azu Ishiekwene
Boarding announcements were not an issue when I used to commute in Lagos by danfo, the ubiquitous yellow buses, or molue, the mass-transit lorries, which were improvised for public transportation.
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Inside the Oval Office, Trump’s new Lair – By Azu Ishiekwene
The world has never been short of demagogues and fools, but the remedies have often matched the supply. In 1990, during President Nelson Mandela’s thank-you tour of the world, he was asked at the City College of New York, Harlem, NY., why he remained friends with Muammar Gaddafi, Yasser Arafat, and Fidel Castro.
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Ishaq Oloyede’s cross – By Azu Ishiekwene
The last time a public official wept on national TV, Nigerians regretted offering her towels instead of buckets to collect her tears. She was acting, but we didn’t know it. Diezani Allison-Madueke had just been appointed Minister of Transport and went on a tour to assess some
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How to Crown an Impostor – By Azu Ishiekwene
Burkinabe leader Ibrahim Traore is acting like a rock star. It’s not entirely his fault. He’s receiving a lot of help from dozens of social media users, especially TikTokers, who are desperate to anoint him as the best thing to come out of Burkina Faso since Thomas Sankara.
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Adesina, Onanuga and the matter of being better off – By Azu Ishiekwene
The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwunmi Adesina, ruffled presidential feathers on Monday when he said in a speech during the 20th Anniversary dinner of the financial services company, Chapel Hill Denham, that Nigerians were better off in 1960 than they are today.
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Atiku, not Tinubu, is the wrecking ball – By Azu Ishiekwene
There’s a concern that Nigeria could soon become a one-party state, not by law, like in China, but through subterfuge – or in legal terms, de facto – similar to Cameroon, Uganda, Equatorial Guinea, or even Rwanda,