Author: Owei Lakemfa
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If Obafemi Awolowo were President Bola Tinubu – By Owei Lakemfa
Chief Obafemi Awolowo, affectionately called Awo, was the programmatic politician who had change as mantra and believed that politics must serve the mass of the people. His philosophy of governance was encapsulated in the slogan: Life More Abundant, LMA.
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The homosexuality of cultural imperialism – By Owei Lakemfa
I made acquaintance with a lady, Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade, about 1990. A few months later, my wife and I visited her in Ila Oragun where she was running a rural library, the African Heritage Research Library.
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The road to Heaven may no longer be narrow – By Owei Lakemfa
AS a child I was taught that the road to heaven is narrow. But that seems to be the teachings of the ancients; now across the world, shepherds are letting their flocks know that there are shortcuts, or even flights to heaven. Perhaps the old depended on stars to guide them on the road to…
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Many things we don’t know or may never know – By Owei Lakemfa
THE United States of America, US, this Monday placed visa restrictions on some Nigerians who allegedly undermined the February and March 2023 general elections. The US in a statement by its Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said it took the decision as part of its commitment to supporting and advancing democracy in Nigeria and around…
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National Assembly sovereignty: Joke taken too far – By Owei Lakemfa
AS an undergraduate in Great Ife, the Obafemi Awolowo University, I was a member of the Students Representative Council, the parliament. Whenever we met, the generality of the student body surrounded the venue to observe.
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Battered, occupied, exploited, but the Saharawi remain unbowed – By Owei Lakemfa
I got word that my elderly friend, His Excellency Mohammed Ould Salek, the Minister-Adviser on Diplomatic Affairs to President Brahim Ghali of the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic, better known as Western Sahara, was in Nigeria.
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Obaro Ikime: The intellectual as hostage – By Owei Lakemfa
General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, the Dean of Coups in Nigeria, finally staged a coup for himself on August 27, 1985. The veteran coup plotter could sniff coups years away. On December 17, 1985, he rounded up over 100 military officers for allegedly conceptualising a coup. Some, including his childhood friend, Major General Mamman Vatsa, were…
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My democracy is not your democracy – By Owei Lakemfa
WE were gathered. Some intellectuals, social activists, journalists, serving and retired diplomats. The primary issue was democracy. Is it universal and is there just a single, or multiple roads to democracy?
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Nigeria, Africa’s giant advancing backward – By Owei Lakemfa
Census is very serious business as it requires the general mobilisation of the populace. In many cases, the nation is placed under an emergency. One of the earliest accounts of census was given by Dr Luke in his Gospel in which he wrote that Emperor Caesar Augustus issued a decree for a census of the…
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Harry Belafonte: Unconquerable warrior marches on
Harry Belafonte did not seek social justice; social justice sought him out. When they met, he was ready for a life-long struggle to bring justice to the United States or more correctly, to bring the United States to justice even when he knew this might cost him his lucrative career, if not his life.