Author: Owei Lakemfa
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Supporting lifesavers against life-takers – By Owei Lakemfa
Adigun Agbaje is as good as they come. A Professor of Political Science and former Deputy Vice Chancellor, University of Ibadan, UI, he bestrides multiple worlds. Even as a veteran journalist, when he speaks on the media, I listen. It is not just because after earning a First Class degree in Political Science from UI…
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Rishi Sunak: Not blackmailing, but whitewashing Britain – By Owei Lakemfa
Rishi Sunak, 42, walked into 10 Downing Street, London this Tuesday, October 25, 2022 as the youngest Prime Minister of ancient Britain. He is the third occupant of that residence within 51 days. But perhaps the most said about his rise, is not his capability or ability, education or competence, vision or ideas.
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Emptying the Sahel of transnational terrorists and insurgents – By Owei Lakemfa
Martin Luther Agwai, retired General, walked briskly on the grounds of the Nigeria Defence College, NDC, like a man with a spring under his heels. At 74, he seemed ready for call up to do battle with enemies of the people. Indeed, on this Thursday, October 20, 2022 morning, he stood before a packed audience…
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Academics, politicians and rogue elements – By Owei Lakemfa
The country heaved a sigh of relief on Thursday, October 13, 2022 as the eight-month strike by academics which shutdown the public universities was suspended. Days before the suspension, many Nigerians were in a jubilant mood as all indications were that the agreement midwifed by the House of Representatives was acceptable to government and the lecturers…
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Smart Europeans, daft Africans – By Owei Lakemfa
Smart Europeans. After building their wealth from resources taken from the colonies, including gold, diamond, rubber, cocoa, cotton and human beings, they decreed that the only way to prosperity is through ‘market forces’. They taught gullible Africans that only the perfect market delivers, while state intervention stagnates.
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Floods anywhere is a challenge to humanity everywhere – By Owei Lakemfa
The Confluence Hotel in Ganaja, Lokoja used to be my favourite spot whenever I visited Kogi State. Its main attraction to me was sitting down to watch the Rivers Niger and Benue warmly embrace in an eternal wedlock as their waters flow down south to the Niger Delta before emptying themselves into the Atlantic Ocean.
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This is the face of poverty in Nigeria – By Owei Lakemfa
Poverty is often presented as statistics. But what the Yusufu Bala Usman Institute did on September 21, 2022 was to produce a book, The Face of Poverty in Nigeria, which focused on the faces behind the statistics.
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Ruto and Falana: Brother for enslavement and brother for liberation – By Owei Lakemfa
His Excellency William Ruto, Kenya’s newly minted President, prides himself as the Hustler-in-Chief of the country. He says he is from the “Hustler Nation” – the informal economy where he used to sell chickens for survival.
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The National Industrial Court should not be for hire – By Owei Lakemfa
Once the Muhammadu Buhari government had failed to get striking lecturers in our public universities back to class, I knew it would head for the National Industrial Court, NIC, shopping for an injunction. Tragically that is what governments in the country and rich employers have turned the NIC into: a fishing pond for injunctions against…
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Funerals of royalty and disloyalty, songs of defeat and victory – By Owei Lakemfa
Funerals, official and unofficial, were held in parts of the world this Monday September 19 to eternally send-off Queen Elizabeth II.