Tag: Azu Ishiekwene
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A professor’s pay-slip and lessons from ASUU strike – By Azu Ishiekwene
After eight months’ strike, one of the longest in the country’s history, university teachers finally returned, at gunpoint, to the classrooms on Monday.
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Pathetic stories washed up by floods – By Azu Ishiekwene
Back in the day, weather forecasts were a joke. And I mean literally. The weather forecast segment which used to come at the end of the news bulletin on Nigeria’s national broadcaster, NTA, was the butt of cruel jokes amongst folks.
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Anatomy of Wike’s endgame – By Azu Ishiekwene
When the row between Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), spilled onto the streets after the party’s presidential primaries in May, I argued that to solve Wike, one had to first fix the candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
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Do campaigns have to be bloody to win? – By Azu Ishiekwene
If this were a compulsory exam question, a number of politicians would simply answer: it depends. On what? On what is at stake. What the opponent does and how. And, of course, how far the resources of the one at the receiving end can go to exact revenge, sometimes in spite of the rules.
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Lessons about change from Ruto’s playbook – By Azu Ishiekwene
In six African countries, the heads of government have been in power for 20 years or more. Attempts to replace them by ballot have either been stalled, frustrated or crushed. In a few, like South Africa where the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has been in power for 28 years, new heads of government have been produced more by incest than by the ballot.
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Kukah’s Stories and Broken Truths – By Azu Ishiekwene
If you haven’t had a good laugh, you have not been with him. And anyone who knows him knows I’m not joking. The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto, Matthew Hassan Kukah, has the rare gift of humour. Not the run-of-the-mill kind that forces a courteous half-smile. It’s the kind that extracts the prey while putting the…
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Have the Hustlers Finally Ousted Kenya’s Dynasties? – By Azu Ishiekwene
One of the ironies of politics is how easily fiction becomes reality, and reality, precedent. Before our eyes, the president-elect of Kenya, William Ruto, who has played all sides of Kenya’s politics for at least three decades, has just won an election by claiming to be an outsider.
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Politicians and the jeopardy of trial by ordeal – By Azu Ishiekwene
“I’m going to waste my vote,” a friend told me recently. “And don’t argue with me,” he added. “It’s my right to do so.” I defied him. Regrettably, even though I also recruited help nearby to press home my point, my unsolicited advice fell on deaf ears.
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On the Podium with Tobi Amusan – By Azu Ishiekwene
When a proud Oluwatobiloba Ayomide Amusan climbed the podium in faraway Eugene, Oregon in the United States, as the World Champion in Women 100m Hurdles, not a few equally proud Nigerians mounted with her in spirit.
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To solve a problem like Wike, fix Atiku – By Azu Ishiekwene
Seven weeks after the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar announced Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa as his running mate, the man not chosen remains the talk of the town.