The Story Of One Dino Of ABU by Azubuike Ishiekwene

We’re in trouble, but that’s not the worst part. The real tragedy is that we don’t know that we don’t know.
It took one week and a Senate summons for the Vice Chancellor of Ahmadu Bello University, Professor Ibrahim Garba, to say that Senator Dino Melaye graduated from ABU.
And even then, his testimony left more questions than answers. In response to repeated press enquiries, ABU had promised to take a public position on Wednesday. But for reasons that can only damage the school’s reputation, it made a U-turn, saying it will not make any comment until the

Never Again To The Bomb That Missed Our Backyard by Azubuike Ishiekwene

In a week when Africa riveted on former President Yahya Jammeh’s tantrums, an event that could have shaken the continent to its core slipped below the radar.

Or maybe we didn’t think it was sufficiently important. It emerged early in the week that the British Prime Minister, Theresa May, had knowingly concealed information about a failed missile test when she appeared in Parliament to ask for 40billion pounds to replace the Trident, the UK’s flagship missile defence system.
The UK Guardian, which published the story, mentioned “West Africa,” the test target, by accident in its more than 800-word copy.

Opposition parliamentarians were not necessarily mad that the prime minister had taken them for a ride, although that was part of the problem. They couldn’t understand how this secret had been concealed from them since June and why they

Life After Jim Obaze by Azubuike Ishiekwene

Last week could have been named the Jim Obaze week. It was, really. How a relatively obscure public servant was thrust on the headlines with shards of his alleged misdemeanour strewn across the pages and powerful forces calling for his head is not the kind of drama seen often.

Well, they finally hanged him by the ropes of his own alleged sins, ranging from allegations of insubordination to vindictiveness and arrogance. I can’t seem to get my head around how Obaze, a relatively unknown public servant and executive secretary of the Financial Reporting Council, became such a dreadful monster. I’m curious and partly intrigued by how his actions could have threatened established ecclesiastical order and unleashed pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to pull the trigger.
Buhari is not famous for the sort of quick action we have seen in the Obazee case. So, what happened? Is Obaze the clear and

Obasanjo Vs Awujale: A Delayed Showdown by Azubuike Ishiekwene

   The book is nearly seven years in print but I didn’t get a hold of it until sometime last year. Someone very close, whom I had told I wanted to interview Kabiyesi Oba Sikiru Adetona, had sent a copy over to me in Abuja. He advised me to read the book before the interview.

I have since read the autobiography – Awujale – twice and was not disappointed. We have Saharareporters to thank for an excerpt that removed the pin from the grenade. Anyone who has read Awujale might agree that it was a bomb waiting to explode.

The surprise is why it took so long.

In 17 chapters of lucid, clear-as-crystal writing in 275 pages, Adetona shares insights of his odyssey from the time he left Nigeria to study accounting abroad to his totally unexpected ascension to the throne at age 26; and from deeply personal family feuds to his adventure as Oba and businessman, and then from his deposition and return to his involvement in some

Buhari’s Trip To Banjul And The Morning After by Azubuike Ishiekwene

There’s no need asking why Gambian President Yahya Jammeh changed his mind and minced his words.  After 22 years in power, Jammeh has learnt that mincing his words make them easier to swallow.
Forget the nonsense about evidence of vote rigging and the call for a god-fearing umpire to conduct fresh elections. Jammeh has been man and god for 22 years and suddenly, he’s at a loss about what happened to his omnipotence.
He knew that once the results were announced and his challenger, Adama Barrow, was declared winner after receiving 43 per cent of

To Catch The Grandfather by Azubuike Ishiekwene

Azubuike Ishiekwene

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo is used to getting a beating from his children. His son, Gbenga, once tried to strip him publicly with a rather nasty accusation of in-family wrongdoing.
Not long after that, his daughter, Iyabo Obasanjo, followed with a letter that sold her father down the river at a time when the old man thought his own open letter had dealt a major blow to the broken government of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
This time, the fire is not coming from his biological children. It’s his political offspring, who even call him grandfather, that are giving him the stick.

After Obasanjo’s politically charged speech at the first Akintola Williams lecture, the chairman of the House committee on media, Abdulrazak Namdas, came for the former president.
The lawmaker from Adamawa and 1998 graduate of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism didn’t hold anything back. In response to Obasanjo’s attack that the National Assembly is

What Is Dalung Doing For Buhari? by Azubuike Ishiekwene

I

I feel sorry for the manager of the U-23 national football team, Samson Siasia. The same demons that hunted down Stephen Keshi and Ahmadu Shuaibu are coming for him. And they are determined to get him.But he’s a small fry – their real target is the soul of Nigeria.

We know the Keshi-Shuaibu story too well – two casualties of the system, who died within a week of each other after emptying themselves for their country.

Keshi played for Nigeria and became one of the most outstanding defenders of his generation. He later became coach and, against all odds, the first Nigerian coach to

Tribute To The King’s 15th Wife by Azubuike Ishiekwene

Azubuike Ishiekwene

It was about this time last year that I wrote a piece on the errant libido of the continent’s last absolute monarch, King Mswati III of Swaziland. At the time, the world was in turmoil. Russia was on the verge of an all-out war with Ukraine, and Israel was pounding Hamas. The Islamic State had launched a savage attack in Syria and Iraq, and Boko Haram, the ISIS copycat, was leaving a bloody trail in the country’s North East.

It seemed the world had gone mad, but in the midst of it, King Mswati managed to invent his own world, a testosterone jungle where he reigns supreme. This time one year ago, the King fetched his 14th wife – a 19-year-old virgin – during the annual Umhlanga, or Reed Dance, at which thousands of half-naked young girls dance publicly at the king’s pleasure.

He has done it again. At yet another Reed Dance at the weekend in Mbabane, the Swazi capital, the 45-year-old monarch spotted Sindisawa Dlamini. Before the ceremony was over, he pointed the royal sceptre at the young high school graduate, virtually proclaiming her his 15th wife.

His country may have fallen on hard times, but Mswati’s palace has been thriving since he ascended the throne in 1986. Whatever the world may think, Swazis seem to love their king and the tourism that his progeny brings when the Reed Dance is held this time every year.

In recent times, however, the palace has been in the news mostly for the wrong reasons. Sometime ago, the heartbreaking story of a mother whose 18-year-old daughter was abducted on the orders of the palace came to light. Zena Mahlangu disappeared from school in 2002 and her mother later found out that she had been cloistered in the palace. She was being prepared to be the king’s

So, What Has Happened In 100 Days? by Azubuike Ishiekwene

Azubuike Ishiekwene
It’s not exactly on the mark yet, but it would be on September 5. President Muhammadu Buhari will be 100 days in office and the question will be, what has he done for us lately? From what I hear, the president is not a huge fan of this 100 days business.
He is aware that he is expected to perform the biblical equivalent of feeding 180 million people with five loaves and two fish but I guess he is also uncomfortable with being taken hostage by popular milestones.
Yet, there are at least two reasons why he cannot escape it this time. One, since former US president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, tried to save America from the Great Depression with remarkable work done in his first 100 days in office, that record has become a common standard by which public officers are judged.
Two, shortly before the presidential election in March, a document, said to be Buhari’s 100 day covenant