Exactly a year ago, at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Kasimu Alu Kigbu gave up the ghost. It was rather a painful death whose circumstances have remained mysterious. A teacher at the department of History at the University of Jos, Kigbu died a rather painful death. Painful, not simply because he was brutally hit – [Continue]

His friends call him Idi. Young and health, he was bubbling with life – as there was every indication that eh would make it in life – and perhaps, cross over from poverty line into a life worth living. As with his contemporaries, he wouldn’t want to loose the life battle to death. That evening, [Continue]

Before the advent of SFEM, it was the vogue for economic experts to eulogise and lecture us on the beauty of a free market and how markets forces, if allowed to work without undue interference from the state, can salvage our economy. Those of us who thought otherwise were insulted and called unpatriotic. Our protestations [Continue]

Acting President Tess Onweme who set the tone of the conference described them as tribesmen. Of course, those who had doubled the description changed their minds no sooner than the conference began. From Tinda Hotel where the registration took place, a bus, courtesy of the Benue State Government transported delegates to their various places of [Continue]

For some time now, Nigeria has been under siege. Deadly diseases are ravaging the country. And like evil rain, they fall on helpless Nigerians, who already weakened by hunger and diseases, fall like dead leaves. First, it was at Oju in Benue State, where yellow fever reportedly wiped out years ago struck as an unknown [Continue]

As a bastard of an otherwise genuine attempts to solve the problems wrought on peoples of African descent and the African continent, the OAU has been deep neck in a crisis of identity and mission. Pan Africanist thought were essentially not dialectical when they first emerged; even though the basis for the rise of Pan [Continue]

Recently, there have been many suggestions on how coups d’etats can be prevented. Among the earlier suggestions was the one by our own Zik of Africa – now Zik of Owerri – who floated the idea of diarchy. According to the venerable leader, whose nationalistic credentials have lately been battered by members of the Zikist [Continue]

The other Sunday, I heard a preacher tell a story which succinctly reflects the problems of this nation. According to the preacher, once upon a time, a big-time roving preacher had an evangelical mission to a certain town. When he got there, he had preached to convert souls as well as performed miracles. But while [Continue]

Arts is perhaps one of the strongest known lasting weapons yet available to man. Conversely, it is multi-purpose. Firstly, apart from the message which cartons, sculptures, fiction, poems, etc. give, they relax and satisfy he who produces them. Thus, a very important aspect of arts is the satisfaction to the artist of having expressed, certain [Continue]

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has been under severe attacks. These, resulting from the 21-day ultimatum which it gave to the Federal Government to rescind its decision to cut the wages of workers in the public sector. This came barely a week after a “similar” measure was applied to the Armed Forces – similar, in [Continue]