Article: "Ahiajoku Lecture": The Intellectual Feast Of Ndi Igbo

By  Prof. Anthony Oha

In 1979, Ahiajoku Lecture series began with fantastic candour. It was designed to capture the intellectual space of Ndiigbo in all spheres of scholarship and research about the Igbo way of life. Prof. MJC Echeruo began this feast with the lecture entitled, "Ahamefula: A Matter of Identity".

His paper projected Ahiajoku Lecture series to be an unusual intellectual feast aimed at projecting and exploring the identity of the Igbos vis-a-vis Igbo culture, Igbo history, Igbo identity, Igbo milieus, Igbo sociology, Igbo anthropology, Igbo political life, Igbo in Nigeria, Igbos in Africa and world space, Igbo in diaspora, Igbo invention in science and arts, Igbo belief system, Igbos and their neighbours, Igbo intellectualism, Igbo economic blueprints, Igbo medicine and herbalism, Igbo perception of truth, ideals and ordeals, Igbo philosophy of life, Igbo computation, Igbo ideas of business and marketing, etc.

News Release: Governors Fayemi, Tambuwal To Speak At Oxford University On 20 Years Of Democracy In Nigeria

The Governor of Ekiti State and the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Dr Kayode Fayemi, and the Governor of Sokoto State and the Deputy Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum, Mallam Aminu Tambuwal, will both speak at an International Conference on 20 Years of Democracy in Nigeria: 1999-2019 at Oxford University, United Kingdom on Friday, 6th December 2019.

The one-day Conference is hosted by the African Studies Centre, University of Oxford. Governors Fayemi and Tambuwal, who will be the special guests at the conference, are expected to reflect on Nigerias Fourth Republic in their addresses to the international audience.

News Release: NOSDRA’s Hasty Criminalization Of Communities On Spill Reports; A Disappointment To Environmental Stakeholders

The haste with which the National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA), criminalizes host communities while struggling to exonerate the IOCs on incidences of oil spills even when a Joint Investigation Visit (JIV) has not been conducted, is quite worrisome.

Recall that NOSDRA blamed Komkom community on the Pipeline explosion in the community few months back. It criminalized Ubeta community for the pipeline explosion that occurred recently in the community and the Agency has now also hastily blamed the fire incident around a Shell pipeline right of way around B-Dere/Bolo community road in Ogoni on the community/sabotage.

Speech: "Rebuild Imo-Budget One"

(Being an address by the Governor of Imo State, Rt. Hon. Emeka Ihedioha, CON, KSC, on Imo State Government 2020 budget presentation to the Imo State House of Assembly, in Owerri, Imo State, Nigeria, on Wednesday, November 27th 2019).

Protocol:
Today marks a very significant step in our Rebuild Imo Project. I am therefore, honoured to appear in this hallowed chambers and before this Honourable House to present the maiden Budget of this administration. The Budget has been appropriately tagged “Rebuild Imo – Budget One.”

News Release: "Allen Onyema And The Niger Delta Amnesty Fraud"--MEND

Onyema

The Niger Delta amnesty program which MEND vehemently opposed from day one, was built on a fraudulent foundation from inception, starting with the grossly exaggerated figure of militants put at thirty thousand (30,000), a figure that was a key element in perpetuating the fraud which has continued up until this very day. 

This was followed by over-invoicing of inflated overseas training programs as a way of transferring excess money through legitimate bank transactions. In fact, ninety-nine percent of the beneficiaries from the padded training programs had nothing to do with militancy.

The administration of Goodluck Jonathan, aware of the fraud, were more interested in giving the semblance of peace in the Niger Delta rather than addressing the root issues for which we took up arms. Issues in the mutilated constitution and the need for dialogue before disarmament were completely ignored. 

Special Report: Documents Reveal China's Mass Surveillance System, Isolation And Control

Documents reveal key details of a mass surveillance system that Chinese authorities use to control even routine behavior, curb internal communication and isolate Xinjiang from the rest of the world.........

Click here to view documents

Photonews: Conference On Witchcraft Ongoing At University Of Nigeria Nsukka

News Release: INEC On Bayelsa And Kogi States Governorship Elections

Article: Is It Now Cool To Kill?

Soyinka

By Wole Soyinka

My dear Honourables, I hope you will excuse me for distracting you from your onerous duties, but I am a cur-rent sufferer – and I am not alone  - from a persistent nightmare. That affliction has been induced by your most recent approach to addressing an acknowledged problem that affects, not only Nigerians, but the entire global community. The nightmare consists of the fear of waking up one morning to discover that one’s name has been cited among those helpless victims on behalf of whom a repellent legislation is about to be enacted.

Article: Clearing The Path For Good Journalism

By Godwin Onyeacholem

Time and again, there are desperate calls not just by veterans but also by younger and discriminating practitioners about the compelling need to rescue journalism practice in Nigeria from obvious dereliction, continuous degenerative state of violation and steady slide into disrepute.

If these calls are being heeded and efforts are indeed being made by stakeholders to arrest this worrying drift, nothing so far of significance by way of practice vindicates this claim. Sloppy journalism is still largely being served in the print and electronic media across the country. Worse of all, ethics, the soul of the profession, seems to have been thrown overboard with the way it is being treated as purely an incidental rather than an integral part of the trade.

Article: The Imperative Of “People’s Manifesto”

By Edwin Madunagu

In the 20 months since I wrote “Drafting a people’s manifesto” and “Further notes on the people’s manifesto” (February/March, 2018), a sufficient number of significant things have happened and are happening in our country, Nigeria, in the Nigerian Left, to the Nigerian Left and in the world to raise the level of the urgency of the broad suggestion I alternately called “draft” and “notes”. The use of these terms to describe my attempt was a cautious way of indicating that I was not, and could not be, publishing a manifesto on behalf of the Nigerian Left. I could only suggest, propose and urge—not as a detached outsider, but as an active insider.

News Release: Coalition Seeks Ways To End Impunity For Crimes Against Journalists And Civic Activists In Nigeria

A coalition of media and civil society group will on Thursday, November 7, hold a colloquium to address the shrinking media and civic space in Nigeria and attack on journalists, media organizations and civic activists. The event holds at NECA House, Ikeja, Lagos, at 4:00p.m. Coming barely a week after the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the colloquium will draw attention to  the sustained attacks against journalists and free speech in Nigeria.

“Still two months to the end of the year, 2019 has turned out to be the year when the muzzling of journalists and independent voices and constriction of the civic space in Nigeria has been at its worst point in recent memory,” the coalition said in a statement signed by Dr Chido Onumah, Coordinator of the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy.

News Release: Obi, Adegboruwa, Maidugu To Headline 7th News Express Anniversary Lecture

Former Governor of Anambra State and Vice Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) during the 2019 polls, Mr. Peter Obi, will headline the 7th News Express Anniversary Lecture, the organisers said in a statement issued on Sunday in Lagos.

News Release: Late Professor Pius Adesanmi's Extended Family Kicks Against His Burial In Canada

Late Professor Pius Adesanmi

"Saturday November 2, 2019 made it exactly one week since we read on social media about the purported burial of our son, the late Prof. Pius Adebola Adesanmi. This burial reportedly took place in Ottawa on October 26, 2019. Since the so-called burial, we have waited for confirmation and used established channels to find out what really happened.

It is now evident, that our late son’s remains were interred in Ottawa without family consent and contrary to the wish of the deceased to be buried in his place of birth, Isanlu. To our shock and chagrin, this internment was carried out without the knowledge or consent of Prof. Adesanmi’s aged mother and his eldest daughter.

News Release: The Kidnap Of Honorable Justice Chioma Iheme-Nwosu Ph.D, JCA

1. The utterly reprehensible kidnap of Honorable Justice Chioma Iheme-Nwosu PhD. Justice of the Court of Appeal, and the gruesome murder of His Lordship’s orderly should not only unnerve and agitate all of us but must also jolt our collective conscience. Iheme-Nwosu JCA’s car was intercepted and disabled, Rambo-style, by dare-devil criminals who executed her orderly with the proficiency of marksmen right in the heart of Benin City and then abducted His Lordship, all in broad daylight at about 11.30am. As we write, His Lordship’s whereabout and safety remain unknown and of grave concern to all well-meaning persons.

Special Report: "Can The Supreme Court Function As Regards The Hearing Of The Appeal Before The Seven-Man Panel To Hear The Appeal Was Appointed"

By Ben Nwabueze

The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Tanko Muhammad, was reported in the Vanguard newspaper of October 31st 2019 to have said as follows: “We have examined all the briefs of argument and the exhibits for over two weeks and we have all agreed that there is no merit in this appeal. The appeal is hereby dismissed. Reasons to be given on a date to be announced.”

The important point to emphasise about the above-quoted statement by the CJN is that the decision dismissing the appeal as lacking merits was not taken at the sitting of the Supreme Court on 30 October, 2019; the decision had been taken during an examination of “all the briefs of argument and exhibits for over two weeks” before the sitting on 30th October, 2019.

The question arising is as to whom the word “WE” in the CJN’s statement refers. Can the “We” be a reference to the Supreme Court? Can the Supreme Court function as regards the hearing of the appeal before the seven man panel to hear the appeal was appointed and the names of the members announced to the public? When exactly was the appointment of members made?

News Release: Operation Positive Identification: Experimentation Of Martial Music & Imposition Of State Of Emergency By Other Means" ---SBCHROs

The bent by the Army led Nigerian Military on caring out its lives, liberties and democracy endangering country-wide operation positive identification, despite its widest rejection by Nigerians from all walks of life is nothing short of experimentation of a martial music and imposition of a military state of emergency across the country by other means. Constitutionally speaking, the Army and rest of the country’s military have usurped the powers of Mr. President as “Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces” under democratic setting and brutally undermined Section 1 (2) of the 1999 Constitution. That is to say that the widely rejected Army operation is likened to Nigeria being taken control of by group of ranking khaki boys outside the provisions of the 1999 Constitution