Author: Chido Onumah

Buhari’s toothache and a nation in its death throes General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.) will leave office on May 29 after eight uneventful years. We hope it is the last time we hear from a man who rode to power eight years ago promising to end insecurity, strengthen the economy and fight corruption, none of which he achieved. Thankfully, he has vowed not to intervene in our national life and expressed his willingness to disappear to Niger Republic if we request accountability after almost a decade of ruinous leadership. It is a fitting testament to the leadership calamity of the past…

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The Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, SAN, has been asked to take urgent steps to protect Richard Oghenerhoro, a whistleblower facing retaliation for exposing and publicising fraudulent employment practice in the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing. In a letter addressed to the Minister, the heads of a coalition of civil society organisations working to promote transparency and accountability in Nigeria called on him to ensure full protection for the whistleblower by reversing the punitive postings and ending the various acts of intimidation and assault against him by some staff of the ministry. According to the coalition, “From…

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Writer and academic, Prof. Okey Ndibe has described the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Mr. Peter Obi, as an intellectually vibrant and physically fit candidate who has some grave faults that will impugn on his leadership capacity if not addressed. He made the remarks while responding to questions during the online interview programme 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah on Sunday, July 24. The literary icon asserted that the Labour Party candidate is the most exciting among the three major contenders. “Obi has excited a lot of Nigerians, especially young Nigerians. The reason for that is understandable. Nigerians…

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Veteran entertainer and activist, Charles Chukwuemeka Oputa, popularly known as Charly Boy says the task of saving Nigeria is in the hands of the youths. Charly Boy, also known as “Area Fada” spoke Sunday when he appeared as guest on 90MinutesAfrica, the online interview programme hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. He said he was happy to be alive to witness the conscious political movements that have been championed by Nigerian youths in recent times. “I am glad that in my lifetime I am witnessing what is about to turn into a full-blown revolution,” the septuagenarian told listeners. “From…

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The African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in collaboration with Yar’Adua Foundation will Thursday, July 14, 2022, launch the Corruption Anonymous (CORA) whistleblowing platform at Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja. The CORA platform is a secure civil society driven public whistleblowing tool through which citizens can submit tips on corruption and other forms of wrongdoing anonymously. Jointly developed by AFRICMIL and the Yar’Adua Foundation, the platform aims at strengthening the whistleblowing policy of the Nigerian government. According to Dr. Chido Onumah, Coordinator, AFRICMIL, “the CORA platform will complement the government’s whistleblowing platform managed by PICA and provide Nigerians an opportunity…

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On Thursday, July 14, 2022, the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) in collaboration with Yar’Adua Foundation will launch the Corruption Anonymous (CORA) whistleblowing platform at Yar’Adua Centre, Abuja. The CORA platform is a secure civil society driven public whistleblowing tool through which citizens can submit tips on corruption and other forms of wrongdoing anonymously. Jointly developed by AFRICMIL and the Yar’Adua Foundation, the platform aims at strengthening the whistleblowing policy of the Nigerian government. We shall return to this. It was an unprecedented dramatic exploit, an unforced disclosure least expected from the unlikeliest of quarters. Inside the…

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 A group of civil society organisations has formed a coalition for the promotion of whistleblowing as a tool for fighting corruption and achieving transparency and good governance in ECOWAS member states. The coalition—the Whistleblowing Advocacy Coalition of West Africa (WACOWA)—was the outcome of a consultative meeting organized by the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and civil society partners following exploratory talks with the ECOWAS Commission and the Network of Anti-corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA) on strengthening the fight against corruption in West Africa. The coalition says corruption has been one of the major challenges facing West…

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Lawyer and human rights activist, Inibehe Effiong, has expressed reservation about the viability of a “third force” to confront the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general elections. The activist spoke Sunday when he appeared on 90MinutesAfrica, the online interview programme hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. Since Peter Obi’s defection to Labour Party from the PDP, there has been speculations of a possible merger with other political parties to form a “third force” to confront the two major parties in the country. “Whether the Labour Party and other smaller parties would be…

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The strongman and leader of South-West politics, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has been at the receiving end of all manner of attacks in the past few days, including from members of his own political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). The attacks are coming not only from those who hate him, those who secretly admire his guts, those who fear him, but also from those who have been eating from him for a long time. But what exactly did Tinubu do to warrant the kind of bile that has been lately unleashed on him? The offence of the former governor…

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Civil society leaders have commended the conduct of the national convention of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which held on Saturday in Abuja. The convention elected a former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, to fly the party’s flag in the 2023 presidential election. Executive Director, YIAGA Africa, Samson Itodo, and a Director at the Open Society Foundations, Ayisha Osori, gave the commendation Sunday when they appeared on the online interview programme, 90MinutesAfrica, hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. Osori said that despite the alleged role of money in influencing the choices made by the delegates, there were few…

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Publisher and presidential aspirant, Dele Momodu, has attributed the deteriorating security situation in Nigeria to the inaction of President Muhammadu Buhari. Momodu spoke Sunday when he appeared on the online interview programme, 90MinutesAfrica, hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. The publisher of Ovation Magazine, who is running for president under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) wondered why the Nigeria military has not been able to contain bandits and terrorists in the country despite performing excellently well in external assignments. He said Nigerian soldiers held control over large parts of Liberia during their peace keeping operations in the country which…

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Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost At the end of this month, other things being equal, Nigeria’s major political parties, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), will select their presidential candidates for the February 2023 general election. By hook or by crook, one of these two candidates will emerge president next year. It will be asking for too much to request Nigeria’s dominant political class to spare a thought for the nation. But we are…

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Convener of the #RevolutionNow movement and founder of Sahara Reporters Omoyele Sowore has taken a swipe at those who accuse him of playing a role in bringing President Muhammadu Buhari to power in 2015. Sowore made the rebuttal during his appearance as a guest in the first of the series of Presidential Aspirants Interviews put together by the online Talk show 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah on Sunday. Goodluck Jonathan became the first incumbent president in Nigeria to lose a re-election when his party lost the presidential election to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015. Since…

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Desperate Instagram celebrities are destroying Nollywood by doing everything to be like Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Rita Dominic, and other genuine actresses according to Nollywood actor and producer, Kanayo O. Kanayo. The veteran actor disclosed this on Sunday when he appeared as a guest on the online talk show 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. Kanayo O. Kanayo, who starred in the breakthrough Nollywood movie, “Living in Bondage,” said, “When they introduce themselves as actresses, we know they are not actresses. We know what they are doing is impersonation. It is when they steal the dollars of…

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 Two of Africa’s leading football journalists, Oluwashina Okeleji from Nigeria, and Amr Fahmy from Egypt have decried the lack of accountability in football management in Africa. They spoke on Sunday on the online news programme, 90MinutesAfrcia hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. Corruption has impacted the growth of football in the continent, the journalists noted. They observed that the scale may be different, but there is corruption in football across the continent. “There is corruption with TV deals for local competition, corruption in youth football where sons of ex-players are promoted very quickly while other players who are talented…

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Co-convener of the #BringBackOurGirls (BBOG) movement, Aisha Yesufu has described the decision of the Lagos State government to resume tolling at the Lekki Toll Gate as a sign that they have no regard for the lives of Nigerians. The activist made the statement on Sunday when she appeared on the online interview programme, 90MinutesAfrica, hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. “One of the things that should really make us sit-down and think about our lives whether we are citizens or slaves is the fact that less than eleven months to a general election, the government is coming out to…

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It has been a year since the passage of Innocent Chukwuma, my friend, brother, and Comrade. It looks like yesterday when I got that devastating response from Prof. Chidi Odinkalu saying, “We may have lost Innocent.” I had called in response to a barrage of WhatsApp messages from Chidi, which started with, “Good evening, sir. How are you doing? Family? Have you heard about Innocent…?” Innocent Chukwuma, or Innoma, as I called him, was 55, and the immediate past Regional Director (West Africa) of Ford Foundation. He was full of life and ideas. His death was devastating in many ways.…

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Nigeria does not have a constitution, according to renowned human rights lawyer, Femi Falana. The Senior Advocate of Nigeria said this on Sunday on 90MinutesAfrica hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. “What we call a constitution or what our courts refer to as a constitution is a legal document which is better called Decree 24 of 1999 signed into law by Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar,” he noted. Falana, who is a principal partner at Falana and Falana Chambers, said the Nigerian constitution is not “a legitimate document, but a legal document which we had all thought was going to midwife civil rule…

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By Chido Onumah & Osmund Agbo “As long as my Ikenga is active, I can wrestle in the land of the spirits” – Igbo proverb. In precolonial Nigeria, the Igbo administrative unit was some sort of a quasi-democratic republican system of government. It was a system deeply rooted in the people and guaranteed equality among its citizens, as opposed to a feudal system where a king lorded over his subjects in an empire. The Igbo society at the time could be described as acephalous, operating a system devoid of centralization. Village by village rule fostered participatory democracy based on…

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Senator Shehu Sani has expressed reservations about the suitability of state police in the North. The Senator who represented Kaduna Central Senatorial District in the 8 th  Assembly said this when he appeared on the online interview programme, 90MinutesAfrica, hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. “When we speak about that (state police), we speak about history,” Sani said. “In the colonial times when the police were under the emirs, they were used to persecute people who were critical of the emirate system or the religious order. The ruling political party then, the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) used native police to go…

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Senator Eyinnaya Abaribe has expressed doubt that the Senate will take a second look at the gender bills rejected by the 9th Assembly. The Senate minority leader spoke during the online interview programme, 90MinutesAfrica, hosted by Rudolf Okonkwo and Chido Onumah. On March 1, 2022, during the constitutional amendment proceedings, the National Assembly voted overwhelmingly, rejecting four gender bills, which many Nigerians say would promote gender inclusion. The four bills were meant to (1) give the right of citizenship to foreign-born spouse of a Nigerian woman (2) the right for a woman to take indigeneship of her husband’s state after…

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Edwin Ikechukwu Madunagu who turns 75 on May 15, 2021, has been a consistent voice for the radical transformation of Nigeria in the last five decades. For this reason, comrades, friends, associates, and students, will organize a conference on the theme: “Progressive Politics as the Answer to the National Question: Problems and Prospects,” to celebrate this revolutionary icon, Marxist, mathematician, journalist and public intellectual. This tribute is a reflection on what Edwin Madunagu, popularly called Eddie by friends and comrades, means to me, to Nigeria and the international socialist movement. Eddie has been described by one of his contemporaries and closest comrades,…

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Two weeks ago, I lost a comrade, brother, and friend, Innocent Chukwuma. Innoma, as I called him, was 55, and until a few months ago when he retired, the regional director (West Africa) of Ford Foundation. Every waking moment in the last two weeks has left me thinking about life and Innocent Chukwuma’s death. I had a busy day on Saturday, April 3. Earlier that day, my spouse had informed me of the news of the death of the political activist, Yinka Odumakin, national publicity secretary of Afenifere, the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group. At 2:22p.m. Pacific Standard Time, I was about to…

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“…Nation-building is a futuristic venture; it is not something you do looking back. If a nation would be tempted, like Lot’s wife, to keep looking back, perhaps that nation will turn to a pillar of salt.” – Tope Fasua in Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices   “A country is as good and redeeming as those who engage in its politics.” – Joel Nwokeomain Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices   “They prayed for things God had given them capacity to do for themselves yet killed and maimed in the name of God. They fought for God and left their fight to God.” – Aisha Yesufu in Remaking Nigeria: Sixty Years, Sixty Voices  …

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The last one month has witnessed a celebration of crime and corruption in Nigeria, from Ramoni Olorunwa Abbas, aka Ray Hushpuppi, to the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, and the management of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF), to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which the president supervises as Minister of Petroleum Resources, to the Minister of Niger Delta, Godswill Akpabio, and the leadership of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to the Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and everything in between. With each revelation, my mind would…

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On October 1, 2020, Nigeria will celebrate her 60th year of political independence. Our diamond jubilee is a remarkable milestone worthy of significant documentation even as the country is deeply immersed in the crisis of nationhood. In furtherance of this objective, the African Centre for Media and Information Literacy (AFRICMIL) and partners are launching the Sixty Years, Sixty Voices initiative which seeks to produce a book of 60 essays by young Nigerians to address our problems as a nation. Many Nigerians argue that the major problem facing the country is leadership and that if nothing is done to ensure purposeful…

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January 15 marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Nigerian Civil War and the official end of the short-lived Republic of Biafra. It is unlikely there will be any national event to mark the occasion other than the annual Remembrance Day ritual which has become nothing but a cash cow for those involved in organizing the ceremony. But the civil war was not only a defining moment for Nigeria, but it has also continued to define the country. As Prof. Yakubu Ochefu notes in the introduction to the 2013 book, Nigeria is Negotiable, “The corporate existence of the country has been…

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At a time Nigeria requires a robust conversation about its politics, economy, ethnic relations, unity, and indeed, future, the country’s over-indulged lawmakers, egged on by a president who is anything but a democrat, are placing a deathly ban on free speech. This proposed ban must be opposed and defeated by any means necessary! Two dangerous bills are currently in the National Assembly seeking not only to establish an “Independent National Commission for the prohibition of hate speeches” but to curtail free expression and take state repression of alternative voices to a whole new level by making the right to hold…

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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…

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Introduction Information rules the world today. More often than not, the type of information we receive affects our choices, our relationship with others, the quality of life we live, the kind of influence we have on others, the extent to which others influence us, the kinds of activities we undertake and the roles we decide to play in society as citizens and participants in the democratic process. While Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights talks about everyone’s “right to freedom of opinion and expression,” it is important, according to UNESCO, to equip citizens with competencies needed to…

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