How we lost golden opportunities to develop Niger Delta region By Sunny Timothy Kiri Once upon a time, God answered all our prayers in the Niger Delta, but we were still praying for the Messiah from heaven to supply all our needs. Perhaps, this made way to the gain of the Federal Government and the

All votes belong to political parties in Nigeria BY FEMI FALANA ON Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the Federal High Court sacked the Ebonyi State Governor, David Umahi; his deputy, Kelechi Igwe, along with 15 lawmakers in the state over their defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC. In sacking

The Niger Delta has become an ecological disaster zone, a place where rusty pipelines run through farms and in front of houses. Day and night huge gas fires rage in massive pits and towers, spewing noxious gases and filth into people’s homes and farms. Oil spills and fires are a regular occurrence, often causing the

PIA: Avoiding pitfalls in host community development trusts By Tunji Idowu THE Petroleum Industry Act, PIA, which was signed into law in August 2021 is a game-changer for the oil industry. All-encompassing, it aims at establishing good governance, best practices and ease of doing business in the oil and gas industry by attempting to clarify

Why Jonathan, now? By Hon. Innocent Lagi, Esq It is expectedly, a confounding idea, that former President, Goodluck Ebele Azikiwe Jonathan would contest the 2023 election. More unsettling, of course, is the possibility that the President would be running on the platform of the APC against his party, the PDP. Naturally, his party should be

THERE WAS A MUSICIAN, THERE WAS AN ENGINEER Ayebe the notorious drunkard in Ekpama village was fearless and frank in his derogatory outburst. Ebiowei had just been told by Ayebe that his entire bloodline was tainted with slavery. This  could be a product of his drunkenness but heoutburst neither lurched nor slobbered which usually signalled

THE PEN, THE STATESMAN AND A WORD IN HONOUR OF TONY MOMOH: ONE YEAR AFTER BY GODKNOWS IGALI THE BACK STORY In the course of the past one year, the Nigerian nation grieved under the burden of the oddly toll of deaths and the ensuing torrent of sorrow and heartaches. As once illustrated by William

The establishment of Nigeria Maritime University in the oil rich region island of Okerenkoko in Gbaramatu Kingdom in Warri South West Local Government Area of Dela State in 2015 was greeted with jubilations. It is a token of reciprocation of the long years of oil explorations in the region as well as creating sense of

How a single man has taken the initiative over a region normally regarded as one of the more intellectually endowed, and at the same time, revolutionary inclined regions, would underline the uncommon political sophistries of Senator Godswill Akpabio. For more than two years, Senator Akpabio had his way at the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC,

Nigeria’s untiring diplomatic ideologue, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi at 80 By Godknows Igali Deservedly described as one of Nigeria’s most outstanding intellectuals of contemporary times, former Foreign Minister, university teacher and public servant, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi, turned 80 years of age on Tuesday 4th January 2022, barely three days after the New Year. Since then, a

Though much constrained by professional norms to a life of near anonymity and subdued social exposure, the great national service of one of Nigeria’s ace security professionals, Chief Albert Korubo Horsfall who is also a key witness to the Nigerian story, even as he joined the ranks of octogenerians on 22nd December 2021 remains sparsely

The Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) is an interventionist agency created for the development of the oil producing region of the country. Well, it is meant to be an interventionist agency, but one thing is crystal clear. Despite hundreds of billions of naira invested over 20 years, the true intervention has been in the pockets

The Niger Delta Development Commission -NDDC forensic audit report was submitted to the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN, on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, on Thursday, September 2, 2021. Recall that the documents was presented to the minister by his counterpart in the Ministry of Niger Delta Affairs,

I have a story to tell you. It is a story of a selfless leadership, pathfinder to justice and freedom, equity and fairness, transparency in governance, and accountability in developmental stewardship. A story of a young man called Comrade Ozobo Austin Ozobo, an unusual breed, and a voice in defining the place of justice in

On the 2nd of January, 2022 an illustrious son of Africa, Amb. Lawrence Baraebibai Ekpebu, passed on, having left on earth footprints that are the stuff of legend. Some of his accomplishments are beyond the capacity of any one to re-enact. He was a great man for many reasons. Amb. Ekpebu was born on May

Did we deserve Gowon, IBB, Abacha, OBJ, GEJ and our frail General?

In what way has the Niger Delta region offended the Nigerian state and their leaders? Why the show of zero tolerance for development and comfort in the region?

This writer stood at the podium at the side hall at Bon Hotel in Warri, Delta State, on Thursday, January 6, 2022, among the journalism greats in the Niger Delta. It was a moment to receive an award of Niger Delta Journalism Excellence from the GbaramatuVoice Media Group. The presenters recounted his 44 years of

My wife occasionally jokes that my stressful, high-strung lifestyle could mean I’ll die before her. I’ve hardly paid any attention, until recently. Three weeks ago, we both visited a friend who lost his father on New Year’s Day. The deceased was over 90.  We went in company with my friend and neighbour who also came

In celebrating birthdays, there are things we can actually reflect upon — the contributive aspect of what that person has done for the growth of the human society. Yes, birthdays are symbolically, the time of a new soul arrival to the mother Earth as an heavenly being from God to humanity, as the beginning of

The seed of happiness is the fruit of your labour at your old age; what you reserve in your warehouse of life of living before your old age can actually result to a true happiness; this is so to Apostle Asia Bebenimibo, father of the honorable commissioner, representing Ijaw ethnic nationality in the board of

Today, after 61 years of independent existence, Nigeria is best described as a failing nation, a nation incapable of solving any problem, a nation without a direction. Nigerian federal, state and local governments cannot pay salaries as when due. Nigerians are hungry. The nation is confronted by mass unemployment, poverty, civil strife in all regions.

Who was King Jaja of Opobo? King Jaja of Opobo was the charismatic and brave leader of Opobo, a city-state in modern-day Rivers State, who fought against the penetration and domination of British trade in the Igbo hinterland. Jaja was a Nkwerre man, born around 1821 in Umuduruoha in Amaigbo. His real name was Mbanaso

BY LEWIS AFOLABI  This is written with respect to Vanguard Newspaper publication titled,” Experts Link Nembe Oil Spill to Sabotage as Bayelsa Govt Kicks” dated December 23, 2021. Ordinarily, one would have left the matter to rest the way others were rested. But when one imagines the massive environmental, health, social and economic devastations oil

BY EKANPOU ENEWARIDIDEKE In the beginning, was the world and the world was God and in the world was Otuaro’s morning. Among many mornings in the world was the one ‘achebeically’ designated as Morning Yet on Creation Day. That ‘achebeically’ designated morning is not Otuaro’s morning. Otuaro’s morning is the morning on a day after

By Ekanpou Enewaridideke  Stories in their variegated colours about both biotic and abiotic factors have been told by the village boy – stories sometimes categorised as either phenomenally bad or good depending on the interpretational wavelength from which the stories are read and analysed. Interpretatively favoured or disfavoured, these stories fly everywhere on variegated wings

Tompolo and the City of Freedom By Ekanpou Enewaridideke Many centuries have lived comfortably and gone by. For centuries there lived the city of Freedom in the city of Freedom. The city of Freedom is yet to be denied the right of habitation in the city of Freedom. If wishes were horses, beggars would ride.

Reading one Mallam Kabiru Yusuf’s diatribe against the Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, on the current spillage in Nembe community (also in Bayelsa State) leaves you with a feeling of shock, nausea, outright revulsion or all of these. Since November 5, 2021 when it was first reported, hydrocarbon resources of gas and crude oil

Nembe, an otherwise quiet, beautiful kingdom in Bayelsa State, populated by a peaceful, enterprising people, has been in the news these past weeks, for the wrong reason. Dozens of already neglected communities and the people are soaked in crude oil—the same oil that has made such communities in Europe and America economic hotspots and development

Prof Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha One of the consequences of state capture is the predilection of a few power holders in the hierarchy to govern, or rule the polity with impunity, by subverting the very process or mechanism and instruments which placed them in office ab initio, by appropriating largesse to their constituencies in further consolidation

By Festus Adedayo At No 9, Rumuibekwe Road in Port Harcourt on November 10, 1995, the devil sat in a corner, having a saturnalia. No one could see him. He wore dark goggles, donning the uniform of a five-star Army General, wrapped up in a huge celebratory mood. His arch-enemy, Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa and eight

The PIB Bill just assented to as an Act of Parliament by President Muhammadu Buhari, is a mere ruse, a monstrosity, an artifice and device, carefully crafted, incubated and delivered, to actually do irretrievable violence to Nigeria’s progress and juris corpus. The Act constitutes a direct assault on age-long cherished principles of federalism and the