By Nwaorgu Faustinus In the Nigeria political conclave, with particular reference to Port Harcourt – the capital city of Rivers State, there abound different crop of politicians that represent  one, two or more positive  features to their followers, admirers, or political observers, analysts and commentators.  It is on the charismatic or rather appealing individualistic socio-political disposition that gives bite to the growing followership base such a politician enjoys.    The above could be said of Prince Tonye Princewill who has over the years earned the admiration of many through his charismatic outlook. Though it was not by his own making…

Apotheosis (from Greek, apotheoun "to deify"; in Latin deificatio "making divine"; also called divinization and deification) is the glorification of a subject to divine level. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre (Wikipaedia). In theology, the term apotheosis refers to the idea that an individual has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the treatment of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted manner. A cult of personality arises when an individual uses…

Nigeria has the largest road network in West Africa and the second largest south of the Sahara, with roughly 108,000 km of surfaced roads in 1990. While a large proportion of this network remains in very poor condition, only 15 per cent of federal roads in good condition. Out of over 160,000 kilometer of secondary and tertiary roads in Nigeria, with an average registered network of 4,000 kilometers per state, only about 10 to 15 per cent is paved. It is sad to note that rural roads which are statutorily referred to as local government roads, which constitute about 132,000…

As the merger of the country’s major opposition parties crystallized a few months ago into a mega party known as All Progressives Congress (APC), I received an email from my friend, Richard Mammah, who wanted to get my opinion on the new party. “Is the new mega party in Nigeria a marginal improvement over where we are coming from?” Mammah asked pointedly. My immediate response was emphatic: “It is (if it succeeds). It is important that genuine democrats and progressives find a way to key in as soon as possible”.  Since then, there have been debates (among progressives) about the…

The scourge of Boko Haram has become the ultimate test of political will for Goodluck Jonathan. This is one problem that will define, and make or mar his administration. If he gives this problem the usual ad-hoc tactical and short term solution that is characteristic of Nigeria, the country faces the risk of worse anarchy than that prevalent in Somalia. The sublime dilemma here is this: to negotiate or not negotiate with Boko Haram. Of late there have been strident calls on the president to negotiate with BH to forestall further senseless murder of Nigerians in the Northern part of…

By using the power of personal experiences, like social and cultural anthropologists would engage in at any moment of becoming a participant observer and executor, Dr. Nduka Otiono has insightfully shown various aspects of the family, kinship and pragmatics of knowledge of the life and personality of prof. Chinua Achebe who died on March 21, 2013. Whereas anyone can write through the prizen of one's interest about Chinua Achebe, what we have heard, read, witnessed or even did together with him consists in drawing out that which made him a person in persons, community in communities, nation in nations and a serial intellectual…

So much has been written by many Nigerians from various ethnic persuasions eulogizing the man-Prof .Chinua Achebe that at this stage the life and times of this giant of a man have been fully covered. This is the reason why I have taken a different angle to eulogize him tapping a little bit on history and Chinua’s expectations. The issues he addressed all through his life are the Nigerian issues and problems and not Igbo problem per se. Chinua Achebe comes from a town called Ogidi as you may already know, the town is less than 5 or 6 miles…

Nigerians are justifiably outraged at the pardon of Diepreye Solomon Peter Alamieyeseigha, ex-governor of Bayelsa State. Alamieyeseigha was governor from May 1999 until December 2005, three months after he was detained in London on charges of money laundering. President Jonathan had served under Mr.  Alamieyeseigha as deputy governor.  Instructively, in August 2005, a month before his arrest, Alamieyeseigha delivered a message, through his deputy, Goodluck Jonathan, at a seminar in Abuja on “Winning the War against Corruption”. The self-styled Governor General of the Ijaw nation “commended government's stride with the establishment of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and…

Last week, an Ogidi friend text messaged to me the news that the great Igbo story teller, Chinua Achebe (1930-2013) had joined our Igbo ancestors.  The news struck me like lightning bolt and I could not help but become sad. I was sad because Achebe, among other accomplishments, was among the first of our people to tell the world about our Igbo traditions. His book, Things Fall Apart, written in 1958, when he was twenty eight years old, told the world about Igbo society at the cusp of encountering the Western world (in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century). …