Child marriage bill: Women call for senator’s head
The controversial Child Marriage Bill before the Senate almost caused a Senator representing Ondo Central Senatorial District, Dr. Ayo Akinyelure, his seat in the upper legislative chamber a women from the senatorial district called for his recall for voting in support of the bill. The embattled Senator, who was summoned from Abuja to a stakeholders meeting to explain why he voted in support of girls early marriage, however, admitted publicly at the Adegbemile Hall, venue of the meeting, in Akure, where the people from his district converged, that he voted in error. “I’m so sorry I voted in error through the electronic voting. It was a mistake, not deliberate; I wanted to vote against the…
Strike no going back on demands – Poly Lecturers
Two months into its nationwide strike, the Academic Staff Union of Polytechnics, ASUP, said that there was no going back on its demands, insisting that unless all issues that caused the strike were addressed, the action would continue. This came as the union rejected the discriminatory cut-off points for candidates seeking admission into Nigerian universities, polytechnics and colleges of education and called for harmonization of the cut-off points into tertiary institutions in the country. ASUP had called out its members on a nationwide strike in protest against government’s refusal to implement agreement on bothering on welfare and other sundry issues. The union, after its 74th National Executive Council, NEC, meeting at Federal Polytechnic, Oko, Anambra…
Politics and Public Service: The Most Lucrative Business Enterprises in Nigeria Today (2)
The irony of it all is that all these people who inflict these economic and social pains on their brothers and sisters are front row members of different denominations in the Christian church. They are regularly and religiously seen parading themselves with every sanctimonious approach in the church with bogus, amorphous and appetizing Christian titles that lack salvation and redemption in the door-steps of the characters concerned. In this case, church is therefore a very comfortable camouflage in the hands of these dramatis personae who feel and believe very strongly that the best way to conceal their looting of the treasury and financial misconducts in their official positions is by competing with the common masses…
Letter of Appreciation
Your Grace; I am sending this letter of thanks and the article I wrote for The Wanderer on our recent pro-life mission trip to Nigeria. It is also coming to you by mail, but I am sending it this way just in case the mailed letter gets lost or long delayed. – Brian Clowes Most Rev. Anthony J.V. Obinna Archbishop of Owerri Villa Assumpta Post Office Box 85 Owerri, Imo State Nigeria June 18, 2013 Your Grace; I have returned safely to my family and friends and have recovered from jet lag. Now all I have to do is catch up with all of my assignments! Of all of the many…
Justice Not Sympathy for Imo State Pensioners
Recently the democratically elected government of Imo State declared that with effect from April 2013 retired civil servants will be paid pension only at the Community Government Council offices of their home communities where the traditional rulers are to identify them as genuine pensioners. The general meaning of this directive is that government gazettes of appointments, promotions and retirements of these pensioners as well as the series of biometric capturing exercises held since 2006 are unreliable records until they are confirmed by traditional rulers who have no records to verify the claims of the pensioners. No wonder that in its editorial comments of May 2, 2006 “The Guardian” said that in advanced societies the respect…
Bombs still litter Igboland …43 Years After Civil War
It has been revealed that no fewer than 50,000 latent bombs and landmines could be found in the South East and South-South Nigeria. They are remnants of explosives deployed during the Biafra/Nigeria war. which lasted from July 1967-January 1970. The disclosure came from the Media Director and Field Administrator of the Nigerian Mines Action Centre Owerri, Dr. Emeka Uhegbu, who spoke with The Leader recently. However he did not explain how they came about the number. The spokesman of the centre explained that more than four decades after the war ended, the region that was the theatre of war then, have remained unsafe as unexploded bombs, landmines and other forms of explosives have continued to…
Egbu remembers Parishioner beheaded in her farm … Appeals to IG to arrest killers
It is now one year since Mrs. Evelyn Uzodinma was murdered in her farm at Egbu on June1, 2012 and later buried without her head in her husband’s compound. Despite the fact that both the motor cyclist (okada man) that carried the murderers and the person that made the call, informing the murderers about the woman’s presence in the farm are all in the police net, the police still claim that they have not gotten any clue on the murderers and that the two in their custody have not provided any clue to the whereabouts of the murderers nor are there enough evidence to prosecute them. This was made known by the parish priest of…
Corruption: The 37th State of Nigeria
There is a cloned hydra-headed monster on a tiny-lined white thread seen with the third-eye only making up the 37th State of Nigeria. It is CORRUPTION. On May 27, 2012, the Archbishop of the Ecclesiastical Province of Owerri Diocese, Most Rev. Anthony Obinna celebrated a thanksgiving Mass for the State Government to mark its one year in office at the Maria Assumpta Cathedral Owerri. In his homily, the Archbishop called for an alternative Nigeria. The alternative Nigeria, he explained would be “Nigeria that is just and fair, a Nigeria where there is rule of law and respect for justice and fairness, a Nigeria where the leaders will shun double standard life and enthrone good governance…
Ojukwu and the discourse of disunity
He came from a wealthy stock. He was educated in the best schools. He was a soldier. He was a radical. He was an adept. Some will describe him as unpatriotic, while others see him as a nationalist. Some see him as a villain and others see him as a hero who fought for justice. In life and in death, Ojukwu appeared to have embodied the paradoxes of life and its extremes. Notwithstanding his rare characteristics represented in a somewhat mystic personality, the name Ojukwu will for a long time remain synonymous with the defunct Biafra. As the ex-warlord of Biafra, Ojukwu was a historic figure upon which the apparent ethnic and tribal disquiet in…
NIGERIAN GOVERNORS FORUM: WHICH WAY NOW?
When the Chief Executives of the 36 states of the federation formed the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) soon after the return to civil rule in 1999, Nigerians welcomed the idea as a laudable development capable of strengthening the then fledging nascent democracy. The Forum, as a coalition of the elected governors is a non-partisan association which seeks to promote unity in governance and better understanding among states to ensure a healthy and beneficial relationship between the states and other tiers of government. It is on record that the Forum has played useful role at certain critical moments of crisis in the country by trying to wedge the country from drifting down the precipice. The Forum…
Pack and Go – Anambra First Lady orders baby factories
-Why they’re springing up in Southeast, by Red Cross Anambra State Government on Monday ordered all motherless babies’ homes that could be tagged ‘baby factories’ to pack and leave the state within 48 hours or risk a clampdown. Wife of the Anambra State Governor Mrs. Margaret Peter Obi stated this at the 2013 Children’s Day event at the Alex Ekwueme Square in Awka. She warned motherless babies’ homes in the state and those indulging in any form of illegal adoption of babies and outright selling of babies in any disguise to pack and leave without further delay. Sale of babies in ‘Baby factories’ has become rampant in the Southeast in recent times. Security agents have…
BOOK REVIEW: ROCHAS REVOLUTION, Leadership By Example
BOOK REVIEW Title: ROCHAS REVOLUTION, Leadership By Example Author: Rev. Fr. Nathaniel I. Ndiokwere Pagination: 240 Pages Reviewer: Mr. Brendan Ikechukwu Nwaozor; Principal Information Officer; Ministry of Information, Culture and Tourism, Owerri. The author, Rev. Fr. Dr. Nathaniel I. Ndiokwere is not new in contributing to the literary world, as he has to his credit some of the soundest quotable materials which are regularly used in academic parameters. Beginning this project with a simple quote from the Book of Proverbs in the Bible highlights the author’s status as clergyman of sound intellectual standing and a good homilist, who knows his onions of the pulpit. The Quote: “Where…
Nigerian Physicians and Our Right to Know
Chioma called again! You remember her? The woman her boss was pressing for an affair (See https://theleaderassumpta.com/category/columns/ethics-corner/ or www.csaaeinc.org/blog for full story). I thought she was going to talk about this affair. No. This time it was about her sick mother. “Could you please pray for her, she is in a hospital at Owerri”, she said. I know her mother, a 65 year old “rural woman”. I called this woman. “Mama, what’s the matter?” “The Doctor has not told me anything”, she answered. “What medication has he given you?” “He did not tell me, he just said that I will be fine.” I have heard this several times, especially from poorer and less educated Nigerians. Regardless…
War against Boko Haram begins – We’ll crush them – Defence Headquarters
With a massive deployment of troops and equipment, the army, navy, air force and other security agencies have begun operation to “rid the nation’s border territories of terrorists’ bases and operations. President Jonathan had in a nationwide broadcast admitted that the Federal Government no longer controlled the entire territory of Nigeria. Three states where the emergency action was declared share common borders with Cameroon, Chad and Niger. These border communities have become bases for training, insurgency and other criminal activities against Nigeria. The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) gave indication that the time was up for the Boko Haram sect and other terrorists groups in the country as it announced the deployment of massive troops to take…
ACHEBE AND THE INVENTION OF AFRICAN LITERATURE (1)
came strong on the world stage with the publication of his first novel, Things Fall Apart. It is a work widely considered to have defined African literature and brought balance to world literature. This is despite the fact that there were other pioneering efforts regarding African prose by African indigenous writers. By 1933 Omenụkọ by Pita Nwana had been published, followed by the Onitsha Market Literature through which Cyprian Ekwensi published pamphlet stories like Ikolo the Wrestler and Other Ibo Tales (1947) and When Love Whispers (1948). These were before Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard (1952), which many regard as the pioneer novel form in English language by an indigenous African. However, it is Chinua…
Jonathan imposes emergency rule on Adamawa, Borno, Yobe
President Goodluck Jonathan has declared a state of emergency in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states. However, the governors of the affected states are to continue in their constitutional roles. In a nationwide radio/television broadcast on Tuesday, President Jonathan ordered the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Admiral Ola Sa’ad Ibrahim, to deploy more troops to the affected states for more effective internal security operations. The soldiers had been given full orders to take necessary action, within the ambit of their rules of engagement, to end the impunity of insurgents and terrorists. Full texts of the President’s broadcast on Tuesday, May 14, 2013 reads. It has become necessary for me to address you on the recent spate…
Tribute To Monsignor Dr. Georg Huessler Of Caritas Fame
Only a few months into the Nigeria- Biafra war, the imbalance in the disposition of military hardware was already definitive in favour of Nigeria. U.S.S.R and Britain literally flung the gates of their armouries wide open for Nigeria to satisfy her wish-list of weapons on credit, while Biafra struggled to purchase obsolete bolt- action rifles at cut-throat black market prices. It was the peak of the cold war, the ideological conflict between the Communist East bloc (Russia and her allies) and the Capitalist West bloc (U.S and allies). To survive as a country then, you needed to belong to one bloc. Biafra belonged to none. An ideological orphan! Having denied Biafra access to weapons to…
