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Craving For My Own Taste Of Dubai

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By   Steve Onyeiwu To say that Nigerian governors are obsessed with Dubai is an understatement; they are chronically infatuated by it. As we enter election season, with its entertaining and melodramatic defections saga, you’ll hear the governors and governorship aspirants promise they would turn their mostly impoverished states into a Dubai . Even governors who have not paid workers’ salaries and pensions for several months would be telling their hapless electorates they’ll not have to travel to Dubai anymore, for their own Dubai will be right at their doorsteps after the elections. The governors’ obsession with Dubai might make sense on its face value. Afterall, who wouldn’t want to relish in the posh malls of Dubai , with their indoor ski slopes? Who wouldn’t want to bask in the pristine and romantic beaches of Dubai , while feeling the succulent freeze from the Persian Gulf ? Who wouldn’t want to have dinner on one of the several cruise ships on the shores of Dubai Skylines?...

Nigeria: A Fake Nation Or A Nation Of Fakes?

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By   Sam Ohuabunwa Nigeria is an intriguing nation.  A 58- year adult nation that is still crawling like a toddler, while most of its mates are running on sure feet.  Many people including political, traditional and religious leaders have expressed their bewilderment with Nigeria ’s chronic inability to truly rise.    Never mind that a tiny minority including some who earn 12 billion Naira as annual dividend will argue differently that Nigeria is rising.  *Nigerian President Buhari  Many ordinary folks in Nigeria have raised their hands in desperation as they find themselves daily pushed into poverty despite their best efforts.  This is evidenced by the fact that Nigeria the seventh most populous nation with a ‘tiny’ population of about 198 million People has become the global poverty headquarters, beating India (with a population of over 1.2 billion) according to the Brookings Institution.  Nigeria is said to have 87 million of its citize...

Endless Deaths From Generator Fumes

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By   Egwu Ben Obasi Aside from  terrorism, threats to our lives are ceaselessly coming left, right and centre, and we still seem uncertain as to when the next will hit us. If it is not HIV/AIDS pandemic, it is the dreaded Lassa fever spread or bird flu. If it is not Lassa fever or Bird flu, it is the ravaging viral haemorrhagic fever, otherwise known as Ebola virus disease; and for some time now electricity generator fumes occasioning deaths.  Electricity, as a form of energy supplied through cables and wires for lighting, heating, and driving machines, helps to power our technology and drive national development. Electricity generation over the years has been from public sources. With perennial inefficiency in power management over these years, and epileptic power supply that has bedeviled our public power systems, Nigerians could not stand still but settle for alternative sources. Electricity power generating sets become that ready option open to most people for ho...

I’m Embarrassed For The Ojukwus

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By Comfort Obi Any true Igbo son who held, and still holds  Ikemba Nnewi , Emeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, of the blessed memory, in reverence, should be embarrassed by the turn of events in his nuclear family. They must be embarrassed by the gutter behaviour of a couple of the children he sired! And for women, especially Igbo women, they should rise in anger against these Ojukwu children, specifically, Dr. Ike Ojukwu and Emeka Ojukwu Jnr. Both men deserve no respect from any woman who has any self-esteem. *Late Odumegwu-Ojukwu and wife, Bianca  Ever since their father passed on, they have been dancing naked in the market square in a futile bid to humiliate his widow, and, indeed, their step mother, Iyom Bianca Ojukwu. The irony: They are fighting over an inheritance they contributed nothing to. The Ojukwus are not the only members of a prominent family who try to publicly rubbish the names they bear in a fight over inheritances. It is like some of them cannot wait for their patriarchs...

Why Akume And Ortom Should Shut-Up!

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By Comfort Obi Former Governor of Benue state and now, the Senator representing Benue North-West Senatorial District, George Akume and, the incumbent Benue state Governor, Samuel Ortom are disgracefully tearing at each other.  *Comfort Obi In the face of the sufferings of Benue people – economic, physical, emotional – Akume and Ortom are dancing naked in the market square. They are telling the people why both of them should be spat on the face. The irony: Both see themselves as leaders of their people. My sincere advice to them: Shut-up and hide your faces in shame! While Benue is burning, you are playing Rome ’s Nero. I was their fan. A few years back, I took to Akume  when a friend of mine, and former  Managing Director of the defunct Nigeria Airways, the polished and urbane  Chief Agom,  a Benue indigene, was killed while in the same car with then Governor Akume. They were on their way from Makurdi to Abuja when alleged da...