Category: Featured

Akinwumi Isola: A giant in his own right By Niyi Akinnaso

Emporium Reporters

In the early hours of last Saturday, February 17, 2018, Prof. Akinwumi Isola solemnly joined the worthy ancestors of the Yoruba nation. As the author of the widely acclaimed Yoruba historical dramas, Efúnsetán Aníwúrà, Ìyálóde Ibadan and Tinúubú, Ìyálóde Egba as well as Ó le kú, a complex, but hilarious, love story, and Ogún Omodé, a recollection of episodic memoirs of his childhood, Prof. Isola would stand side by side with the departed giants in Yoruba scholarship and dramaturgy. He would dine with departed novelists, playwrights, dramatists, and scholars of Yoruba language and culture, including D.…

Inside Lamidi Adedibu’s Deserted Ibadan ‘Palace’, Crumbling Political Dynasty

Emporium Reporters

A one-storey mosque stood adjacent the main building that was Lamidi Adedibu’s main building. There, he held sway as an oracle and dished out orders that were considered laws at a time in Ibadan and other parts of Oyo State. Time was 3:45 p.m. and this reporter just swaggered into the ‘Molete Palace’ of the late Ibadan politician and stalwart of the then ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party. The afternoon sun baked the skin with fiendish delight. At the entrance of the commodious ‘palace’, about five weird-looking middle-aged men sat on…

I’M SERVANT LEADER, PROMISED TO SERVE MY PEOPLE IF I COME TO POWER 2019 INSHA ALLAH By Hon Yusuf Garba Tagwai

Emporium Reporters

The characteristics below are unwaveringly related to a servant leader and good leader. It is worth to pay attention to these and take them into consideration when we’re making a choice as to whom we chose as a leader. #A_GOOD_LEADER: Is fair and objective. A good political leader does not take what is similar to his views as facts and base his decisions on that. He uses reliable and unfiltered information to make judgments and to come up with resolutions. In other words, he stands above his own believes…

Ekwueme Finally laid to rest

Emporium Reporters

Nigeria’s former Vice President, Dr. Alex Ekwueme, was laid to rest on Friday at his hometown, Oko in Anambra state after a week-long burial rites. Top government officials, close friends and family members gathered to pay their lasts respect to the 85-year-old elder statesmen who died in November 2017. Some of those present to witness the final moments were Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and former President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife, Patience. Other are former Vice President Namadi Sambo; the Anambra state Governor, Willie Obiano; Rochas Okorocha of Imo state,…

New Day and Age for Primary School Teachers in Niger State. By Abdullberqy U Ebbo

Emporium Reporters

Niger state governor, Alhaji Abubakar Sani-Bello, following his familiar compassionate steps, has done the unusual again, this time for the primary school teachers, who have consistently and for years been expressing preference and agitating for being put under the control and management of State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), rather than that of the Local Governments. The governor’s directive has ended for the teachers years and ages of suffering under a system which effectively sentenced our teachers to needless suffering and gnashing of teeth, as they remained unpaid weeks after…

1st African Disabled Person to be named a Young Global Leader

Emporium Reporters

Lois Auta is a woman with 99 abilities and only one disability, which was polio, that affected me at age two, but I have never allowed it to stop me from achieving my dreams. I was disabled by polio and enabled by positivity. Some see their disabilities as a curse, but I see mine as a blessing, some see theirs as a problem, but I see mine as a solution to change the world. Some see their disabilities as a disadvantage but I see mine as an advantage. Growing up…

Former CJN, Dahiru Musdapher Is Dead

Emporium Reporters

A former Chief Justice of Nigeria, Dahiru Musdapher, has died in a London hospital according to family sources. The former CJN was 75 years old at the time of his demise. Musdapher died in the early hours of Tuesday . The cause of his death was not immediately clear but family members took to social media to break the news. “My elder brother Justice Dahiru Musdapher former CJN passed on tonight,” Muneer Musdapher, a younger brother of the former CJN wrote on Facebook. The jurist retired from bench five years…

Ellen Johnson -Sirleaf: Africa’s First Elected Female Leader

Emporium Reporters

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who shared the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize as a champion of women’s rights, is stepping down after making history as Africa’s first elected female president in Liberia. Taking the reins of a nation that had just emerged from a civil war leaving an estimated 250,000 dead, Sirleaf will be remembered for maintaining peace and attracting massive donor funding as she rebuilt her country from scratch over 12 years in power. “We were a nation exhausted from three decades of conflict. We were starting from zero, with the…

Nigeria: Is this me? By Abdullahi Yunusa ProfWills

Emporium Reporters

My birth was celebrated with pomp and pageantry. The event was grand in every sense of the word. My arrival was celebrated far and near, in a manner akin to a royal festival of some sort. At my christening, revered Kings, presidents, queens, respected regional, continental and world leaders converged on the beautiful city of Lagos, the land of aquatic splendor to honour me. I was told my visibly elated parents smiled from cheek to cheek as they moved round to welcome well-wishers from all walks of life who defied…

AREE ONAKAAKANFO TITLE :Then and Now

Emporium Reporters

19 years after Abiola’s death, Yorubas were eagerly waiting for the manifestation of another Aare Ona Kakanfo. Abiola was known to have held traditional titles from all the geo-political zones in the country and even beyond Nigeria. He achieved a rare feat of being the Basorun of Ibadanland and the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland, holding the two titles simultaneously. Not many have however thought about it that the beginning of the end was when Chief Moshood Abiola took the Aare Ona Kakanfo title. Though it has been claimed in…