Tag: Azu Ishiekwene

Plugging Gaps in The Students’ Loan Scheme By Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

Within minutes of the release of the video of President Bola Tinubu signing the students’ loan bill into law, it was trending on Twitter as was the name of Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila, who sponsored the bill in his former life as Speaker.   Apart from the Nigeria Maritime University which was charging N81,500 per semester in 2019 – the highest in a federal university – the average tuition is about N45,000. State universities charge between N60,000 and N120,000, while polytechnics and colleges of education charge less of course,…

Dangote Refinery Challenges Global Narrative – Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

It started like a grudge match. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, was dealt a bad hand in a failed transaction. Later, he vowed revenge. Not in a pound of flesh, but by venturing to make his own success where he had been ambushed. At issue was the decision of the government of Umaru Musa Yar’Adua in 2007 to reverse the sale of the Port Harcourt and Kaduna Refineries (two of Nigeria’s moribund refineries) to Blue Star, the Dangote-led consortium. Blue Star had paid about $670million for the plants in the…

A British example in our rascally times, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

When King Charles, the head of the Church of England, is crowned on May 6, there would be two very unusual non-Protestant special guests at the ceremony, among others: British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who is Hindu; and the Leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP) and next First Minister of Scotland, Humza Haroon Yousaf, a Muslim. Not two unusual guests. Three, actually. The third, Ireland’s Prime Minister and son of a Hindu Indian doctor, Leo Varadkar, is openly gay; one of the only five openly gay world political leaders.…

Africa: Why does Burna Boy rock more than Nigeria’s elections?, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

From Accra to Cape Town images of Nollywood, Nigeria’s popular movie footprint, are a common staple in homes across the continent as are the sights and sounds of its pop icons who are also amongst Africa’s biggest.   When politics is on the menu, however, it does not appear that the rest of the continent has the same appetite for what Nigeria has to offer as it does for the country’s jollof rice, its captivating movies or perhaps the Afrobeat of superstar, Burna Boy.   Between February and March 2023,…

INEC server and other Election Day stories, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

For the third time since 1999, I voted at a general election on February 25 and did so without much hassle.   I knew my candidates would lose at the unit where I voted, but that didn’t matter. Voting mattered more.   The Bimodal Voter Accreditation System processed me so quickly it was almost like magic. I had no reason to suspect my experience would not be the norm that day. As I walked away from the booth a family friend who had just voted caught up with me. “Thank…

Why they shoot friends and spare the enemy, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

Her funeral rites would have begun on Wednesday, January 11, but were postponed because her family, along with the Nigerian Bar Association, is awaiting an autopsy report. As of the time of writing, the matter had faded from the headlines and a new date was yet to be announced for the burial. Obviously, the autopsy would serve the legal purpose of demanding justice for Bolanle Raheem, given that legal subterfuge can sometimes undermine evidence and change the strongest of cases in favour of injustice. Hopefully, Bolanle’s…

A Professor’s pay-slip and lessons from ASUU strike, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

After eight months’ strike, one of the longest in the country’s history, university teachers finally returned, at gunpoint, to the classrooms on Monday. It was the 16th time university teachers would be striking in 23 years. Frustrated parents and distraught students just couldn’t wait to hear that the strike had been suspended and schools reopened.   It does appear, however, that if all we’re interested in is to tick the box, it won’t be long before we’re back to square one.   There is a clear and present danger that…

Anatomy of Nyesom Wike’s endgame, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

When the row between Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, spilled onto the streets after the party’s presidential primaries in May, I argued that to solve Wike, one had to first fix the candidate, Atiku Abubakar.   In light of Wike’s no-holds-barred interview last Thursday, things may have fallen apart, irretrievably.   That interview, perhaps only comparable in seismic scale and onomatopoetic resonance with Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks, has shaken the PDP to its foundations.   The fallouts may well remain the biggest threat to…

Politicians and jeopardy of trial by ordeal, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

“I’m going to waste my vote,” a friend told me recently. “And don’t argue with me,” he added. “It’s my right to do so.”   I defied him. Regrettably, though I also recruited help nearby to press home my point, my unsolicited advice fell on deaf ears.   My friend’s mind was made up and nothing would stop him. What he intends to do, according to him, is to vote for a candidate in the 2023 presidential election that he knows would lose.   He did not name names, though…

Will machines replace journalists, too?, By Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

The advent of any significant changes in technology has often triggered concerns about the fate of journalism. Even at the infancy of social media, TIME covered one of its editions of February 5, 2009, with concern about the imminent death of journalism. To drive home the point, the graphic was illustrated with a copy of the New York Times wrapping a tilapia.   The profession went through similar bouts of self-doubt and anxiety, after the introduction of the movable type and printing press. This same thing happened following the introduction…