Tag: Azu Ishiekwene

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…

She can keep me, for one month, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

Until she asked, I didn’t know it was a problem. Her problem, I mean. When people say whatever gets your time and attention gets you, it’s often true.   For as long as I can remember, 38 weeks every year, this thing gets my time and attention.   It starts slowly, usually on weekends, at the beginning of the season. And then, as the fixtures pick up tempo and the men separate themselves from the boys, weekends morph into weekdays. Other chores become placeholders yielding to just one desire: watching…

Running Mate As Albatross: Tinubu’s Choice, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

That the All Progressives Congress (APC) flag bearer, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is exactly where the party’s last presidential candidate President Muhammadu Buhari was when he got the ticket eight years ago, shows just how our politics has stagnated, if not regressed.   After Buhari won the APC ticket in December 2014, the next major hurdle was getting a running mate. In what appeared to be a breach of the understanding he had with Tinubu to be his running mate before the election – and on the basis of which…

COVID-19 Stories by Children | By Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

It all seems like memories from a distant past. But it’s not. This time last year we were in a lockdown. The world was under the monstrous grip of the Coronavirus. Rumours and speculations about the origin and nature of this invincible foe were rife, leaving data and science in the dust. Fear ruled the world.   The situation in Europe, especially in Italy and Spain, was particularly dire as the virus overwhelmed their sophisticated medical systems. While researchers and scientists struggled to crack the pathogen, dead bodies that could…

The travails of Malam Nasir El-Rufai, by Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

The list was long and the contents harsh and threatening. The notices may have been issued separately, but they landed like a packaged digital bomb in my WhatsApp inbox. Eight unions, apart from the central body, had collectively declared war on Kaduna State Governor, Malam Nasir el-Rufai. The die was cast. The unions were the Nigeria Union of Railway Workers; National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees; Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations, Civil Service Technical and Recreational Services Employees; Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions; National…

COVID-19 Lockdown: A Radical View By Azu Ishiekwene

Emporium Reporters

Until a few days ago, I was a big fan of testing, testing, testing. I still believe testing is important because data, reliable data, ought to direct action. But considering where we are at today (about 6,000 tests so far, and at an official figure of 500 daily), it will take 3,600 days or 10 years to test one per cent, that is 1.8 million of our population or five years, if we double the testing rate. The government did not extend the lockdown by two weeks to punish us.…