Tag: Louis Odion

Lessons from the Ambode gamble By Louis Odion, FNGE

Emporium Reporters

Like Poenix in the storybook, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode of Lagos seems on the rebound after political cruxifixion at the APC Golgotha. In his post-defeat broadcast last Wednesday, grace and sobriety had replaced the bile and bitterness in his tongue only three days earlier when he thrust a blunt dagger at the jugular of Jide Sanwo-Olu, his opponent to the ticket for the 2019 governorship. The voice we heard in that speech was no longer of a rebel, but a penitent covered in ashes and sackcloth at the party altar. His…

Lagos, garbage and its profiteers By Louis Odion, FNGE

Emporium Reporters

When this writer and the likes of Professor Pat Utomi, Sahara desert explorer Newton Jibunoh, Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM 1) and Lagbaja were named Lagos State Ambassadors for Environment in 2009, then Governor Tunde Fashola was trenchant in his expectation: deploy your individual talent and platform to help create awareness for the sustainability of the environment in a world ensnared by climate change. As we left the inauguration ceremony that day, I doubt if anyone of us harboured the illusion that what lay ahead was a glamour ride. I am…

The collapse of Kwankwasiya’s test-tube baby By Louis Odion, FNGE

Emporium Reporters

For a myth that took so long to construct, how sad that it took just a fleeting moment for Kwankwasiya to be finally dismantled. Sadder still, unlike the loud song and wild dance witnessed at its christening years ago, there was no ceremony – much less the customary parade of iconic red caps – the day Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano publicly disowned his mentor and predecessor, Rabiu Kwankwaso. Speaking in Dakata, the estranged godson described his godfather in very grave terms: “Most contracts undertaken by Kwankwaso were carried out…

Benue Pogrom: Dancing On Victims’ Graves By Louis Odion

Emporium Reporters

As the nation groped in fuel darkness during the Yuletide season, the Nobel laureate’s distraught words perhaps best described the shame and tragedy of it all. The authorities in Abuja would rather indulge in the profanity of buck-passing, lamented Professor Wole Soyinka. That climate of shame would appear to have grown even more inclement and the midnight children of impunity more daring with the resumption of terror and bloodletting early in the new year by Fulani herdsmen. Citizen Peter Aboh had his dream of better life aborted eight months to…