News Updates's Blog (393)

Posted by: Editorial on April 17, 2013

•MEND’s threat will put the govt in a tight corner as it has to battle many enemies simultaneously

A chilling countdown has begun, with all eyes glued on May 31, the date fixed by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) to launch Operation Barbarossa. “The bombings of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and…

Posted by: Editorial on April 16, 2013

•The Rivers governor’s statement that Nigerians were too docile to be revolutionary is a battle cry for positive change

Should a governor openly say Nigerians are too docile for a revolution to take place in this country? To the extent that it could easily be misconstrued as people-baiting, it is clearly impolitic. But that is about the only negative thing about the…

THE BEGINNING: Sir Daniel Ezeuzoh (Oba) was born eighty three years ago in Uruolioke village, Etiti Nimo, to Onyeamaneke Ezeuzoh and Mgbafor Ezeuzoh, both of blessed memory. He grew up in Uruolioke and loved the simplicity of the village life during his childhood. At the age of six, he left Nimo town to Warri in the present Delta state of Nigeria to live with his maternal uncle, Lawrence Ibeh, of Enugwu Ukwu. He remained in Warri for twelve years before returning…

Chinua Achebe has been described as "the grandfather of African fiction" who "lit up a path for many others." I met this extraordinary Nigerian novelist, poet, and professor when I read his debut novel, Things Fall Apart. The book was a compulsory literary text in secondary school and has been translated into more than 50 languages. It has sold over 8 million copies worldwide. According to Wikipedia, the book is the most widely read book in modern African…

By Olusola Daniel

Having spotted, on several sites, an article by one Yushau A. Shuaib in which the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is accused of facilitating controversial appointments in favour of her Igbo fellows, I was alarmed by this tale by moonlight gone viral. Somehow the thesis of the article did not quite fit. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has earned a solid reputation for her fight for a better Nigeria, her passion for a united…

By Philip Amiola

I have observed with strong feelings of embarrassment, the degree to which people can be so enslaved by religion that they would go to great lengths to defend their religious views. People have been known to mutilate their bodies and engage in other forms of unseemly behaviour in the name of religion. Some members of a religious sect even go as far as committing such heinous crimes as arson, murder and rape all in the name of religion! How debased can the human mind…

In the wake of economic reforms that are being implemented in the Nigerian polity, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has become a victim of slander and the target of verbal attack in its various ramifications. With the volume of vituperative statements and ill-informed public opinion against the Nigerian Iron Lady, one is inclined to believe that the sponsors of such statements are either being deliberately malicious or sincerely…

The choice of Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister for the Economy Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala as Silverbird Group’s Man of the Year is a feat earned through a cocktail of daring economic policies by the Goodluck Jonathan administration especially in 2012, reports Festus Akanbi

A few moments after the impasse on the 2013 budget was resolved, a few government functionaries who first emerged from the Presidential Villa, venue of the closed-door meeting, where the budget was…

By Oluwaseun Joseph

Frankly speaking, it is quite heart-warming to see some influential Nigerians coming out of their gilded cage to demand accountability from the present government. It shows that we are now waking up to our civic rights by calling the government to task on the expenditure of our collective wealth, and alerting them that it won’t be business as usual anymore. After all, we are in a democratic dispensation where freedom of speech is a given.

Worthy of note is…

A great human rights crusader was staging an event. Apparently he wanted 2TG to be around, which of course is welcome. He marketed us with the prospects of our sharing high table with some of the famous and mighty men of today. He reeled out their charming names and even more, intimidating status. Immediately, we knew we were never to attend.

As a point of policy 2TG keeps sanitary distance with the famous, the rich and the mighty. Fact is one can get his health severely damaged…

Posted by: Hardball on January 24, 2013



After speculating for over three months and running the whole gamut of pathology, the media have suddenly come to a crushing anti-climax with the release by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) of a photograph showing a “great, very great,” but mildly pensive Governor Sullivan Chime of Enugu State in company with three other Nigerian governors in London. The visitors were Governors Gabriel Suswan of Benue, Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers and…

THE high incidence of rape and the impunity with which the perpetrators commit the act call to question our claim to being part of the civilised world. Any time this act is committed, it traumatises the victims and debases our collective claim to humanity. Even though there are laws to deal with this situation, our law enforcement agents and the law courts appear to lack the will to enforce such laws. This attitude has to change.

That change can start with the recent…

Democracy has not transformed politics dramatically anywhere in Nigeria, but the deficit is worst in the north, where the traditional rulers protected their power by making alliances with politicians. Photo / AP

It is not known if the word "dysfunctional" was invented specifically to describe the Nigerian state - several other candidates also come to mind - but the word certainly fills the bill.

The political institutions…

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recently wielded the big stick by de-registering 28 political parties in the country. The Commission had, in a statement by its Secretary, Abdullahi Kaugama, explained that it de-registered the parties “in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and the Electoral Act 2010 (as amended).”

While the scrapping of 28 political parties is still generating controversy, the Commission has again…

A RASH of concerns sprouted after the kidnapping of Professor Kamene Okonjo, mother of the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. Her release after five days’ captivity, under unclear circumstances, is being celebrated as victory for the perspicacity of the security agencies whose conflicting tales of the operations is another story. Her release is “a miracle”, according to her elated daughter.

We are glad this episode has passed rather propitiously and the 83-year-old Okonjo…

Last weekend in Abeokuta, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the self-confessed number one patriotic critic, gleefully reiterated to the visiting Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) national chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, just how much he enjoyed commenting on national issues and needling President Goodluck Jonathan. “If there is anything that requires my own comment, position or views, I will say it,” said the former president magisterially. “It is only when you kill me that I will stop doing…

On December 17, Muhammadu Buhari, former head of state and army general, turned 70. Though he has retained his differentiating principles, and has managed to ennoble anything he does, he has also remained hugely controversial. It is safe to suggest he would neither dilute his principles nor shirk from controversy until his last days. More than most of his peers, and in spite of his limited time in the highest office in the land, he is at least fortunate that very few Nigerians are…

TWO athletes, one African and one British, were interviewed after the successful conclusion of their respective events. The African who had won an event attributed her success to the grace of God. “He touched my limbs, I could not have done it without him.” The British athlete, on the other hand, gave substantial credit to her coach as she attributed her success to a regime of rigorous training.

Of course, glory must be given to God for all we are able to achieve as mortal human…

Borrowing has become fashionable in Nigeria for states to test their viability by going to the capital market to borrow money, even for consumption purpose or just to satisfy kleptocratic urge. The Federal Government serves as the route and the surety for such loans. As of September 30, 2012, the nation’s external debt stood at $6.2bn and the government is proposing a total of $9.3bn external loan between now and 2014 to develop infrastructure. The way the government is pursuing…

IT is widely acknowledged that education remains the bedrock for the development of any nation. Simply put, education is the driving force behind the socio-economic advancement of any serious nation.

What this means is that a nation will continue to be pariah until education is made to take its pride of place in the scheme of things and so, no country can develop beyond the level of its education.

InNigeria, one might not be wrong to submit that the policies of the successive…