Jonathan’s political faux pas in Bayelsa State

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: November 8, 2011 Let me state from the outset that I am not a fan of the embattled Bayelsa State Governor, Timipre Sylva. And my reason is simple. I sincerely don’t think that his achievements in office can be hoisted on the totem pole of good governance. Simply put, I am [...]

Nigeria, bankruptcy and state creation

  By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: November 1, 2011 IS NIGERIA really broke? That is the all-important question that is concentrating the minds of not a few right now. Those who ought to know answer in the affirmative, insisting the country is tottering on the brink of bankruptcy. They have the statistics to back up their [...]

Okorocha’s Rescue Mission and world’s tallest tower

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: October 25, 2011 If there was anything close to what is now known as the Arab Spring in the April 2011 elections in Nigeria, it was the election of Owelle Rochas Okorocha as the Governor of Imo State. It had all the trappings of a revolution. In Nigeria, incumbency is everything. [...]

Ekweremadu’s misfire on Igbo Presidency

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: October 11, 2011 Deputy Senate President, Chief Ike Ekweremadu, is, without any doubt, one of the greatest beneficiaries in the present political dispensation. His rise to political prominence has been as meteoric as it is dramatic. From being one of the boys running errand for Dr Chimaroke Nnamani , former Enugu [...]

Wikileaks: Why Nigeria is stagnating

By Ikechukwu Amaechi It is sickening knowing how much information about Nigeria that is retailed, unsolicited, in foreign embassies in the country.   Courtesy of the online whistleblower, Wikileaks, we now know that these are not reports obtained through covert operations or any deliberate act on the part of recipient nations to construct spy infrastructure. [...]

Nigeria: How not to fight terrorism

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: September 20,2011 President Goodluck Jonathan made a strong showing at the United Nations last Wednesday when he addressed the 66th Session of the General Assembly. He spoke on terrorism and the increasing spate of armed conflicts, drawing the attention of other world leaders to the fact that the 21st century world [...]

Wikileaks, Nigeria and quislings

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: September 13, 2011 It is sickening knowing how much information about Nigeria are retailed in foreign embassies in the country. And courtesy of the online whistleblower, Wikileaks, we now know that these are not information obtained through covert operations or any deliberate act on the part of recipient nations to construct [...]

UN House bombing: Matters arising

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: August 29, 2011 If any Nigerian was still in doubt whether the country had become a haven for terrorists, penultimate Friday’s bombing of the United Nation’s building in Abuja must have dispelled any such illusion that there are no terror cells here. For too long we have lived in denial. Nigerians [...]

BPE probe: Another legislative circus in Abuja

By Ikechukwu Amaechi Published: August 16, 2011  Will Nigeria ever survive the conspiracy of the elite class to make it a big for nothing country? This is the question that has concentrated my mind for too long. Even as Generals Olusegun Obasanjo and Ibrahim Babangida, two men who, between them, ruled Nigeria for almost two [...]

Mr. President, Nigerians deserve better

By Ikechukwu Amaechi   The accident that took place on the Okene-Lokoja-Abuja road has concentrated my mind since late Tuesday when the gory news filtered into the newsroom. A luxury bus in the fleet of Chisco Transport Company left Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Monday night for Abuja. The ill-fated passengers never completed the journey. [...]