Columnist

Silent Ride

Ihesiulo Grace 8 June 2016 0

It’s a Sunday afternoon. Morenike’s sitting on the balcony. She’s expecting, Dejumo, her brother who comes straight from Church to see her. Every week he comes to have Sunday lunch with her. She hopes he’ll stay much longer with her today and not rush off after the meal

Columnist

Pensions and/or Salaries?

Ihesiulo Grace 5 June 2016 0

  Last week, a political acquaintance called to obtain my opinion on the multiple jumbo pensions and salaries being drawn by several politicians in Nigeria. There are apparently 21 serving Senators who were Governors and deputy Governors that are now Senators. Another good example is David Mark, a retired Army Brigadier General and former minister […]

Columnist

For they know not what they do

Ihesiulo Grace 2 June 2016 0

It would be unfair to criticize the operatives of the Department of State Security (DSS) for barring Senator Bruce from having a handshake with President Buhari at the presidential anniversary dinner- a subject I will return to later- that was held in Abuja early this week. There are two issues here that the action of […]

Columnist

Managing Nigeria’s conflicts

Ihesiulo Grace 1 June 2016 0

Happy Democracy Day in arrears! Last week, we hailed the vice president’s call for a paradigm shift in African political elite’s economic engagement: we must begin to put the interest of our peoples, their present economic survival interest in the front burner, above the interest of other peoples. For example, while being sensitive to the […]

Columnist

‘PMB do something O!’

Ihesiulo Grace 31 May 2016 0

– I didn’t see you at Ayo’s party yesterday. – Did he hold a party? – Yes. Don’t tell me you didn’t know! – If I knew, I’d have been there. – We were all expecting to see you turn up late, as usual. – As usual! What does that mean? – You and I […]

Columnist

Nigeria going Venezuela?

Ihesiulo Grace 29 May 2016 0

A recent report by Andres Schipani for Financial on the state of affairs in Venezuela should be scary for us as people for if care is not taken that is where we are headed as a country. We have done what Venezuela did in the last one year and excerpt urgent steps are taken, Nigeria’s […]

Columnist

One year of change: Not yet morning on creation day

Ihesiulo Grace 27 May 2016 0

The pall of grief that enveloped the two geopolitical regions – south east and south south, the political bases of exPresident Jonathan- had barely lifted when bugles and drums sounded, car horns blared, and machine guns boomed to herald the coming of President Buhari, winner of the 2015 presidential poll. Supporters of exPresident Jonathan were […]

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This Modu won’t be our Sheriff

Ihesiulo Grace 24 May 2016 0

The ‘kerfuffle’ in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has thrown up this title which first appeared in ‘Clinging On’ (Aurora 30 March 2016). The ‘modus operandi’ of Modu Sheriff seems to have brought divisions into the PDP. Unlike before, the crisis rocking the ‘once greatest political party in Africa’ isn’t being

Columnist

Fuel Palaver: We have not seen it!

Ihesiulo Grace 23 May 2016 0

There is fire on the Nigerian mountain beyond the current brouhaha over the recent increase in the price of petrol by the Federal Government. The attendant fall-out of the crises that would flow from the maturity of the complications would put the country on the tenterhooks that has never been witnessed before. Snippets of the […]

Columnist

Are we all Biafrans?

Ihesiulo Grace 19 May 2016 0

Next week, precisely on the 31st day of May, 2016, the writer and political activist, Chido Onumah will present his latest book, “We are all Biafrans- A Participant-Observer’s Intervention in a Country Sleepwalking to Disaster”, to the public. The book is a deserved addition to his two previous books, “Time to Reclaim Nigeria” and

Columnist

I oppose the strike but….

Ihesiulo Grace 18 May 2016 0

Nigerian Labour Congress’s principal wing has called for a nationwide strike to oppose and resist the increase in fuel price by a whopping margin of 65%, that is, from about 86 naira to 145 naira. I understand the sentiment of labour, not in what they have argued per se but in the dire consequence of […]

Columnist

Bleeding Heart

Ihesiulo Grace 18 May 2016 0

I spotted her on the bench as I entered the Park. But that was as far as it went. I turned right and took the path to the food court. No, I didn’t go by the stage where only three days ago the largest street party in Lagos – and I stand to be challenged […]

Columnist Headlines

NBC na bank?

Ihesiulo Grace 15 May 2016 0

  It was supposed to be an internal memorandum but by some divine measure it found its way to the social media. It was a letter authorised by the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed and signed by Mr. Peter Dama, the Director of Public Relations and Protocol in the Ministry to the […]

Columnist

The Writer

Ihesiulo Grace 10 May 2016 0

  I got talking with a friend who said she had been thinking of putting pen to paper. I advised her to start writing for it is starting off that’s difficult. Once you begin, ‘ain’t no stopping’. She mentioned that she had a topic burning her stomach and talked about the different angles from which […]

Columnist

The (m)asses and politicians

Ihesiulo Grace 8 May 2016 0

I marvel at the sheer ignorance that makes simpletons to turn their friends to enemies because they are supporting some politicians against others. Stupidity has no other spelling than those who have no stake by the slightest of imagination turning loose against themselves when the real stakeholders don’t even okay till-death-do-us-part game. Let me relate […]

Columnist

Calling a thorn by any other name

Ihesiulo Grace 6 May 2016 Post a comment

It is perhaps not surprising that we have withdrawn into the shell of silence, embraced the silent depth by exploring its circumference to grasp the illogic which makes our silence deafening, the universe a welcoming place. Silence is the defensive weapon we deploy against hardship, against hunger, against the real and the imagined threatening our […]

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Nigeria’s Regulatory Framework (2)

Ihesiulo Grace 4 May 2016 0

  In the last four weeks in this column, we have been discussing management of peum refining, specifically, grassroots refining. We had argued robustly for the legitimization of grassroots refining carried out by families and other small scale players in the industry who ae currently tagged and categorized as illegitimate refineries. They are not tagged […]

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The Royal Touch

Ihesiulo Grace 3 May 2016 0

  The preparations were manic – artists were begged, collectors were courted and buyers were also cajoled. I contacted some friends who are ardent collectors to send in some of their artworks. Initially they agreed but later on they reneged. They claimed that, ‘Those who know that I’m selling some of my artworks will think […]

Columnist

Nigeria or North?

Ihesiulo Grace 1 May 2016 0

“I belong to everybody and I belong to nobody”- President Muhammadu Buhari in his inauguration speech on May 29, 2015. The words of President Muhammadu Buhari above remain his best lines to a badly divided country till date… They were reassuring to segments of Nigeria already feeling alienated by the negative triumphalism of some scions […]

Columnist

Our power is greater than theirs

Ihesiulo Grace 28 April 2016 0

(Columnist)   In his inauguration address, President Muhammadu Buhari correctly captured our successor-leaders as spoilt children who broke everything and brought disorder to our house. For a leader not known for flowery prose, tonal seduction, charm and beauty of the oracular, and for the poetry of language, he came to his own like a poet […]