Is Nigeria Worth Calling A Country?

By Sunny Awhefeada,   The harsh and disparaging title of this essay was uttered by a sixteen year-old girl, fresh out of secondary school. It was her response to her mother’s correction on a family whatsapp platform that the name of a country should be spelt with an initial capital letter. After thanking her mother for the correction, the lass fired the salvo, “Is Nigeria worth calling a country?” The worried mother then realized that the daughter’s scripting of Nigeria as “nigeria” was a deliberate act of negation and revolt…

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Arthur Ashe In Sadiq Abdullahi

  By Emeka Obasi It is no coincidence that Sadiq Abdullahi will be opportuned once again to talk about his hero, Arthur Ashe. Tennis development connects both men, one a former world champion, the other an African champion and Olympian. The gulf between Ashe, three times grand slam singles winner and Abdullahi, Nigeria’s best, three times consecutively, is wide. The age difference is huge but they struck a chord and remained close until the latter died in New York 30 years ago. They first met in 1976. Abdullahi was a…

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Warri: A New Beginning With Julius Berger’s Contract Signing

  By Dennis Otu   Warri, the once thriving oil-rich city in Delta State, has been plagued by neglect and disorganization in recent years. The departure of multinational companies left the city in a state of decay, with its young population struggling with homelessness and unemployment. However, hope is on the horizon as the new Governor of Delta State, Rt Hon.Sheriff Oborevwori, has promised to rejuvenate Warri. And he is making good on his word. On October 18th, 2023, history was made as the Delta State Government and German construction…

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JULIUS BERGER N78 BN CONTRACT: Oborevwori Restores Hope In Warri, Effurun

By Festus Ahon,   For residents of the twin cities of Warri and Effurun, Delta State commercial nerve centre, the good times are back with the announcement of the State Executive Council’s approval for the award of contract worth N78 billion to construction giant, Julius Berger Nigeria Limited, for the construction of three flyover bridges, cloverleaf and road expansion. Having endured years of neglect, decay and dilapidating infrastructure, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori’s big move to renew, regenerate and create new structure for the cities have elicited joy and celebrations among the…

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News Features: A Conversation With Two Millennials

By Sunny Awhefeada   A recurring experience of a columnist is the practice of readers doing rejoinders, verbal or written, to his/her views. Not every reader will agree or feel good about a piece of writing. That is why readers come with either kudos or knocks and a columnist should be large hearted enough to receive both in whatever measure. A great deal of the responses are conditioned by sentiments defined by ethnic, religious, political, age, class and other factors that the writer probably didn’t consider as something that will…

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News Features: Let Us Rescue Our Africa?

  By Sunny Awhefeada There is a video that has been making the rounds. It has been forwarded to me again and again to the extent that I have lost count of how many times I have received it. Part of the message contained in the video by a White speaker to a European audience reads, “sub-Saharan Africa has been fundamental to the global prosperity of the advanced countries and Africa has a role to play as a raw material producer. We will not allow sub-Saharan Africa to escape that.…

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New Features: The Good Old Days

By Sunny Awhefeada, Nostalgia remains an integral feature of human experience. No matter what defined our memory of the past, there has always been the tendency to look back wistfully and wish that the old days were back. Memory enables reminiscences which in turn engender nostalgia. The narrative of the Nigerian nay African sojourn is that of a sad recall of the occasional bright moments that dot our bleak and dreary terrain. Our story has always been that of hope and anticipation. And hope has kept us alive. Without hope…

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News Feature: We Shall Not Die

By Sunny Awhefeada Delta State born gospel singer, Harold Ikuku, released a popular album that was the rave of the moment in the tough and horrible years that the 1990s were. The song’s motif is “I shall not die”. Although a gospel song, it resonated with both Christians and non-Christians as a result of its affirmative message of survival in the face of brutal economic and psychological assault on the citizenry. It was this song that a man sang with so much gusto on hearing of the new pump price…

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News Feature: EDUCATION AND IT’S IMPORTANCE

By Andrew Darah (JP)    Education is an essential process in human development. It is different from schooling. Schooling is just one of the ways in which education is provided, whereas education deals with the total process of human learning by which knowledge is imparted, faculties are trained and different skills are developed. Education is also defined as the act or process of educating or applying discipline on the mind or a process of character training. It is a dynamic instrument of change. Education is expected to affect or condition…

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News Feature: A Toast For Oby Ezekwesili @ 60

A Toast for Oby Ezekwesili @ 60   By Sunny Awhefeada   The turn of the present millennium bequeathed many tendencies to Nigeria. As the curtain came down for the last century, the genie of military rule took flight and in its stead was the ephemerally refreshing air of civilian governance. The build up to the year 2000 was marked with frenzy and that date was configured as the climax of humanity’s sojourn on the path of modernity which began in the first decade of the previous century. The year…

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