Tag: Prof Sunny Ahwefeada

Analysis & Opinion: Oh, My Kaduna!

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By Sunny Awhefeada     Places and people share a strong bond that is almost inexplicable. Memories, whether they hurt or heal, are constituted by events which happen in places as influenced by people. The place of one’s birth and the location where one grew up both enshrine nostalgic feelings that remain imperishable while one sojourns on this side of the vale. Kaduna, Ibadan, Evwreni and the densely forested village of Imobi beyond the River Oluwa in Ondo State remain permanent in my house of memory. I was born in…

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Analysis & Opinion: Nigeria Will Survive

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By Sunny Awhefeada,   So much has been said about the idea of Nigerian unity. Some consider it to be unsustainable. Some think it is a fraud. While others think that there is no basis for it. Commentators and agitators are quick to point at other entities that have collapsed in the course of history. They glibly mention Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Russia, Yugoslavia and more to justify why they think that Nigeria will go up in blazes. Presently, there is a cacophony of voices advocating for the final…

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Analysis & Opinion: Southern Governors’ Self-Mockery

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By Sunny Awhefeada   It has become crystal clear that the euphoria that greeted the meeting of the Southern Governors’ Forum which held in Asaba, the capital of Delta State on 11 May was too early or grossly misplaced. The meeting which was attended by 13 out of the 17 governors also had 4 deputy governors representing their bosses. What is now known as the Asaba Declaration containing a 12-point communiqué, which, among other things, focused on insecurity, national dialogue and restructuring, was issued at the end of the meeting.…

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Analysis &Opinion: I Pledge To Nigeria My Country?

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  By Sunny Awhefeada   One of the earliest verses any Nigerian child commits to memory is the national pledge. The other one is the national anthem. Both renditions derive from an impassioned patriotism. The composers looked deep into the soul of Nigeria at a time when it was a country if ever it was and deployed the most sublime of tropes in encoding our articles of faith. As children, my generation rolled its tongue rendering both verses in alignment with the idea of Nigeria. Both were compulsory renditions during…

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Analysis & Opinion: Tomorrow is June 12

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By Sunny Awhefeada   Time does fly. That is why the events woven around the phenomenon that came to be known as June 12 seem to have happened only yesterday when they actually took place nearly thirty years ago! June 12 refers to June 12, 1993. That day like tomorrow’s June 12 was a Saturday. It was the day that a presidential election that was adjudged to be the nation’s freest and fairest took place. Unfortunately, the election was annulled by the very hand that made it to happen. June…

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Analysis &Opinion: Nigeria’s Unknown Gunmen

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  By Sunny Awhefeada Nigeria is a nation awash with metaphors which more often than not are couched in indirectness or something akin to what students of Literature will call euphemism. Never wanting to sound offensive many Nigerians deploy verbal niceties to cushion the effect of events or mitigate harmful consequences. Thus a measure or even a heavy dose of tentativeness usually dominates our submissions. We struggle to sound right or correct all the time so that we will not end up offending people. Those who choose to call a…

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Analysis & Opinion: The Nigerian Child

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  By Sunny Awhefada,     The most significant segment of Nigeria’s demography which governments at all levels have neglected in the last twenty years is the children bracket. The present debacle in the name of insecurity be it terrorism, insurgency or banditry aligns with the destructive consequences of not paying attention to our children and youth. The Urhobo have a saying that arien omodiaa arien okpako diaa which means you cannot be a good adult if you were not a good child. We were told some years ago that…

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Samuel Jereton Mariere: 50 Years After

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By  Sunny Awhefeada     Many of us were not born when Chief Samuel Jereton Mariere died on 9th May 1971. But we grew up with his name as a staple in our menu of formal and informal education in every Midwest, later Bendel and now Edo and Delta school and homestead. My parents’ generation and an earlier one could tell their children and grandchildren the story of Chief Samuel Adjereaton (Jereton) Mariere who served the Urhobo, Midwest and Nigeria. Our parents and grandparents told the story and it is…

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Analysis & Opinion: On A Darkling Plain

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By Sunny Awhefeada,   If one were to write an abstract on Nigeria the resonating keywords will not be far from chaos, anarchy, confusion, tragedy, waste, loss and other such words with dense negative connotation. Matthew Anorld’s “Dover Beach” gives an apt imaginative depiction of the Nigerian narrative as it is today. Arnold, the Victorian writer captures the uncertainty and chaotic reality of his time in the following words, “So various, so beautiful, so new/Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light/Not certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain/And we…

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Analysis & Opinion: Let Us Stand With Nigeria

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By Sunny Awhefeada,     I choose to stand with Nigeria at this moment and always. I stand with her armed forces. I stand with her people who make up the immediate humanity I know. Let us stand with Nigeria. Ours is a nation in distress, but I am sanguine that no matter the turbulence, we shall wake up someday to a new dawn, glorious and brimful of greatness. Yes, this too, this storm, shall pass! And we shall say lo here is peace! But this optimism will be in…

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