Tag: Prof. Sunny Awhefeada

Analysis & Opinion: Na True Say We Don See 99?

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  By Sunny Awhefeada An encounter in a bus ride from Ughelli to Warri provided the title for today’s intervention. As usual, hardly had the rickety bus coughed, jerked and hit the road that lamentations about the present condition of our beloved Nigeria began. The occupants of the bus, packed sardine-like, wore disillusioned and angry looks. They appeared jaded, but aggressive and each word they uttered was indicative of their countenance which must have been bitterer than gall. Their words were vituperative. And if words could really act like missiles…

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Analysis & Opinion: Federal Republic of Oddities

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By Sunny Awhefeada It never rains, but pours for Nigeria! Many have argued that the postcolonial state remains in constant flux until it is able to sort itself out and that the sorting out is the product of time and critical self-review and eventual pointing at the way forward. Nigeria is the handwork of British colonizers who deriving impetus from the Berlin Conference of 1884/85 seized the vast territories that were later amalgamated and christened Nigeria by the girlfriend of Lord Lugard who enjoyed the dubious ascription of subjugating the…

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Johnson Adjan, The Ogburine, @ 80

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  By Sunny Awhefeada The usual end of year ritual of evaluation and resolutions preoccupied my mind as I tried to draw a connection between the dying year and the new one. My mind took to memory lane as it ambled between the year 2000 and the present moment. What assailed me were a huge void and then a stream of disillusionment in view of where we are as a nation. The killings in Plateau State and other parts of Nigeria, the deepening poverty and general ambience of hopelessness easily…

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When Christmas Bells Jingled in DELSU

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By Sunny Awhefeada The atmosphere was joyous and this could be seen in the smiles, laughter, hugs and banters that characterized the beginning of that evening. Colours, especially red, green and white, dominated the scene. The spectacle was carnivalesque (apologies to Aghogho Agbamu)! It was one of those rare moments when anxiety-laden students would feel at ease to exchange convivial banters with unsmiling hard aced dons. Thankfully, examination which is one cause of friction between students and dons was far away. So, that evening leveled all as everybody got enveloped…

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In Search Of The Incorruptible Judge

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By Sunny Awhefeada,   The title of this essay will resonate with my age mates and others before us as it invokes pleasant memories of the play, The Incorruptible Judge, by D. Olu Olagoke. The play excoriates corruption and privileges the judiciary as the agency to eradicate it. Readers of the play marveled at the refreshingly sound logic and verbal dexterity of the lawyer-characters. However, the character who stole the show was the trial judge, Justice Faderin, who resisted pressure and attempts to get bribed and compromise the case. His…

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My Landcruiser Is Bigger Than Yours

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By Sunny Awhefeada The Nigerian’s taste for luxury and anything foreign has become a plague. This fad is not restricted to the affluent. Everywhere you turn, there is the tendency for people to fight, and even die, for that which is foreign or a luxury. The Nigerian mindset is not attuned to altruistic sacrifice. It is all about “bring it and let us share it”. Stones are often thrown at those at the helm of affairs, but the truth, albeit bitter, is that many of those throwing stones are also…

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Turning And Turning In The Widening Gyre

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By Sunny Awhefeada Literary aficionados or anybody who has read Things Fall Apart must necessarily remember the memorable lines which gave this piece its title. Taken from William Butler Yeats “The Second Coming”, the Nigerian sage and writer, Chinua Achebe deemed the thematic concern of the poem and the imagery of chaos it evoked as fit for the African experience which colonialism bequeathed.   Yeats’ poem was birthed by the dysfunctional world that the modern period turned out to be. Yeats wasn’t alone in the depiction of the crisis that…

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The Disturbing Crisis of Parenting

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By Sunny Awhefeada   A looming disaster with the capacity to wreck the social structure of Nigeria is hanging over our heads like the sword of Damocles. The crisis is pervasive and therefore ubiquitous. It is the crisis of an emergent grossly errant generation. All around us are signs of derailment, turpitude and crass subversion of all that is good, but we seem not to be able to arrest the slide. We complain and talk and point, but we are caving in to the overwhelming pressure of the challenge which…

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News Feature: We Shall Not Die

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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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Column: For Fr. Abaka: Beyond Priesthood (Part 1)

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By Sunny Awhefeada   The iconic Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Abaka Ambrose Oghenejode, jr. just turned 65 and retired from the services of the Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun,( FUPRE). Below is the text of the public lecture I delivered to mark the double event. I crave the indulgence of this audience to thank the organizers of this event for the inspiring and kind gesture of honouring today’s celebrant, not the celebrant at mass, but the birthday celebrant, Very Rev. Fr. Dr. Abaka Ambrose Oghenejode, jr. Events like these…

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