Iyabo Arinola Ifeoma Awokoya's Blog

  The New Naira Notes and the silly-ninnies You can trust the usual "sad Sams" to be sad and silly as is usual with them. Only God knows who gets the first prize for silliness among them. Past Senator Fellaini, the comedians class captain and many more say that the newness in the new Naira notes is just a change of colour. Yep! That change in colour is the "change" in the Naira. That change of colour is what we need to effect the entire purpose of the policy of a change in the Naira. What did these sad people expect? Did they think the legal tenders which were backed by law in form of the personalities that were depicted on the notes would suddenly change. Did Senator Fellaini expect that his picture would be on the N1000 note? Please, let Nigerian s elf-acclaimed social critics and commentators get a life or at least get better brains. That change in colour which they laugh at laughs back at them. If dem born dem well, make dem go spend their old Naira notes in F e...

Two bonafide Governors from the south east geopolitical zone (one past, the other current) received more than anyone’s fair share of cyberbullying at the hands of Peter Obi’s (himself a former Governor from same zone) adherents.  Honestly, Peter Obi (PO) should be worried about his ‘obidients’ because there is an apparent perfume of unruliness around him that makes him so attractive to people who are just a horde of bullies. I give it to him that he has been able to galvanise all the rightfully and wrongfully disenchanted Nigerians. This he has done! What has worried me and still does is that these supporters could have mobilised and helped to shape PO into a likely future contender if only they themselves had a sense of collective good judgement, passably sound intellect and a true love of Nigeria and the patriotic zeal for sustainable good governance. Why is it impossible to have a discussion with PO’s hordes on issues? Why must everything be a war of words, volley of insults and...

  I have been off the social media for about two months. Many have reached out in private to find out how I have been keeping. To all my friends, frenemies, and unabashed haters, I thank you all and I reassure you that I have been keeping well.  As you are aware, Twitter suspended my account permanently! I had it coming some would say, but I actually could not care less. I had been warned that the axe would soon fall and was ready for it really. I am a stubborn person. I have been stubborn since birth, and I am not about to change in old age. One of the reasons why I have advocated for SM regulation by countries is what is playing out in the world presently. It does not make sense to leave the duty of moderating free speech to the platform that hosts the speakers. You cannot allow a third party to be the sole decider of what can be said or written. Nations of the world have different cultures, norms and ethos and no platform whether they employ citizens of all the nations of t...

A tribute to Cousin Mohammed Fawehinmi who departed planet earth in the twinkling of an eye on the 11th of August 2021. Ability in Disability I must confess that I have struggled with this call made by our God to bring Mohammed (Mo) home to himself. All my Christian instincts tell me that God did this for good because all His deeds are good and that though His ways are not our ways, He brings everything to perfection. I trust and believe, but the hurt is nevertheless deep. Mo’s death has made me so low in spirit,  and when I spoke to my daughter about my feelings, she advised that I write my thoughts down in a tribute to Mohammed and that it would help me process my emotions and find peace. So here I go. Hopefully, this piece will succour those who mourn their loved ones in this pandemic era and in particular, give comfort to those who have lost loved ones who are classified as especially vulnerable. A portrait of Mo as a child, teenager and young adult I am 8 years older than Mo. ...

A coup and a secession:  On February 23, 1966, barely a month after first coup d'etat in Nigeria which took place on the 29th of January 1966, an Army officer of Ijaw descent, who was born in Oloibiri in 1938 and was from Kaima in present day Bayelsa, named Isaac Jasper Adaka Boro, declared the Niger Delta Republic (NDR) as an independent nation. He was just 27 years old and was at that time a student at the University of Nigeria Nsukka.  Adaka Boro was a radical through and through. He was a student union activist, who had once taken the Nigerian Government to court to challenge the 1963 Constitution. He trained a motley group of young men literarily behind his father’s compound and declared them as his army that would fight against the Nigerian forces and steer the NDR into independence from Nigeria. He called his ‘army’ the Niger Delta Volunteer Force (NDVF). As was to be expected, his secession was short-lived. It lasted a mere 12 days.  Adaka Boro It is instructive t...

Theatre of the Absurd -Part 2 Marginalisation? Let us examine history. The best point to start analysing a topic is to go back in history for context. The cry of marginalisation is not a new phenomenon and this cry among the Igbo ethnicity, is a recurring lament. Permit me to say from the onset that I am a firm believer in Nigeria as a unit and I do not have enmity in any part of my bones for any ethnic group. I embrace Nigeria. That said, I am also a realist and an analyst, and I believe that if Nigeria is going to be able to move forward to greater unity and development we must speak frankly about the “who”, “what”, “where” and “when” of events in history that led us to this day and this periodic resurgence of agitations for secession. We are in a sense of déjà vu here.   The amalgamation of the three regions into one nation of 1914 The premise for the argument that we were never one nation is cited as the ‘unholy’ 1914 amalgamation of the 3 regions by the colonial masters. It ...