LAURETTA ONOCHIE

One would have ignored the ranting of Deji Adeyanju but for the position he holds in a faction of PDP, the neonate opposition party that ruined our nation and stole our collective joy as a people. Before the advent of PDP in our national political space, Nigerians were the happiest people on earth. But all that is gone now, within a short space of time- sixteen years!  For one whose party cannot run its own affairs and has fallen apart since the end of money sharing culture in 2015, it reeks of contradictions for him to on one hand, desire pomp and pageantry on October 1, 2016 and on the other, deep reflection on the socioeconomic situation foisted on the nation by the inept PDP government of ex-Pres. Jonathan and his more than forty thieves.   Reflection? Oh no! Pomp and pageantry were what Deji was really after. That's what he was used to. It would start with Deji and his co travellers in the ruination train of Nigeria, being invited to the Presidential Villa. At th

🐠Ask the people of Baga in the North East of Nigeria. They are mostly fishermen but could not fish.  🐠 Ask many Nigerians from the North East. They could not do the things many of us take for granted, e.g, they could not celebrate Nigeria's independence commemoration, Islamic, Christian and cultural festivals. Even weddings could not hold.  🐠 They had become refugees in their own country and the government of the day looked the other way. Boko Haram insurgents had turned their normal lives into a hellish nightmare.  🐠 For the people of Baga, all the change they needed was 🐠 a chance to be alive, 🐠 return to their ancestral home, 🐠 earn a decent living through fishing and 🐠 live close to their kith and kin in their own community.  🐠 They do not want a pocket full of stolen cash.   🐠 They do not want imported expired rice that was grown twenty-five years ago.  🐠 They do not want dollars as their children went to local schools in and around their commu

When it emerged in April of 2014 that over 200 Nigerian school girls had been abducted from their school, it sparked not just a national outrage and disgust, but the international community too, was outraged and disgusted at what many saw, not just as crime against the education of the girl child, but a crime against humanity. Groups and individuals, using the hashtag, "#BringBackOurGirls", sprang up locally and across the world, to hold the President Jonathan administration by the balls, to act decisively to rescue our girls. This inept government, did little but use its cronies to try to prove that the abduction was a hoax. The whole world especially women and mothers identified with the pain, agony and anguish of the Chibok school girls' families. The closest the female members of the Jonathan Administration got to acknowledging this heinous crime by the Boko Haram insurgents was a show of shame organised by the Wife of the then President, Mrs Patience Jo

💠 Rodents, Weeds take over PDP national secretariat 💠 No one would have imagined how low the PDP would have sunken in such a short time out of power. But their decay began even while in power. Consumed with greed, they neglected everything and everyone, including Wadata Plaza, Stock Plaza!  💠 Even at a time when they were hurling sacks of dollars across the nation to buy undeserved electoral success for the inept President Jonathan, they were too greedy to spare a few tubs of paint to give their looting headquarters a facelift. 💠 No one is shocked that Wadata Plaza is now a harbour for rodents and weeds and probably, dangerous reptiles. But that's what happened to many businesses under their watch.  💠 Under their watch, that's also, what happened to millions of Nigerians who could not rub two coins together as their lives got overgrown with weeds of hunger and rodents of poverty and many went to bed hungry. 💠 Nigerians will not forget in a hurry, t

🇳🇬 "Wa" is the Yoruba word for "Come" "Zo" is the Hausa word for "Come" "Bia" is the Igbo word for "Come" 🇳🇬 Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo are the three dominant cultures and languages in the former three geo-political zones of Nigeria, namely, Western, Northern and Eastern Nigeria.  🇳🇬 The word "Come" in this context, denotes invitation to friendship and brotherliness. Invitation to share. Invitation to work together as a people.  🇳🇬 This explains the reason why our founding fathers had mutual respect for one another. They were selfless in their pursuit of National development as they saw the whole of Nigeria as their constituency.  🇳🇬 Nigerians moved freely to other parts of Nigeria to settle without fear of being attacked. My grand father who was the Hospital Administrator in Zaria told me that when they first arrived in the North, many southerners could not cope with the intense heat of

Background On March 20, 1984, the then Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Major-General Babatunde Idiagbon launched a campaign on ‘National Consciousness and Enlightenment’  at the National Theatre, Igamu, Lagos which lifted the nation into a sphere of national awareness and prepared ground for the then Head of State, Commander-in-Chief, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari’s clarion call that we are all Nigerians and we must fight indiscipline. This formed the basis for the nationalism and patriotism campaign, the third phase of National Consciousness and Enlightenment – the WAI crusade which was launched in Jos, Plateau State, on Monday, August 27, 1984 with emphasis on the National Symbols – the Flag, the National Anthem, the Pledge and the Coat-of-Arms. The War Against Indiscipline (WAI) Brigade was formed therefore to give practical effect to the campaign against indiscipline. It is a uniformed voluntary association of able-bodied young men and women trained and ex

People are asking where this money went to. I mean, the budgetary Allocation for the Ministry of Niger Delta for 8 years. With no completed project to show for it? New mansion in Abuja and overseas.  Additional wives Guns for small thinking Militants.  Ostentatious living Fat bank accounts Pot bellies  Other vices. Now, before you accuse other Nigerians of marginalising Niger Delta, ask Niger Delta raiders, oops, looters, sorry leaders, who presided over this Ministry. You can start with Chief Godsday Orubebe.  You can also ask ex Pres. Jonathan, why he looked the other way while projects, earmarked for the development of the area were either abandoned or not started at all.  Another question you can ask is why their children are studying overseas while all they have given you from the money they stole from you is a deadly weapon and bomb-detonating skills. While they live in their lavish homes in Abuja, you are crawling from one creek to anothe