Welcome to Ikenna Ugwu's Blog

It’s Sunday. I hope you went to church. I did. You may agree, that going to church  doesn't  make us good people. However, it does help to keep us on track; to continue in the very essence of our creation: to know him, and to worship him…. I’m learning to be carefree, sort of. That’s what the Gospel, as read today, enjoins me to do – “Do not let your heart be troubled…”. But how realistic is this? Can I really, ever be worry-free? I live in a strange clime. There’s always a reason to worry. No, it is more appropriate to say ‘concerned’ not ‘worry’. After church today, I sit (and would later hunch over my laptop) to review few incidents that occurred in the past week of which I feel concerned. I will tell you about them. I choose only two. First , during the week, I read how Nigeria’s political fraternity, the ones you call elites gathered in Minna. It was a gathering of the high and mighty, of predatory characters, you know, like vultures. Former head...

When someone says you are poor, it does not necessarily mean you have a tag of indigence dangling from your neck; lacking food, water or roof over your head and other 'very' basic necessities of life. Poverty too, is the lack of power and choice, especially in a democracy. Last Saturday, Nigerians woke to the dispiriting news of Tuface yielding to pressure; and consequently cancelling the proposed (eagerly awaited by many Nigerians) "one voice protest" that was to hold across major cities in the country. The music maestro was on the verge of making incredible statement, until he burst the bubble that Saturday morning.

Hello friends, hope you've been good. Here's hoping the week brings lots of goodies. So, we have been working, thinking - so much about you. Yes you. It is a passion, and we have been enslaved therewith. Yous faithfully have got some great heads on his team, people with whom together we will bring the revolution you've been dreaming about. But you owe us your patience.

Following the ongoing Constitution amendment process, the Chairman, Senate Committee on State and Local Government Affairs, Sen. Abdullahi Abubakar, on Sunday said provision has been made to totally abolish the contentious joint account between states and local governments. Abubakar, who made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Birninkudu, Jigawa, also said the lawmakers plan to abolish States Independent Electoral Commissions.

Former president Olusegun Obasanjo ordered for made-in-Aba shoes, and the media went agog. It is not his fault. The media is just so perpetually and unrepentantly clung to the conventional news values of "prominence"; because Obasanjo is involved. It is a ridiculously crazy situation, and the media can be much more responsible and creative. Oh, another news value - "unusual-ness." Because in our clime, it is actually unusual, if not impossible for a "big man" to buy or wear locally made products. "Big men" don't wear local stuffs. No, even the very sense and impression of wearing a made-in-Nigeria clothe or shoe is demeaning. Have you heard the parlance "Aba-made" of "Igbo-made" before? When they say your shoe is Aba-made, it has a social stigma attached to it. It's something that places you a little lower than where you know you belong, makes you feel a little less human. Just because it is made-in Aba, because it...

                                                Photo credit: Candid Press It was in Nsukka, Enugu state. Saint Teresa's Catholic Cathedral saw the gathering of people, faces wreathed in overt expectancy, waiting to see Ebere and Amechi - hands tied - walk down the aisle, all the way to the altar.   It was a moment long anticipated, and today we are here attesting to God's amazing grace. It was a sea of heads in the church, people gorgeously dressed, bearing witness to the only mathematical equation that proves 1+1 is 1 not 2. Today, Ebere joins Amechi in holy matrimony. God is alright.