Welcome to Ikenna Ugwu's Blog

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.

The day Nigeria marked her 56th Independence Anniversary; Pastor Poju Oyemade of Covenant Christian Centre gave us a real treat on The Platform. It was a good moment to reflect on the ordeals and trajectories of our nation. Pastor Oyemade assembled a coterie of highly cerebral speakers who seasoned the event. Ever since that day, an eccentric kind of feeling has filled the air, and the social media is awash with certain impetuous hash tags. 

It promises a beautiful night of literature as Thought Pyramid Arts Centre hosts the brilliant duo of Elnathan John, author of Born on a Tuesday and Abubakar Adam Ibrahim author of Season of Crimson Blossoms. Nothing to lose. Everything to gain. See you there.

The man must be dead who refuses to dream; who has stopped believing. There is no life in him. But life (and strength) comes from, and is in him who knows and believes that “the world makes way for the man who knows where he is going…” In every “casting down”, I know there is a “lifting up”. I am a firm believer. Yes. I am. It has been ages (and I miss you guys) since I said or shared anything here. I have been on a hibernate mode, grossly distracted by life issues.  My friend calls it “life grinds”. They try to knock me off the ground. The latest of all that happened was devastating, a deep shock. It still shocks.  But pain demands to be felt. I know. I have a child-like believe in what I do. I believe in it, the way people believe in fairytales. And that’s why I can’t stop. My blogger friend, Chiegboka once wrote about her ItchyFingers , “…my fingers …have been silent for so long, the joints ache to come back to life. They had big dreams when they were firmer...