Welcome to Ikenna Ugwu's Blog

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.