By ENUBUZOR CHUKWUDI Re-examining Ukwuani Identity A renewed conversation about the historical roots and cultural identity of the Ukwuani people of Delta State has stirred debate across Anioma communities and beyond. The discussion, sparked by commentary circulating within cultural advocacy circles, questions long-standing assumptions about ethnic classification in southern Nigeria. At the centre of the debate […]
SAMMY Asaba, October 1967: A Town That Was Not a Battlefield IN early October 1967, the town of Asaba was not positioned as a theatre of combat. It was a riverine commercial hub — a community of traders, farmers, civil servants and families navigating the uncertainty of Nigeria’s unfolding civil war. The war, which erupted […]
By MUNYASIRI MUHINDI ANGELA A Vast but Hidden Slave Network THE Arab-led Indian Ocean slave trade spanned centuries, targeting East, Southern, and Central Africa for human capture. Africans were taken from modern Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Zambia, then shipped through ports like Mombasa and sold at Zanzibar. The trade extended to Arabia and Central […]
By ADEMOLA OLADEGA AKINSHEMOYIN The Arrival of the Sierra Leoneans THE history of Lagos in the mid-19th century is inextricably linked with the arrival of Sierra Leonean settlers, commonly referred to as the Saros. Their migration, which began around 1838 during the reign of Oba Akinsemoyin, occurred almost simultaneously with the influx of Portuguese and Brazilian […]
Mid West in the Crossfire DURING the Nigerian Civil War, battle lines were rarely static. One of the most dramatic shifts occurred when Biafran troops swept into the Mid Western Region in August 1967. The region’s strategic geography made it a vital corridor between Nigeria’s East and West. Its capture altered the war’s trajectory, at […]
Southern Cameroons: From Administrative Territory to Political Choice IN 1954, a quiet constitutional adjustment under the Lyttelton Constitution altered the political trajectory of the Southern Cameroons. Separated from Nigeria’s Eastern Region, the territory was recognized as a distinct administrative unit under British trusteeship, with its own House of Assembly inaugurated on 1 October 1954. This […]
Beyond the Simplified Map PUBLIC conversations about the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) often compress the secessionist state of Biafra into the modern five states of Nigeria’s South-East. Yet archival records, demographic realities of the late 1960s, and testimonies from affected communities complicate that narrative. When Lt. Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the Republic of Biafra […]
By IKHIDE R IKHELOA A Question That Won’t Go Away MORE than two decades after Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999, a persistent question lingers in public discourse: how different is today’s democratic order from the military era it replaced? The assassination of Sani Abacha’s critics once defined the brutality of dictatorship. Yet in […]
A Summons at Dusk ON the evening of 16 January 1966, as Muslims across Nigeria prepared to break their Ramadan fast, an urgent message summoned federal ministers to the Cabinet Office in Lagos. Among those present was future president Shehu Shagari, then a senior member of Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s government. The country was […]
By ZIK GBEMRE A Legacy Under Debate FEW political figures in Delta State evoke as much debate as former governor James Ibori. More than a decade after leaving office, arguments persist about whether his administration strengthened or destabilised Warri’s economic foundations. Critics trace today’s fragile local economy — characterised by informal transport services, small-scale trading, cybercrime […]