James Eze's Ode to a fallen pal, Douglas Ude

As I stretch my mind across the years that I have known Douglas Ude, a central image dominates the universe of my thoughts – the image of a shooting star, blazing across the evening sky, releasing a burst of glorious sparkles that fade into the distance after their job of lighting up the horizon is done. The remains of the Big Doug will be interred tomorrow, July 26, 2013, in his home town of Mgbowo in Augwu, Enugu State. Farewell Dude!

PDP crisis is exaggerated -Senate Majority Leader Ndoma-Egba

Victor Ndoma-Egba (SAN) is the Senate Majority Leader and a three-term Senator representing Cross River State Central Senatorial Zone in the upper chamber. Senator Ndoma-Egba was at various times a member of Senate Committees on Upstream Petroleum Resources, Human Rights and Legal Matters, Information and Media, as well as Deputy Chairman of the Judiciary Committee of the Senate. In this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, in his office, he spoke on state creation, crisis in the PDP, zero allocation to SEC saga and sundry issues. Excerpts:

It’s sad to see Port-Harcourt turned into war theatre –Ex-SSS boss AK Horsfall

Chief Albert Korubo Horsfall is a former Nigerian security chief and prominent Ijaw leader. The pioneer member of the National Security Organisation (NSO) was also the first Director-General of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), the fifth Director-General of the State Security Service (SSS) and the pioneer Chairman of the Oil Minerals Producing Areas Development Commission (OMPADEC) now known as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC).

In this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, Chief Horsfall, currently the Chairman of the Rivers State Social Rehabilitation Committee, charged with the rehabilitation of ex-militants from Rivers State, laments the insecurity that has been foisted on the state and the nation at large by the Boko Haram sect and the political crisis in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).       
As former head of an arm of the nation’s security services, how would you assess the state of the nation in terms of politics and security?

Where is my husband?

By LINUS OBOGO

Pregnant wife of 40-yr-old Friday Akpandara, who got missing after hanging out with friend, cries out

Where is my husband? Where is my husband? Where is my husband? This is a familiar refrain on the lips of Mrs. Yejide Obidipe Akpandara, wife of 40-yr-old Friday Akpandara, as she stares vacuously but anxiously into the ceiling at 39 Omololu Road, off Randle Avenue, Surulere, Lagos.

With a gush of tears nestling down her protruding tummy, Yejide is overwhelmed by anxiety about her husband’s strange disappearance without a trace since August 24, 2012.

Yejide’s mother-in-law is not spared the torment of a missing son either, as echoes of where is my son? Where is my son ricochet everywhere in their living-room. Indeed, the entire 39 Omololu Road residence of his parents is wholly encased in a pall of gloom with the unexplained whereabouts of Friday Akpandara. The mood is melancholic, even as the ceiling fan swirls woozily in empathy with its aggrieved owners.

A peep into Ojukwu’s love life

Ojukwu with Elizabeth (left); with Bianca right.

By LINUS OBOGO

HE had a tough and oracular mien. The more you tried to understand him, the more difficult and complex he seemed. Not many, especially the men folk, could decode him easily. But beneath those deportments were his charm, élan, oratory.

While his fellow men found him a bit impenetrable, the ladies seemed to know his genetic code and could conveniently decode or deconstruct him. He was

Why we must renegotiate the basis of our corporate existence –Sen. Ehigie Uzamere

Godwin Ehigie Uzamere is a senator of the Federal Republic. He is a two-time senator representing Edo South Senatorial Zone. Uzamere was first elected senator on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP in 2007 but in 2011, he was later reelected on the ticket of Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Uzamere who is the Senate Committee Chairman on Foreign and Local Debts, in this interview with Assistant Editor, LINUS OBOGO, spoke on Nigeria’s spiraling debt profile, barely six years after it met her debt obligations to the Paris and London Clubs. He also spoke on the need for a national dialogue in the light of the raging insurgency in the North , Edo politics and sundry issues Excerpts:

‘State of emergency timely, but not sweeping enough’

By Linus Obogo, Assistant Editor

Professor Jubril Aminu was Minister of Education and Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources respectively, from 1989 to 1999. A professor of Cardiology and one-time Vice-Chancellor of the University of Maiduguri, Aminu was elected, senator of the Federal Republic, representing Adamawa Central between 2003 and 2011. He was also Nigerian Ambassador to the USA from 1999 to 2003.  In this bare – knuckle interview with LINUS OBOGO, Assistant Editor, Aminu speaks on the political crisis in his home state, Adamawa, his regrets, the state of emergency in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States, and sundry issues.