Columns/Opinions/Letters

Aug
20
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Star Paper Mill: Facts Not Falsehood – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Star Paper Mill: Facts Not Falsehood – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Good Governance
The photograph does not disprove Governor Alex Otti’s Star Paper Mill intervention; it actually shows why the intervention became necessary. Star Paper Mill had already become moribund long before the present administration. What Otti’s government did was to acquire the distressed asset from AMCON as part of a planned industrial-revival programme. AMCON formally handed the mill over to Abia State Government in December 2025, and the state disclosed that it paid ₦2.5 billion for the acquisition. 0 So showing pictures of the old gate and abandoned premises shortly after takeover and shouting “agents of falsehood” misses the point completely. The…
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Aug
20
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Leadership. Service. Commitment. A Steady Voice For Progress – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Leadership. Service. Commitment. A Steady Voice For Progress – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Good Governance
Oracle’s latest intervention, circulated under the title “The Much Touted ‘24 Years of PDP’: Otti Was Part of 18 of Those 24 Years!”, contains legitimate questions about workers’ welfare and university remuneration. But several of its central conclusions collapse once history, public finance and measurable outputs are separated from political rhetoric. The first problem is historical. Alex Otti was a banker, not a member of the Abia State Executive Council, House of Assembly or PDP government. His documented career shows that he worked in Nigerian International Bank, Intercontinental Merchant Bank, Société Bancaire Nigeria, UBA and First Bank before becoming Group…
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Aug
19
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
The Limits Of Imported Political Machinery: A Counterfactual Political-Economy Postmortem Of The 2026 Osun Governorship Election And The Wike Hypothesis – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

The Limits Of Imported Political Machinery: A Counterfactual Political-Economy Postmortem Of The 2026 Osun Governorship Election And The Wike Hypothesis – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Columns/Opinions/Letters, Abuja
The Limits of Imported Political Machinery: A Counterfactual Political-Economy Postmortem of the 2026 Osun Governorship Election and the Wike Hypothesis Abstract The 2026 Osun State governorship election presents an unusually useful laboratory for examining the limits of political machinery in a competitive Nigerian democracy. Governor Ademola Adeleke, contesting on the relatively less-established Accord Party platform, defeated the All Progressives Congress candidate, Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, despite the APC's deployment of an exceptionally powerful national campaign structure. The APC campaign council was chaired by Governor Hope Uzodimma, with Senate President Godswill Akpabio, Yobe Governor Mai Mala Buni and Speaker Tajudeen Abbas among…
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Aug
19
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Executive Power, Property Rights, And Due Process: A Legal Appraisal Of The FCT Minister’s Demolition Directives In The Wake Of The Abuja Floods – By Charles Ude(Legal Practitioner And Author)

Executive Power, Property Rights, And Due Process: A Legal Appraisal Of The FCT Minister’s Demolition Directives In The Wake Of The Abuja Floods – By Charles Ude(Legal Practitioner And Author)

Abuja, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Judiciary
Executive Power, Property Rights, and Due Process: A Legal Appraisal of the FCT Minister's Demolition Directives in the Wake of the Abuja Floods By Charles Ude, Esq.Legal Practitioner and Author Introduction: The Floodwaters as a Catalyst for Legal Scrutiny The recent flooding that has ravaged parts of Abuja, particularly the high-brow Maitama District, has brought into sharp focus the perennial tension between executive action and the rule of law. Following his inspection of flood-affected areas on 17 August 2026, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, ordered the immediate demolition of all structures found to be obstructing designated…
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Aug
18
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Eke O Ako’s Debt Arithmetic: When Liabilities, Loans And Debt Stock Are Thrown Into One Pot – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Eke O Ako’s Debt Arithmetic: When Liabilities, Loans And Debt Stock Are Thrown Into One Pot – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Good Governance
Eke O Ako’s Debt Arithmetic: When Liabilities, Loans and Debt Stock Are Thrown Into One Pot Eke O Ako has produced what looks, at first glance, like an intimidating collection of figures against the Abia State Government. Unfortunately, once the figures are separated into their proper accounting categories, much of the dramatic conclusion begins to wobble. 😂 Numbers may be stubborn, but numbers placed in the wrong columns can also become very obedient servants of propaganda. The first problem with Eke O Ako’s argument is elementary: total liabilities in a government financial statement are not automatically synonymous with DMO public-debt…
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Aug
18
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Vanguard Newspapers And The ABSU Controversy: When Owei Lakemfa’s Powerful Headline Outran The Facts, History And Economics By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Vanguard Newspapers And The ABSU Controversy: When Owei Lakemfa’s Powerful Headline Outran The Facts, History And Economics By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Good Governance
VANGUARD NEWSPAPERS AND THE ABSU CONTROVERSY: WHEN OWEI LAKEMFA’S POWERFUL HEADLINE OUTRAN THE FACTS, HISTORY AND ECONOMICS At first, the title “ABSU: Running a University as a Local Village Contraption”, published by Vanguard Newspapers and written by Owei Lakemfa, seemed to promise a serious interrogation of university governance, funding, labour relations and institutional autonomy. It sounded like the beginning of a rigorous public-interest intervention. Unfortunately, as one travelled deeper into the piece, the thunder of the headline increasingly became louder than the economics, history and institutional context required to sustain it. Mr Lakemfa is entitled to criticise Governor Alex Otti.…
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Aug
17
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Adeleke’s Osun, Otti’s Congratulatory Message And The 2027 Abia Question: When Development, Welfare And Electoral Legitimacy Meet – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Adeleke’s Osun, Otti’s Congratulatory Message And The 2027 Abia Question: When Development, Welfare And Electoral Legitimacy Meet – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Politics
ADELEKE’S OSUN, OTTI’S CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE AND THE 2027 ABIA QUESTION: WHEN DEVELOPMENT, WELFARE AND ELECTORAL LEGITIMACY MEET Osun as a Contemporary Governance Laboratory The re-election of Governor Ademola Adeleke in Osun State on 16 August 2026 offers more than a conventional electoral story. It provides a useful case study of how welfare intervention, infrastructure delivery, fiscal management and political communication can combine to shape voter judgment. Adeleke, contesting on the platform of the Accord Party, was declared winner by INEC after securing 19 of Osun’s 30 local government areas. His victory gave him a second term after a campaign conducted…
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Aug
17
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
El-Rufai, KASU And The Sacking Of Lecturers: Why The Kaduna Record Does Not Prove Otti Ordered The ABSU Suspension – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

El-Rufai, KASU And The Sacking Of Lecturers: Why The Kaduna Record Does Not Prove Otti Ordered The ABSU Suspension – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Education
EL-RUFAI, KASU AND THE SACKING OF LECTURERS: WHY THE KADUNA RECORD DOES NOT PROVE OTTI ORDERED THE ABSU SUSPENSION The Difference Between Evidence, Institutional Responsibility and Political Attribution The controversy surrounding the suspension of Professor Nnamdi Nwaeze by Abia State University has increasingly been dragged into a wider political argument about Governor Alex Otti. The argument being circulated in some quarters is straightforward: because Otti is Governor of Abia State and Visitor to ABSU, and because the university suspended a professor whose public comments were critical of the welfare conditions of lecturers, the suspension must therefore have been ordered by…
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Aug
17
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
ABSU, ASUU-ABSU And The Otti Question: Who Really Created The Crisis At Uturu? – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

ABSU, ASUU-ABSU And The Otti Question: Who Really Created The Crisis At Uturu? – By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Abia State, Columns/Opinions/Letters, Education
ABSU, ASUU-ABSU AND THE OTTI QUESTION: WHO REALLY CREATED THE CRISIS AT UTURU? An investigative examination of salary arrears, union claims, inherited liabilities, university finances and the suspension controversy now being placed at Governor Alex Otti’s doorstep There is a seductive simplicity to the story presently being told about Abia State University, Uturu. Lecturers are unhappy. ASUU-ABSU has declared an indefinite strike. A professor has been suspended after criticising the remuneration and welfare of academics. Alex Otti is Governor and Visitor to the university. Therefore, the argument goes, Alex Otti must be responsible for everything that is wrong at ABSU.…
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Aug
17
2026
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By Abia ThinkTank
Terrorism, Warning Fatigue And The Security Lessons Of Lockerbie: A Deep Paragraphic Analysis- By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Terrorism, Warning Fatigue And The Security Lessons Of Lockerbie: A Deep Paragraphic Analysis- By Pastor Prof Chukwuemeka Ifegwu Eke

Columns/Opinions/Letters, Foreign Affairs, Security
TERRORISM, WARNING FATIGUE AND THE SECURITY LESSONS OF LOCKERBIE: A DEEP PARAGRAPHIC ANALYSIS The history of terrorism repeatedly shows that the decisive security failure is often not the total absence of warning, but the inability of institutions and societies to correctly interpret warning before catastrophe occurs. Lockerbie remains one of the clearest historical examples of how a terrorist act can expose weaknesses not only in physical security but also in intelligence coordination, international cooperation, political judgement and institutional preparedness. The bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie in December 1988 demonstrated that terrorist violence is rarely a spontaneous act.…
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