Mind, Body and Country by Njideka Maduka

B y Njideka Maduka Broadcast Journalist I didn’t plan to write a memorandum on Nigeria’s National Policing Bill today. Honestly, I didn’t. A few weeks ago, during one of our paper review sessions on radio, my team and I discussed the proposed National Policing Bill and mentioned that the Presidential Working Group on the Bill, chaired by the Chief of Staff to the President, Femi Gbajabiamila, had invited Nigerians to make submissions. We talked about it, as we have done with several issues surrounding the proposed reform of policing in Nigeria. But I did not immediately think, “I should write a memorandum.” Then this morning, August 13, 2026, I saw the story again in the newspapers. And there it was: 5 p.m. was the deadline for public submissions. While discussing the story on air, I suddenly said to myself: “I think I should contribute.” And that was how it started. After the programme, I began putting my thoughts together. Initially, I thought it would be straightforward. I would sim...

Mrs. Rachael Alamu recounts 56 days in captivity with her pupils.  By Njideka Maduka   There are interviews that report the news, and there are interviews that preserve history.  For 56 days, the forest became a classroom without walls, a shelter without a roof, and a prison without certainty. Mrs. Rachael Alamu, Principal of Community High School, Esiele, lived through that ordeal alongside her pupils after they were abducted in Oyo State by terrorists. In this interview granted few days after their rescue, she speaks with remarkable composure about fear, faith, survival, the resilience of the children, and the hope that kept them going. Among the many striking moments in the interview, one sentence captures the faith that sustained them through those difficult days: "We survived because we believed people were praying for us." Below is the interview transcript. REPORTER: Now you've taken us through some of your journey while you were in there. How was the exper...

By Njideka Maduka  The anyhowness is just too much. You need to see or hear it to believe it. Vanguard newspaper reported this morning that the All Progressives Congress (APC) has replaced 26 candidates who emerged from the party's recent primaries with other candidates. One of the biggest casualties is former Benue State Governor, Gabriel Suswam. According to the report, the development is linked to what it described as "the battle for the control of Benue State between the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, and Governor Hyacinth Alia." So, Suswam was sacrificed to please Akume, a top APC leader told Vanguard. The report also suggested that part of the decision was aimed at returning greater control of the party structures in the states to the governors.  Recall that President Bola Tinubu had earlier given the governors of the APC in the different states power to be in charge of primaries in their respective states. Now, having conducted...

Making Sense of the News | Commentary  When a National Conversation Caught My Attention I never thought I would pen any thoughts on the controversy generated by First Lady Oluremi Tinubu's comments encouraging women to venture into businesses such as frying akara or making kuli-kuli. I even said as much during our radio programme yesterday morning. Partly because I never really had an opinion on the matter. I'm not entirely sure why. Either the topic didn't interest me enough, or perhaps I came into the debate rather late, after the conversation had already been shaped by different shades of opinion in the public space. Had I watched the original video before social media took over with its interpretations, I might have arrived at my own conclusions much earlier. But here I am, putting my thoughts together. Interestingly, what finally pushed me to write was a video I stumbled upon on Facebook after our programme. It echoed, in part, what I had already expressed on air ...

A Name from the Pages of Aurora The first time I heard the name Njideka Akunyili was when I was in secondary school. I had a sibling who attended Queen's College, Yaba, Lagos. On one occasion, she would bring home a large school publication titled Aurora. It contained photographs of students, old and current, as well as principals, past principals, and other notable members of the school community. And that was one thing about Queen's College: how well it documented and projected its history and achievements. I even saw pictures of members of the school community as far back as the colonial days. As a young student looking through those pages, I was always fascinated by the photographs and stories. I particularly remember admiring a former head girl whose photograph stood out because of how captivating it was. She would later have a stint in Nollywood. Meanwhile, somewhere along the line, the name Njideka Akunyili also featured in those publications or in similar materials...

A picture they say is worth more than a thousand words. In a recent video I posted on my Facebook page, we see former Vice President Atiku Abubakar paying a visit to former Rivers State governor and former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, one of his main contenders in the just concluded African Democratic Congress (ADC) primary. The move is commendable for any politician of his kind who needs all the support he can get to secure victory in any election. But to any observant person, Amaechi's mien does not really come off as that of somebody who is truly happy with the situation of things. It suggests a man who still harbours reservations over certain issues. It signals someone who may still not be entirely pleased with what transpired during the ADC primary. Recall that before the final result was announced, Amaechi had taken to his social media handle to criticize the primary. He described the figures coming from the exercise as “concocted.” He also reminded Nigerians w...