Mind, Body and Country by Njideka Maduka

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...

Following the SEDC Story From the Beginning IF  you have been following this page and even my work as a journalist, you will realize how closely we have followed matters pertaining to the South East Development Commission SEDC . It started right from when the SEDC bill was passed by the Senate in 2024 after similar passage at the Lower Chamber, to the inauguration of the commission the following year by President Bola Tinubu , upto its Vision 2050 Stakeholders Forum this year. The focus on this regional development commission lies majorly in seeing the South East prosper. The Infrastructure Question in the South East While the region has been highly eulogized as peopled with industrious citizens, the whispered and sometimes openly expressed thoughts, is that much of that industriousness are majorly birthed and flourish outside the region, sometimes to the detriment of region's economic growth. One of the culprits for that unintentional exodus has been the lack of adequate infras...

I wrote this piece on the day the Nigerian Senate recently reconvened for its emergency session on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill, 2026 . Incidentally, they passed the bill on the same day, few minutes after I had ended my piece. Suffice it to say that their position on e-transmission of election results validated my questions. I posted this piece on my Facebook pages the same day, and I'm posting it here again for posterity sake and of course as part of my collections in my 'Mind, Body and Country' blog. Emergency Session and the Controversy The Senate today reconvened for an emergency session on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026. The session was necessitated by the controversy generated at their last sitting, where it was reported that the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio , spearheaded the rejection of the e-transmission of election results. Akpabio, refuting the report, said the Chamber approved e-transmission as contained in the Electoral Act. The Provision B...