Mind, Body and Country by Njideka Maduka

By Njideka Maduka   Media literacy is something I think people should begin to take more than a cursory look at, especially as the editorial integrity of some media organisations is beginning to raise questions in my mind. Media literacy, by definition, is the ability to access, analyse, evaluate and create media in various forms. It also involves reflecting on one's media choices, identifying sponsored content, recognizing stereotypes, analysing propaganda and understanding the benefits, risks and harms of media use. Understanding these concepts should make the audience more critical of the information it consumes. It should encourage people to ask questions about why a media platform focuses on a particular message and what informs that choice. Without this understanding, many people fall into the trap of offering unending support to media organisations without questioning their editorial decisions. Ebola Coverage and Editorial Priorities On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, Nigeria...

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 which I personally extracted from a television interview.  REPORTER: Now you've taken us through ...

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...

By Njideka Maduka 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 and made me think a l...

By Njideka Maduka  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 i...

Si nce 2009, Nigeria has seen a steady descent into violence — from Boko Haram’s insurgency to the herdsmen crisis, banditry, kidnappings, and regional unrest. This long-form essay draws from personal experience, historical events, and current realities to examine what has gone wrong with Nigeria’s security architecture and why. It’s not just about bad policy; it’s about leadership, ideology, silence, and systemic failure. The Genesis Nigeria’s security situation took a nosedive beginning in 2009. It was the period Boko Haram began to rear its ugly head. I remember that year vividly — I was a youth corps member serving in one of the northern states. There was slight tension in our area on one of those days. Information would later trickle in that some people were propagating a variant form of Islam, contrary to what was the norm. We would later see some soldiers at night around our lodges. To be honest, I was totally ignorant of what all of that meant or the possible future impact. E...