My Involvement in Community Development Gives me Edge

- Idimogu

For SIR JUDE EMEKA IDIMOGU, seeking to represent Oshodi/Isolo State Constituency 11 in Lagos State might be an uphill task but he is convinced he has all it takes to get victory for the PDP. He spoke with Rommy Igboanugo-Imah….

Can we meet you sir?

My name is Sir Jude Emeka Idimogu better known as Mr. Abundance. I hail from Ihitte Uboma Local Government Area of Imo State. I am happily married to a beautiful lady from the very popular Kuku family, Ijebu Ode by name Lady Rose Enitan Idumogu, nee Kuku. I am a Chartered Accountant by profession; I have a BSc Accounting from Ambrose Alli University; HND in Accounting from Yaba College of Technology. I am also a member of Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria, CITN. Right now, I am the 1st Vice Chairman of Bureau de Change Operators of Nigeria; I am also the 1^st Vice Chairman of Canal Community Development Area for the past

talkingpoint: Ndigbo, Push Has Come To Shove

By CHUKWUDI URUAKPA

chukkyontime@yahoo.com, 08052326076

“Future generations are not going to ask you about your political party divide. They are going to ask you what you did when you knew the glaciers were melting.”

-Martin Sheen

Ndigbo as the 2015 general elections gather steam, you don’t need a soothsayer to tell you that the season of politicking is here again. It is the season of speech making, long convoys, renting crowds, praise singing, visiting party secretariats, making friends, making promises and telling of lies. Some have and some are about to go and consult their prophets, diviners, pastors etc.

They will tell you they were pressurized to contest as if they listen to anyone else except themselves and their inordinate ambitions. Some have already borrowed money, in possession of forged certificates and already bought degrees all in a bid to satisfy themselves.

In whose interest are all these happening? Ndigbo, let none of these heart breakers and pretenders deceive you all anymore. Their business is to win elections by hook or by crook in order to settle down pretty into the business of unprecedented looting and wasting of the people’s commonwealth. To attain power is to obtain an automatic license to mint money and acquire unbelievable

RelationshipTALK: Relationship in Igboland

 

.....with Anurika Chiemeka.

Hi people, it's my pleasure to start this new year with you in our very own “Magazine Ndi Igbo,” THE ORIENTAL. We shall be x-raying all the relationship types especially as it regards our Igbo culture. IGBO-AMAKA!

What is a Relationship? A relationship is the way in which two or more people or groups regard and behave towards each other. 

Now, who are these Igbos? The Igbo are the second largest group of people in Southern Nigeria. They are socially and culturally diverse, consisting of many subgroups. Although they live in scattered groups of villages, they speak one language. The Igbo have no common traditional story of their origins.

Historians have proposed two major theories of Igbo origin. One claims the existence of a core area, or “nuclear Igboland.” The other claims that the Igbo are the descendants from waves of immigrants from the North and West who arrived in the fourteenth or fifteenth century. Three of these are the Nri, Nzam, and Anam.

Having known this, we are going to see their relationships. Two criteria shape interpersonal relationship and gender. Respect is given to males, and to older persons. By now we know it is no longer news that the Igbo place a very high value on the male child. Children are always

I’ve Got the Passion to Serve and Deliver

- Mgbeke

Abia State House of Assembly candidate of the PDP for Umunneochi State Constituency, BARR. CHIMA MGBEKE in this interview with Rommy Igboanugo-Imah, speaks about his reasons for joining the race and his preparations for the elections among other issues.

How are you preparing for the elections?

I am prepared and ready to go and represent Umunneochi State Constituency in the Abia State House of Assembly. By virtue of my professional background as a lawyer, my long standing experience in politics, and the vast contact I have all over the State, I believe I am more than qualified to represent Umunneochi people in the State House of Assembly. I am cut out for effective representation in the House and as well attract democracy dividends to the good people of Umunneochi.

Beyond contacts and experience, do you think you are at home with your would-be constituents?

I am a household name in the politics of Umunneochi. Like I told you, this is my 14^th year of uninterrupted active participation in Umunneochi and Abia politics. Don’t forget that I contested for the chairmanship position of Umunneochi Local Government Area in 2003. Even though I didn’t get the ticket, since that time till now, I have remained with my party, the PDP and of course, my people. I associate with the people, attend all manner of ceremonies, identify with the people and attend party functions. I have remained a loyal party member all through.

Go to all the zones that make up the local government or the constituency, you will be amazed at the level of love they show to me; you will be amazed at the level of acceptance I enjoy across. Only recently, all the traditional rulers and stakeholders in Umuchieze adopted me as their consensus candidate. I am convinced that by God’s grace, the people will massively translate

An Encounter with a Priest who Stole Fire From the Gods

*Very Rev. Fr. BonaChristus Umeogu

By ROMMY IGBOANUGO-IMAH

There is some sort of spiritual revolution currently sweeping across the Catholic faith in Nigeria. This revolution is the fruit of the labours of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal which brought to the church in Nigeria, a new Pentecostal experience that has now grown in leaps and bounds.

When the Renewal gained ground in Nigeria, Catholics were reported to be gathering in prayer groups to pray for the out-pouring of the Holy Spirit, which they received with obvious charismatic gifts such as speaking in tongues, prophecy, healing and so forth, an experience, which was called “baptism in the Holy Spirit”. That experience is rather spreading across the church especially in the South East like harmattan fire.

And this new wave seems to be an attestation to the wise saying of Pope Paul VI in 1975 that “There is no true evangelization if the name, the teaching, the life, the promises, the kingdom and the mystery of Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God are not proclaimed.”

While this writer patiently waited to meet with Very Rev. Fr. BonaChristus Umeogu in his office at Awka, a young Catholic priest walked in, ostensibly coming to the prayer ground for the first time. He sat down and was attracted by the heaps of books before him. Buried in the heaps of books are publications by Rev. Fr. (Prof.) BonaChristus Uchenna Umeogu, founder of

2015 Election: Ndigbo And The Right To Peace

By NDUBUEZE ONYEKA

Just some few weeks to go into the general elections proper, the heat is on. The campaigns are gradually coming to an end. The five Eastern States which today form the nucleus of Ndigbo will be actively participating in the voting exercise. There is need to guarantee your peace. You have your rights to peace as enshrined in the constitution; rights to peaceful living as a corollary to right to life.

As politics and campaigns in both electronic and print media reach feverish pitch, there is palpable fear in the land about how the elections will go and what will be the outcome. In today’s ‘do or die’ elections where candidates want to win at all cost, how do we guarantee the peace of Ndigbo in particular and Nigeria in general?

Some questions need to be answered as we prepare to vote in a couple of weeks to come: How do we guarantee peace for Ndigbo? What role should each and every Ndigbo play to guarantee peace during and after elections? What are the expectations of Ndigbo from the leadership of the two major political parties? Should any individual’s selfish interest tear us apart as people such that the peace of Ndigbo should be disturbed this time round? Does any politician

CANDID TALK: My Worries For Ndigbo

By ROMMY IGBOANUGO-IMAH 

Ndigbo must today -not tomorrow - regain themselves and re-assert their corporate personality in our multi-ethnic Federation or diffuse into isolated individual entities in the anonymity of Nigeria's multitude.

- Uche Chukwumerije

If incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan, loses the March 28 presidential election, then, the Yoruba-controlled media would have succeeded in its agenda at foisting Muhammadu Buhari on Nigeria. They would have succeeded in their agenda-setting mission of using the instrument of media to decide the fate of the over 160 million Nigerians. Even as majority of Igbos do not see anything good in Muhammadu Buhari, the Yoruba-dominated media want us to believe

EDITORIAL: Let Nigeria Be!

As Nigerians get ready to go to the polls to elect a new president for the country, the polity has been so heated that palpable tension has enveloped Nigeria's political landscape. Right thinking Nigerians are more than concerned about what will become of a post-election Nigeria.

Politicians have inadvertently heightened the political tension in the country and have continued to create room for possible post-election violence. Never in the political history of the country has electioneering campaigns been dominated this much by hate speeches, threats to violence, inciting utterances and provocative media adverts and documentaries.

Although the political parties have pledged violence-free elections, some of the utterances

of party supporters are less than desirable, giving the impression that the results