Chido Onumah @60: A man so good, yet so true by Uche Ugboajah - Commentary@ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

There are some people who come into your life and you wish you had never met them. Yet there are others whom you meet and begin to wonder where they have been all your life. Dr. Chido Onumah belongs firmly to the latter category; those rare individuals you encounter, connect with instantly, and wish you had known much earlier.

Although I had followed him for years through his weekly column in The Punch, I first met Chido in person in 2015 in Abuja. I had been co-opted into a team on a national anti-corruption assignment of which he was a key member.

Beyond Sophistry: The Politics Around the 2026 Electoral Act Amendment by Uche Ugboajah - Commentary@ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!

A few days ago, the Senate passed what it called the 2026 Electoral Bill. The House of Representatives had earlier passed its version of the same bill, and all that will happen next is the harmonisation of the two bills for onward transmission to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for assent. 

What is interesting is that since the bill was passed, the Senate has been running from pillar to post, deploying wordplay—not facts—in trying to explain to highly enraged Nigerian citizens why the mandatory transmission of results from polling units in real-time, the most important item on the electoral reform agenda demanded by the public they claim to represent, was guillotined.

The Essential Fred Onyeoziri (1941-2023) by Uche Ugboajah - ITREALMS

Commentary@ITREALMS ... making leadership SENSE with digital news!


What is likely to hit you at first encounter with Fred Onyeoziri is his personable nature. Yes, he was such a pleasant person – full of life; charming; calm; and always unassuming.

He even gets more amiable when he speaks. What comes out was always a disarming logic and brilliance too hot to be concealed, not even by an unparallel humility and a quiet mien that often ensconced his innate being, the Essential Fred Onyeoziri.