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Showing posts from February, 2019

Memoir: Perish the Thoughts of an Angry Young Man (Episode Two)

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By Newton-Ray Ukwuoma   (Have you read Episode One?) Newton’s law Integrated Science is meant to introduce the junior classes into the world of the three major arms of sciences: Biology, Physics and Chemistry.This, of course, accounts for the term “integrated”. But I, and most of my peers, didn’t see it in such a clinical manner. It could have been much more loathed like mathematics had I not projected an arrow of intellectual inquiry on the subject for which my only target was Newton. Inter Science as we often called it was my goal. You can’t imagine how far such resolve can lead a young fellow who had neither lunch or breakfast to worry about but to look for and clean up pieces of adventure whenever he finds one lying about. The school library welcomed me in its own way. It was a space not much to be called a hall or a room but rather something in the middle of hall and room. But that it was a room in the large hall of our chapel made it clear to see what the priority w

Memoir: Perish the Thoughts of an Angry Young Man (Episode One)

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 By Newton-Ray Ukwuoma He is a Nigerian Goof! My name is Newton-Ray Ukwuoma Udechi. The last two names are Igbo. Ukwuoma, my surname, means good luck, and Udechi is translated God’s cream and some say it should be God’s anointed one. I have an Igbo origin. My father and mother came from Imo State. I was born in Onitsha, Anambra State in the late 80s. All of these states are located in Nigeria which undoubtedly makes me a Nigerian. Indeed, I am Nigerian. It is but a statement of fact to say that many who meet me for the first time are always tempted and sometimes think otherwise on the account of my first name. And for my first name, I never gave a pickle to that name until my Inter-Science teacher fished it out of her textbook and then my seniors. If the reader happens to chance upon the gift of discernment, they could probably tell that I made my debut in the public eye as a result of this. I attended a boarding school at the early stages of my secondary school life

Crisis in Care: Lagos hospitals risk more death due to bed space crunch

•Shocking sordid details of the state of Lagos hospitals By Newton-Ray Ukwuoma She sat on the wheelchair the entire time,” the bereaved husband told me during a private chat, “Because there was no space at the emergency ward. “Since she was on medication, I asked for ambulance or personnel to follow us to the hospital she was referred to. They did not show any concern.” Weeks ago – amidst the frenzy of appointing a new Chief Medical Director for the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) by the Governor, Mr Akinwumi Ambode – a video surfaced online about the death of one Mrs. Omolara Kalejaiye, 45, the beloved wife of the Baale of Otumara II in the Apapa Road of Ebute Metta. Mrs. Omolara Kalejaiye died, according to the bitter account of her husband, High Chief Kehinde Kalejaiye, who filmed and posted the video, not because she slumped while taking her bath in her sister’s home in Ikeja, but because she was denied admission and treatment in LASUTH, where she

FGM does not prevent promiscuity — Sex workers, others speak

The most bandied explanation for the prevalence of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) or what is erroneously known as female circumcision in Nigeria is that it curtails promiscuity and protects female chastity. But I decided to take the conversation to sex workers and among others in Lagos. Read to find out how “female circumcision” contributes to more promiscuity among survivors. By Newton-Ray Ukwuoma (THIS REPORT WAS NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 9MOBILE MOST INNOVATIVE REPORTER OF THE YEAR AWARD, NIGERIA MEDIA MERIT AWARDS (NMMA)) When a United States activist and political commentator, Dana Loesch, reprimanded Nigeria’s internationally acclaimed novelist and feminist, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, for deriding chivalry, suggesting in its stead Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as a severer topic, some Nigerians went online to remind Loesch of gun violence in the United States. “Genital mutilation is no more prevalent in the country, Dana, check your facts,” some said.