One single thread links Umo Eno, self-styled pastor governor of Akwa Ibom State, his predecessor, Udom Emmanuel and Felix Houphouet-Boigny. It is the religious bigotry and senselessness behind the Akwa Ibom International Worship Centre and the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in Yamoussoukro, Côte d’Ivoire. While Eno and Udom constructed a worship centre said to have gulped a frighteningly …

I recall my perennial visits to the three South South Nigerian states of Akwa Ibom, Cross River and Rivers in the late 1980s and early 1990s when I was the Features of The PUNCH newspapers and, later, the Acting Editor of The Sunday PUNCH title with responsibilities for editing and producing the paper. Those were the days when Akpandem James …