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The Wind of Change Blowing in the South East

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By Echika Ezuka

Change as a word has been appropriated by politicians who seek power either for themselves or for the interests they represent. Change is to alter, to take off (clothes) and put on different ones, to exchange (money) for the same amount in any other denomination, to abandon (one thing or person) for another, to denounce (one course) for another. You could change your accommodation, hair dresser, anything in life.

However this piece is about to talk of a fundamental change that involves many people at the same time. Recall the change that took place in the way Africans saw the white colonialists after the 1st and 2nd world wars. Africans returned from the wars to reveal that the white man was as weak or strong as any black man. They revealed that the white man, like other men, would cry or run in the face of fear and would bleed if cut by a sharp object. The white man is not a god. The change in the perception of the white man led to white spread demands for independence in Africa. The rest is history.

A more recent change was the change from military rule to democracy. The military seized power as disciplined patriots who were going to save Nigerians from the greed, corruption, thuggery, and nepotism. The citizenry were amazed that rather than cure the social ills the military added dictatorship and a new Nigerian variant called impunity. The people resisted military regime and a gruesome struggle followed leading to a return to democracy led by civilians. The change was so thorough that even strong men in the military who felt entitled to the President and Commander in Chief position were forced to transform to civilians in agbada before ascending to Aso Villa. That is the change from military to civilian regime.

There is another kind of change sweeping through the South East of Nigeria like a tornado. This change is cultural and concerns the fate of the girl child in terms of inheritance. The macho foundations of the Igbo society is under a serious threat of being redefined. The all-male Okonkwo society of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart is about to give way to a challenge led by well-read Igbo women. These women are well read and have traveled nationally and internationally. They have also been exposed to other cultures through reading and academic interactions. Some of them are married to families from the North, West and the South-South. These women are asking questions and they want urgent answers.

They are quick to cite that in Lagos if a Yoruba man, who own an estate of six flats dies, his six flats are shared equally among his children – equally between boys and girls.  It’s a different ball game in Igbo land. For the purpose of this paper, Mazi would be the name of a father or head of a household. Let’s start with a common scenario among the Igbo. The culture recognizes the boy child as the real birth that has consequence. Only the boy child can guarantee the survival of the lineage. The boy grows up, marries a wife and begins to procreate to continue the family name. The boy child is, therefore, a must for Mazi, who may have as many as 10 children searching for a boy. Sometimes, only the youngest the 10th is a boy child – a consolation from his Chi. When Mazi passes away the nine girls get nothing from his estate no matter how rich Mazi was in his lifetime. To rub pepper into the open wound, the Igbo tradition dictates that the Ada, the first daughter must buy the coffin of Mazi.

The hurt bites deeper because when Mazi is feeble, old and unable to sustain the  living and lifestyle of his youth it’s often the girl child that provides food, clothing and medicines. The boys often are occupied with the herculean task of marriage and establishing a family. On the lighter side the boy child is more often consumed by the township culture of drinking, clubbing and fashion. This not generalizing that boys contribute nothing to the growth of the family but the girls are more helpful. Most times the girl child is given out in marriage. While the boy biserving a long apprenticeship or going through school. The girls bring in lump sums in cash or other valuables as dowries. The in-laws are an extension of Mazi’s family in terms of support at critical moments – village festivals, rites of passage and natural disasters.

The ladies are arguing, therefore, the girl child should have a stronger claim in matters of inheritance. She should not be treated as property already sold out to another owner another name of marriage. In recent years, tokenism has been used to try to melt down the anger of the girl child. While most of the pampered and ill mannered boys are shouting the Nigerian slogan –

“GO TO COURT”

The ladies did.

Today, there are scores of court cases, from the Customary Courts to the Supreme Court, involving Igbo families over inheritance. Siblings at each other’s throats or flexing muscles with their mothers, nwunye Mazi. Perhaps, the most popular of those cases is the fight for the estate of the popular transport magnate “Thank Jehova Motors”. Mazi, the magnate was a devout catholic and a Papal Knight. His sacramentally wedded wife gave birth to six baby girls in a row and Mazi was in despair. He defied the Pope and the Church and took a second wife. His Chi smiled and the second wife had three baby boys back to back. Mazi used his affluence to hold his polygamous-by-necessity together. He sent his children to the best schools in Nigeria and the United Kingdom. The girls from the first wife were older and had a head start. By the time Mazi passed away three decades later they were all graduates in those professions that the Igbo people adore – Medicine, Law, Engineering etc. The boys from the second wife were younger, also well-educated but were not as exposed as the girls from the first wife, a few were already married to high net worth individuals. His girls from the first wife spent a fortune to give Mazi a befitting burial.

There was a will and Mazi, expectedly gave almost everything to the second wife’s boys. The ladies convinced their mother and the will was challenged in court. Hush-hush, the Igbo hates the publicity of a police or court case. The Igbo man would pay an arm and a leg to avoid a police cell. Hush, it must not be heard that Mazi’s children were in court. A powerful representation and the case was withdrawn from the court for a settlement at home. A powerful arbitration, constituted by relatives, friends and the Church divided Mazi’s estate into two parts – Transport and Property. The boys chose the Transport business with numerous luxury buses, cars, and well-built terminals all over the nation. The girls settled for the Property section. As this piece is written, that Transport section, Thank Jehova Transport is dead, completely dead.

The hush-hush strategy doesn’t work all the time. Another popular Mazi, a big time trade in Enugu with his company Okoro and Sons unlimited, was not as Lucky. His first wife died during the birth of her second girl-child. Mazi married a second wife who bore him four boys. Okoro and Sons had five houses in Enugu and two in Owerri. At Mazi’s death, his sons seized the company and all its assets. They claimed the support of tradition. Anyway if Mazi had wanted his girls to inherit anything, they argued, he would have named the company Okoro and Children or Okoro and Daughters. In his wisdom he named it Okoro and Sons, so what a heck?

Again the ladies went to court and sued their step mother and her boys. The girls won the case at the Customary Court and the boys appealed to the Magistrate Court and got a reversal to the status quo. Again the Ladies appealed to the High Court that set aside the judgment of the Magistrate Court. Twenty years after Mazi’s death, the case was still at the Appeal’s Court where the Ladies were seeking justice. Meanwhile, the case has been abandoned and was most likely to be thrown out of court for lack of diligent prosecution. Both sides of Mazi’s family were completely exhausted. Mazi had seven houses and all seven were sold to fund litigation. Mazi’s sweat wasted and his family today lives in penury.

Let me not bore you with the scores of cases in court but there is one more pathetic case that would help you understand what’s happening in Igbo land. Mazi was the epitome of the Igbo workaholic business man. Mazi couldn’t read or write but he served an apprenticeship for seven years in Kaduna, made money doing street trading and linking buyers with sellers in the Kaduna Central Market now Abubakar Mahmud Gumi Market. Soon he had his own shop and had customers from the far North. By the time he ran home to escape from the killings in the North, he was a wealthy man. During the civil war he became a multi-millionaire supplying food to the Biafran Military. Mazi died forty years after the war he was multi billionaire with vast investments in Oil, Estate, and Tourism. I repeat Mazi couldn’t read and write, could hardly sign his signature but he incredibly established a Polytechnic.

This Mazi’s case was peculiar because at the height of his affluence, influence with multiple titles, his kindred insisted that he must take a second wife – a younger more polished Lolo befitting of his new status. Mazi refused because he had worked so hard and would not like to have two wives and their children waste his wealth litigating over his enormous wealth. Luckily his wife blessed him with eight children – four boys, four girls. The four girls are in court today contesting their father’s will. He loved them so much that he wouldn’t leave them without a share in his estate. Four girls versus their mother and four brothers. Raging waste of emotional and financial resources.

Igbo tradition and culture is complicit in the state of affairs because of the extra importance placed on the boy child. We don’t need to quote any authorities here other than to refer you to the image of the Igbo woman in the works of Achebe – beloved ornaments for child bearing and domestic chores. Recall the comic scene in Things Fall Apart – there was a rap on the door. Okonkwo opened the door and Ekwefi was standing there. Without a word Okonkwo lifted her to his shoulders and carried her into his inner room. Soon after his kinsmen paid her bride price and built a hut for her in his compound.  One could argue that it is different today with majority of the women acquiring western education. In spite of all that the woman is still treated patronizingly as a partner, albeit a very weak one.

The Supreme Court has taken a position – condemning the Igbo customary practice of excluding women from inheriting their fathers’ estate, declaring the practice null and void. The judges stated that the practice was repugnant to natural justice, and it contradicted the S. 42 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The cases in the customary courts are many and may drag on for many more years because the Igbo traditional institutions that are benefiting from the second class citizen status are pretending that they can resist the judgment of the Supreme Court. We know that they cannot. The bailiffs are there to enforce compliance.

Justice delayed is justice denied. Institutions in Igbo including the Ohaneze, traditional rulers, the Town Unions, and religious organizations must take advantage of this judgment to modernize the Igbo society. The traditions and customs of the Igbo society in relation to the status of the girl child must change. The fact that not one of the many limited liability companies of Igbo men survive their deaths can be traceable to the practice that grooms only the boys for succession.

The litigations that follow the passing away of Mazi unknowingly wastes enormous resources required for personal and communal development. .The intra family feud is unnecessary bloodletting for siblings who lived as one until the moment of inheritance.

Without supporting divorce or more broken homes, I must point out that a major difference between the Yoruba and Igbo house wives is that the Yoruba woman, if abused in marriage, will return to her father’s house and occupy the rooms she inherited in the family house.

The Igbo wife tolerates abuse, sometimes dying of it, because she cannot return to her father’s house where she would be treated as an intruder, unless she has wads of relevant currency to spend continually. The Igbo society will produce more Dorothy Akunyili, Okonjo Iweala, and Oby Ezekwesili if this wind of change is allowed to impact on Igbo land.  Perhaps, Social Clubs based in the South East must find their voices and issue statements immediately. Change must come now to save Ala Igbo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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Ugo Onwuaso is an ICT enthusiast. He believes technology should be used for general good. He holds a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the Lagos state University. Dear Reader, Your support matters. But we believe that technology makes life more exciting and helps improve the lives of people around Nigeria and indeed the world. That is why, we have devoted our energy to independent reportage of technology and finance and how they affect lives. Our incisive and analytical view of how technology news affects the daily life help individuals and organizations make up their minds. Quality journalism costs money. Today, we're asking that you support us to do more. Kindly support our effort to deliver technology and finance journalism to everyone in the world. Donate as little as N1,000. Bank transfers can be made to: UBA Plc 1017156876 Communication Week Media Ltd

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NDPC Hides MultiChoice Privacy Violation Details Despite FOI Request- FIJ

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Nigeria Data Protection Commission (NDPC) has refused to release details of the data and privacy rights violation for which it fined MultiChoice Nigeria, despite receiving a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from FIJ.

NDPC Hides MultiChoice Privacy Violation Details Despite FOI Request- FIJ

FIJ otherwise Foundation for Investigative Journalism, is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that combats injustice, holds power to account and speaks for the voiceless.

In its announcement on July 6, the NDPC said it had fined MultiChoice Nigeria N766,242,500 for breaching the data and privacy rights of subscribers and even those who are not necessarily subscribers.

FIJ emailed the data protection commission an FOI request on July 9.

The commission acknowledged the receipt of the email that same day and added: “It has been forwarded to the relevant department and we would respond soon.”

Fifteen days later, FIJ got no other response from the NDPC.

In Nigeria, FOI requests have a seven-day timeframe, and it starts counting as soon as a public institution receives a request for public information.

FIJ understands that holidays, which include a Sunday and a public holiday, are to be excluded in the computation of the timeframe.

The receiving institution is mandated, within those seven days, to either provide the requested information or explain in detail why it is unable to do so based on the provisions of the FOI Act.

Established under the Nigeria Data Protection Act 2023, the NDPC’s tasks include safeguarding data privacy, enforcing regulations and promoting responsible data handling in the country.

When the Commission announced the N766.2 million fine against MultiChoice Nigeria, it said the company had violated the privacy rights of subscribers and allowed the illegal cross-border transfer of personal data of Nigerians.

MultiChoice Nigeria operates through various subsidiaries, such as DStv and GOtv. The NDPC said it launched an investigation into the company in the second quarter of 2024.

“NDPC found, among others, that Multichoice violated the data privacy rights of subscribers and their friends who are not necessarily subscribers,” the statement issued by NDPC read in part.

“The Commission also found that Multichoice carries out illegal cross-border transfer of personal data relating to data subjects in Nigeria. The depth of data processing by Multichoice is patently intrusive, unfair, unnecessary and disproportionate.”

FIJ’s FOI request aimed to understand the extent of the data and privacy breaches committed by MultiChoice Nigeria, the remedial measures directed by the NDPC and the specific channels through which the company collected the personal data of Nigerians.

Two weeks after the request was submitted, the NDPC has refused to respond.

Section 7, sub-section 4, of the Freedom of Information Act (2011) states, “Where the government or public institution fails to give access to information or record applied for under this Act or part thereof within the time limit set out in this Act, the institution shall, for the purposes of this Act, be deemed to have refused to give access.”

According to the Act, where a case of wrongful denial of access is established, the defaulting officer or institution commits an offence and is liable on conviction to pay a N500,000 fine.

At the time of this report, there was no publicly documented case of the NDPC granting an FOI request to share more details after an investigation.

In 2023, FIJ detailed how the Nigerian government often violated the FOI Act. Journalists at top newspapers in the country noted that government agencies had a habit of disregarding FOI requests, despite being legally obligated to respond.


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Spotify RADAR Africa Turns the Volume Up on FOLA and Thakzin

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Spotify is turning the spotlight toward the next wave of African music innovators with its latest RADAR Africa picks: Nigerian Afrobeats talent FOLA and South African Afro House DJ and producer Thakzin. As part of Spotify’s ongoing commitment to discovering and amplifying emerging voices across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), RADAR continues to champion boundary-pushing artists shaping the sound of tomorrow.

FOLA, born Folarin Odunlami, first caught attention with his freestyles on social media, quickly making a name for himself with his blend of Afrobeat rhythms and soulful storytelling. His breakout EP What A Feeling, featuring the Bella Shmurda-assisted hit “Who Does That,” laid the foundation for a fast-rising career that now includes collaborations with BNXN, Magixx, and BhadBoi OML. “Looking at where I’m coming from, I see every opportunity as a blessing. So, it’s a blessing to have been selected, just like others before me,” says FOLA. “I want my fans to know that in the midst of all the noise, I made something they could truly connect with, feel and share with those who mean something to them. I want everyone who listens to at the very least, recognise that they’re witnessing the early days of something truly special.”

On the southern tip of the continent, Thakzin’s journey began in Ivory Park, Johannesburg, where early jazz and kwaito influences, plus a deep respect for traditional percussion, shaped his signature sound. With co-signs from Black Coffee and international tastemakers like Laurent Garnier, his genre-defying approach to Afro House, heard in his 2023 anthem “The Magnificent Dance,” is setting global dance floors alight. Following the release of Magnificent Dance, his version of Horns In The Sun by DJ Kent became a viral hit across South Africa and gained global traction, potentially surpassing the success of Magnificent Dance itself. Thakzin’s sound is rooted in African spirituality and healing, inspired by the rhythmic power of traditional drums. Shaped by a musical upbringing and guided by his father, a keyboardist, he blends rich harmonies with percussive elements to create an immersive Afro-house experience. His music evokes emotion, movement, and ancestral energy, anchored in freedom and African expression. In recognition of his role in shaping 3-step, Thakzin was the first cover artist of Spotify’s 3 STEP playlist.

Spotify RADAR isn’t just a platform, it’s a launchpad. It reflects Spotify’s commitment to empowering local artists across SSA and delivering the best listening experience in the region. From Lagos to Johannesburg, RADAR celebrates the diversity of talent on the continent, offering artists equal access to global audiences.

“At Spotify, we believe in the power of African storytelling through music. FOLA and Thakzin are both incredibly unique artists who represent the spirit of RADAR—fresh voices with global potential,” says Phiona Okumu, Spotify’s Head of Music, Sub-Saharan Africa. “By amplifying their journeys, we hope to inspire more creators across the continent to believe in their vision and reach for bigger stages.”

With FOLA and Thakzin stepping into the spotlight, one thing is clear: Africa’s future sound is already here, and Spotify is where you find it first.


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Paradigm Initiative Applauds Malawi’s Judiciary for Outlawing Criminal Defamation

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Paradigm Initiative (PIN) commends the decision by the High Court of Malawi, sitting as the Constitutional Court (ConCourt), which finds that section 200 of the Penal Code of Malawi, criminalising defamation, is unconstitutional. This follows a unanimous ruling by Justices Chifundo Kachale, Fiona Mwale, and Mzondi Mvula.

The decision by the three-judge bench concludes a case brought by Joshua Chisa Mbele against the Director of Public Prosecutions and the Attorney General, where the latter leveled charges against Mbele for alleged defamatory statements made regarding a public official in Malawi. In his defence, Mbele challenged the constitutionality of section 200 of the Penal Code of Malawi, which criminalised defamation, arguing that this provision infringed the right to freedom of expression as provided for under section 35 of the country’s Constitution, as well as running counter to Malawi’s obligations under regional and international human rights law.

In its commendable ruling, the ConCourt upheld the right to freedom of expression enshrined in the Malawian Constitution and described the punishment of imprisonment, as outlined in Section 200 of the Malawi Penal Code, as having a “chilling effect on public discourse and democratic participation.” In a ruling delivered on July 16th, 2025, the court said it did not find Section 200 of the Malawi Penal Code reasonable or necessary in light of the civil remedies available to deal with defamation.

PIN celebrates this win, having expressed concerns in the past over Malawi’s repressive laws through the Londa report on the state of digital rights and inclusion in Malawi and a joint advocacy statement calling for the repeal of laws infringing on freedom of expression.

PIN hopes that this decision will stir the legislature in Malawi to repeal laws that have a bearing on freedom of expression such as the Electronic Transactions and Cybersecurity Act 2016, which is increasingly being deployed as a weapon to criminalise freedom of expression and media freedom in Malawi with broad provisions such as section 87 that criminalises publication of offensive communications and an overly broad section 91 of the Act (prohibiting cyber spamming) which has been used to target individuals for insulting the President.

Acknowledging the judiciary’s vital role in promoting fundamental rights and freedoms and ensuring that repressive laws are outlawed, PIN applauds the progressive decision. The Malawi judiciary has demonstrated this leadership with a landmark case that can lead to further legislative reforms in Malawi and inspire other African judiciaries to adopt a human rights-based approach to adjudicating over such cases.


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