In this opening piece of this column for this new year, I want to attempt a recollection of some of the good news or bad news that were part of the stories of the year 2025. And starting with the world of entertainment, for instance, the music superstar Jimmy Cliff who had the hit song, “I Can See Clearly Now” sadly passed away; along with many others in the entertainment industry. But just as Jimmy Cliff and others passed away, there are many more superstars still being discovered in music, film, acting, arts, playwriting, theatre, sports, and more. Interestingly, the following Nigerian musicians, Wizkid, Burna Boy, Davido, Rema, Kizz Daniel, P-Square, Tekno Miles, Ayra Starr, thrilled their fans in different parts of the world in the year 2025. Some celebrities across the world made one symbolic mark or the other in their respective intellectual stead which remarkably touched the lives of their followers.
In the world of technology, Artificial intelligence (AI) took a commanding position during the year with nations and tech companies investing hugely in the trending technology of robots and auto sensor-driven cars. The modern technology is fast evolving innovative inventions, where human intelligence process is simulated by machines, enabling computers to learn, perceive, reason, solve problems, and make decisions instead of applying human intellect; by analyzing numerous amounts of available data, to recognise patterns and perform complex tasks that otherwise would have been done by humans. AI amazingly, is applied to understand language, identify images, and also perform autonomous actions as in today’s trending self-driving cars.
In faith based vocation and calling, religious leaders all over the globe maintained their priestly charge of leading their followers in accordance with their doctrinal beliefs and spiritual values. Notable among historic events is the death of Pope Francis at the age of 88 years, on 21 April (Easter Monday), which led to the emergence of Pope Leo XIV on 8 May; who appeared on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica Square, and delivered his first address (after receiving applause from all the cardinals in the Sistine Chapel, following his election as the 267th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church). In another development, the Church of England enthroned the first ever female as the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt. Rev. Sarah Mullally on 3rd October, 2025! Her enthronement, however, was greeted with lots of mixed feelings among faithful of that Christian denominational extraction; especially on the basis of gender sensitivity as she was going to be occupying that clerical position and office, which presides over the Lambeth Conferences.
In the world of international politics and governance, especially in Africa, incidents of coups and cases of disapproval of such an undemocratic sovereign national leadership position were in the news all through the year, 2025; especially with a few that occurred within sub-Saharan Africa. The latest among such coups is the one in Guinea-Bissau, just after the country’s general elections when presidential election results were being awaited. The election had former President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan of Nigeria amongst the international observers. Within Nigeria, state elections were conducted, including the Anambra State governorship election, by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC on Saturday the 9th of November; which saw the emergence of Chukwuma Soludo, re-elected for a second term in office, as the executive governor of Anambra state.
Among federal government’s policies, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu concluded that the take off of the Tax Reforms, with effect from 1st day of January 2026; among other economic reforms, aimed at plugging financial leakages and to equally facilitate economic growth (although the Tax reform still appear to be facing contentions).
In the field of commerce and business, the excruciating pain of inflation that unfortunately dragged millions of Nigerians into poverty; and the tumbling of the local currency exchange rate took their toll in 2025; although the economic team led by Wale Edun, the minister of finance and the coordinating minister of the economy, are battling and making conscientious efforts to reverse these unfavourable economic trends weaponizing the entire citizenry in the society, and all the stakeholders in the marketplace. The continental financial institution, AFREXIM Bank in another development in 2025; had a very successful transition in leadership and change of the presidential baton of the bank, from Ben O. Oramah to George Elombi.
The year 2025 did not play friendly with the society in terms of full blown insecurity in different parts of the country, which affected free movements and intercity commuting with fears of kidnappings. Remarkable among them is the abduction incidence of St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri in Niger State, on 24th November, 2025; and the senseless killings of the unfortunate among victims in some parts of the country (particularly Plateau and Benue states). On the global scene, international disputes and wars raged on in the Middle East region (Israel/Palestine and Israel/Iran) and in North East Asia (Russia/Ukraine); among many more in other parts of the globe.
This article will not be complete without mentioning the Centenary celebration of the oldest boys secondary school in the entire eastern region (Igbo land) in Nigeria; Dennis Memorial Grammar School, DMGS Onitsha (founded and started on 25th January 1925), an Anglican mission school founded in memory of a missionary, Archdeacon Thomas John Dennis (a Briton) who translated the Holy Bible to union Igbo, “Bible Nso”. The “100 years of light” (academic excellence) was celebrated from the 26th of October through 2nd of November, 2025; with participants converging from all parts of the globe. The historic event received the Episcopal blessings of the Archbishop Metropolitan and Primate of all Nigeria, Most Rev. Dr. Henry Ndukuba; and of course, the chief host and proprietor of the school, the Rt. Rev. Dr. Owen Chiedozie Nwokolo, the Bishop on the Niger at the generational, weeklong event; put together by the planning committee headed by Prince Peter Ezenwa, with Dr. Chijioke Ojji as anchor of the entire operations (supervised by the School Management Board led by Prof Ilochi Okafor,
SAN; with the school Principal Venerable Chigozie Anieto); while to the glory of God, I (Dr. Sunny Nwachukwu) still remain the President General of the Alumni Association, worldwide (DOBA Ww).
