EzeMbanefo Igboukwu

Lawyer | Data Protection Officer | CIPP/E | CIPM | FIP | ex- @connected_dev | Alumnus: @IDS_UK @Sussexuni @Abuad_Uni ♍️

[EzeMbanefo Igboukwu @_CharlesUcheESQ]

The Malabu Scandal isn't a Scandal.

"Scandal" doesn't do justice to the what transpired over 13 years.

It was a national sellout.

Akin to how the Royal Niger Company sold the territories now Nigeria to Britain for £865,000.

This time, it's not the white man; it's our leaders.

[Aaron Newbury @AJNewbury94]

I have to admit, Burnham's speech comes off as a bit naïve. To be blunt, it smacks of a man who's grown extremely used to not having much scrutiny and to being the centre of local power and attention for nearly a decade.

Him not taking questions at the end is just as telling. Burnham will effectively become Prime Minister by default: no contest inside his own party, no general election mandate for the changes he wants, and of course no scrutiny from the press.

His entire speech was, in effect, "why can't everyone be more like me" and yet it announced almost nothing. Nothing on cost, nothing on how any of it actually gets done. Just a collection of soundbites, and painfully political ones at that, with no substance behind them.

"A circuit-breaker." "Good growth in every postcode." All of it sounds lovely (let's do the good things and not the bad ones). Nobody's ever thought of that before!! But… how?

Being a Mayor is a fundamentally different job to being Prime Minister. A Mayor spends money, much of it handed to him by central government, and never has to weigh one department's misery against another's. The job he's warming himself up for is the one that has to make those trade-offs, and nothing today suggested he's reckoned with that.

He reaches, as these people always do, towards the idea of a country "lifted back up", homes built, places regenerated, industry revived, pride in place, etc etc. There are models for this. You can run massive public housing programmes, but historically they're delivered through expensive, highly centralised, government-run schemes. Singapore being the obvious example. What they are not delivered by is building a second centre of government.

What Burnham is really offering is top-down socialism with a smile. Devolution on steroids doesn't shrink the state, it bloats it. A "No.10 North" doesn't move power closer to people, it just builds more state, in a second place, at additional cost. It's more process, dressed up as a radical idea nobody's ever had before.

More and more, political speeches are just a hodge-podge of pleasant noise. We will do things, lots of things, good things. We'll make sure things you like have "social value", we'll make you proud of [insert thing to be proud of], we'll deliver [insert policy that sounds really nice].

But the problems this country faces are enormous. Law and order is eroding, and rebuilding it means serious money for police, courts and prisons. The state grows more expensive by the year while the workforce paying for it keeps shrinking. We have an energy crisis and a poverty crisis, conflicts multiplying abroad and armed forces begging for cash, and more than a million young people out of work - on top of housing nobody can afford, child poverty, and a generation that feels detached from the society around it.

You don't fix any of that with a slogan and a second postcode for the guy in charge.

Every Mayor thinks his city is the best, and Mayors, almost uniquely in British politics, are rarely questioned. Today we all saw what nearly a decade of that does to a man. And thanks to his refusal to so much as take a question, we've had no chance to hold a single one of his plans up to the light.

[Slonk @Pies_of_Lee]

"fascism is nostalgia for a past that never existed"

[Newzroom Afrika @Newzroom405]

[WATCH] "I stand for the truth. Even if they insult me everyday, wanting to kill me everyday, wanting to arrest me everyday, I will never back them. I will always tell them the truth. Africa is one" - Malema

#YouthMonth2026 #Newzroom405

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

@piersmorgan Piers, please don’t gaslight us - you have nothing but negative things to say about a bunch of people, from Meghan Markle to Vladimir Putin.

But when it comes to Musk, you choose to hail and praise him the same week he actively amplifies and incites the violent far right.

[Zeteo UK @zeteouk]

👏 🇬🇧 Zeteo UK is here to disrupt Britain’s broken media! We’ll be bringing fearless, independent journalism to the UK - no bowing to political pressure, no corporate interests, just fearless journalism.

[𝘽𝙡𝙤𝙤 🇬🇧 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 @LeftNatLeft]

Right so Keir Starmer has reduced immigration by over 70%, kept us out of the Iran War, massively boosted defence spending, reduced NHS waiting times, and started growing the economy again.

But we should sack him off for Burnham in under 2 years because Manchester has £2 buses?

[Kalu Aja @FinPlanKaluAja1]

All over the world, we have seen immigration enforcement by the government of that jurisdiction, I have never seen a nation where armed citizens will be allowed to surround a building to hunt down immigrants solely because they are black.

This is why i believe this xenophobia is directly sponsored and acquiesced to by the Government of South Africa.

African nation must together forcefully push back. I feel the response has been too meek and diplomatic.

[Don Jay of Arsenal @Donjaytrix001]

Pooja learn to say No to gigs sometimes

Naija big pass your belle

[David Hundeyin @DavidHundeyin]

Also, the myth that white people benevolently "ended" slavery should die in 2026.

There were literally HUNDREDS of slave rebellions and anti-European wars and uprisings across Africa and the New World, to the point where it became physically dangerous to be a slave owner, and white people in slave societies lived in a constant state of terror.

Enslaved Africans made the entire business of slavery so dangerous and expensive that the owners of capital began exploring more efficient alternatives provided by new technology, a lot of which was built off the uncredited inventions and genius of enslaved people.

This messy, uneven process is what is now called the Industrial Revolution.

The idea that there was ever a time when Africans were so passive and pathetic that despite being farmed and traded like animals against their will, some benevolent oyibo "ended" slavery on their behalf, is one of the biggest and most egregious lies ever told.

Jean-Jacques Dessalines didn't die making Haiti the world's first postcolonial black republic so that someone could credit his lifetime of military struggle to white people's alleged "benevolence". Let this horrible myth die already.

[Luke Savage @LukewSavage]

This was, straightforwardly, a racist narrative designed to delegitimize Hannah Spencer's victory while also implying that British Muslims are in some way not full citizens. Despicable, gutter stuff for which there was (of course) exactly zero evidence.

[A-Jay🇨🇦🇬🇭 @nyavorx]

Reparations must be paid by the European nations responsible for the slave trade.

[Success @jathom48]

@salmabanks_ “Look at Nigeria” damn!!!

[Chris Bryant @RhonddaBryant]

Completely wrong. We’re not lending money to Nigeria. We are enabling UK businesses to get contracts building ports overseas. The businesses are a key uk export earning them money and UK Export Finance earns interest, making profits for the uk.🇬🇧

[Luke the Good @lukeyism]

I hope that Ireland’s vote finally brings an end to the narrative of “Irish were slaves too“

[Kwaku Asante @kwakuasanteb]

Europe’s abstentions are in many ways more dishonest than America’s outright no. At least a no is a position. A no says we have decided where we stand and we are prepared to own that position publicly.

They want the credit for not voting no while also not accepting the responsibility that comes with voting yes. They want to stand in the middle of the road on the question of whether what was done to millions of African people was wrong.

[Kim Heller @kimheller3]

Slavery

“When Britain abolished slavery in its colonies in 1834, it made sure slave owners, NOT the enslaved, were compensated”

Prof Lwazi Lushaba

[Novara Media @novaramedia]

The UK abstained on a UN resolution to recognise the transatlantic slave trade as the “gravest crime against humanity” despite overwhelming support from non-European countries.

At the UN General Assembly vote on 25 March, 123 countries voted in favour of the resolution, whilst just three – the US, Israel and Argentina – voted against. The UK and several EU member states were amongst 52 that abstained.

The resolution called for reparations to address historical injustices, which saw 12.5 million Africans abducted and sold as slaves between the 15th and 19th centuries.

The Netherlands is the only European country to have ever formally apologised for its role in the slave trade.

In an official statement, the UK said it recognised “the abhorrent nature of slavery and the transatlantic slave trade, which inflicted untold harm and misery on millions of people over many decades”.

However, the government took issue with the legal wording of the resolution and argued that “we must not create a hierarchy of historical atrocities”.

A Foreign Office spokesperson told the Telegraph: “We are committed to deepening respectful, long-term partnerships with African countries, rooted in mutual respect, that deliver real change for people’s lives.

“The UK’s position on reparations is clear – we will not pay them.”

According to the National Archives, Britain was the most dominant slave-trading nation between 1640 and 1807 and transported an estimated 3.1m Africans to the British colonies in the Americas and Caribbean.

[Dr Dan Goyal @danielgoyal]

Today’s racism is a direct byproduct of slavery

To justify the abduction, rape and murder of millions of people, colonial empires sowed the idea that “people of colour” were lesser humans

Failing to strongly condemn slavery now shows us just how far the “West” has still to go!

[United Nations Geneva @UNGeneva]

UN General Assembly declares the transatlantic slave trade the gravest crime against humanity. The resolution calls for justice, human rights, dignity & healing.

✅️ 123 votes in favor
❌️ 3 votes against (USA, Israel, Argentina)
➖️ 52 abstentions

https://t.co/bvVZYwYMkB

[Politics For You @PoliticoForYou]

@albieamankona Only in the same sense that Hitler should be given credit for finally putting a stop to Hitler.