‘A Manual for Leaders’: Lumumba, Mohamed Chambas praise Dakuku Peterside’s ‘Beneath the Surface’

Renowned political campaigner, respected human rights lawyer and public intellectual, Professor P.L.O. Lumumba from Kenya and Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the former President of the ECOWAS Commission and the African Union’s High Representative for Silencing the Guns, have both praised “Beneath the Surface: Essays on Nigeria’s Chequered Journey”, a collection of essays authored by Dr Dakuku Peterside.
Professor Lumumba writes, “This potpourri of well-researched essays will prick the reader’s conscience because, in an eclectic yet effective way, the author has dealt masterfully with a multiplicity of socioeconomic and political hurdles that have and continue to stand in Nigeria’s path to greatness. Beneath the Surface is a manual that every conscientious person in authority should read.”
Mohamed Ibn Chambas, Ghanian born former president of ECOWAS adds that Beneath the Surface is “a wide-ranging, thoughtful, thoroughly researched, erudite, and enlightened discussion of contemporary Nigerian, African, and global issues.”
Their endorsements matter not for celebrity, but because they recognise what the book attempts: to speak plainly about complex things, provide solutions to a wide range of socio political challenges and to equip readers to act.
Beneath the Surface, Essays on Nigeria’s Chequered Journey is a compelling collection of essays that x-rays Nigeria’s very soul authored by one of Nigeria’s most celebrated syndicated columnist, Dr Dakuku Peterside. This is an examination of the intricacies of the state of the Nigerian nation, the tricky nature of politics, governance and the interconnected power plays of conflicts. From the broad landscape of international politics to the nuanced world of local governance, it offers an objective yet compassionate perspective and serves as both a reflective mirror of Nigeria’s past and a forward-looking guide to a brighter future.
At its core, Beneath the Surface maps the choices before us. It traces how global currents—commodity cycles, geopolitics, migration, climate pressures, technological disruption—wash up on Nigerian shores, shaping budgets, priorities, and tempers, yet never cancelling agency. It shows that better chapters are possible when leaders respect facts, when citizens organise with patience, and when institutions are given the oxygen of transparency.