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My literature teacher told me that situational irony is a fire station burning down, or a Babaláwo dying of Mágùn. Some 40 years ago, Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, cursed his enemies in a song that they would challenge a moving vehicle, stand arrogantly in its front and then lose their limbs to the fury of […]
Continue ReadingOne month ago, in Abuja, a small circle of friends, literary enthusiasts, human rights activists, politicians, public intellectuals and thinkers gathered to listen to Chidi Odinkalu read from his latest offering, The Selectorate: When Judges Topple the People. It was a private reading, but the ideas Chidi graciously espoused belong in the public domain. They […]
Continue ReadingWhen the Super Falcons, the Nigerian women’s national football team, won their tenth WAFCON title in Morocco recently, the President splashed them with a $100,000 prize, conferred the national honour of Officer of the Order of the Niger on all 24 players, and then gifted each of them a three-bedroom apartment. Staff of the team’s […]
Continue ReadingIn the age in which we live, parents are able to choose their child’s country of birth. Assuming they have the financial means to do so. In most cases, it could also be a path to the acquisition of citizenship of those countries. But no matter how rich parents are, the ancestry of these children […]
Continue ReadingIn a newspaper interview last Sunday, Shehu Sani, a former senator from Kaduna State, said that if Peter Obi is given the ADC’s presidential ticket, most Northerners will (for “regional and cultural reasons”) set aside their differences and re-elect Tinubu in 2027. What Sani REALLY means is that most Northerners would rather tolerate another four years of […]
Continue ReadingWho killed Dele Giwa? Who was Gloria Okon and where is she today? How did David Mark accurately predict in 1994 that Sani Abacha would spend five years in power and would attempt to contest a multi-party presidential election with only himself as candidate? Why did M. K.O. Abiola contest the 1993 election even after […]
Continue ReadingMidway into a rather routine and very tepid presidency, President Bola Tinubu is caught in strange identity crisis. Politicians from across the nation are asking the president to define whose leader he really is. The general public is equally embarrassed by what many see as an “anyhow “ government: no focus, no commitment, no clarity […]
Continue ReadingThe pace and energy with which President Bola Tinubu’s foot soldiers sped to Kaduna last week to defend his stewardship at an engagement organised by the Sir Ahmadu Bello Memorial Foundation (SABMF) should confirm an obvious thing: that the president knows the importance of getting northern support again in his bid for a second term […]
Continue ReadingWhat once stood as a system of communal survival, built on cooperation and collective responsibility, now trembles under the weight of secrecy, betrayal, and broken trust. Our forefathers practised polygamy with a kind of order that baffled logic, multiple wives, one compound, children everywhere, and yet, somehow, harmony found a way. But today, that same institution is […]
Continue ReadingAfter many decades of debate and contention, it is the alarming state of insecurity across the country that has finally pushed us as a nation into accepting the concept of state police. And as the draft bill works its way, again finally, to the table of President Tinubu, (the prime advocate, as far back as […]
Continue ReadingFuture historians of this period will one day note that the 2027 presidential election was one of the most remarkable in our national history, as it was the first campaign to begin even before the 2023 election was properly concluded. We know that in Africa, time ordinarily orbits around elections and electioneering. Since elections are […]
Continue ReadingToday I’m worried about men of God, wet matchboxes and the fire at the base of the mountains of pastors’ wives. I’m worried about pastors who leave their wives’ needs unattended in the name of doing God’s work. A pastor’s wife was caught pants down with her butt-naked brother-in-law defiling the clergyman’s marriage bed. The […]
Continue Reading“Silence is golden when you can’t think of an [intelligent] answer” – Mohammed Ali, 1942-2016. Buhari’s death has exposed more horrors about the real attitude of those who held the highest posts in his government – which was largely a failure based on lies and hypocrisy. Last week, my column addressed Garba Shehu’s confession that […]
Continue ReadingThe ongoing consultations by the National Assembly to amend Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution provide an opportunity to explore the idea of a confederation for the multi-ethnic and multi-religious country, which the military erroneously believes must be run as a monolithic realm. A confederation is “a union of sovereign states where member states retain significant autonomy, and […]
Continue ReadingA couple of years ago, I saw a picture of a woman with swollen eyes on the internet, and I was shocked to learn that the reaction came from using hair dye. I remember reporting it here, and it was around the time we discussed the henna plant. So, before we proceed, let me talk […]
Continue ReadingTinubu’s government has become a propaganda factory. A government obsessed with spectacle over substance and relentlessly pursuing self-congratulation. A governance style that prioritises the trivial over the transformative. Tinubu’s government is devoted to celebrating small, often inconsequential achievements while the nation is racked by hunger, insecurity, and economic stagnation. From commissioning incomplete roads to extracting political capital […]
Continue ReadingThree different decisions of the highest court in the country over the past two decades illustrate how the judicial conspiracy against popular sovereignty in Nigeria has prospered. In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled that elections in Nigeria are not governed by any foundational or legal principles. In other words, Nigeria has no legal standard for […]
Continue ReadingEach time this country discounts tribe and tongue, region and religion, it wins. Nigeria’s stunning victory in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final on Saturday was more than a football triumph. Trailing 2-0 in Rabat at half-time, the Super Falcons initially looked outmanned and outgunned by Morocco. Yet, unity of purpose, unwavering belief, and […]
Continue ReadingAs a young reporter in the early 90s, I grew up in the newsroom hearing the phrase ‘IBB Boys’. These were young soldiers loyal to the former Military President, Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida who ruled Nigeria between August 27, 1985 and August 26, 1993. As a directing staff (lecturer) at the Nigerian Defence Academy, NDA in […]
Continue ReadingAfter what seems to be a long lull, the hydra-headed campaign for “true federalism” via a brand-new constitution is back in full swing. It’s been a while, really. The Patriots, a group of eminent Nigerians, says it is working on a draft constitution for the country. The group criticised the 1999 Constitution, saying it was […]
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