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I want to write about the civil war in Egbe Afenifere, then I remember what happened to the lame orphan who thought he could be the referee in a fight of witches. He was too ‘small’ for that magisterial job. I am too, and so, I will hide behind metaphors and allusions in engaging the […]
Continue ReadingIn a presentation elsewhere, I summed up my great country Nigeria in the following words: From its inception as an independent nation, Nigeria has remained a volatile country. Home to over two hundred million people……..Highly resourced, but endemically corrupt, a combination of serious governance missteps, series of military coups, years of maladministration, a culture of violence, has […]
Continue ReadingIn 1996, his car riddled with bullet holes inflicted by General Sani Abacha’s goons aimed at assassinating him, Yoruba Afenifere leader, Senator Abraham Adesanya, had made a bullseye statement. That statement appears to explain the raging furore among the leadership of the pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, today. Adesanya’s father had twenty children. He was the only […]
Continue ReadingWith the inauguration of Biodun Abayomi Oyebanji as the governor of Ekiti State on October 16, 2022, Dr. John Kayode Fayemi has become the latest ex-governor who is succeeded by his handpicked favorite. But how long will the honeymoon between him and his successor last? Will Fayemi join the already long list of past governors […]
Continue ReadingIn 1996, my cousin, born and raised in Kaduna, came visiting us in Lagos. In fact, she came to start her tertiary education. We were driving one Sunday evening when she saw a dead body on the expressway near Charly Boy bus stop. The body had apparently been mutilated by a number of speeding vehicles. […]
Continue ReadingThis is not the best of times for Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political organisation. Since the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, visited the Akure home of an erstwhile leader of the group, Pa Rueben Fasoranti, early this week, a new controversy has erupted. The foregoing is to say that Afenifere is not […]
Continue ReadingRecently, the photos of a lady described as a “former senior banking lady in Nigeria” with a mop stick in the United Kingdom trended on different social media platforms. The Nigerian lady published the photos herself about her relocation to the UK and how she was working as a home care person (taking care of […]
Continue Reading“My own brother!” “What’s up men? Have you gone to deposit all the N200, N500, N1,000 notes that you have at home in the banks so you can exchange them for new notes by the deadline of January 31.” “What is my business with depositing old notes in the banks? I don’t keep money at […]
Continue ReadingIn sharing his experience with me, he wrote, “My mother died over seven years ago but what died with her was my marriage of 12 years. My ex-wife is from a rich family and she never failed to make the class disparity between her and my people obvious. She carried on as if the presence […]
Continue ReadingI was in total shock when Lagos was recently presented on several international media as the worst city in the world to live, and by extension, the dirtiest capital city. When I had sufficiently recovered, I reverted to the actual text which reads as follows: “With a relatively low score of 32.2%, Lagos was just […]
Continue ReadingThe Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, has been a public fascination for some weeks since he embarked on what seems like a race to inscribe himself in the book of records. Within two months, the 51st Ooni has wedded six women. It is possible that by the time you are done reading this, the […]
Continue Reading“Conscious of this (Northern) hegemony and the fact that it does not have to be incompatible with the progress of Nigeria I have always argued that Northern hegemony per se is not the problem of Nigeria. It is the double jeopardy indicated in its abuse and wanton mismanagement that is the problem”. Whenever I write […]
Continue ReadingThe Washington Post of May 29, 1979 reported an exchange between President Idi Amin Dada of Uganda and an agent of a British money-printing firm. The Ugandan dictator asked the man to help him print two million Ugandan shillings worth of 100 shilling notes. The Briton accepted the offer but “gingerly” asked Idi Amin how […]
Continue ReadingOn September 29, the National Peace committee led by General Abdusalami Abukakar and the Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah organized an event in Abuja where Presidential candidates of the political parties for the 2023 general elections signed an accord to give peace a chance, avoid violence and respect the rule of law […]
Continue ReadingAn urgent threat hovers over Nigeria’s democracy. It is not just the spectre of bad elections or the predominance of atrocious politicians. It is instead the rise and increasing numbers of authoritarian governors all over the country. Though enthroned by our often murky democratic process, an increasing number of state governors now carry on more like […]
Continue ReadingFirst, a caveat: I am not in the business of endorsing or demarketing any presidential candidate. But what Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the PDP flagbearer, said in Kaduna last weekend generated so much heat that I felt compelled to throw in my perspective. Speaking to a group of northerners at the interactive session of the Arewa […]
Continue ReadingWhat is going on in Great Britain right now is ironic. A few weeks ago, we celebrated the same Britain on account of the glory and grandeur of the life, times, example, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II – the country’s longest reigning monarch in history and one of the most influential figures of […]
Continue ReadingWear a crown on a pig, clad it in the starchiest agbada, and sheathe its feet in Gucci shoes; it’s still a pig, not a king. More than a thousand years after Oduwuwa ruled Ile-Ife in the 12th Century, and his scions expanded the kingdom to Dahomey and beyond, a taboo of impunity has descended […]
Continue ReadingThe distance between political campaign promises and their fulfilment is an infinity. Between when these promises are made and the end of the tenure of those who usually promise paradise and deliver hell, people are often too dazed to remember. As it were, empty promises seem to be part of the language of political campaigning. […]
Continue Reading“The incubus of demagoguery unleashed itself in a way it has never done in any other state in Nigeria. Ekiti became the laughing stock of the nation, the hellhole of country bumpkins ruled by fiat and fear, subservient like oxen who adore their yoke. Friends and compatriots from other states called me, asking, with a […]
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