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I was wondering on this Sallah Day what happened to numerous schemes, programs and agencies that Government rolled out in the last 50 years, and what this country would have been like if many of them had delivered even 10% of their tall promises. An official told me recently that the Federal Government of Nigeria […]
Continue Reading“My brother, when are you declaring for President?” “Which President? I am already a President in my own right. I am the President of my house.” “That is not the kind of President I am talking about. I mean a President with the big P, not the small one that gives you a delusion of […]
Continue ReadingKings don’t die. They depart to ancestral underworld in vaults known to the Yoruba as aja ile. The mountainous confetti of praise heaped in the trail of the departed Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, is bigger than the entire Oyo kingdom because Iku Baba Yeye was larger than life itself. What’s Iku Baba […]
Continue ReadingI really no longer consider it worthwhile for me to waste my time writing, talking or thinking about Nigeria. It is not helpful to my sanity to dwell in or on a building about to collapse, even though I am worried stiff about the calamity knocking at the door. Nigeria is irredeemably in ruins; it […]
Continue ReadingThere was tension inside the main bowl of the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Lagos this day, December 11, 2014. President Goodluck Jonathan, having been rendered one of the most worthless clothes a people could wear on their festive day by the demolition propaganda machine of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) it was obvious that whoever scored […]
Continue ReadingDark horses always win in Nigeria and everyone appears out searching the skies for the next unknown charger. The cult of Nigeria will narrow our options to their choices. They are bringing a dark horse. Benjamin Disraeli was a late 19th century British prime minister, very distinguished in governance and first class in literary creativity. […]
Continue ReadingProf Emmanuel Osodeke, president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has a dream: that one day, Nigerian universities will be able to compete with the best in the world; that our universities will attract the best students and best teachers; that students will start trooping to Nigeria from all over the world; that […]
Continue Reading“Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it” –George Santayana History repeats itself, first as tragedy, second as farce –Karl Marx “The only thing that we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history.” –Georg Hegel The citations above have intermittently found resonance in Yoruba history. The perspective they […]
Continue ReadingThe Oyo State branch of the Traditional Worshippers Association of Nigeria was right to condemn the open display of the remains of the late Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III, during the Islamic prayer rites. That aspect of his transition was unbecoming. Having witnessed a few Muslim burials, I understand they are characteristically simple […]
Continue ReadingPresident Goodluck Jonathan rode to power in 2011 on the strength of popular national support, particularly from younger voters. But barely eight months in office, then presidential spokesman, Dr Reuben Abati had concluded that Jonathan was being unfairly harangued by the media and certain stakeholders. He located these harsh criticisms in “the circumstances of President Jonathan’s emergence: how […]
Continue ReadingOba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi spent his last three months winding down in a spectacular way. He made some moves and held some meetings which, in retrospect, showed that there was some urgency in his strides. On February 8, 2022, he was at the University of Ibadan as chairman of my book launch. His speech at […]
Continue ReadingHow was I to know that that meeting I had with the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, on March 2, 2022, was the last between a father and his son? In the last couple of hours of hearing of his passing, I have scrutinized, without success, memories of anything unusual in the sky on […]
Continue ReadingBishop Hassan Matthew Kukah of the Sokoto Catholic Diocese has a robust definition of his flock. His patriotism is predictable. His preoccupation with matters of good governance, responsible statesmanship and the welfare of ordinary citizens has become axiomatic. Above all, his abiding preoccupation with the ultimate moral burden of political leadership has been consistent and […]
Continue ReadingWhat would you do if your little child asked: “Dad, what is sex?” That was the awkward situation a couple found themselves when their six-year-old boy dropped the question during dinner. Startled, and heaving a sigh of “well, the time has finally come”, the parents started mumbling the metaphor and euphemism of “the birds and […]
Continue ReadingNigeria’s response to the onset of murderous mass violence has evolved through phases of co-optation, brutal reprisal, appeasement, and state incapacity. The two options that have never quite been attempted with conviction are effective accountability and civic inclusion. Through phases of anti-terrorism, counter-terrorism and, now, interminable and metastasizing counter-insurgencies, the country has found itself mired […]
Continue ReadingAfter the police have investigated the Chrisland school “rape” case and determined who made the trending sex video, the producers’ names should be listed in a sex offenders’ registry. Whether those children were solely responsible or had adult collaborators, their actions amount to a sex offence. As the Lagos State government reminded everyone on Monday, […]
Continue ReadingIt took a young lady to narrate how she was almost raped while on holiday at Warere Beach hotel in Zanzibar in April last year for many Nigerians to begin to share their own experiences within our country. And the picture being painted is rather ugly. From room keys being duplicated by rogue staff so […]
Continue Reading“Someone who should know told me that our next president has not declared yet; that all those who have so far declared won’t be president.” I call him my mystery friend from the North. He comes around into my social media handles like a thief in the night; he drops his very few words as […]
Continue ReadingPursuant to the powers to exercise the prerogative of mercy vested in the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Section 175 (1—6) of the 1999 Constitution the Federal Government last week granted state pardon to two former state Governors, Rev Jolly Nyame of Taraba State and Senator Joshua Dariye of Plateau State, along […]
Continue ReadingThe most appropriate representation of the impending 2023 presidential election contest for the Yoruba is what is called the Odun e’gun or the Egungun Festival contest. It is a festival-cum-contest in which masquerades file out in their rainbow coloured regalia, with a mammoth crowd gathered to watch them dance. As at today, Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Yemi Osinbajo […]
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