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Dear god of Lagos, I had vowed not to write about your presidential ambition yet. I was waiting for the time your protegee, Yemi Osinbajo, a pastor in the lush pasture of politics, would confirm his rife presidential ambition. Honestly, I had patiently waited and hoped to show why both the lion and the lamb […]
Continue ReadingFemi Gbajabiamila, Speaker of Nigeria’s House of Representatives was the Guest Speaker at the 52nd Convocation Ceremony of the University of Lagos, his alma mater, on Monday, January 17, 2022. The theme of the lecture was: “Building Back Better: Creating a New Framework for Tertiary Education in Nigeria in the 21st Century.” The Speaker had […]
Continue ReadingNo government can remove fuel subsidy in Nigeria. And this is simply because the chicken has come home to roost, not because it is desirable to subsidise a product that needn’t be subsidised. Well, some people may argue that because Nigeria is a crude oil producing nation, then it is good to expect the citizens not to pay what other […]
Continue ReadingHow do you address a people who create a situation and then turn round to play the victim? The National President of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Alhaji Bello Abdullahi Bodejo, talked tough in a Sun newspaper interview at the weekend. He said any southerner hoping to replace President Muhammadu Buhari next year must seek out […]
Continue ReadingTrinidad and Tobago-born British writer of works of fiction and nonfiction in English, Sir Vidiadhar Surajprasad Naipaul, commonly known as V. S. Naipaul, would seem to have Nigeria and the facts of Chief Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola’s death in military detention in mind when he wrote his famous novel, Half of Life. Renowned for and […]
Continue ReadingIt has turned out that it was actually Buhari himself, not the Aso Rock cabal, who wanted Goodluck Jonathan to succeed him in 2023! Apparently, even members of the cabal were disquieted by this. The cabal played along for a while (knowing Buhari’s well-known cognitive impairments and imperviousness to reason) and, at the right time, […]
Continue ReadingA neighbour sent me a WhatsApp chat last week with a million-dollar question: “Who are we voting for?” It was an awkward question. I have been discussing all the theories about the qualities the next president should have but I have paid little attention to a crucial part of the equation: what determines the voting […]
Continue ReadingSupreme Court: Orji Kalu v EFCC I don’t know whether to say, as we say in Hausa, ‘Na sha mamaki’ (I was amazed)! or in Yoruba slang, ‘giri gbe mi’ (literal- convulsion carried me; I convulsed; slang – I was shocked) – because these days nothing really should be shocking; there do not seem to […]
Continue ReadingAnyone who has monitored Nigerian political punditry in the institutional news media and on social media in the last few weeks would be led to suppose that only candidates of the improperly named All Progressives Congress (APC)—who are actually a bunch of opportunistic, conservative fascists— would be participating in the 2023 presidential election. The bulk […]
Continue ReadingDespite my well-considered warning to Bola Ahmed Tinubu in my factual treatise on him sometime last year, and how his clinching the presidency would be bad for Nigeria, he has proceeded to formally declare his interest in the 2023 presidential election. It appears this mercantile politician whose character portrait is corrosive to democracy and who […]
Continue ReadingSpeaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, recently stated the need to review the minimum educational requirements for intending officeholders. At the 52nd convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos, where he delivered the Convocation Lecture, he reflected on the imperative of updating what we require of our would-be leaders to meet contemporary standards. […]
Continue ReadingIn ‘The World Game is not Just a Game’, respected British sportswriter, Simon Kuper wrote that soccer (football) “arouses in the rest of the world collective passions that are matched by nothing short of war.” Published in the New York Times on 26th May 2002, shortly before the commencement of the 17th FIFA World Cup […]
Continue ReadingThere is probably no “indigenous” Lagos family that is more famous than the Tinubu family. But, although the family is now clearly culturally Yoruba, its ethnic provenance is traceable to what is now Borno State, according to Lagos historians, underscoring the historical and sociological inaccuracy of notions of ethnic purism in Nigeria. The patriarch of […]
Continue ReadingNigerians are very bad losers in politics, sports or both. Nothing illustrates this better than the politics of acrimony that is already emerging over the mode of primaries for the 2023 general election. But even more specifically, would be the anguish, outrage and frustration that have attended the exit of the Super Eagles from the […]
Continue ReadingThe pride of lions lounge under the baobab. Some look at the sky belly-up in gratitude to nature. Some crouch on their warm, filled bellies, swishing their tails to the music of the wind and the shine of the sun. Like fleeting ghosts, three monkeys, from nowhere, suddenly descended on the pride; giving a knock […]
Continue ReadingIf you are paying close attention, the concept of a legislative arm of government ought to give you great concern. In everything but name and form, it has essentially collapsed. In the latest indication, the House of Representatives last week asked its so-called Ad hoc Committee on Arms to investigate a report in the current report […]
Continue ReadingSome people sold their father’s land to purchase guns; now that war is in their home, they are begging for where to stand on to use the weapons. I got that sense from an elder some days ago as we agonised over the destruction of the country’s peace by its unhinged children. In horrific details, […]
Continue ReadingIn his interview with Arise TV recently, Ovation publisher and presidential hopeful Dele Momodu talked of the “owners of Nigeria” who teleguide the selection of political leaders, particularly presidents, and to whom we’re helpless victims. They are an amorphous group of crafty old stagers with enduringly deep roots in the structure of Nigeria, and include such people […]
Continue ReadingHow does one place the abduction and murder of a five-year-old Kano girl, Hanifa Abubakar last week? Hanifa, a student of Kids Academy, a private school located in Kwanar Dakata in Nassarawa local government area of Kano in Tudunwada, was abducted on December 2, 2021 by Abdulmalik Tanko, the proprietor of the school. After kidnapping her and collecting part of the […]
Continue ReadingAfter what looked like a lengthy merry go-round, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, last Monday announced what nearly everybody had always known: that he is interested in contesting for the presidency of Nigeria. While he didn’t say anything really new, he was candid in saying that it has been a life-long ambition. That explains why he […]
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