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As chaos and corruption continue to careen out of control in Nigeria, thought of three emergent— and progressively worsening— problems fill me with deep existential anxieties about Nigeria, particularly for the next generation of Nigerians. The first is the increasingly unusual, corruption-ridden path to getting government jobs in the country. It is now almost impossible […]
Continue ReadingIn her historical fictional narrative titled “The Lost Sisterhood,” Danish-Canadian writer Anne Fortier quotes one of her characters as saying that “those who control the present can rewrite the past.” This is playing out right before us in what I called the curious posthumous deodorization of Abacha’s grand larceny in a May 7, 2020 social media update. […]
Continue ReadingThe Daily Trust of April 22 reported that there are at least “37 APC top shots” competing for the position of the Chief of Staff to Buhari. The names include serving governors and ministers. There’s no precedent for this in Nigeria’s history. Now, ask yourself: why would governors and ministers want to give up all their guaranteed privileges […]
Continue ReadingTo say I was shocked by Abba Kyari’s death would be to tell a lie. Being an asthmatic patient who routinely had “breathing problems” that necessitated periodic trips to London hospitals—in addition to being a diabetic who was older than 65—it would have been nothing short of miraculous if he survived COVID-19. In spite of […]
Continue ReadingPremium Times’ February 17 unmasking of National Security Adviser Babagana Monguno’s secret memo, which revealed that Abba Kyari, Buhari’s Chief of Staff, exercises presidential powers on Buhari’s behalf, is only the official confirmation of what I have written in many columns and social media updates in the past two years. The truth is that Buhari has no […]
Continue ReadingJustice Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad’s Supreme Court will go down in history as easily Nigeria’s most blatant bastion of supreme injustice. In the last one year, it has shaped up to be the graveyard of electoral mandates. It either sanctifies transparent electoral heists, such as Buhari’s blazing mandate theft, using the most astonishingly illogical arguments or […]
Continue ReadingBuhari’s admission that he was surprised by the growing insecurity in the North, Senator Abaribe’s call for him to resign, and the House of Representatives’ non-binding call for Nigeria’s service chiefs to retire in light of the escalating flow of blood all over the nation recall my April 13, 2019 column titled “Why Buhari Can’t and […]
Continue ReadingBefore he was sworn in as President in May 2015, Muhammadu Buhari, without prompting from anybody, publicly told his immediate and extended family members to stand back from his incoming government. He even warned that any family member who used his name to peddle influence would face dire consequences. I was so impressed by this […]
Continue ReadingMamman Daura, the guileful, influence-peddling son of Buhari’s oldest half-brother who rules Nigeria from the background of the “Glass House” in the Presidential Villa, turned 80 on November 9. After sponsoring a cornucopia of hagiographic birthday tributes in newspapers, Daura jetted forth to London—along with more than 30 family members—to celebrate at a high-priced London […]
Continue ReadingIn 2015, Buhari warned his family members to steer clear of his government. He lied. His relatives, many of whom wallowed in grubby poverty before 2015, not only now work as his official assistants, they’re now multi-millionaires. Some are billionaires. Here are 4 blood relatives of his that I know for a fact work for […]
Continue ReadingFormer Minister of Culture Femi Fani-Kayode started a healthy national conversation about the constructedness of collective identities in Nigeria when he repudiated his “Yoruba” identity because he said the name owes etymological debts to the Fulani and that it has pejorative denotations and connotations. This is, of course, both ahistorical and factually inaccurate. As I […]
Continue ReadingThis piece was originally serialized for eight weeks in my weekly column called “Notes from Atlanta” in the Abuja-based Weekly Trust newspaper. I am making it available to a wider audience because of the enthusiastic responses I received from Nigerians and non-Nigerians alike who followed the series in both the print and online editions of Weekly Trust. The […]
Continue ReadingTo mark Nigeria’s 59th Independence Day today, I bring you the original article Flora Shaw, Frederick Lugard’s girlfriend (and later wife), wrote titled “Nigeria” in The Times (of London) on January 8, 1897 on p. 6 where she first proposed the name we are still known by. I requested my friend Professor Moses Ochonu to help me […]
Continue ReadingA trending video clip of the senate confirmation hearing of Chief Justice of Nigeria Ibrahim Tanko Muhammad, which shows him betraying mortifying ignorance of the meaning of the term “technicality,” aggrandizes the point I made in my April 20, 2019 column titled “Atiku’s Citizenship and Buhari’s Illiterate Lawyers” about Buhari’s love affair with incompetence and mediocrity. I noted […]
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