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Journalist arrived at the Government House with a proverb on his tongue. “Your Excellency,” he began after the courtesies, notebook open, “in Yoruba, there is a word: Apanimáyọdà.” The APC governor smiled faintly. “The one who kills without unsheathing a sword.” “Exactly,” the journalist said. “A + pa + ni + má + yọ + […]
Continue ReadingAlhaji Shehu Shagari first met General Murtala Mohammed in August 1974. Newly appointed Federal Commissioner for Communications, Murtala, wrote a memo for cabinet approval and needed financial clearance from Shagari, then Commissioner for Finance. Shagari recalled the encounter: “I studied the memo carefully and made a number of comments and suggestions. He replied it was […]
Continue ReadingI wanted to find out who the greatest massager in history was, but the Internet told me history keeps no such Hall of Fame. I asked Google and got no answer; I asked Google Scholar and got silence. Even super-intelligent AI hasn’t been able to help. So, should I just give that crown to Comrade […]
Continue ReadingThe headline came quietly, harmlessly on Thursday: ‘Senate wants more revenues for FG, moves to alter allocation formula.’ The report said the Senate is considering a bill sponsored by Senator Sunday Karimi (Kogi West) which seeks to “rescue” the Federal Government by increasing its share of the federation account. A week earlier, I had discussed […]
Continue ReadingPresident Bola Ahmed Tinubu returned over the weekend, swagger intact, despite his tumble in Turkey. His face was calm; his steps steady. His left arm tucked into the left fold of his agbada; his right palm expectantly popped into the waiting hands of top appointees lined up to receive him. Ministers and governors do this […]
Continue ReadingThe Cambridge English dictionary defines ‘Wizkid’ as “a young person who is very clever and successful.” Collins Dictionary defines it as “a person who is outstandingly successful for his or her age.” Wisdom Library says “’Wiz’ is a shortened form of ‘wizard,’ connoting skill, talent, and expertise, while ‘kid’ implies youthfulness or being junior. When […]
Continue ReadingI was wondering why his 304-page biography carries the title, ‘Eye of Fire.’ Then I saw a reviewer answering the question any reader would have in mind: In Igbo language, ‘Anya’ means ‘Eye’, ‘Oku’ means ‘Fire’. His surname, ‘Anyaoku’, therefore, means the title of that book – or the title of the book means ‘Anyaoku’. […]
Continue ReadingTo the north of Ibadan, on the way to Iseyin, is a village perpetually wearing mournful, forlorn looks. You must have some interest in Yoruba history to know that this community, at the height of its glory, was Ibadan’s arch-rival in might and riches. It is today called Orile Ijaiye but some 200 years ago, […]
Continue ReadingThere is a Yoruba proverb for our insecurity and the external help we got last Thursday: Let the man see the snake; let the woman kill it. What matters is that the snake dies (Kí ọkùnrin rí ejò, kí obìnrin pa á; ohun tí ó ṣe pàtàkì ni pé kí ejò kú). The proverb is […]
Continue ReadingDuring the Kiriji War of the nineteenth century, a grim parable of war came and became a subject of racial slur and morbid joke. An Oyo-Ibadan warrior, disarmed and cornered by an Ijesa fighter, collapsed to the earth and begged for his life. The Ijesa man, scornful of pleas, mocked him with a cruel logic: […]
Continue ReadingBetter a child is confirmed dead than a child is unaccounted for. I am not sure we remember that about 250 pupils of St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri village in Niger State, remain in captivity. They’ve been with their abductors since November 21 without Nigeria losing a day’s sleep. And we say Donald Trump was […]
Continue ReadingFor ten clean years (November 2015 to 7 October, 2025), Mahmood Yakubu was the chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). On 29 November, 2025, fifty-three days after he left that impartial office, he became a beneficiary of the election he refereed; he was made an ambassador by the president. Yakubu is not a […]
Continue Reading“There were many famous warriors in the village during the pillaging by the Fulani and yet the village was swept off almost completely by the invading warriors. This was not because they (the enemies) were stronger but due to their trickery, the people of Eruku became susceptible (vulnerable). When the invaders came, they would besiege […]
Continue Reading“You taught me language, and my profit on it / Is, I know how to curse” (William Shakespeare: ‘The Tempest’). The Nigerian government and the Nigerian Academy of Letters are fighting over which language to use in training our kids. In a recent decision, the government cancelled the language policy which said the first six […]
Continue ReadingSheikh Abubakar Mahmud Gumi (1924 –1992) was shocked when he got to Mecca for the first time in 1955 and discovered that the city had no streetlights. Sheikh Gumi was an Islamic scholar and Grand Khadi of the Northern Region from 1962 to 1967. He was the father of Sheikh Ahmad Abubakar Gumi, the man […]
Continue ReadingMr. Donald Trump and his Generals are buckling their armour to wipe out terrorists who kill Christians in Nigeria. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet…” the American president tweeted yesterday. Nigerians who heard Trump probably wondered where he […]
Continue ReadingWhen Christopher Columbus met the Tanio people in today’s Bahamas in 1492, he handed them a sword, they grasped it by the blade and had their fingers cut. To Columbus, that was enough proof that the Tanios lacked the right education and knowledge and therefore could be easily conquered. Columbus wrote of that experience: “They […]
Continue ReadingIn mid-19th-century Ibadan, military expeditions under Balogun Ibikunle were so successful in slave-catching that by 1859, the city was gripped in the apprehension that it had harvested more slaves than it could control. Professor Bolanle Awe, citing missionary Hinderer’s Half-Yearly Report of Ibadan Station for that year, wrote that the oracle of Oke Badan had […]
Continue ReadingYou know where the latest anti-government journalists are in Lagos? Kirikiri. On a day that Nigerians were celebrating an additional spur of 100 kilometres to the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, the killjoys of Kirikiri struck. They took a happy, joyous people of 200 million on a gruelling, bumpy ride across the country. They ran painful stories […]
Continue ReadingGeneral Lucky Irabor wrote a book that attracted a gathering of Generals in Abuja last Friday. Irabor, in the book, describes the January 1966 coup as “a shield that became a sword;” a solution that became a problem. He may be right. Bishop Matthew Kukah, who reviewed the book, described the January 1966 coup as […]
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