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On Tuesday, September 6, Liz Truss met Queen Elizabeth at Balmoral, Scotland. We saw her with the queen in a warm handshake as she became Britain’s historic third female head of government. The world clapped and congratulated her. Two days later, the Queen was dead. That is death. Sometimes it comes swiftly and stealthily; some […]
Continue ReadingSpeaking at a book launch in Kaduna Thursday last week, Prof Ango Abdullahi, leader of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), accused some unnamed persons of engaging in destructive campaigns to destroy the north. “I have to state here that we are witnessing some of the crudest and most unproductive campaigns to create divisions between Hausa […]
Continue ReadingOlúségun Obásanjó’s mother told him at the very beginning that if pounded yam is not much, it must be made hard and tough (iyán tí kò pò, ó gbodò yi). Read his biographies. Ashabi Obasanjo Bankole had only him and his sister, Adunni. Her hearth had enough embers, her mortar and pestle had diligence but […]
Continue ReadingLike graceful, snowy egrets basking in the afternoon light, the Pyrates Confraternity sailed out last week on the streets of Lagos. In white and scarlet, they did it with much noise and got lots of shrieks from owls and bats of the night. It was their outing; the beauty of their song triggered the chat […]
Continue Reading“I did not mention it to you. The lady that was among the trio recently freed from the Kaduna train hostage attack is my sister-in-law. She was released after payment of (a huge) ransom… She spent about 80 days with the demons. Look at her picture again; you will see something very dead in her […]
Continue ReadingSinger and songwriter, Bukola Elemide, is better known as Asa. She was paid by the Nigerian state to perform on Tuesday last week in Abuja at the launch of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited. Buhari was seated; many others who mis-run Nigeria with him were there too. They expected a Baba-has-done-well song because they […]
Continue Reading“Who jails society when it does horror to people?” Fela Anikulapo Kuti asked that question the first time he was jailed by Nigeria for going against society’s bad manners. He was a deviant of no precedent. After Fela, very many others have asked the same question – quietly or with ear-grating stridence. There is this […]
Continue ReadingThe July 5, 2022 attack on Kuje Prison, Abuja was more than a story of shame. You cannot be safe in the hands of a people that lack basic skills in attending to little details. Check the figures released the morning after the attack. The first press statement was issued by Umar Abubakar, a public […]
Continue ReadingA professor friend who works abroad is home-sick. He recently asked me: “I want to visit home. I am scared. What do you think? Will I be safe?” I didn’t know what to tell him. Those of us at home carefully select where to go in Nigeria and when to go there. Our country is […]
Continue ReadingFrom a lack of horses, we always saddle dogs, or cows, or even the ugly, scaly-backed alligator (agílíntí ab’ara hòìhòì). We do it every four years in the name of democratic elections. We choose bile as leaders then lament soon after that we are orphaned by the government. The Arabs tell us that to understand […]
Continue ReadingBólèk’ájà means ‘come down and let’s fight’. If you lived in Yoruba land of 1970s with its wood-bodied passenger Bedford and Austin lorries, the slang wouldn’t be strange to you. Sometimes, the push for a fight came from the scruffy lorry boy; some other time, it was a bad passenger who wanted a fight in the […]
Continue ReadingShe was famously called Mama Peace. If there was anything in the Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency that many have missed, it was the no-nonsense voice of Mrs Patience Faka Jonathan, the president’s wife. She was never afraid to take a position on anything even when her husband dithered. I remember her very often these days, especially […]
Continue Reading“My brother will give 15,000 dollars. Initially, he was working on 2,500 per delegate but when Ibrahim entered the race and offered 10,000, my brother had to jack his own up to 15,000. The delegates told him not to do anything for them again after winning the election.” I eavesdropped and heard this statement in […]
Continue ReadingA Sokoto mob on Saturday violently protested against justice for Deborah Yakubu who was murdered by her schoolmates in broad daylight. They wanted her suspected killers released without trial. The mob thought the state did not owe the murdered that duty of care, even in death. She was a Christian from a minority part of […]
Continue ReadingToday is the 35th anniversary of the transition of the sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. A sage is “a profoundly wise person; a person famed for wisdom.” A sage is also he that is “venerated for the possession of wisdom, possession of judgment and of experience.” That is what my dictionary says ‘sage’ means. In life, […]
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 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 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 ReadingAre we being ruled by coincidences or by conspiracies? There was a British passenger liner, the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) Titanic. It was a ship of luxury boats that was built to sail forever; but it sank on the night of 14-15 April, 1912 during its maiden voyage. In Nigeria, over 270 secondary school girls […]
Continue ReadingLeader of the ‘unseen’ persons ruling us, Alhaji Mamman Daura, spoke last week. He said enough of turn-by-turn presidency for Nigeria. He decreed that North-South rotation of the presidency of Nigeria should be dead; from 2023, the most competent among contenders would be put in the Presidential Villa. The Afenifere reacted sharply; the North is […]
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