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“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 […]
Continue ReadingIn the early 1940s, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the hugely popular Sardauna of Sokoto, found himself at a crossroads of politics and rivalry. After losing the contest for the Sultanate of Sokoto to his long-standing rival, Sir Abubakar III, he was appointed emirate councillor and superordinate district head of Gusau in Sokoto Province. The posting, however, […]
Continue ReadingIn ‘Jokes and Targets’ by Christie Davies, a Soviet journalist interviews a Chukchi man: “Could you tell us briefly how you lived before the October revolution?” “Hungry and cold.” “How do you live now?” “Hungry, cold, and with a feeling of deep gratitude.” This sounds like Nigeria’s malaria victims thanking mosquitoes for their love and […]
Continue Reading“You may forward this to him to reflect on…if he’s redeemable!” A Tinubu minister from the South-West sent this message to a respected, elderly journalist now in his mid-70s. It was meant for me and the Oga did as instructed; he forwarded the message to me. I read what the big man wanted me to […]
Continue ReadingWhy did Bola Tinubu offend Nasir El-Rufai? He should have kept him. There are three principalities the Yoruba dread to offend: The first is Osó (wizard), the second is Àjé (witch); the third is the most dreaded, their name is Aláròká. How do I translate that into English? I cannot, but you will get to […]
Continue ReadingHe was just a municipal court judge in a US city. Some years ago, he was asked: “In your 38 years of sitting on the bench, is there a case you still think about today?” This judge looked up, and did not hesitate before answering yes, there was a case, and he told the story: […]
Continue ReadingYesterday, someone asked me to give my current impression of that coalition party called the ADC. I asked if the person knew the meaning of the idiom: a loud fart in a windstorm, or simply, a fart in the wind. That is my impression of the party that came loud and furious like Hurricane Katrina […]
Continue ReadingThe Cambridge English dictionary defines ‘carcass’ as “the body of a dead animal, especially a large one.” The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was recently described as “a carcass” by one of its former governors, Mr Ayodele Fayose. Yet, that carcass defeated the reigning lion, the APC, in a decisive election in Oyo State at the […]
Continue ReadingMy literature teacher told me that situational irony is a fire station burning down, or a Babaláwo dying of Mágùn. Some 40 years ago, Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, cursed his enemies in a song that they would challenge a moving vehicle, stand arrogantly in its front and then lose their limbs to the fury of […]
Continue ReadingWho killed Dele Giwa? Who was Gloria Okon and where is she today? How did David Mark accurately predict in 1994 that Sani Abacha would spend five years in power and would attempt to contest a multi-party presidential election with only himself as candidate? Why did M. K.O. Abiola contest the 1993 election even after […]
Continue ReadingEach time this country discounts tribe and tongue, region and religion, it wins. Nigeria’s stunning victory in the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations final on Saturday was more than a football triumph. Trailing 2-0 in Rabat at half-time, the Super Falcons initially looked outmanned and outgunned by Morocco. Yet, unity of purpose, unwavering belief, and […]
Continue ReadingOkuku town in present Osun State has a well-recorded history of cultural promotion and preservation. Ulli Beier’s ‘Yoruba Beaded Crowns’ (1982) and Karin Barber’s ‘I Could Speak until Tomorrow: Oriki, Women and the Past in a Yoruba Town’ (1991) are two of the contributions of Okuku to Yoruba cultural history. The late Yoruba playwright and […]
Continue ReadingShe spoke with so much authority on the sleaze and dirt that make our lawmakers so fat like the well-fed pigs in Animal Farm. The headline above is from a trending, obviously leaked, video of a committee clerk at the National Assembly levelling unimaginable allegations against politicians in both chambers. I have received that video […]
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