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The 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 […]
Continue ReadingDecades ago, my late mother pointed at a house to me: “Someone in that house once snatched someone’s wife. In the evening, when it was time for husband and wife to sleep, a storm swept into the bedroom and carried off their sleeping mat. Then pandemonium followed…Ó di b’óòlo o yàá mi.” She described that […]
Continue ReadingA tree does not fall in the forest and kill someone at home. That proverb may be true one hundred years ago. It has expired; its truth is lost to the ravages of this century’s technology. Check what Iran and Israel are sending to each others from a billion kilometres apart. They are pressing buttons, […]
Continue ReadingMODERATOR: We take this space for ‘The Sick Nation Debate’, a town hall exchange between two political tendencies recommending themselves to our sick nation. Today’s edition is between the ruling APC and a budding coalition which, for now, uses the ADC label. We start in alphabetical order. APC: Alphabetical order? No. A good debate should […]
Continue Reading“When lions battle, jackals flee.” Isaac Newton wrote that to his bitter rival, Gottfried Leibniz. It was a barbed remark on their feud over who between them first invented calculus. The more you read of the mutual respect those two had for each other, the more you wonder why they ended their respective careers in […]
Continue ReadingIf you think there are too many beggars on your street, please take heart. A trending video is showing a massive throng of Nigerian children and women being deported from Ghana where they were found doing street begging. They are said to be part of thousands of West Africans on Ghanaian streets. About 10,000 are […]
Continue ReadingIn Yoruba, there is a proverb: “Ojú l’arí, ọ̀rẹ́ ò dé ‘nú” — literally it means ‘we only see the face; friendship does not go deep inside.’ That is the name the Group Managing Director of the NNPCL, Mr Bayo Ojulari, bears. The name calls attention to why appearance and essence sometimes wear different colours. […]
Continue ReadingOne hundred and seventy-nine Anambra kings gave President Bola Tinubu a chieftaincy title last week. They said the title, ‘Dike si Mba’ means “Warrior from the Diaspora.” That title, plus its translation, get as e be. I heard them and asked questions. If they didn’t translate it, I would be quiet. But they did. Why […]
Continue ReadingWhen vultures surround you, stay awake so that you do not die stupid death. Whether you are in business or you are in politics or you are anything of value, stay alive and stay alert. People shave people’s heads in their absence. In 1938, Britain was rumoured to have toyed with the idea of donating […]
Continue Reading“I am a defector, my dictionary defines the act of defecting as ‘abandoning a person or a cause, apostacy, revolt, backsliding.’ Not to put too fine an edge on it, I am a traitor…” (Joseph Frolik in ‘The Frolik Defection: The Memoirs of an Intelligence Agent’). If in 2003 Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu did what […]
Continue ReadingI found myself inventing that verse as today’s headline. The verse came sounding like “The Lord is my shepherd/ I Shall not want…” The twenty-third Psalm. Yesterday was Easter Sunday; today is Easter Monday. All Judases are shamed. Life here is bitter as brine. The green pastures are withered. The still waters are poisoned. More […]
Continue ReadingOn 9 June, 1913, Lord Friedrick Lugard minuted on a document that Lagos “could never be made a healthy place.” It was his reaction to a proposed sewage scheme estimated to cost £186,000. He believed that that amount was too vast to expend on an unworthy Lagos. He was Governor of Southern Nigeria at that […]
Continue ReadingA short four minutes, thirty three seconds video of what looks like Kogi senator, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, worshipping at the Osun shrine in Osogbo is trending. If she is truly the one in the video, then her traducers better back off before the deluge comes with its fury. You do not beat the child of the […]
Continue ReadingThe Nigerian presidency is an energizing elixir. It has proven to be very effective in breathing life into dry bones. To old creaky engines, it gives deep cleaning; it replaces worn parts and upgrades the lubrication system. Olusegun Obasanjo went in there and got transformed from an imprisoned stork to a clean-shaven ladies’ egret. The […]
Continue ReadingPresident Nnamdi Azikiwe was certain that the 1964 federal elections were a farce and should not produce a legitimate government. By hook and by crook, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s Nigerian National Alliance (NNA) party got (about) 200 of its candidates elected into a parliament of 312/313 members. The winners wrote the election results and gave themselves […]
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