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How rich is Vice President Kashim Shettima? I ask because twice last week, the big man from Borno described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lion of Bourdillon, Jagaban Borgu, Asiwaju of Lagos, as “this poor man.” To prove that the president is poor, Shettima said since he knew him “he has been using only one wristwatch” […]
Continue ReadingThey did what locusts do to farms. They spared almost nothing. They ate road slabs, pilfered roofs and stole ceilings. They attacked and looted at least one mosque – and at least one church. They hammered concrete slabs and squeezed out of them iron rods for sale. Well-paved roads suffered their anger because the beauty […]
Continue ReadingNigeria is a drama, an entertainment. Listen to the ‘Wahala’ singer, Portable, as he wonders why anyone would want him to join this week’s proposed protests. Yes, he admits that he joined protests in the past. But he says that was when he was poor. “Now I am rich…You want a rich man to protest?” […]
Continue ReadingJustice Ibrahim Kolapo Gambari, JCA became the Emir of Ilorin in August 1995 and decreed the ‘Kolapo’ in his name abolished. He said he should thenceforth be known and called Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari; all former documents remain valid. He gave no reason for his decision but not a few of us thought it was his […]
Continue ReadingOn a bright, randy day in Lagos in the year 2015, a judge hurriedly used the law to dissolve a troubled marriage. Three months later, the woman was discovered impregnated by the tender-hearted judge. I pray that won’t be the case with the benevolent presidency of Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Nigeria’s local governments. Roman orator, […]
Continue ReadingNumber 10, Downing Street has been home to Britain’s prime ministers since 1735 AD. Why would a hugely popular new prime minister move into a 289-year-old mansion without spending good pounds on it to buff it up to today’s taste? Keir Starmer, the new British prime minister, moved into that official residence soon after he […]
Continue ReadingI had thought that our lawmakers in Abuja cared only for big cars, big bucks and big boobs. I never knew they also have deep love for alcohol – dry gin – and would do anything to protect it from the ravages of restrictive laws. And, because the standards of public and private morality have […]
Continue ReadingThe University of Ibadan is 75 years old. Chief Bisi Akande celebrated his 85th birthday on January 16 this year. He was made Secretary to Oyo State Government 45 years ago at the age of 40. He was Deputy Governor of Oyo State 42 years ago. He was elected Osun State Governor in 1999 – 25 years ago. […]
Continue ReadingToday, those whose ancestors snatched Kano are fighting each other over the city and their spoils. The Yoruba would look at their drama and sing for them the song of Ambrose Campbell/ Ebenezer Obey: Eni rí nkan he tó fé kú torí è/ Owó eni tó ti so nù nko? I won’t translate this! Their […]
Continue ReadingA minister suffered severe abuse and reprimand from the elites of the North last week because she asked the North to choose mass education first before mass marriage. Sixty-four years after independence, we are still struggling to understand Nigeria’s Muslim North and its ways. A 1950 letter to the editor of Gaskiya, northern Nigeria’s preeminent […]
Continue ReadingYou remember how Portable, the Wahala musician, described government a few days ago? He said, “after God, na government.” Great writers are beautiful snakes. The snakes become something else, something more lethal, if they are journalists. The state is a snake hunter, its weapon is the law. So, if you wrote yesterday and today and […]
Continue ReadingI do not believe that the president of any country will deliberately wreck everything. Their problem may be arrogance or ignorance – or arrogance in ignorance. Or, they may be worshipping wrong gods or feeding their gods with what they must not eat. You remember Sir Shina Peters’ song for M.K.O. Abiola on the billionaire’s […]
Continue ReadingOne day, I will have the courage to ask the immaculate Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, how he feels each time he travels on the horrible Ibadan-Ife road. Ben Okri, ‘The Famished Road’ storyteller, finds his own ‘road’ a torment – he says it “leads home and then away from it, without end.” Okri […]
Continue Reading“When you reach home, tell my mother, Say it was a boa that his son transformed into And never returned home.” The actor comes on the stage singing and dancing, his troupe festive around him. He invokes his powers and turns into this and that. Everything he fancies, he becomes. Then he goes back to […]
Continue ReadingThe audience at the 1903 (third year) lecture of the Royal African Society in London listened with rapt attention as African nationalist, Dr. Edward Blyden, took them back to antiquity when “the most enlightened nations of Greece, Asia, and Egypt” held the opinion that “God revealed himself only in Africa.” Great men of that period, […]
Continue ReadingIn May, 1891, James Richard Jewett of Brown University, Providence, United States, presented a paper on ‘Arabic Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases’ to the American Oriental Society. The paper was eventually published as an article in that society’s journal in 1893. One striking line I picked in that paper last week is the author’s entry of […]
Continue ReadingFrom Lagos, one Ayinde Salihu wrote to the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of the Northern Region, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, on 19 January, 1964, describing the premier as the “Prophet of Nigeria.” The man wanted the Sardauna to take him to Mecca for Hajj. Buliyaminu Oladiti Fadairo wrote from Ibadan on 21 January, 1964, saluting […]
Continue ReadingI have a very senior police officer friend whose nickname is Ambush. On the front of my friend’s left shoulder is an ugly scar. At the back of the shoulder is an even bigger scar. I remembered Ambush the day it became known that 17 soldiers were murdered in a community in Delta State. My […]
Continue ReadingOn October 29, 1974, the Nigerian Ministry of Defence, through the Ministry of External Affairs, wrote to Nigerian missions and embassies abroad that it wanted to buy tonnes of cement to build barracks for its post-civil war armed forces of 200,000 officers and men. The Nigerian Army had just about 8,000 personnel before the war. […]
Continue Reading“What is the State?” Louis Blanc, politician and historian in 19th century France, asks himself. He answers: “The State, under democratic rule, is the power of all the people, served by their elect; it is the reign of liberty. “The State, under monarchical rule, is the power of one man, the tyranny of a single […]
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