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The Charleston Gazette was an American newspaper that was born in 1907 but stopped bearing that name in 2015. One of the newspaper’s 1952 editions contained a piece with a clause that may have been written for Tinubu’s Nigeria: “Chicago, that’s an old Indian word meaning ‘get that elephant out of your room’.” Someone said coincidence is […]
Continue ReadingWhere witches contend and exchange punches, mere men do not stand by to watch. But part of the job of a journalist is to see and report; sometimes he runs commentaries on bouts – not minding if the pugilists are gods or principalities. There is an ongoing offshore Bola Tinubu versus Atiku Abubakar rumble-in-the-jungle, a […]
Continue ReadingPresident Bola Tinubu gave our country’s Minister of Defence and Minister of State, Defence to the North; he gave the North Minister of Police Affairs and Minister of State, Police Affairs; he gave the North Minister of Education and Minister of State, Education; he gave the North Minister of Agriculture and Food Security and Minister […]
Continue ReadingAn oba is put on the throne to keep “the bush at bay.” Collectively and individually, the successful oba is praised as “so’gbó di’lé/sò’gbé dì’gboro/ oba a s’ààtàn d’ojà – the successful king is he who turns forest to home; the one who turns bush to town. Karin Barber’s ‘I Could Speak Until Tomorrow’ (published in […]
Continue ReadingOpeyemi Bamidele was the candidate of the Labour Party in the June 21, 2014 governorship election in Ekiti State. He thought he had worked hard enough to earn a victory but on the D-Day, he learnt a lesson profound enough to last him a lifetime. At exactly 7a.m. on the day of the election, a […]
Continue ReadingThe only reason the poor have not started eating the rich in Nigeria is, perhaps, because this is the season of corn. And, I believe I am right. Check your neighbourhood. Except you are in this government, you would know that things are bad, very bad for every home. Every staple food is priced beyond […]
Continue ReadingToday’s Yorubaland is a very reluctant part of Nigeria. But it is also the most conflicted of the parts. Its goals are difficult to define – even by itself. A friend from the non-Yoruba part of Edo State asked me at the weekend if the serial declaration of today as a public holiday in the […]
Continue ReadingThe Jerusalem Post is arguably Israel’s most-read English news website and best-selling English newspaper. Last week Wednesday, it published an interesting report of what it described as a “nature drama” involving a large black snake in the town of Shoham, halfway between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. The huge snake was “found motionless with an equally […]
Continue ReadingOne of the bitter lessons Bola Tinubu may have learnt in his abortive war against Niger Republic’s military junta is that with northern Nigeria, blood will always be thicker than water. In this matter, Niger Republic is blood; Nigeria, especially the part of it outside the Muslim north, is water. Northern Nigerians will not sacrifice […]
Continue ReadingSix contiguous states across Africa, from Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean to Sudan on the Red Sea, have suffered eight military coups since 2020. The United States Institute for Peace (USIP) noted and wrote the above in relation to last week’s coup in Niger Republic. It described the situation as depressing. It is. Depressing means […]
Continue ReadingGiven today’s state of the nation, it is likely that both Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi are thanking their stars that they were not the ones declared as our elected president on March 1, 2023. If they were, each of them would have done what Bola Tinubu did with petrol subsidy with consequences […]
Continue ReadingImmediate past Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, recently waxed proverbial and made a Facebook post which sounded like a loud complaint: “The axe forgets but the tree remembers…They are the axe. We are the trees. We have long memories. God Bless Nigeria. Amen.” El-Rufai made that sour post on June 13, 2023 – about three […]
Continue ReadingThere was a time in Nigeria’s media history when a certain Ebenezer Williams was arguably one of the country’s best newspaper columnists. But that popular name was a pseudonym, a fictitious identity. The masquerade donning that beautiful costume was Abiodun Aloba, colonial and post-colonial Nigeria media genius. He died in 2001. In the Daily Express […]
Continue ReadingIn 1948, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, thought of the best way to protect his country’s security information from invasive media toxins. He summed his strategy up in one short sentence: “Take the thief and make him guard.” But a thief would remain a thief even if he is made the chief hunter. A […]
Continue ReadingIn the end, we realise that nothing really belongs to us; not power, not life. Power is fragile; it can also be deadly. It shares properties with candle flames. I take this idea from Brandon Sanderson, author of ‘The Way of Kings.’ Sanderson thinks the lives of men are as brittle and lethal as candle […]
Continue ReadingIt was quite nice seeing President Bola Tinubu as he waltzed into the chambers where he met security chiefs last Thursday. “Morning,” he greets the chiefs. “Shall we sit or…” They murmur. His gaze is fixed on his guests. What are they saying? “Eh?” He asks; they murmur. “We just sit?” The president asks again. […]
Continue ReadingExactly one week from today, Muhammadu Buhari will stop being our president; his place another shall take. But what kind of leader has he been? The best assessment of a leader you get, not from his fanatics – boys who eat directly from the leader’s palm – but from men with cocks that crow as […]
Continue ReadingMay Sudan not happen to Nigeria. This piece starts with prayers. It has to. “Everyone in Africa believes in God…It’s the only way we can survive. People leave home praying that there will be electricity when they return. On the road, they pray that they will avoid motor accidents. If they crash, they pray the […]
Continue ReadingThe one who hasn’t been hit by war calls himself a man (Eni ija o ba nii pe ‘ra e l’okunrin). The word for ‘fight’ in Yoruba is ‘ija’; but ‘ija’ is much more than ‘fight’. It means battle; it is also war. If you’ve never been caught up in or overtaken by war, it […]
Continue ReadingThere are books and films on the life and times of Efunsetan Aniwura, the second Iyalode of Ibadan. She was rich, powerful and cold-hearted. Her success as a woman; her manly carriage and ruthlessness made her a perfect mark for envy and destruction. And she lost everything. But Iyalode did not say goodnight gently; she […]
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