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One of my favourite Igbo proverbs says: “What a dog saw and started barking ferociously is the same thing a goat saw and merely grunted.” As young as I am, I have seen so much in this country that when people are barking over a thing, I just sigh. Yet we are reacting to the […]
Continue ReadingNigeria, a country of roughly 250 ethnic groups arbitrarily coupled together by the British colonialists in 1914, is mired in an “existential crisis”, probably like never before. Apart from the north, it seems every other part wants out. The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, has long declared its […]
Continue ReadingI’ve been reliably informed that I irritated a number of people in two recent articles, one titled “True Federalism and Other Fallacies” and the other “Restructuring and the 1963 Constitution”. I can understand the frustration of many southerners: they feel trapped in a country with people they would rather not live with. The events surrounding […]
Continue ReadingFunny how we hardly reach any cross-ethnic consensus in this country, but the campaign for a return to the 1963 Constitution — increasingly becoming the backbone of the “restructuring” agenda — seems popular in southern Nigeria and Benue state. The core argument is that we need to return to regionalism: every region should control its […]
Continue ReadingPublic debate in Nigeria, permit me to say, is not as educative as you would find in many civilised societies. The predominant elements here are ethnic and religious emotions, garnished with delicate lies and dangerous half-truths. The first casualties, as always, are facts and logic. There is the “herd instinct” which makes us believe, say […]
Continue ReadingKindly permit me to start this article with a footnote. I run a medium-size media company that publishes an online newspaper. We provide employment for roughly 40 young Nigerians. We do not receive government subvention or subsidy. Rather, we constantly get — and promptly settle —government bills: VAT, WHT, PAYE, corporate tax, education tax, and […]
Continue ReadingWhen the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) said it was suspending fresh passport applications in order to clear the backlog, the first question that jumped at me was: what is so difficult about this thing? Nigerians, home and abroad, have been going through hell to secure a document that should be steadily available. Maybe I have […]
Continue ReadingAccording to Mallam Abubakar Malami, LLB, BL, the attorney-general of the Nigerian federation, minister of justice, senior advocate of Nigeria and member of the Nigerian bar, banning open grazing is the rough equivalent of banning trading in spare parts. Let me take that again. When you say herders and their cattle should be legally restrained […]
Continue ReadingIf you are a keen observer of Nigerian politics, or should I say politicking, you must have noticed many unusual things about the meeting of the 17 southern governors in Asaba, Delta state, on Tuesday. In the first place, that the southern governors met at all — and, mind you, every single governor was present; […]
Continue ReadingDear President Muhammadu Buhari, what a hell of a week it was! Again, undergraduates kidnapped in Kaduna were slain while the ransom was still being negotiated. More bloodbaths in Zamfara claimed over 100 lives. Over 50 villages were deserted in Niger after attacks by Boko Haram, who cheekily hoisted their dark flag in one of […]
Continue ReadingDr. Isa Ali Pantami, minister of communications and digital economy, has been at the centre of a litany of controversies for two weeks non-stop — an unusually lengthy period in the Nigerian news cycle. A newspaper had reported that Pantami, who is also an Islamic cleric, was on the US terror watch list because of […]
Continue ReadingHere we go again: in 2023, whose turn? In Nigeria, nothing excites us like politics. If you want to get our attention, don’t waste your time writing about quality of life, potable water, sanitation, maternal health or out-of-school children. There are more important things that excite us: political intrigues, permutations, elections, all that. I am […]
Continue ReadingThere was a time in my life when my biggest worry about the Nigerian union was the likelihood of a break-up. I worried about the process: would it be peaceful? I didn’t think so. No president would watch the country disintegrate under his watch without putting up a fight. But that would mean another civil […]
Continue ReadingDissonance. Is that the right word to describe the contradiction between word and action? Like the man putting up a “No Smoking” sign while a slowly burning stick of cigarette is trapped between his lips? There are too many things I cannot understand about my country. They look so simple, so commonsensical and so doable […]
Continue ReadingIn 1935, Duke Ellington — God rest his soul — gave the world ‘In a Sentimental Mood’, one of the greatest jazz pieces ever. He composed it impromptu at a party for a friend, reportedly to calm the nerves of two feuding ladies. They stood by either side of his piano as he did his […]
Continue ReadingIt would appear setting up state police in Nigeria is now a matter of “when” – not “if”. What started as a campaign championed solely by south-west political and opinion leaders at the dawn of this democracy has gone on to win more disciples nationwide. Support is coming from unlikely quarters in the north, with […]
Continue ReadingSadly, this story makes me laugh. A human rights activist shared with me an experience she had during a governorship election in one of the south-west states many years ago. She said she was in the state capital on election eve when she learnt that a renowned political thug (who is now being branded by […]
Continue ReadingChilling. I mean very chilling. I felt a shiver down my spine on Tuesday when I saw the video of “new” Niger Delta militants, with war weapons, threatening to bomb Abuja and Lagos because of the “underdevelopment” of the oil-producing region. It brought back sad memories – memories of 2004 when organised lawlessness began to […]
Continue ReadingOn January 9, 2021, operatives of Amotekun – the quasi-state police outfit of south-western Nigeria – went to Aiyete in Ibarapa LGA, Oyo state, on a mission to arrest suspected kidnappers based on “intelligence” from the local communities. At the end of the operation, Alhaji Usman Okebi and his two sons were killed and several […]
Continue ReadingYou won’t believe this. As the Lagos state governor-elect in 1979, Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande was so much in a hurry to hit the ground running that he appealed to all headmasters and principals not to demand or accept fees for the new academic session starting in September – in line with the free education […]
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