News, Events, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Fashion, Beauty, Inspiration and yes… Gossip! The Only Place It Happens!
First the good news, there is an often ignored critical dimension to debates on the political history of Nigeria and on which Nigeria can justifiably take pride. The default preference of (International) Western scholarship is the evasion of any evidence that runs counter to their narrative of the unrelieved incapacity of Africa in general and […]
Continue ReadingOn Friday, November 1, 1878, a decisive war was fought in the north-eastern corridor of Yorubaland. History remembers it as the Jalumi War. It was that one-day battle that permanently halted the southward march of the Fulani towards the sea. One of the bitterest engagements of that war was fought in a place called Iba, […]
Continue ReadingLast week, the Ekiti State Chapter of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG) – a body I once served as pioneer Administrative Secretary – gathered in Ado-Ekiti for a colloquium marking former Governor Kayode Fayemi’s 61st birthday. Beyond the celebration, the event was a platform to advance President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s vision and drum up support […]
Continue ReadingNine months to the January 2027 D Day general elections, this electoral cycle is distinguished by the poverty of the opposition platform. It was predictable. The moment they could not commit to the prescription of the North /South power rotation principle, the opposition lost its most potent instrument of political mobilisation. Says the scripture “There […]
Continue ReadingMore than 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today and at least 3,000 of them, or 40 percent, are endangered. English is the most widely spoken language, with approximately 1.5 billion speakers in 186 countries. Two out of every 10 English speakers are native, while the remaining 80 percent speak English as their second, […]
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 Reading“Two thirds of people in Scotland identify only as Scottish, not British, according to new findings from the census” “1.8 million people identify as Welsh only (58% of the population) and 218,000 identify their national identity as Welsh-British (7% of the population”) I was reintroduced to the controversy over the origins, wherewithal and proprietary rights […]
Continue ReadingWe say in Yoruba that if we do a census of slaves, slaves will be sad. History, an account of facts of the past, is always injurious to the health of sick nations. And, Nigeria is sick. We’ve all become ethnic nationalists – especially after the coming of the last regime. Questions previously unasked are […]
Continue ReadingAmerican singer, actress, businesswoman and proud mother, Robyn Rihanna Fenty, simply called by her stage name, Rihanna, struggled to speak in a Nigerian language, Yoruba, as a fan coaches her. The fan, a Nigerian male, Damilola Adejonwo, who is a Youtuber, had encouraged her to say the line – “Mo wa pa” and she did […]
Continue ReadingEight Nigerian teachers have been sponsored to travel to the United States (US) to teach Yoruba language and culture in the universities and colleges for one academic session. Vanguard reports that the teachers will travel to the US under the 2023 Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program (FLTA). This was disclosed by the US Missions […]
Continue ReadingNigerian music sensation, Naira Marley, has revealed why he speaks Yoruba fluently despite growing up in London, the United Kingdom. Naira Marley who raps mostly in Yoruba, said his dad banned the speaking of English in their house as they grew up. Speaking during a Cool Fm interview, Naira Marley said he grew up in South-East […]
Continue ReadingDuring lunch with a Fulani friend some weeks ago, he sounded so relieved that power was shifting to the south with the election of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the next president. “It is now the turn of Yoruba people to be profiled and stigmatised. The captions would soon change to ‘Yoruba terrorists’ and ‘Yoruba […]
Continue ReadingI viewed a 2min 45 seconds excerpt from an extensive interview Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour had with Arise Television in Nigeria, this prompted my curiosity and search for his other interviews, followed up on his CV and his historical controversial comments on social media. Sanwoolu and Oluwalambe Lodge The Lagos Governorship election was expected to be a […]
Continue ReadingThe ethnic irredentists who regularly punctuate the atmosphere with the dog whistle of Yorùbá ro’nú are not sincerely invested in the gains of contemplation. If they were, they would deploy the same gusto to call for a reflection on the Yorùbá condition within this contraption called Nigeria. We would be asked to ponder if this is all […]
Continue ReadingUntil science unmasked the myth of the jungle and brought the secrets of wildlife home to man via the television, little did the world know the lion wasn’t the king of animals. Yep, the world never fully realised that the lion, when alone, was a potential danger, whose presumed invincibility is magnified by the strength […]
Continue ReadingYoruba leader and Alana of Ilana Omo Oodua (Head of Yoruba Nation Self-Determination Struggle), Prof. Banji Akintoye, has tendered unreserved apology to the victims of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade in Yorubaland. Akintoye, who is a professor of History, said some of the victims of the slave trade placed a curse on the future generation of […]
Continue ReadingA professor friend who works abroad is home-sick. He recently asked me: “I want to visit home. I am scared. What do you think? Will I be safe?” I didn’t know what to tell him. Those of us at home carefully select where to go in Nigeria and when to go there. Our country is […]
Continue ReadingAhead of the 2023 general elections, former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has appealed to the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Ogunwusi, not to endorse any political aspirant contesting for any public office during the elections. Chief Obasanjo made the appeal at an event held at the palace of the Ooni on Saturday, December 11. Speaking […]
Continue ReadingThe pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere led by Pa Ayo Adebanjo, yesterday, vowed to lead the Yoruba nation to demand restructuring of the country before the 2023 general elections can take place. Read the full text below: BEING THE TEXT OF A PRESS CONFERENCE STATEMENT BY CHIEF AYO ADEBANJO,THE LEADER OF THE AFENIFERE AT WHEAT BAKER […]
Continue ReadingAs a Nigerian ideological statement, the prioritisation of the politics of consumption over the politics of development gathered momentum in the wake of the Action Group crisis and the supremacist struggle that ensued between the late Chiefs Obafemi Awolowo and Ladoke Akintola in the 1960s. Awolowo vacated office as Premier of the Western region in […]
Continue Reading