A few days ago, Adebayo Shittu, minister of communication, went on a rant rampage on radio dismissing Omoyele Sowore, publisher of Sahara Reporters, as a “minion, small boy and inconsequential” for his audacity to run for presidential office. Sowore, a young Nigerian, is perhaps the only presidential hopeful who is all out on the stump. Big-time politicians have retreated into their [...]
August last year, I made a post on my Facebook page with the title, ‘The Argument for Buhari’. The post acquired a life of its own with a sizeable number of people sharing on Facebook and circulating via Whatsapp. I later developed it to a full length opinion article for a few online publications. This is a sequel to the [...]
Nigeria is in trouble but we do not know. Or, we pretend not to know it, which is even worse. Ignorance could conceal a state of gradual depreciation but when the fatal blow hits like thunder in the night, sufferers could get excused for reveling in the soothing state of innocence. But it is difficult to pardon people who ignore [...]
On the 18th of April, 2018, the whole world woke up to see and hear of a shameful drama in the National Assembly. A few men laughably and impalpably walked into the Senate and sweatlessly took “Mace” and openly left without being stopped by our security men. It shows that either Boko Haram or aggrieved and radicalized men and women [...]
The political season is a festival of sort for many - not just for political gladiators but also for most members of the society - from political pundits to those renting themselves to political crowd contractors and thugs/ enforcers. It is also a boom season for those who claim they have mystical powers to see the future and ‘men of [...]
“We campaigned on three major issues – to secure the country, revive the economy and fight corruption. We have elections next year, politicians are already pre-occupied with the polls, but I am bothered more about security and the economy.”Please take a moment to chew on these words uttered by our president, Muhammadu Buhari, to the Prime Minister of the United [...]
IntroductionWhen the West first went wild I was a year old. The politics in the west in the first republic was quite controversial with sundry narratives woven around ethnicity, Chief Awolowo’s dictatorship and inter-personal squabbles. The controversy is by no means over today. Fundamentally, why a study of Western Nigeria on the eve of the centenary of the amalgamation of [...]
His guttural voice oozes the geniality only long practice at the game could confer. Excitement over the coming harvest would, in fact, seem telegraphed subtly by his very ring-tone - a line from a classic number by Miliki grandmaster himself, Ebenezer Obey, to wit: “Adura fun awon to ‘nsoro wa lehin o, Edumare dari ji won o” (Prayer for the [...]
The only time our political leaders say something close to the truth is when they are meeting with either foreign journalists or foreign political leaders. If President Buhari hadn’t travelled to the United Kingdom, we would not have known the ‘truth’ behind the menace of Fulani herdsmen that’s ravaging the length and breadth of our country. Some months ago, Mr. [...]
The Nigerian state is passing through a very tough time, and we really need to admit this if we must even have a chance of outlining the solution. In fact, if we will but face the stark reality, the Nigerian national project is tottering terribly on the edge of the abyss. This is not a comfortable truth for me to [...]
