I WRITE IN DEFENCE of the Mosquito, even as I wish that it sucks fat instead of blood. Every misfortune has an ingredient of fortune if you look deeply enough. Call it a pest, a killer, or whatever else you may, the mosquito, which depopulates whole continents, is also, by some providential paradox, a defender Read More…
As Nigeria marks another birthday, we mourn with the families of victims who have supped with raw terror as some ring of inevitability begins to form around the serial violence enveloping the country on all sides. We are all potential victims. For once, this scourge, no matter its illogic, obeys the federal character principle. Death Read More…
CONTEMPORARY AFRICA COMPRISES countries cobbled together by colonialists for their own interest. In the case of Nigeria, British colonialism was, as playwright Ola Rotimi would put it, in the service of their ‘female king’. The two hitherto distinct halves of Nigeria (Northern and Southern Protectorates) have managed to stay together as one country for one Read More…
My dear Friend, Big Brother, Angbian & Compatriot, When I got the message yesterday that you had left us, my first thought was: “My friend Mailafia will outlive Nigeria. We all will.” Perhaps because I was in the thick of studying through one of my favourite books in the Bible, Revelation of John of Patmos, Read More…
So much storm was generated by the defection of Femi Fani-Kayode from the PDP to the APC, a defection which came to public focus on the day some Nigerian soldiers were killed in Monguno, Borno State (with several others missing) after an ambush by militants from the Islamic State-backed faction of Boko Haram, the Islamic Read More…
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO be affected by contact with Lindsay Barrett, the poet, journalist, essayist, photographer, playwright, broadcaster and novelist. This rolling stone has gathered moss aplenty, having packed so much into his four score years with indelible footprints in Europe, the United States and Africa. I first met Barrett in the glorious 70s when Read More…
I CAME ACROSS A CABLE NEWS NETWORK, CNN, interview with a man identified as the Ugandan Minister of Internal Affairs. It was anchored by the network’s North American Correspondent, Larry Madowo, who clearly was being threatened. Madowo, a Kenyan journalist who had also worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC, had to go into hiding Read More…
ON THE D-DAY OF FINAL DEPARTURE of US forces from Afghanistan, there was ululation and dancing in the streets. It was a celebration of several Eids all rolled into one — Eid-el-Victory, my friend called it. After spending well over $2 billion on the Afghanistan misadventure, America was finally cutting its losses and returning to Read More…
ADEOLA SOETAN WAS A STAFF of the Nigeria Television Authority, NTA, Abeokuta when some young student leaders from the Obafemi Awolowo University, OAU, Ile-Ife visited the station. Cladded in black, they came in connection with the annual commemoration of the June 7, 1981 massacre of six students in Ife by the police. The students looked Read More…
A TRIBUTE BY SONI IRABOR I am heartbroken!!! Professor (Sir) Victor Uwaifo was my backbone when we both served in Chief Lucky Igbinedion’s Cabinet. He was Commissioner for Arts, Culture and Tourism while I was in charge of Information and Orientation. He was as lively and jovial as he was serious about issues. No holds Read More…