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I CAN’T BREATH! HEY!… My neck! …I can’t breathe!”, screamed Nigerian diplomat Abdulrahman Ibrahim as he was being strangled at the back of a car by Indonesian immigration police. If the assault had been visited on any ordinary citizen of any country in the world, it would still be as horrific. But the fact that Read More…
THE NIGERIAN LAW SCHOOL on July 29, 2021 called a number of new lawyers to the bar. This is nothing unusual; but what was unique was the call of Rasheedat Adeshina. Before returning to school to read law, she was already a sort of a veteran of the courts. In 1999, she had dragged to Read More…
IF YOU MUST RUN with the hare and hunt with the hounds, make sure you don’t get caught! Once you are caught, don’t blame your stars, or your enemies. Always remember that, as the bard says, “There’s blood on your lies/The scars open wide/There is nowhere for you to hide/The hunter’s moon is shining.” Man Read More…
NIGERIA HAS A LONG HISTORY OF Western education. Its first medical doctor, William Broughton Davis graduated in 1858. It had its first television station on October 31, 1959 before some Western countries like Albania and New Zealand. Yet, in July, 2021, its National Assembly voted overwhelmingly that the country must not transmit election results electronically. Read More…
MY HEART WENT OUT TO Alhaji Abass Njidda Tafida the other day. His plaintive cry attracted the sympathy of the listening world. Being the Emir of Muri in Nigeria’s Taraba State firmly situates him among the ruling class. But the rich also cry. The Muri emirate, like many other parts of the country, is under Read More…
BRITONS HUGGED THEMSELVES and celebrated Monday, July 19, 2021 “Freedom Day” as the eclectic Boris Johnson government eased COVID-19 restrictions. That day, a dark sturdy man with tribal marks was led away from the Cadjèhoun Airport in Cotonou, Benin Republic. He had lost his freedom, and an uncertain future awaited him. The arrest or capture Read More…
“IT IS NOT OUR DIVERSITY which divides us”; said Nelson Mandela, “it is not our ethnicity, or religion or culture that divides us. Since we have achieved our freedom, there can only be one division amongst us: between those who cherish democracy and those who do not.” Wise words, assuming the process of ascending to Read More…
THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, and some state governments, like Kaduna, say they neither negotiate nor pay ransom to bandits. But government being incapable of preventing the mass kidnap of citizens, especially school children, and inability to rescue them, leaves families and friends with no choice but to negotiate with the bandits and pay hefty ransom. So, Read More…
BAGRAM AIRFIELD and Military Base, 70 kilometres north of Kabul was the epicentre of the 40-country coalition war to oust the Taliban from Afghanistan. At a point in 2012, over 100,000 U.S. troops passed through Bagram which is also a notorious detention centre where no human rights are observed. It was the symbol of American and NATO might Read More…
THE SOUL-NUMBING trend is in your face. Homicide has become our everyday companion. It wasn’t always like this. Life used to be sacred. It was not considered fashionable for acorns to be devoured before they became trees. Now, we are inundated with gory tales of gruesome stabbings, decapitations, gun violence and more. If you turn Read More…