It is not yet doomsday in Nigeria. There is still some chance to rescue us from ourselves, even if the buffeting winds of killings and maimings and outright erasure of human settlements from the surface of the earth have served adequate notice that we are pushing our luck.I have no partisan agenda other than the Read More…
By Wole Olaoye “O deity, save me if you can; if not, just leave me as you met me”, Teacher Abel soliloquised when he learnt of President Trump’s threat to invade Nigeria to rid the country of Islamist terrorists. Abel is of southwest extraction. He used to teach in a primary school in Northern Nigeria. Read More…
Nigeria is a country with two distinct legal systems, whether we admit it or not. That is the only way to describe the country, given that some people insist that everything, including the constitution, be subordinated to their religion. To cover up their refusal to accept the secularity of Nigeria, they make such claims as, Read More…
Once hailed as Nigeria’s model residential estate, Festac Town now grapples with overpopulation, filth, and moral decline. Once a symbol of post-Festac ’77 modernity, it has degenerated into what writer Wole Olaoye calls a “village cast in concrete and swimming in sewage.” The story of Festac’s “villagification” is both an elegy and a warning to other Nigerian estates losing their soul to neglect.
“ It is not easy to be a pioneer — but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world.” – Elizabeth Blackwell When discussing colour printing in Nigeria, one recalls that in the beginning was Academy Press, sixty years ago. Before then, there was no Read More…
The United States of America recently declared that there was a religious war, specifically the persecution of Christians, going on in Nigeria. The Nigerian government promptly denied the claim. But the basic truth is that, whereas one may not want to join habitual pyromaniacs in further setting the country on fire, there is an undeclared Read More…
In Africa, kingship has been considered sacred from time immemorial. We invented the Divine Right of Kings before Europe copied and popularised it. We ascribed ultimate power to the Unmade Maker under whom many gods operated. Next to the gods were the kings. Thus, in Yoruba culture, the king is, “Alase ekeji orisa” (equivalent of Read More…
“Mercy is the compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm. The object of our mercy may be grotesquely flawed. He may appear so inhuman as to be considered subhuman. But spiritual masters in all the known religions and mystic houses agree that the needle of human Read More…
May God save us from our ‘frienemies’; that is, enemies who pose as friends. Can you imagine the middlemen who have held the petroleum distribution sector by the jugular over the years, screaming that they have been doing it all for the sake of the people? Can you beat that? In an earlier intervention on Read More…
It is not fitting for a king to have good luck charms. He is already a king, second-in-command to the gods. Does he want to become God? Generally, especially in the traditional societies of Africa, to be a king is to attain the highest position any mortal can aspire to. Whether the position is hereditary Read More…