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…
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…
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…
FIRST, MY COMMISERATIONS to the families, friends and colleagues of Lieutenant Commander Wulah and Flight Lieutenant Commander Okoronkwo both of whom were killed by terrorists who invaded the Nigerian Defence Academy to the consternation of Nigerians. I pray for the safe return of Major Datong who was abducted by the daredevil terrorists. And the cheek Read More…
SUDDENLY, THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, the world’s number one self-appointed policeman, is the butt of vicious jibes. Some have likened the US misadventure in Afghanistan to the tragic fall of Kunrumi in Ola Rotimi’s play of the same title. Ola Rotimi painted the trajectory of Kunrumi’s hubris vividly: “When the tortoise is going on Read More…
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…
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…