Any idea, no matter how small or banal, can lead to great wealth. Ordinarily, the word “ass”, “buttock” or “bottom” would be scoffed at. But one inspired man took that word in its old Bendel lingo version known as “Ikebe” and made great and enduring wealth out of it. Wale Adenuga, the son of a Read More…
In many ways, High Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo is a great man. In many ways, too, his plebeian irascibility makes him look like a medieval proletarian who gatecrashed into modern high society and feels obliged to play Orunmila. In case you didn’t know, Orunmila is the Yoruba god of wisdom and knowledge. Read More…
I am not in the habit of poking my nose into affairs that don’t concern me, except that when a fart is released in one corner of the room, it will inevitably spread around in obedience to the direction of the wind. Ogun State may be comparatively small in the Nigerian community of states, but Read More…
I WAS to attend the International Labour Organisation, ILO, Conference for two weeks in 2011 and was late in making accommodation arrangements in Geneva. I turned to Ambassador Ayo Olukanni, then Nigerian Deputy Ambassador in Vienna, Austria, to see if he had somebody who could check out the hotels and make a booking. Olukanni had Read More…
Nigerians are a rare breed — at once contemptuous of their country and fiercely defensive of it. When arguing among themselves, Nigerians criticise their country viciously as if the country means nothing to them. Well, it doesn’t— because it hasn’t bothered to achieve an emotional bonding with the younger generation who account for three-quarters of Read More…
I have always been fascinated by the worldview and insights of old people— fellow mortals who have trodden these ever changing paths for so long that the story of their lives is the story of an era. I am doubly enthralled when such old people have impacted their societies and LIVED FOR SOMETHING. In a Read More…
AFTER the presidential election on Saturday, February 25, 2023, the rains came down in Abuja. No, they were not pitiful tears even when Nigeria, an otherwise prosperous country has been reduced to a beggarly state. Rather, they were rains cleansing the country, starting with a thorough wash of the county’s seat of government to prepare Read More…
Today is the tomorrow you fretted about yesterday. You had thought that we were at the portals of oblivion in the run-up to the presidential elections. By now, we are all supposed to have vaporised. I made a quick check at dawn this morning; the sun still rose from the East as usual. All the Read More…
“There is always enough light for one who wishes to see.” -Hazrat Imam Ali (AS) The forthcoming presidential elections will be determined, to a large extent, by the votes of the youth. There has been so much talk about how each succeeding generation in the last 62 years has betrayed the Nigerian project and bequeathed Read More…
Away from the grandiose promises of politicians in these testy times of electoral campaigns in the midst of insecurity, let’s just pause for a moment and consider how parts of our country came to look like Libya where warlords determine life expectancy. I am not aware that any of the leading presidential candidates has shown Read More…
