A LUTA CONTINUA! VITÓRIA É CERTA! (The struggle continues! Victory is certain!) That was our singsong in those heady student union days when our blood boiled with patriotic fervour as we challenged the excesses or inadequacies of our unelected military fiefs. That battle cry is so central to the raison d’être of student unionism that 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…
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…
THE NEO-COLONIAL TRAJECTORY of almost all African states, the neo-liberal policies they pursue and their anti-people programmes, lead in virtually all cases, to constant conflicts between African political leaders and workers. So it is rare for workers to eulogise their political elite. So, for them at the continental level to collectively eulogise and honour a particular African president is Read More…
THE CIVIC SPACE IS shrinking by the day as my countrymen and women contend for the soul of the nation. Nigeria is pregnant. Veteran political midwives predict a long and painful labour. But they do not foresee a stillbirth as happened in 1993 under the watchful eyes of one former student of the redoubtable Eme Read More…
By Nkanu Egbe Take a walk into a clothing shop in the United States, check the labels on their garments and you will see “Made in Turkey”, “Made in China”, “Made in Nigeria” … Made in Nigeria? Yes! Unknown to many, Nigeria exports first-grade textiles and garments to Europe and the United States. The numbers Read More…
I CANNOT BELIEVE I am writing this. The events are a nightmare that will not go away. Pa Joseph Oritseretsolokumi Ayomike, an 83-year-old man of culture and immense intellect, and his wife, Dr. Chinyere ‘Chichi’ Shirley Ayomike, opera soloist/duetist, Technical Vocational Education and Training, TVET, expert, and a senior lecturer at the Delta State University, Read More…
THREE NEWS-BREAKS, the re-arrest of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra (IPOB); the storming of the residence of Sunday Adeyemo, a.k.a. Sunday Igboho, and the passing of the Petroleum Industry Bill by the National Assembly — nearly consigned the seminal treatise enunciated by former President Goodluck Jonathan at the 13th Joe-Kyari Gadzama Read More…
“Peace does not mean an absence of conflicts”; says Dalai Lama XIV. “Differences will always be there. Peace means solving these differences through peaceful means; through dialogue, education, knowledge; and through humane ways.” Such sentiments are desperately needed in Nigeria today. Different parts of the country have been vending different positions on the problem with Read More…
It was fun at first sight. The first time I set eyes on Toni Kanayo Onwordi, famously known as Toni Kan, I found fun oozing from his every pore.He blazed into the Lagos writing circle with uncommon confidence that was at once assured and very questing. He was like the leader of the Jos Brigade, Read More…