If you ever ventured near the World Headquarters Shrine of the Palmwine Drinkards Club at the University of Ife of yore, you would hear the constant refrain: Things fall apart, the centre must hold;A house divided against itself shall stand;Few are called, many are chosen… In the midst of all the lightheartedness for which that Read More…
Tag: Wole Olaoye
Between Babalola & Farotimi
Much ado about a book! There will always be hawks and doves on both sides. It is at such times that I appreciate the admonition of Gordon B Hincklrey: “A small publication that came to me some years ago carried the following: ‘Once a man who had been slandered by a newspaper came to Edward Read More…
The last soldier standing clocks 75
I have never made a secret of my admiration for Col Abubakar Dangiwa Umar (Rtd). Right from the time he broke into public consciousness with his brief stint as Chief Executive Officer of the Federal Housing Authority to the time he came unto his own as governor of old Kaduna State (including the present Katsina Read More…
Toast to Soyinka & Olatunji Dare
An ingrate is but a robber in disguise. I am thrilled to celebrate, on the same platform today, two great Nigerians who have impacted greatly on our collective intellectual environment and whose birthdays providentially fall within a few days of each other. Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka turned 90 on July 13 while Emeritus Professor Olatunji Read More…
Garlands for Humphrey Nwosu
One of the personalities I had expected to pump hands with at the dinner marking the 2024 Democracy Day in commemoration of the June 12 struggle, was the former chairman of the National Electoral Commission, 82-year-old Prof Humphrey Nwosu. His absence filled the State House Banquet Hall as if the pillars holding the rafters of Read More…
Military or civilian, a coup is a coup!
Coup-making is not the exclusive preserve of soldiers or the armed forces. Civilians, too, do stage coups. In Nigeria, we have had our fair share of coups and counter-coups and have resolved that our collective aspirations as a people are best served by a government of the people, for the people, and by the people. Read More…
Enough!
Enough is enough! That was the sentiment expressed by Nigerians following the recent gale of kidnappings and terror attacks unleashed by bandits on defenceless Nigerians in various parts of Nigeria, especially in the northern parts (Kaduna, Plateau and Taraba states) where trips hitherto classified as routine are now acknowledged as a walk in the valley Read More…
Wike: From Victim to Landlord
What goes around comes around. It was in realisation of that truism that the inimitable Robert Mugabe shared his now viral quote: “Treat every part of your towel nicely because the part that wipes your buttocks today will wipe your face tomorrow.” If the officials of the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) had known that Read More…
Presidential ‘To Do’ List (1)
Celebrations are in order as we savour the near-miss that almost rendered us impecunious. A near miss, indeed. We must never forget how we got there. And, going forward, how can the Tinubu administration tweak the government’s policies and programmes to favour our largely disillusioned people? P&ID Shakedown Some Nigerian public officials hate their country Read More…
That Abraham’s children may live together in peace
They both claim Abraham as their progenitor. Physically alike to the outside eye, it is difficult to tell one from the other but for ethnic differences such as the shape of the beard, Muslim skullcap (Taqiyah) or Jewish kippah, and other cultural peculiarities, they are cousins but can hardly tolerate each other. Providence has fated Read More…