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…
Our values as a people have broken down. There is no better place to witness the madness than social media where apparent cowards hide behind digital anonymity to cast aspersions on the integrity of their betters. It was sad seeing the kind of insults some misguided elements were flinging at Prof Wole Soyinka over his Read More…
Tribalism is to Africa what racism is to the West. It is the African version of black-on-black violence, except that ours is unmatched in the crudity of the implements of violence and the tenacity with which we insist on handing over the chalice of hate to the coming generation. Some people are not content with Read More…
“All those involved in snatching ballot boxes and committing all sorts of voter suppression crimes should be arrested and prosecuted”, declared Dr. Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s former president in reaction to reported incidents of ballot disruption in Bayelsa State. He spoke the minds of many of his compatriots in different parts of the country who had Read More…
Social media have their good and bad sides. If you close your eyes to avoid seeing the bad sides, chances are that your eyes will still be shut when the good sides pass you by. In the wake of the tragic loss of lives in the unfortunate accident where a train crushed a staff bus 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…
My heart bleeds each time I encounter long petrol queues which have become a permanent fixture of city landscapes in Nigeria. Petrol scarcity has become so endemic that we are no longer embarrassed by the scandalous petrol queues. All over the country, lives have been lost, millions of man-hours wasted and citizens’ health negatively impacted Read More…
“What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived; it is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead”. — Nelson Mandela When Cardinal Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger was elected the 265th Pope on 19 April 2005, he was the Read More…
As Qatar 2022 kicked off, Arabophobiacs went on overdrive with unsavoury stories about the host country. The stories ranged from deaths recorded during the construction of the various facilities to ‘human rights’ (read: gay rights) concerns. Those who thought nothing good could come out of that region were roundly disappointed in the end. Qatar gave Read More…
There are many ways to skin a cat. No one is more aware of this than the Nigerian politician. If power seekers devote 10 per cent of the time they spend meticulously planning how to grab power — if they devote just a tiny slice of that time to governance when they are eventually declared Read More…
