For some inexplicable reason, the first thought that came to my mind when I saw the title of Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi’s memoirs, “The Road Never Forgets”, was a quick throwback to Wole Soyinka’s world-acclaimed play,“The Road”. The word, road, has had a loaded meaning for me on various metaphorical levels since I acted in a Read More…
Tag: Wole Olaoye
When Death Stalks…
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…
Enter the Bulldogs
As political campaigns for the 2023 presidential elections gather steam, the various parties have started unveiling their programmes. They are promising to take Nigerians to the moon and back. You have to give it to the Nigerian politicians: They know how to re-say the same thing others have said in the past and still appear Read More…
Thieving Frenzy and Debt Slavery
At the rate Nigeria’s patrimony is being pillaged by known and unknown but well connected rats, the Guinness Book of Records will have to be updated to recognise our frog leap to primacy in thievery. Imagine, the Antwerp diamond heist used to be considered one of the largest robberies in history in which loose diamonds, Read More…
Not A Poisoned Chalice
Some people think that the next president of Nigeria will inherit a poisoned chalice because he (yes, he) will find out that what he thought was a throne was but a marble-coated trap programmed to de-ball. If the economic situation is as bad as many experts see it, why are so many people hell-bent on Read More…
Borrowing to live a lie
If you are not aware that one ‘mudu’ of yellow Garri which used to sell for N140 in Abuja is now N500, you would at least know that one litre of diesel has jumped from N240 per litre to N820. That was why my barber disagreed with the headline of the newspaper I was reading: Read More…
Fire on the Mountain
“There’s fire on the mountainand nobody seems to be on the runThere’s fire on the mountain top and no one is a-running… One day the river will overflowAnd there’ll be nowhere for us to goAnd we will run, runWishing we had put out the fire In this season of university closure and youth rudderlessness, the lyrics Read More…
Hassan, Son of Kukah
Today, we roll out the drums for Matthew whose other name is Hassan, the son of Kukah. The young man from Anchuna, Zangon Kataf, heard the Call and, forsaking everything, embraced the sacerdotal commitment of Obedience and Chastity. How does a brilliant lad forsake the world when he had everything at his feet? Wondrous are Read More…
USA: Visa By Ordeal
There are only very few instances of humiliation and frustration that can compare with what the average Nigerian goes through in a quest for a US visa. You would think America was Paradise or something close. You would think that the applicant’s very life depended on the granting or denial of that visa. But if Read More…
May Luck Find Nigeria
How does one shake off the depressing feeling of déjà vu as one tragedy rolls over another? At times, one feels like an idiot. Wrapping one’s head around the way things have turned out in Nigeria — diminishing security, fuel queues, unprecedented inflation, intractable closure of universities, Naira depreciation etc — is physically exhausting. The Read More…