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…
“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…
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…
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…
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…
Our friends, Tamuno, Dike and Hadi are exercising their right to freedom of speech: Tamuno: By now, Buhari should have visited Owo to commiserate with the people over the killings. Dike: He should have visited Anambra and Imo for the same reason too. Hadi: He can’t be everywhere. The VP already visited Owo Tamuno: If he can’t be everywhere, Read More…
Imagine reducing a human being— a political leader carrying the hopes and aspirations of millions of people… imagine reducing that person to just one tooth! One tooth — that’s all that remains to show that Patrice Émery Lumumba, a pan-Africanist and former Prime Minister of the Republic of Congo, ever trod this earth. After his Read More…
“Never again!” That phrase was made popular by survivors of the Holocaust in which six million European Jews were systematically murdered in pogroms, mass shootings and gas chambers during World War II by Hitler’s forces. The phrase is thought to have been borrowed from a 1927 poem by Yitzhak Lamdan, “Never again shall Masada fall!”. Read More…
It seems like just yesterday when I teased Sam Nda-Isaiah on his 50th birthday at the International Conference Centre, Abuja. “Are you now a young old man, or an old young man?” I asked. “I have to think properly before I answer you”, he said, adding, “I think there’s a catch in that question. But, Read More…
“Kabiyesi, I’m told you want my daughter to enrol in your school so that you can convert her to Christianity”, said Imam Oyefolahan, Chief Imam of Eripa Central Mosque. He was addressing the Orangun of Oke-Ila Orangun and founder of Abolarin College, Oba Dr. Adedokun Omoniyi Abolarin, Aroyinkeye I. The Imam’s daughter, Aminat, had won Read More…
