Every end leads to a new beginning which itself contains the seeds of another end. The continuum of life is riddled with ends and beginnings. Depending on where our paths cross or where our sensibilities are rattled or some momentous occurrence jolts us out of our accustomed lethargy, a beginning or end or anywhere in-between Read More…
Every state in Nigeria should have its own ‘Amotekun’. That ought to be clear now to anyone desirous of ending the carnage by an assortment of violent gangs in the northern states. Before the creation of Amotekun, bandits and kidnappers were running riot in the Southwest, killing people at will and collecting ransom from the Read More…
Mohammed Inuwa Wushishi was the first Nigerian army general to make a lasting positive impression on me. Taciturn, sensitive and perhaps too considerate in interpersonal relations, Wushishi struck me as a man thrust into prominence by fate but who was more comfortable operating under the radar, away from klieg lights. I was part of a Read More…
As Obafemi Awolowo University (Great Ife) marks its 60th birthday, I cast a wistful look at those best years of our lives when greying men were boys and grandmas were delectable maidens. I look back with fondness. “To look backward for a while”, says Margaret Barber, “is to refresh the eye, to restore it, and Read More…
WHEN BASHORUN JK RANDLE (scion of the illustrious Randle family of Lagos) handed over the property of his late aunt, Alhaja Munirat Muhammed, at 14A Bashorun Street, Ikoyi, to the Muslim community through the Lagos Central Mosque, many people who did not understand the symbiotic relationship between Christians and Muslims in Nigeria’s southwest, were confounded. Read More…
The vulture is a patient bird. That’s in the animal kingdom. Among humankind, the vulture of social media is the most restless and jumpy animal ever to walk the surface of the earth. In the forest, the bush or the desert, the vulture baits its prey until it drops dead. In real life among homo Read More…
Woe unto thee O land whose destiny is ruled by superstitions instead of production, thou shall continue to be vassals of the diligent, hewers of water and fetchers of firewood for the household of your former enslavers. Granted that the history of the black man has been tempestuous, but contemporary happenings indicate that the future Read More…
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…
I WRITE IN DEFENCE of the Mosquito, even as I wish that it sucks fat instead of blood. Every misfortune has an ingredient of fortune if you look deeply enough. Call it a pest, a killer, or whatever else you may, the mosquito, which depopulates whole continents, is also, by some providential paradox, a defender Read More…
As Nigeria marks another birthday, we mourn with the families of victims who have supped with raw terror as some ring of inevitability begins to form around the serial violence enveloping the country on all sides. We are all potential victims. For once, this scourge, no matter its illogic, obeys the federal character principle. Death Read More…