Columns

I am inviting all those who have followed this column and believe that Nigeria can be what I have strenuously advocated every week to join me in my mission to replace President Jonathan

The ability to remain composed, adapt appropriately, and forge ahead in the face of challenges and opposition is at the very heart of leadership. In this age of constant change, disruption and upheaval, resilience becomes inevitable to the survival of individuals, organizations and nations. As someone said, “If we cannot control the volatile tides of […]

Recently in the United Kingdom, there has been a great deal of talk about what exactly it means to be British.  The conversation sparked off by Operation Trojan Horse in Birmingham schools, led to investigations by Ofsted which uncovered plans by the Park View Educational Trust to expand its influence beyond its own academies and […]

A system used for brevity or secrecy of communication, in which arbitrarily chosen words, letter or symbols are assigned definite meaning – that’s how the dictionary describes the word code. This speaks more or less of some complex item or situation requiring ingenuity to decipher. You now must wonder why all this talk about codes. […]

The dark days of military oppression are back! The Black Era has returned! Soldiers took over a major street in Lagos for five hours and we were helpless to stop them. They slapped some; beat some senseless; destroyed public and personal property, all without fear of retribution. The signs were always there. The way the […]

Like Ebenezer Obadare, I am not one of those Nigerians who consider “men of God” – as some refer to Christian clergymen in our country – to be beyond reproach. When you question the actions of such men, even those that seem to contradict scripture, you’re wont to hear their uncritical flock quote the Bible […]

The girls of Chibok remain in captivity despite: Having drawn the attention of the whole world The Nigerian Army declaring it knows where they are The US, Britain, France, Israel, Australia, South Africa the AU and others having pledged assistance in men, materiel and expertise African power heads of state, namely Kagame of Rwanda and […]

I had sworn that my first visit to Osogbo would be to its world-famous Osun Sacred Grove. Instead, I attended a “mega” rally in the historic town of Iwo, one of many at which Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola is asking the Osun people to renew his mandate as their governor. I had first taken notice of […]

It was Arthur Gordon, famously known as “Art” Linkletter, a Canadian-born American radio and television personality (July 17, 1912 – May 26, 2010), who said: “There are four stages of man: infancy, childhood, adolescence…and obsolescence”. In all through these stages, the first two – infancy and childhood- though form the building blocks of a man’s […]

Hearing the reports of massive inflow of foreign assistance – millions of US Dollars, plane-loads of medicines, building materials, blankets and warm clothing into Japan and 13 other countries along the costs of those countries bordering the Indian Ocean following the devastating, mega-earthquake, the Tsunami, a poor but calculating and witty Nigerian offered a prayer. […]

All over Nigeria, it is common to see small contributory savings schemes where market women contribute a daily portion of their trading profit to a collective. What are the characteristics of these groups that make it work and what lessons can corporate Nigeria learn from these groups to ensure that as a group, they maintain […]

Last semester, I taught Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel for the first time in about thirty years. Though I do like the play a lot, it is not one of my favourite Soyinka plays, not one of his dramatic writings that I regard as some of the best plays ever written. I believe […]

Wole Soyinka turned 80 at the very beginning of this week. For many, that milestone must seem incredible.

Malala Yousafzai spent “Malala Day”, her 17th birthday, in Nigeria. Since she was shot by the Taliban on her way to school nearly two years ago, she has become a complex, important global symbol. Wearing a headscarf, she confidently advocates for young girls’ rights to education. While the backdrop of her story is one of […]

As we watch man threaten its very existence with its inhumanity to itself, our focus is very dangerously taken off a bigger peril. While we plant bombs and launch arsenals in a bid to win unwarranted wars, a silent war against the human race is being declared by an even bigger threat to humanity. An […]

A writer like Nadine Gordimer is rare. She was one of those great ones who challenged the human faculty for reading because her writing never conformed to the norms of writing but rather reached forwards into realms of possibilities, constantly. She wrote a lot, thought a lot, suffered a lot. You wouldn’t know it, looking […]

Just think how many votes can be harvested in Lagos by telling commuters an incoming PDP government will allow okadas back on the roads.

 “He communicated in the contemporary language of his time and with such suaveness that both awe and appeal.”

The National Conference is coming to an end and through it, we know at the end what we knew at the beginning. It was necessary to have the National Conference so that we can chat but that the discussions will take us nowhere. My position has always been that just talking about our problems is […]

When plans to convene another talkfest around the seminal questions hemming in our quest for national cohesion were bruited about recently, my initial reaction was one of irritation. At the minimum, any such dialogue makes sense in response to a representation, accountability, or democracy deficit. Within this reading, a national conference was reasonable as part […]

The poverty line in Nigeria is no longer imaginary. Everywhere you turn, you can see the yawning gulf of divide between the rich and the poor. The poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer, no thanks to the scourge of greed that pervades the land among the ruling class. In Nigeria, the poor have […]

Ayo mi: the one that brings me joy. The one that gives me strength and offers me hope. The one that stood with me before my accusers and laughed them to scorn. The one that renews my youth, that makes me smile and that expands the horizons of my inner-most thoughts. The African Khaleesi: the […]