Category: Opinion

Osun EndSARS anniversary: When Osun youths showed courage By Ismail Omipidan

Emporium Reporters

“Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will” The above quote from Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist and political ethicist, who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful campaign for India’s independence from British rule and in turn to inspire movements for civil rights and freedom across the world, is apt in describing the decision by the Osun Youth Community to choose a non-violent approach to mark one year anniversary of the EndSARS protest. They lived up to the billing of setting the…

#ENDSARS: One year after, we remember our young heroes and heroines! By Joe Okei Odumakin

Emporium Reporters

We remember today all the young Nigerians killed or maimed during the #ENDSARS protests one year ago, in bizarre circumstances.   We remember them because of the weight their memory places on our conscience as individuals who witnessed the gory sight. We remember them because we have neither addressed the grievances that led to the protests nor extricated ourselves from the miry clay of insensitivity and cluelessness that our youths stood up against. We remember them because, one year after, we have not moved an inch from a spot. The…

Widowed prematurely by Boko Haram By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

“I lost my husband four weeks ago to Boko Haram.” That was the message sent to me last week on WhatsApp by Angela, as I used to call her. Terse as it was, it bore the shattering impact of a two-tonnes bomb. Its massive boom and the doom it left in its trails deposited shrapnel of despondency in my heart. Its impact was deafening as it hit my ear lobe like a thunderbolt. How does this young, widowed lady, barely a year old in marriage, a First Class graduate of…

Has rescue come the way of our University of Ibadan? By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

In April of this year, I penned a piece, which became serially discussed, on the University of Ibadan, entitled Who will rescue our University of Ibadan? In the piece, I collated the views of several alumni and stakeholders of this premier university on the slide in its affairs. I do not have to remind us of the very rich pedigree of academic excellence that UI, as it is fondly called, wears or wore on its lapel. It is not just the oldest and the first university in Nigeria; it prides…

A critique of Hakeem Baba-Ahmed’s ‘rejoinder’ By Lasisi Olagunju

Emporium Reporters

Abdulrazak Gurnah, the Tanzanian who won the Nobel Prize in Literature last week has a very interesting definition of honour. He says it means “respect yourself (so that) others will come to respect you.” That is from his ‘Paradise’ – a ‘narrative reversal’ of Joseph Conrad’s ‘Heart of Darkness.’ Every piece of writing – or speech – is a potential engenderer of reactions. I got calls and text messages throughout last week asking if I had seen the ‘rejoinder’ to my September 27, 2021 article from the spokesman of the…

BIAFRA: THE SYMBOLIC LANGUAGE OF THE ONE-MAN PROTEST OF CHIWETALU AGU By Law Mefor

Emporium Reporters

Two days ago, Friday, the ace Nollywood actor, Chiwetalu Agu, was arrested by the Nigerian Army at Upper Iweka, Onitsha, where he was sharing bread to his fans and admirers decked in Biafra colours. Following the intervention of the Nigeria Actors Guild, the day after, he was released by the army but rearrested by the Department of State Service (DSS) Enugu office, where he is still being held for the same reason. The question is: what offence did Chiwetalu Agu commit? Is the problem sharing bread to his fans or…

Malami’s State of Emergency and Chiwetalu Agu’s arrest By Festus Adedayo 

Emporium Reporters

Either out of acute ignorance of the law, diffidence towards it, naivety or a consuming passion to appear hyperactive in the eyes of Aso Rock, the Nigerian security establishment will not stop exuding sickening optics in its operations, to the shuddering embarrassment of the world. Last week, it was another time for the advertisement of this gross lack in mental capacity. Nollywood star, Chiwetalu Agu, was arrested by some officers of the Nigerian Army at the Upper Iweka, Onitsha, Anambra State. His sin and as could be seen in a…

Jonathan, Buhari cuckolding in time of war By Festus Adedayo

Emporium Reporters

Last Wednesday, Muhammadu Buhari and his newfound friend, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, locked each other inside the sacristy of the Nigerian presidential Villa, christened Aso Rock. When they came out afterwards, both wore the visage of 3-year old Syrian girl, Salwa and Cuckold, a 1997 book written by Indian, Kiran Nagarkar. Cuckold, a historical novel patterned after the narrative of Maharaj Kumar, may in a way explain the recent hot and adulterous romance between Jonathan and Buhari.   In the book, Kumar had attempted to win his wife, Mira’s affections in…

Abike @ 59: Celebrating an Epitome of Excellence with Human Kindness By Abdur-Rahman Balogun

Emporium Reporters

“The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively” Bob Marley   This saying aptly captured the personality of Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa , Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM).   On April 10, 2019, Mr Ray Ekpu, a Veteran Journalist wrote a piece on “Abike and her Traducers” wherein Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa seems to have walked into the trap of tribal jingoists and they want to eat her raw. Abike’s offence then was…

Kashim Akor and the new spirit of communalism… By Haruspice

Emporium Reporters

Igalaland was once beautifully rooted in a close-knitted existence where everyone was for all and all for one. An Igalaman anywhere is a brother everywhere to someone somewhere. Our home in Zaria used to be a convergence for every Igala in that precinct – so we grew up with the innocent notion that every Igala was biologically related to our parents. That was the era where love dominated human existence and the values that defines humanity was purely altruistic. In those days of fascinating reference, Igala sons and daughters come…