Category: Opinion

There are many myths circulated by various ethnic nationalities about the Yoruba people of the Southwest, and a personal experience with a non-Yoruba provoked me to address some of these myths using historical facts. Please bear with me, this is a long read. Myth one: The Yoruba are betrayers A lot of this angst, which has refused to fade away decades after the dramatis personae exited this world, is centred around a supposed betrayal of Emeka Ojukwu and the Igbo by the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo. And sadly, this has…

Quite sad (but not surprising) that it’s the ‘freezer’ comment that’s totally dominated the headlines from yesterday’s Electricity press briefing. There was a lot more that was said, that’s useful to know, as background and basis for conversation and debate.   If you want to know what else HM Bayo Adelabu said, I took some notes – the comments below are attributable to him (and to the NERC Vice Chair, who also spoke).   [The important background to all this is that for now it’s ONLY Band A consumers who…

In the 19th century and even before, Bobriskys were lynched like common criminals. Their sin was their considered unusual sexuality. Until then, homosexual activities were classified as “unnatural crime against nature” while sodomy got punished with, sometimes death. In comparison, Okuneye Idris Olanrewaju, famously known as Bobrisky, has suffered one of the mildest fates. Between 1877 and 1950, over 4000 of such lynching occurred. As recent as April 2017, Kenne McFadden, a black transgender woman who didn’t have experience of swimming, got drowned when she was pushed into the San…

The chickens, the saying goes, always come home to roost. But some people would prefer to be Shakespearean by quoting the insightful words uttered by Marc Antony in William Shakespeare’s play, Julius Caesar, “the evil that men do lives after them while the good is oft interred with their bones.”   The first is a long-established English idiom that was used as early as 1390 AD in Chaucer’s The Parson’s Tale. It means that wicked deeds or words return to trouble their originator.   In the second, spoken at Julius…

When sometime in 2008, the late Yinka Odumakin invited me to his 23, Sylvia Crescent, Anthony Village-office in Lagos, little did I know that a big surprise was waiting for me. A fine gentleman with a consistent commitment to the progressive bent, Odumakin had offered to pay me a visit but since it was unYoruba for leaders and elders to initiate the kind of visit he was envisaging, I opted for the opposite. And there I was, face-to-face, with the inimitable Odumakin and the irresistible Jimi Agbaje, aka JK. One…

In the contemporary media and communication environment, the lines between public relations (PR) and journalism have become increasingly blurred. This convergence has sparked debates among professionals about the integrity of journalistic practices and the evolving role of PR. However, instead of viewing these fields as adversaries, there exists a unique opportunity to harness their symbiotic potential for effective communication. This article explores the integration of public relations and journalism, proposing a model whereby their collaboration enhances the quality of information disseminated to the public, fostering trust and engagement. The digital…

Over the weekend, social media was agog with the frenzy that percolated the atmosphere in Igala speaking area of Kogi state, the Senator representing the axis in the National Assembly, Senator Isah Jibrin Echoco had presented a cheque of N20 million to 20 beneficiaries of his Graduate Entrepreneurship Scheme. The fund sits with the viable potential of a revolving effect-with each beneficiary expected to recreate the grant unto others. Drawn from the nine local government areas of the state, the beneficiaries are given this seed capital to stimulate their existing…