Category: Opinion

Skits literally crack ribs with laughter. The line separating fact from fiction or faction (fact and fiction) in skits is paper-thin. An instance was a skit cobbled together in Addis Ababa on January 11, 1976 at an OAU Extraordinary Session on Angola. This high-octane skit was documented by General Joe Nanven Garba in his Diplomatic Soldiering (1987). Garba was a Langtang-born Federal Commissioner for External Affairs under Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo. Self-titled ‘Field Marshal’ Idi Amin Dada, the notorious Ugandan despot, was then the OAU chairman. It was at…

This article was first published in December 2017 and repeated with minor changes a few times. I am repeating it because I find it very relevant and perhaps it may make us view Nigeria first over many of the things that pull us apart. Why should a citizen hail a leader today but wail tomorrow when a different leader does what he hailed yesterday? Or why should he wail today when just yesterday he was hailing a different person doing the same thing?   Hailer and wailer are new terms…

It’s been going on for years, maybe three, maybe more or less. Everybody expects the journey to culminate at the usual final bus stop. And true to peoples’ expectations it looks like the normal thing will definitely happen. The invitation cards are out, the wedding trousseau complete. She has made trips and trips to the fashion designers for fittings and more fittings. The cows have been paid for and a five-tiered cake ordered.   His people have chosen their own ‘aso-ebi’ and so have the bride-to-be’s friends and family. The…

_”I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens”._ These were the words of President Bola Tinubu in a broadcast to the nation on the now-suspended # _EndBadGovernanceInNigeria_ protests. Among other things, the protests have highlighted the plight of Nigeria’s forgotten poor, who are not just passive bystanders but active voices demanding change. The brief nature of this outcry finds its flow…

Today is another Friday—a time for reflection and spiritual nourishment. If you are searching for a sermon that inspires sober contemplation, consider the profound words of the renowned African author Ayi Kwei Armah: “The Beautiful Ones Are Not Yet Born.” This thought resonates deeply with our current reality; we are in desperate need of “the beautiful ones”—individuals of integrity and moral fortitude—in every segment of Nigeria.   This value-laden phrase serves as a stark reminder to all humble readers, leaders, and followers that the ideal of moral and ethical purity…

In an interview with Financial Times published last Friday, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu sounded more upbeat about the Nigerian oil and gas sector than he was two and a half years ago. As an industry player, Elumelu had lamented in March 2022 that the reason Nigeria could not meet its OPEC production quota “is not because of low investment but because of theft, pure and simple!” At the same period when oil companies were shutting down production, a former Seplat Energy CEO, Mr Austin Avuru stated that…

The desire to impact and improve modest Basic Education cannot be overemphasized, hence the move by the Universal Basic Education Commission UBEC to involve both national and multinational organizations which included Ministries, Departments and Agencies became timely .   This was at the backdrop of the commission’s synergy with the anti graft agencies like the ICPC, EFCC, code of conduct bureau to protect any unforseen development regarding its new moves to boost the funding base of Basic Education in Nigeria.   The new moves will not only be restricted to…

The king in pre-colonial Oyo had power over everything. He determined who lived and who died. At a point in time, there was this street drummer in Oyo metropolis who moved from one point of the town to the other plying his trade. And, he was a master of his art, great skill, vigorous activity. He would praise those he considered praiseworthy; he would deprecate the deplorable. The people enjoyed what he did as long as he did not make them the object of his pillory. One day, the drummer…

Some 200 years ago, someone could whimsically deport someone from a part of this country to another. It happened to Madam Efunroye Tinubu in 1856. She was given 24 hours to leave Lagos for her hometown, Abeokuta. This is 2024. You can’t have tasty mutton-mushroom sauce without all the necessary elements. Any cook worth his or her name knows the culinary fact of the juice of one sweetening the whole. What makes Lagos Lagos is the rainbow colours of its population and the allure of its complexity. That is what…