The two highlights of dying 2014 were Ebola and Boko Haram, none of which was pleasant to Nigerians. Whereas the good structure of Lagos health services fought Ebola, Boko Haram has been invincible because there is no comprehensible strategy for its containment. It defies the state and creates parallel governments as it claims more territories.…
Economy: Nigeria Skirting The Circle
How I wished Tayo Akpata, Sam G. Ikoku, Bola Ige, Erhunse Bankole Akpata, Tunji Otegbeye and other departed Nigerian thinkers were alive today to see how the cooks of neo-colonial politics have spoilt the broth. I do not envy Allison, Ayida, Phillip Asiodu, Olufemi Okunnu, Mohammed Dikko Yusufu, Mohammed Ayagi, Balarabe Musa and others who…
Not Yet a Clear Path to Recovery
It was Nnamdi Azikiwe who said on television on his return to Nigeria during the civil war that no one used Sunday-School language to deal with a scoundrel. In fact, if a government resorts to arm-twisting and suppression to treat political matters, it invites equal physical resistance from the oppressed, because the law of changeless…
Jega Can’t Stop This Army
“My vote must count,” echoed an angry elderly man driven to hysteria by Attahiru Jega’s disenfranchisement of millions of Lagosians. As he spoke at the verification and registration centre at St. Kizito School, Iju Ishaga, hundreds of disenfranchised others joined and changed it into a song. As they chanted their resolve to challenge INEC, the…
Nigeria’s Split Personality
I spent eight hours on a journey that took three, two decades before the arrival of Nigeria’s pseudo-democracy. When Yakubu Gowon built the Shagamu–Ore dual carriageway within three years of his post-war rule, it was pleasurable to ride to Benin from Lagos. Samuel Ogbemudia introduced those luxury buses with toilet facilities in his Midwest Line.…
Who Cast The First Stone?
One wonders the furore about cross-carpeting in Nigeria by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, when it has been the major beneficiary of the obscene pastime. Only a few of those who lead the PDP today shared the dreams of the radicals who braved military might to forge a group that has now been debased by…
Celebrating Villains, Despising Heroes
Comets no longer announce the passing of princes in Nigeria. They are quietly interred unsung. Pacesetters are treated with disdain by those they preceded to lay respectable foundation for in the professions. But villains, cheats and thieves are sung to high heavens when they exit to hell. How can one explain why the country has…
EBOLA: Nigeria’s Triumph in Collectivism
Hurrah! At last there is something to celebrate in Nigeria. We are Ebola free for now. It proves our varying but progressive ingenuity under a collective ideal. Some fellow exported Ebola to Nigeria and we stopped him at our border before he could diffuse it to unmanageable dimension, thanks to Ameyor Adadevoh, the heroine of…
Keshi’s Head for the Block?
They want the head of Stephen Keshi on the block. His sin is that he has been unable to repeat the impossible. He has not transformed to the 12th man on the field to secure victory for Nigeria’s first eleven in the current Africa Cup of Nations campaign. Why do Nigerians treat wounds instead of…
Grandstanding With Power
Today’s Nigeria should be any foreign correspondent’s mine for news. Even the most un-enterprising of reporters would get at least two juicy stories a week, to whet the appetite of news hungry audiences at home because those who hold the reins here never tire of foul steps in attending to state matters. Is it true…
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