Before the advent of satellite television, our viewing options were limited to just one or, at most, two TV stations: NTA and state broadcasting corporations. The diverse choices we enjoy today were nonexistent. In fact, state-owned media outlets typically commenced broadcasting around noon and signed off by midnight. The radio landscape was similar, dominated by the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), Voice of Nigeria, and various state-owned radio stations. The print media mirrored this situation, with the government-controlled Daily Times Newspaper and state-owned publications holding sway. Clearly, the entire machinery of information dissemination rested firmly in the hands of…

Abimbola Adelakun left Ibadan, the city of Brown Roofs, to study and live a new life in Austin, the Bat City. Her next abode is now the Windy City, where she has accepted a prestigious offer at the University of Chicago. Let me take the story from the middle, as the beginning is too long. It is unusual in American universities to be retained for a job where you obtained your PhD. This is to avoid the inbreeding common in Nigerian universities where many faculty graduated from the same department, compromising integrity, reproducing tired ideas, and halting the transitions to…

On 13 December 1972, Zambia’s founding president, Kenneth Kaunda, signed into law the Constitution (Amendment) Acts, numbers 3,4 and 5, ending the country’s First Republic and ushering in a new constitution for the country, which promised a “One-Party Participatory Democracy” under “one and only one party…., namely, the United National Independence Party (UNIP).” All of this was to be realised under an official ideology of “Humanism.” The previous day, Zambia’s Court of Appeal had thrown out the case brought by veteran nationalist, Harry Nkumbula, in his appeal from the decision of the High Court dismissing his case against the establishment…

The Hausa people (or Hausawa) are the original and indigenous people of Hausaland, traversing the North-West, and parts of North-East and North-Central (or Middle-Belt) of Nigeria. They are the largest ethnic group in West and Central Africa. The Middle-Belt people (or Middle-Belters) are the indigenous non-Hausa, non-Yoruba and non-Igbo peoples of North-Central Nigeria. They are a conglomeration of different ethnic minorities, forming a transition zone between Northern and Southern Nigeria. Unlike the Hausa, who are ethnically homogenous and largely Muslims, Middle-Belters are ethnically, culturally and religiously heterogeneous. Yet, Middle-Belters share a lot in common with Hausa people. Both are very…