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Opinion

Sunday, 18 April 2021 05:48

Mama Igosun opens another front - Tatalo Alamu

To Kelegbemegbe FM Radio Station on the marshy outskirts of Okokomaiko where Mama Igosun was billed to clear the air on some pressing cultural matters. Owned by a feisty, no-nonsense ethnic supremacist, the station had become quite famous for its incendiary broadcasts and no-holds-barred interviews proclaiming the end of the Lugardian contraption. Earlier in the morning, one had been roused by the din of a truly historic commotion. Having polished off a huge bowl of corn pap with six outsize wraps of moin-moin, Mama demanded a proper breakfast of plantain porridge with wild vegetables and porcupine meat. Okon was so…

Sunday, 18 April 2021 05:46

Is Makinde aware of this? - Bola Bolawole

The write-up you are about to read was forwarded to me by a friend who now lives in the United States of America. We had been comrades at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife. Interestingly, the write-up is an investigative report by the Abuja-based Daily Trust newspaper and their object of interest - Ibadan, the capital of Oyo State. With little editing, my comments come after the write-up: “Strabag Precious Stone International market in Ibadan is a silent gold mine for many billionaires across West Africa; yet, (the Nigerian) government is being short-changed as they (the…

Sunday, 18 April 2021 05:44

One hundred minutes before Obasanjo - Festus Adedayo

Did I promise President Olusegun Obasanjo that there would be a ‘rematch’? I cannot precisely remember. But here we were, about 20 years after; he having left the office of the President of Nigeria, with his home at the Presidential Villa, Abuja and I, having left the Tribune newspaper, whose platform had brought me to interview him. We had met in 2001 or so at the Villa for the monthly programme of the office of the President called Presidential Media Chat, beamed live by the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA). John Momoh of Channels Television anchored the interview. Aside from me,…

Sunday, 18 April 2021 05:43

Nullifying the cruelty and perils of fear! - Taiwo Akinola

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee ..... (Isaiah 41:10). Introduction Times come in life when we find ourselves in situations of great fear, times of serious challenges and potent threats that bring uncommon confusion even to brave men and intrepid explorers. However, we must never allow fear to define our lives as some people do, who are so afraid to die that they never truly live. In reality, most times, fear is a thoughtless response to…

Sunday, 18 April 2021 05:41

Article of faith: The hope of righteousness (1) - Femi Aribisala

Paul says the hope the believer has in Christ Jesus does not disappoint. (Romans 5:5). In Jeremiah, God says: “I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11). But what precisely is the hope of the believer in Christ? Peter enjoins us that we should: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks (us) to give the reason for the hope that (we) have.” (1 Peter 3:15). So, what is this hope that we have? If, according…

Friday, 16 April 2021 05:36

Generational tension and children up in arms - Azu Ishiekwene

I was visiting a senior over the weekend when our conversation devolved into the soul of the Nigerian banter: how is the country going, I asked? He paused. After a moment of reflection, he took a deep breath and said, “There is tension.” I thought that was obvious and required no special gift to see. The tension sucks. There is tension between those in government and those who are not. Even among those in government, there is tension between the cabal and the fringe players. Tension between those who think policies ought not to be governed by fear and those…

Friday, 16 April 2021 05:35

Aisha Buhari: Neither different nor radical - Abimbola Adelakun

Last Thursday saw the gathering of certain personalities for the presentation of Aisha Buhari: Being Different, a book about First Lady Aisha Buhari. The biography —or more appropriately, hagiography —was written by Senior Special Adviser to the President on Women Affairs and Administration, Hajo Sani. Comprising a mere 46 pages broken into ten chapters, it barely says much. When you consider the caliber of people gathered at the occasion and the amount of money they reportedly raked —a whopping N150m — over that pamphlet, you wonder why we play too much in Nigeria. First, I think there should be a…

Friday, 16 April 2021 05:34

'Whose business, if I marry my son?' - Michael West

Things considered to be sacrilegious in the society have now adorned the toga of norms. I don't see the behaviour as a trend of civilization, rather, as abnormality and absurdity of a maddening dimension in a crazy world filled with contempt, immorality and lewdness. I didn't plan to revisit or continue with last week's topic but some weird responses provoked this follow up. An online media operator had called me earlier that the topic should have a follow up because there are other areas that needed to be looked into. His suggestion was appreciated but I didn't think along his…

Thursday, 15 April 2021 05:43

As OAU prepares for its 60th anniversary (I) - Bola Bolawole

My alma mater, the Obafemi Awolowo University (formerly the University of Ife) aka “Great Ife” will be 60 years old in a couple of months and all drums will be rolled out by both the university authorities and the alumni to celebrate the Diamond jubilee. No effort will be spared as every hand will be on the deck and no stone will be left unturned. Committees and subcommittees have been set up and work has begun in earnest. Soon, very soon, it will be loud at Great Ife and this will reverberate not only across the country but also all…

Wednesday, 14 April 2021 05:48

So, where are the tribes? - Kayode Komolafe

The simple answer to the above question is that there is no tribe anywhere in Nigeria. In reality, there are instead communities, ethnic groups and nationalities making up the country. Yet in official documents and public discussions ethnic groups comprising tens of millions of people are incorrectly referred to as “tribes.” Hence, from the professor to the senator and from the pundit to the roadside mechanic, comes the conclusion that the problem of Nigeria is “tribalism.” When you make a statement at the police station, you have to indicate your “tribe” on the paper. A line in the Nigeria’s former…

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Tuesday, 13 April 2021 05:37

The imperial president and his self-absorption - Nosa Igiebor

President Muhammadu Buhari is hypocrisy personified in very vivid colours. The irony of the cosmic distance between his words and deeds seems to be always lost on him. He and his shrinking army of core supporters think that he shouldn’t, and cannot, be judged by his words and what he does or fails to do as president and commander-in-chief. He’s the imperial majesty who’s beyond any reproach from his ungrateful subjects. That’s why he considers it condescending for him to address the people even during their moments of extreme distress. Enter the two resident Goebellian megaphones of Aso Rock, Femi…

Monday, 12 April 2021 05:39

Yinka Odumakin: Like a candle in the wind - Bola Bolawole

Verse 1: Goodbye Oodua nation's rose/May you ever grow in our hearts/You were the grace that placed itself/Where lives were torn apart/You called out to our country/And you whispered to those in pain/Now you belong to heaven/And the stars spell out your name Chorus: And it seems to me you lived your life/Like a candle in the wind/Never fading with the sunset/When the rain set in/And your footsteps will always fall here/Along Oodua nation's greenest hills/Your candle's burned out long before/Your legend ever will Verse 2: Loveliness we've lost/These empty days without your activism/This torch, we'll always carry/For Oodua nation's…

Sunday, 11 April 2021 05:41

Tinubu: A presidential disaster waiting to happen? - Farooq A. Kperogi

Anyone who has watched Bola Tinubu closely and dispassionately can’t help but notice that the man is not well. He is a walking psychedelic calamity. His endless verbal miscues and nonverbal cues constantly conspire to construct the profile of a man who is battling a troubling internal turmoil, who is held hostage by disablingly malefic inner demons. He appears to revel in his own self-created alternate universe that is always lightyears away from ours. When he speaks and walks, he strikes the observer as a man in a daze, in a cripplingly drunken or narcotic stupor. He slurs his words,…

Sunday, 11 April 2021 05:40

Fayose’s seaside prayers as Nigeria in hands of Mammy Water - Festus Adedayo

At first sight, you would think you had seen Mammy Water, that fish god image created by Sir Victor Uwaifo, famous Joromi singer, Nigerian musician, sculptor and university lecturer. Should you run or obey Uwaifo? In Guitar Boy, Uwaifo sang: “If you see Mami water ohh,/If you see Mami Water ohh,/Never Never you run away,/Ehh, Ehh,/Never run away with your wife ohh.” Or better still, you could think you were watching a dramatized version of Wole Soyinka’s The Trials of Brother Jero. Jero is a satiric comedy that parodies Nigerian religionists’ hypocrisy and cunning, which they garnish with seasonings of…

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