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…

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…

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…

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…