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Opinion

Wednesday, 18 November 2020 05:51

The death of JJ Rawlings - Bola Bolawole

Fewer deaths had shocked and left me dismayed as that of JJ Rawlings, who died on Thursday, November 12, 2020 a few weeks after he had buried his mother; he was aged 73 years. The death, by car assassination, of Walter Rodney, Guyanese radical scholar, political activist, and author of the seminal “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” shook the Left when it occurred on 13 June, 1980 in Georgetown, Guyana; he was aged 38 years. The government of Forbes Burnham was eventually implicated in Rodney’s death. The death of reggae icons Bob Marley (Jamaican), Lucky Dube (South African), Brenda Fasie (South…

Wednesday, 18 November 2020 05:49

The self-centered fears of Arewa elites - Gimba Kakanda

When, on November 2, the political and religious leaders of Northern Nigeria assembled in Kaduna to deliberate on the state of affairs in the region, so much was expected. Hosted by the Northern Governors’ Forum, it was intended to reassure the people of a pathway out of the cycle of killings and insecurity that had doomed the region. In their midyear report, Amnesty International tracked some killings across the North and reported about 1,126 deaths, with at least 380 kidnapped, in just 8 of the 19 states in the region between January and July. The report recounted how, during an…

Tuesday, 17 November 2020 04:29

Nigeria’s federal system still isn’t working: What should change - Remi Ayede

Nigeria is a troubled federation. Its federal character has been a subject of debate since the return to democratic rule in 1999. Various groups have claimed to be marginalised and not sufficiently represented in the central offices of the national government. Some say it’s not even a federation so much as a unitary state, created by the military. The oil-producing communities of the Niger Delta are among the groups that have militated for change. They feel neglected in development and dissatisfied with environmental degradation. Their call is for control of the wealth from resources in their region. Some state governors…

Monday, 16 November 2020 05:31

Song of a goat pepper-soup (for JP Clark) - Wole Soyinka

Tempestuous, querulous, petulant, unpredictable….yet I’ve also heard him called ẹja àrọ̀, that fish which always thrashes back to its turbid depths – and so on and on. All these may hold in parts but of course, there is that contributory side of JP Clark that is closed to many: an unresolved mix of a deep poetic sensibility with an intense political discontent, frustrations from a nation that constantly short-changes itself. Such companion unease tends to manifest itself in inner turbulence that takes vengeance on justly bewildered heads, even without apparent provocation. Those who wish to delve deeper into, or dispute…

Sunday, 15 November 2020 05:05

When Yoruba leaders spoke tongue-in-cheek... - Bola Bolawole

The collective wisdom of the Yoruba race speaks to the fact that we should never speak tongue-in- cheek for the simple but unassailable fact that if we speak the harsh, bitter truth, we shall die; whether we are killed for speaking to truth or we die a natural death, we shall die. And if, for any reason or for fear of death we run from speaking the truth, we shall die all the same. Death is a necessary evil; a debt that each and everyone will pay, whether we like it or not. So, the Yoruba say: Baa wi, a…

Sunday, 15 November 2020 05:04

The starved lion of Kaduna - Festus Adedayo

Photographs evoke metaphors, imageries and diverse interpretations. Remember the award-winning photograph of Kevin Carter, which appeared in The New York Times of March 26, 1993? It was the picture of a famine-struck Sudanese boy, initially thought to be a girl, whose name was later found out to be Kong Nyong. He had collapsed of intense hunger and lying on his face in the hot dessert sun of Sudan, with an empty food bowl hidden beside his face, a beaded necklace of his Sudanese nationality jutting out of his feeble neck. He was said to be on his way to Ayod,…

Sunday, 15 November 2020 05:02

Pressing for your redemptive rights in Christ Jesus - Taiwo Akinola

I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus ~ Philippians 3:14. Introduction: Without any doubt, the finished works of Jesus Christ on the Cross come with plenty of benefits to all humanity. Notwithstanding, enjoying these benefits is reserved only for those who are determined to press for their redemptive rights and are ready to fight to keep the faith. It is proven over time that Satan will always try to attack any thing that is of value to any serious minded believer: your health, wealth, dream and faith, your voice and…

Friday, 13 November 2020 05:12

Infidelity: Enduring agony of spousal betrayal - Michael West

It is not every broken heart that can easily be mended. In fact, some may never be fixed and refuse to heal because of the quantum of emotional damage and hurt they went through. How do you console a man whose "faithful" wife voluntarily confessed to him that she slept with one of his friends? The secret affair was said to have produced a four-year-old boy whose paternity the husband is now rejecting. This is not an imaginative story or a movie but a true-life story of a Nigerian couple in Europe. The man and his wife broke down in…

Thursday, 12 November 2020 05:03

When will the universities re-open? - Bola Bolawole

Since March this year when the universities were shut down on the orders of the Federal Government, they are yet to re-open. While it can be said that the shutdown was occasioned by the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, no one can say for certainty now that this is still the reason for the continued lockdown. To begin with, very few people believe that coronavirus ever visited these shores. Going by the way the pandemic wrecked havoc on developed countries such as the United States of America, Italy, Spain, the UK, Germany, Russia – not to mention China, the originator…

Wednesday, 11 November 2020 05:38

Freedom, the real democratic gain - Kayode Komolafe

It has become customary since the beginning of this civil dispensation in 1999 to measure governance only in terms of bricks and mortar. The popular perception of a chief executive officer “who is working” is that of an efficient awarder of contracts for the construction of bridges, roads, buildings and other items of infrastructure. In the popular imagination, a governor or minister is often expected be televised inspecting projects and closely monitoring the implementation of programmes of infrastructural developments. Hence, in the build -up to the anniversary of May 29, the date in 1999 when President Olusegun Obasanjo and 36…

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Wednesday, 11 November 2020 05:37

All I have is my voice. I shouldn’t be unfairly targeted for using it - Rinu Oduala

A few days ago, I turned 22. I am part of a generation of Nigerians who have lived most of their adult lives under ‘democratic’ rule and yet, I wake up this morning feeling there is no difference between the Nigeria I grew up in, and the Nigeria my parents grew up in. The sacrifices of the democrats who bravely stood on the June 12 mandate to bring our democracy to life seem to be in vain. Ironically, many of who are serving in this government and ruling party. Everywhere I turn, I am told that I should be ‘grateful’…

Monday, 09 November 2020 05:03

Who created God: Man or God? - Bola Bolawole

In those days on campus at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University), Ile-Ife, we were atheists who “preached” that there was no God. There couldn't have been anything or anyone called God, we said. The whole idea of God sounded or appeared preposterous, especially when, we believe, no one could convincingly or conclusively prove the existence of God. We were convinced in the declaration of Karl Marx of religion as opium, a sedative used to dull the intellect of the gullible and make them captive to the unreasonable submissions of fellow mortals, making it easy for the…

Sunday, 08 November 2020 05:54

Okon adds Kataba to the menu - Tatalo Alamu

It is said that when a man is floored by a big tribulation, lesser misfortunes clamber on top. It is hard to know how the crazy boy called Okon got to know of snooper’s fiscal inability to procure his occasional after lunch cigar from the local supermarket. It may be due to the occasional lament about the evaporation of the old academic class and its occupational perks which in those halcyon days often included chomping on fat cigars. The austerity has even extended to international travels. The last time a friend had to go abroad, he had to make do…

Sunday, 08 November 2020 05:53

Buhari’s painful Hobson’s choice called open society - Festus Adedayo

The social media is a bitch. A huge bitch. If you put yourself in the shoes of the Nigerian state and its officials, the social media cannot but be a cusp of frustration and irritation. Two youth revolts in Nigeria, separated by 42 years in time, make this frustration very unbearable an experience. They reveal the spatial difference in weaponry of youth revolt and the lacerating irritancy of the social media to the rulers of Nigeria. These are rulers who tasted the merciless power of the draconian state and its ability to mow down revolt with clinical finish. They also…

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