I recently heard that jollof rice cooked with/on firewood tastes better than the one cooked with/on gas. I also heard that jollof rice cooked with/on charcoal/coal sits in-between – not as tasty as the former but tastes better than the latter. I cannot lay claim to being an extra-ordinary chef, even though I was raised to be able to fend for myself and can cook very well as a proud member of the old school; not of the new generation raised on meat-pie and indomie. I wouldn’t know why this difference between jollof rice cooked with different types of “firewood”;…

The Agbekoya war is indisputably one of the focal points of the most successive resistance to the Nigerian state. The peasant farmers union had gone berserk in the Western Region, in protestation against high taxation during the civil war. They held the government of the West literally hostage, hounding soldier administrators and civil servants, as well as royal fathers. In the process, Mr Olateru Olagbegi, Oba of Owo, was hounded and eventually fled his throne, so also for the Odemo of Ishara, Mr Samuel Akinsanya, while the Soun of Ogbomosho, the traditional ruler of Mr S.L. Akintola’s town, suffered the…

Having lost touch with public sentiment, officials in Paris, Hong Kong, and Santiago failed to anticipate that a seemingly modest policy action (a fuel-tax increase, an extradition bill, and higher metro prices, respectively) would trigger a massive social explosion. Three of the world’s more affluent cities have erupted in protests and unrest this year. Paris has faced waves of protests and rioting since November 2018, soon after French President Emmanuel Macron raised fuel taxes. Hong Kong has been in upheaval since March, after Chief Executive Carrie Lam proposed a law to allow extradition to the Chinese mainland. And Santiago exploded…

On Saturday October 19, Mr Yakubu Gowon, retired army general and former Head of State, celebrated his 85th birthday. In the not so distant past, that event would have been marked with something akin to a public holiday. The Brigade of Guards would have organized an honour parade and speeches would have been made. Now power has moved on to new suitors but the truth is that Gowon remains a towering figure in contemporary Nigerian history. He is perhaps the most influential figure of post-independence Nigeria. All the military officers who later played major roles in our history – Murtala…