This piece was motivated by a number of related events around Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB): (a) The number of crowds he commands since his release from detention - whenever he goes in Igboland. And these were not rented crowd! (b) The photo of Nnamdi Kanu’s feet being kissed, apparently by an IPOB member, which has gone viral on the social media and the related stories/fabrications of some of his followers who claimed that they were cured of various ailments simply by touching Kanu’s garments or shaking his hands. (c) Nnamdi Kanu’s threat that the…

Today’s college students desperately want to change the world, but too many think that living a meaningful life requires doing something extraordinary and attention-grabbing like becoming an Instagram celebrity, starting a wildly successful company or ending a humanitarian crisis.Having idealistic aspirations is, of course, part of being young. But thanks to social media, purpose and meaning have become conflated with glamour: Extraordinary lives look like the norm on the internet. Yet the idea that a meaningful life must be or appear remarkable is not only elitist but also misguided. Over the past five years, I’ve interviewed dozens of people across…

This autumn, the IMF and the World Bank will once again hold their annual conference in Washington, DC. At a time when the liberal international economic order that these institutions underpin is under threat, they cannot afford to stick to business as usual. This autumn, International Monetary Fund and World Bank will once again hold their annual conference in Washington, DC. At a time when the liberal world order that these institutions underpin is under threat, they cannot afford to stick with business as usual. Instead, they must consider deep reforms – and that will require abandoning the paternalistic, even…

Religion was not quite a major divisive issue in the community in which we lived in the Old Cross River State in my days as a student there. On Sundays, students felt free to attend church service either within the campus or outside. I do not recall any major religious upheaval in the largely Christian community that the old Cross River was. In those days, there was the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star (Olumba Olumba), the indigenous Qua Iboe church, the Presbyterian church, the Anglican Church, the African Church, the Apostolic Church, the Foursquare Church, the AME Zion and…