In garden talks and beer parlour political conversations, one often constantly hears one side charging the other: “Please let’s put sentiments aside and be patriotic here”. Such admonitions are fairly common when Nigerians of different political, ethnic and religious persuasions engage in political conversations. Over time, I have come to believe that the concept of ‘patriotism’ is not neutral in such conversations but often a veneer used by the contending groups to gain mileage during arguments. In this reflection therefore, I will interrogate the notion of ‘patriotic Nigerian’, and how the identity of the ‘patriotic Nigerian’ interfaces with other identities…

Even though the naira was still very strong at the exchange rate of 60 kobo to a dollar (yes, in this same Nigeria!) and graduates could afford to be choosy when it came to employment and career prospects, there were tell tale signs by mid 1981 that the economy had begun to wobble. But President Shehu Shagari and his Second Republic civilian administration chose to live in denial. However, on his way out of the country for vacation on 4th July that year, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo released to the media copies of a letter he had sent to…

No one can easily impugn the sense in making democracy to be responsive to the special needs of the milieu in which it is practised. But such domestication retains its validity to the extent that the objective is to serve the people. We need not split hairs in so far as the reformulation of the concept of democracy is not a precursor to an accommodation of the crude cravings of some benighted leaders. What must, however, trigger vigilance is an attempt to tinker with an essential principle of the democracy – periodic elections. For here in Africa, we are not…

They tried to "defend the Naira." It didn't work. It took them an entire year and a recession to realize that nobody does that in the twenty first century. They reluctantly let the Naira float, but they didn't let it go fully. Their authoritarian, command and control instinct would not let them do that. They still have caps and pegs that have morphed into multiple rates, opening the door to corruption in the form of round tripping. Then they decided that the problem was the money changers. They unleashed the DSS on BDCs in multiple cities. When the raids began,…