How can a society hand over its head on a platter to a conqueror because he asked for it? How can a people yield their gods to be decapitated or burnt at the conqueror’s fires simply because the conqueror just showed up, knocked on the door and politely asked for that?
Never mind Wole Soyinka’s dissing of his own generation as a wasted one. In the nature of things, your generation always just happens to be the last best generation before whatever value systems or institutions you are discussing collapsed irredeemably, hence the tendency to dismiss the generation after you…
Some dark conjurers say that Yoruba disunity is foreordained in the character of the average member of the race. Disunity may have understandable roots, like say, in our natural assertiveness, love of independence, hatred of groveling subservience, ambition but its consequences have been far-reaching in its conflictual predilections and infelicities…
What is rampant in Nigeria today are major cases reminiscent of the kind of ethnic cleansing that took place in Burundi, the Sudan and in Kosovo. Usually disguised as tribal cases of intolerance, it is becoming clear that these are brazen acts of terror directed at Christians from their Muslims brothers…
It started with a cough, an autumn hack that refused to go away, then came the fevers. They bathed and chilled him, his lungs clattered, his chest tightened and he ached with every gasp. During a wheezing fit at 4 a.m., he felt a warm knot rise from his throat. He ran to the bathroom sink and spewed a mouthful of blood…
The government of the United States took over the mantle of oppression and subjugation of Haitians from where the French stopped. The plight of Haitians has followed a pattern ever since…
With the death on March 13 of Aliyu Musdafa, the 11th Lamido of Adamawa, Nigeria strikes me as a slightly dimmer space. The death of this extraordinary Nigerian touched me – and my mother as well as four siblings – in a deeply personal way…
The United Nations, international community and the International Criminal Court (ICC) must know that Nigeria is in the midst of genocide in the proportions of Rwanda in 1994…
Incessant Gas flaring has introduced chemicals, particulate matter or biological materials that can cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, and damage the natural environment in parts of Nigeria…
In the history of contemporary Nigeria, except for the Nigerian Customs Service, I wonder if there ever has been a government agency as reviled and ridiculed as the Nigerian Police Force…
Nigeria’s history has shown that the nation’s government and security outfits are extremely incapacitated and evidently unable to control, contain, contend with and checkmate sectarian and religious violence…