When I was a child, windows were large. Whether of glass or wood, they were designed for tropical Africa —to let in light and air, countering heat and darkness while fostering community. They made homes welcoming. Now, in the pulsating hearts of Lagos and Abuja, new buildings come with pinched tight windows, mere slivers of glass. These […]

In 2023, I cast my vote for Tinubu, eyes wide open, heart half-hoping. Yet now, I confess— he has let me down. I knew it wasn’t the Yoruba’s turn. I saw the arrogance in Emilokan — a brazen affront to equity’s call. Still, I backed him. I backed him after rooting for Amaechi in the […]

Tinubu hasn’t done half of his term. But he already thinks he is entitled to a second and perhaps more terms. The obsequious lackeys he has surrounded himself won’t let him catch a moment for sober reflection,  a glimpse of reality. They seem bent on making him the Oba of Nigeria, unaccountable to no one […]

This time last year, Governor Fubara said Rivers State had been liberated. People trooped to churches to thank God for setting them free. According to Fubara, the state, its people and resources, had been in the clutches of a rapacious and gluttonous politician. That fellow decided who was what. Every month that fellow dipped his […]

President Tinubu was in Anambra. The timing of the visit was ominous. Anambra governorship elections are due in November. Southern first-term governors from opposition parties are defecting in droves to Tinubu’s party. Soludo didn’t defect but a defection might have been more hygienic. Soludo showcased his projects and swore allegiance to Tinubu. Soludo was within his right […]

In Imo state,  every family can become an autonomous community.  It wasn’t always so. Perhaps at some point, somebody saw atomisation as development. Every square foot is now an ancient kingdom. So the state is now a conglomeration of fragments of communities called autonomous communities. As a result, every neighbourhood has an Eze. Some of […]

The PDP governors are queuing up to jump into the APC. They say their ship is sinking. They are singing and dancing and justifying their capitulation as nation-building. The PDP once thought it was the greatest party in Africa. These are trying times on all fronts. The conspiracy of the ruling class could be the […]

The last time I wrote about this tragedy which I now call Tinubu’s Terrible Tribalism, I had asked: Is Tinubu settling scores? Because the president’s naked embrace of Yorubacentricism after a lifetime of railing with his kinsmen against Hausa-Fulani hegemony could only have been inspired by vengeance.  But such undisguised and unbridled vengeance in his first term […]

That Wednesday morning, the chickens came home to roost. Our governments don’t think methodically. Often they explain away consequences as inevitable. That was how our naira crashed and plunged everyone into deeper poverty. Good policies that are poorly thought through and implemented erratically. This time, there was no wiggle room.  They would like to tell us what […]

A passenger boards a bus. The city is a little rough but he has taken his customary precaution; there are two women on the bus. He turns into the gaze of a wiry man with a Bible and the man smiles and nods at him. He imagines he is a peripatetic evangelist biding his time before unleashing […]