The Yoruba say a lie can hide for eight years, but one day, truth will expose it. The evil that men do lives after them, yet the harm President Tinubu has inflicted on Nigeria’s democracy may not wait for his departure to unravel. Tinubu suspended Fubara like he owns the country. But Shettima’s calculated revelation has now left […]

The National Assembly had stooped to singing  ‘On Your Mandate’ instead of the national anthem. They did it with glee, without a single lawmaker finding the revulsion to boo. That apparent dubious unanimity was ominous: to survive, we must stop a behemoth, our homegrown  Paul Biya, perhaps a Mobutu. Yet prominent opposition politicians were ducking for cover, […]

Father Alia is at his wits’ end.  Under his watch, Benue has become a human abattoir, a slaughter field where hope bleeds out. As the sore he inherited festers and turns gangrenous under his nose, he dithers and waffles, unruffled. Alia’s phlegmatic calm mocks the screams of his people. While Benue, slashed and fractured, writhes in […]

I mourn for Nigeria’s heroes of democracy, both the living and the dead. The recent honors bestowed by President Tinubu on them have left a bitter taste. Wole Soyinka, a literary giant, now shares the same honor as Godswill Akpabio, a symbol of political expediency. Frank Kokori’s posthumous recognition brings him alongside Nyesom Wike, a man whose […]

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 […]