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 […]

A man cancels a free and fair election. When crisis ensues, he panics and steps aside, foisting a one-legged contraption on the country. Soon, his co-conspirators are fed up with the pretence. They sweep away the props and seize power. And a plague feasts on the nation  A man cancels the freest and fairest election his […]

The Media Awards are not altogether useless. A cinematic caricature of a country that has integrated clowning into the core of its political culture. They are trash, but they tell a bit of our story.  I have been to a few of them. The expensive venues are part of the hype. An intricate ritual in overflowing self-deceit. […]