“I hold that man to be right, who is more in league with the future” – Henrik Ibsen, 1828-1906. Ibsen, a Norwegian philosopher, was one of the founders of a branch of study called FUTURISM – which encourages people, governments, businesses, schools and society to make deliberate attempts to consider the unknown future. I was fortunate […]

“Power tends to corruption; and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men” – Lord Acton, 1834-1902, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 195. “Money and power of course do drive people crazy. So, why shouldn’t people also gain power and wealth through being crazy?” – Saul Bellow, 1915-2005, VBQ p 195. […]

“The great masses of the people …will more easily fall victims to a great lie than to a small one” – Adolf Hitler, 1889-1945. It took almost an entire week for me to decide on the topic of this article. It could easily have been titled TRUMP DOESN’T LOVE NIGERIAN CHRISTIANS or TRUMP’S GANG THAT COULD […]

“I am beginning to wonder how many fools it takes to make the term ‘My Fellow citizens‘” – Honore de Balzac, 1799-1850 in LOST ILLUSIONS. President Tinubu enjoys my fullest sympathies right now. The Christmas Day bombing carried out by American forces, which was envisioned as a step in the right direction, has unleashed more problems […]

Two bald men fighting over a [toothless] comb.” Reading that Alhaji Turaki and Sule Lamido were fighting over who would be Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to me, was the funniest joke of the year. It sounded like a tragic story of two elderly women laying claim to a baby during the World […]

“There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.” Dr Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784. VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ p 183. Nigerian clubs are modern versions of taverns in Great Britain long before the eighteenth century – places  men, and occasionally some […]

“Allow an untenable situation to persist for a long time; and, suddenly, there are no good options left” – Arthur Burns, Chairman, US Federal Reserve Bank, 1987 Contrary to my expectations of an avalanche of negative reactions to the first part of this article, there were very few; and the majority admitted that most Nigerians, now […]

“Most of the problems a President has to face have their roots in the past” – US President Harry Truman, 1884-1972. President Harry Truman became President when Franklin Roosevelt, 1882-1945, died. Truman inherited the Second World War, WWII; and ended it in a manner that still shocks the world today. He ordered two atomic bombs to […]

“If you hope to live a few years, buy shares. If for thirty years; plant a tree. If forever, write a book” – Japanese words of wisdom. To this I would like to add: “or have a book written about you.” One of the tragedies of African history can be traced to the fact that […]

The Man in the Middle “You will go mostly safely in the middle” -Ovid, Roman Poet, 43BC -17AD. Ovid never lived in a country called Nigeria and at a time like this. Otherwise, he would have known that the man in the middle stands a good chance of getting punched from both sides in the […]

“No revolution is the fault of the people but the fault of the government” – Johann Goethe, 1749-1832, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ. A revolution is underway in the Northern states of Nigeria. The downtrodden, constituting 99.9 per cent of the population, hitherto docile beggars, saying “rankadede” to the privileged 0.1 per cent are sick and […]

‘Excellence in…’ This is the title of a book I started to work on about fifteen months ago. The outline is still being worked out before filling the pages. Work on it has been slowed down because the year started with three book projects about three eminent Nigerians. The three are among the dozen or so […]

“Legislators have the first place in the temple of glory; conquerors come behind them” – Voltaire, 1694-1778, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 126. Voltaire, the French philosopher, was writing at the dawn of history of democracy; and at a time and country elected representatives of the people actually went into parliament to represent them. Nigeria […]

“No revolution is the fault of the people but the fault of the government” – Johann Goethe, 1749-1832, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ. A revolution is underway in the Northern states of Nigeria. The downtrodden, constituting 99.9 per cent of the population, hitherto docile beggars, saying “rankadede” to the privileged 0.1 per cent are sick […]

‘2027: Jonathan Weighs ADC Option Amid Comeback Reports’ – News Report, October 5, 2025. “All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies” – Dr John Arbuthnot, 1667-1735. Former President Jonathan is the toughest opponent President Tinubu can face in 2027. The other leading contenders have serious problems deciding who will be presidential or […]