When people describe Nigeria as the giant of Africa, they speak more to its potential than to its reality. And the potential is enormous by most standards. A land mass that is the envy of most, a land that is rich in mineral resources of all kinds, an access to the sea that is denied many countries, […]

A journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step says a timeless adage. It seems just like yesterday that we talked about the ‘Holy Month’ and what it could mean for the world and for our country where two of the world’s main religions are contesting for spiritual turf. Ramadan and Lent are two important […]

“The saying is true. One man sows, another man reaps. I have sent you to reap that which you did not labor for” John 4: 37/38 When my parents decided to leave downtown Ilesha for a new development on the outskirts of town, a cousin living with us at the time whom I called ‘Uncle’ because of […]

Before the advent of digital media with its era of quick clicks, the print media was the most enduring means of reaching and influencing minds. This made its practitioners visible and its Editors powerful. And connected. There was therefore, the tendency to see the world as your oyster, or worse, to think the world owed you, […]

I can watch them all day. And its not because their antics amuse or entertain me. They don’t. If anything, I am disconcerted, and sometimes, anguished by what I see. I watch therefore, as a witness, or if you like, a chronicler which has always been part of my job as a journalist. Fortunately, they don’t stay […]

I had heard of the seriousness of drug use among our youths long before it became this manifest. It seemed unbelievable when I was told at the time, that a sizeable number of our undergraduates were on one form of drugs or the other. And that students of private and even faith based universities were not exempted. […]

I am usually careful with words but what comes to me as I think about the power sector is uncomplimentary to say the least.  Put bluntly, I think the whole power sector is a scam to use the language of our youths. Otherwise, why has it been so difficult to solve the electricity problem all […]

In case some people haven’t noticed – and it is so difficult not to notice in a country as religious as we claim to be – that both Ramadan and Lent started this Wednesday. Which means the same day. The Lenten season for practicing Christians is a season characterized by penitence, humility and denials. The […]

One of the most frequently asked questions (FAQ) about dear our country by those in the diaspora is on insecurity. My general answer has always been that the state of our insecurity is not as bad as what it is being orchestrated to be. While it is a vague answer, deliberately so, it is not […]

There is a war story that is not told as often as I would like. Many call it a Christmas story because it happened on a Christmas eve. However it is called, an incident which showed our common humanity occurred on the Christmas eve of 1914 during World War 1. The German forces were arraigned against […]

I ‘grew up’ with the Lagos-Ibadan Express Way or is it the other way round? I was young, enjoying my first car around the time it was declared open to traffic in the 70s. Living in Lagos with parents in Ilesha meant I had to use the road quite often. Beyond that familial obligation however, was the […]

After several years of military rule and autocratic governance, Nigerians have become accustomed to uses and abuses of raw, naked power. We lived and worked under decrees that were at times vindictive, at times self-serving, at times confusing and often times oppressive. I remember a Military President declaring that he was not only in office, […]

To me, and to many like me, all babies are beautiful irrespective of the place, or the circumstances of their birth – they could be born in a palace or a hut; in a private hospital or a manger; through rich parents or vagrants; in chilly winter or steaming summer for all I care. These wonders of […]

The recently opened coastal highway also opened up a few more things than the road itself. It opened the eyes of many Nigerians to what is possible. A friend and professional colleague, who in the almost fifty years that we have known each other, has consistently been a sworn enemy of all that is bad in governance […]

Doctors would say that a heart attack results when a seizure probably caused by a blockage of blood flow to the heart occurs. They would also opine that the causes leading to a heart attack don’t just happen. There is a buildup – my doctor friends should be laughing as I venture into this uncomfortable medical territory […]