Who checks the checkers?
The throne of a viable democracy stands on four sturdy legs. They are the Executive, the Judiciary, the Legislature and the Press or the Four Estates of the Realm as they are sometimes called.
Read MoreWe need to nurture our homestead
Lunch at Ikoyi Club. I had just finished attending the 70th birthday colloquium of Ray Ekpu, an accomplished and consummate journalist and was in an upbeat mood. Ray was Editor of a Sunday paper about the time I was Editor of a Sunday paper.
Read MoreWho has failed whom: Nigeria or her leaders?
The last two weeks have been quite busy in the country. We have witnessed political defections; real and simulated. We have witnessed political mergers; real and simulated. We have witnessed court summons; real and simulated.
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Good and bad Karma (Sowing and reaping)
Whoever celebrates a private birthday at Harbour Point? This was the question that first came through my mind immediately I got the invitation card for Dr Kofo Odusote’s 70th birthday party. Especially when the invitation card made it clear it was not an ‘Owambe’ party.
Read More Interesting fallouts from the Ekiti election
If you asked many people to mention the person Fayemi contested against in last Saturday’s election, the name that would most likely come up would be Fayose. Many of us would be hard put to remember that the contest was really between Dr Kayode Fayemi and one Professor Olusola Eleka, Fayose’s Deputy Governor. So dominant was Fayose that the real contestant became a mere footage, an addendum. It is one thing to nominate a successor.
Read More Political dogs have returned to their vomit again
A new political force made up of a coalition of 38 ‘political parties’ came into being during the week. It was a coalition that was expected given the absence of a viable political opposition to the ruling party and given the nature of our parties towards political power. It was such a necessary, pragmatic, and utterly predictable move that the question was not if sectional, fragmented political parties will come together for 2019 but when.
Read More Some of our leaders are riding the Tiger’s back
The Senate President, Dr Bukola Saraki, uncharacteristically tongue-lashed the security chiefs in public last week after another spate of killings in Plateau State. He was blistering in his comments about the manifest incompetence of our security chiefs who neither saw the urgency of a looming catastrophe in the country nor felt any need to take personal responsibility. Coming from the nation’s number three man, the outburst raised a few eye brows.
Read More Again, the police
It is a known fact that Nigeria is under-policed. Grossly under-policed. But you wouldn’t know it from the uses to which we put the few we have. Every big man in Nigeria has a policeman as a symbol of his ‘bigmanism.’ These policemen serve as valets, messengers, traffic conductors and enforcers. In short, they serve as ‘Man Friday’ in demeaning, belittling ways. A good percentage of what is left of our Force finds itself on the highways.
Read More This has become an S.O.L(Save Our Lives)
An old friend died of prostate complications on Sunday. He died in the US. While every death diminishes humanity, every death abroad diminishes the country and every preventable death points an accusing finger at our health care system. Yomi Ismael’s death to me represented all of these. I have known Yomi for about four decades and he was always so full of life. He always seemed to have a joke for every situation. I am glad I did not see him bed-ridden or tongue tied so I can always keep that bubbly, jovial image of him. His death is raw in its suddenness and it hurts. So raw that you still feel like lashing out at our health system for his lack of timely awareness; his need to go abroad for treatment; the dearth and growing exodus of qualified medical personnel from our country which makes going abroad for surgery almost inevitable.
Read More June 12: Did Buhari present US a Greek gift?
My recent trip down June 12 memory lane, started with an article Sam Omatseye wrote on Kunle Ajibade. It was on the latter’s 60th birthday. Kunle, a journalist, is one of those who symbolised the struggle to actualise June 12 and any tribute to him that ignores his travails in the hands of the Abacha boys will definitely be incomplete. This article did some justice to that aspect of the life of gentle looking Ajibade whom Omatseye aptly described as a most unlikely candidate for the gulag. His article was closely followed by another beautiful article titled: ‘Class of ‘98’ by Dare Babarinsa. Dare’s article talked about the incarceration of Kunle Ajibade but didn’t end there. It managed, in a few choice words, to capture the June 12 struggle including the role played by some principled and courageous Nigerians. Some of them ended up in jail. Some in exile. Some had their homes and means of livelihood destroyed. Some survived assassination. Some did not and paid the ultimate price. The streets of Benin, Ibadan and Lagos to name but a few, were littered with known and unknown heroes.
Read More Our politicians should look at the mirror
Anybody with a heart should be bleeding for what is happening in Benue State in particular and the entire North-Central in general. Hardly a day goes by without reports of someone being killed in a most gruesome manner. Or people being displaced from their ancestral land. Or houses being burnt and farms destroyed in a most wanton manner. Or women being gang raped and slaughtered like cattle. The one thing that a rural community has, the one thing going for it is serenity.
Read More The way we were
I was just about two years on the Island, blissfully ignorant of the klieg lights and the throbbing night life which the Island represented and which was all around me when an old friend visited. It was a Friday night at about 10.30 pm. My wife and I—the only occupants in the apartment—were downstairs watching TV. And fiddling with our phones. It was a sedentary, homely setting. We were as spiritually removed from the ‘madding crowd’ despite its being physically close to home, as possible. My friend, who had lived on the Island for quite a while, was meeting some people at an upscale night club close to my place. He remembered the way we were and felt it would be fun to ‘drag’ me out if I was home. He was surprised at my ignorance of the existence of the club which was actually a walking distance and even more surprised at my reluctance to ‘explore.’ We shared a bottle of good wine and peppered chicken while listening to old school music. My state of relaxed and contented being on the night caught him by surprise and influenced his decision to call it a night. By this time it was after one anyway. Our conversation convinced him that the old indeed has passed away and could only be resuscitated on rare occasions not on a whim as used to be.
Read More What if Buhari doesn’t run in 2019?
The knives came out from the young and old—and from some unexpected quarters— immediately President Buhari made his desire to contest for the presidency in 2019 official. Some of the criticisms against his eligibility were true. Some were false. Many were exaggerated. All of that is to be expected as they happen even in more advanced democracies.
Read More Again,the health sector
JOHESU is an acronym for Joint Health Sectors Union. Ordinarily, this should mean that it speaks for all the health sectors in the country. That should have been good news to government or whoever has to negotiate with these sectors. But it has turned out to be bad news instead because JOHESU sees the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA)—a major sector—as a rival and wants parity at all costs, including deaths to hapless patients who find themselves in the cross-fire. Sectors that should speak with one voice have thus become a tower of Babel.
Read More The gate keepers
The World Cup is just a few weeks away. It is a month long extravaganza created and planned for youths round the world by the old. It is another inescapable irony of life that one of the enduring symbols of youth and liberalism is run by conservative old men. FIFA eschews politics yet, the very choice of venue and hosting right is steeped in politics.
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