Talking Point

How not to read Governor Adeleke’s victory, by Rotimi Fasan

How not to read Governor Adeleke’s victory, by Rotimi Fasan

At dawn on Sunday, the 17th of August, Governor Ademola Nurudeen Jackson Adeleke of the Accord Party had been announced as the winner of the governorship election that started less than twenty-four hours earlier. With just over half a million votes cast in his favour, the ebullient governor was returned to office for another four-year […]
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Odia Ofeimun: Warrior-writer of Nigerian literature

Odia Ofeimun: Warrior-writer of Nigerian literature

THOUGH the police tells us 150 and not 500 died and became part of the increasing casualty of Nigerians, latest victims of both ethnic and sectarian crises in Jos, there shall be no mourning in our house.

Sentiments and traditions that destroy

Sentiments and traditions that destroy

CONTRARY to the Senate’s spokesperson, Ayogu Eze’s advice that talking about President Yar’Adua’s health is time-wasting and Nigerians should simply move on and support Acting President Goodluck Jonathan, Nigerians must continue to insist on full disclosure of Yar’Adua’s health and whereabouts even while supporting the Acting President.

Yar’Adua’s health and the shame of a nation

Yar’Adua’s health and the shame of a nation

He should put the power vested in his office to good and immediate use. If other Nigerians, including members of the National Assembly, governors and traditional rulers have tried to no avail to reach the President and know something of his health, it should not be said that the Acting President equally failed.

What next after Goodluck Jonathan?

What next after Goodluck Jonathan?

IT was many hours after the actual event, precisely at the very hours the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria broadcasts its flagship news at 7 in the morning, that I would hear the maiden broadcast of Goodluck Jonathan, the Acting President.

Yar’Adua’s game of deception

Yar’Adua’s game of deception

It should therefore be no surprise that despite ill health and obvious incapacity to continue in office, at least for now, Yar’Adua has maintained a vice-like, until-death-do-us-part grip on power that has kept Nigeria grounded and on tenterhooks for many agonising weeks. After this, do we still talk of a President Yar’Adua that is indifferent to or does not like power? What else could a power-obsessed politician have done?

Nigeria not a terrorist nation?

Nigeria not a terrorist nation?

Its ready army of recruits are to be found in many of those so-called places of religious miseducation as produce the almajiris, no different from the madrasas of Afghanistan and other centres of fundamentalist religion, now proliferating in the Moslem North. Until Nigeria rises to the challenge posed by such breeding centres of radical insurgency and cuts down on both covert and overt accommodation of criminality in the name of religion, she can’t be anything but a sponsor of terrorism.

Na like dis we go dey dey?

Na like dis we go dey dey?

THINKING about the corner into which those who rule in the name of the people have painted themselves and the rest of us, I’m forced to ask if this is how we intend to carry on, which is the literal translation of the title of today’s discourse, rendered in pidgin.

Dangerous antics of Lagos lawmakers

Dangerous antics of Lagos lawmakers

THE news that lawmakers in the Lagos House of Assembly were contemplating the impeachment of the Governor, Raji Fashola, came to me as a surprise as I believe it did many other Nigerians who must have followed the activities of the Governor since he came into office in 2007.

Dangerous antics of Lagos lawmakers

Dangerous antics of Lagos lawmakers

THE news that lawmakers in the Lagos House of Assembly were contemplating the impeachment of the Governor, Raji Fashola, came to me as a surprise as I believe it did many other Nigerians who must have followed the activities of the Governor since he came into office in 2007.

Mutallab’s credo of nothingness

Mutallab’s credo of nothingness

It’s this idea that it’s either his way or the highway, what Soyinka called ‘The Credo of Being and Nothingness’ that would lead Umar Farouk to want to commit mass suicide in the belief that he is right while everybody else is wrong. In his Facebook journal, Farouk betrays this sense of superior apprehension of religious knowledge despite his painful lack of social skills that could make him bond with his mates, make sense of his own growing sexuality and, maybe, strike up relationships with the opposite sex.