Stop trying to be good because: “There is none good but One, that is God.” You are a man. You cannot be God. I was at a midnight prayer meeting and the Lord took me briefly out of the meeting by engaging me in a conversation. He said to me: “Femi, the first lesson I taught you is that something can be nothing. I told you on Airport Road: “Nothing will happen to you here.’ But something happened after I said that: you were shot. I insisted the something of a bullet in your leg was nothing. I then made…

When I was invited to Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, in June, I didn’t know what to expect. I had not visited the place since 2005. Even though I had been to nearby Rivers and Delta States several times, Bayelsa didn’t cross my mind. To make matters worse, the state was often in the news for the wrong reasons. Not that it was an exception, but press headlines seemed to suggest that if you wanted the most depressing news about intra-party wrangling, post-election disputes, or the scariest stuff about kidnapping and youth militancy, Bayelsa was the place to go. Bayelsa, the home…

Self-limiting beliefs challenge the possibility of achieving the Nigerian Dream, as outlined in my last article. I proposed that within four years, the government should build 20 million housing units to create immediate employment, generate income, and pass generational wealth to the masses. Simultaneously, we should construct a railway complex, starting with three East-West railways, to spur growth in heavy manufacturing—generating substantial income and employment across every economic sector. However, the same limiting mindset claims that President Bola Tinubu had no choice, due to foreign debts, but to cut real wages through devaluation and withdraw energy subsidies, a key input…

Thirty years ago, Nigeria was in severe crisis. In the wake of the previous year’s elections that was annulled and the attendant protests, 1994 was an unpleasant time. General Sani Abacha had rigged his way into power through a coup and was setting the country on edge. Media houses had been shut, and journalists serially harassed and detained. Acclaimed winner of the 1993 presidential election, Moshood Abiola, was in prison along with scores of activists who had protested either the fuel prices inflation or the election annulment. Ken Saro-Wiwa too was in prison. The Niger-Delta region was restless due to…