I was at Oke Agbe, Akoko North West in Ondo state home to business mogul Otunba Solomon Oladunni and the late Chief Rufus Giwa where I was Guest Speaker and Special guest of honour at the commissioning of one of the 50 Mega schools built by the Mimiko administration. Each of the schools with capacity for 550 pupils provides conducive learning environment with contemporary facilities for the learners. The facilities include among others: computer laboratories, modern library, sick bay, and recreational facilities with magnetic boards. Primary school children clad in uniforms freely provided by government were seen working dexterously with…

In garden talks and beer parlour political conversations, one often constantly hears one side charging the other: “Please let’s put sentiments aside and be patriotic here”. Such admonitions are fairly common when Nigerians of different political, ethnic and religious persuasions engage in political conversations. Over time, I have come to believe that the concept of ‘patriotism’ is not neutral in such conversations but often a veneer used by the contending groups to gain mileage during arguments. In this reflection therefore, I will interrogate the notion of ‘patriotic Nigerian’, and how the identity of the ‘patriotic Nigerian’ interfaces with other identities…

Even though the naira was still very strong at the exchange rate of 60 kobo to a dollar (yes, in this same Nigeria!) and graduates could afford to be choosy when it came to employment and career prospects, there were tell tale signs by mid 1981 that the economy had begun to wobble. But President Shehu Shagari and his Second Republic civilian administration chose to live in denial. However, on his way out of the country for vacation on 4th July that year, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo released to the media copies of a letter he had sent to…

No one can easily impugn the sense in making democracy to be responsive to the special needs of the milieu in which it is practised. But such domestication retains its validity to the extent that the objective is to serve the people. We need not split hairs in so far as the reformulation of the concept of democracy is not a precursor to an accommodation of the crude cravings of some benighted leaders. What must, however, trigger vigilance is an attempt to tinker with an essential principle of the democracy – periodic elections. For here in Africa, we are not…