(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 2 August, 2021) The mountain top is a great place to be, but it is very slippery. History is full of cases of very promising heads lost to the sharp edges of indiscretion, of meeting or making bad friends, and of taking wrong bends. The most ‘popular’ names…
The Honest Emir of Muri By Lasisi Olagunju
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 26 July, 2021). Deep, dark secrets are snakes; they shed old skins to torment their keepers. So it is true that some Nigerians received non-Nigerian Fulani outlaws into our forests? The Emir of Muri in Taraba State, Alhaji Abbas Tafida, spilled the beans last week. He threatened bandits…
Nigeria Customs of Death By Lasisi Olagunju
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 19 July, 2021) Grand ancestor of Nollywood, Ayinla Olumegbon’s ‘Wole Wole Arufin’ (The Lawless Sanitary Inspector) was very popular in the 1970s. The story was about a sanitary inspector who was consistent in searching soup and water pots for infractions. His method and diligence regularly paid off –…
The North’s Misguided Anger Towards Southern Governors
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 12 July, 2021) Aye ti ba je! (the world has gone bad). A US dollar exchanged for N504 at the weekend. What this means is that your one million naira cannot buy two thousand dollars worth of anything. It will get worse going forward. On April 13, 2018,…
The Cats in Igboho’s House
(Published in the Nigerian Tribune on Monday, 5 July, 2021) It was in Hubert Ogunde’s ‘Jayesinmi’ that we last saw witches transforming into cats – black cat, red cat. I never knew witchery and witchcraft have found their way into the curricula of our security academies until the recent Igboho night experience. Media reports said…
Nigeria’s Pandemic of Hunger
Our Minister of Agriculture is Alhaji Muhammad Nanono from Kano State. The Minister of State for that ministry is Alhaji Mustapha Baba Shehuri from Borno State. You are wondering why the two of them come from the far north? Where else do you have farmers in Nigeria except in the North East and the North…