Author: Reuben Abati

For, indeed, Africa has been raising some anxiety about the prospects of democratic consolidation. In Burkina Faso, the President had to be chased away after 27 years of corrupt and ineffective leadership. In Congo Brazaville, which held its election the other Sunday, President Dennis Sassou Nguesso is sitting tight

The angst of this young generation is made worse when they are told that Nigeria was not always like this. In their late 20s to thirties, these children have only known that Nigeria where fuel scarcity is a fact of daily life, and part of the mechanism of survival is to know how to draw fuel with your mouth, or negotiate black market purchase of fuel, while lugging jerry cans, either at the fuel station or a roadside corner where you cannot be sure of the quality of fuel- all of that in a country that is the world’s sixth largest producer of crude oil

To report that the state of the roads is bad is to proclaim the notoriously obvious, and to say that more people die every minute on our roads is to iterate that the road in Nigeria is no respecter of persons or class

And if that was not shocking enough, on Wednesday, there was this other report about a 15-year old Benue girl, Patience Paul, who had been abducted by two neighbours and married off to a certain “Sarkin Musulmi” in Sokoto state. Her brother cried out, obviously motivated to do so by the Ese Oruru story

But the most bizarre development since that ruling last Friday has been the intervention of a group called the Ndigbo Cultural Society of Nigeria. The group says Nigeria has nothing to gain by shedding Rev. King’s blood and that President Muhammadu Buhari should grant the convicted murderer state pardon because “he is still a spiritual leader to many Nigerians

“Any serious matter at all, you and your people must turn it into something else. E ku exchange rate? What kind of greeting is that? Yoruba will say e ku election, e ku democracy, e ku change, e ku ana, e ku gbogbo e, gbogbo e, e ku democracy. I am tired of answering you people and your cynical greetings.”

‘Olajumoke was hawking her bread innocently in Sabo, when she stumbled upon a photo session by that gifted mother of twins, artist and photographer, TY Bello, working on a series of shots for the international hip hop star, Tinie Tempah. We have been told that Olajumoke Orisaguna “photobombed” herself into the activity’

Senator Bruce, who goes by the moniker “the Commonsense Senator” even introduced a hashtag #BuyNaijaToGrowtheNaira. He hasn’t quite explained the connection, but with the exchange rate melting down and the Naira yo-yoing, everyone including our neighbourhood electrician, and his friend, the battery charger, have both become experts on the fortunes of the national currency

The GSM companies are making money selling Valentine messages. And that is the point: the frenzy over Valentine’s Day is commercial, capitalistic, and it is of course, global. In the United States, even the White House is not left out, with the First Lady composing a poem for President Barack Obama on this special occasion

‘…Rev. Fr. Ejike Camillus Anthony Ebenezer Mbaka is a cut above the rest, not necessarily in terms of intellect or persona, but in terms of how he has been able to use the pulpit to acquire a rock star status’

It is thus an ethnic balancing mechanism. The assumption is that if the public service is truly representative, this will promote a sense of national loyalty and inclusion. Sections 14 (3-4) and Third Schedule, Part 1(c) of the Constitution spell out the principle in clear terms and in 1996, a Federal Character Commission was established to ensure compliance

The beauty of the new media is its democratic temper. With any electronic device, anyone at all, can set up a communications unit, using a phone, a tablet, a laptop, a desktop, and simply occupy the social space and broadcast information which in a matter of minutes may go viral and condition public opinion

Public intellectuals are at the centre of this phenomenon: they include academics who go beyond their narrow specializations and university-based scholarship to take a keen interest in public affairs and who use their expertise and exposure to shed light on a broad range of issues. They also include journalists, writers and other professionals who question society’s direction, and offer alternative ideas.

Reuben Abati writes on the cleaning of the shoe of the Minister of Interior, General Abdulrahman Dambazau, by an operative of the Department of State Services

The flight from Jo’burg to Abidjan was delayed, and we missed our connecting flight to Lagos. Our first instinct was to go to the Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan, after the airline had given us hotel accommodation for the night. When Professor Tamuno and I arrived at the embassy, the Ambassador had closed for the day. We left a message

fashionable, and an absolutely lovely woman, who in addition to all that was gifted with an untainted love for all causes humanistic, decent and progressive. In our neighbourhood in Abeokuta, she was the first big sister to become a star, and who as she moved from one stage in her life to the other, took all of us: siblings, cousins, and family friends as her own, mentoring us as much as she could

That year, the military junta led by military leader, President Ibrahim Babangida annulled a democratic election, which threw up late Bashorun MKO Abiola as the undisputed and undeclared winner

A conversation of witches

Great Ife as that university is known to its staff, students and alumni, is probably Nigeria’s first model university in every respect. Its major competitors were the University of Ibadan, the University of Lagos, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria and the University of Nigeria, Nsukka

“Created, concocted and delivered by animals in human skin, working in animal kingdom, telling us animal tales. What surprises me is the fact that there has been no public uproar, no outrage.”