Reminiscences: My Journey Through Life is not an autobiography and should not be so mistaken. Yet, in six parts comprising 21 chapters and 218 pages of this memoir, the author uses the autobiographic technique of fact focus to render, connect and weave strong emotional threads which help to sustain the reader’s interest.
Browsing: Azu Ishiekwene
During two recent off-cycle state elections in the south of Nigeria, for example, the US Embassy threatened to invoke visa restrictions on candidates, agents or security officials who impede the electoral process. It was not an empty threat and the junket-obsessed political elite knew it.
How did Lagos, a city of refuge, become a shooting range against defenceless young people waving the flag and singing the anthem?
Interestingly, it was a private company, Megawatts Nigeria Limited, that sued the registered trustees of Gbagada Phase II Residents’ Association, on grounds that it is not a member of the association even though it is based there. The company also argued that it is wrong for any demands to be made on it because it is responsible for its own security, waste, water and other services.
To make matters worse, Obaseki was not just up against one Goliath. He was taking on Goliath Plus, an array of modern and ancient forces comprising the ecclesiastical armies of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and the revolutionary guard led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was the common glue. A decorated unionist and two-term governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole once made trenches his home.
It was not about me, of course. It was about Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, who at 27, was already Secretary General of the International Students Organisation, a body comparable in its prime and transcendence to the Internet of Things, the modern-day religion of Mark Zuckerberg.
Both died in different places and under different circumstances, but you only need to look a bit closer to see the dots connecting the tragedies. Like candles in the wind, as Elton John would say, they burned out before their legend ever did.
But those who thought otherwise had strong arguments, too. The turmoil in the South South following the Ogoni crisis and the murder of Ken Saro-Wiwa by the government of General Sani Abacha, had heightened demands for “resource control” in the region. The crisis needed more than the appeasement offered under the existing fiscal structure.
Discussions about it first started in hushed tones and offline chats. But as poll after poll predicted a bleak future for Trump, discussions about his reaction to a possible defeat were forced into the open.
Who speaks for the North? In a region with a long history of eloquent speakers from Sa’ad Zungur and Tafawa Balewa to Aminu Kano and from Adamu Ciroma and Ibrahim Tahir to Maitama Sule, Musa Musawa and Bala Usman, it’s a measure of how poorly things have progressed that we should be contemplating one qualified to speak for the region at this time.
At a point, it was as if Governor Abdullahi Ganduje was confused, missing or both. The man perhaps often unfairly teased for his rare gift of taking and yet not appearing to have taken, was strangely unable to ask for, much less take a lifeline to benefit citizens. It was the BBC that finally bailed him out of his misery by granting him an interview
In the two-minute-seven-seconds video, the Alfa rained curses on government in stinging sarcasm, yet without the slightest hint of bitterness or anger in his tone. It’s an uncommon gift, mostly endowed in the South West
When I left Abuja at short notice nine days ago, the city was already emptying out. The single biggest factory and business centre there – the National Assembly – was on the verge of closure.
The trip was not planned. As concerns over the spread of COVID-19 grew and the country inched more and more towards the abnormal, I figured travel might be restricted before the end of the week. A call that Tuesday morning confirmed that feeling: I decided to travel out of Abuja immediately.
In a world where laughter is already in short supply, the outbreak and rapid spread of Coronavirus has only left us all the more depleted. The world, as we know it, has been turned on its head. Yet, in this once-in-a-lifetime experience we have examples of fate using tragedy to write the book of humour.
If words could make the dead turn in their grave, the founder of the Oodua People’s Congress, Dr. Frederick Faseun, would have rolled over last week, caught between amusement and surprise at a remarkable statement during the first anniversary lecture of his passing.
If there was dividend for controversy, the stock of the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdul-Rasheed Akanbi, would be perhaps the most bullish among investors in royalty, coming next in demand to that of the Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi.
Instead of splitting hairs over INEC’s ban – which will happen over and over again – we must address startling inadequacies in the electoral law which permitted the travesty, in the first place
But the national leadership of the opposition PDP cannot complain too loudly because Collins is a man with a history. The PDP did not lift a finger in protest when he dumped APGA, on whose platform he was elected a house member, to join the PDP because he desperately coveted the post of speaker, which of course he got three days after his defection