Since yesterday when I stayed up for much of the night following the news of the rescue of mining workers who have been trapped 2230ft underground for 68 days, I’ve been wondering what lessons there might be to learn from the episode. 2230ft is almost as deep as the tallest building in the world. Surely there has to be more [...]

By Kola Tubosun I’ve spent countless sleepless nights figuring out just how to write this article without rehashing the same old rote of complaining that has become commonplace while talking about Nigeria and the relationship of its constituent parts. I have started and deleted this piece about four times now, for want of a perfect way to begin to write [...]

PROSE: Salman Rushdie brings heavy guns against George Orwell and Hollywood in Outside the Whale. Chris Abani’s book is pulled off Florida’s summer reading list because of racy content. Read excerpts from Mark Twain’s autobiography, as well as Abdul Adan’s review of African Roar. Then Binyavanga Wainnaina writes a sequel to his famous viral piece, “How To Write About Africa.” Ngozi Achebe is Chinua [...]

It didn’t take me long to locate him at Rayfield where he teaches in a private school. Once upon a time, he was in Riyom, a local government that has now made a name for itself in the spots of unrest around the state. On my way there, there were at least ten military checkpoints along the way so I [...]

“It’s been a long time coming, but I know a change is gonna come“- Sam Cooke One of the greatest demonstrations of freedom took place in Nigeria on Tuesday the 16th. It was a youth rally that had over a thousand young professionals storm the Eagle’s Square and the National Assemby complex (the Nigerian Senate building) to demand a change [...]

Cross-posted at KTravula.com When I served the country Nigeria in the mandatory one-year National Youth Service in a little village close to the city of Jos in 2005, the state still had as its motto “The Home of Peace and Tourism” even though there was always a shadow of violence looming in the corner and in every conversation. In September [...]

There is much to cope with when you are the wife of a sick and/or dying president. There is even more to cope with if said husband has now been evicted from a better working hospital in Saudi Arabia and is now back in the government house, causing commotion and/or being some sort of nuisance to the rule of law [...]

Cross-posted here And so today after a lot of soul searching and repentance of past sins of unpatriotism, I am back with a new list of bumper stickers. This time, they will be nice and politically correct, for those who like to see the good and the positive. Now you have no more excuses for not making them up as [...]

I was not too surprised when I checked out the Facebook group created to denounce the Nigerian Terrorist today and found that from a meagre 700 members on Friday when I first blogged about it, there are now over 56,o00 members on the group. This is very nice, right?. Very impressive. It shows that we care about the implication of [...]

Cross-posted here. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a 23 year old man from a comfortable home in Northern Nigeria who attends a university in the United Kingdom. He’s now notorious for trying to denotate an explosive device on a plane. I have tried not to talk about him before now, but who am I kidding? It’s in the news on every [...]