Category Archives: World Affairs

WHAT WE ARE READING: WHAT’S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE

Why does female circumcision/genital cutting/mutilation get so much atten­tion and media while nobody seems to care that pos­si­bly the most sen­si­tive part of the penis, the fore­skin, in spite of its impor­tance in sex­ual activ­ity,  is being yanked off rou­tinely in many coun­tries of the world?  It is esti­mated that 30% of the world’s male

On “Stuff We Don’t Want” (SWEDOW)

A term coined by a fol­lower blog­ger and aid expert Tales From The Hood. It’s a tongue-in-check term used to describe ludi­crous gifts in-kind (GiK) dona­tions. Many exam­ples abound but recent ones include 1million t-shirts, Soles for Soul, Flip-flops for Africa, recy­cled soaps (yes, you read right!), used bras (or Bras With­out Bor­der as they

The Beginning Revolution in Nigeria

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)

Nigerians Talking Science – An IM Conversation

I thought I’d have you lis­ten in on this IM con­ver­sa­tion I had with a friend from med­ical school, Simon Ade­bola, about sci­ence, sci­ence illit­er­acy and bio­med­ical sci­ence in Nigeria/Africa. Simon blogs at iIni­tia­tive. Simon Ade­bola: So tell me, what is new in the neb­u­lous world of cells trans­mit­ters and neu­ro­bi­ol­ogy? Seye Abim­bola: Neb­u­lous world? Simon

Poem: My Brother, The Jew

I’m work­ing on a col­lec­tion of poems inves­ti­gat­ing hate, fear, and loathing: Under the ban­ner of peace and broth­er­hood, my body to be scat­tered in bits in the noisy, sud­den, non-peaceful tear­ing of flesh. My body a weapon against cous­in­hood. I have many cousins — one that smokes by the Ganges and really hates blood.

Are We Exporting Terrorists/Religious Extremists?

This arti­cle is a response to an email a friend sent me. In the email, my friend pointed out that “Mr Soyinka does not have the right to call UK a cesspit and a breed­ing ground for ter­ror­ist when his home coun­try is bat­tling with reli­gious con­flict, exported a ter­ror­ist that nearly blew up a

Joint Statement by U.S, U.K and E.U on Nigeria

Via Jide Salu. Sec­re­tary of State Hillary Rod­ham Clin­ton, British For­eign Sec­re­tary David Miliband, French For­eign Min­is­ter Bernard Kouch­ner, EU High Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cather­ine Ash­ton Lon­don, United King­dom Jan­u­ary 28, 2010 We express our deep regret at the recent vio­lence and tragic loss of lives in Jos, and extend our sym­pa­thies to the bereaved and injured. We

Weekly Blog Round-Up

22/01/10 — 28/01/10 Con­sid­er­ing the immense respon­si­bil­ity of pre­sid­ing over a nation of 140million+ and the frailty of his health, the case of Pres­i­dent Yar’adua (MIA) should gar­ner some sym­pa­thy.  Solomon­sy­delle of Nige­ri­an­Cu­rios­ity, thinks not. Blog­ger and Nige­ri­ansTalk reg­u­lar con­trib­u­tor, Kola Tubo­sun, raises money for Haiti and Jos through pho­tog­ra­phy. Bid­ding infor­ma­tion on his per­sonal

A country that has an over-bloated impression of itself?

For­mer Amer­i­can ambas­sador to Nige­ria, Prince­ton Lyman, writ­ing on today’s (ir)relevance of Nige­ria. If Nige­ria fails? I have a long con­nec­tion to Nige­ria. Not only was I ambas­sador there, I have trav­elled to and from Nige­ria for a num­ber of years and have a deep and abid­ing emo­tional attach­ment to the Niger­ian peo­ple, their mag­nif­i­cence, courage,

Nigeria: Can we engage politely?

When Nige­ri­ans com­ment in pub­lic forums, what are the odds that the dis­course will be polite, respect­ful, con­tex­tual and useful?