Fix Food First And Fast Or Forget It

 By Dele Sobowale

“There are people in the world, so hungry, that God cannot appear to them except in form of bread” – Mahatma Gandhi, 1869-1948

The great Indian leader and liberator made that remark before he was assassinated in 1948 at a time when his country, now divided into at least three nations, suffered from food scarcity worse than Nigeria is experiencing now. Certainly, it can also be said that there are millions of people in Nigeria today, so hungry that God cannot appear to them except either as a loaf of bread or a bowl of cooked rice. 

I was only four years old in 1948. So, I had to interview those far older than me to know how the food situation was like at the time – in addition to historical research. Surprisingly, Nigeria was then a net exporter of food at a time when almost 99 per cent of Nigerians were illiterates; when the University of Ibadan was just opening its doors to students.

Nigeria: The Followership Has Failed Us again, How Sad!

 

By Ayo Oyoze Baje

“Some praise at morning what they blame at night.
But always think the last opinion right” – Alexander Pope

They make the fantastic promises of the weaver bird, exude the sinister smile of the hyena, with the embrace of the gorilla, while executing the dizzying dance steps of the monkey, at the sight of bananas. As far as their own erroneously perceived Nigeria is concerned, the end justifies the means. Call it the Machiavellian doctrine; it does not matter to them.

Truth be told, what engages their mind most is the lure of the lucre-filthy or not. So, they kowtow to it, raining insults and innuendoes on anyone who has a different opinion to that of their paymasters. And that includes their townsmen, brothers, sisters, friends or associates. What a crying shame!

Still In Bewilderment, Gazing At Yakubu

 By Amanze Obi  

There is no beating about the bush here. The cold, hard fact is that Nigerians have just received the deepest cut. They have been stabbed in the neck by someone who promised them life. They have been hit below the belt by a man they thought was harmless. Now, the people are writhing in pains. The country is convulsing in its death throes. 

*Yakubu 

We trace all this to the grand betrayal by Mahmood Yakubu, the infamous chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Yakubu, in life and death, will go down in history as the master dissembler who took his country through the mine field of treachery and deceit. The people believed him till the last hour. They only woke up overnight to discover to their chagrin that he has given them the worst election in the annals of history. The most ironical is that Yakubu’s trenchant assault on the country’s democracy took place at a time the people were expecting to have the freest, fairest and most transparent election in their country’s history. 

Towards A New And Better Nigeria (2): Obi’s ‘No Shishi’ As Political Contract

 By Pieray Awele Odor

I am an OBIdient! I cannot hide my choice or pretend about it. I have told my friends this as we discussed the man who merits to be the next president among the contestants for this highest position in Nigeria and, as Mr. Boris Johnson said, “The best job in the country”; not the best job for me though! I have also told them that what is important is why anyone supports any candidate.

*Obi

This should be the basis for discuss about who should be the next president. I chose to support Mr. Peter Obi because of his four bases for asking Nigerians to vote for him. These are “No shishi”, “Character”, “Track record” and Trust”. This is unique in Nigerian politics! Indeed it is phenomenal! In this piece, as contribution Toward a New and Better Nigeria, I shall discuss “No shishi”.

Rape And The Nigerian Condition

By Promise Adiele

A first glance at the title of Alexander Pope’s poem The Rape of the Lock immediately rouses the sensibilities to his deployment of the word ‘rape’. Although the mind instantly acquires a sexual cognition of ‘rape’, Pope’s use of it connotes entirely different meaning in the context of the poem. For Pope, ‘rape’ means to take away or remove something from its original place thereby depriving the owner of its importance and service. Indeed, this appears remote from ‘rape’ which describes the forceful initiation of sex without the consent of one of the persons involved. 

Before we begin to scrutinize rape, let us establish that the symbolic ethos of any society is essentially composed in its moral order by which the conduct of members is regulated. A breakdown of moral order in any society through rape signifies a dislocation of cosmic harmony and therefore requires propitiation, sometimes punitive; in order to salvage humanity’s doomed fate before chthonic gods. Rape is an undesirable, anti-social act which must be consistently repudiated and abhorred. I do not know of any religion, culture or creed that condones rape. Whether as an act of sexual perversion or an act of stealing, rape today – like all other social vulgarity – stands trial in the court of public opinion.