Book Review
Author: Eunice O. Obidi
Publishers: Kraft Books Limited
Pagination: 250
Reviewer: Banji Ojewale
When things fell apart for Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, the world also broke into one thousand and one shards, never to return to the old stable order. But in Eunice Obidi’s Set Apart, the dissolution of family and its sacred values isn’t succeeded by unredeemed disintegration, disharmony and dispersions.
By Banji Ojewale
Ismail Babatunde Jose, described as the “legendary doyen of Nigerian journalism’’ (The Guardian of UK) and “the grandfather of Nigerian journalism’’ (British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC), was responsible for the emergence of a galaxy of talent in the industry in his generation.
He toiled on the raw aptitude of these young persons coming under his care and, with strategic precision, dropped himself into them, as it were, seeking those who would collect the baton and perpetuate his tradition of unyielding enterprise. They would continue the race resolutely and relentlessly, and refuse to let down cheering crowds and a mentor given to nothing but to see you turn in your best for the community of news consumers.
By Banji Ojewale
Vladimir Kuts was Russia’s unforgettable long-distance runner who, in a wildly combative career that lasted only three years in the 1950s, trashed the records for both the 5000 and 10000 metres in one single competition. He didn’t believe there was any limit to man created in the image of God. Any being with such Divine trappings couldn’t fail. They would strive to reinvent the wheel, march across dreaded territory and plunge wordsmiths into uncharted depths to attempt to capture their achievements.
Therefore, retiring from global athletics while still at his peak when there were no more challenges, Kuts worked as a coach in the Central Army Club in Moscow and declared his mission: to discover a boy who would run faster than himself. It was a tall call; nobody could match Kuts’ tenacity, iron will and speed in his day. For many, it was illogical and inconceivable that a mentee would align with his lionized mentor’s agenda to outdo the legend. But the Russian Spartan didn’t rubbish race records resting on rational thinking. Nor on public opinion. Or on emotions.
By Banji Ojewale
Among Thailand’s over 71 million citizens are some one million+ Christians boxed into Catholics, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, Anglicans, along with other independent groups like the Church of Christ in Thailand, CCT, which is considered the oldest and largest Protestant umbrella organization in this southeast Asian kingdom.
Muslims post a figure of 7.5 million. But there’s an overwhelming majority of tens of millions of followers of Buddhism, one of the globe’s largest faiths which teaches an oriental version of Stoicism. Founded about 3000 years ago by Gautama Buddha, it is the national non-theistic religion and philosophy of Thailand.
By Banji
Ojewale
Kotei chewed on the flameless cigarette between two fingers on his left hand, regretting it was the last he took from the pack. He wished the manufacturers could load more into the paper box. He wouldn’t mind the cost, as long as it reduced the frequency of his visits to Handzin Ayen, two streets away, for the stuff. This would also ensure he would not run out of the stuff too early. But there was a bigger worry: for years he had always failed his New Year resolution to quit the smoke.
Instinctively, Kotei holding a pack of cigarettes, would recite the legend: I promise not to smoke again. I won’t ever go to Handzi Ayen for the cigarettes, even if she asks me to come for them for free. I’m now going to smoke these ones as a parting shot. Thereafter it’s bye-bye. They go away from me. Depart with the departing year. You won’t go with me into the new one. So, help me God!
Book: Daily Manna: A Daily Devotional Guide (January – December 2026)
Author: W.F. Kumuyi
Pages: 379
Publishers: Life
Press Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria
Reviewer: Banji Ojewale
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In ancient times, the sages sought to know the bowels of the future by looking into the bowels of animals. They would spread the skin of a slain beast, and after studying the surface contours, lines and features, they would determine whether a journey scheduled for a future should be undertaken or not or whether the gods approved or disapproved the levying of a war. For a long time in history, according to legend, this meeting point between living men and lifeless creatures was the answer to man’s immanent crave to see beyond his present.
By Banji Ojewale
The 1978 book, I Dared to Call Him Father, by Bilquis Sheikh, sacked the staid and sacral stance of the slumbering world with its contribution to the generational interaction between Muslims and Christians. Bilquis was an aristocratic Pakistani Muslim whose conversion to Christianity plunged her into a whirlwind of rebellion, rejection and ridicule at the hands of family and society. Her book, with Richard Schneider, is the granular account of her epic battle to battle those who challenged her daring moves in a conservative community.
Her religion doesn’t admit God as a personal father. She writes: ‘’No Muslim, I felt certain, ever thought of Allah as his father… Wouldn’t it be sinful to try to bring the Great One down to our own level?’’ Now, Bilquis did not only call God her Father; but also, she went ahead to follow her deep-seated convictions to become a follower of Christ, sacrificing convenience and convention. She spoke of threats from kinsmen to visit her with honour killing.
Book: Riches Of Prayer
Author: W. F. Kumuyi
Pages: 157
Publishers: Life Press Ltd, Lagos, Nigeria
Reviewer: Banji Ojewale
Years ago, a journalist approached Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, eager to know what he hid under his miracle-laden prayers that always landed, bereft of boisterous baggage. The newsman wondered: ‘’What I find amazing … is that some other pastors would lay their hands on people and shake them till they fall down and roll about. But you don’t do that. You just stand at the podium and pray a simple prayer, a normal prayer, no theatrics, and people get healed.’’
By Banji Ojewale
Our
leaders are our deadliest enemies.
Not given to altruism, these leaders don’t also subscribe to the law of the power of example. This is the golden rule insisting that rulers aren’t graded great until they exhibit selfless, sacrificial and Spartan conduct that sparks same virtues in the citizens. But our leaders, elected, selected or ‘dictated,’ believe in the precept of the example of power. Here, the goal is, as you grab power, you must dig in, you must live in it and flaunt it and extend its frontiers like you’d be in its embrace forever.
They invest their all in it, nursing it with a lusty affection that outlaws competition or regard for other existential concerns. They bequeath a depressed economy after fattening their personal bank accounts and acquiring more property than they had at the point of entry. They exploit the led and desecrate their sacred office. They arrange a superannuation that glides them into a lifetime of cloying affluence and luxury.
Last week, on September 21, 2025, the world marked the 116th posthumous birth anniversary of the founding President of Ghana, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah. Today, we recall a piece written in 2020 by BANJI OJEWALE to celebrate the great Pan-Africanist and liberation fighter when Ghana marked its 63rd year of Independence. Enjoy it.
February 24 slid into history again a couple of days ago, hardly remembered by many as the 54th anniversary of the military coup that toppled Kwame Nkrumah as Ghana’s president and temporarily halted the greatest anti-colonial move of the era. The putsch came just when the Black Star nation was preparing to celebrate nine years of liberation from its imperial lords in London. The rest of the free world across Africa and beyond, which had been thrilled by Nkrumah’s bold experiment in post-colonial sovereignty were also eager to felicitate with the Ghanaians.
By Banji Ojewale
Ghana, Black Africa’s oldest independent nation, is preparing for two landmark events in 2026 and 2027. In 2026, the Black Star land will be looking decades back, recalling 60 years after the tragic overthrow of the legendary Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, its founding president.
Then, in 2027 Ghanaians and the international community will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the country’s bold and befittingly blistering break with colonial servitude. The one sought to kill the foundation for a different approach to governance adopted by Nkrumah in a world weighed down by imperialistic paradigms. The other, an unforgettable African narrative scripted by Africans, will bring back the story of how one country triggered the revolution that consumed the Western imperatorial order imposed on the continent since the 19th Century.
By Banji Ojewale
A newsmagazine editor was troubled after traveling extensively with Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, founder and General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM, on his missionary trips to parts of Nigeria, Africa and Europe. He was intrigued with how members of Kumuyi’s Deeper Life Bible Church, DLBC, embraced the evangelist wherever he went.
He observed the dignifying discipline, stability and rare aura of oneness Kumuyi’s persona was giving the organization. But the newsman had concerns, agitated and worried about a post-Kumuyi order. Would the Church hold together again after the departure of its leader? Wouldn’t it suffer the fickle fissiparous fate of others orphaned by their founder’s exit? Wouldn’t that be a huge loss and complete cancellation of gains meant to be harvested by the future?
By Banji Ojewale
Here in Anyaa, Accra, capital of Ghana, I’ve come across some of the country’s leading newspapers. Their contents—news reports, opinions, vox pop, book reviews, cartoons, (dearth of these), sports, photo stories, advertorials etc.--give me a larger-than-life image of the Ghanaian society. The two oldest journals, Daily Graphic and Ghanaian Times, with their sister weeklies, The Mirror and The Spectator respectively, are on parade. The later appearances, Daily Guide, The Ghanaian Chronicle, Modern Ghana (Online), The Insight, Finder, Business Ghana, Statesman etc. have also been consulted, considered or captured for this short essay.
Ghana no longer has evening sheets. Kwame Nkrumah, the country’s founding president, introduced an Accra evening paper in the late 40s to fight colonial rule and give a voice to the local population. In the 60s, there was also the popular Evening Times. Since then, there’s been no serious contention for a comeback.
By Banji Ojewale
In Washington DC, USA, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi of Africa is invited to lead the prayer and praise session as part of the ceremonies for the inauguration of Donald Trump as the 47th president of the US. The revered Nigerian evangelist is through after a delivery of 290+ words in 1 minute and 36 seconds.
Reporters also note that Kumuyi, Convener of the denomination-disavowing Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK, is the only Nigerian and African cleric asked to minister. There’s this observation, too: His assembly, Deeper Life Bible Church, DLBC, trashed all the prognoses of infant death made by religious pontiffs on account of its pick of unyielding holiness as its motto; it then went on to survive withering headwinds, internal and external, to position itself in the forefront of the push of evangelical Christianity from the Global South, rather than from its cradle in the Global North.
By Banji Ojewale
The true prophet of God is not the one who delivers predictions about the New Year or the future. No! Rather he reveals the Creator’s mind and how fallen humanity can be convinced to embrace that vision for his eternal good – William Folorunso Kumuyi, Convener, Global Crusade with Kumuyi, (GCK)
In one of his sermons at the December 2024 Global Retreat of the Deeper Life Bible Church and Global Crusade with Kumuyi, GCK, in Lagos, Nigeria, Pastor W.F. Kumuyi, Africa’s world-renowned evangelist, said the integrity crisis faced by today’s ‘prophets’ is the result of their desertion of the prophetic station ordained by God. He told millions of multitudes who watched and heard him worldwide online and physically that the true prophet of God is expected to hear from God and say only what he hears from Him, as sacredly served in the Holy Bible.
By Banji Ojewale
January 17, 2025 would have marked the 41st natal anniversary of Solomon Kayode Ojewale, the young man who was beginning to be noticed as a regular name in Nigeria’s vast media space, online and main-view. He was a migratory writer. One time he’d be in The Guardian, The Punch, The Nation, Nigerian Tribune, or Vanguard, all in Nigeria’s south, or another time up north in Daily Trust, Leadership or New Nigerian.
Kayode also had a promising presence in the online publications: Premium Times, Newspot, Sahara Reporters etc. He wrote and read lustily. On a number of occasions, he would query me: “Dad, what’s going on? I haven’t seen you write lately.’’ Sometimes, he was a monitoring spirit, searching for my articles on the internet and railing at the ubiquitous devil in the print. He also preyed on books. He took from me a book on John McCain, once a US presidential aspirant, which Emeka Eluem Izeze, former MD of The Guardian, loaned me.
Book Review
Reviewer: Banji Ojewale
Book: Daily Manna (A Devotional Guide, January-December 2025)
Author: W.
F. Kumuyi
Publishers:
Life Press, Lagos, Nigeria
Pagination: 379
William Blake was the Romantic English poet who believed that if you had it right from sun-up, you’d be positioned for success all through the day till sun-down. What he simply meant was that you needed to dedicate quality time to plot your vision of the trajectory of the day as you leave the bed. You impose your wishes on the day before you move into it, he insists; otherwise you’d run into elemental and untamable circumstances. The writer who lived between two centuries (1757-1827) put it this way: ‘’Think in the morning. Act in the noon. Eat in the evening. Sleep in the night.’’
By Banji Ojewale
Buried somewhere in the voluminous video vault of the Africa Independent Television, AIT, Lagos, Nigeria, is the recording of a rare live interview with Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, General Superintendent of Deeper Christian Life Ministry, DCLM. Hosted in the late 1990s by the popular Kaakaki early dawn programme, Kumuyi responded to a bouquet of questions that led to even more answers and views about his ministry, the Deeper Life Bible Church God used him to found, his outlook on life, and the controversy over genuine Christians watching the Television among other vexatious narratives of the day.
Deep into the interactive session, the unexpected poser came from a caller: "Sir, I have observed that you’ve not at all quoted from the Scriptures as you addressed some of the questions. I can’t also see that you have the Holy Bible with you. Now, Sir, that seems somehow strange for a great man of God, who is expected to tackle every issue by reaching into the Word of God and turning page after page. But you’re not doing all that. Doesn’t add up, Pastor!’’ (Please note that I’ve taken a literary license to paraphrase and expand the question.)
By Banji Ojewale
When God could no longer stand the overthrow of the good order He established on earth, He stepped in with the Noah's Ark solution. The upset Creator said since man had allowed his depravity to flush out His benignity, He would respond with a heavier rain flood to wash away man and his iniquity.
But not all earthlings would go; some humans, along with pairs of the lower primates, would be sheltered in a huge vessel to be constructed by a good man called Noah. He and some members of his household together with the animals would take refuge in the boat during the deadly deluge. The storm did come, sweeping off evil men and women and the children and youth who took after them.
By Banji Ojewale
There comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe nor polite, not popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him he is right. —Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) American churchman and civil liberties defender.
*Pastor Kumuyi and his wife, Mrs
Esther
In his book, An Outline of the History of the World, Herbert Abraham Davies relates the epic story of how a cleric put himself in the path of potential backlash to deliver ancient Rome from annihilation at the hands of an all-conquering army of barbarians. The predators were already in the regions of the Roman Empire; all the soldiers needed was an order from their leader, Attila the Hun, to move in and overrun Rome. From this she was saved, (so it was said), "by the earnest entreaties of Leo, Bishop of Rome, who entered Attila’s camp and warned him not to risk the vengeance of heaven by plundering the city, and the Hun leader was so impressed with the bishop’s sincerity and intensity of purpose that he withdrew his troops."
