Throwback To When Nigeria Lost Children At Lekki Tollgate

 By Ebuka Ukoh

October 20, 2020, was an unforgettable Tuesday. Then, I sat at home, watching DJ Switch’s Instagram livestream, my phone trembling in my hands as her voice broke through the darkness.

The sound of gunfire echoed over the national anthem. Flags fluttered in blood and fear. Protesters—unarmed, singing, kneeling—were sprayed with bullets. I remember feeling sick. Not just in my body, but in my soul. I knew how this would end. We all did.

In Nigeria, power too often answers activism, not with dialogue but with death.

Tess Onwueme, Distinguished Playwright And Scholar, At 70

 By Monday Philips Ekpe

Professor Ngugi wa Thiong’o, world-renowned Kenyan literary giant, described Professor Tess Osonye Onwueme thus: “In her work, Onwueme has shown daring in her exploration of ideas even if they lead to subjects and themes which may seem taboo. Onwueme is eminently a political dramatist, for power affects every aspect of society. She explores these themes with a dazzling array of images and proverbs. Her drama and theatre are a feast of music, mime, proverbs and story-telling… Onwueme consolidates her position among the leading dramatists from Africa.”

Professor Eugene Redmond, poet-laureate at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, IL, USA was even more robust and sweeping in his submission: “Among her literary soul mates are Wole Soyinka, Ama Ata Aidoo, Samuel Beckett, Derek Walcott, John Pepper Clark, Albert Camus, Chinua Achebe, Toni Morrison, Anton Chekhov, Femi Osofisan, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, George Bernard Shaw, Athol Fugard, August Wilson, Amos Tutuola, Gloria Naylor, Buchi Emecheta, Dennis Brutus, Alex LaGuma, Mariama Ba, and Sembene Ousmane.”

Fake Titles Are Not Nigeria’s Problem

 By Chiwuike Uba

A group of Nigerian academics has launched a petition against the misuse of “Dr.” and “Professor” titles. Their outrage is directed at quacks, diploma mills, and honorary degree holders who prefix their names with academic distinctions they did not earn. They call it a national disgrace.

But titles are costumes, not character. As the saying goes, the robe does not make the monk. Societies are built by conscience, not by prefixes. When the conscience collapses, credentials become nothing more than decoration. That is why this entire debate feels like a misplaced priority. Nigeria’s real disgrace is not fake titles; it is what the so-called legitimate holders of those titles have done with them.

Chinua Achebe’s Booker Award, Nigeria’s Glory

 By Farooq A. Kperogi

(This article was first published in 2007...)

The recent international recognition of the literary excellence of our peerless literary icon, Chinua Achebe, and the equally richly deserved crowing of the prodigious literary prowess of U.S.-based, up-and-coming novelist Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie have been such comforting news especially for those of us living outside Nigeria who have had the unpleasant burden of explaining (actually, in most cases, explaining away) to our friends all the bad international press we’ve had in the last couple of months.

*Achebe 
Since May this year, every well-informed American I have met has asked me about our outrageously fraudulent elections and, of course, about the kidnappings of foreigners in the Niger Delta. These two issues seem to be the only topics people here know about Nigeria when they strike up a conversation with you. I don’t blame them, though. Their news media has had a rather unhealthy fixation with these stories these past few months.

 

Then first came the cheering news that one pulchritudinous and immensely talented 29-year-old Nigerian lady called Adichie has won the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction for her book, Half of a Yellow Sun. (Incidentally, Chinua Achebe was also only 28 years old when he wrote his magnum opus, Things Fall Apart). She trounced many better known and more established women writers to win the prize. Although news of her win didn’t do much to divert attention from the negative publicity of Nigeria in the Western media, it did provide a comforting alternative subject matter to discuss with people about Nigeria here.

Bola Tinubu And State Capture

 By Obi Nwakanma

I have made this point at various points in this column, that for a nation to claim “independence,” or legitimacy, it must have sovereign control of its state institutions.

*Tinubu

It should never be a transactional or “contract state.” Is Nigeria a sovereign state? I do not think so, because, currently, Nigeria does not seem in control of its sovereign institutions. As a nation, Nigeria is not governed by her leaders. It is under state capture. Those who parade themselves now as the leaders of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, are in fact, not answerable to the citizens of this republic.

Chinua Achebe, Nobel Prize And African Literature

 By Ugochukwu Ejinkeonye

March 21 was here again recently. On this particular day in 2013, Professor Chinua Achebe, one of the world’s most distinguished writers and intellectuals took his last breath in Boston, Massachusetts, mourned and celebrated by his teeming readers, critics and divers people across the globe on whom his work and life had significantly impacted in various ways. I have decided to use this period to examine some of the important discussions that have continued to circulate around Achebe, his work and African literature which appear to have even gained considerable weight since his demise and have also distinguished themselves by the largely tantalizing distortions, half-truths and deliberate misinformation that have been carefully injected into them.

*Achebe 

This service is for the benefit of students, younger professors and scholars   who were yet to be admitted into the African literary household when some of the events stoking these discussions took place and who are innocently gobbling up the horribly deficient accounts being fed them by those who either do not have any better grasp of those aspects of the African literary history themselves or are on a deliberate mission to distribute misleading concoctions.

It seems so natural to commence with Chinua Achebe and the Nobel Literature Prize given that discussions on it have stubbornly refused to go away even after over a decade of Achebe’s passing.

*Achebe and the Nobel Politics  

By 1986, it was very obvious that the Swedish Academy which annually selects the recipients of the Nobel Literature Prize had decided to bring it to Africa. But to actualize this, they did something that viciously affected the credibility of that year’s prize. They summoned African writers to Stockholm to discuss African Literature before them. While several African writers including the illustrious Wole Soyinka who won the prize that year trooped to Sweden to attend the conference which held from 11-17 April, 1986, Chinua Achebe thought that such an event was not worth his time.

In his message to the Nobel Committee rejecting their invitation, Achebe wrote:

“I regret I cannot accept your generous invitation for the simple reason that I do not consider it appropriate for African writers to assemble in European capitals in 1986 to discuss the future of their literature. In my humble opinion it smacks too much of those constitutional conferences arranged in London and Paris for our pre-independence political leaders.

“The fault, however is not with the organizers such as yourselves, but with us the writers of Africa who at this point in time should have outgrown the desire for the easy option of using external platforms instead of grappling with the problem of creating structures of their own at home.

“…I strongly believe that the time is overdue for Africans, especially African writers, to begin to take the initiative in deciding the things that belong to their peace…” (See “Ikejemba: He Had in Him the Elements So Mixed” by Professor Michael Thelwell, Usaafrica dialogue google groups).

One wonders what the astounded Nobel Committee members must have whispered to each other after receiving this letter.

1966 Coups, Biafra, Asaba Massacre, Gowon: Adebayo Williams On Chuks Iloegbunam

 By Tony Eluemunor

“I prefer to be accused of nastiness than to join in the national pastime of consigning events of a few years ago into prehistory”.

Chinua Achebe wrote that in the preface of his book of essays, Morning  Yet On Creation Day, to explain why he had to include essays on the Biafran war in that book instead of pretending that the war never took place. Here and now, I second that “motion”.

Tatalo Alamu, in his offering titled Ninety Bouquets For Jack Gowon published in the Nation newspaper of November 3, 2024, poured encomiums on Gen. Yakubu Gowon, “as an exemplary Nigerian patriot, a soldier-statesman and shining moral exemplar for many of his compatriots”.

Umuahians In The US Storm The Windy City

 By Obi Nwakanma

Twenty years ago, the alumni of the Government College Umuahia first met in the United States, and decided to take on the challenge of restoring their famous alma mater, the Government College Umuahia, and while at it, have some fun. 

In that first convention that drew many of the “old boys” of the Government College Umuahia – “Umuahians,” as they are best known – for the first time to a national gathering in New Jersey, their distinguished “old boy,” the world famous novelist, the late Chinua Achebe, in wheelchair, tended lovingly all the way from Bard College, in the Catskills by his wife, Christie, reminded his fellow Umuahians, of what every generation of schoolmasters used to say to students at Umuahia: “to whom much is given, much is expected.” It was the basis of the “noblese oblige.” 

TV Series Adaptation Of Achebe's 'Things Fall Apart' Features Idris Elba As Okonkwo

 Press Release

Achebe Masterworks Announces Development Deal with A24 for TV Series Adaptation of Things Fall Apart

In a landmark collaboration, Achebe Masterworks is thrilled to announce a partnership with acclaimed Studio A24 and producers, Idris Elba and David Oyelowo, for the television adaptation of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Published in 1958, Things Fall Apart established African literature on the global stage and remains the most widely read African novel, with over 30 million copies sold and translations in more than 60 languages.

Edo Governorship Election And The ‘Umpire’ Called INEC

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

I had very instructive discussions with two A-list Nigerian politicians before and after the Edo State governorship election; the first being on Wednesday, three days before the poll. Both men have held positions of immense responsibility in government both at the state and federal levels.

The first politician dismissed those who believed that given the pedigree of the 18 candidates and sophistication of the Edo electorate, the odds favoured the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, as unrealistic.

Urgent Action Needed To Address Food Inflation

 By Elvis Eromosele

“An old woman is always uneasy when dry bones are mentioned in a proverb.” This is a popular saying from Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart.

Many times, these days, I feel like that old woman in the saying, especially when I see skits where food is wasted and there are too many of them now. I don’t find them funny. I can’t laugh. They offend my sensibility. Food don cost. 

Kumuyi And Africa's Quest For Servant-Leaders

 By Banji Ojewale

Most of us agree with Chinua Achebe, Africa’s late literary colossus, that Nigeria’s chief post-Independence headache has been the challenge of leadership.

*Kumuyi 

He said in his 1983 book, The Trouble with Nigeria: “The trouble with Nigeria is simply a failure of leadership… The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which are hallmarks of true leadership… Nigerians are what they are only because their leaders are not what they should be…’’

Why Tinubu’s Policy Adventures Will Fail

 By Charles Onunaiju

President Bola Tinubu and his administration bask in the euphoria that they have taken some “tough” and “courageous” measures that would deliver prosperity to Nigerians in the future. The coordinating minister of the economy, Mr Wale Edun, recently stated that despite public uproar at the harshness of the measures and their devastating impact on the lives of Nigerians, along with the more frightening dimension of security meltdown, the administration has been receiving accolades at several international forums, including the World Bank, IMF, and the G20 meetings.

*Tinubu

However, it is not because the measures are tough, courageous, and may have attracted accolades from outside that they may fail to produce any result close to prosperity, but because they are extraneous and largely disconnected from the existential reality of the current condition of the country. The choice of the word “measures” to denote government response is deliberate, even as it is widely called policy.

Remembering MKO Abiola’s Transformer Semiotics

 By Banji Ojewale

One of the captivating political campaign lines of MKO Abiola has been immortalized in a seminal work by Professor Tunde Ope-Davies (Tunde Opeibi) of the University of Lagos. Titled Discourse, Politics and the 1993 Presidential Election Campaign in Nigeria, the book documents the drive of the gladiators to secure the mandate of the electorate.

*Abiola 

Ope-Davies’ uncanny nose for hidden details smokes out Abiola’s rush for virtually every trick in the advertising books to outwit his main challenger, Bashir Tofa, of the National Republican Convention, NRC, leading Abiola to create the famous punchline on the transformer as a metaphor for abiding leadership. MKO, as he was fondly called, was of the Social Democratic Party, SDP. He is quoted by Ope-Davies (then known as Tunde Opeibi) as saying during his search for votes that all Nigeria needed to overcome its age-old statehood concerns was ‘one transformer’, one singular and enduring personality in the saddle whose beam of integrity would permeate all of society for salutary ripples in his days and beyond.

Nigeria: Disaster Foretold; More Disaster Inevitable!

 By Tony Eluemunor

What Nigeria is going through now, be it religious, ethnic, social, political and economic, national insecurity, uncontrolled militancy and banditry, all our national ills, were disasters that were clearly foretold in a major publication.

*Tinubu

Next month will mark the 30th anniversary of Robert D. Kaplan’s “THE COMING ANARCHY – How scarcity, crime, overpopulation, tribalism, and disease are rapidly destroying the social fabric of our planet”.

Published in the Atlantic Monthly magazine in February 1994, it pretended to scrutinize the entire planet Earth, though it actually focused on West Africa – with Nigeria receiving a special attention which detailed out our problems and warned that things were about to get worse.

Betta Edu And The Crime Scene Called Nigeria

 By Ikechukwu Amaechi

Dr Betta Edu, the vivacious and chirpy politician from Cross River State, must be introspecting now. Just yesterday, she had the world at her feet, literally, and Nigeria was her oyster, where, it seemed, she could achieve anything she wished.

*Betta Edu and Bola Tinubu

And she achieved a lot. Born October 27, 1986, Betta chalked up incredible attainments in only 37 years. Right from the time she completed her secondary education in 2001 at the Federal Government Girls College, Calabar and obtained her first degree in medicine and surgery from the University of Calabar in 2009, her rise to super stardom has been incredible.

Our Beloved Country Is Bleeding

 By Sunny Awhefeada

 I do not know why countries or na­tions are thought of in feminine forms (she/her). Perhaps, it is a strategy to endear us to the place of our nativity and create a bond, the kind that exists between a mother and her child. Growing up, we sang songs that endeared Nigeria to us. Our young and impressionable minds glowed with no­ble ideas to which our sonorous voices gave clarion utterances. Men and wom­en who lived generations before this era also thought of their place of birth in endearing terms and they went to war in defence of their homeland.

*President Tinubu and Senate President Akpabio

Empires and kingdoms rose and fell in battles to defend the homeland. Even Nigeria’s national anthem and pledge have mem­orable and endearing words to configure our allegiance and love for “our beloved country”.

Zik’s Day Beckons!

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu 

The man fondly called Zik of Africa deserves his day. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Nigeria’s foremost nationalist and first president, deserves his birthday, November 16, to be slated as a national holiday.

*Azikiwe 

It is a deserving honour for the pivotal leader who led the charge for Nigeria’s independence on October 1, 1960. 

As a result of his unparalleled efforts Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe would in the course of time become the only black Governor-General of Nigeria, the first President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, the only Nigerian whose name appeared in a Constitution of Nigeria, the first Senate President, among many other sterling firsts. 

An Airport For Chinua Achebe

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

There is a Chinua Achebe International Airport in Anambra State. It was a spectacular masterstroke from Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo when he renamed the Anambra Airport at Umueri after Chinua Achebe. 

*Achebe 

The ovation that Soludo got when he made the announcement in his speech at the 63rd Nigerian Independence Anniversary which took place at Dr Alex Ekwueme Square, Awka, on October 1 was thunderous and long-lasting. 

Federal Republic of Fiction @ 63

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigeria is fiction. The country’s Constitution has been transferred to a new shelf in the library: the shelf containing fictional works. The latter-day patriots of Nigeria can cry all they want against me, but in this instance I only choose to stand solidly in solidarity with the words that Samuel Johnson uttered on the evening of April 7, 1775, to wit: “Patriotism is the last refuge of scoundrels.”

There can never be a short supply of toadies and ill-assorted scoundrels defending the many fictions of the government of Nigeria in this new age when former activists and revolutionaries have turned into government spies and informants.