Death Of the Liberian Warlord General Prince Yomi Johnson

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

The news of the death of the controversial Liberian warlord General Prince Yomi Johnson has just reached me. The man became friends with me whilst he was in exile in Lagos, Nigeria. 

*Prince Johnson 

Let’s just do a quick recall of the gory video scene of the killing of then President Samuel Doe of Liberia. There was the beer-guzzling Prince Yomi Johnson sitting in judgment over the captured and tied-up Doe who was begging for his life thusly: “Yomi, two people fight, one win. Spare me, please.” 

Of course poor Samuel Doe had his miserable life snuffed out. 

Now the news has hit town that General Prince Yomi Johnson too is dead.

A tear for him! 

Prince Yomi Johnson used to live in exile in Ikoyi, Lagos, and I once had a memorable encounter with him. No appointment was fixed with the former warlord. I simply appeared unannounced at the frontage of the man’s Ikoyi home one hot Tuesday afternoon, and settled on a white plastic chair by the door of the bistro that led into the compound.

Nigeria: The Return Of Kwashiorkor

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu 

The deadly kwashiorkor disease that was so much associated with the Biafra war has made a return to peacetime Nigeria. It was not a pretty sight seeing malnourished children with distended stomachs, nylon-like skins and dopey eyes during that evil war.

The belief was that kwashiorkor had gone for good with Biafra. My shock knew no bounds when I read in the Nigerian Tribune of Saturday, October 26, 2024 that kwashiorkor is back in town.

Nigeria In Disarray: Waiting For Damnation

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu  

This Fiction Called Nigeria: The Struggle for Democracy by Adewale Maja-Pearce; (Verso, UK, 6 Meard Street, London; Verso, US, 388 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York; 2024; 185pp) 

Adewale Maja-Pearce does not pull his punches in his prolific engagements in public intellectual pugilism. He packs quite a punch, and comes strongly recommended by such eminent worthies as Jeremy Harding of London Review of Books who writes thusly: “Adewale Maja-Pearce is Nigeria’s most dependable journalist.” 

There is no denying the fact that Nigeria as a country is in dire straits. It is as though Africa’s most populous nation is forever thrust in suspended animation, especially after the heavily flawed 2023 presidential elections. Incidentally, Adewale Maja-Pearce starts out with these words: “This book was written against the background of the 2023 elections.” 

Bayo Onanuga: Spewing Ethnic Hatred As Weapon Against Mass Hunger

 

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

These are very dangerous days in Nigeria. 

“These are times that try men’s souls,” as the founding father of American independence, Thomas Paine, wrote in The American Crisis. 

In very recent history, people did not speak out in time until the Hutu/Tutsi mayhem overwhelmed Rwanda. 

It is incumbent on me to now call out Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Information and Strategy, on his recent pathetic ethnic baiting that can only end up pitching one ethnic group in Nigeria against the other in an orgy of flagitious violence. 

Democracy Day: Electricity Bill Is Larger Than My Salary

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Today has been declared a public holiday by the Nigerian Government to mark Democracy Day. May 29 used to be Democracy Day until then President Muhammadu Buhari put forward June 12 as the real McCoy.

The greatest piece of fiction written in Nigeria since the publication of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart back in 1958 was the fantastic yarn that promoted May 29 as Nigeria’s Democracy Day.

Some of us are even hard put coming to terms that there is civil rule in Nigeria let alone democracy. At the very least, to practice democracy a country has to first boast of democrats.

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. 

Tribalism Is The Emperor Of All Isms

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Tribalism is the ism topping all isms! All the talk of Socialism, Communism, Humanism and so on must now be put on one side to make way for the true king of the jungle: Tribalism! Of all the isms of the whole wide world, the most triumphant ism is without any question whatsoever Tribalism.

Look, I’m not just writing about Nigeria where the current wave of Tribalism has exposed all the erstwhile charlatans of the land. Many pseudo-intellectuals and para-academics have made a meal of wearing tattered beards all over the place and crowning themselves Emperors of Communism or Kings of Marxism. The former Marxists have all been unmasked and the erstwhile apostles of Communism have all been excommunicated.

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. 

President Tinubu Discovers Ice In Macondo

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Let the whole wide world join me in universal celebration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who has just repeated the immortal feat of discovering ice.

*Tinubu

The first time ice was ever discovered in human history was in the novel One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

According to the opening sentence of One Hundred Years of Solitude, “Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.”

There Was A Man Called John Jerry Rawlings

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigeria is more divided than ever, and the politicians of Nigeria have gone completely mad. It is as though everybody is now totally beyond control. Nigerians have replaced the Constitution with just one word: Impunity.

*Rawlings 

Of course in this matter of impunity, there is no difference between the parties and the politicians because crossing party lines rampantly like harlots-on-heat is all the rage. There is no redemption in sight for the odious lot. These wanton Nigerian politicians need to be reminded of what happened in Ghana back in 1979.

Nigeria: Federal Republic Of Thuggery

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Shamelessness is the vilest disease of the Nigerian establishment. The shameless mode of the leaders of Nigeria was activated in full force on February 25 and March 18, in this year of Our Lord, when so-called national elections were staged. 

It all turned out to be a sham, a charade that even the most mentally retarded child would scoff at. Yet, billions were voted for the exercises that the organizers never believed in at all in the first instance.

Nigeria: Vote My Tribe Or I Kill You!

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Democracy has been turned into coup at the polls – and the result is announced in the darkest wee hours when robbers are wont to strike! The Nigerian elections of February 25 and March 18 were turned into deadly battles akin to brutal tribal war. 

It’s not my wish here to dwell on the partisan politics of the dangerous state of affairs of this benighted country that is now in tatters. Even as the politics of Nigeria divides the nation tragically, literature somewhat comes to the rescue.

Nigeria: Policing The Police For The People

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigerian policemen and women can be more dangerous than armed robbers and bandits any day of the week for sure. The latest charge is that some of the police blokes are deeply engaged in the sordid business of organ harvesting. 

People get arrested by the police and the arrested ones are never seen anymore because their body parts have been harvested and sold for hard cash. The joy for me is that there are some courageous Nigerians who are determined to hold the police to account no matter the danger.

A Toast To Odia Ofeimun At 73

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

There is no better way of introducing Odia Ofeimun than pointedly stressing that “Odia Ofeimun is Odia Ofeimun!” Enough said. 

*Ofeimun

Poet, publisher, editor, activist, polemicist, mentor, politician, columnist, factory worker, writer, dance-drama exponent, public intellectual, critic etc, Odia Ofeimun has packed uncountable lifetimes into one tumultuous lifespan. 

Celebrating Akachi Ezeigbo: The Mother Of Books

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Quietude sits well with Professor Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, and calmness is the word for her, but the music was so compelling that she had to stand up and dance. The mellifluous music issuing forth from Gerald Eze and his Ichoku Ensemble put a smooth smile on the face of Prof Akachi and soft dexterity to her dancing steps. 

*Professor Akachi Ezeigbo 

Prof Akachi-Ezeigbo’s sister, Prof Chinyere Stella Okunna, who had been sitting beside the celebrant was held in rapt awe by the phenomenon. 

The date, Saturday, February 11, 2023, stays unforgettable because of the birthday party observed for prolific award-winning author, Prof Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo, at a comfy venue called Awka Window on America at Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State. The personable Vice-Chancellor of the university, Prof Charles Okechukwu Esimone, was on hand to conduct the rousing opening ceremony to the event sponsored by Abibiman Publishing UK, James Currey Society and intervolving the creative literary giants of Nnamdi Azikiwe University. 

Surprise Is The Shot Of Peter Obi

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

The greatest surprise of the political season in Nigeria today is without question the almost overwhelming presence of Peter Obi. The man has teeming admirers and unappeasable antagonists, but either-or, he can hardly ever be ignored.

*Peter Obi arrives Ilorin Airport (February 6, 2023)

A journalist’s duty is to almost always wade into every subject in popular focus, no matter how controversial – whence my decision to write on the Peter Obi phenomenon. I am not interested in doing a piece on his political campaigns of today – I would rather go to the past, in 2008, when the man surprised me in no small measure.

Global Conquest Of Nigerian Literature

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu 

I can never get tired of celebrating Nigerian literature, arguably Nigeria’s greatest gift to the world. The politics of Nigeria is a disaster that makes the whole wide world laugh at the so-called “Giant of Africa”.

Ever since the inspiring emergence of Chinua Achebe, author of Things Fall Apart, and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, Nigerian writers have continued to astound the world with their seminal works.

Agenda For The Next Nigerian President

By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

This is the season of high-wire politicking, and some contenders and wannabes are talking tough on rescuing Nigeria from ruin once they are elected as the country’s President.

Anybody elected as the President of Nigeria in this woebegone time must have as the first item on his agenda the organization a proper national conference on how the diverse peoples of Nigeria can get to live together.

It is very imperative now that Nigerians need to talk on how to co-exist before any progress whatsoever can be made.

The Collapse Of The Nigerian Tripod

 By Uzor Maxim Uzoatu

Nigeria today stands on wobbly legs, and what needs to be done to make the country to stand steady and strong is to go back to where the rain started beating the country in the modern day.

At independence in 1960, Nigeria was said to stand on a pivotal tripod of East, West and North. The 1967-70 Nigeria-Biafra war ensured that the North in alliance with the West defeated the East.

The oppressed minorities of course took sides with the victors because nobody would ever want to be in the corner of losers.
That is a simple historical fact, and any other embellishments only exist to serve expedience.