Columns
Tinubu watches defections, Shettima goes fishing in Mokwa
For many onlookers, Akwa Ibom Governor Umo Eno’s defection from the Peoples Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress felt like another episode of what some now call “Hurricane Tinubu”. ...
8th June 2025
Essential fatty acids (2)
I want to share a story credited to my father. He said there is a rural community in Ondo State where a bunch of leaves is placed between the legs of a woman in labour, just to slow the process down u...
8th June 2025
It’s a weapon against the self
If you are capable (that is, nothing is wrong with your hands and legs) but your vulnerable parents are begging for food, you are a cursed fellow. And the only thing that will bring restoration into y...
7th June 2025
Self-aware parents can shape their children’s future wisely
Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children’s development, with their behaviours, feelings, and outcomes leaving lasting impressions. When parents take ownership of their actions, they gai...
7th June 2025
Sickle cell disease and living with the unexpected
Sickle cell disease is a chronic, inherited blood disorder that affects millions of people worldwide, particularly among African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern, South Asian, and Mediterranean populations....
7th June 2025
How embryo glue can enhance implantation in IVF
Some IVF cycles succeed while others fail, and understanding why this happens can be challenging. There are couples who turn to IVF hoping to build a family, yet they’ve faced repeated disappointmen...
7th June 2025
Pounding yams on stubborn bald heads
Jonathan Love and Taylor Steele are Americans. They are also my buddies at work. Jonathan is black; Taylor is white. The three of us could have perished in a ghastly auto accident on the morning of Tu...
6th June 2025
Changed people change society
A peep into the not-too-distant past in America shows us that road trips around the nation’s big cities and small towns were once made less complicated by a free online web-mapping service called Ma...
6th June 2025
After 25: The future for Nigeria’s democracy
Continuing from where I paused last Friday, efforts by some to shield President Umar Yar’Adua, who was ill, lasted till lawmakers agreed to make a new law. The law made it compulsory for any sitting...
6th June 2025
Surviving the floods: From Mokwa to Abagana
What happened in Mokwa, Niger State, should not shock us. Rather, it should teach us a lesson that we already know but are too obstinate to assimilate. Climate change is real, and we are not really pr...
5th June 2025
Money rituals and our African traditional religions
If an alien is captured in a Hollywood film, the state imprisons it to weaponise its capabilities. Nollywood does not make alien films, but our cinematic representations of contact with non-human forc...
5th June 2025
Pat Utomi’s shadow government
Truly, “Shadow Government,” or “Shadow Cabinet,” like the one led by Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa during Nigeria’s First Republic, is a vestige of the Westminster parliamentary mode...
4th June 2025
Imperative of ethical revolution in Nigeria
Mahatma Gandhi was an Indian lawyer, politician, social activist, and writer. He identified seven “social sins” that he believed could lead to societal decline and suffering. These are wealth with...
4th June 2025
Differences between a phrase, clause and a sentence (III)
We are concluding our discussion on phrases, clauses and sentences today. In the last two classes, we compared the three, underlining how a sentence is usually a combination of clauses and phrases. ...
3rd June 2025
As Africa’s literary giant Ngugi wa Thiong’o joins the ancestors
On May 28, 2025, an African literary iroko fell. Ngugi wa Thiong’o departed the earth at 87 years old and joined the realm of the ancestors. Born James Ngugi in 1938, he rejected his birth name in 1...
3rd June 2025
Moving towards a $1tn debt economy
Debt, internal or external, has become a significant issue in Nigeria in recent times. About two weeks ago, there was good news that Nigeria had cleared its International Monetary Fund loans. Two week...
2nd June 2025
Smoke & Mirrors Inc.
Thursday was President Bola Tinubu’s second anniversary in office. He was a happy but deluded man, identifying, in his anniversary speech, “undeniable” progress. “I proudly affirm that o...
1st June 2025
Essential fatty acids (1)
We have a Dacryodes edulis tree (African pear) in our home. Recently, I went to look at the tree and noticed it had started bearing fruit. That was a signal that the season is here again! I have so ma...
1st June 2025
Air travel and its health implications
Aeroplane air health primarily concerns the quality, safety, and potential health impacts of the air that passengers and crew breathe during flights. This essay is targeted mainly at the increasing nu...
1st June 2025
ECOWAS@50: Tinubu’s family meeting with three vacant seats
Last Wednesday, President Bola Tinubu and leaders of 12 West African states walked into Lagos’ Eko Hotel. They smiled for the cameras beneath a glittering “ECOWAS@50” banner. Among them stood 90...
1st June 2025
This mindset is hurting marriages
A lady recently claimed in a social media post that many women now believe marriage is no longer worth being committed to wholeheartedly, “because men are misbehaving terribly.” I believe this min...
31st May 2025
Sickle cell disease and knee joint pain: Why steriods aren’t always the best option
For people living with sickle cell disease, joint pain, especially in the knees, can be a frustrating and persistent companion. When swelling and fluid build-up occur in the joint, doctors often presc...
31st May 2025
The promise of surrogacy in building families
The idea of building a family is changing around the world. More couples and individuals are turning to modern options like surrogacy, and it’s not out of place to conclude that Nigeria is emerging ...
31st May 2025
The good teacher
How do we define struggle? Is it a determined effort to hold our heads above submerging water? Is it a desperate gasping for breath when oxygen in our lungs is running into a decrescendo? Can we call ...
30th May 2025
25 years of Nigeria’s democracy
In May 1999, Nigeria returned to democratic rule. Now the nation has clocked 25 years, and counting, in a democratic dispensation. This is the longest spell of civilian rule in the nation’s journey ...
30th May 2025
Animals in human skin
Situated in a dark groove is a drum never to be beaten. Thin as a strand of hair, the delicate drum transmits sound waves. This drum does not speak; it only listens and understands, even before its ow...
30th May 2025
Minister of Youth has cracked the code
When the indigenous youth-led nonprofit, Connected Development, popularly known as CODE, received Nigeria’s Minister of Youth Development, Comrade Ayodele Olawande, last week, what became apparent a...
29th May 2025
Lagos: 100 years of squalor
In the travel notes of Thomas Malcolm Knox, a British philosopher, there was a searing description of Lagos as “a town of unspeakable squalor…filth everywhere”. Knox was the secretary to Lord Wi...
29th May 2025
That security vote of governors
Some time ago, a beautiful dancer, Senator Ademola Adeleke, Governor of Osun State, once said that he thought he should be appreciated by his people for giving up his freebie N600m security vote that ...
28th May 2025
Nigeria’s ruling elite and state capture
Nigeria is presently celebrating its 26th year of this Fourth Republic and 65 years as an independent, sovereign nation. However, if there were a survey asking Nigerians if they are faring better or w...
28th May 2025
Differences between a phrase, clause and a sentence (II)
Last week, we started discussing the differences between a phrase, clause and a sentence. We defined a phrase as a group of words without a subject and a predicate, though standing together to form a ...
27th May 2025
