When I was a little boy, as our parents struggled through life to feed, clothe and send nine children and several relatives to school, there was one task that was a constant on their minds—-making sure that we were safe. My father would always wake up in the middle of the night to make sure…
Where reflection meets renewal. There’s a stillness that arrives around this time of year.It’s not loud like January’s resolutions or December’s noise.It’s softer the kind that sneaks in when you’re too tired to keep pretending you’re not tired. The emails are slowing down.The group chats are buzzing again.Half the people you know are planning to…
A Response to Tony Aziegbemi’s Misdirected Attacks By Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu My dear people of Edo State,Ordinarily, I would not respond to every political commentary, particularly when it comes from individuals whose positions are already well known to the public. However, when statements are released in a manner that may mislead our people or distort…
Because no matter where we are, we always find our way back to each other. There’s a smell in the air around this time of year part fried stew, part anticipation.WhatsApp groups start reviving like old spirits.Somebody suddenly remembers to ask, “Are you coming home this December?”And even if you’re not, your body starts acting…
Who truly owns the Museum of West African Art now standing where Benin’s Central Hospital once breathed life into generations.? What began as EMOWAA — the Edo Museum of West African Art — presented as a public-spirited cultural renaissance for a historic kingdom, has quietly, almost surgically, transformed into MOWAA, a private trust-controlled institution bearing…
Because for many of us, rest has always felt like rebellion. Let’s be honest: Nigerians don’t rest.We only recover. Even our vacations look suspiciously like work.You’ll see someone on “holiday” still replying emails with “sent from my iPhone” energy.Aunties will visit family abroad and spend two weeks cooking for people who told them to come…
And somehow, we’re still chasing what we can’t even name. Every November, it starts the same way. Someone will post, “Can you believe it’s almost Christmas?”Someone else will reply, “Where did the year go?”And just like that, a familiar Nigerian panic starts to hum through our collective bloodstream. Because once October ends, Nigerians home or…
In all the creative possibilities that Screen writers have tried to put together concerning the inviolable nature of the White House, none has come close to imagining that an actual bulldozer would sink its teeth deep into that structure that is most admired around the world. This is literally—- ‘White House Down.’ What we are…
But we’ve been writing it all the same in pepper soup, praise names, and permanent resilience. October in the UK is Black History Month.Yes October, not February.That’s when the country pauses at least on paper to honour the legacy, pain, brilliance, and presence of Black people in Britain. There are speeches, school assemblies, banners with…
As someone who grew up in a polygamous home with multiple siblings and mothers, I surely have a vantage view of this convoluted form of matrimony.My father, grandfathers both paternal and maternal were ardent polygamists in their time. It was common place to mingle with different siblings, cousins, uncles, and aunties without batting our eyelids.I…
