After a stream of cheery developmental news, the Osun opposition, with both hands, grabbed the demon of unpaid salaries — and hard, it nailed the Osun government. It thoroughly demonised Governor Rauf Aregbesola and his ambitious social and physical infrastructure programmes, donning the Ogbeni in an unflattering garb — a grand hypocrite in the progressive […]
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Lores, on the Russian Bolshevik revolution of October 1917, ooze with revolution and counter-revolution elements, resulting in massive revolutionary purges. What would chroniclers write about Nigeria’s current era of change — from a Conservative (centre-right) to a Progressive (centre-left) ruling elite — a lore of change and counter-change agents, with its inevitable intra-elite power purge? […]
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It perhaps was there all along; but with the criminal annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, CONtroversy made a brazen landing in Nigeria’s political public space. It is equal opportunity yarn: no moral, no conscience, no ethos, no decorum; just stiff, unconscionable bluff, doubly assured that impunity, in-your-face impunity, rules the roost. CONtroversy […]
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OGA — Otunba Gani Adams — he kept on calling himself that, each time he made a prize presentation, pronouncing OGA as the Yoruba would pronounce “chameleon”. Was the symbolism lost on him? It must have, particularly with his branded persona as a Yoruba cultural ambassador; juxtaposed with his election-time hustle as political activist — […]
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Folks, your parliament wants immunity! But what is the assurance that immunity won’t breed parliamentary impunity, the most violent antipode to the very concept of democracy? Can you imagine a kabiyesi parliament — a parliament that cannot be questioned, even by its own electors? Yet, it is this much abused “democracy” that this self-serving ensemble […]
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It’s scepticism all round, over President Muhammdu Buhari’s long-awaited list of ministers; and Nigerians do appear to suffer the syndrome of that Yoruba figure who, sick and tired of seeing phonies, permanently shut his eyes, in vigorous protest. But pray, in that period of voluntary blindness, what if the very original wanders by? That passionate […]
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To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus Our fears in Banquo stick deep, And in his royalty of nature Reigns that which would be feared — Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 1, Shakespeare’s Macbeth Given this opening quote, there appears an eerie parallel between the historical tragedy of the Scottish impostor king, […]
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It was meant as high praise but it rubbed rather raw on Ripples. Lai Muraino Oso, the birthday commemorative lecturer enthused, was a “highly detribalised Nigerian”. It was October 9 in Ikeja, Lagos. Prof. Oso, Mass Communication teacher and scholar at the Lagos State University School of Communication, was 60; and the drone of small […]
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Governor Akinwunmi Ambode, now harried to perform or bounce, may well ponder the gubernatorial history of Lagos. Two cases, one ending in peril; the other in glory, but both boasting no sparkling starts, should capture the governor’s attention, as he navigates this teething stage of his governorship. The one, Governor Michael Otedola, of blessed memory. […]
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From the communiqué’s chilly symbolism, of date and place of issue, it was clear: history was about repeating itself, but this time as grand farce. On 15 January 1970, the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970) formally ended, though actual fighting did on January 13. In Port Harcourt, to this day, the vexed issue of Civil War […]
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Muhammadu Buhari has a lousy luck. At this first coming in 1984, Major Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, as military head of state, had to endure the head-splitting headache from the hangover of President Shehu Shagari’s National Party of Nigeria (NPN) freeloaders, in Nigeria’s Second Republic (1 October 1979 – 31 December 1983). At his second coming […]
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In “Piano and Drums”, Gabrial Okara, the poet — or in any case, the protagonist — suffers a serious dissonance: to stick with the vitality of the drums of his nativity (African culture) or be lured by the seductive though destructive lure of the European piano — but end with putative cultural death! Cultural death […]
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In 1984, the late Gani Fawehinmi, SAM, SAN, spectacularly broke ranks with his legal commune. That clan dotted on “due process” — no crime! — and distanced itself from the post-2nd Republic corruption trials, before special tribunals. Those trials handed convicted former political office holders jumbo gaol sentences for corruption. The Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) […]
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For the umpteenth time, Ripples is constrained to cite the tortoise in the Yoruba tale. Asked when he would return from his trip, while bidding his folks farewell, he promised to return, only when he was disgraced! Indeed, ace playwright, the late Ola Rotimi, was so fascinated by this tortoise quip that he used it […]
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Go forth, electoral bandits. In the next bout of re-runs in Rivers and elsewhere, kill, maim, rape and raze! It is perfectly legal! Besides, if Ezenwo Wike and co can get away with electoral murder, so could you! Isn’t that the latest message from the Supreme Court of Nigeria, by its decision on the Rivers […]
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On the rule of law debate viz-a-viz the fight against corruption, Ripples has moved on. But not some reader-citizens who want to contribute their bit to the public debate now trending, to use that online lingo, in the public space. Col. Innocent Azubike Nass is my guest today. Please enjoy. There is this popular argument […]
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It is only 50 years, after Major Kaduna Chukwuma Nzeogwu’s coup d’état changed, forever, the face of political Nigeria. But the dramatic twists and turns that have hallmarked this historic juncture echoes Ghanaian, Ayi Kwei Armah’s novel, Two Thousand Seasons. Two Thousand Seasons is a celebratory fable of Africa’s pristine goodness; but deprecatory flak at […]
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Want to gauge the health of a nation? First, gauge the moral health of its judiciary (Their Lords Temporal and their officiating lawyers), its clergy (Their Lords Spiritual) and its editors (famed keepers of its Fourth Estate). Indeed, a society that condones corrupt judges, amoral pastors and hustling, integrity-challenged editors is pretty doomed. Ripples, for […]
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Remember “Ambode, history beckons”? (10 November 2015) That was Ripples’ challenge, during those not-too-halcyon days of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode’s rather stormy beginning. As if on cue from some hell, tanker drivers and allied articulated trucks descended on Lagos with a vengeance; while a rebellious LASTMA snapped, napping and snoring to press its ire. Traffic robbery […]
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The story of Ese Rita Oruru, 14, appears the odyssey of a minor whose youth faces sunset at dawn. If indeed she is five months pregnant, she would be only a child, in her womb, carrying another! That has life-long implications — and complications. However, Ese is only a metaphor for a nation at war […]
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