Osun, after the salary demon
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...
View ArticleOf change and counter-change
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...
View ArticleCONtroversy
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...
View ArticleOGA
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...
View ArticleParliament wants immunity
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...
View ArticleAge of doubt
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,...
View ArticleWike’s wake
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...
View ArticlePate’s pains
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....
View ArticleAmbode, history beckons
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...
View ArticleTo you, Biafra romantic
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...
View ArticleBuhari’s hard road
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...
View ArticleThe poet’s verdict: Danjuma, Tinubu
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...
View ArticleFor Buhari. What about you?
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...
View ArticleAfenifere and the kiss of death
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...
View ArticleSupreme Court, Rivers and death of electoral sanity
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,...
View ArticleBuhari’s anti-looting drive
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...
View ArticleFables, 50 years after
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...
View ArticleSupreme curse
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...
View ArticleAmbode, legacy beckons
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...
View ArticleEse: odyssey of a nation
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...
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