Drum Beating, Dancers Ready: Why Did Yakubu Stop the Beat?, By Festus Adedayo
It is no news that Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has postponed the presidential and National Assembly elections that were to hold yesterday. It is also no news that angers, frustration and condemnation of this decision have jammed the Nigerian electoral space. A number of contesting theories have sprung…
Atiku and El-Rufai’s Body Bag Nationalism, By Festus Adedayo
What could have prompted Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai to make such very volatile comment attributed to him in a Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) interview programme last week? Could it be due to a boldness acquired over the years in the uncharted field of Nigerian politics? Could the governor, famous…
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Soyinka, Atiku and Fruits of the Poisonous Tree, By Festus Adedayo
In the democracy that Nigeria enjoys today, Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka’s contribution has been huge and unambiguously massive. If the weight of contribution were coterminous with reward, Soyinka should have been awarded the presidency of Nigeria, in the post-military regime, like Nelson Mandela of South Africa. In physical participations…
Onnoghen’s Sack As Buhari’s Embrace of Laurent Gbagbo, By Festus Adedayo
Every government always has what I call the Jega moment. Even in advanced democracies, in spite of the sophistication of their governance, politics and powerful institutions, the Jega moment always comes. Broken to its brass-tacks, the Jega moment is that feisty moment that tests an administration’s capacity to jump into…
Buhari’s Campaign, Debate By Proxy, By Festus Adedayo
President Muhammadu Buhari shocked the world last week and ipso facto pushed his contentious name and credentials into the Guinness Book of Records. Even his admirers who bear cultic allegiance to his leadership credentials were serially shocked. At a time when those who claim to see doom in his second…
Amina Zakari and Allegory of the Squirrel With A Lone Palm Nut, By Festus Adedayo
The squirrel in the traditional African worldview is the animal which got summarily killed by the searing pellets from the bullets of the hunter due to its inability to discern. Its roasted head, made into a gourmet and displayed on a platter, preparatory to being devoured for dinner, was considered…
How Nigeria Killed Badeh, Alkali, By Festus Adedayo
The gory pictures of General Idris Alkali in a soiled shroud as he was ferreted out of the shallow well his murderers had dumped him, and General Alex Badeh, felled by evil doers, will forever muck up the minds of their families and friends. The Nigerian Army, after weeks of…
The Beheaded Boy By Ogun River Bank, By Festus Adedayo
On the morning of September 21, 2001, the dismembered body of a boy was found by the Thames River, near Tower Bridge in Central London, United Kingdom. He was putting on orange girls’ shorts and paraphernalia of voodoo ensconced the remains. The Metropolitan Police was astounded but it knew it…
Absence of “Lafiya” In “Lafiya Dole’s” Expulsion of UNICEF, By Festus Adedayo
Apart from the booming of bombs and painful cries in the North-East theatre of the Boko Haram war that the world has been accustomed to since the war of terror berthed on the Nigerian soil, another booming, shocking and destabilising bomb exploded at the war front on Friday. This time,…
Aishat: Flippant Activist Or Frustrated First Lady?, By Festus Adedayo
There deeper need for an examination of the persona of the character called Aishat, wife of the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Since arriving Aso Villa with her husband, the president, Mrs. Buhari has carved a renown for herself for her fiery public rebukes of her husband’s government.…