From today, political parties in Nigeria will be free to flag off presidential, governorship, federal and state assembly campaigns by sticking posters on every wall, saturating the airwaves with campaign songs and noisy messages, holding mass rallies, knocking on everyone’s door, filling up buses and trucks with “supporters” shouting themselves hoarse, floating support groups of women, students and traders, hurrying to the palaces of traditional rulers that they had not visited since the last election, endlessly attending marriage and naming ceremonies, consulting babalawos, endless press releases and conferences, launch tirades and counter tirades on social media, generate an avalanche of…

Decades ago, I remember reading a piece by a writer lamenting the sudden but astronomical shooting up in the price of “garri”, which used to be the staple food of poor and down-trodden Nigerians. For reasons which need not detain us here, “garri” shrugged off its beggarly position in the hierarchy of staple foods and began to rub shoulders with the likes of rice, beans and yam flour. So, the writer, alarmed at what he described as the effrontery of garri and its audacity to join the league of the elites, screamed: “See me, see garri!” Unruffled, “garri” has not…

There must be something that does not sit well between Adamu Maina Waziri, a former minister of the federal republic, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and one of Atiku Abubakar’s right-hand men, and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers State and runner-up in the presidential primary election of the PDP. Wike lost the primary election to Atiku by 237 votes to 371. Without a doubt, that loss, which he never expected, hit him hard. A few weeks later, he lost the chance to be Atiku’s running mate. That completely unhinged him and, frustrated, he has been in pain…

In Nigeria’s resource-rich but hunger-ravaged communities of the Niger Delta, young men aspire to be one of many things – a militant, pirate, warlord, terrorist or whatever names people like to call them. They don’t just care anymore and their role models are never in short supply. Those are careers they believe could easily get one noticed, earn a great deal of respect and recognition from the soceity but most importantly, guarantee an endless supply of the great things of life, big and small. Ateke Tom, Henry Okah, Brutus Ebipadei Solomon Ndigbara, Tubotamuno Angolia. If those names do not sound…