Izuu's Turn

I've given this a great thought and I hope you will get around to reading this. Your children are wayward because of two things: 1) You have always aided them in evil, and 2) You have always condemned other people's children for no just cause. I was talking with someone who proudly told me that someone wrote exams for him with his parent's consent. I have also had solicitations in the past to do same, but I tell you: I'll be buried first. The worst legacy a parent can give his or her child is that of letting the child know that he or she can never pass exams by him/herself. It's like producing a fake item. For instance, if the child becomes a doctor afterwards, how confident will you as a parent be to go to him or her for treatment knowing how you produced him or her. A parent who cautions a child against stealing and helps the same child cheat in exams is still encouraging criminality in the child! Other people's child are al...

http://www.leadership.ng/nga/articles/38483/2012/10/27/katsina_builds_house_nigerien_governor.html After reading the news above, I am convinced that we are either being governed by fools Or we, the governed are the fools! Northern governors have often complained of having less money than their southern counterparts I ask: How does this story justify the veracity of their claims? Now Katsina is exporting help, building "befitting" homes for governors in foreign countries If I still remember where Niamey is, the last time I was there (Niger Republic borders Katsina, but the capital Niamey, is even closer to Sokoto State than it is to Katsina) It is no way near Katsina, and this governor in his Nigerian political wisdom, Uses public funds to build a house for another governor in a foreign country And what does Katsina get: The house is named Katsina House! I may not be qualified to talk about this But I wonder why everyone is blaming the central government When ...

As the noise increased, People were running helter-skelter: Mothers shouting the names of their children To make sure they are all in the house, Possibly under the bed; Fathers shouting at the entire family For silence, as if that will stem the bomb  And automatic rifle explosions  That truncated the evening peace of the  Once sleepy city. I tried to call my friend s But the network companies have joined  The attackers in shutting the entire town off. No call could go out and none could come in. We were officially incommunicado. And as I looked at the horizon of the fast fading daylight I could see the hellish glittering of heavy blasts As my eardrums are shattered with the sound. I wouldn't blame daylight for taking such a fast retreat Being afraid of its own life as we all are No one seems to know what's going on Speculations are rife in the neighbourhood The sound concentrates on one part   of town As we could...

I tried singing the national anthem this morning and to my chagrin, I've forgotten some of the lyrics. Do you blame me when some of our leaders only know the first line? At least in my case, I was merely confusing the lines of the first stanza with those of the second! I have always believed that the anthem should be changed entirely because the words sound hollow. I quarrel with the following lines "The labours of our heroes past/ Shall never be in vain." And I ask, what labour? If a country like the US, Australia, Malaysia, UAE, Israel, Western Europe talk of heroes and their labours, it makes sense. One can see what the fruits of their labours till date. Last year, France celebrated 100 years of metroline and 101 years later, we're still planning just like every other thing we are planning. Of course, the labours of our villains past were not in vain. They sowed the seed of discord that is tearing the nation apart today. We were told in primary ...

It's no longer news that Achebe's There Was A Country , has generated myriad reactions from Nigerians. Some of the comments range from the sensible to the ridiculous. One of such senseless, irrational comments said Achebe is jealous of Soyinka (a Yoruba) for the later's Nobel Prize for Literature. As such, Achebe used his memoir to vent his anger against Yorubas!  And I ask, did Soyinka get a Nobel cause he is Yoruba?  Has Achebe not  received a Nobel because he is Igbo? There's only one rational answer to both questions: NO! It's mainly in Nigeria that inconsequential things become consequential and vice versa. Most of us haven't read Achebe's book and a good number of those speaking grammar on the subject in the media were not active participants in the war. All they know: Achebe has declared war of words on Yorubas and it is the duty of any responsible Yoruba to defend. On the other side, Achebe has said the truth about what Awo did to t...

 I once heard this: "A white man once observed that Nigerians are very happy people especially when they are travelling in automobiles because they are always dancing. The Nigerian with him laughed because he observed that the so-called dance was due to the pothole-ridden roads on which we are condemned to travel all the time." I remember reading Soyinka's The Road (perhaps for which he was made the first Corp Marshall of the Federal Road Safety Corps by one of our intelligent  leaders). I expected to see him talk about the roads as they are today, but he was more preoccupied with Say Tokyo Kid, the enigmatic motor-park Professor, and the metaphysical hocus-pocus of killing dogs on the road as sacrifice to Ogun. From the days of Soyinka's The Road , to these days, our roads have received everything save improvement. They have become death-traps. We may not have accurate statistics, but our roads may have killed more people than air crashes, diseases and even B...

I once read: "In getting rid of shyness, we have destroyed real shame!" I can't remember where I read it But the meaning reads true ... We're more concerned with shyness And so have truncated real shame It is lack of shame That will make a community Round up four youths Club them to the ground And roast them with fire It is lack of shame That makes someone rationalise Mass murder, kidnapping, and the likes Either in the name of God Or in that of redressing a wrong It is lack of shame That makes politicians Promise to alleviate poverty Only for them to steal so much That poverty greys into penury It is lack of shame That makes multinationals Take so much from the people Then bribe the self-appointed leaders In order to hide their crimes It is lack of shame That makes it possible That people acquitted of graft In our courts, are tried, convicted And sentenced in other climes It is lack of...

When they said, "Wonders shall never end," some of us thought Innovations that will surpass today's technological inventions Would emerge in large numbers and overwhelm the people positively But rather what accosts humanity is the proliferation of sundry vices and wickedness One that has dumb-stricken me in recent times Came as BBM to my wife's phone And it said a 9-month old baby was stolen in a church at Abuja With the message came the pictures of the "sister" who abducted the baby and that of the innocent boy I am not talking here about the wickedness of this kind of act Because diverse preachers have harped on it in several ways And to show that no one is listening, this lady perpetrated this act inside the church: Made away with another woman's baby On the same Sunday that a church was bombed for the umpteenth time in Bauchi I am prompted to write this because on Monday morning I opened my FB page and one gu...