Izuu's Turn

I've been away from here for quite a while. Reason: don't actually know. Maybe it's brain fatigue. Or the numerous trips I've been making recently from my kitchen, to the living room and all the other rooms in the "new house" as my older soon will call it. So much has happened also since the last time I was here. As much as I try not to see the news channels I always find myself scrolling back to Al Jazeera, Euronews and CNN. I don't know whether my mind has been remotely paired with bad news - wars in Gaza, Syria, Iraq, South Sudan. Then Ebola in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone and over a thousand dead already. Then, in the spirit of negative black comradeship, Patrick Sawyer decided to invent the deadly disease to my dear country. Since then, so much has happened! From bitter kola, to salt solution and while the whole world is waiting for the American Zmapp, our honorable Minister for Health tells us we are royals who must use precious ornaments - in came ...

The dog is known for eating faeces in our climes. But there is no how it will end its enterprise and the goat will go and brush its teeth on its behalf. Likewise, no one take Panadol for another person's headache. Incidentally, not Nigerians. We sabi take Panadol for another person's headache even when we have severe diarrhea ourselves! The war between Israel and Gaza has been hyped and reported variously by the global media, of course with their usual side takings. The West, CNN especially, with its pro-Israel stance demonizes Gaza and it's people by highlighting the missiles which are undeniably being launched into Israel while downplaying the casualties on the other side. What I call the Muslim media, on the other hand, epitomized by the Iranian Press TV, suddenly becomes the voice of Gaza by emphasizing the heavy civilian casualties in Gaza and downplaying the military prowess of Hamas thereby making it look as if the people of Gaza (sometimes portraying them as 100% Mu...

By Femi Aribisala (on June 03, 2014 at 12:22 am) Note: This is not my write-up. I can't match the eloquence of the writer. I can't help agreeing with him either - Izuu  I was fifteen years old when the civil war broke out in Nigeria.  Although we were living in Ibadan in the South-west at the time, my sympathies were totally and unequivocally with the Igbos.  When a people have been so brutally butchered by their countrymen as happened to the Igbos, I felt they had no choice but to insist on leaving the country.  Therefore, I understood why the Biafrans went to war and what they were fighting for.  But I could not, for the life of me, understand what those on the federal side were fighting for.  Why would anybody fight for Nigeria? I lost a first-cousin fighting on the federal side during the civil war.  I wish I could have found out first-hand from him why he gave his life “to keep Nigeria one.”  Did he really believe in Nigeria?  I doub...

I am appalled, my country has become a country with the highest number of "heroes" on the planet. Everyone that dies is officially extolled as being patriots. Am not surprised because even at the centenary celebrations, the GEJ government gave merit awards to people who we honestly do not want our wards to emulate. And with these deaths also, everybody is a hero ... and what are the criteria? 1. You must be rich 2. You must have been in/close to government 3. You must have stolen the nation blind 4. You may belong to the ruling party 5. You must be an elder statesman even when your age mates are youth leaders in the same party 6. You must die in London; or at least, don't make the mistake of dying in Nigeria Once you possess any of these, even your victims must find religious or ethnic grounds to exonerate you of all your crimes while alive and then re-direct their accusations to someone else especially the incumbent. And what is that one doing? Pardoni...

In the last post, I said "To be continued ..." Not because I expected a follow-up so soon, not because I know I that Nigerian political discourse can hardly be exhausted. It also cannot be captured in its entirety by a single perspective as minuscule as mine. But even when my opinion pales out in the face of more than a hundred million others, I still have a right to be heard. No matter how insignificant it might seem to the next person whose reasoning is clouded by solely hearing him or herself, I still have the right to be heard even though I may be ignored. Those who are on Tweeter, Facebook, and other social media throwing up tantrums about what happened, did not happened and/or could have happened in Ekiti are right to express themselves but in doing so they should also understand that like me, no one has all the facts of the matter more than the two elephants involved. The Yoruba race has always shown itself as the most civilized of all of us in the manner they manage t...

Another election, won and lost in a nation where electioneering brings so much tension. I remember when it was Anambra's turn, people hyped it to the point of calling it a litmus test for INEC's readiness to conduct credible elections in the country. When Ekiti's turn came, another round of claim and counter claim surfaces from nowhere. After the polls itself, one terse comment of a friend of mine on FB made me to realize very shockingly that those of us who always profess to be unbiased are often the most pathetic of bigots. Using Ekiti polls, there are certain recurrent issues on our political sphere which often escape our notice. The first one is that whenever our favored candidate fails to win, the election results become suspect. In the case of Anambra, when Senator Ngige failed to win, a lot of people (some of who cannot even locate Anambra in a map) made some remarks I consider very silly especially knowing that they are being propelled by their party affiliations...

I read yesterday what the Kano governor has to say about the situation in his state since the enthronement of SLS as the new emir of the ancient city. In the interview, he purportedly pointed accusing fingers on Abuja for the on-going "sponsored" protests in Kano and the siege on the Emir's palace. To say that I am disappointed by the tone of the governor's utterance is an understatement. The manner of disrespect for a sitting president is so unbecoming of someone who is also vying for the highest position in the land. Would he like to be addressed the same way if and when he becomes the president at any time. With the growing insecurity in the land, those in positions of authority in especially volatile areas like Kano, should know how to keep the peace by making guarded statements. And as if the governor's misguided vitriolic isn't enough, the voluble ex-minister of the FCT, this evening remarked on his Facebook page that paid mischief mak...