Category Archives: News

Common house o’ commons 005

Mariam: It appears I am hovering over the threshold of life and death. But I do not want to die mama    [Slurred speech]

Martha: No, you won’t. God forbid! My enemies will not succeed over me [Mariam nods and looks        away].

But that stupid boy, my God will punish him. He shall suffer just like…

Mariam: No, mama. Don’t curse him.

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Common House o’ Commons 004

Old Soldier was reclining against the wall as he bit on the last chunk of flesh on the mostly bony portion of chicken he was served by Iya Roy. He washed it down with whatever was left in a cup of jedi that Deckor had left unfinished. “Cigar”, he managed to utter and Smith promptly took out a stick of creased Cigarette from his pocket, lit it and handed it over to Old Soldier.

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Common house o’ commons 003

“But Azeez isn’t insignificant”, responded Smithereen to Deckor. “In fact”, he continued, “he is more than many people think he is.” Deckor signaled Iya Roy to give him one more bottle of her jedi, which was soon placed in the midst of two empty others. He was nodding at Smithereen’s talk while eyeing Iya Roy.

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Common house o’ commons 002

There has been an explosion. Everyone feared that it was terrorist attack as they had promised. But the doctors remarked that the terrorists were not so stupid as to isolate their targets, focus on only two or three targets or even make such targets as insignificant as Azeez and Old Soldier.

Dr. Rumps: What would be their gain? Nothing!

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Common house o’ commons

Few days ago, a boy who lived on the streets had arrived Iya Roy’s common house o’ commons bearing a piece of paper in his hands. In spite of his odd appearance, with tattered clothes and eyes bulging as if they were going to fall out, he was unnoticed. Iya Roy kept busy filling orders while her patrons ordered without a rhythm. Old Soldier, whose head has been bowed by the merciless hands of heavy drinking, lifted his head and was begging Smithereen (as Smith was called) to give him the remaining of the London he was smoking. He hurriedly inserted the butt in his mouth, dragged it and his eyes widened to notice the boy, leaning against their table, with the letter in his hand. Smithereen beat him to it, collected the letter and attempted to read it. It was written in Arabic or something entirely incomprehensible to those drinkards who tried to read the letter. It was important to understand its content, as apart from the words, there were images of guns and fire drawn around the words, which made understanding what it said more of an emergency. They passed it around, as if by chance it will fall in the hands of someone who understood the language. No one understood the contents.

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NSIP: WHEN THE COMMONER’S LIFE IS POLITICISED

NSIPIn Badagry, a district of Lagos in South-West Nigeria sometime in 2016, a boy was accused of repeatedly robbing local residents and businesses and what brought the tyre out was when he was accused of stealing bread from a petty trader. He was “necklaced” with the tyre and burnt alive. For hustling to sate his perpetual hunger, his life lived in penury was cut short savagely on the streets by a mob oblivious of her own sufferings and sins thereof. The gap created by dysfunctional governments was filled by two wrongs, the boy who should be in school stealing and the mob who should focus Continue reading NSIP: WHEN THE COMMONER’S LIFE IS POLITICISED

A-TI-KU ati A-RE-MU

When two personalities, who have been throwing the juggernauts at each other with everything they got, decide to combine their forces, it may lead to not only the annihilation of the opposition but also of themselves.  Especially when such personalities bear names that portends no good. Find below the letter written by A-RE-MU (Slicer of nose) to A-TI-KU (We are dead):

Like ever before, I am constrained to write this letter to you because at my age, I am struggling against senility. However, the situation in which my country has been Continue reading A-TI-KU ati A-RE-MU

One of Africa’s best kept secrets – its history – culled from BBC

Kush
The pyramids from the Kingdom of Kush form one of the most spectacular sights in Sudan. KUSH COMMUNICATIONS

Africa has a rich and complex history but there is widespread ignorance of this heritage. A celebrated British historian once said there was only the history of Europeans in Africa. Zeinab Badawi has been asking what is behind this lack of knowledge and looking at the historical record for an African history series on BBC World News.

The Great Pyramid of Giza in Cairo is rightly considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. But travel further south along the River Nile and you will find a thousand pyramids that belonged to the Kingdom of Kush, in what is now Sudan.

Kush was an African superpower and its influence extended to what is now called the Middle East Read More

 

 

Nigerian academia: Crooked walk through wilderness by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

It is no longer news that the Nigerian educational system is in doldrums. What may be an update is that many of the academics, especially tertiary, are in denial. They do not want to admit that there are fundamental crises bedevilling the institutions they occupy and systems they are meant to administer.

While succeeding public governments, at all levels, have apparently been determined to kill public education, through humiliation, harassment, hunger, nay, starvation, disorientation and ultimately self-annihilation through inter-union implosions, the academics have continued to contribute, in no small way, to fast-track the process. They have assumed either the complacent approach or become catalysts. The former via adopting the maxim – ‘if heavens must fall, everyone must be a partaker of the resulting calamity’, and therefore gone to sleep or the latter, whereby they actively participate in the horrification that has overwhelmed the READ MORE

LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN vol. 6 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Dear Hannibal,

It is sad that you should be exposed to ludicrous acts and outbursts of people, who having forgotten that “nemo dat quod non habet” (no one gives what he doesn’t have), launch their assaults upon unsuspecting citizens, themselves ignorant of the havoc they wreak on their constituencies and the nation by implementing, as leaders, policies and intervening, at times of usually unexpected crises, out of an overwhelming ignorance that they have gotten used to wearing like a crown. Meningitis and God? That is more reasonable than when leaders elected to pragmatically solve national problems turn around to tell their electorates that recession is the wages of sin. Or, wait for it, that the lack of funds in government coffers is an experience of God’s wrath on the people. One thing is certain and that is they have not forgotten that the disappeared funds are in their personal possession. But at least, they have succeeded in creating a god of their chosen or convenient acts for their god that they believe will serve as sellable excuse for perpetuating their atrocities. Can one still say, “God is watching?” Continue reading LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN vol. 6 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN vol. 5 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Dear Hannibal,

Permit me to quote one of your concluding remarks, “Like a twin emotion of burying a brother very close to heart and welcoming a newborn son into this world at the same time, Nigerians remain in the precarious oscillation of looking forward to a brighter future and looking into the dire present that promises no golden future.” As much agreement that I may have with that perception, it should be clearly noted that it cannot be all sad tales with Nigeria; not in the past gory days of military headship, the Jonathan days of Sodom and definitely not now. However, the message is quite obvious and succinctly delivered in that statement. The paradoxes of life’s dynamism! Continue reading LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN vol. 5 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN vol. 4 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Dear Hannibal,

“Inspiring scenes of people taking the future of their countries into their own hands will ignite greater demands for good governance and political reform elsewhere in the world, including in Asia and in Africa.” – William Hague.

While the statement above is true, so much needs be done by the people of Nigeria, Continue reading LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN vol. 4 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi