1914, it was,
The birth of a diseased baby
With tens of legs, like crooked logs,
joined to the trunk with bathe water
and ready to disturb the kindled fireplace
1914, it was,
that saw the creation of Continue reading A SONG FOR NIGERIA by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
The glorious journey of a thousand mile
Begins with one step that is determinedly intriguing.
From toddles to scurries
To those mischievous steps of Ajanaku
Before your statue, I droop; a
modification of akimbo Continue reading Labinnah’s Legend by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
On Saturday, the 28th of March, 2015, Nigerians will troop out to vote in the first of elections that is adjudged to be the defining step of a long-awaited change. However way we look at it, this election will define the destiny of Nigeria, going forward, and beyond the business-as-usual that our leaders have made governance in the country.
As we so troop out, we should bear it in mind that we deserve change judging from where we are coming from. Be it a new regime of the incumbent or of an old or fresh hand, we demand new beginnings. Only hypocrites (and Nigeria boasts of many of them) would not admit that the country needs change. The contents of our meal tickets and plates must of necessity change, the outlook of our roads must change, the kidnap of school girls must stop, the delay of workers’ emoluments must change, the death of Nigerian Continue reading CHANGE IS COMING. SEEN IT? by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
It is few days to Nigeria’s Presidential elections; and as expected, rumours and counter-rumours are really flying around like birds that have lost the compass to their nests. And facts, figures, forms of statistics, all get dug out even from the darkest recesses of our political community and thrown into the ashtrays on the tables before us. They are not food but information that we can quite well choose to make use of or ignore; and if we choose the latter, we rather ignore forever but the effects may never leave us, similarly, forever. Anywhere there’s light, there definitely has to be some shadows.
It is the presence of shadows in the form of threats and paranoia that seem Continue reading Guise of “No Election Break”: Youth Disenfranchisement by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
We understand that being a leader at all is a daunting task for many persons, especially for you; we can imagine the burden of our expectations of you as the leader of Nigeria. It isn’t easy. It is just so sad that ‘we, the people’ expect you to deliver on many fronts, at least even if it’s just the promises you made to us against the 2011 elections.
Having had an opportunity to preside over the affairs of this ‘great’ country for about six full years, it’s certain you have personally had your ups and downs that usually characterize an average human life Continue reading We understand your plight, Mr. President by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
Yes. Life in Nigeria may not be easy especially for those who have no opportunity to dip their hands in the national treasury, even if it’s for once. It may also not be easy for someone who had that opportunity but who allowed the treasury to slip off his hands. Sometimes, however, personal integrity, which doesn’t get talked about often, is more important than keeping a job. And that is if such a job robs you of your integrity; that’s if you care about the definition of integrity in the dictionaries of the world anyway.
Judging by the antecedents of the Special Assistant to President Jonathan on New Media, Reno Omokri, Continue reading Bedfellows: Reno Omokri (Wendell Simlin) and Lies by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
Together, let us assume there is a Nigerian called Peremoi, who has chosen not to vote in the forthcoming elections which some persons have rechristened FeBuhari 14. Is this out of ignorance? No, otherwise!
Voting in any democratic election is a sanction of the foundation of that particular democracy. As a sanction, voting in Nigeria is a way of saying, “’Yes, I agree that I am a Nigerian, that Nigeria has been properly founded and that ‘we, the people’ were actually we, the people who came to a roundtable to collectively agree to function together as a nation, draw up a modus operandi for how we will live together as one indivisible entity; leaving behind the tags that hitherto set us apart, religion, tribe, level of education and possible other sentiments.”’ At the moment, this is not so; Continue reading MR. PRESIDENT: FURTHERING THE SCOPE OF ASSUMPTIONS by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
I want to tell a story and I pray you follow me.
Joey is a donkey, strong but only amiably useful in the transport of man and goods from one point to the other, even to the present day. Each time other strong members of the jungle go on expedition, they ride Joey and leave him at the entrance of their rendezvous. Joey will be left alone to graze about but must surely come back on time to convey the strong men back to their various destinations. Very unfair you will say.
One day , just as another meeting was being hel Continue reading #PAUSIBILTY: The Malfeasance of Joey The Donkey, As The King Of The Jungle by Adebayo Coker
Let’s quickly assume that there was never the Northern or Southern Protectorates; hence, no need for their amalgamation into what is today known as Nigeria, what would I be and what would you be? Today, you will not be the president of Nigeria and I will not be a Nigerian because there will be nothing like Nigeria. While I will be Continue reading MR. PRESIDENT: LET’S PLAY A GAME OF ASSUMPTIONS by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
Please, refer to the original article here http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/femi-fani-kayode/a-word-for-professor-yemi-osinbajo.html
The reputation (better, ill-reputation) of that man, Femi Fani-Kayode is public knowledge. He’s wont to gibbering and one wonders at the rationale behind his efforts at continual incoherence or ideological dismemberment (to be lenient with choice of description). Any reader (deliberate or accidental, as this writer is) of his written pieces (lacking ‘head or teal’) will notice the previous description with ease. Continue reading Rejoinder: “A Word for Professor Yemi Osinbajo by Femi Fani-Kayode” by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
A political fog has descended and successfully prevented clear sight, and one may justifiably say, made rational thinking more difficult than expected. Or how else would one describe the inglorious kidnap, yet again, of about 185 women and children by Boko Haram (same group that has terrorized Nigeria for years o, not a different one) in the North of Chibok? My reasoning is, if the government is yet to do anything about the abducted Chibok girls till the time of this writing, what ‘nothing’ don’t we expect with regards to this fresh abduction?
Between APC and PDP, Jonathan and Buhari, the people and the government, the new social media voice of dissent and the old order of “this is how we have always done it”, between the fine-mustached Elliots and the big-stomached Okupes, Nigerians must align themselves in a bid to define for ourselves the type of future we want for our children.
What is worse, some persons have categorically stated that, whichever way you look at it, whatever choices you make, Nigeria is bound to disintegrate before or after the 2015 Presidential elections. I may not agree. The indices may be glaring but this writer chooses to ignore them and not confuse himself the more by trying to make sense out of the no-sense situation, “The more you look, the less you see”. Continue reading A NOTE OF LOVE TO US AND THEM by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
The Big Brother Africa show has just exhausted its 63 days on air and Idris Sultan, a Tanzanian photographer, won the ‘hitherto highly’ coveted prize. It will be satiating to put on record that the reaction of many Nigerians, and Africans at large, was that of chagrin at the shortchanging of Tayo Faniran, the Nigerian – Oyo State bride that was widely loved for his discipline, honesty and entertaining participation in the Big Brother house.
So much has been reported on this and I should say Big Brother Africa show, or the likes, is not a television programme I ever saw. I was persuaded Continue reading BIG BROTHER AFRICA: BETWEEN IDRIS AND TAYO by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
“Shall this Nation stand?” is a mere rhetorical question because what would one expect of a human being whose body parts (head, eyes, nose, limbs, trunk, toes etc) were assembled from different species of animals and joined with dirty-water-soaked piece of tissue paper rather than welded? It is a question, nonetheless.
The visit of Femi Falana, SAN, to the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife on Thursday, the 4th of December, 2014, where he was the Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Environment and Design Management Guest Lecture Series, titled, “Legal Rights to Environment” gave Continue reading ASKING QUESTIONS: SHALL THIS NATION STAND? BY ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
My recent trip to Jos (J-town) of Nigeria was an eye-opener. I was hitherto, insignificantly, aware of the magnitude of what I did not know. And at the end of my stay in Jos, en route the humble source of mankind, Ile-Ife, I remembered the words of my loving grandfather, Moses Olaonipekun Akinyode, which he somewhat usually belched out after a protracted meditation, “Nigeria: we ‘hate’ thee”.
Jos is a country other than a city in a state within a country, with her own laws, people and (guess I’m wrong) weather. If anyone is in a hurry (and wouldn’t await my views) to deconstruct that claim, he or she should pay, even if a few days, visit to this lovely city (which I’m certain represents several others within Nigeria). Continue reading “NIGERIA: WE ‘HATE’ THEE” by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
Here’s a video of the Press briefing by the Ag. CP, Emmanuel Ojukwu, Force PRO at FHQ Abuja on the 21st of November, 2014. He refers to APC supporters as never-do-wells and the briefing is laced with all manners of balderdash.
The following is a rejoinder to one of the #PAUSIBILITY articles titled, “#Pausibility: Of Nominal, Normal And The Extreme”.
I hope that which you wrote about the mechanic, Adebayo, will be an
eye-opener to the folly set in many high places; of whom Solomon wrote
– and due to whom slaves ride on horses; whilst the rich sit in a low
place, whilst princes walk on foot like slaves. You ever see the fools
blaring their empty-headed skulls through the mass media, thumping
their primitive chests over the “masses” that they would they be voted
into office to serve – not having studied history well enough to
realise that the proletariat not only ever envy the elite, but ever
would they overthrow that very same elite that (as the most foolish
that can be) would it serve them.
I wrote the beginnings of a brief homily once; with which I sought to
explain how even Jesus The Christ was blind to the cunningly conceived
plots of this poorer class that the folly set in many high places
often regale, when addressing them as “the masses.” That homily was Continue reading Re: Pausibility: Of Nominal, Normal And The Extreme by Adebayo Coker by Ikoro Iyineleda
“We are sitting under a cloud of heavy embarrassment, shame of the feeling of dereliction, sullen responsibility towards children. We are sitting under a cloud of impotence, of a calamity that was not without notice, and whose myriad causes is quite discernible. We are here because of education because we will never stop learning till death. This cloud is made up of a sense of humiliation. We sent our children on an errand and they did not return. The errand is what we are celebrating today. The errand was to prepare the children for today but they never came back, that is what we cannot allow ourselves to forget.” – Wole Soyinka, speaking at the 2014 Foundation Day Anniversary and Convocation Ceremonies of the University of Ibadan, where he was honoured with Doctor of Letters honourary degree.
Everywhere you turn in the country, there is that cloud that seems to block the sights and ultimately settle on the sheaf of hair that conceals the brain. Especially now that it’s harmattan season, anyone would see the fog.
As if that was not enough to prevent clear, penetrating sight that goes beyond the immediate, we all produce all manners of smoke and contribute to the heavy cloud that we sit under; smokes from assorted cigarette brands, exhausted cloudy or sometimes blackish fumes from exhaust pipes, firewood smokes and the leftover ashes and so on. Continue reading SMOKE, CLOUD, SMOKE: A BID TO BE-FOJU (NAY, BEFUDDLE) NIGERIANS by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
Nigerians are not all about money. Many times, we sacrifice
This past weekend, some Nigerian writers including Bode Asiyanbi, a two-time winner of the BBC African Performance Playwriting Prize, who has also worked with the BBC World Service Trust as a writer on its groundbreaking radio and television drama series, Story Story and Wetin Dey and Adebayo Coker, the author of Societal Fragments and A Man Like Me: Noteography Of a Father to His Son and a host of others, published a book of collected short stories with a singular aim of charity.
This is just one of the many good examples that may go a step further towards helping in nation-building. Enough of the talks; let’s put in more action.
To purchase the book, you need just a little detail.
Title: WOBBLED WORDS
Platform to purchase: Amazon
Cost: Affordable, depending on format (Just check it out).
Having lived for sixty five years, one is expected to have shrunk in stature and many times in status as one begins a drastic journey down the slope one had gone up earlier. To many, it’s a time they do not appreciate in many ramifications. However, for the only Lamikay I know, Professor Adebayo Lamikanra as he’s known in official circles, it’s the best moment of his life. Well, I would not be certain of that because I can predict the cynical reaction of the birthday boy if he read me say that, “was that a day at all?” accompanied with a chuckle and his characteristic facial expression, which I always interpreted as wordlessly saying ‘balderdash’. Well, I admit I must have made two wrong assumptions, balderdash as they were: one, that his 65th birthday was the best moment of his life and two, predicting, wrongly Continue reading PROF. ‘BAYO LAMIKANRA: BECOMING A CHILD AGAIN by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi
Iteoluwakiisi was taken to the Obafemi Awolowo University Health Centre in the morning of Tuesday, 9/9/2014 for a medical ritual (to weigh him and record his developmental progress). We were turned back by the obvious absence of the usual smiling-faced nurses that held postnatal clinics every tuesday. A man, who seemed surprised to see us, stopped momentarily beside us, then moves on with his fumigation exercise.
The whole place was smelling of fumigant. We turned back before anyone had the chance to turn us back. A little Continue reading OAU with suspected Ebola infection
lAkUnLeScReWs 