Tag Archives: Nigeria

The plantation and the metamorphosis of BAT by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Photo credit: Julia Boland, USFWS

Once upon a time, time time! There was a man and his name was BAT and so he BATified his people, he protected them and provided for them as best as he could. It was words on the streets that BAT looked out for his own and many thought that he had good intentions, especially for those that worked on a plantation that he took ownership of. He was the king of the plantation, and everyun, not really everyun, deferred to him when it came to the affairs of the plantation. 

Continue reading The plantation and the metamorphosis of BAT by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Good news, Nigeria? by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

(Nigeria’s general elections that stopped it all!)

From the pulpits across Nigeria, it’s good news. From the hinterlands to the dense streets of Lagos cities, majority of Nigerians seem upbeat about the coming elections, approaching it with cautious enthusiasm and are purveyors of the good news with a smile. Be reminded that the next elections are just few minutes away.

Photo credit: The Nation

Good news, Nigeria? Only if the simple dreams of Nigerians, with basic expectations, can inch closer to becoming true. In darkness and with hunger, just a little hope is good news disguised.

Photo credit: CNN
Continue reading Good news, Nigeria? by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Nigeria, and the gulf that drowns our voices

Once, more than a decade ago, I wrote about the tale of two nations that was Nigeria. 

Suffice it to say one nation belongs to those who have eaten the national cake so much that their big bellies protrude into other people’s territories. This is not so much  parable as indeed, their potbellies cause untold hardship to the underprivileged contemporaries. 

The other nation belongs to those who suffer, victims who must shift in order to create space for the potbellies of those who eat big our national treasures. In-between the nations is a gulf that drowns the people’s voices, one group unable to hear what the others are saying. Yet , we believe we practise a democracy where our voices count and where the people, being true subjects of governance, decide their fate.  

Continue reading Nigeria, and the gulf that drowns our voices

One Nigerian, One Voice: The drive for self-determination by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

At the current state of things in Nigeria, no one should be left out in admitting the need for a drastic change. Indeed, the nation, more than ever, urgently needs a wide-reaching self-determination at the individual level.


According to the United Nations, “…a state is said to have the right of self-determination in the sense of having the right to choose freely its political, economic, social, and cultural systems”, and ”…the right to self-determination is defined as the right of a people to constitute itself in a state or otherwise freely determine the form of its association with an existing state.” Culled from Encyclopedia Britannica.


The latter clarification of what self-determination means indeed feeds the former, as the former cannot stand alone without inputs from the latter, which aligns well with Kendra Cherry’s thoughts on similar subject matter. Kendra writes, “self-determination is an important concept that refers to each person’s ability to make choices and manage their own life.”

Continue reading One Nigerian, One Voice: The drive for self-determination by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

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.

Continue reading Common house o’ commons 003

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!

Continue reading Common house o’ commons 002

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

AN INROAD INTO RENOWN by Tope Omoniyi

(Only for the Cerebral)

cacophony for Tope Awoniyi

A cacophony of ideologies, opinions…. We are a rare assortment of silently hopeful individuals, complacently hopeless ones and insolent specimens, just to mention a few, who occupy this noble space created almost six decades ago.

Invariably, the unity that lies in diversity tends to come into its Continue reading AN INROAD INTO RENOWN by Tope Omoniyi

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

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 TO THE SON OF MAN Vol.5 by Adeojo Kolawole Adeyemi Hannibal

Dear Son of Man,

How best can I express my disappointment in our dispositions as a nation than this little space afforded me to ventilate on issues beyond my power to alter? It is true, what you said in your last letter, that we take one minion step forward and two giant ones backwards. Your allegory about the driver and his passengers was on point with prejudice to the Nigerian state and its unpalatable leadership cum followership trail. If the passengers see nothing wrong in the reckless drive of their driver, I am afraid there is little or nothing to be done to avert a doomed journey. How much of our negligence and complacency are responsible for the wantonness of our leaders? How much of our indulgence renders leaders unaccountable? And just how much of our sycophancy Continue reading LETTER TO THE SON OF MAN Vol.5 by Adeojo Kolawole Adeyemi Hannibal

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

LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN. Vol3 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Dear Hannibal,

“This is a court of law, young man, not a court of justice”, are words attributed to Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., one of the U.S. Supreme Court’s great Justices (as he then was). They were uttered in response to the argument of a young lawyer who mentioned severally while arguing that his client sought justice before the court.

Again, and in response to your well-articulated exposé on the mob-action against the wellbeing of justice in our dear country, I reiterate the words of Holmes, “This is a court of law, young man, not a Court of Justice”. Continue reading LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN. Vol3 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

LETTER TO THE SON OF MAN. Vol3 by Adeojo Kolawole Adeyemi Hannibal

Dear Son of Man,

My conscience bleeds this morning for my country. Not because of the many upheavals, trials and tribulations we face daily, these could be surmounted by the repositioning of the human mind, but because the country completely wallows in indulgence that conveniently metes out justice as a selective, eyes wide opened sword wielder, rather than the blind lady with an impartial sword, ready to give it to anyone, irrespective of status, class or creed, according to the measurements of the scales in her hand. My conscience actually bleeds because I belong to a nation that has lost its soul. The irredeemable path taken by us as a nation had revealed our recidivism and only a soulful diagnosis and conscientious surgery of the root cause can redirect us from this annihilating path that leads to nothing but perdition. Continue reading LETTER TO THE SON OF MAN. Vol3 by Adeojo Kolawole Adeyemi Hannibal

LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN- VOL.2 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi

Dear Hannibal,

It is sad that the world, as used to be, has changed or keeps changing. Though, maybe this change is expected as there is nothing constant in life, even the invisible ropes that hold the spherical earth in space move from place to place, time after time. If our long-dead ancestors return for a visit to earth, they should be shocked at what we have turned the world into, chasing the vanities that printed or virtual monies grant those that out-compete themselves at living out luxuries that have outlived greater past competitors while reflected on the walls are shadows of poverty, hunger, strife, wars, blood and death. Continue reading LETTER FROM THE SON OF MAN- VOL.2 by ‘Lakunle Jaiyesimi