Let us forget our differences—Dr. Azikwe Let us understand our difference—Ahmadu Bello Let us understand the misunderstandings of our differences—Abdul Balogun Chukwudi “Misunderstanding the understanding” can refer to a situation where someone fails to comprehend or interpret a concept, idea, or situation correctly, despite believing that they have understood it. This can occur due to various reasons such as cognitive biases, lack of knowledge or experience, miscommunication, cultural differences, or preconceived notions. For example, imagine a person from one culture trying to understand a complex concept or idea from another culture. Even if they have the best intentions and have studied the concept…
Author: Prince Charles Dickson PhD
All women think the same things about men… their father is a hero; their son is a genius and their husband is an… Northwest of Managua, in the city of León, lived the poet Alfonso Cortés (1893–1969), who had been declared ‘mad’ at the age of 34 and chained in his bedroom. Another of Nicaragua’s great poets, Ernesto Cardenal (1925–2020), grew up not far from the home of Cortés. As a child, Cardenal said he used to walk by the Cortés home from the Christian Brothers School and once he saw the ‘poeta loco’ in his chains. A lack of…
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way–in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest…
We forget who we are sometimes— But oh, the power when we remember /Topher Kearby As you read this, millions of Nigerians would have cast their vote, like I said last week, a handful would have paid the ultimate price which is death because like I stated clearly that our elections are war in these parts. We have witnessed ballot snatching despite the best of efforts but I must also say that it has reduced and that is a big plus. As usual logistics has failed us There is also the early excitement of the very big possibility of…
Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner. – James Bovard, Civil Libertarian Verse 1 Rumuokoro don catch fire Last night I was walking on the road When they shoot the man and shoot him tyre Ikorodu don catch fire As I dey waka, I dey see one man wen be say dem shoot wey dey carry kaya The Baba carry kaya Soldier go, soldier come Barrack no dey run Kill by a gun, you will die by a gun How you go feel at the point of no return?…
Last week the OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY TO THE GOVERNMENT OF THE FEDERATION in a PRESS RELEASE stated that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved the establishment of a Presidential Transition Council, for facilitating and managing the 2023 transition programme, and also signed EXECUTIVE ORDER NO. 14, 2023 Members of the Committee are: i. Secretary to the Government of the Federation – Chairman ii. Head of the Civil Service of the Federation iii. Solicitor-General of the Federation and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice iv. Permanent Secretaries from the following Ministries and Offices: a. Defence b. Interior c. Finance, Budget and…
Under pressure we wail under pressure Under pressure black people under pressure Under pressure nigerians under pressure No food in we belly No money in ah we pocket No bed we lay we head The people dem are suffer In ah ghetto, in ah city Everywhere dah me go oh Me see them, some are cry, some are die Some are weeping! Some are wailing! Everywhere dah oh eh Under pressure we wail under pressure Under pressure everybody under pressure Ras Kimono Under Pressure You see the Nigerian looks upon Nigeria as a theatre and the…
(‘A person is dead, but their spirit lives; if you poke the iris of their eye, they still come alive’) Democracy has a dream-like character. It sweeps into the world, carried forward by an immense desire by humans to overcome the barriers of indignity and social suffering. When confronted by hunger or the death of their children, earlier communities might have reflexively blamed nature or divinity, and indeed those explanations remain with us today. But the ability of human beings to generate massive surpluses through social production, alongside the cruelty of the capitalist class to deny the vast majority of…
One who believes that the earth is chasing him, where did he put his feet while running? The Driver Many years ago, I was driving back from Gombe, and on the highway was this public/commercial Opel car carrying 5 Nigerians. It was at ‘high’ speed, I overtook the car, blocked them in commando style and came down. I asked the driver, “do you want to kill these passengers, is your speed check working…” and I turned to the passengers to scold them for not warning the driver. Before I could finish, they descended on me, “Oga how e concern you,…
NSCDC Officers It all happened in one day. One day he could choose his tee time at the nicest golf course in the country; the next he couldn’t even be the caddie. One day he could Learjet across the country to see the heavyweight bout at the Las Vegas Mirage. The next he couldn’t afford a city bus across town. Talk about calm becoming chaos… The first thing to go is his empire. The market crashes; his assets tumble. What is liquid goes dry. What has been up goes down. Stocks go flat, and Job goes broke. There he sits…
…teach us to number our days, that we may present to You a heart of wisdom.— Psalm 90:12 I don’t have enough time to live my own life! I reached this conclusion after trying to follow all the advice given on a morning news show one week in January. It seemed like a smart way to start my day. I figured I’d tune in, get the forecast, learn the headlines, and maybe hear a celebrity interview. I wasn’t expecting all the show segments telling me how to live my life better because it is the beginning of the new…
By Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D Someone who has sold an old woman before knows the price of an old man Yes, like Prophet Jeroboam, of Wole Soyinka’s famed Jero Plays, I danced, with eyes closed and spoke in tongues not known to me and ask the higher powers what is in store for Nigeria, the clouds I saw were misty, it was moving like this and like that and ghen-ghen. I saw that Nigeria will not break, Nigeria will not fail or fall, because it already has. We are not united, but we are one in corruption, one in greed,…
By Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D. I know the biggest crime is just to throw up your hands and say “This has nothing to do with me, I just want to live as comfortably as I can.” ~ Ani DiFranco. Dog wey wan lost no dey hear owner whistle I want to end the year 2022 in this manner. A #BIGTHANKYOU to Lawrence Njoku (Enugu), Gordi Udeajah (Abia), Charles Ogugbuaja, (Owerri), Uzoma Nzeagwu (Awka), Obinna Nwaoku (Port Harcourt), Monday Osayande (Asaba), Ayodele Afolabi (Ado Ekiti), Rotimi Agboluaje (Ibadan) and Adewale Momoh (Akure) all of Guardian and all media practitioners that put in…
By Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D. A sheep was passing and saw a lion crying inside a cage trapped, the lion begged the sheep to rescue him with a promise not to kill and eat it, but the sheep refused. After much persuasion and for the sheep’s gullibility, it opened the cage for the lion. Now the lion was very hungry having stayed in the cage for days without food. It quickly pounced on the sheep and was about to kill and eat it, but the sheep reminded him of his promise. They were still there arguing when other animals came…
By Prince Charles Dickson Ph.D. It’s so easy to be negative and there are so many reasons for the long term to be positive. Tom and Jerry is a series of theatrical animated cartoon films created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, centering on a never-ending rivalry between a cat (Tom) and a mouse (Jerry) whose chases and battles often involved comic violence… The series features comedic fights between an iconic set of enemies, a house cat and mouse. The plots of each short usually center on Tom’s numerous attempts to capture Jerry and the mayhem and destruction…
One cannot eat crab in secret. At the beginning of the year, I had promised that for 12 months, In Shaa Allah, I will once a month X-ray the issues around the forthcoming general elections in the world’s largest black population and sufacracy. This is the grand finale of them all, on local parlance the bottom plate. Years ago I had gone to see a seer, and before my turn was that of a pregnant woman, from my eavesdropping after all said and done the woman, asked the Baba, what would be the sex of the child. Baba after a…
How do you show you’re happy? If you’re a cat, you purr. If you’re a dog, you wag your tail. And if you’re a rabbit, you bust out your best binky moves. You read that right — binky. When rabbits are happy, they do this crazy kind of move called a binky. Each bunny has its own binky style, but it’s a kind of jumping, midair twist with a kick and a little hop or two on the landing. Some bunnies’ binkies can reach almost three feet in the air! If you watch a bunny binky, you can’t help but…
A good people can never have a bad government—AbduRafiu In 1845, Karl Marx jotted down some notes for The German Ideology, a book that he wrote with his close friend Friedrich Engels. Engels found these notes in 1888, five years after Marx’s death, and published them under the title Theses on Feuerbach. The eleventh thesis is the most famous: ‘philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point, however, is to change it’. The most widely accepted interpretation of this thesis is that, in it, Marx urges people not only to interpret the world, but also to try…
The defects and faults in the mind are like wounds in the body. After all imaginable care has been taken to heal them up, still there will be a scar left behind. Francois de La Rochefoucauld. A gossip is one given to tattling, idle talk or rumour especially about the personal or private affairs of others. A gossip is a busybody, chatterbox, and a parrot, in local parlance, here in Nigeria, we call such persons an ‘amebo’. So let me start with this story—(sic) amebo story. Venomous snakes were being shipped from Africa to Europe in a plane. Unfortunately, the…
You only learn to ask questions by asking questions At the beginning of the year, I had promised that for 12 months, In Shaa Allah, I will once a month X-ray the issues around the forthcoming General Elections in the world’s largest black population and sufacracy. This is number eleven, and one more to go. So, I am writing this from Chemnitz, a city in Saxony, eastern Germany. I am inside the Technische Universität Chemnitz in English, it is Chemnitz University of Technology. And I am reflecting, and saying to myself, stop comparing joor. Chemnitz is a strong city, but…
Color TV transmission was introduced first at Benue Plateau Television, Jos, in July 1974 and in India it was introduced in 1979 The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said over 1.5 million children in Nigeria were at an increased risk of waterborne diseases, drowning and malnutrition, as a result of the severe flooding in many parts of the country. According to a statement released by the UN body, the flood which has affected over 2.5million adults and children in 34 , 34 out of the 36 states in the country, has displaced 1.3 million people. Cases of diarrhoea and…
In the spirit of Sankara, the Malian singer Oumou Sangaré released a wonderful song, Kêlê Magni (‘War Is a Plague’), in February 2022, which speaks for the entire Sahel: War is a plague! My country might disappear! I tell you: war is not a solution! War has no friends nor allies, and there are no real enemies. All people suffer from this war: Burkina, Côte d’Ivoire… everyone! Other instruments are needed: new stars in the sky, new revolutions that build on hopes and not on hatred. Woody Allen said, “I don’t mind dying; I just don’t want to be there…
At the beginning of the year, I had promised that for 12 months, In Shaa Allah, I will once a month X-ray the issues around the forthcoming General Elections in the world’s largest black population and sufacracy. This is number ten, and two more to go. I love Nigeria, the land where everything, anything, all things are possible, it depends only from where you stand and what you can benefit from. From Lagos, our own New York, to Abuja, the expensive London with Beverly Hills homes only for the rich and to urban hellish towns worse than that in slumdog…
As e dey pain us, e dey sweet dem—Vladimir Wike We are 62 years, and here are some of my thoughts! I see all the movements, the flag bearing, the excitement, the hope and the pain, making for some potpourri but as Winston Churchill captures it, “a truth told with bad intentions beats all the lies you can invent”. Unfortunately, after all this, very little will have changed, because the truth we are currently trying to engage is with bad intent, at best fault base because e go dey pain Nigerians, e go still dey sweet same Nigerians! The easiest…
Say, say Said I remember when we used to sit In the government yard in trenchtown Oba-observing the ‘hypocrites As they would mingle with the good people we meet Good friends we have, oh, good friends we lost Along the way In this great future You can’t forget your past So dry your tears, I say No Woman No Cry Dub -Song by Bob Marley and the Wailers For the better part of last week, a certain Mahdi Shehu was in the news, for all the wrong reasons. And apart from what we know about him in public space, I…
A leaky roof tricks the sun, but it does not deceive the rain. Running in the rain, falling in the river, nations that lie to herself live with flesh but are skeletons—Abdul Chukwudi Balogun I centre my admonishment for this week around the National Day Rally Speech of the state of Singapore. It was a lengthy rallying speech that touched on several facets of their national life by their 70-year-old leader. It is pertinent to note that the speech took place at the Institute of Technical Education ITE. (kontri wey sabi) I wait for that day, a Nigerian leader will…
Demaa Qadam’ (‘Forward March’). If the sky above your heads becomes full of anger, full of wrath, thunder and rain and lightning and wind. The night becomes dark as pitch. The ground becomes like fire. The times become savage. But your goal remains the same: March, March, Forward March. –Gul Khan Nasir Breaking News You are alive and you are in Nigeria, it is not all doom—Abdul Chukwudi Balogun Natural calamities are not familiar to the people of Nigeria, we have struggled through several leadership catastrophe. So, somehow, part from the poorly managed floods that have become an annual…
…hand dey shake Leg shake… Nigerians wey no well Dem no know say awalokan The Yoruba phrase akoko wa ni is the closest to awalokan meaning (it is our turn)—I really do not know, but I remain a cautious optimist about the Nigerian project. At the beginning of the year, I had promised that for 12 months, In Shaa Allah, I will once a month X-ray the issues around the forthcoming General Elections in the world’s largest black population and sufacracy. This is number nine, and three more to go. Nigeria has three musketeers plus one as flag bearer come…
Not all Hausas are Muslims Not all Igbos are Catholics Not all Igbos love money Not all Yorubas do juju Not all Edo girls go to Italy for prostitution Not all Ebiras are aggressive Not all bankers have money Not all Berom girls are dark Not all Ijebu people love partying Not all guys from Warri are sharp Not all girls that dress semi-nude are sluts Not all guys’ cheat Not all girls lie Not every successful celebrity is into “onething-something” Not all rich kids are spoilt Not all girls have sex to buy their expensive stuffs. Some of the…
A waiting line in front of a closed store. Mohamed arrives, sees the line and doubles everyone. No chance, the first one who was in the line slaps him. The others, seeing that the guy does not defend himself, jump all over him and he finds himself again at the end of the line. He decides to retry, and again he gets ejected. He decides to return a third time… with the same result. In the end, displeased, he looks at everyone and says: — Too bad, I will not open the store today! Once upon a time in…
