Nigeria at 59: we need to rekindle the dwindling patriotism

Individually and collectively, we need to build a Nigeria that our children can be proud of. Some have to start from a point of patriotism and optimism and work to give the rest something to be patriotic and optimistic about.

Walk the Talk and Keep Abuja Clean

We were supposed to gather at the Millennium Park at 7:00 am for the second edition of the Abuja Walk the Talk: The Health for all Challenge – the first edition last year had been part of the celebrations of the World Health Organization’s 70th anniversary and I had missed it. But I didn't get …

Thinking in English, Expressing in another Language

Yesterday morning, as I was preparing to leave for work, I listened to VOA Hausa’s health program Lahiya Uwar Jiki. Na taho - In gaisheki, lahiya uwar jiki Babu mai fushi dake It was a reproductive health topic focusing on highly technical stuff like in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination and hormonal therapy. The doctor started …

Remembering things: Mugabe, Ilorin, Tuwo, Salisbury, Harare,

This morning I woke up tired. I had gone to sleep with a lot on my mind and I must have been thinking very hard in my sleep. Many pending tasks in my head. A to-do list which I needed to write down and tick off this morning. But as happens very often, serious-looking potentially …

On the Road on Sallah Eve

The traffic jam started just after the Kaduna International Trade Fair grounds in front of the National Teachers Institute. There had been an accident involving a Sokoto Transport bus, a car and a kekenapep. From the way the three vehicles were smashed, battered and mangled, and facing different directions, it was hard to divine how …

Sweet victory for the bloody civilians

It is a few minutes before the hour of departure. An agitated man stands in the middle of the aisle of SP0001 around the group of ten seats with a table. Doesn’t he have a seat? Maybe he is one of those people who managed to buy a ‘standing’ ticket. He has a single diagonal …

A glimpse of Turunku

The expressway between Kaduna and Zaria is under reconstruction and there are a couple of diversions that sometimes slow down the traffic into a snarl-up in both directions around Birnin Yero. Today, the last Saturday before Eid al-Fitr, there have been reports of a terrible grid-lock. Motorists have been held up for hours. Just before …

From the new Abuja International Airport to Frankfurt en route America

As we approach the new international terminal, the driver makes to turn left toward the train station but instantly changes his mind. He hasn’t been to the airport since the new terminal was opened. He is apparently thinking that the entrance to the new terminal must be on that side. Its underbelly betrays no orifice …

Stephen Hawking (1942-2018)

Gifted with a gorgeous imagination,And inspired to peep into the dark void of the cosmos,He glimpsed blinding, darting, comets of comprehension.Even as his body would not yield to the commands of his mind, He took a deep dive into the unfathomable sea of physical nothingness,And came up with nuggets and pearls of mysterious insight.His mercurial mind …

VS Naipaul (1932-2018)

One of the best writers of the finest English prose of our time has just passed on. My first encounter with VS Naipaul (1932-2018) was about two decades ago when I borrowed a millennium edition of his A House for Mr. Biswas (1961) from the British Council Library in Kano. The deceptively beautiful simplicity of …