Perspectives
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Journalism is not a courtesy call — by Folorunso Adisa
It has been excruciatingly harrowing to read through a number of commentaries on social media, particularly from individuals who should know better, media-literate political actors and self-styled analysts. What is striking in many of these reactions is not only disagreement but a troubling mix of intellectual arrogance and informational poverty. For some, any analysis that does not flatter their political…
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More questions for Nasir El-Rufai — by Femi Fani-Kayode
In my last contribution titled ‘Nasir El Rufai As A Threat To National Security’ I asked a number of questions about the actions, utterances, public confessions and acts of sheer wickedness carried out by my old friend Mallam Nasir El Rufai for which I am still waiting for answers. The last thing I heard about him is that he is…
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Tunji Disu, Oyedele: Revving up the governance engine — by Tunde Rahman
Last week has been hugely significant in Nigeria’s contemporary history. The plaudits arising from the announcement of Executive Order 9, aimed at curbing opacity in the operations of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and instilling transparency and accountability, had barely receded when President Bola Tinubu made two other important decisions in quick succession. The President appointed Olatunji Disu, then an…
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Ìgbàlayé: Oga Bello was a loverboy — by Oladeinde Olawoyin
Oga Bello and Jide Kosoko were once romantic lover-boys in Yoruba flicks, and that’s one lesson that struck me midway into Professor Aderinto’s new documentary. That moment, I realised the transient nature of life, experiences, and beauty. In that documentary, Professor Aderinto deployed the didactic nature of cinema to paint an important picture of Fuji artistes as compulsive philanderers. Drawing…
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When spokespersons falter: The Bwala/Mehdi meltdown — by Segun Showunmi
Public communication at the highest levels of government is not a casual undertaking. The role of a spokesperson is one of the most demanding assignments in political leadership because it sits at the intersection of policy, perception, and national reputation. Every word, tone, gesture, and response becomes part of the narrative through which both domestic and international audiences judge a…
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The politics of changing minds: Reno and Bwala as a case study — by Kayode Adebiyi
There is a need to clear a few things up. Many Nigerians are pathetically naïve about politics and how it is played, not only in Nigeria but across the world. The fact that I wrote a critique of Daniel Bwala’s interview with Mehdi Hasan on Head to Head does not suggest that I am against him as a person, nor…
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From my balcony- by Sam Kargbo
Standing upon my balcony—no ordinary balcony, but that elevated ledge of inconvenient memory from which history refuses to blink—I behold a carnival of sudden conscience. The square below is crowded with men and women freshly perfumed in the fragrance of reform. Yesterday’s custodians of iron decrees now wrap themselves in linen woven from the vocabulary of liberty. Their wrists, once…
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Aderinto: In Praise of the Queens in Fuji Kingdom (1) — by Oladeinde Olawoyin
Iyabo Alake Osanle, easily the most phenomenal female Fuji musician of the 21st century, burst onto the male-dominated Fuji scene on the cusp of the millennium with rare gusto: a microphone in hand, an all-male Fuji band, an avalanche of lewd lyrics and street slang, a croaky ‘masculine’ voice, and unconventional demeanours that challenged people’s pre-conceived notion of feminine creativity.…
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Iyabo Obasanjo and the feeble defence of constituency neglect — by Bamidele Johnson
I read, on the cable.ng, the defence mounted on behalf of Professor Iyabo Obasanjo against criticism of her indifference to the grotesque conditions in which some residents of the Lagos–Ogun boundary communities live. I admire the writer’s simplicity of language and sedate tone. But you can afford to be tranquil when you have not lived in any of those communities.…
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Weep not for Ayatollah Khamenei — by Yemi Adebowale
Back in January, blood flowed on the streets of Iran; blood of innocent young anti-government protesters. The young Iranians wanted an end to the country’s brutal Islamic government. They wanted freedom. The then Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, needed to end the protests that had dragged on for about three weeks. It could lead…
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