Once upon a time I could sing both stanzas of the Nigerian national anthem; I always liked the second one best. I placed my right hand across my chest whenever I recited the pledge. “It’s where your heart is located,” a teacher explained to us one day on the assembly…

Something happened on this day, Oct 7th, 1967, in the city of Asaba, present day Delta state. Federal troops of the Nigerian 2nd division gathered about 700 men and boys, some as young as 12, in the Ogbeosowa area of the town and executed them. The Nigerian army then proceeded…

The Defeatism Of Nigeria’s “Tokunbo Elitism.” In a 2012 interview with vice magazine titled “2012 Is Bullshit; 2020 Is When We’ll Really Be in Trouble” scientist Peter Turchin predicted that beginning in 2020, a wave of violence would rock America for a generation. …

Some years ago I read a story about a girl named Ifoghale from Delta state. Her mother, a garri seller, had been referred from a private hospital in Ughelli to the Central Hospital in Warri, on suspicions of cancer. At Central Hospital she was told that her mother needed to…

Nigeria, a nation where half the population is Christian and the other half Muslim, yet worship one god over all … the god of money. I started to resent money when I realized how much of it was actually needed to make life at least bearable in a third world…

For much of my childhood, evening entertainment revolved around the small black Toshiba television in the living room of our Warri home. On special occasions my mother would rent cassette tapes from the neighborhood video store. We always looked forward to the latest in Nollywood cinema, and if mom was…

I had previously taken a break from writing, I just didn’t feel like it anymore. I stopped updating my blog, taking pictures and many other things I loved doing. I just wasn’t in that headspace anymore until recently. I stumbled upon the works of German language author Franz Kafka, and…

The black panther movie plays the same old tired game of using African identity and “culture” as a backdrop for American anxieties. The Black Panther as a movie was as relevant to the African context as Independence Day, the Will Smith alien invasion movie was. Seeing how the mysterious Area…

WHY GOD WILL NOT SAFE US I live in Nigeria, it is one of the most religious nations in the world. About 96% of Nigerians polled cited religion as being very important in their daily lives, but there’s a twist, Nigeria’s religiosity has seldom translated into values, as it remains one of the most corrupt countries…