Articles
The nation is set on the Bunsen burner already by the politicians and the political class in frenzied preparation for grabbing or re-grabbing power in the year 2015. Some of them are doing so with some degree of finesse and subtlety even though with palpably grim determination while others have thrown all decency and caution to the win with a manifest do-or-die bent on wresting power, either in Aso Rock, in the State House or in the National ad State Assemblies. In doing this, the real nation that they struggle to grab is on a tender edge of the precipice—ready to break by the very actions of omission or commission of the operators of power themselves. This is the paradox of the state of our polity today—that while the state is hanging in a delicate balance, needing patriotic drive to keep it socially coherence, the political actors are hustling to control it in whatever state of disrepair.
Category: Reflections Written by Olu Obafemi
The nation is set on the Bunsen burner already by the politicians and the political class in frenzied preparation for grabbing or re-grabbing power in the year 2015. Some of them are doing so with some degree of finesse and subtlety even though with palpably grim determination while others have thrown all decency and caution to the win with a manifest do-or-die bent on wresting power, either in Aso Rock, in the State House or in the National ad State Assemblies. In doing this, the real nation that they struggle to grab is on a tender edge of the precipice—ready to break by the very actions of omission or commission of the operators of power themselves. This is the paradox of the state of our polity today—that while the state is hanging in a delicate balance, needing patriotic drive to keep it socially coherence, the political actors are hustling to control it in whatever state of disrepair.
The Demise of the Eagle on the Iroko: Chinua Achebe (I)
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- Category: Reflections
- Written by Olu Obafemi
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Chinua Achebe has left us alone. The implication of this is that African literary patriarch is that Africa’s finest story-teller in the written form, author of Things Fall Apart the most defining novel on the non-Western perception of Africa (in short, the counter-narrative story to the Western hegemonic ideological discourse and consciousness of Africa) has transited into ancestry, on both the luminal and the sub-liminal planes. In other words, Chinua, O. Achebe, the one who began the post-colonial polemic in creative and critical modes has stepped out of the earthly terrain of discourse and has joined the extra-terrestrial firmament.
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Category: Reflections Written by Olu Obafemi
Chinua Achebe has left us alone. The implication of this is that African literary patriarch is that Africa’s finest story-teller in the written form, author of Things Fall Apart the most defining novel on the non-Western perception of Africa (in short, the counter-narrative story to the Western hegemonic ideological discourse and consciousness of Africa) has transited into ancestry, on both the luminal and the sub-liminal planes. In other words, Chinua, O. Achebe, the one who began the post-colonial polemic in creative and critical modes has stepped out of the earthly terrain of discourse and has joined the extra-terrestrial firmament.
By the way, Atiku is certainly not one of my few heroes in this country—even if he has proved quite relevant on a number of occasions during my tenure as ANA President, without duress or pressure, offering a major Prize, which is still extant and a token financial help, judging from what we now know he is capable of giving, if h was persuaded that the offering was vantageous and rewarding.. Again, that is a matter for another narrative tenure.
Category: Reflections Written by Olu Obafemi
By the way, Atiku is certainly not one of my few heroes in this country—even if he has proved quite relevant on a number of occasions during my tenure as ANA President, without duress or pressure, offering a major Prize, which is still extant and a token financial help, judging from what we now know he is capable of giving, if h was persuaded that the offering was vantageous and rewarding.. Again, that is a matter for another narrative tenure.
There is a dangerous space for sarcasm, the twin brother of satire, in our country today. I shall not bother to go to any explications, especially because these are trying times for us and there are many who are very impatient with what they erroneously but flippantly tag academic exercise. The reference academic exercise is, sadly, to a concept of the non-practical, non-functional category of the human experience. Many times, especially on the journalistic space, those who have established sarcasm/satire as a style, even a tradition, if you wish, are taken as escapist, unwilling to be frontal and acerbic in situations as tragic as ours when plain-speaking is regarded as the most desirable format for seeking and prescribing solutions for our nation’s malaise.
Category: Reflections Written by Olu Obafemi
There is a dangerous space for sarcasm, the twin brother of satire, in our country today. I shall not bother to go to any explications, especially because these are trying times for us and there are many who are very impatient with what they erroneously but flippantly tag academic exercise. The reference academic exercise is, sadly, to a concept of the non-practical, non-functional category of the human experience. Many times, especially on the journalistic space, those who have established sarcasm/satire as a style, even a tradition, if you wish, are taken as escapist, unwilling to be frontal and acerbic in situations as tragic as ours when plain-speaking is regarded as the most desirable format for seeking and prescribing solutions for our nation’s malaise.
A rather uncharitable friend of mine, in sneering reference to the loquacious expletives of Nasir-El-Rufai, culminating In his hot-cake selling book, reminisced over Fela Anikulapo’s ‘Basket Mouth Don’t Start…’ And this is not a diatribe that lacks minimal justification. Thank heavens that there was the deservedly ceremonized triumph of the Super Eagles at AFCON—which rvided us with a dousing effect on the rage that was/is El-Rufai, the nation would have been forced to purchase, compulsorily a copy of his book for every Nigerian-paediatrics’ and geriatrics, and all. They say God’s always provides us with a veneer of chance t give thanks. No question, El-Rufai is hardly surpassabe in loquaciousness, indomitable talkativeness , ‘omnipresent, universalist image-laundering. We can now comfortably give normative, attributive classical referents with degree to the prize in garrulity in our political lexicon to the diminutive, high achiever in our national annals
Category: Reflections Written by Olu Obafemi
A rather uncharitable friend of mine, in sneering reference to the loquacious expletives of Nasir-El-Rufai, culminating In his hot-cake selling book, reminisced over Fela Anikulapo’s ‘Basket Mouth Don’t Start…’ And this is not a diatribe that lacks minimal justification. Thank heavens that there was the deservedly ceremonized triumph of the Super Eagles at AFCON—which rvided us with a dousing effect on the rage that was/is El-Rufai, the nation would have been forced to purchase, compulsorily a copy of his book for every Nigerian-paediatrics’ and geriatrics, and all. They say God’s always provides us with a veneer of chance t give thanks. No question, El-Rufai is hardly surpassabe in loquaciousness, indomitable talkativeness , ‘omnipresent, universalist image-laundering. We can now comfortably give normative, attributive classical referents with degree to the prize in garrulity in our political lexicon to the diminutive, high achiever in our national annals
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