African Spotlight Spotlighting Africans at Home and Abroad

Not even the most vociferous supporters of President Jonathan, for whom any criticism of their man is haram, have been able to find a way to spin the embarrassing question of his failure to declare his assets in accordance with a clear, unambiguous provision of the Constitution he swore to respect and defend. The strategy of presidential aides in Aso ...

Early Monday morning. A chalet somewhere in Aso Rock. Booze, runs girls, and other trade marks of government officials. Montell Jordan’s “This is how we do it” blares from a powerful gbedu home theatre. Enter Ruby. “Orontus! Renoks! Na here una still dey?” “Ruby! Why you always dey rush in to wake person? Wey your own by the way?” “I ...

In Okun land, my generation grew up to the story, often told, of a visit by a military governor to one of the towns in the region.We were then part of the old Kwara state. The townspeople rolled out the drums, as is always the case when big government people visit the countryside in Nigeria. People in power must bewelcomed ...

Ogbeni Dimeji Bankole: Calvary greetings to you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I hope this letter meets you in good condition of health, if so, doxology. You can see that I am using the proper Naija phraseology for letter writing. That’s because I need to do something really patriotic by apologizing to you for all the horrible ...

Sometime in the summer of 2011, the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, University of Ghana, Legon, wrote to ask if I would be willing to serve as external assessor for the dossier of one of his lecturers who was seeking promotion to senior lecturer. I enthusiastically agreed as I always do when such requests come from universities in Africa. ...