Poem Of The Week: Wake Up!
By Nehi Igbinijesu. Silhouettes from another life A people removed from problems Absorbed far with themselves Amnesia saturated And away from the crowd No police, landlords or NEPA No headliners,no crashes And no political mischievers Wait o! No curfews State of emergencies And slicky oil shippers No dealt opened dams With handshakes that […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: Meet The NNS Aradu
By Nehi Igbinijesu. The Nigerian Navy Ship (NNS) Aradu is the biggest Navy ship in Nigeria. A 125.6m long all purpose fighting ship, the Aradu evokes the sound craftsmanship of its German builder, Blohm & Voss and the prowess of Nigeria as the hegemony of West Africa. The NNS Aradu is a rare beauty of […]
Poem Of The Week: From Handshakes, Lions And Horses – A Tribute To Flood Victims Across Africa.
By Nehi Igbinijesu. Awaken quickly Posiedon unnravels about us Hence hath come curses From handshakes, lions and horses Arise completely For the day devours us In somber silence Of brethren, lions and horses Get out hastily For who shall save us? Deluges, rapes and snakes? Yea! And handouts, lions and horses Roarings and neighings […]
Poem of the Week: Cries and Groans
By Nehi Igbinijesu Tis dark With ants filing Like a hungry lover’s obsession Atop festooned nuptiality Iridescent with passion And comely pleasure expectations O’ manuveures Landings and trepidation As a woman set to birth Yet weary Could not deliver Engine blowouts Bursts and frets O’ blabberings Descent announcements Sitbelt fiddlings As a banquet laid for […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: The Coup Speeches Of General Abacha
By Nehi Igbinijesu. On 31stDecember 1983, the shrill voice of a relatively unknown army officer was heard over the radio. A Brigadier at his debut, Sani Abacha is reputed in Nigeria’s history with making the most coup speeches on air. Starting at his first in 1983, the untethered caprices of this generalissimo culminated in his […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove
By Nehi Igbinijesu The Osun-Osogbo Sacred Grove is one of the remnant primary high forests that survived the urbanization of Yorubaland. Situated along the banks of the Osun River, just outside the city of Osogbo, the grove plays host to thousands of Osun worshippers and tourists who come yearly to celebrate the Osun- Osogbo […]
Poem Of The Week: Deathbed
By Nehi Igbinijesu. Calabashes, vats and bins Niftly seated in wipes and sniffs One quirky moonlit night And not a Spirit in sight Bemused! Bereft! Beset! All at once? By the spirited dark light Of reveries along ago Of cries that brought mirth once With toddles and strides Then stress! […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: The History of Okada.
By Nehi Igninijesu. Commercial motorcycling in Nigeria was first started in Benin in 1988. Arising out of the crippling unemployment of the Structural Adjustment Program days, young people turned to commercial motorcycling to make ends meet. Young people used their motorcycles to transport people from place to place in order to earn money. Soon enough, […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: The Nigeria Police Force.
By Nehi Igbinijesu. The Nigeria Police is the national police of Nigeria with complete jurisdiction across the entire country. The history of the Nigeria Police is closely interwoven with the formation of colonies and protectorates that were later fused to become Nigeria in 1914. It began in 1861 when Lagos became a Crown Colony of […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: Nigeria’s Premier University
By Nehi Igbinijesu. Did you know that the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s oldest university, was started in 1932 as Yaba College, Lagos before being transferred to Ibadan in 1948? Founded on 17 November 1948, the University College Ibadan (as it was known) was originally instituted to be a satellite college of the University of London. […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: The Lull Of History.
By Nehi Igbinijesu. The sense of history is rarely understood in Black Africa. This neglect in our society has been largely evident in the poor generational succession across our country’s businesses, polity and national life; creating serious gaps that have left us with the same “old” leaders almost fifty years post-independence. I came across a […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: A Thing About The NDA’s First Cadet.
By Nehi Igbinijesu. For getting to Kaduna a day earlier than his colleagues, Paul Osakpamwan Ogbebor became the first Nigerian cadet to be enlisted into the 1st Regular Course at the Nigerian Defence Academy on January 19, 1964. The hope of reaching the zenith of his career more than anything subconsciously motivated Ogbebor’s early arrival […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: Sam Mbakwe International Cargo Airport
A TESTAMENT TO THE POWER OF COMMUNAL EFFORTS By Nehi Igbinijesu. It is an awesome thing when people do not blame government for every disadvantage experienced in day-to-day living. More laudable about this kind of attitude is the fact that it implies that such people can take the initiative to do for country what country […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: A Basket Full Of Tigernuts
By Nehi Igbinijesu. For almost everything you find in Africa, little or nothing is known of its value until white people tell us. That had been the case until now; a curious case of apathy for knowledge. From the aqua petroleo in Equatorial Guinea to beautiful black silt on the grounds in Itakpe, Nigeria, I […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: An Army General Called The Black Scorpion
By Nehi Igbinijesu. Many names like Yakubu Gowon, Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, Olusegun Obasanjo, Murtala Mohammed and Theophilus Danjuma stand out in the Nigerian polity today. They became Generals at some point in their military careers and led political administrations for which they are remembered. These men also shared the commonality of being key actors in the […]
DISCOVER NIGERIA: Where Do Obas Go After “Here”?
By Nehi Igbinijesu. Some questions never really surface in general discourse. But seriously, where do the Obas of Benin go after they exit this world? The Binis believe they go to heaven. And Ife tradition seems to believe that too. Yoruba historians widely speculated that Ona Orun Awon Oba Ado was a site in Ife […]