For the record, I was not exactly surprised to find out which side of the divide Dele Momodu’s back page contribution in the March 21, 2008 edition of This Day weekend newspaper would swing to (pun intended) on […]

No, this is not about the Broadway musical or its recent re-incarnation at the box-office. It is not even about some new wonder hair product designed to give your coiffure a nice shiny bounce. Truth be told, with […]

There was a country…
Born of the incestuous union
Of a myriad nation tribes
And named in the throes
Of an adulterous liaison
Brothers united
In a sham fraternity
By strangers
Who sought their unity
Only […]

Apart from being the biggest black nation in the world and the self-proclaimed giant of Africa, another distinguishing quality about Nigeria is that it is home to a people who have this rather disturbing ability […]

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Tabloid newspapers and magazines around the world have a distinctive feature; sensationalized headlines and sleazy celebrity news stories. In Nigeria, they are no different. However, in addition to their use of […]

The desert-faring easterly
Swept the invading Arabian horde
Into Nubian climes
And for the price of jasmine and spice
A harem was exchanged
Indigenous gods were ousted
Traded for the deity
Of a foreign […]

Control activated in utero
Prejudices and mindless superstitions
Force-fed into the  receptive vacuum
Of a birthed vessel
A mind lies in waste
Filled with mythical ether
Passed off as substance.
The earth […]

It was a day like any other
But one destined to be like no other
When two unknowing actors
 In a play Scripted by fate
Traversed its stage
Neither seeing the other.
Fate’s fingers plucked at the strings
Of […]

I long so much to hate
Even if for the briefest moment
But I love instead
I am filled with so much anger
Rage has taken root
In the very core of my being
But there is room for tenderness
I live with so much […]

A strangeness courses through me
One not unfamiliar to my being
A warm glow brews inside
Anger rises with a raging tide of emotions
News of a foul deed
Rages across the land
Unleashing torrents of bile
From […]

Behold the scribe who once the pen held
Scribbling the truth to heal conscience’s wounds
He inks now a dirge for a faith once professed
Pandering to the fortune of fate
He scribbles an ode to the throne of […]

They never toiled
In your fields
As I did
But they reaped
Your harvest.
Yes, they bought
Your seedlings nourishments
But I nurtured
Them to fruition.
Now, your innards
They have ravaged
Leaving you
<p […]

Like the innards of space
Deep, wide and uncharted
So you were, perhaps
Before puberty’s sun
Set upon your star
You fine sands untrampled
Your blackholes undiscovered
Your vegetation
Rich and luxuriant
<p […]

We look back now
On those years past
And realize
The truth that was them
And the lie that was us
They were as real
A mirage then
As they are now
But we thought them an oasis
Over the years
The lies of […]

The fabled General
Rescued from the infamy
Of a phantom treason
And favoured
With the spoils
Of a Baron’s martyrdom
But denied the privilege
Of a political trifecta
Gifts the unyielding subjects
A sickly […]

You
before whom
I unmask myself
dancing naked
to your lone spectator
spewing forth
my tortured lines
to your lone audience
To what end
this absurd theatre?
an applause for my act?
but I act not
a […]

Truly,
A tin-god accustomed
to the brutish persuasions
of his whim and caprice
but unyielding
to the aspirations
of  others
journeys only closer
to the infamy of insurrection.
Madly,
He dances to the […]

Time there was
When their impotent friendship
Gave birth to our virile comity
Their dying embers
Fanned our blossoming association
We lost them
But we found us
Time there was
When our sins with them
<p […]

 
It was three Gregorian counts
Halfway into the journey
To the Mayan prophecy of apocalypse
On a day
That the Omniscient
Saw fit to rest
From the task of creation
The grim reaper
Cast his shadow
Upon […]

Friends only yesterday
Today, far from fiends
But strangers still
Laughter once shared
Now but impotent echoes
Comity once cherished
Now but a flickering
Droplet of fire
Slowly ebbing away
This raiment of […]

In this journey eternal
Of they who desire
Of  another’s treasures
They, vanquished
Who now losers be
Are cursed to sentry postings
On the look out eternally
For the enemy
Whilst they victorious
Repose in […]

They devoured the apple
Weak in flesh and spirit
They fell for the serpent’s deceit
 But we were the ones
Banished from Eden
They killed Abel
Their murderous rage kindled
By covetous thoughts
But we were […]

Awake in the temple of justice
Awaiting the entrance delayed
Of the wielder of damocles’ sword
A mind wanders
The confines of the pillared shrine
Seeking purpose
Pondering motives
Purveyors of scripted […]