By Olukorede Yishau SHE WAS only fifteen. Her best friend was Moniba, and she had imagined many more years of easy companionship with this special being she could talk to from morning till night without ever feeling bored. But this friendship, and indeed their future, came under a grave threat. The Taliban had invaded their […]
By Olukorede Yishau FOREIGN INTERVENTION has never been the cure for internal troubles. Lest we forget, every time powerful nations have marched into weaker ones with promises of salvation, the outcome has been heartbreak, not healing. Somalia learnt this bitter lesson in the early 1990s when American troops landed to restore peace but left b...
By Olukorede Yishau THEY ARE called immigrants, especially when the Third World is their origin. If they happen to be from the West and find a livelihood in the Third World, then the label changes. The same persons are now called expatriates. Geography and skin colour transform perception. One is seen as coming to offer […]
By Olukorede Yishau Abdulrazak Gurnah, Africa’s most recent Nobel laureate in Literature, returns with another powerful work, ‘Theft’. Gurnah probes the intersections of memory and belonging in a rapidly changing world. The novel follows three principal characters —Karim, Fauzia, and Badar— and the intricate ways in which their li...
By Olukorede Yishau SOME DAYS back, I had the privilege of reading a soon-to-be-released book that clearly shows that every child carries a world within them, a constellation of thoughts, dreams, and rhythms that no two eyes can fully measure. The book brings to light the fact that some worlds shine boldly, easily seen in […]
By Olukorede Yishau Because of Baba Iyabo AREMU OLUSEGUN Obasanjo, ex-soldier, ex-military Head of State, ex-President, letterman, the most popular Baba Iyabo in this universe and public speaker, is one of the luckiest human beings on earth. Born of a very humbling background, his decision to join the Army changed his story. Opportunities just...
By Olukorede Yishau The question looked simple and I answered it. Less than five minutes later, I knew that some things that appeared simple were complex. The South African Airways flight attendant on the double-deck Boeing plane had asked me: ‘Red wine or white wine.’ ‘White wine, please,’ the uninitiated me answered ...
By Olukorede Yishau It happened before America became home. ‘You think it’s funny? I’ll show you what is funny. Stand back.’ The United States Customs and Border agency official barked at me in the expansive arrival hall of the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston, Texas. The blond official’s eyeballs ...
By Olukorede Yishau THE THREE finalists for this year’s The Nigeria Prize for Literature have been unveiled. Oyin Olugbile made the list with ‘Sanya’, her debut novel. Two-time Booker Prize finalist Chigozie Obioma is in contention with his third novel, ‘The Road to the Country’. Nikki May completes the list with ‘This Motherless Land’. I [&h...
By Olukorede Yishau  TERRORISM IN Nigeria did not begin yesterday or even the day before. Its roots run deeper, dating back to the early 2000s when Boko Haram emerged in the country’s Northeast. What began as a small, fringe sect railing against Western education and government institutions soon mutated into a hydra-headed monster that has [&...
