“Accept Your Loss and Move On” – The Eighth Rudder Blade
Expellers and the expelled from groups or organisations often delude themselves one cannot survive without them. This article seeks to debunk such false illusions. (more…)
Oppression: A metaphor for the Nigerian Youth
“Those who have come to know and trust death embrace it with love. It is the very foundation of freedom. Oppressors love no one, not their wives, not their children, not their friends. How can such a person love death? Behind the empty shell of the oppressor, he fears all the real tests of his worth that are imminent.” – Guynes (more…)
The Leadership of a Bad Brother–Flash 5
The end of the era of the leaders who are bad brothers need not be obscure. It must never be. Final evidence of poor but manipulative leadership who has enduring rule over others for a long time. By deception, arrogance, intimidation, force, mystery and fear is the unmanageable chaos it produces within the boundaries of its control.
What looked like the effortless genius of the leader turns out to be the sheer ignorance. Plus, the gullibility of the followers. Why educate them? What seemed to be the unquestionable power of the boss turns out to be the learned weakness and helplessness of a specialised class of constituents. Why empower them? What I thought to be a genuine ideology on re-examination was the inexplicable “herd fear” of those who had nothing else to hold on to. (more…)
The Leadership of a Bad Brother Reflections on the leadership of someone have inspired these musings. As ordinary as they are, daily I can best describe him as a “Brother”.…
“Escravos”: Elite Anti-Colonialists?
If you have the privilege to visit Warri, the former “oil city” of Nigeria in Delta State coastal Southern partand ask about the organisation that calls itself “Escravos,” it will not take you too long to find out who they are and where they assemble regularly. You will be told a lot of stories but unless you happen by sheer serendipity to meet a member who would either not tell you anything or who will inform you of the astronomical greatness of the group including its “proud” anti-colonial, pro-democracy and freedom fighting exploits, you will not get a real feel of the group.
Origins of an Opintar
“Birds got something to teach us all; About being free, yeah; Be no rain… Be no rain…” – Gil Scott-Heron, from the lyrics, I Think I’ll Call It Morning
I proclaim myself an Opintar sometimes. Opinterity is the closest I know to freedom and joy. It is part aspiration, part practice. Many think Opintar is a fun name. Or of vernacular because they cannot google it. Or the vanity of one gnawed by rough illness many times. It is none of these. Opintar describes my lot in life and my journey compass. Ordinary is the life of an Opintar. (more…)
Rancour: An Ode to A Lost Oppressor
When I nurse the hurts inflicted on me by friends and brothers within the spectre of brotherhood on so many occasions, it becomes a hard and fast law of my interaction to abhor it. Circumspection somehow replaces those he once trusted and bonded with. Well, this is both an adaptation and prudence necessary to lessen the impacts of mean men and frivolous types in my space. Releasing the hurt becomes my most exceptional weapon; it works like a bulletproof vest and quicksand at the same time. My foes get blocked and sunk by my releases.