iPostThisWeek

In Greek mythology, Sisyphus is condemned by the gods to push a boulder up a hill, only for it to roll back down each time he nears the summit. Albert Camus, in his seminal essay The Myth of Sisyphus , reinterprets this curse as a metaphor for the human condition: the absurd struggle of life without ultimate meaning. Yet Camus insists that we must imagine Sisyphus happy, because dignity lies not in escaping the struggle but in embracing it with defiance. Nigeria’s oil story mirrors this Sisyphean curse. The nation’s oil boom of the 1970s promised prosperity, modernisation, and global prestige. Instead, decades later, Nigeria finds itself trapped in an endless cycle of corruption, dependency, and squandered opportunities. Each new government pushes the boulder of reform uphill; anti-corruption drives, diversification plans, subsidy removals, only for the stone to tumble back down through weak institutions, vested interests, and political inertia. The oil boom became a doom, and Nigeri...

In Yoruba cosmology, the Abiku is the spirit-child who dies and returns, repeatedly, defying parental grief and communal rituals meant to banish it. Wole Soyinka and John Pepper Clark, in their celebrated poems, gave voice to this haunting cycle. Soyinka’s Abiku speaks with defiance: “In vain your bangles cast Charmed circles at my feet; I am Abiku, calling for the first And repeated time.”   Clark’s Abiku echoes the inevitability: “Coming and going these several seasons, Do stay out on the baobab tree, Follow where you please your kindred spirits.”   Nigeria’s corruption is our national Abiku . It dies in commissions of inquiry, only to be reborn in new scandals. It is buried in anti-graft campaigns, only to rise again in fresh looting. Like the spirit-child, corruption mocks our rituals of reform, returning with the same stubborn laughter. Soyinka’s Defiant Abiku and Nigeria’s Defiant Corruption Soyinka’s Abiku is unapologetic, almost proud of ...

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave remains one of philosophy’s most enduring metaphors for ignorance, enlightenment, and the struggle to confront reality. In the allegory, prisoners are chained inside a cave, forced to watch shadows cast on the wall, mistaking them for reality. When one prisoner escapes and sees the light of the sun, he discovers truth. Yet when he returns to the cave to liberate the others, he is mocked, rejected, and even threatened. This allegory resonates profoundly with Nigeria’s current youth emigration crisis. Millennials, Gen Z, and other generations are leaving the country in droves, seeking opportunities abroad and rarely returning. Their departure mirrors the prisoner’s escape: a flight from shadows into light. But their absence leaves Nigeria trapped in its cave, chained to illusions of progress while reality slips further away. Nigeria’s Cave: Shadows of Dysfunction For many young Nigerians, the homeland resembles Plato’s cave, a place of shadows rather t...

President Bola Tinubu has submitted a list of 32 ambassadorial nominees to the Senate for confirmation. — Bayo Onanuga, Presidential Spokesman, via X The announcement of Nigeria’s new ambassadorial list did not first echo through the Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria (FRCN), nor did it resound from the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA)’s evening news. Instead, it appeared on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. In that moment, governance once again bypassed the village square and chose the digital balcony. In Abraham Lincoln’s immortal words, in his 1863 Gettysburg Address, democracy was meant to be “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” Yet in Nigeria today, one might cheekily rephrase it: government of X, by X, and for X. The paradox is glaring. Our leaders increasingly address the citizenry through social media platforms like X, while most Nigerians, especially the poor, remain excluded from this digital agora. The Digital Balcony ...

Jean-Paul Sartre’s existential distinction between en-soi (being-in-itself) and pour-soi (being-for-itself) offers a striking lens through which to view Nigeria’s present condition. En-soi is static, unconscious, and complete, the mode of being of objects that simply exist. Pour-soi , by contrast, is dynamic, self-aware, and incomplete, the mode of being of conscious beings who must continually define themselves. Nigeria today is caught in a tension between these two modes: the state itself remains inert, silent, and object-like, while its constituent nations: Oduduwa, Arewa, and Biafra awaken as restless, self-defining communities. This existential clash is Nigeria’s imminent dilemma. The Awakening of Living Nations Oduduwa, Arewa, and Biafra embody pour-soi . They are not content to merely exist within the boundaries of a federation; they are conscious of their histories, their marginalisation, and their aspirations. They demand recognition, justice, and self-determination. Th...

Nigeria today stands at a dangerous crossroads: either reform to restore legitimacy and justice or slide irreversibly into the chaos of a failed state and the Hobbesian “state of nature.” Insecurity as the New Normal Another day, another string of kidnappings and killings. How long must this continue? Kidnappings and killings have become routine across Nigeria. In November 2025, armed men stormed Government Girls’ Secondary School in Kebbi State, killing the vice-principal and abducting 25 students, while another raid on St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State saw over 50 pupils and staff taken hostage. Churches have been attacked, worshippers murdered, and ransom economies have flourished. These are not isolated crimes but evidence of organized armed groups acting as quasi-governments in ungoverned spaces. Abuse of Power and Rule of Law Nigeria’s institutions are hollowed out by corruption. Analysts describe the crisis as one of state legitimacy, where insecurity itself has ...