AFRICAN PLUME

By Akin Ojumu As a Nigerian in the diaspora, each time an opportunity to travel to Nigeria presents itself, I always look forward to the trip with restless eagerness, tingling anticipation, and childlike excitement. Months and weeks before the trip, my suitcases are already packed and repacked several times over. Like a Pavlov’s dog salivating at the sound of a bell, my mouth waters at the mere thought of treating myself to several helpings of pounded yam and egusi soup loaded with goatmeat, shaki (tripe), panla (stockfish), ponmo (cowskin), and bokoto (whatever that is called in English). Some of my fellow Nigerians in the diaspora, for reasons best known to them, have sworn an oath to never step foot in the country ever again. These folks, as the Yorubas say, “Are holding the sand of Nigeria firmly in their hand.” Unlike them, however, Nigeria is on my mind all the time, and on a daily basis, the pull of home tugs strongly at my heart. That is until my recent...

By Akin Ojumu Nearly one hundred and thirty days after the 2019 general elections, the ramifications of the resounding defeat suffered by the next generation political candidates in the hand of the Nigeria’s political establishment continues to reverberate across the country. In a stunning repudiation, the Nigerian electorates dealt a massive blow to the audacious quest of new breed politicians to wrest power from the old guard of Nigerian politics. Rebuffing the advances of the young blood, Nigerians said, “thanks, but no thanks.” From North to South and East to West and everywhere in between, Nigerian electorates expressed their skepticism at the readiness of the new generation politicians to lead the nation. Leading up to the February elections, many Nigerians held out hope that, this time around, real change was coming to the country. To many of these hopeful Nigerians, the electoral shellacking of the new generation politicians remains a bitter pill to swallow. That...