Author: Is’haq Modibbo Kawu

ON Monday, June 16th, 2025, I drove the 58 kilometers from Abuja to Gwagwalada. My mission was to secure a new Nigerian passport. Those who follow African liberation struggles would have remembered June 16th, as the 49th anniversary of the Soweto Massacre of 1976. An event that reverberated all over the world, when security forces of the then South African apartheid government gunned down hundreds of demonstrating school children in Soweto and other parts of the country. That massacre of Hector Peterson and his colleagues was going to become a major spark that lit a worldwide movement of solidarity, as…

I WOKE up on Thursday, May 29th, 2025, to a tribute to Ngugi wa Thiong’o, written by my California-based friend, Adeyombo Aderinto. That tribute alerted me to the passing of that giant of African writing; certainly, one of the greatest names in progressive African literature. Much later on Thursday, I also saw Okey Ndibe’s short tribute and a galaxy of pictures that he had taken over the years with Ngugi. For me, Ngugi, along with the Senegalese Sembene Ousmane and the South African, Alex La Guma, represented the most radical tradition of African anti- and post-colonial writing. As part of…

I LEFT Ilorin on Friday morning (March 7th, 2025). I was back home for a week, and it was the first time I returned in six months. Apparently, six months can be a very long time on the development agenda! When I went to Ilorin in September 2024, I met the governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, for about an hour. As we were ending our discussion, which had ranged reasonably widely on developments in the state, he informed me that the Government House, whose gate was then being reconstructed, was going to be named “Ahmadu Bello House”! Typically, as these things often…

Happy 70th Birthday, Bros!!! TODAY, January 10th, 2025, you celebrate your 70th birthday. Alhamdulilah! We thank Allah for your life. For me, who grew up knowing you as my elder brother, I’ve always seen you as the inspirational elder brother: one of the best swimmers in the great River Niger, and the one whose competence made me to learn to swim in the great river too. For me, the surprise till today is that you never swam for Nigeria because you were that proficient in the majestic River Niger. You were also the remarkable sprinter who beat my dear college…

THERE are too many strands of my memory that are directly linked to the remarkable spaces that General Yakubu Gowon occupies in our national history. As we all celebrate his 90th birthday, I feel it’s important to begin to unpack memory as part of our unending tribute to that remarkable human being, soldier, gentleman, the officer who led the tragic phase of a war to keep our country united, and the magnanimous leader who welcomed our brothers and sisters back from secession into the warm embrace of a very happy country. These are some of the eternal attributes that General…

IT is poignant that I am writing these lines on the weekend that local government elections were held in Kwara State; the weekend of September 21st, 2024. I tracked the online outputs in the weeks leading to the polls. No one could have missed the deep passion associated with the selection of candidates, the horse trading embedded with politicking at the local level, and the fact that individuals seeking to become councillors and chairmen, were usually part of the daily slug of community life. Yes, the local government tier of administration resonates deeply with people in communities all over Nigeria.…

On TUESDAY, September 10th, 2024, Nigeria woke up to news of very devastating floods in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. WhatsApp platforms and other social media handles became awash with pictures and videos of a city that was flooded as far as the eyes could see. A video of the Alau Dam in Maiduguri went viral with the waters clearly having overwhelmed the spillways and spurting out with a huge force. One of the most frightening stories from the flooding was that about the escape of animals from the city’s zoo. I saw a picture of a disoriented ostrich…

KASHIM Shettima, Nigeria’s Vice President, was born 58 years ago, on September 2nd, 1966. And what a year to be born! It was indeed one of the most defining years in Nigerian history. 1966 was the year of the first coup, which ended the post-colonial administration that had seen Nigeria into independence, six years earlier, in 1960. By July 1966, there was the counter-coup and a spiraling of events that led Nigeria into a Civil War, which was estimated to have led to the death of two million Nigerians on both sides of the divide. Thankfully, the war ended in…

THE late Premier of Northern Nigeria, Sir Ahmadu Bello,  Sardaunan Sakwatto, used to call him “Gajere Captain,” the short captain. He wasn’t tall but had a leap and a way with his skills as a defender, which even the tallest strikers couldn’t handle. AbdulMalik Babamale was the captain of the Northern Nigerian football team, the Northern Lions. He was a beloved captain for the Sardauna, and he developed a close, very warm relationship with the Premier. The Sardauna wanted success in sports for the North just as much as he strove for success for the region in every area of…

I WAS not surprised that there was a groundswell of feeling for the earlier piece that I wrote on this subject matter of urban renewal, embarked upon by the Kwara State Government, in Ilorin, the state capital. Most of the responses have been very positive. I think people appreciate the fact that the anarchic, unplanned, and I-can-do-what-I-like manner of urban space usage, had resulted in an increasingly dysfunctional and unlivable state capital, that has, consequently, become detrimental to the health of all residents. Something definitely had to give. The surprise element in the endeavor of removing shacks, stalls, and shops,…

THE story started from the piece I wrote about Nyesom Wike and Abuja roads, and the pleasant problem I had trying to find my way on a Saturday morning. I was genuinely surprised at the maze of roads, and how they shortened movement between various distances. It took me quite some effort to finally arrive at my destination that morning. I had been invited for a breakfast meeting, and with my host, we discussed the remarkable turnaround with roads in the FCT. When I returned home, I decided to write the piece, which really went viral. As it turned out,…

IF you don’t look closely enough, you probably might not even see the signpost. But, it has been there for decades now, at No 12 Murtala Muhammed Road, Ilorin. Olufunmilayo Record Stores, Producers & Distributors of Local, International Audio/Video, CD & DVD Cassettes. I have always wanted to check in on Mr. Olufunmilayo Agboola, but everytime that I’ve been back in Ilorin, it would skip my mind. But not this time. Nurudeen Abdulrahim and I had been driving last Saturday evening on Murtala Muhammed Road and he had the presence of mind to inform me that he had recently purchased…

THE buzz statement in Ilorin today is urban renewal. The indicators are becoming a dominant point of discussion in the city, on social media platforms, as well as in political society. Those who oppose what’s becoming a very notable expression of public policy describe it in very negative frames and strongly politicize it. It shouldn’t be a surprise at all. I spent the week from Wednesday, June 26th, 2024, to Tuesday, July 2nd, in Ilorin. On arrival, I saw indicators of what I’d read about and been told in conversations in the days before I got in. So, on Thursday…

THIS week, the National Assembly was said to have taken through a second reading, a bill to revert to the old National Anthem. The bill is being sponsored by Opeyemi Bamidele, Leader of the Senate, and it reportedly received “overwhelming support.” The report in the media asserted that the same bill “swiftly passed the first, second, and third readings within minutes” in the lower chamber of the National Assembly, the House of Representatives. Supporters of the bill stated that the old anthem promoted peace, unity, and prosperity more effectively than the current one. On a further disingenuous note, the lawmakers…

TODAY is Saturday, May 4th, 2024. I had an early appointment inside the precincts of Aso Villa. I live in the Gudu District of Abuja, so I came out of my residence and took the turn through the Gudu cemetery, and followed the direction towards Asokoro. That was where my “problem” commenced. I hadn’t driven in that direction for several weeks. After a while, I came upon construction workers that early in the morning, and further ahead, I noticed that I was literally heading into a maze. The roads had been opened up in several directions. I’ve lived in Abuja…

LEANING on the experience of my last visit to Maiduguri, I had steeled myself to the possibility of waiting for hours before embarking on the flight. That last time, we had been waiting at the airport for nearly eleven hours before the flight was finally called. But this Monday morning, April 15th, 2024, after about an hour’s wait in the lounge, the Rano Airways flight to Maiduguri was called. It wasn’t my flight, but I saw Professor Abubakar Muazu of the Department of Mass Communication of the University of Maiduguri on the queue; I walked up to him for a…

DEATH is inevitable! The legendary Malam Isa Gusau is no longer with us. Inna lillahi wa inna ilaihi rajiun (Indeed, to Allah we belong, and to Allah we shall return). The exit of this gentleman and that of many others very dear to us, including those we don’t know, is a reminder to all of us to always be mindful of the fact that our lives are transient and finite. We will all die one day, hence the urgent need to fear Allah, our Creator, live by the day, discharge our religious responsibilities, be fair to those we come across…

WHEN I read a few hours ago, that Malam Adamu, Wazirin Fika, died on a flight, from London, where he had been receiving treatment, I felt really sad, that we’ve lost one of the genuinely venerable old men, of Northern Nigeria. It’s without doubt, the closure of an era in our history. The Wazirin Fika would no longer be present amongst us to consult, when in doubt, about aspects of our history, as well as the nuts and bolts of the  administrative structures, upon which some of the most impressive achievements in our history were recorded. On that fateful morning…

“Every man’s death diminishes us for we are involved in mankind; so ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee”-John Donne. When the tragic news finally broke this morning, Saturday, September 16th, 2023, that Yusuf Mubarak’s body had been found in a mortuary in a private hospital in Ilorin, the shock was one that was clear at all levels. He had been declared missing since Wednesday night, and there were fervent prayers and appeals for his safe return. The security forces had been alerted and stories emerged about the tracking of his phone number in various locations.…

THIS week President Bola Tinubu responded very positively, to the economic situation in the country. He correctly understood that there’s a major food crisis facing our country. And as a social democrat, he realised that there must be a concerted response that would begin to open apertures of solution. A hungry country is perched on the dangerous edge of a precipice! As outlined by Dele Alake, the Presidential spokesperson, “Mr. President is not unmindful of the rising cost of food and how it affects the citizens. While availability is not a problem, affordability has been a major issue to many…