By Funke Egbemode

Whether he is giving sperm or money, a man’s manhood feels rock solid only when he is the giver. All normal men are divinely wired to give. I hope you noticed the emphasis on normal men because not all men are normal. Forget the six-pack abdomen and rippling biceps, many of today’s men don’t mind being humped and getting paid for it. The Yoruba call them ‘alabodo’. Kept men. Gigolos. Men for hire. Toy boys. They are all over the place, dangling their sugar sticks, hoping to net the highest bidder. But their day will come. Today is about the hard task of living with men who are ‘financially under the weather’, if you get my drift. Yes, broke-ass men.

By Comfort Obi

I don’t know if it is appropriate for the old saying, “How are the mighty fallen”, to come into play here. But chai, life is a joke. Full of ironies. Tosses us up and down. And, I just wonder, and ask myself, why we struggle, so much, to impress life, instead of allowing it to deal with us as it deems fit.

By Godknows Igali

Reminiscent of the time of his forebear, William the Conqueror in 1066 till modern era, Great Britain's monarch, King Charles III, was coronated in the same Westminster Abbey in Central London on Saturday, April 6, 2023. Accompanied by perhaps one of the most colourful military parades ever seen in modern history, the new British sovereign mounted the 700 years old throne; grotesquely seating atop a not too Christianly "stone of destiny". Although, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was amongst 2200 royals and world leaders invited to join the show-off of pageantry and opulence at the medieval era church, which interestingly is also a graveyard of some of humanity's most impactful persons, for the first time, millions of people around the world watched the ancient religious ceremonials.

By Bola Bolawole

The interest generated in “Ubuntu and Omoluabi: Kindred spirit or what?” published in this column on March 22, 2023, is yet to die down. That day’s column was actually devoted to my brother and friend, Prof. Babafemi Badejo’s chronicle of his first visit to Zimbabwe titled “Quick visit to Zimbabwe: My case for rekindling of the Ubuntu spirit in Africa” Badejo drew a parallel between Ubundu as enunciated by Paul Kagame’s Rwanda and the Yoruba’s Omoluabi ethos, philosophy or way of life. In a world fast becoming individualistic or atomistic and losing every sense of communalism, Africans, propounding and spreading the concepts of Omoluabi and Ubundu, have something to teach the world. And knowing full well that the “White” world is always quick to hijack anything good from Africa, appropriating it and alienating Africa from it, some African intellectuals are determined to see that this is not going to be the case with Omoluabi and Ubundu. Africa and Africans must own this; and they must be the ones to propagate it as well. They must lead the way for others to follow.

By Azu Ishiekwene

It started like a grudge match. Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, was dealt a bad hand in a failed transaction. Later, he vowed revenge. Not in a pound of flesh, but by venturing to make his own success where he had been ambushed.

By Emeka Obasi

You are just through with secondary education, getting ready to hit home for some deserved rest you are accosted by officials of one of the top clubs in Africa who drive you straight to camp and in the next couple of days, you make your international debut.

By Simon Kolawole

One of the most enduring jokes on social media is centred on “agbado” — the Yoruba word for maize, which is equally known as corn. Many Nigerians might have forgotten the source. Speaking at his 69th birthday colloquium in March 2021, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then addressed as national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), advocated the massive recruitment of youths into the army so that Nigeria could tackle insecurity and unemployment at once. He obviously goofed by suggesting that 50 million youths could be recruited into the army to address the security challenges. His media office later clarified that he meant to say 50,000 youths as 50 million was way out of line.

By Funke Egbemode

When we hear wife or spousal abuse, our minds prop up the image of a woman with eyes swollen shut, broken nose or arm in a sling. However, not all abuse is physical; there is also mental, emotional and financial abuse and the victims suffer as much as the ones whose husbands pound and pummel.

By Jude Ogechi Eze

While ancient Chinese proverb believed that: "expectations can limit us, but they can also inspire us to achieve great things." Sam Watson argued that: "we often set unrealistic expectations for ourselves and others, leading to disappointment and frustration." This is because some thinkers like him believed that most times, "expectations are premeditated resentments."

By Jude Ogechi Eze

The ill-fate of Nigeria's famous actress and TV series personality Ada Ameh who slumped and died on Sunday, 17th July last year, left many hearts wearier, when the cause of her death was made public.

By Hassan Gimba

My column of last week with the title “Like Mamu, like Abdulsalami and the billion naira firefighter” drew the attention of Colonel Dangiwa Umar (retd). The respected senior citizen was more particular about the first part because I mentioned him.

By Bolanle Bolawole

Keeping a library may be tedious and costly but it is profitable at the same time. Last week as I turned sections of my library upside down, I came across so many materials that I decided to regale my readers with week after week. They are each a piece of history and they tell that the rain beating this country did not start yesterday. And we have not been bereft of “prophets” railing against the wanton troopers, military and civilian, laying this country waste. Enjoy two of these precious, even collector's items this week! The first was written by Muyiwa Adetiba and the second by Prof. Kole Omotoso. Titled “Those who fed fat on Nigeria should now come forward and help her” in Face to Face with Muyiwa Adetiba, Adetiba’s piece reads: “We are a proud nation: You, me, and the guy next door. We are all proud people. And, together, we make a proud nation. We look at menial jobs with disdain, preferring white collar ones. We look at farmers with their coloured and dirty hands with contempt, thanking God - and oil – that farming was not our lot.