-By Abdul Mahmud A few days ago, specifically on Thursday, 21st August, 2025, Mrs. Deki Agbahovbe turned seventy-nine. She was my teacher. She taught me Literature-in-English at the Federal School of Arts and Science, Ondo, Ondo State, in the mid-1980s. But she was far more than a teacher to me. She became a mother, a … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Memory is a mischievous marvel, fleet-footed, capricious, and ever faithful only to its own whimsy. It ducks and weaves between time and consciousness, slipping out of reach just when you think you’ve grasped it. One moment, I am scanning the horizon of remembrance, combing the scattered debris of vanished moments while looking … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Something distinctly unsettling stirred when my young friend and colleague at the Bar, Festus Ogun, quietly reversed course from his initial social media post in which he rightly drew public attention to the plight of the “Yola Six”, the law students abducted en route to resume studies at the Nigerian Law School … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Just recently, photos of deep erosion gullies cutting through Auchi began circulating on social media. They are terrifying images. Stark. Stark enough to jar the conscience of any public official in Edo State with an ounce of duty. But, unsurprisingly, they haven’t. Auchi, the northern Edo town, one of the most important … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud When Ashleigh Plumptre pulled on the green jersey of the Super Falcons, she was not just representing our country. She was performing a deeper act: an act of cultural reimagination. She was constructing a new identity. One that defies borders, blurs categories, and reclaims ancestral memory. Her decision to play for our … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Two weeks ago, Joseph Boakai, the Octogenarian President of Liberia, stepped into the White House, the symbolic heart of American power, to meet Donald Trump who had literally summoned five African presidents from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal to a landmark summit on trade, investment and security. It was supposed to … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud The phrase, “Africa is a cemetery for Africans,” falsely credited to Vladimir Putin, has long taken a meaning that goes beyond the dubiety of its source. But, whoever couched it and pushed it into the virtual space, acquiring its virality in the process, must have seen further than most of us. It … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud In a country starved of dignity, the conduct of members of the political class becomes akin to the conduct of wayward sailors staggering on the deck of a sinking ship. Call it the Titanic. They stagger through public spaces, like the character, Juda Pesa, the self-proclaimed market philosopher in the Kenyan writer, … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud I must begin with a confession. I write two columns weekly. One for this magazine and the other for the People’s Gazette. After finishing my piece for the People’s Gazette, I found myself staring into that graveyard of silence familiar to writers: the sudden and barren wasteland of the mind, the dreaded … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud “I couldn’t reach Yelawata in Benue State due to bad roads”, said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. This sentence captures the spirit of Tinubu’s presidency. Aloof. Detached. Cold. Inconsiderate. Leadership without compassion. Governance without sacrifice. Authority without empathy. How did Mandela once describe compassion? He said, “Our human compassion binds us the one … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud The war among Nigeria’s political elite has been renewed. It is not a war for ideas, nor one fought over the soul of our country. Rather, it is a petty battle over ego, and personalised struggle for who becomes the capo di tutti capi- the boss of bosses – of the State. … [Read more…]
-By Abdul Mahmud Childbirth is a death sentence in our country. It shouldn’t be. But it is. Our country loses a woman every seven minutes. That’s not a statistic. That is not just a scream in the dark, it is a cry searing the blinding daylight of a country that has grown numb to both … [Read more…]