A piece of heartening political news came out of Nigeria last week. No, it was not the Federal Government’s proclamation last Friday that it had reached an immediate ceasefire agreement…
Okey Ndibe
Okey Ndibe
Okey Ndibe teaches fiction and African literature at Trinity College in Hartford, CT. He is the author of the novel, Arrows of Rain and co-editor (with Chenjerai Hove) of Writers, Writing on Conflicts and Wars in Africa. After studying business management at the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu (Nigeria), Ndibe earned an MFA and PhD in English from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Ndibe was the founding editor of African Commentary, a magazine published in the U.S. by novelist Chinua Achebe, author of the classic novel, Things Fall Apart. His lively, witty and intellectually stimulating style has made him a highly sought after speaker on African and African American literature and politics. Ndibe is finishing his second novel titled Foreign Gods, Incorporated and also working on a memoir of his life in the US. His website. Twitter: @ OkeyNdibe
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The 54th anniversary of Nigeria’s Independence was a day of silence for me. I didn’t have the stomach to leave any comment on Facebook or Twitter. Two or three friends…
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This September, I was determined to scour for signs that Nigeria was moving in a good direction. I was able to count one solid, uplifting sign: the country’s apparent arrest…
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The dramatic rise in popularity of the so-called selfie—the self-taken photograph—strikes me as a symbolic way of understanding a dominant aspect of social behavior in the world. The selfie has,…
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I had just returned home from dropping off a friend at a train station last Saturday (September 6) when I read a terse text message: “Dimgba Igwe is dead.” My…
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There’s a new business in Nigeria. It’s the business of drafting President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan to present himself for reelection. A group called Transformation Ambassadors of Nigeria (TAN) has emerged …
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The dreaded Ebola virus and Boko Haram represent different faces of two most dire crises currently plaguing Nigeria. The former is a natural contagion, the latter a human-made disaster…
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At the beginning of August, President Goodluck Jonathan appointed Suleiman Abba as Nigeria’s new Inspector General of Police. On the day of his formal investiture as police henchman, Mr. Abba …
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My recent column, entitled “Bishop Kukah’s Grave Misreading,” generated a high volume of emails, many of them remarkable for their insight. I was so struck by one email, written by …
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Bishop Kukah’s lecture was also remarkable for a more dubious reason, one that pertains to me. In a bizarre turn in his talk, the bishop singled me out for furious …
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Wole Soyinka turned 80 at the very beginning of this week. For many, that milestone must seem incredible. He looks scandalously young and vibrant, his physique trim, his mind ever …
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For me, one of the most disconcerting facts about public discourse in Nigeria—including intellectual exchanges—is the rampant, if not default, deployment of ethnic or religious sentiments…
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A contemptible, uncreative elite, its obsession with conspicuous consumption matched by its inability to produce anything of value, has overseen Nigeria’s obscene, record-setting squandermania…
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There is a sense in which the name of the malaise afflicting Nigeria is Biafra. I have argued before—and I must do so again—that Nigeria’s refusal to confront and address …
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To achieve its stated goal, Boko Haram is willing to bomb public motor parks, to slaughter sleeping school children in their beds, to bring carnage to people worshiping in churches, …
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Now that the United States, Britain, and some European countries may be stepping in to help rescue the Chibok girls, I hope that Nigerians won’t fold up, reach for their …