Author: Osmond Agbo
Ultimately, the question is not whether religion is good or bad, it is both. The more useful question is: how can we retain its gifts while confronting its failures? For many of us, that means occupying a space between belief and doubt, a space where questions are not sins, and thinking is not rebellion. This past Sunday, as my family and I sat quietly in St. Mary Margdalene, our neighborhood church, listening to the homily, sunlight filtered through the stained-glass windows, casting ethereal hues across the pews where familiar faces gathered, some bowed in solemn prayer, others murmuring along with…
And may we never cease lifting our hands in gratitude, for what was, what is, and what is still gloriously yet to come. With a heart overflowing with joy! Standing at 5’11”, she moves with the grace of a swan, tall and poised, exuding the quiet confidence of someone with nothing to prove. Her nose? A little prominent but beautifully sculpted, like it was made to give just the right touch of boldness to an otherwise soft and radiant face. And that smile—ah, that incandescent smile that blooms without effort, disarming and magnetic, stealing the attention of any room she…
In the end, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang is not just a children’s fantasy. It is a blueprint for what happens when imagination refuses to be caged. It is a parable of possibility. And for Africa’s youth, it is a mirror, a whimsical, musical reminder that no matter the odds, dreams still have wings. Not long ago, while doomscrolling through Facebook, I stumbled upon the inspiring story of Tosin Eniolorunda, a young Nigerian tech entrepreneur. In 2015, alongside his friend Felix Ike, Tosin co-founded Moniepoint, a Lagos-based fintech company that offers digital banking and lending services via a mobile app. It…
What followed was a metamorphosis no one saw coming. The paragon of virtue became almost unrecognizable. He disappeared for days, chasing every distraction with a pulse and a skirt. His once-admiring family watched in disbelief as the man they idolized unravelled before their very eyes. That story stayed with me. Recently, I came across a quote that instantly brought it all flooding back: “Until you have the money to finance your temptations, don’t brag about morals. Too much is hidden in poverty.” It struck a nerve. As I settled on this piece, my thoughts turned to the enduring lesson of…
Yet, Tinubu, having honed his political instincts on the streets of Chicago, understands human nature well—he knows when individuals are motivated by hunger rather than ideology. Both Omokri and Fani-Kayode were clearly desperate for sustenance, and now, Tinubu has promised to nourish them. Once they are adequately fed, he will ensure that their disruptive presence is relegated to foreign shores, where their nuisance value will be minimal. Never before have Nigerians found themselves in such a dire predicament, where the fate of an entire nation hinges on the whims of a single individual. One man handpicks who becomes governor or…
Any revolution, wishing to outlast its creator(s),must be basically epistemic and ontological, as to enjoy the ductility and malleability of the tides of time and history. But once it forgets bread and butter, it would either send her creators to the guillotine,or to to the Isles of irrelevance; and dump the revolution into the trashcans of history. He took me to a high mountain. He pointed towards the horizon. I saw it before he could utter a word. It was a Babel of agitations. Amadioha has a habit of leading me, to such mountains of realization. There, scales have always…
Don’t set yourself on fire to keep others warm. Sometimes the most radical act of compassion is the one you extend to yourself. “I remember during my clinical rotation in the neonatal unit, there was a night that etched itself into my bones. A young mother had just delivered twins prematurely, and the room buzzed with a quiet urgency as the team worked to stabilize the fragile babies. The mother was scared, utterly overwhelmed, and as the nurse assigned to her, I felt her desperation settle on my shoulders like lead. I stayed past my shift, made phone calls to…
Oppression does not pacify, it inflames. Children who grow up amid rubble and funerals do not forget. They inherit grief, and with it, rage. What future can be built upon such soil? What peace can be negotiated with those whose humanity has been discarded? Not long ago, Nigerians awoke to the harrowing news of a brutal massacre in Uromi, Edo State, where sixteen able-bodied men, reportedly hunters of northern Nigerian origin, were violently killed. Preliminary reports suggest that their ethnic identity as Hausa-Fulani may have played a decisive role in their tragic fate. It appears the attackers, driven more by…
It is no coincidence that social media platforms employ endless scrolling and push notifications, psychological traps meticulously crafted to ensnare us. Yet, the most insidious aspect of this system is not just the distraction, it is the manipulation. By passively consuming content curated by algorithms, we surrender our capacity for critical thinking. Our worldview becomes shaped not by deliberate reflection, but by whatever content is most engaging, sensational, or emotionally charged. Over the past two months, I embarked on a mission to complete two reading tasks: first, General Babangida’s autobiography, A Journey in Service, followed by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Dream…
If we truly want to empower the next generation, we must shift the focus from just giving money to building systems. Because at the end of the day, you don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. Like many other “bothers” (our corrupted version of “brother”), I receive countless requests for financial assistance daily, relatives, friends, and even total strangers. These pleas have become woven into our social fabric, something we’ve come to expect, even in times of economic stability. But in these recent years of Baba Go-Slow and T-Pain, Nigerians are…