Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

My expository post on Christianity, Exploitation and the Transatlantic Slave Trade was met with criticisms by some of my Facebook friends, who sensed a level of Anti-West or Pro-Islam bias in my writing. The crux of the criticisms centered on my apparent tendency to whitewash the topic of slavery in Africa, while ignoring another form of slavery, wrought by the Muslim Arabs to exploit Africans; and to put in the words of my Facebook friend in a private message: the ‘evil of Islamic slave trade… stole African heritage’. These criticisms, though articulate and much appreciated, erred in the conflation of a number of distinct and mutually exclusive issues. While my earlier post focused on pre-colonial African Slavery and its economic advantages to the slave master’s region vis a vis its economic disadvantages to the region of the enslaved, I think it’s important that any fair rebuttal to my postulations must be limited to slavery and its economic consequences in the pre-colonial wo...

Now that a world-acclaimed Professor of Law is running the show in the land, you'd expect him to use this window to inject some strange notions into the system. Strange notions such as actions and consequences, especially legal consequences a.k.a the sort of legal consequences that can land you in jail after due process. Professor Osinbajo has been presiding over the distribution of tranches of the Paris Club Refund. As I said yesterday, the elephant is dead and all kinds of carnivorous state governors are out with glittering carving knives of various shapes and sizes. Democracy, even a kwashiokored, emaciated pretext to democracy such as obtains in Nigeria, can be so inconvenient. Otherwise, it should even be a crime to give another tranche of the Paris Club Refund to ANY state Governor in this country, given their antecedents with earlier tranches. What ought to be happening is a very busy EFCC and Federal Attorney-General preparing dossiers against...

Before glib thinkers and talkers start running loose, let me state my case. I was carrying ON ABURI WE STAND placards in Enugu in 1967 before today's Children of Biafra were born. Gowon unilaterally abrogated the Aburi Accord and launched his famous "Police Action". That led to full blown civil war. We fought gallantly and lost. For me and most of my generation that was the end of the struggle. But here is where I vigorously disagree with the glib talkers. I fully concede to the Children of Biafra their right to make their own case and validate their own existence as they deem necessary out of their own perception and conviction. Nnamdi Kanu has risen to the challenge of his own generation. Glibly calling him names -- idiot, mad man, etc etc - is an abysmally puerile resort of the intellectual scoundrel. Insult has never been a substitute for logical argument and indeed says more about the insulter than the insulted. Make your own case and leave u...

John Hawkins, an Englishman, made three trips to West Africa in the 1560s, and stole Africans whom he sold to the Spanish in America. On returning to England after the first trip, his profit was so handsome that Queen Elizabeth (the first Queen Elizabeth) became interested in directly participating in his next venture: and she provided for that purpose a ship named ‘the Jesus’. Hawkins left with ‘the Jesus’ to steal some more Africans, and he returned to England with such dividends that Queen Elizabeth made him a knight. Hawkins chose as his coat of arms the representation of an African in chains. The aforesaid, taking place in the 16th century, was to become the official commencement of the transatlantic slave trade, the European trade in African slaves that would go on to build the modern western world at the expense of west Africans. In subsequent centuries, the exploitation of Africa and African labour continued to be a source for the accumulation of capital t...

*Male/Female* Abia 65 65 Adamawa 40 40 Akwa-Ibom 63 63 Anambra 66 66 Bauchi 18 18 Benue 60 60 Borno 33 33 Cross-Rivers 54 54 Delta 65 65 Edo 63 63 Enugu. 65 65 Imo 66 66 Jigawa 37 37 Kaduna 52 52 Kano 34 34 Katsina 37 37 Kebbi 35 35 Kogi 61 61 Kwara 62 62 Lagos 65 65 Niger 49 49 Ogun 65 65 Ondo 64 system Osun 64 64 Oyo 63 63 Plateau 52 52 Rivers 62 62 Sokoto 15 7 Taraba 19 19 Yobe 20 20 FCT-Abuja 57 57 Bayelsa 51 51 Ebonyi 60 60 Ekiti 62 62 Gombe 37 37 Nassarawa 42 42 Zamfara 14 12 This is fraud. Even if we are created in the image and likeness of God, we must be allowed to grow and develop at our own pace. Anything short of this, is not acceptable. In the spirit of fairness and equality, we must restructure Nigeria.

Siren blaring indiscriminately. A three-vehicle convoy. Two white police Hilux Pickups are escorting a black Nissan Pathfinder. Gun - totting policemen in both escort vehicles. Three policemen in each escort vehicle. I finally get to see the occupant of the black Nissan Pathfinder. A young Oyinbo girl, possibly a graduate researcher. It means that her Nigerian host organization is taking no chances. They have arranged police protection for her in a private arrangement. Police as private contractor : I hear this is where the money is for the IG and the top police brass. However, six policemen protecting one person means that citizens are not protected. At this very moment, there are thousands of policemen in private arrangements all over this country. Maybe Bob Marley was right. Maybe total destruction is the only solution. Maybe this is beyond restructuring. Maybe we should consider it a tear down. A tear down is when you buy a building, tear it down complete...

We live in the AGE OF SELF. And SELF IS KING. Seemingly, everything in the world today is responding and gravitating towards the GOD OF SELF. Unfortunately, unscrupulous men at the helm of affairs in the church are also dragging the church down this ignoble path – the path that loves SELF and promotes SELF.  The contrast between ‘what the church ought to be’ and ‘what she is becoming’ is truly alarming. And it is hinged on a simple spiritual truth – the Gospel of Christ is UNRELENTING AND UNYIELDING in its opposition to SELF, and to everything that SELF represents. For at the centre of the Gospel of Christ is the CROSS OF CHRIST. And the function of the cross is to CROSS OUT SELF. Jesus Himself put the CROSS at the centre, making it an ABSOLUTE CONDITION FOR FOLLOWING HIM. “And he said to them all, if any man will come after me, let him deny himSELF, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS DAILY, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23). On another occasion, He reiterated the same point in...