Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

Ralph Tathagata. It is against man's biological and psychosocial nature to tolerate slavery, marginalization, and oppression forever. His spiritual nature also abhors it and will always resist it by any means possible. The subservient nature of certain groups of humans may prove otherwise - essentially, slavery is inimical to human nature and therefore stunts the growth of the evolutionary process. Those who do not understand why young people are willing to lay down their lives because of Biafra should go back to their DNA classes. The resolute attitude of young Biafrans towards freedom may not go down well with many particularly the enemies of freedom and the career criminals who profit from this despicable horror, this colonial miscreation called Nigeria. Deploying armoured cars, occupying and shooting down harmless and peaceful protesters even in their bedrooms will only harden their will. Laying siege to Nnamdi Kanu's ancestral home will not accomplish anything ei...

Wole Soyinka's work as a teacher of his nation and people in the last seven decades can be summed up in one word: transcendence. His entire envisioning of Nigeria – for which he has suffered persecution, deprivation, abuse, insults and other unspeakable forms of punishment – is reducible to transcendence. The tragedy of Nigeria is that there has never been a critical mass huge enough to embrace the intellectual and civic responsibilities of transcendence. Justice, Soyinka says, is the first condition of humanity. Sadly, this is not his most famous ‘quotable quote’ among his compatriots. What many Nigerians learn by rote is that other quote from his book, The Man Died. The two quotes, as indeed the entirety of Soyinka’s work and vision, are rooted in a transcendent view of society and her future. When Soyinka says justice is the first condition of humanity, he does not pause to enter qualifications, caveats, conditions, equivocation, and hesitation. It is a tr...

Inside of the tree was the strangest place I had ever set foot. I crashed through the roof of a compartment deep in the abyss, groaning in pains and gnashing my teeth as I rolled on the floor. Then I held myself to check for fractures, for my body seemed to hurt everywhere. Catching a breath, I lifted my head and looked around to see where I was. It was a little room and I could barely see beyond my nose. There was an opening in the wall to the left. So I limped to the place to see if there could be a way out of the mess. But there was none, and the light from the little opening almost blindfolded me. Then I took a deep breath and leaned on the wall like a mogul that has lost his place in the scheme of things. For a while, I was lost and could not figure out how to get myself out of the wicked pit. The atmosphere was tense as if an adversary was underway. As tears gathered in my eyes, I lowered my head. Lost in the pool of nothingness and fear stood, as a pillar of salt in my hea...

Adeniyi Kunnu I have fervently consumed the remarks as well as the generality of missives bordering on the Yoruba Summit. While I have great respect for the Think Tank from the South West, and I heave a sigh of momentary relief over the decision to now speak definitely on the position of the region concerning Restructuring /Devolution of Power, it is utmost desiderata to examine the pragmatics and theorems of its perceptive failures or successes, particularly its introspections. It amazes me, that 30 years after the demise of the Great Sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the fact that he still remains both rallying and reference points show his outstanding unifying mien, but of course, and on the other hand, the stark failure of a region to produce another, not necessarily after Awolowo's kind, but a result-oriented adaptive persona, colossal enough not to be out weighed by Nigeria's Titanic debacles, but also light enough in kilogrammes to be able to empathize and sympathiz...

There is a certain Nigerian demographic that is being raised by my generation. All of a sudden, the kids of many of my course mates in the University are now undergraduates. My generation is raising Nigerians in the 17 – 25-year-old bracket. Millennials. I have called them the orphaned generation because they have been left to their own devices at too many levels owing to the complete collapse and atrophy of Nigerian society and nation. My generation could still peep into the political public sphere and bask in the symbolism of credible and worthy role models. Today’s millennials have no such luck as the Nigerian political public sphere is peopled exclusively by unprincipled brigands and Ishola Oyenusis occupying political office and every space of public symbolism. If you are working for a political office holder today and making politically correct noise to defend them on social media, chances are that in the safety and privacy of your bedroom and your conscience, you wi...

1999 is not history for people like me. President Obasanjo did not inherit a great legacy from chains of visionless military governments. There was no oil boom when Obasanjo took over. But once he took over, he looked up and not down. He looked forward and not backward. Not even the mind-blowing looting of Abacha's government, a government President Buhari served could dissuade Obasanjo from looking up to a brighter future. Did we need to recover and repatriate the Abacha loot? Yes , But Obasanjo was more interested in using the budget at the time to meet our challenges. He did not go about branding Nigeria and Nigerians as a rogue nation or thieves. Obasanjo assembled the right people. Charles Soludo made the Banking smooth. Ernest Ndukwe engineered the GSM Resolution. El Rufai fired from BPE. Oby Ezekwesili and Okonjo Iweala were drafted to teach him what he didn't know about international financial and economic community. Nuhu Ribadu and EFCC and ICPC were brought t...

North Korea remains defiant in the face of an international uproar over its latest nuclear missile test. Amid an international uproar over North Korea's latest and biggest nuclear  weapons test, one of its top diplomats says it's ready to send "more gift packages to the United States. Han Tae Song, ambassador of the Democratic People's  Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the UN in Geneva, on Tuesday addressed the UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament two days after his country detonated its sixth nuclear test explosion. "I am proud of saying that just two days ago on the 3rd of September, DPRK successfully carried out a hydrogen bomb test for intercontinental ballistic rocket under its plan for building a strategic nuclear force," Han told the Geneva forum. "The recent self-defense measures by my country, DPRK, are a 'gift package' addressed to none other than the US," Han said. "The US will receive mo...