Ruyi's World of Books & Stories

One sad morning, a poor soul was at the bus stop waiting to catch a bus to his destination. The young man was tall and tough and his trousers hung loosely to his waist. He was mean and dark as the midnight. He pierced his ears and his earrings and necklace shone like the rising sun. Apart from the dreadlocks that hung down from his head, there was nothing suspicious about him. His look, no matter how bizarre, was never enough for him to be robbed of his rights and tossed into the outer darkness. He was a product of an ever changing world. Civilization comes with a price. We either live with it or we are left behind. There was a time it was an abomination for a man to be seen in the public not clearly defined as a man because his earrings and necklace competed for space in the public eyes with his mustache. As you know, a man that wants to survive public life must hide his imperfections. Conflicting identity is an imperfection and it sends the wrong signal. The mentally weak is ch...

You can read excerpts from the book The Adventures of Nihu on the "Magic Ladder", a free reading improvement resource.  To read an excerpt from click here:  https://mlc.learningstewards.org/adventures-of-nihu/ To find out more about the Magic Ladder click here: https://mlc.learningstewards.org mlc.learningstewards.org Level 5-6: The Adventures of Nihu (Excerpt) mlc.learningstewards.org

Buhari has lowered the bar of governance so low that all it would take for any president who comes after him to impress us is to: 1. Constitute his cabinet within a few days of being sworn in 2. Appoint members of governing boards of government agencies in the first few months of being in power 3. Not be so incompetent as to appoint dead people in government—and living people without first consulting them 4. Periodically speak to Nigerians through the domestic media, not when he is abroad 5. Personally visit sites of national tragedy, show emotion, and make national broadcasts to reassure a grieving nation. 6. Have an economic team made up of economists and not, as Buhari has done, appoint a diplomat as an economic adviser and then push him to the gaunt fringes of the Vice President’s office. 7. Reflect token religious, regional, and national diversity in appointments. 8. Not lie shamelessly about self-evident facts. 9. Not budget billions for Aso...

One sad day, I stopped at a printing press to pick some copies of my books. Then I decided to take Lawanson and connect Oshodi expressway through Itire road. I was alone in the car. After covering a good distance away from the Oba's palace at Itire, I ran into some policemen. About four or more were in a van and one was standing in the middle of the road. He was a monument in a vast land. I think it was his turn to contribute to the fraud of the Nigerian state that is a tragedy of a 21st century. He waved me to stop. So I slammed my leg on the brake and slowed down. My car rolled to the corner and parked few poles away from their van.  Then the creature whose eyes were crimson red and his head shaven like an egg walked up to me. "Good evening,” he said. He smelled like a bar and let go a yawn that took some time to mix with the air. "What do you have in your boot?" he asked and kept a straight face. "My books!" I said and flashed an exaggerated ...

I was on a national radio program here yesterday to offer my thoughts on the recent tragedy of black slave auctions in Libya. Here we go. 1) I am shocked and outraged like everyone else but I am not surprised. 2) I am not surprised that black Africans are being auctioned in broad daylight in Libya because I am not divorcing what is happening now as we speak from the overall history of the Arab Slave Trade in black Africa. 3) It is more fashionable to talk about the trans-Atlantic slave trade which moved millions of black Africans to the Americas. The history of Arab enslavers of black Africans is not well-known. It is hardly present in the school curriculum in Africa. 4) Yet, Arab Slave slave traders and hunters preceded European slave traders and hunters in black Africa by seven centuries. 5) For seven continuous centuries before the Europeans, Arabs traded in black bodies, routed them through North Africa to be sold all over Arabia and the Middle East as slaves....

The Arab slave trade is a fact of history, and anti-black racism in the region is something that must be addressed. Migrant workers from African countries often face abusive conditions in the Middle East [AP] In response to an essay I wrote recently regarding the "essential blackness" of the Palestinian struggle, I received this reaction, among others: "What about Arab anti-black racism? Or the Arab slave trade?" The Arab slave trade is a fact of history and anti-black racism is a fact of current reality, a shameful thing that must be confronted in Arab societies. Though I claim no expertise on the subject, I think that applying notions of racism as it exists in the US will preclude a real understanding of the subject in the Arab world. I spent much of much of my youth in the Arab world and I do not recall having a race consciousness until I came to the United States at the age of 13. My knowledge of Arab anti-black racism comes predominantly from ...

So, when did polygyny become a distasteful arrangement in Nigeria? I am confused. This entire side-chick syndrome didn't exist a decade, or so, ago because most of you did come from a polygyny setup. And if you weren't aware of it initially, you were fully informed when your father died. Branches of his polygyny sprouted from the family tree at his burial, and you met new siblings that lived just as well as you did. We despise polygyny because it isn't "woke" enough. That's the stuff our fathers did. Polyandry is being applauded in some quarters because, well, it sounds different. It's the same way we embrace feminism without having a clue what to do with it. While you are all slashing the cheek of some side-chick for trespassing, realize that polygyny is going nowhere. As long as the Nigerian masses still live below a dollar daily; as long as there are no jobs, no water, poor institutions that meet our health, legal, educational needs...