a picture showing moyo okediji poised for the camera

ON CONFUSION

ByMoyo Okediji

John McArthur, the internationally renowned evangelist, is quoted as observing that “It is confusing to watch people demand justice by violating the law.”

What is even more confusing is to watch the law perpetuate injustice.

And infinitely most perplexing is to watch the officers of the law flout legal procedures and violate human rights with impunity.

This is why SARS provoked such hostile reception from the Nigerian community that it was meant to serve.

It is most confusing to watch Nigerian politicians loot the funds meant for the entire nation.

It is confusing to see the police refuse to prosecute them.

a picture showing moyo okediji poised for the camera

YORUBA DISINFORMATION IS MUNGO PARK

ByMoyo Okediji

YORUBA DISINFORMATION IS MUNGO PARK

This morning, a friend of mine who is a professor at a university here in Texas woke me up with, “Hey Moyo, what is the meaning of Yoruba?”

This professor called me on WhatsApp video.

Disinformation is as old as the human tongue.

Let me take that back.

Disinformation predates the human tongue.

Disinformation started with the body language of making signs.

When you smile, when you really are plotting to hit a fellow, that is disinformation.

20.10.20

20.10.20

ByMoyo Okediji

Let the house rat hear

and tell the bush rat.

Safeguard your community.

Let each community of 1000 citizens

Form a fence of 100 youths.

Take a census of 1000 names

in each community unit.

Document the name, age and occupation

of everyone within your community.

Do not rely on police protection

there is none anymore.

a picture showing moyo okediji poised for the camera

THE IYEYE PALANT

ByMoyo Okediji

To the Yoruba Nation

There is a new vision

It is from Odu Irosun

And it advocates the IYEYE plant

Now listen:

We are now near the top of the Gbadi Hill

It is the tallest hill in the universe

So tall, its head is a pointed triangle.

Now the citizens of Iperi were hungry

They cried out from hunger and unhappiness

They were in pain for homelessness

They needed a savior

Who will protect the people of Iperi

A young stranger will shelter the people of Iperi

BISCUIT BONES.

BISCUIT BONES.

ByMoyo Okediji

BISCUIT BONES.

Let me introduce you to Jẹgúdújẹrá, (Chop-and-quench).

Do you know how the Jẹgúdújẹrá Nigerian eats chicken thigh?

I will tell you:

Set the plate of chicken thigh in front of Jẹgúdújẹrá, and the eyes bulge, opening as wide as possible.

A wide smile distorts Jẹgúdújẹrá’s face into a demonic mask of inner delight.

Jẹgúdújẹrá starts with the flesh. With studied concentration, Jẹgúdújẹrá bites deep into the flesh until the entire mouth is full, with both cheeks bulging.

PLEASE HELP US

PLEASE HELP US

ByMoyo Okediji

PLEASE HELP US

Junction9: #sorosoke

In the first week of January 1968, at the tender age of 11, I was torn from my mother’s warm bosom and tossed into a boarding house.

That was the day my depression started.

And it continues even now, more than fifty years later.

I am not alone. It happened to my entire generation.

My depressive experience is typical of all of us between the ages of seventy-five and fifty.

This depression is typical of all of us who are the “elites” of Nigeria.

a picture showing moyo okediji poised for the camera

THE VOYAGE

ByMoyo Okediji

THE VOYAGE

About 30 years ago, I slept at the Murtala Muhammed Airport for four days.

No, I was not a homeless vagabond.

I had bought the Nigeria Airways ticket to fly to the United States for a one-year sabbatical leave.

But when I arrived at the airport, I realized that my ticket was not honored, though I had bought it legitimately.

Whenever a plane was about to leave Lagos for New York, the NA officials posted a manifest list, and my name was not there.

THE PYTHON AND ITS MEAL

THE PYTHON AND ITS MEAL

ByMoyo Okediji

There is a revolution going on in Nigeria.

They called it, at first, #EndSARS.

Then it morphed into #endswat.

Like an arrow in flight, nobody knows where it is going.

The youth revolution in Nigeria has caught the entire country by surprise.

The youths of Nigeria are incredibly talented.

Nigerian youths have been handed nothing by my generation.

My generation is the generation of pythons.

My generation of pythons can swallow everything and anything up whole and alive.

But after a python swallows up its victim whole, it cannot move from the spot.

THE BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA

THE BLOODSHED IN NIGERIA

ByMoyo Okediji

Nigeria is a killing field. Human life is cheaper than the lives of the flies that feed on the bodies of the citizens of the country slaughtered by the very security forces trained and paid to defend them.The youths of Nigeria have taken to the streets and are demanding an end to the senseless taking of innocent lives by national “security” forces.These youths must not allow anybody to hijack their activism and silence their voices.We were here before, but the voices of the people were hijacked and silenced.