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By Muyiwa Adetiba I have on my shelf, an autographed copy of General Obasanjo’s ‘My Command’ which gave his account of the unfortunate civil war. I also have General Madiebo’s (un-autographed) version of the war. Between these two extremes, I have read other authors who have made their valuable and invaluable contributions to enrich our knowledge as to what really went on during those three years of madness. So why would another book on the civil war interest me; a war that ended over 40years ago and from which we have refused to learn any tangible lesson? General Alabi-Isama is someone I have liked almost from the first time I met him. He has also been talking about this book for at least a couple of years now. He was gracious enough to give me a draft copy to flip through. To top it all, he had given me more than an advanced notice of the launch. So when Uncle Sam Amuka called me a day to the launch for details, I had more or less made up my mind to attend. The fact that the venue wa...

By Muyiwa Adetiba And so Major Hamza Al-Mustapha went home last week to a tumultuous welcome after 14 years of incarceration. His daughter who was five years old when he was locked up is now 19. That special father/daughter relationship that is usually forged in teenage years might be lost for ever. He probably would come home to find a home he doesn’t recognise, a wife who has become independent and children who have to get used to having a father again. [caption id="attachment_241077" align="alignnone" width="412"] Alhaji Shofolahan, Late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola and Major Hamazat Al-Mustapha[/caption] Fourteen years is a long time. There was no GSM for example in 1999. But it is not only the internet and social media revolution that has passed him by. Life itself has moved on—in Kano where he was born, in the Military where he used to hold sway despite his rank, in his family where he was Lord of the Manor, and in the larger society where his name alone s...

By Muyiwa Adetiba A big fish was spiked out of the muddy waters of politics and government in China early this week and hung up to dry. Mr Liu Zhijun, the Minister of Rail Transportation was given a suspended death sentence for alleged corruption while in government. His trouble started when there was a train collision a couple of years back which called for a probe. The probe also coincided, unfortunately for him, with the President’s determination to rid China of corruption. So you could say he was a scapegoat; a high profile tokenism in a corrupt ridden system. Mr Zhijun had spent over 20 years in government and ironically, his tenure witnessed a rail revolution of sorts when better, faster trains were built. In other climes, particularly in Nigeria, he would have been described as a performing Minister and given a plethora of awards. It took an accident to unearth some undercover deals that eventually put him away. On the same day that Mr Zhijun was facing his suspended death sente...

By Muyiwa Adetiba It was a week to my promotional exams to form five, and I had been following a carefully laid out revision plan. Then I caught conjunctivitis and had to be sent home. Conjunctivitis, known in my days as Apollo, is a highly painful, highly contagious disease that affects the eyes. It’s as if pins and needles are dancing on your eyeballs. You are afraid to blink because of the excruciating pain, yet you are forced to blink in order to get rid of the foreign bodies. And so the circle of pain continues…. Because of the infectious nature of the disease, the school authorities decided to send anybody that contacted the disease home –in my case, barely days to a crucial promotion exam. I remember asking my house captain about our chances of getting to the next class and he assured that the Principal had promised to use the second term results. I thought that was dicey and whimsical since the Principal did not make a public announcement and resolved not to let my fate hang on...