Ogbon ju agbara lo; brains surpass power – Yoruba proverb.  One could look at the campaign of 2012 as the triumph of brains over brawn, strategy over power, tactics over wealth.  Indeed, pundits discuss Obama’s strategy as one which early on aligned him with the middle class but discredited his opponent as a friend of the wealthy.  As noted in Wanna B Prez?, Obama’s game plan in 2008 included a physical and virtual campaign, 50-state door to door grassroots organization, and effective use of social networks.  Likewise, 2012 revealed a repeat of this strategy alongside a harder-edged message engineered to…

You face the biggest challenge of all: to have the courage to seek your big dream regardless of what anyone says...                                                                                                           -          Oprah Winfrey  You cannot stroll to your goal.  And heck no, your record does not speak for itself.  There is no better illustration than this…

“Regard your good name as the richest jewel you can possibly be possessed of - for credit is like fire; when once you have kindled it you may easily preserve it, but if you once extinguish it, you will find it an arduous task to rekindle it again. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavour to be what you desire to appear”. Socrates, Greek philosopher in Athens (469 BC - 399 BC) In William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Juliet speaks to herself and says, “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose / By any other name…

This essay attempts to place man’s inhumanity to man in the context of a metaphysics that teaches that this world is a dream and that what is done in it has not been done. It says that if, in fact, the world is a dream then Africans did not do harm to those they sold into slavery hence their behavior are to be overlooked, forgiven. If This World Is A Dream Then I Forgive Africans For Selling Their People Ozodi Thomas Osuji My relationship with Africans is an interesting one.  It is interesting because even though I am an African…

The Nigerian writer and social activist Wole Soyinka's insistence that the terrorism of Boko Haram is the unanticipated  outcome of  Nigerian support for Islamic extremism in Northern Nigeria as well as the direct expression of the ambitions of some disgruntled Northern politicians has sparked various kinds of response. Some of these have been dismissive, particularly coming from some commentators from  Northern  Nigeria. Soyinka being a writer as well as a social activist may evoke questions  about the significance of  literature and the arts  in building modern societies, particularly in the face of the development challenges faced by Nigeria, since one…