May 27, 2010
As a Nigerian in the Diaspora, I am one of those addicted to cyber-Nigeria. For me, every waking day starts with Sahara Reporters (SR), Nigeria Village Square (NVS), Nigeriaworld, Pointblanknews, and a host of others. I have been a regular reader of each of these sites since they were founded but I have not been inclined to post comments on any of them or write in reaction to any of the authors until now.
As a Nigerian in the Diaspora, I am one of those addicted to cyber-Nigeria. For me, every waking day starts with Sahara Reporters (SR), Nigeria Village Square (NVS), Nigeriaworld, Pointblanknews, and a host of others. I have been a regular reader of each of these sites since they were founded but I have not been inclined to post comments on any of them or write in reaction to any of the authors until now.
I am not much of a writer. I prefer to let those who are talented to do the writing while I read and enjoy them. If you are a regular reader of the first two sites (Sahara Reporters and NVS), then you are familiar with the writings of Professor Pius Adesanmi. He is inescapable on both sites and on 234Next.com. He has had a phenomenal rise as a public commentator in the last three years.
I first noticed Pius Adesanmi in 2008 when he wrote a fantastic satirical letter, “Ambassador Ahmadu Alli Writes President Yar’Adua”, that had me spilling my coffee over my desk in the office. I googled him and ended up spending the whole day just reading his writings. I was hooked. Up till then, Okey Ndibe was the only writer I was hooked to. Pius Adesanmi joined Okey in my world in 2008 and now I read both writers every week complementarily. Each has his own gift. What Okey delivers to Nigerians in direct and brilliant political commentary, Adesanmi does with fantastic humour and literary imagination. When you read the two writers together in any given week, you have a complete picture of Nigeria. I don’t know if this is by design but Sahara Reporters serves us Okey Ndibe on Tuesday and Pius Adesanmi on Wednesday. NEXT newspaper also serves us Pius Adesanmi on Wednesday.
I can’t tell when exactly I moved from being just hooked to Pius Adesanmi writings to becoming his disciple. All I know is that my wife started teasing me every week by calling me “Adesanmi’s disciple”. All I know is that I have read virtually everything he has written so long as it is available via google and I have also marveled at how he is able to maintain two separate weekly columns for Sahara Reporters and NEXT, both appearing every Wednesday and both using different styles of writing. His column for NEXT is more like how Okey Ndibe writes. It is shorter and it is direct political commentary.
His column for Sahara is longer and more challenging and this is where I notice that he experiments with style. Checking on his Sahara catalogue, that style has given us memorable classics like the letter to Bode George and the PDP memo on Archbishop John Onaiyekan. He also has a talent for using his culture. He is one writer that will take just one Yoruba proverb and build an entire political commentary essay into it in a way that will carry along non-Yorubas. As I was writing this piece, I re-read such brilliant essays like his “Iro n paro fun ro”, “Ore afin o tan afin”, and the latest “Ai tete mole”.
Like him or hate him, this is one public intellectual that you cannot be indifferent to or ignore. He and Okey Ndibe always take me back to the early 1980s when the Guardian assembled the best prose talents in the country. I decided to write this piece because I don’t just read Pius Adesanmi faithfully like I have done since 2008, I also read the comments his writings generate online, especially his more experimental writings for Sahara Reporters. I think that Adesanmi is rendering a double service to Nigeria. Apart from entertaining and teaching us and making us laugh about our condition, I think that his writing is also driving home in a way I have never felt it before the disaster in Nigeria’s educational system. One google entry on Professor Adesanmi says he was born in 1972. That makes him my age. It also means that I was in the Nigerian school system the same time as the talented writer. His “Pacesetters” essay confirms this to me.
I believe that the system collapsed after this generation. This explains the alarmingly illiterate and ignorant comments I sometimes read. The Nigerian school system has unleashed a generation of Nigerians on cyberspace that does not know the difference between satire, parody, caricature, and direct writing. We now have people who don’t know the difference between an op-ed columnist and a regular reporter. These are things we were taught in the public secondary school I attended in Lagos! My wife and I hiss in pain when we read some of the unbelievable comments some ignoramuses post on Sahara in reaction to Adesanmi’s writings. I studied his Onaiyekan satire again last week. It is depressing that more than 50 of the commentators missed the point. They just don’t know satire. I am not even going to comment about the silliness of the comments that his controversial satire on Isa Yuguda generated. It is a waste of time to comment on the ignorance displayed by a good number of the commentators. I noticed that one enlightened commentator wrote from Bauchi to announce that he and Governor Yuguda understood the writing and even had a good laugh while the ignoramuses where frothing from the mouth on Sahara.
Although Sahara Reporters clearly list Pius Adesanmi, Okey Ndibe, and Sonala Olumhense as columnists, you still see so many ignorant commentators attacking them – especially Adesanmi – as reporters! I was discussing this with some friends yesterday and we agreed that the ignorance that Pius Adesanmi is exposing is terrifying. When I was in 100 Level, we were learnt about op-eds and columns in our General Studies course. It is amazing to see the number of people on Sahara comments board who are so clueless about these things. They don’t even know that the founder of Sahara, Omoyele Sowore, cannot control or determing how his three columnists write and what they write!
I am told that our leaders in Abuja read Sahara Reporters like a religion they practice because they are scared of the website. If you are a Nigerian politician and you read Sahara, please go and read some of the comments on Pius Adesanmi’s articles. Shame on you if you a conscience. Those ignorant comments are written by people who went through the educational system that you looting and stealing has destroyed. You are the ones producing Nigerians who cannot tell the difference between imaginative satire by a free op-ed columnist and factual reporting by a regular reporter. As for Professor Adesanmi, I continue to be grateful for your gift and talent and your service to Nigeria. Please don’t stop.
I am not much of a writer. I prefer to let those who are talented to do the writing while I read and enjoy them. If you are a regular reader of the first two sites (Sahara Reporters and NVS), then you are familiar with the writings of Professor Pius Adesanmi. He is inescapable on both sites and on 234Next.com. He has had a phenomenal rise as a public commentator in the last three years.
I first noticed Pius Adesanmi in 2008 when he wrote a fantastic satirical letter, “Ambassador Ahmadu Alli Writes President Yar’Adua”, that had me spilling my coffee over my desk in the office. I googled him and ended up spending the whole day just reading his writings. I was hooked. Up till then, Okey Ndibe was the only writer I was hooked to. Pius Adesanmi joined Okey in my world in 2008 and now I read both writers every week complementarily. Each has his own gift. What Okey delivers to Nigerians in direct and brilliant political commentary, Adesanmi does with fantastic humour and literary imagination. When you read the two writers together in any given week, you have a complete picture of Nigeria. I don’t know if this is by design but Sahara Reporters serves us Okey Ndibe on Tuesday and Pius Adesanmi on Wednesday. NEXT newspaper also serves us Pius Adesanmi on Wednesday.
I can’t tell when exactly I moved from being just hooked to Pius Adesanmi writings to becoming his disciple. All I know is that my wife started teasing me every week by calling me “Adesanmi’s disciple”. All I know is that I have read virtually everything he has written so long as it is available via google and I have also marveled at how he is able to maintain two separate weekly columns for Sahara Reporters and NEXT, both appearing every Wednesday and both using different styles of writing. His column for NEXT is more like how Okey Ndibe writes. It is shorter and it is direct political commentary.
His column for Sahara is longer and more challenging and this is where I notice that he experiments with style. Checking on his Sahara catalogue, that style has given us memorable classics like the letter to Bode George and the PDP memo on Archbishop John Onaiyekan. He also has a talent for using his culture. He is one writer that will take just one Yoruba proverb and build an entire political commentary essay into it in a way that will carry along non-Yorubas. As I was writing this piece, I re-read such brilliant essays like his “Iro n paro fun ro”, “Ore afin o tan afin”, and the latest “Ai tete mole”.
Like him or hate him, this is one public intellectual that you cannot be indifferent to or ignore. He and Okey Ndibe always take me back to the early 1980s when the Guardian assembled the best prose talents in the country. I decided to write this piece because I don’t just read Pius Adesanmi faithfully like I have done since 2008, I also read the comments his writings generate online, especially his more experimental writings for Sahara Reporters. I think that Adesanmi is rendering a double service to Nigeria. Apart from entertaining and teaching us and making us laugh about our condition, I think that his writing is also driving home in a way I have never felt it before the disaster in Nigeria’s educational system. One google entry on Professor Adesanmi says he was born in 1972. That makes him my age. It also means that I was in the Nigerian school system the same time as the talented writer. His “Pacesetters” essay confirms this to me.
I believe that the system collapsed after this generation. This explains the alarmingly illiterate and ignorant comments I sometimes read. The Nigerian school system has unleashed a generation of Nigerians on cyberspace that does not know the difference between satire, parody, caricature, and direct writing. We now have people who don’t know the difference between an op-ed columnist and a regular reporter. These are things we were taught in the public secondary school I attended in Lagos! My wife and I hiss in pain when we read some of the unbelievable comments some ignoramuses post on Sahara in reaction to Adesanmi’s writings. I studied his Onaiyekan satire again last week. It is depressing that more than 50 of the commentators missed the point. They just don’t know satire. I am not even going to comment about the silliness of the comments that his controversial satire on Isa Yuguda generated. It is a waste of time to comment on the ignorance displayed by a good number of the commentators. I noticed that one enlightened commentator wrote from Bauchi to announce that he and Governor Yuguda understood the writing and even had a good laugh while the ignoramuses where frothing from the mouth on Sahara.
Although Sahara Reporters clearly list Pius Adesanmi, Okey Ndibe, and Sonala Olumhense as columnists, you still see so many ignorant commentators attacking them – especially Adesanmi – as reporters! I was discussing this with some friends yesterday and we agreed that the ignorance that Pius Adesanmi is exposing is terrifying. When I was in 100 Level, we were learnt about op-eds and columns in our General Studies course. It is amazing to see the number of people on Sahara comments board who are so clueless about these things. They don’t even know that the founder of Sahara, Omoyele Sowore, cannot control or determing how his three columnists write and what they write!
I am told that our leaders in Abuja read Sahara Reporters like a religion they practice because they are scared of the website. If you are a Nigerian politician and you read Sahara, please go and read some of the comments on Pius Adesanmi’s articles. Shame on you if you a conscience. Those ignorant comments are written by people who went through the educational system that you looting and stealing has destroyed. You are the ones producing Nigerians who cannot tell the difference between imaginative satire by a free op-ed columnist and factual reporting by a regular reporter. As for Professor Adesanmi, I continue to be grateful for your gift and talent and your service to Nigeria. Please don’t stop.
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