aasanyaolu

Our lives begin to end the day we keep silent about things that matter ~ Martin Luther King Jr.’’ Last year, they came. They came with a truckload of tiles and bags of cement, causing the residents of Mellanby Hall to start asking questions: What are all these tiles for? Has the school finally yielded to our pleas of renovating the decrepit vestiges of colonialism we oddly call ‘halls of residence’? Has the juggernaut of common sense finally bulldozed the hurdles of neglect to give way to a highway of prosperity? Mellanbites, indeed, thought a beacon of hope had come but nay, it was only a truckload of cosmetic products. Products purposed for the surgery of an organ which suffered no discomfort and which caused none. Their hopes were dashed when they learnt that the tiles were meant for the roof atop the cafeteria and nowhere else. Today, the cafeteria top is smiling at the sky while the teeth, joints and other vital organs ached for relief. Yesterday, they came ...

The National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) is an assemblage of those who run the affairs of motor parks in Nigeria. While the name has registered in the hearts of many to describe members of the Union, many, like yours sincerely, have not snapped out of the classification of these individuals as area boys. An area boy is a thug, miscreant and rascal who believes in the power of violence. It is his possession of this power of violence that ensures his rise in the hierarchy of the motor park overlords. These area boys are however packaged in the name of a Union. They are beatified as members of a trade union, but it goes without saying that these characters who have become synonymous with violence, extortion, intimidation and opulence are not trade unionist in any sense. But the beatification of urchins called area boys does not pertain to the NURTW alone. A similar beatification is seen in the roguish department of the Nigerian Police called the Federal Special Anti-Robbery ...