Taiwo Akinlami’s Blog
Taiwo AKINLAMI'S Blog
Yesterday, in Kwara State, nearly two hundred human beings, women, children, families were massacred. Not in a war zone. Not in a foreign land. In 21st-century Nigeria. They were killed after doing what citizens are taught to do: they asked the State for protection. The village head reportedly alerted security agencies that armed men had […] [Read More]
HomilyfromthePew By the time I turn 56 on the 24th of March this year, my first son will still be four years old, and I have found myself thinking, again and again, about the greatest legacy I can leave him. In that search, I keep returning to a simple correlation between my life and that […] [Read More]
When a body is unwell, it announces itself. Symptoms do not float in the air; they land somewhere specific, headache, stomach ache, fever signals that something deeper needs attention. Nations are similar. The true health of a country is not primarily measured by GDP or concrete. It is measured by civic values: what the public […] [Read More]
Nigeria is not short of paradoxes. What we suffer from is not merely misplaced priorities, because when a nation is already upside down, the word “misplaced” begins to sound like a compliment. You cannot misplace priorities in a country that stores its conscience in an unlabelled container marked “Miscellaneous.” Three recent scenes capture the spirit […] [Read More]
#HomilyfromthePew “Before Judas, there was Brutus. Before Brutus, there was Lucifer.” That sequence has stayed with me because it exposes a sobering pattern: the deepest wounds often come from the closest circles. Lucifer was described as privileged in proximity, yet he plotted rebellion. Brutus stood near Caesar and oversaw his demise. Judas walked with Jesus […] [Read More]
I love my family, my wife and my son. I love spending time with them, and when they are not around, I truly miss them. Yet one of the clearest spaces in my life, outside of being with them, is the space of being alone. Not lonely in the casual sense, but alone in the […] [Read More]
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” Martin Luther King Jr. That sentence travelled widely yesterday. It deserves to. It is concise, morally demanding, and intellectually uncomfortable. But after the applause, a harder question remains: What does that truth require of me, of us in Nigeria and across Africa? Because while the quote is […] [Read More]
I have restrained myself from participating in the Wike–Fubara political imbroglio. My first instinct has always been to treat it for what it looks like: a family feud, a fight between rulers, a contest within the ruling class. And in such a contest, no matter who wins, the people of Rivers State are positioned to […] [Read More]
For almost three decades, I have worked within the school system with parents of diverse backgrounds and persuasions, beginning with my first visit to Aladura Comprehensive High School, Anthony Village, Lagos, in 1997. Over the years, I have handled cases and heard accounts, both firsthand and through parents, schools, child-focused organizations, and government agencies that […] [Read More]
#HomilyFromThePew My umbilical cord was buried in Lagos at LUTH, Idi-Araba. That means something to me. Scripture says that God “determined our appointed times and the boundaries of our habitation” (Acts 17:26). Nigeria is my country. I did not choose Nigeria; Nigeria chose me. God, who makes no mistakes, made that choice. Because of that, my heart […] [Read More]
