Gbemisola Olujobi on Truthdig: Drilling Beneath the Headlines

Nigeria’s Unholy War

2010-04-06T20:40:00+00:00

You may have heard about the city of Jos, the capital of Plateau state in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, and wondered why it is a flashpoint of unspeakable violence. On Jan. 17, mobs killed about 400 residents of Jos. The second round of attacks, on March 7, was even more vicious.

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One Nation, Two Presidents

2010-03-30T17:22:00+00:00

Now, what was the interest of the Saudi authorities in keeping Yar’Adua, the president of a sovereign nation, incommunicado and out of his people’s reach for three months? And if the Saudi authorities had nothing to do with the president being out of reach, who kept him away from his officials and his people?

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The Mutallab Challenge

2010-01-12T22:31:00+00:00

Christmas 2009 was not particularly cheery in Nigeria. A poor economic climate, an epileptic power supply and scarcity of petroleum products ensured that the celebrations were low-key. As if these challenges were not enough, news of an attempted bombing of a U.S. airliner by a Nigerian filtered in on Christmas Day. The nation’s heart sank.

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Digital Dumping and the Global ‘E-Cycling’ Scam

2009-11-10T19:06:00+00:00

The port of Lagos in Nigeria receives about 400,000 used computers every month, out of which only one in four is useful. The rest end up in landfills, garbage dumps and, in a curious twist, as resources for scammers.

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Nollywood Rising

2009-08-27T09:08:00+00:00

The Nigerian movie industry, known as Nollywood (a play on Hollywood in the manner of Bollywood), has grown from an accidental discovery into a mega-industry of over 2,000 titles and $200M annually.

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Designer Vaginas: Is Female Circumcision Coming Out of the Closet?

2009-07-02T11:10:00+00:00

As a circumcised and sexually fulfilled African woman who has been lectured for years by Western NGOs about the moral implications of my genitalia, you can imagine my surprise learning about the the wind of labiaplasties and genital rejuvenations currently sweeping across Europe and America.

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Austrian Artist Becomes Nigerian Ancestor

2009-05-22T07:26:00+00:00

How did an Austrian girl who was born into a Christian family end up as high priestess of a Yoruba goddess in Nigeria? Suzanne Wenger’s life demonstrates that people are just people after all, that is, when they put aside race, values, beliefs and the other things that divide us.

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Who is Mogae?

2009-04-10T21:19:00+00:00

Almost everyone in the United States or indeed anywhere else in the world knows about Zimbabwe’s sit-tight president, Robert Mugabe. But who is Mogae? Who is Chissano? Who is Kikwete? And who is Kufuor? Sadly, very few people outside Africa recognize these names.

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