Abubakar Adam Ibrahim
@Abbakar_himself
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Writer: When We Were Fireflies| Season of Crimson Blossoms. Public Affairs Analyst| Columnist| Witch Whisperer.
Abuja/Iowa
Joined February 2010
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Great to have a compilation of most of my columns in one place. What wonderful thing,
@muckrack
is:
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The Nigerian govt hires a lawyer for Ekweremadu who has the money to hire the best lawyers available and has already hired one. They didn't hire one for the other Nigerian in the case. Class solidarity. There are two tribes in this country: the rich and the poor.
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Dear aspiring writer,
Avoid writerly cliques as much as possible. Don't waste your time looking for 'mentors'. The best mentors are books you read. Read as widely as possible then do close reading of the books you love. Sit down and write. Stop wasting your time and talent.
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4th elephant killed near Omo Forest, close to Lagos, in 2 years, setting back conservation efforts. These people celebrating this have no understanding of what they have done.
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The tragedy here is that the central issue of Bello El Rufai's bigotry and threats to gang rape a woman is being made a side show. Sad that he will get away without retracting his comments and without an apology.
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Muslim Twitter has not been outraged by the concentration camps China is putting its Muslim population in but they are outraged by
#NickiMinaj
going to party in
#SaudiArabia
, which has been bombing children in Yemen. Someday we all will be all right. Today is not that day.
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When I started writing this book, I wanted to write a small one. Oh well, here it is.
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Can't wait to share these stories with you all and to invite you all to the wonderful, crazy place that is Zango.
New post-lockdown release date: 10:2020.
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There is something bizarre in a world where Governor Ganduje, caught on video several times collecting kickbacks and violently rigging elections, is using 'misappropriation' to hound the Emir of Kano.
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Delighted to share the news that I will be writing a regular weekly column for Daily Trust. Every Thursday, political, social and trending issues will come into my Line of Sight for some indepth critique with some twist and zest. Walk this journey with me.
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#COVID19NIGERIA
Thread.
Today I received a call from a total stranger asking about my health and it made me happy. You see, I have been in Menerbes, a small village in the South of France, where there was no case of coronavirus up to when I left. I hope it stays that way.
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Dear Northener,
Not everything is about Buhari. He is going to leave office in 2023. Sometimes you have to fight for your country and free your mind from feudal subservience.
#EndSARS
#SecureNorth
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The rivalry between Lagos and Kano has always been unhealthy. Kano seems desperate to catch up with Lagos in terms of confirmed Covid-19 cases. Can someone please tell Kano it's not every race you want to win.
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If you escape Nigeria and your family and friends are here, then my friend, you have escaped nothing. The only way to escape Nigeria is to get Nigeria right. I don't know how that is going to happen but it needs to happen fast.
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This country is governed by laws. If El-Zakzaky has committed a crime, prosecute him in a court of law and let the court determine his fate. But holding a man, and his wife, captive, for years without trial is an invitation to chaos. We don't have skills managing chaos.
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If you think this book cover is mesmerizing, wait until you read the book. I have. Umar Abubakar Sidi is a rare breed of a writer.
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Some exciting news to share. Zango, that town of a thousand dreams, is leaping from the pages to the screen!
Looking forward to collaborating with the brilliant filmmaker
@kennethgyang
on this!
Which of the characters are you most excited to see?
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My column this week on Hundeyin's controversial reportage.
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The first and most important battle in life is fighting to be happy on your own terms and not on anyone else's standards.
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We are all aggrieved by the murder of Hanifa by her school proprietor but the
@KanostateNg
's decision to revoke the license of all private schools in the state will put thousands of pupils out of schools. A rational approach would be to fix a window to review these licenses.
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My father passed six years ago today. I am yet to negotiate with this grief I carry inside, in my heart. After all these years, I still am not ready to engage with it.
Rest in peace, father.
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In a country with no shame, a governor seen on tape collecting bribes is rewarded with a 2nd term in office, defiles an old heritage, balkanizes an emirate & finally dethrones its emir. Someone who should have had a red card for foul stays on the pitch to score the winning goal.
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Irony is that Daily Trust reports that military is planning to take over Baga. But Military decides to take over Daily Trust offices in Abuja and Maiduguri instead.
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It is curious that in 7 years, not one single financier of Boko Haram has been arrested, prosecuted, or even publicly identified.
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The
@daily_trust
today reproduces my interview with Pius Adesanmi from 2012. His words live after him. And they glow.
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Dear writers, emerging and aspiring, it helps to read articles like this to tell you the life you are committing yourself to and for those in the business, this it the conversation you are not having.
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I am genuinely honoured and humbled to have recieved tonight, The Michael Elliot for Excellence in African Storytelling. Thank you
@ICFJ
and
@ONECampaign
for this. And to all the beautiful people who turned up to celebrate me tonight, thank you.
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Excited to share the cover of the French edition of When We Were Fireflies out August 29 by Edition Julliard. Coming out L’Envol des Lucioles (The Flight of the Fireflies). Madly excited🕺🕺🕺
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Beloved friends,
Pleased to announce that I've signed a book deal with
@masobebooks
for my collection of short stories, Dreams and Assorted Nightmares, out in the next few months. Excited to share these stories with you and invite you into this strange, weird, beautiful Zango.
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On the day I was invited to meet the then Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, I had thought of gifting her my novel Season of Crimson Blossoms. She came along with her copy and graciously asked if I could sign it. Today’s coronation events refreshed those memories. God Save the Queen.
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My first baby. International release tomorrow. 🥳🥳🥳
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When will Hausa artistes realise that the use of Auto Tune in ALL their songs to give that annoying, whiny voice is a very bad habit they should get rid of?
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Writers' Block is when you fall out with your characters and give each other the silent treatment. Forcing them to talk will only frustrate you. Leave them alone. Go talk to real people. Have fun and live. When you and your characters negotiate a compromise, sit down and write.
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Now that SARS has been disbanded, how do we consolidate our voices to follow through with much needed police reform? How do we consolidate these voices to cause changes in governance? Get the right people in come 2023? How do we not waste this momentum we have generated?
#EndSARS
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The Second Coming.
My first baby, out (again) on eBook May 19th, 2020. Hard copies coming soon.
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After seeing dad for the first time in a while, I impetuously hugged him, told him I love him. For the first time since I could remember, he said he loved me too. Next time I saw him, he was on a bed, dying, unable to speak. Years later, that moment still means everything.
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@YomiShogunle
@PoliceNG_PCRRU
This is the most shockingly irresponsible thing I have read from someone who is heading a unit dealing with public complain. What this tells me is that any complaint of police brutality is is already condemned as fictitious.
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Dear Nigerians, I am surprised that you seem surprised that Buhari did not bother to pretend that he cares by showing up at the funeral of his Chief of Army Staff and some senior generals killed in a plane crash. Your surprise is surprising me.
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Hello India!
Come listen to Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, a BBC African Performance Prize winning author and speaker at MBIFL 2024
📲
Feb 8th - Feb 11th, 2024 | Kanakakkunnu Palace, Thiruvananthapuram
#mbifl
#mbifl24
#exploringplurality
#festivalofletters
#mathrubhumi
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Excited to be sharing this news.
Book release update!
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, acclaimed author and 2016 NLNG Nigeria Prize for Literature winner’s sophomore book “Dreams and Assorted Nightmares, a collection of short stories, will be released by Masobe Books in July, 2020
#LetUsRead
#MasobeBooks
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Super excited to reveal the cover of the French edition of my novel, Season of Crimson Blossoms. I love, love, love it, tu comprend?
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Excited to share news that the German edition of Season of Crimson Blossoms is out in Sept. translated by Susann Urban and published by the amazing folks at Residenz Verlag.
Love the ring of the German title: „Wo wir stolpern und wo wir fallen“ Where We Stumble and Where We Fall.
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Eid Mubarak. May all your days be filled with light and love and all the things that give you joy.
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Good night, Shehu Shagari. A former president who conducted himself with dignity and never grovelled to remain relevant. Rest in peace, sir.
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Someday, when I have the time and energy for it, I will write about the dictatorial tendencies of some Nigerian writers. God knows there are many.
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Today is exactly five years since my father passed. I am still unable to process this grief. The emotions I feel will not free my tongue to speak to his soul. They will not free my hands to write to him, of him.
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So today I got a follow-up call from
@NCDCgov
to check on my status. I told them all is well on this front. I wish they could administer the test and be over with it but the agent said they test only if there is direct contact with a positive case or there are symptoms. 1/2
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Don't blame
@Real_FFK
because we all know the man should have been committed, but those other journos who endorsed the assault on their colleague and "One Voice Africa TV" who posted the video, edited out the question the journo asked. They too call themselves journos.
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Dear writer, and everyone else, remember, some people will say no to you no matter what or who you are. It is not the end of the world. Pick up your self and continue working to be the star you are meant to be.
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Again, another look at how academics are speaking only to themselves and writing great, potentially-world-changing articles that no one reads.
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I wrote this. I was greeted with insults for it. I don't particularly mind.
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Dear Nigerians, we will succeed when we realise that an injury to one, is an injury to all.
#EndSARS
#EndInsecurity
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Excited to be longlisted for the Prix Femina. 🤩
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It's 2020 and we are still stuck with some stand-up comedians whose ideas of jokes are ethnic subs and mocking people with disabilities and we wonder what is wrong with us.
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Been waiting for the appropriate time to share this in view of the ongoing
#EndSARSprotest
but alas, Ake Festival is only a few days away. You can watch all sessions on DsTV channel 198 and GoTv channel 29.
Join me as I discuss my brand new book, Dreams and Assorted Nightmares.
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This award means so much. Delighted to have won it.
Along with
@ONECampaign
and the Elliott family, we’ve named Nigerian journalist Abubakar Ibrahim the winner of the Michael Elliott Award for
#AfricanStorytelling
:
@Moonchild509
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Today we launched "Ordinary Saviour: New Stories from Nigeria's Northeast." Great to have been through the process of curating these stories from conception to editing to publication. The northeast too should tell their stories in their own words. This is just the beginning.
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So the same old tricks are being deployed to ruin this
#EndSARS
movement. Branding those thugs who attacked peaceful protesters at Berger as "Hausa guys" is pushing the ethnic narrative that has been used to stop any mass movement succeeding in this country.
#Dontmakeittribal
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Wish these were happier times. But finally, Dreams and Assorted Nightmares is out today. I am quiet about it because of the nightmare we are living through today.
#zabarmarimassaccre
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When we took this photo 2 yrs ago in NY, with Binyavanga still recovering from his stroke, his speech was slurred and he wasn't his usual bustly self, but you could see he was trying. Sad to lose such a phenomenal person. This photo, already special, takes on another significance
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Thank you. Thank you.
So “When we were Fireflies” set to be a movie!!!! Deal signed!!!
Congratulations
@Abbakar_himself
👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻
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Nigeria doesn't kill terrorists. Terrorists kill terrorists. Buharin Daji: killed by fellow bandits.
Auwal Daudawa: Killed by fellow cow-thieving bandits.
Shekau: killed by ISWAP.
Rule of the jungle.
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I admire the courage of
#UwaOmozuwa
's sister who openly and in front of senior
@PoliceNG
officers accused the police of demanding "mobility money" from the victim's family to investigate a rape & murder. We all know these things happen. When will this madness stop?
#JusticeForUwa
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I do find it ironic that Obasanjo now has the foresight to advice all his successors: Yaradua, GEJ and PMB, to leave office for their failings. He did not offer this advice to himself for his own failings and even desperately sort a third term.
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Awwal Daudawa kidnapped 300 Kankara schoolboys. Swore he had repented and was giving a house by the govt. Then unrepented, returned to crime & was killed days later by a rival gang. Justice by criminals when the govt couln't/wouldn't do anything to a man who shamed them. Jungle.
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A person's wealth should be measured in the value of friends who step up when needed. Those who say yes when called upon. Those who call when silence rings. Be grateful for having such friends. Be grateful for life and the sweet sensation of a finely made pineapple juice.
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A year ago, Binyavanga Wainaina passed away. Here is my tribute to him.
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News: Only God can secure Nigeria's borders--Security Chiefs.
Me:🤔Shall we just deploy imams and pastors to the borders then? Or just pay our taxes to the mosques and churches and the orisha shrines.
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Have you paused, taken a deep breath and asked yourself WTF are you doing with your life?
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I finally had a taste of
@richardalijos
’s Tigray Coffee and all I can say is oooooh lala. RA Shegen yaro kenan.
Meanwhile, I am in Sokoto for a reading this evening and God knows I could do with some Tigray coffee.
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I am confident a treatment and vaccine would be found for
#COVID
ー19 soon but until then, be responsible. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. And take care of the other souls you come in contact with everyday.
#selfisolating
Day 2
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How Nigeria has dealt with national security challenges in the past has come back to bite it in the backside. My piece today looks at one such instance and its implications.
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End of day 3, The Flame Tree Writers’ Workshop wraps up and brings us to the end of the workshop sessions. Next, they continue writing and workshopping their stories in consultation with the amazing
@chikaunigwe
and myself.
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This 2014 all over again. During the BBOG sit in, we were attacked by pro-govt women who said the Chibok Abduction was fake. They were paid N1500. Same amount paid to thugs who attacked protesters at Berger today. Don't be fooled twice.
#EndSARS
#NotTribal
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If you run your finger over Nigeria, you won't need to ask because everwhere hurts. Nigeria is a heartbreak the size of a country.
#owomassacre
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Writers' Block is when you fall out with your characters and give each other the silent treatment. Forcing them to talk will only frustrate you. Leave them alone. Go talk to real people. Have fun, live. When you and your characters negotiate a compromise, sit down and write.
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Nigeria's approach to the Shi'ite issue is wrong and is ushering this group, who, like Boko Haram, see death as a better alternative to living, into the path of the insurgency we have been battling for the last ten years. This will not end well the longer it progresses.
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The story of writing this book is a story unto itself because I wrote it driven by a real and present fear that I won’t finish it. Someday I will talk about it. So it just feels surreal that it is being released tomorrow. Everything about this book feels surreal.
From the stable of Masobe Books, comes another exciting masterpiece by NLNG Prize winner Abubakar Adam Ibrahim - WHEN WE WHERE FIREFLIES. Out everywhere from tomorrow, 06/03/23
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That moment when you are struck by an idea and you know, deep in your bones, that that is just going to be the next novel you are going to write. I need a residency, damn it!
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"All is fair in love and war." No statement is more false than this. If you read The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, or read of the holocaust, or seen children's heads cleaved open by herdsmen, you will know this. Nothing fair in son of a public figure threatening gang rape.
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We are seriously considering sanctions against members of the authoritarian government of the United States for gross human rights abuses of its own citizens. Attacks on peaceful protestors warrant severe sanctions. All options are on the table, including regime change.
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At some point we will realize that arguments and outrage will be more effective if we can leave out insults. Insults will always, always distract from issues. You throw insult all day and night and the only thing you achieve is throwing away a chance to address real issues.
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The Flame Tree Writers’ Project is in the workshop stage. After two days, you could see the gears turning in the writers’ head, like great engines about to take off. We can only show them the way and how to move and the rest will be up to them.
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Journalists in Nigeria must not be harassed for the work they do. Corruption is the crime, not investigating it.
#IStandWithFisayo
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Two years ago today, Abubakar Idris Dadiyata was kidnapped from his residence in Kaduna. Since then, neither he nor his car has been seen. In December 2019, I spoke to his parents. They are still praying for his return.
#freeDadiyata
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Enchanting stuff. Ever seen a book cover come alive like this?
Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s (
@Moonchild509
) highly anticipated collection of short stories “Dreams and Assorted Nightmares” is now available for preorder from .
Here is what
@chikaunigwe
, author of “On Black Sisters’ Street” says about the book:
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First Book event for When We Were Fireflies. Abuja this Saturday with
@KareemReal
at
@SpineandLabel
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Kidnapped and murdered.
Why would anyone do such an evil thing to such a little, innocent child?
Rest well, little Hanifa.
#JusticeforHanifa
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