Otosirieze
@Otosirieze
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Golden Lion ■ Laying a blueprint in African literary & culture media ■ Founder, @OpenCountryMag ■ Fmr. Editor, @folionigeria by @CNN ■ @IowaWritersWksp ■
Joined December 2012
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I was 21 years old and preparing for NYSC when Buhari became president. I will be 29 when he leaves next year. I am just realizing that I've spent my 20s in bondage. Many of us became full adults under this man and all we have are tears of frustration, destruction, and death.
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Today, my time as Deputy Editor of Brittle Paper, a platform I'd've given my heart for, came to an end. I was made to leave because of my report on Hadiza El Rufai's comments on her son's gang-rape threat, a report that was taken down. My statement.
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@thatssokeshaun
Naomi Campbell saying, "It was called an Icons party but there were no icons there," when asked why she didn't attebd the infamous party where Cardi B attacked Nicki Minaj.
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On 7 June 2005, six young Nigerians in Abuja -- Ifeanyi Ozo, Chinedu Meniru, Isaac Ekene, Paul Ogbonna, Anthony Nwokike, Tina Arebun -- were returning from a nightclub and were murdered by the police. 15 years on, we are still being randomly murdered by police.
#EndSarsNow
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Igbo governors are the weakest link. Every year, we are reminded of this painful fact.
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While we talk about BBC Hausa's determination to lie, maximize, and make money from ethnic divisions in Nigeria, let us remember that the BBC was the first major outlet to call the military coup of January 1966 an "Igbo coup." The propaganda didn't start today.
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1. It started on 15 April, and, after weeks of discussion, today is my first as Editor of
@folionigeria
, owned by Times Multimedia (TMM) and powered by
@CNN
. I will also be involved in managing another TMM platform: Creative Africa Exchange (
#CAXWKND
).
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1. Today marks one month since I was fired from Brittle Paper for calling out rape culture. Since the media was fed a statement of terrible lies, including that I hung up on her, all to discredit my extensive work and silence a young Nigerian who dared to critique power.
Today, my time as Deputy Editor of Brittle Paper, a platform I'd've given my heart for, came to an end. I was made to leave because of my report on Hadiza El Rufai's comments on her son's gang-rape threat, a report that was taken down. My statement.
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Some Nigerian writers & journalists are tweeting about "the evil of racism in America." Don't be fooled. Same people keep silent while fellow Nigerians die under oppression, defend evil politicians, cover up & apologize for rape threats. Major hypocrites: no conscience.
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I profiled Kiki Mordi for
@folionigeria
, about
#SexForGrades
. She said clearly that it was teamwork and that the BBC reached out to her. She used the phrase "we were a team" often. Never claimed it as hers.
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Dear people, Ainehi Edoro, as I expected, has made a statement of careful untruths against my person. Worded so as to turn the truth into a social media war. But I'm here and I will reply her, one untruth at a time. Ask her why she's trying to tarnish my efforts.
Today, my time as Deputy Editor of Brittle Paper, a platform I'd've given my heart for, came to an end. I was made to leave because of my report on Hadiza El Rufai's comments on her son's gang-rape threat, a report that was taken down. My statement.
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Journalism is not "both sides."
Journalism is fact and truth.
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What Peter Obi means to young Nigerians is beyond politics. He is one of the few lights from the mid-aged generation that we can look up to in terms of accomplishment and ethical success. Keyword: few. We respond to him because every generation needs to be inspired to success.
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Every Christmas, as Igbo people return to their hometowns, many with mega vehicles, we have to say a special prayer for young men from Anambra who feel a sense of inadequacy that they haven't yet "made it." It's a cultural depression. It forces some to be great. It wrecks others.
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The literary scene in Africa has a depressing class problem. We talk sex, gender, sexuality, but the silence on class is loud. Writers are often shut out of festivals/events/prizes not because of the quality of their work but because of their social backgrounds. Why? Why? Why?
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Those attacking
@kikimordi
& discrediting
@StandtoEndRape
don't know how it feels to be a woman fighting rape culture. I, too, don't. But the 200,000 Nigerians who STER reached know. Without all their voices, we're doomed. Sending you strength, Kiki Mordi. You're essential ⚡✊🏾.
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People can be kind or nasty. Feminists are people. Therefore, feminists, too, can be kind or nasty. Female, male, nonbinary: anyone can be kind or nasty. Has nothing to do with gender or ideology. Feminism is a culture, not a character determiner.
👇🏿
The enemy is the patriarchy.
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African literature will not be saved by big books but by radical honesty in every space. That is missing. The silence in what is going wrong in Africa, the outright enabling of oppressions. We are descending into a damning deep. See the truth. Or don't. Who cares? They don't.
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This is the time to point out that young Igbo people in the southeast have extra troubles to deal with in organising
#EndSarsNow
protests. Easy excuse to call them IPOB and shoot. The rest of Nigeria must rally behind
#EndSARS
protests in the southeast.
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After 9 months, I finally showed up to collect my
@TFAAfrica
Prize for Literature plaque.
A short story:
2012. I began writing fiction because I was arguing with my mother about her favourite Nollywood & Bollywood films. She told me, "Since you don't like them, write yours."
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Writers, read, read, read, and read. Don't just read anything; go to the top websites around and read high quality essays, reviews, features, profiles. Read everything else, not just fiction, creative nonfiction, and poetry.
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We are all in a constant state of being made or remade. There's no deadline. You made a mistake? Learn and move on. Afraid of failing? Calm down; at some point you might have to in order to move ahead. Professional anxiety? Normal. So why write yourself off?
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For African writers seeking literary agents.
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Dear writers,
Write queer characters radically. Which means write them living normal lives: eg. having jobs. Write them extraordinary: eg. being geniuses. WRITE THEM FUCKING. Joyous, sad, nonchalant. Trash all expectations and give them the fullness you give hetero characters.
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PeaceMassTransit in Enugu officially forbids gender discrimination in sitting arrangements. Shoutout to all the women who pushed back over the years. Good to see public service companies doing better, making the effort.
PS: biko, overlook the grammar something.
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"At 25, Otosirieze is a consummate multitasker. . . Born in Aba, eastern Nigeria, he’s a writer, editor, journalist, scholar, blogger. He’s excited to push forward lesser-known talents. . . 'There’s so much that we could do, that we want to do,' he said."
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Two weeks ago so we should shut up? Like we aren't talking about human beings here, mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, people so loved, full of life, lives taken by force. This must be the peak of the worst I've seen about the (non)reaction to the genocide in Southern Kaduna.
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Many of the Nigerians in power destroying this country studied in the UK & the US. Benefited from working countries & returned to theirs to steal national money & institute a culture of incompetence, knowing they'd get away with it. They should always, always be held accountable.
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I turned 27 today and I am grateful + excited. A friend shared this photo of me, around 4/5, and it makes me feel all kinds of way.
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@Iconblueivy
@thatssokeshaun
@unapologhetto
Mariah Carey. Naomi Cambell. No one beats them. Or comes close.
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Osibanjo: VP.
Jonathan: ex-president, ex-VP.
Atiku: ex-VP.
If we had brains as Nigerians, none of these people would get our votes. They left this country the way it is, intended or not. Try new people. Peter Obi is our rare chance to save Nigeria. We might not have another.
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Her son Bello El-Rufai threatens to gang-rape someone's mother while spewing diatribe against Igbo people.
Hadiza El-Rufai --- feminist, novelist, and Kaduna's First Lady --- replies with: "All is fair in love and war."
Shame on you.
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Nigerian literature is fighting for its very soul. Writers are doing PR with no conscience. Deploying all their arsenal -- foreign media, festivals, blogs -- to lie, buy & intimidate people. The louder this gets, the louder our voices must get. We must protect our future.
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Please who knows how I can reach the man in the photos called DJ Kaka? I read he's in Port Harcourt.
#EndSWAT
#PortHarcourtEndSARSProtest
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If a woman says stop or expresses discomfort, you the man must stop. It doesn't matter what you're doing, which point you're at --- you must stop because you're not some wild animal. Continuing against her wishes and telling her "sorry" is non-consensual --- it is rape.
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Reading is key to writing.
You won’t always know what is possible until you read others. And you can’t do it yourself until you pay attention.
Then understand it, then slowly, or quickly, retrace it and reimagine it in your own style and make it yours.
But you must read.
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Second rule of a protest: Don't allow your oppressors to disguise as you and join you, and then try to use "advice" to sabotage your movement.
#EndSARS
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As men, let us always remember that women's bodies are not up for debates. Not in any way. Not in jokes or otherwise. Rape is unforgivable. We are at war with rape culture. Let us always lend our voices and hands to making society a safe place for women. Let us ask. Let us learn.
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If you're excited about Burna Boy collaborating with Sam Smith but you hate gay Nigerians, then you have a problem. It's called hateful hypocrisy. It's not originally your fault, though; society taught you that. So all you need do is open your mind and fix yourself.
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Dear African writers,
You need to stop signing statements with writers supporting murderous governments in Nigeria. You can't be an activist in another African country and then ally with oppressors in Nigeria. They use your credibility as cover while their friends murder us.
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Today, May 13, marks 1 year since Akachi Chukwuemeka died by suicide, at 21. Neke & I found & carried him to the UNNMedicalCentre that morning. I wrote this as a reference for how to discuss suicide, how schools should help. I still haven't mourned him.
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Fiction writers need to read nonfiction.
Nonfiction writers need to read poetry.
Every prose writer needs to read poetry.
Every writer, from time to time, should read around in another genre.
What you’re looking for may be there.
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7. Please know this: I moved on the moment I pressed Publish on my statement. My work at Brittle Paper was done aged 22-25. It is morning yet on creation day. I am brimming with energy and ideas. I have signed on to a bigger, positive space and will make an announcement soon. ❤️
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The best gift you can give yourself is a mastery of what you do.
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Kiki Mordi won an MTV EMA Award for social impact because she has also used her voice, beyond the documentary, to advance this conversation. She's an actual survivor and she put out her personal story in a country where attacking women is sport.
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Arinze Ifeakandu. Romeo Oriogun. Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. NoViolet Bulawayo. Warsan Shire. Chinelo Okparanta. Umar Turaki. Troy Onyango. Salma El-Wardany. Eloghosa Osunde. Marlon James. 2022 reading list.
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There’s no writing without reading. There’s no serious writing without real thinking about what you’ve read.
It’s not about the number of books you read. If you read one, make it count.
Don’t read 50 books in a year and still write like you’ve read nothing in your life.
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Africa needs more literary journalists. Not just reviewers & essayists. JOURNALISTS. Devoting 4k+ words & profiles to our institutions, books, our literary culture, publishing. Contextualizing. Critiquing. Writing in home magazines. We have so few of them. So few. Painfully.
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There are usually two ways to write a character: by showing how they look and by showing how they think.
We often associate the first with “good characterization,” but it is the second, in fact, that makes a good character.
Here’s how:
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I've always said this to people (writers) of my generation: work hard. To rescue you from the pits dug specially for you in Nigeria. Work hard so that everything you endure here will be forgettable footnotes in your story. Be a force of nature, for your own sake. Befriend hope.
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42 chapters done. Three left to finish my novel. The day I finish, I will celebrate by doing something out of character.
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I stopped using the word "straight" to denote sexuality almost five years ago; I say "heterosexual," which is the correct term. Straight=consistency, normal. Queerness is normal. Heteronormative language succeeds by disguising itself as harmless even when it others queer people.
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The best gift you can give yourself is a mastery of what you do. That's your power, your shield, your ladder, your IDGAFness.
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In celebration of what has been, in anticipation of an even fuller life of love and fulfillment, happy 28th birthday to me.
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Book fonts are important. The better the font, the likelier some people are to read on. I once declined to buy a book I wanted in print because its font looks like trauma.
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First, you read someone writing in a certain way.
Then you realize that you can imitate it.
Then you practice rewriting/remodeling it in your own voice.
Then you mix in more realizations from different reading sources.
There, you are on your way to developing your own style.
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Remember the Apo Six. This is their story, how police ended their stories. If their parents were politicians, do you think we would still be here?
#EndSARSImmediately
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If you are using the LGBTQ-acknowledging tweet by Feminist Coalition as excuse to discredit the
#EndSARS
movement and sow division, shame on you. Big shame on you.
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Fear an intellectual who keeps silent while working for an oppressor. Fear them even more if they happen to be both lawyer and pastor.
Dear Nigerians, I know that many of you are angry, and understandably so. We could’ve moved faster and for this we are sorry.
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Feminist Coalition. Your efficiency will be honoured by history. We will remember this moment when we felt we were in capable hands.
#EndSARS
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Doyin Okupe's son just came out as gay 🙌🏾. Okupe served in the Jonathan administration that criminalized same-sex relations in Nigeria. Oppressing other people is all "politics" until it hits home. In the next decade, that law will be gone for good.
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As a writer or reader, when learning craft, also learn patience. With yourself.
You can’t magically make yourself write in a way you’ve only just realized was possible.
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Many Nigerians have normalized pain. They think it is normal for this country to torture you. It's sad because it makes them hate seeing people who are refusing to be in pain, who are fighting for something better. We would all have to relearn so many things about this country.
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Nigeria is banning cryptocurrency when a former finance minister is becoming head of the World Trade Organization. Glorious ironies.
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Happy 40th birthday to the fabulous Chinelo Okparanta, one of the four, five most important writers out of Nigeria in the last 20 years. Her presence, her quiet influence, is essential. We are grateful.
❤️
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Las-las, no matter how much money they have been paid to silence us, no matter how much they hate to see a young person with an independent mind and a voice, there will only be one outcome: Nigerian literature must prosper, through us, for us.
And I'm still here.
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A writer should be able to rely on their editor.
Not for the actual writing but for strengthening the idea or story at stake.
Writers should be able to ask what isn’t working and what is.
A good editor will tell you and even suggest ways to make it better.
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3. God bless these writers, young and standing up to power that seeks to make it normal for women to be violated. God bless Nigerians who stood up to say no, to hold power accountable. God bless all the writers across Africa who stood for what is right. Thank you, South Africa.
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The key to storytelling is experience. You must experience life to depict or communicate it.
The easiest way to experience life in clear detail is reading. It makes you focus, think.
Serious reading is a cheat code.
It gives a writer an edge that not even talent alone offers.
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Everything in writing comes down to the five elements of storytelling:
language,
character,
plot,
setting,
theme.
They are connected and cover everything you can think of. Every writing class I teach comes down to those.
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Remember that
#EndSARS
is against ALL forms of police brutality -- including that against the women and LGBTQ people who are standing in the sun with you and screaming. Don't think that you will finish shouting
#EndSarsNow
and then keep quiet when the police attack LGBTQ people.
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If a horrible event is going on in Nigeria and influential writers, journalists, thinkers are not speaking up --- you already have your answer. Stop begging them to, giving them legitimacy that they would readily abuse to harm you. They don't care. Simple. They've taken sides.
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Happy birthday to me.
26 is something of a crossover. I'm still learning to be grateful for everything and every day, but I'm certainly grateful for the people in my life, my family and friends, for their love. I'm looking ahead. I'm happy. I'm hungry. I'm hopeful.
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2. One month since racism and homophobia were leveraged by her white/Indian academic colleagues to try to tear me down. Since she and some others weaponized femininity and covered up a rape threat. One month since 42 writers made a statement in my support and said, Enough.
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Remember: any notable Nigerian literary organization that didn't support
#EndSARS
--- on its platform or on its founder's --- is on the payroll of a government. They use young writers' validation to get funding but don't care about your struggles. They, too, are your oppressors.
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This is my response to what happened yesterday.
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We are all protesting
#EndSWAT
. LGBTQ people are protesting too because they are also major victims. But peeps at Berger, Abuja attacked them. You became the animals you are protesting. You love oppression --- you just hate that you suffer it.
#QueerNigerianlivesmatter
A lady brought a 🌈 rainbow flag
and our fellow
protesters turned on us at Berger Roundabout Abuja.
they tore our placards and seized the flag.
I got it back but they refused that we fly it.
I wore it on my neck and they refused.
said we either take it off or leave.
I’m leaving
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Influencer culture can actually be used for positive ends, but in Nigeria, you show money and people immediately switch and lie to their millions of followers. If this is not watched closely, the 2023 elections will be costly. I appreciate this report by BuzzFeed News.
Why do a bunch of Nigerian Twitter influencers want this alleged money launderer to go free?
They’re being paid.
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It is important that a writer learns how to hold two or more opposing thoughts.
Firstly because sometimes life will require that of you. Secondly because that is how an artist handles nuance.
Ideas aren’t always black or white; sometimes they are green, never mind grey.
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While you're busy hating LGBTQ people, they are busy changing the very world you live in, from your Apple device to your Armani pants. You are living your life in the creations of their hands. You owe them much of your comfort.
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Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's reflection has inspired people to call out hypocrisy and two-faced behaviour. Now I am writing my own.
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One big danger is our changing attitude to these wild displays of wealth. Let's not forget that this is not individually acquired wealth, which people have the social right to show off as they wish. This is national wealth, the theft of which has put people in poverty.
Former Oyo state governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi's daughter, Abisola Kola-Daisi shows off her multi-million naira designer bag collection
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I grew up in Aba and it remains the city closest to my heart. I set this short story, "Mulumba," in CKC Cathedral. It's about a boy experiencing friendship and love. The Google searches for it have recently climbed, so here it is:
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Earlier this year, I visited
@cfmemories
' Biafra exhibition. Here are some photos of images and reports of the Biafran War that I took there. 53 years later, Nigeria continues to fail us.
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Leaving Nigeria might preserve you as an individual but it will not protect your family back home. You need a solution that protects your family back home. A realistic solution like voting the right leaders. Osinbajo, Atiku, Jonathan: wrong. We need a new face. Support Peter Obi.
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Here's a fact: During the making of
#SexForGrades
, Kiki Mordi considered to but couldn't go after the lecturers that harassed her at UniBen. Guess why? Because it "was off my hands because we were a team."
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I woke up to a video of Peter of P-Square talking nonsense: "I shouldn't be here. I have nice cars. I'm here for the people." My IQ reduced just watching that video.
#EndSARS
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Write about rape. They say change the language.
Report a rape. They say go home and settle it
Report domestic assault, they say go and reconcile
Report child abuse, they say it's a family matter, go and settle it
Nigeria doesn't care about us women.
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Another reason to believe in yourself is that people are not necessarily going to tell you how talented you are, how significant your work is. For some reasons.
If you haven’t been lucky to have someone champion you, it falls on you to see yourself as you’d prefer others to.
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There are talented people in corners needing assistance, asking for an introduction, sometimes even just an conversation. Do your part for the nearest person to you. It costs you nothing. Especially because you don't know how much they could do with that gesture.
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5. One day I will tell the full story. But for now, l am thankful for the words of support. For the many prayers sent to me by upright strangers. Thankful that female feminists refused to allow their hard-won movement to be used to support powerful abusers.
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Most Nollywood scripts suffer from a lack of editors who understand how storytelling works.
That’s why you have inconsistencies, character gaps, plot holes, and every avoidable issue. And the industry is paying too high a price.
Come to literature and hire story editors.
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4. This is a story of resentment at what they saw as my "disrupting success," of being undermined inside the platform, gaslighted during mental health troubles, owed monies, sabotaged. A story of how Nigerian literature breaks the new. But I am a tree and they are razor blades.
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And no one violated "editorial standards." Lol. You know why? Because I set the damn standards. I brought them. Formalized them. Ideas. Almost everything. That place will always be seen via three frames: before Otosirieze, during Otosirieze, and after Otosirieze. It ran on me.
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Turned 29. Grateful. Maybe we do not so much evolve as simply choose one of the many versions of us that have always been here, versions asking us to look and try them out. I am fortunate to have loved every version of me so far, but this one is my favourite.
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As a Christmas gift, I founded a literary media platform. The name is
@OpenCountryMag
. I will let the launch stories, and the ones to come in the next few days, do the rest of the introduction.
Our lead story for the launch of Open Country is a profile of two remarkable women: writers-turned-editors, both, who felt that it was a responsibility to equip the next generation. But there's so much more: reviews, news, spotlights. Dive in! 👇👇
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The first tweet is disturbing. The second is a message. But being a governor's son means they will get away with both.
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But don't go and fall in love with someone who's only being kind to you.
There's so much cruelty out here that love seekers are lured by basic kindness. Which is okay. But don't mistake it for attraction.
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Dr. Chinelo Megafu and all the murdered people on the train were victims not only of Nigeria's insecurity but also of the cynicism and idiocy that some young Nigerians exhibit. Our big problem is governance but there are other problems of mentality that we need to deal with.
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