Writers can kill. The creative writer plays God by creating people on paper and destroying lives at will with an ordinary pencil or pen or a computer. The power of the written word hit me most through my late uncle,…
If you want to write a great book, go to prison -Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
I am allergic to dictators, even if they somehow manage to dress up in democratic robes. Nigerians cannot ever forget in a hurry how some time ago all the five political parties of a leprous hand manufactured by General Sani…
Zamzi lessons for Nigeria -Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Dawn At Twilight by Ijegalu Simon Felix; Zizach Books, Kaduna (ISBN: 978-978-990-279-8); 2021; 181pp Most first novels are almost always autobiographical. The debut novel of Ijegalu Simon Felix, Dawn at Twilight, is a rites-of-passage offering that climaxes on a visionary…
When journalists became guerrillas – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Going to work could mean your death. It was indeed a bad time. The June 12, 1993 election won by Bashorun MKO Abiola had just been annulled by the military regime of General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. Nigeria was in deep…
Making Nigeria work according to Sanusi – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
For The Good Of The Nation – Essays And Perspectives By Sanusi Lamido Sanusi; ALFA Books, Ikoyi, Lagos; 2021; 509pp Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the past Emir of Kano, would want…
Going to Mecca and Jerusalem – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Nigerians take so much pride in making pilgrimages to Mecca and Jerusalem in the name of religion. The Muslims and Christians obviously can never have enough of acting holy through these pilgrimages even when they cannot afford it by paying…
On stage and in print – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
Drama And Theatre In Nigeria: A Critical Source Book Edited By Yemi Ogunbiyi; Second Edition; Tanus Books Limited, Lagos; 2014; First Published 1981; 736pp The handsome young lecturer ambled into the lecture room and did not waste any time with…
Toni Kan strikes 50 with panache – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
It was fun at first sight. The first time I set eyes on Toni Kanayo Onwordi, famously known as Toni Kan, I found fun oozing from his every pore. He blazed into the Lagos writing circle with uncommon confidence that…
The Yoruba: 2000 years of workable history – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
The Yoruba: A New History by Akinwumi Ogundiran; Indiana University Press, Bloomington, Indiana, USA; 2020; 532pp It strikes me as not very funny that there was a time when a celebrated historian in Oxford University, England, Professor Hugh Trevor-Roper, boldly…
I don’t drink bottles; I drink beer – Uzor Maxim Uzoatu
The party is heavy, but the beer is even heavier. In the present tense of liquor, it’s a rollicking night of highs and higher highs in which, under the inspiration of booze, the face of every girl looks like that…