Akintokunbo Adejumo's Page

In a classic illustration of how rumours and hearsay work, Mark Twain described in his autobiography how news that a cousin was dying quickly metamorphosed into the "scoop" that Twain himself was dead. His response became instantly famous: "The report of my death was an exaggeration." Were he alive today, Twain would probably be amused to observe how, in this Internet age, celebrities and well-known figures are confronted by "news" of their own demise on a regular basis.

A premature obituary is… Continue

For the past half-century years of my life, I never knew I was wasting my time in this world, or maybe as a Nigerian. My parents spent time, energy money etc on me to have a very good education so that I may get a very good job and be useful to my family, my community, my people and my country.

Fifty three years later, I have been in different jobs, made very little money and still trying to find the right job that will adequately feed my family. Now, at this stage, I should not even start thin… Continue

Since the BIG news broke, I have been agonising. I don’t know whether I should consider this as a victory, justice, retribution, or insult. Like many Nigerians, home and abroad who heard or read the news of Bode George and his co-conspirators’ conviction and sentencing, the news was met with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, I was actually happy and felt good to know that a man of Bode George’s standing and calibre in Nigerian society and politics, could be convicted in our corruption-ridden jud… Continue

I am really scared now. My state of mind has gone from “concerned” to “really scared and despondent” now, when it comes to Nigeria. Over the past two weeks, indeed over the past one month, things have really gone from bad to worse for me.

I am scared for myself, my family, my people (all Nigerians), Nigeria itself. Please don’t get me wrong, I am not going to let Nigeria kill me. I am just sad and scared because idiots are getting away with murder, literarily. I am scared because I might die ou… Continue

For about three weeks now, the British Media have been a having a field day with the inconvenience and embarrassment of British Members of Parliament and the Government in the scandal of the fiddling of expenses by various elected members of the British government.

Many MPs (as we call them) have virtually fallen on their own swords. Cabinet Officers have been forced to resign; some MPs are standing down at the next election (whenever that is called); the Prime Minister himself was implicated a… Continue