I am thrilled to share with you what may be the singular most important essay I produce in my journey as an undergrad. In Tongues, I negotiate my postcolonial identity through naming and language in a very specific context. Do read: thewegandareview.org/tongues…

One of my initial poems (and the only surviving one in the bunch) from my SS1 days in 2017, Little Feets, was published in The Tough Poets Review 02. Holding my contributor's copy and reading my work, both in print and in brilliant company, are exhilarating for me.

Long before The Yahoo Boys (which I'm about to get and read), Adaobi Nwaubani wrote what I regard as the best 419 novel ever written: I Do Not Come To You By Chance (2009). It's since been made into an award-winning 2023 Nollywood film (produced by Genevieve Nnaji) that premiered at @TIFF_NET. I do not recall anyone accusing Adaobi or the filmmakers of stereotyping Nigeria - the book was brilliant, revealing, funny, and sobering all at once. x.com/toluogunlesi/status/20… If the unspoken point is that @CarlosBarraganT cannot write about 419 because he's not Nigerian, the very fact that the book emerges out of his mother's narrow escape from Yahoo Boys -- see here x.com/CarlosBarraganT/status… -- totally undercuts that argument. Victims and targets - wherever in the world they might be - have every right to write. The more the merrier, let's read from all angles -- fiction, non-fiction, poetry, from home and abroad -- about this terrible thing that has wormed its way into our DNA as a country and a people. Let's discuss it, let's debate it, let's feel the collective and weighty shame of it in full force. Especially at a time when so many forces seem keen on normalising it. The way to fight the 'stereotype' is not to shun the books being written about the crime, or to cast the writers as enemies. The way to do it is to fight the crime itself with everything we've got, in homes and schools and religious houses across the country.

I deleted my initial take on this topic because I felt like I didn’t word it properly, but please don’t go to anybody’s house for more than 2 days and not lift weight in any way you can. Help buy water, or help buy breakfast, or help pay for the electricity or something. You honestly don’t have to sweep or mop. I’m noticing that the people on other end of the discourse are those who can afford and have domestic help. I used to have a cleaner, so it honestly never mattered to me if the person visiting didn’t offer to lift a pin. But on the other end of this conversation is someone living in their one bedroom that only has to occasionally clean up after themselves, now having 2 people in the space. So 2 people using their toilet, 2 people leaving something in the trash, 2 people using dishes, it’s a very quick change for anyone involved. And in my peak functional depression days, having that type of “guest” will just be like a life sentence for me. Let’s learn to be better community members.

A HUGE fan of the push to keep under-16s off social media. I think it's an excellent idea, and NONE of the alleged positives, combined, amount to even a fraction of the immense, often irreversible negatives. I hope governments and society implement as quickly as possible

I have an essay on this same exact thing thewegandareview.org/tongues…

Plugging my essay on this because why not thewegandareview.org/tongues…

I have an essay on this same exact thing thewegandareview.org/tongues…

After 6 men including the Chowdeck rider that fractured my spine, claiming to be sent by @chowdeck, showed up at my home looking for me, threatening shooting, I and the other victim @PurityAddereth have been summoned by the @PoliceNG on a petition written AGAINST US for conspiracy, CYBERSTALKING, and threat to life. In relation to the @chowdeck rider accident. When I took their invite to the police station at Area F where it was already being handled, because I reported all this when it happened, their representative admitted the petition was filed by the company. Listen to this again. Six aggressive men including the Chowdeck rider who fractured my spine came to my house, threatening shooting. I am the one now being petitioned for threat to life under the cybercrime act. The men who came to my house to threaten us said they came to inquire about their motorcycle which is being held by Chowdeck on request of the police. But they came to my house because apparently Chowdeck told them it was because of me the bike was being detained and they should come to me. I have a recording of the rider admitting this. Chowdeck says they didn't send him to come to my house and threaten me. Or even come to my house. But they did say that the bike was being held because I had a case with them. And that until I dropped the case against them, note. Not that until the case was resolved, but until I dropped the case, the bike couldn't be released. This kind of language puts the onus on me. It blames me. Puts a target on my back and makes me the subject of the bike man's ire. Which in turn led to them coming to my home. Imagine recovering from a spinal fracture. Then all of a sudden you hear the person who fractured your spine, almost killed you is at your home. It's alarming at the least. And not just there, but there with five other people, making a half dozen overall, threatening to shoot the security person at the compound, accusing them of hiding me. I wasn't at home at the time btw. I was recuperating somewhere else. But imagine if I was. My security guy said they looked like they were there to do me harm or fight. That the one that threatened shooting was an agbero he had seen around in a bus stop close by. The rider spoke to me on the phone, and I explained to them the motorcycle wasn't with me, it was with Chowdeck. And it wasn't because of me it was being held. It was because Chowdeck had a case to answer. They were asked to leave by other occupants of the compound and they refused. If you fracture my spine, give me nothing after, for my care, I shouldn't be the one being hassled to make it go away to clear up the baggage. The onus should be on you to clean this up asap, to do that. And they hadnt. Instead they were using language that made me the aggressor. And now accusing us their victims of cyber bullying and threat to life? I have been caring for myself to the tune of millions weekly. I had a caregiver to do everything for me, even bath me, because I couldn't bend down, carry anything. Still can't do a lot now, months after. You haven't given me a penny for my care since, but you are telling people their bike is held down because of me. And at this time, they were trying to get me to accept the vastly inadequate settlement they were offering and sign the nda their lawyers @OlaniwunAjayiLP were trying to get me to sign. I had people invade my home to threaten shooting, violate the sanctity of my safe space where I should be healing. They have also been disclosing information of the negotiation to parties who should not have those info. Telling the rider and his folks inflated demands to make me look bad. They told these people that came to my home we were asking for a hundred million naira. At a time when we had agreed to accept 10 and the only thing holding this up was the NDA. All this makes is very unsafe, here at our home and neighborhood. @NigBarAssoc

I believe it’s because of the accent.

hello friends !! good day to announce that my official writer’s website is now live. after covering several cultural scenes and figures since 2018, this is a one-stop site for all my best work. please check it out & RT ✨ emmanuelesomnofu.com/

I identify as a shapeshifter.

WE'RE CASTING FOR OUR TEN-PART SHORT FILM COLLECTION

This analogy no be am

I saw a post on YouTube on why Yahoo boys, internet fraudsters, become so popular and even socially acceptable in Nigeria. The details of the video was so well researched. You'd think the fellow who did it is a Nigerian. He's a Caucasian. I then wonder how can white people know so much about Yahoo in Nigeria and still fall for the scam? Anyway, in the video, the man detailed that one the reasons why internet scams is so popular in Nigeria is because of the cultural climate of acceptability: a lot of Nigerians see no problem with someone being an internet fraudsters, even though they may not be part of it. Some landlords prefer them to working class folks because they only can pay the exorbitant and predatory fee he's asking. Some churches like to have them around because they pay huge offerings and tithes. And most especially, most ladies see them as a pathway to climb the socioeconomic ladder and access nice, shinny things. All these points were laid out by the man in the video. I was wowed. He then concluded that as long as cultural acceptability of internet scams is still prevalent in Nigeria, the enterprise will continue to blossom.

Call for help. My mum was hit with a stroke in may 2024. Since then our lives haven't remained the same. My family have spent all our savings yet her condition hasn't changed. She has severe BP challenge, she has diabetes. Which has gone on to take a toll on her kidneys.

My very good man @ChukwuderaEdozi who I manytimes like to think of as one of the most audacious writer cum philosopher of Igbo extraction in the last 10 years has just sent out his sophomore literary offering into the world. I am telling anybody who loves literature sincerely to reach out to the author and order his or her copy. There is a swagger to his writing, a quiet nostalgia to his choice of words and a wealth of personal experiences that certifies him as a story teller per excellence. Congratulations nwanne. Retweet for every reader on the TL

What in the brazen piracy is going on😭

Happy Publication day to @ChukwuderaEdozi whose sophomore novel goes into the world today! Pre order delivery begins today. You can place your orders for N9,500 here: selar.com/i6f3832w3q Will be available in bookstores all over the country by next week!

As the VP of Ziklaw Writers and head of the legal writing team, I am committed to ensuring that I preserve the next gen of legal writers in UNIZIK. Guys, congratulations to me on pulling this. There were few refreshments and so muchh knowledge from Okolie Chibuike!!!!!