The Nation

A graduation ceremony stage with an awards podium. Several confident female students stand receiving awards under bright celebratory light. In the audience below, a row of boys sits watching and clapping, partially in shadow. The contrast between those on the stage and those watching from below tells the story. Warm ceremonial lighting, photorealistic, cinematic composition, Nigerian secondary school setting.

Where Are the Boys?

A question raised at a graduation ceremony that educators and parents everywhere need to sit with.

Some news hits you and leaves you numb, not because it is shocking, but because it is one too many. The screaming headlines, the prayers that follow, and the silence in between, when it feels like nothing is changing. The Oyo school abduction—one too many, yet still impossible to ignore.

An extreme close-up of an ancient chess-like game board, worn and cracked. In the centre, a single simple clay figurine of an ordinary person, a traveller with a small bundle, surrounded at a distance by elaborately carved pieces representing kings, commanders, and political figures. The ordinary figure is lit from above by a single shaft of light. Everything else is in deep shadow. Shot from directly above, macro lens. Mood: the innocent as political currency, the human being reduced to a game piece, the ancient and ongoing evil of weaponising civilian lives for power.

When the Innocent Pay for Political Ambition

A single verse tucked inside Judges 9 describes a political tactic so familiar it could have been written yesterday. With elections approaching and innocent lives still being taken, it is time to name this ancient evil for what it is.

You Are My Business

I was in junior secondary school, living with my parents. I had done something wrong, and as was common in many Nigerian homes at the time, discipline often came with a serious consequence. The mere thought of my father’s belt was enough to inspire what I believed was a brilliant plan…