"Lived experience" is a phrase I find deeply suspect. Beyond private expression, it carries little weight. Living through something does not uniquely qualify a person to speak about it. If anything, proximity to suffering can distort as much as it illuminates.
Literature has always known this. Writers and thinkers who confined themselves to personal experience alone would have given us very little. The boundless imagination, intellect, the capacity for empathy etc are not lesser substitutes for having been there or having personally experienced a thing. (Of course this living through a thing can strengthen and sharpen thought but it is by no means the sole qualification for engaging with an idea or experience.)
For me there is also an arrogance in the claim that only the wounded may speak of wounds. It forecloses conversation rather than opening it, and mistakes feeling for understanding. Too often, suffering teaches very little without introspection.
That is one of the reasons I do not agree that certain people should not write certain things, and I apply this to everything from politics to race, from gender to sexuality.
I hope people watch this game and realize that it’s not “the coaching”, it’s literally just the players.
Havertz, Eze, Saka on the pitch = Good
No Havertz, Eze or Saka on the pitch = Bad
You can’t make a Gyokeres contribute to actual football.
The role of intellectuals is to seek the truth. If authority is on the side of truth intellectuals have a responsibility to serve it. If authority is not on the side of truth, intellectuals have a responsibility to challenge it.
Troubling Developments from the citadel of learning.
The reason Universities are regarded as an ivory tower is because its seen as centres for pure, isolated intellectual thought. It's therefore worrisome when they are increasingly pressured to operate outside this norm.
Today, I was scheduled to be at Obafemi Awolowo University at 9am prompt to deliver a keynote lecture, before proceeding to Ibadan for the opposition parties' political summit scheduled to commence at 12noon. The invitation was extended to me several months ago, and adequate preparations had been made. Regrettably, I received the news that the event would no longer be held in the University as planned.
While such occurrences may be dismissed in isolation, it is important to state clearly that this has now happened more than ten times. This is no longer incidental; it points to a troubling pattern that should concern all well-meaning Nigerians. My alma mater, the University of Nigeria, Nsukka was not excluded. The family of one of the renowned UNN Vice Chancellor late Professor Frank Ndili had planned an annual lecture on his behalf and the inaugural lecture was to be delivered, but on the scheduled date it was cancelled by the University authority.
These are not merely personal inconveniences; they raise deeper questions about the kind of environment we are nurturing in our country. Universities are meant to be centres of learning, open dialogue, and the free exchange of ideas. When platforms for constructive engagement are repeatedly constrained, it reflects a worrying shift away from these ideals.
This concern becomes even more pronounced when viewed against my engagements across the world, where I have been privileged to speak and interact freely with students and scholars in respected institutions. In the past 24 months, I have delivered lectures in notable universities globally including Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Chicago University, University of Pennsylvania, Imperial College, to name a few. Those environments continue to demonstrate openness to dialogue, critical thinking, and shared learning, values that should equally define our own institutions.
We must ask ourselves: what kind of nation are we building if spaces meant for intellectual engagement are gradually shrinking? A country’s progress is anchored on its ability to encourage knowledge, debate, and the contest of ideas, not restrict them.
Nigeria must work towards becoming a place where ideas thrive, where knowledge is shared without fear, and where our institutions uphold the principles they were established to protect.
A New Nigeria is POssible. -PO
Poet-archivist @adedayoagarau launched https://t.co/jb7ykS9JPs, a documented catalogue of reasons why Nigerians should not return Bola Tinubu to the presidency in 2027. Part archive, part public service, part provocation. Available in five languages! 🗳️https://t.co/nKNrzmy2P5
I really hate when those who try are ‘punished’ when those who don’t even make any attempt at all get shrugs of there’s no point telling them, they won’t be better. If they are that bad just reserve all your gas for them.
I don’t think sacrificing smaller truths and accuracy on the platform of “general conversation” or “greater good” will bode well for progressivism in the long run.
If there’s a discussion on the timeline, stop attributing what people didn’t say to them.
You need an impenetrable interiority. A self-concept that doesn’t bend to an audience. An erotic self-gaze that defines your beauty on its own terms. An ethic: morals, values + standards you hold yourself accountable to.
Life is easier to navigate when your interiority is solid.