Tag: By Tunde Odesola

Seun Kuti’s Fouble-edged Slap, By Tunde Odesola

ADEOLA YUSUF

The stunned policeman, whose left cheek Seun Anikulapo-Kuti sandpapered on the lagoon last Saturday, didn’t turn the right cheek. I know why. He feared losing his eardrum and, or a couple of teeth. Seun doesn’t believe in Jesus Christ and His temptation story. He doesn’t believe in Prophet Muhammed (PBUH), either. Does he believe in Satan? I do not know. But Seun chased a nameless policeman up the Third Mainland Bridge – on the dark Lagos Lagoon – cornered him, and asked, “You dey mad? “You dey craze?” READ ALSO:…

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Pelé: Shame Of Nigeria’s vagabond Leadership, By Tunde Odesola

ADEOLA YUSUF

With a halo round his head, Pelé packed lightning in his right foot, thunder in his left; the reason his footsteps sparkled, the reason he shone like a million stars, the reason he was named Edson after the inventor of the light bulb, Thomas Edison: the reason he turned football to “jogo bonito” – the beautiful game. Pelé was born in the morning of October 23, 1940 when electric light arrived in his hometown of Três Corações, a city in Minas Gerais, light and sunlight heralded the son of light…

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Pele Can’t Untie Messi’s Shoelace (1), By Tunde Odesola

Tunde Odesola

“On the throne of global football was Pele’s acclaimed record which says that he scored 1, 281 goals in 1, 363 games. This is true and false: Half-truth.”   When Frenchman Jules Rimet became FIFA President in 1921, his mission was to wean football off the dominance of the Olympic Games, and project it as the most popular sport, unifying people from all walks of life. Rimet’s mission was no mean task considering the fact that the Olympics dates back to 776 BC – about 3,000 years ago, when the…

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Shameless Yoruba Obas, By Tunde Odesola

ADEOLA YUSUF

“Ooni Adesoji Aderemi said there are only 17 kings in Yoruba land. We must stop and ask ourselves if we want to continue with kingship or not.”   Wear a crown on a pig, clad it in the starchiest agbada, and sheathe its feet in Gucci shoes; it’s still a pig, not a king. More than a thousand years after Oduwuwa ruled Ile-Ife in the 12th Century, and his scions expanded the kingdom to Dahomey and beyond, a taboo of impunity has descended on Yoruba palaces. Sadly, pigs have clambered…

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Queen Elizabeth: Saint or Satan?, By Tunde Odesola

ADEOLA YUSUF

When two horses gallop without the clippity-clop sound of thudding hooves, chances are they are floating. Yes, the two white stallions charioting Queen Elizabeth floated towards Heaven’s Gate in a cloud of fire amid the evergreen Christian song, “Across the Bridge,” made popular by the late American country music singer, Jim Reeves. Clad in her trademark hat, diamond-embedded suit, and gold-encrusted white gloves, she waved her right hand slowly as the chariot wafted through white and blue clouds while the song, “Across the Bridge, there’s no more sorrow…,” played in…

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