Besieged Borgu and Their Jagaban, by Ugoji Egbujo

In 2006, when the Borgu Emirate chose Tinubu, it could not have known it was choosing a future commander-in-chief as its chief warrior. Twenty years later, the jackpot looks like rotten luck: no better than a dud cheque. Achebe said a man cannot live by the riverbank and wash with spittle. If only Borgu could suffer lack and not terror.
Nigerians love titles. Illiterate pastors become Doctors. Politicians are the most afflicted. When they are not lions and tigers — even the most cowardly among them — they are sun and moon, providers for the poor they are accused of looting blind. If only people lived true to the titles they brandish. Borgu must have seen something in Tinubu. Now it must...