Iya Kii S’Omi Obe By Pius Adesanmi

“Hello Prof, I apologize for my email intrusion. I am one of your young avid readers and followers in Nigeria and I just wanted you to clarify something I saw recently on your Wall. If you are hosted in what you call “capitalist restaurants” by some of your wealthy friends when you come home, are you not betraying the cause?”

I receive hundreds of messages from self-declared “avid readers and followers” every day. It’s a challenge managing the daily chaos in my Facebook and Gmail inboxes, especially as I can only randomly respond to, maybe, five of such messages per week. On occasion, a message comes in and I decide that it provides an excellent excuse for a public teachable moment, for an extended public rumination on how, where, and why the rain began to beat us as a society. The email I received today from the above “avid reader and follower” is one such occasion. The reader is reacting to my recent Facebook update in which I confessed to being spoilt in posh, capitalist restaurants in the Lekki – Victoria Island axis by my friend, Mrs. Kike Akin-Davies, whenever I’m in Nigeria.