A nation is held together by the stories it is brave enough to tell about itself, and no democracy grows by hiding its shadows from the light. It has often been said that leadership is a practice and not a title, and | believe the same is true of journalism and literature. They are not ornaments of society. They are practices of memory, of conscience, of correction, and of renewal.
I am delighted to be here for the public presentation of Shadows: Protest Essays on Africa’s Most Consequential Country (1999-2023). | thank the management of THISDAY Newspapers, especially the Managing Director, Mr Eniola Bello, for this invitation, and | commend the courage, the discipline, and the public spirit that have gone into producing this two-volume work. A book of this nature does more than arrange essays between covers. It preserves the arguments of an era, the fears of citizens, the choices of leaders, and the unfinished questions of our democratic journey.
Nigeria’s Fourth Republic has been a long conversation between hope and disappointment, between protest and patience, between the promises of power and the expectations of citizens. Every administration has faced the judgement of history, and every generation has had to decide whether to treat criticism as hostility or as an instrument of democratic improvement. The media has been central to that process. When it is responsible, courageous, and fair, it does not weaken the state. It strengthens the state by compelling public officials to remember that power is held in trust.
