Bolaji Olatunde Speaks

I don't often write long reviews of novels I've read. Nine years ago, in 2011, I did write one because it had a profound effect on me. I stumbled on Open City by Teju Cole while browsing through books on an internet bookshop and purchased a copy, acting upon a leap of "faith" (for lack of a better word). Its effect on me was profound and would indirectly affect how I would write a novel with an "unreliable narrator".    Below is the review which was first published by Lara Daniels at https://laradanielswrites.com/2012/02/05/the-beauty-of-solitude-a-review-of-teju-coles-open-city-by-bolaji-olatunde/amp/.   The Beauty of Solitude: A Review of Teju Cole’s Open City  New York City has always been and will never cease to be a beguiling temptress, tantalising all kinds of artists – artists who dwell in one of its many cavities, those who have at sometime in their lives stepped foot on that hallowed city’s concrete, as well as those who will never physically com...

    The keen watchers of Nigeria’s socioeconomic and political sphere, and even the uninterested, given the attention it garnered, could not have avoided news about the nation’s economic statistics for the second quarter of 2020 which were released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on the 14th of August 2020. Every quarter, the nation goes through the ritual of receiving socioeconomic indices from the NBS which is charged by section 2(h) of the Statistics Act 2007 to “collect, process, analyze and disseminate quality data.” In terms of disseminating data, the NBS has fulfilled its mandate. As regards the collection, processing and analysis of data with respect to the unemployment position in Nigeria, I am of the considered opinion that the NBS has not fulfilled its responsibilities to the best of its abilities. I make bold to say that whatever accolades the NBS under the leadership of Dr Yemi Kale has received for the Q2 2020 unemployment report is for a job half do...