Those who are talking sharia in Nigeria are really just politicians exploiting what they think is available. But if it should turn out that there are in fact whole sections of the country which believe that it is legitimate to chop off peoples hands because they stole a hen - if that should really turn out to be the genuine belief of responsible, educated people in the North than I would say there is no chance. But I do not believe that is the case. The sharia was always there but it was never force onto non-Muslims and it was not ever applied in the area of criminal law.

When there is a big tree small ones climb on its back to reach the sun.

I think back to the old people I knew when I was growing up, and they always seemed larger than life.

It is not quite true to say that I am not an advocate of writing in African languages. What I think is, one has to think about what is practicable.

There is no story that is not true.

I'm very primitive; I write with a pen.

Storytellers are a threat. They threaten all champions of control, they frighten usurpers of the right-to-freedom of the human spirit -- in state, in church or mosque, in party congress, in the university or wherever.