₦airaland Forum

From his former high pedestal, Peter Obi has gradually turned himself to a mere ethnic champion.

His behaviour recently does not exhibit the quality of a national leader, and this is tragic.

OredoPikin:
Tinubu is ur number one enemy

Na lie.

Na OredoPikin.

Funkyswagzz:
Kwara state is gone and there's nothing you can do about it. If you like run to U.N kwara belongs to fulani

Those ones running the bloody show at your backyards in Imo and Anambra, you no see that one. Na the one wey dey another man's corner na him you dey put mouth.

Aprocco:
Stupidity!
Is Dangote bigger than Nigerian Constitution?
Is there no common sense in politics anymore?
If anybody acted bigger than Nigeria it was Dangote who flouted Constitution of Nigeria, ILO convention and MOU it freely entered.

Without Dangote will you be buying fuel as easily as you are doing now?

So quick for you to forget the long hours you were spending on the queue fighting with thugs for fuel not too long ago.

And here comes a helper saving you from being cheated by PENGASSAN yet you are vilifying him.

mariovito:
We all know this and agree to it

But just like the young mouse came up with a noble idea of having a bell on the cats neck to serve as a warning whenever the cat is s around.

The old weary mouse who also happens to be wise in the ways of the world raising his hunkered head and asked; BUT WHO WILL BELL THE CAT?

This is me asking, who will imprison them?

Tinubu.

He will do so in his 2nd term.

Vote for him

ogascomax:
We know your frustrations. Her voice opened door for NYSC quick payment after a long delay. What have you done for people.

Your heroine's mental health stability is at stake here.

She her throwing dirty words around against her critics, venting her frustration.

Shouldn't you have better advice her on ways to manage her public identity and social media visibility?

HOW MUCH LAND DOES A MAN NEED?
I discovered Tolstoy's "How Much Land Does a Man Need" on a sweltering summer afternoon in a used bookstore that smelled of dust and forgotten promises. The slim volume caught my eye—lost among towering collections of his more famous works like "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina." Perhaps it was the title's directness that pulled me in, a question disguised as a statement. How much land does a man need? The simplicity of the inquiry belied its devastating power.

I took the book home and read it that evening as shadows lengthened across my small apartment. By the time darkness had fully settled, something in me had shifted irrevocably. I've read thousands of stories in my lifetime—epic novels that span generations, intricate tales that unravel the human psyche—but none has burrowed into my consciousness quite like this brief parable from Tolstoy's pen. At barely thirty pages, it delivers a blow that leaves you breathless, questioning everything you've ever strived for.

The story begins innocuously enough. We meet Pahom, a peasant who believes that with just a little more land, he could rid himself of all troubles. "If I had plenty of land," he declares, "I shouldn't fear the Devil himself!" These words—this hubris—hang in the air like a prophecy. The Devil, overhearing this boast, smiles. I felt a chill run down my spine at this moment, sensing the invisible machinery of fate beginning to turn. Tolstoy, with characteristic economy, had set his trap.

What follows is a journey of escalating desire. Pahom acquires some land, then more, then still more. Each acquisition temporarily satisfies but soon gives way to greater hunger. When he hears of the Bashkirs, a people selling vast tracts of fertile land for almost nothing, he cannot resist. The deal they offer seems too good to be true: for one thousand rubles, Pahom can have all the land he can walk around in a day. The only condition? He must return to his starting point by sunset, or lose both his money and the land.

The night before reading this story, I had lain awake cataloging my own desires—the promotion I was chasing, the larger home I coveted, the recognition I felt I deserved. As Pahom prepared for his great opportunity, calculating how much land he could encompass, I recognized myself with uncomfortable clarity. How many times had I moved the goalposts of my own contentment? How often had "just a little more" been my silent mantra?

Tolstoy's genius reveals itself in how he narrates Pahom's fateful day. The rising sun, the careful marking of territory, the initial caution giving way to naked greed as Pahom spots better and better land just a little further on. I found myself physically tensing as I read, my breath quickening as Pahom strays further from his starting point, the sun climbing ever higher. "Turn back," I silently urged him. "You have enough." But desire had become his compass, and the Devil was watching.

The story's climax unfolds with the terrible precision of Greek tragedy. Pahom realizes too late that he has strayed too far. The descent of the sun becomes a countdown to doom as he races back toward the starting point, his body breaking down even as his determination surges. I remember actually standing up as I read these pages, pacing my small living room, the book clutched in white-knuckled hands. Few works of literature have physically moved me this way—as if my own fate hung in the balance.
When Pahom finally reaches his goal, collapsing at the feet of the waiting Bashkirs just as the sun disappears behind the horizon, Tolstoy delivers his masterful final stroke. Pahom's servant picks up a spade and digs a grave "long enough for Pahom to lie in"—exactly six feet from head to heel. How much land does a man need? Just enough to be buried in.

I closed the book and sat motionless in the dark. Something profound had shifted in my perception. The next morning, I called and withdrew my application for a larger apartment. The week after, I declined a promotion that would have doubled my workload for a thirty percent increase in salary. Friends thought I had lost my mind. Perhaps I had found it.

What makes Tolstoy's parable so devastating is not just its moral clarity but its psychological precision. Pahom is not a bad man. He's not particularly greedy by the standards of his society—or ours. He simply falls prey to a universal human tendency: the belief that contentment lies just beyond the next acquisition. Each time he obtains more land, he experiences a brief satisfaction followed by renewed desire. The cycle is painfully familiar to anyone living in our consumer culture.

In the months since reading this story, I've found myself invoking Pahom's name like a talisman whenever I feel the pull of unnecessary want. Before making any purchase, before pursuing any new opportunity, I ask myself: Am I chasing this because it truly adds value to my life, or am I just marking out a larger circle of desire? The question has saved me countless dollars and hours—and perhaps something far more precious.

Tolstoy wrote this story after his spiritual conversion, when he had turned away from the aristocratic life and embraced a simpler existence. Critics often dismiss his later works as overly moralistic, lacking the psychological complexity of his major novels. But such criticism misses the surgical precision with which "How Much Land Does a Man Need" cuts to the heart of human folly. There is no heavy-handed sermon here—only the unforgettable image of a man racing against the setting sun, driven by a desire that can never be satisfied.

The story's brilliance lies partly in its structure—the perfect arc of rising action that mimics Pahom's expanding greed. But its true power comes from what it leaves unsaid. Tolstoy doesn't need to explicitly condemn materialism; he simply shows us its natural conclusion. The final image—a man stretched out dead on the land he so desperately wanted—contains multitudes of meaning. The grave, that "plot" of earth that we all eventually inherit, becomes the ultimate comment on human ambition.

I've recommended this story to dozens of friends since reading it, pressing copies into reluctant hands with evangelical fervor. "It's short," I assure them. "It will take you less than an hour." What I don't tell them is how that hour might rearrange their lives. Some return the book with polite thanks and unchanged eyes. Others call me at midnight, voices hushed with revelation. "I just finished it," they say, and I can hear in their tone that they've been initiated into the same understanding that now haunts me.

Last week, I passed that same used bookstore and found myself drawn inside. At the register, a young woman was purchasing a collection that included "How Much Land Does a Man Need." Our eyes met briefly as the shopkeeper wrapped her purchase. I wanted to say something—to warn her or congratulate her, I wasn't sure which. In the end, I simply nodded. Some journeys we must each undertake alone.

As I write this, I can see through my window the lights of the city spreading out to the horizon—each point representing a human story of wanting, having, wanting more. Somewhere in that glittering expanse, perhaps someone else is encountering Pahom's fate for the first time, feeling the same seismic shift I experienced. Tolstoy's question continues to reverberate across centuries: How much land does a man need? The answer—so simple, so devastating—waits for each of us at the end of our own measured plot.

#COPIED

Proudlyngwa:
I don't know about others

But me i have been happening to Nigeria
😁 😁 😁

People need to take medical insurance serious
Me inclusive

Medical insurance in a country that lacks adequate and effective medical facilities and treatments is a waste of money.

Drsnives:
1110 yesterday Delta state
Where are the cows?
Deltans the journey is still far oo

The cows are with Gov. Oborevwori.

Have you asked him about them?

GadoosGadoo:
I still stay with my parents at 31 so I don't know

For your online verification check my signature.

No be Gadoos be dis?

At least your 3 square meal is guaranteed.

Irorun lo ba de.

iwaeda:
I wanted to open a thread yesterday, but forgot, at Techno near me, 25 kg was N42500, at N1700, something I bought last 1050 per kg. Anyways, it has favoured me and my family.

Congrats for being a favourite son of our dear presido.

Liverpool has a far far better squad than Chelsea.

Chelsea team is filled mostly with young inexperienced and average skilled players.

Chelsea are not determined in winning today's game. Series of errors on their part have rewarded Liverpool with an equaliser.

As usual many of their fans will be going home sad.

No penalty.

Right decision.

ARISHEM:
Who started the assault. Abure should get her arrested has she have confessed that she will continue

I thought Abure is the en8my of your Commander Obi of the obidient army, of which Mama P is a unit leader.

But they said the en8my of your friend is automatically your own en8my too. So why are you supporting Abure against one of your group's unit leader?

nairalanda1:
LOL...the guy , despite probably being an APC supporter, is right.

Many of you want the things developed countries have, forgetting that many developed countries have tax to gdp of over 30% , some as high as 50%

Meanwhile we have a very low per capita GDP...even under GEJ, it was 2500 dollars . The big boys like Germany and denmark who give everything including electricity, and roads, and water to their people have gdp of 40000-50000 dollars., and they tax 30-50% of that.

Also, less than 40% of nigerians pay tax. It was as low as 16% in 2016, 30% in 2019. You may complain about the taxes you pay, but the average nigerian does not pay income tax. (PLus the revenue from levies and so forth can't fund much, even if it wasn't stolen self)

Nigeria has a tax to gdp of 10%, and 80% of our revenue comes from 1.8 million bpd of crude that is enough for a nation of 1million people, not 230 million nigerians. Even if we was really 100 million, it would still be paltry.

That's why we are chronically in debt.

And most subsaharan nations are like Nigeria. I'm serious.

If we want to have goodies...tax most nigerians, and long term...fight corruption, fight corruption, and then transition to an economy based on manufactured goods and services, and yes, if we must vote out APC to get there, so be it.

Let us stop endemic CORRUPTION first before taxing every sector of the economy, and everybody. And not the other way round.

As long as the citizens see their politicians and bureaucrats flexing around with their hard earned money with little or no personal benefits to them in terms of direct infrastructural development of their localities, their desire to pay taxes will always remain low.

Samantha125:
Who's portable?

May be your next hubby.

The guy is immensely rich.

You agree, you are made for life.

Living a life better than Regina Nwoko's own.

Arsenal did it, won their pride back at home at the last minutes.

A great goal.

Angelfrost:
Dem go still draw this game... Just watch.

That's if Casemiro or another player no collect red card in solidarity.

You don turn prophet, Casemiro is out.

Game on the same level, but for the 2:0 lead.

ZombieDredd:
I have super premium towels for chelshit fans
May your agony this evening be long

Place your orders now

We ain't buying.

Until the final whistle, Chelsea can still draw or win.

Chelsea is jinxed today. Who did they offend? Costly mistakes everywhere and everytime.

fergie001:
United for Lifeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee


Nairalanders are happppppppppppy

I am not happy.

Which clubs dem be?

Even for France, who dey follow dem?

Rindo69:
FAAC jamboree!

Removed subsidy and increased allocation to state governors which they use for flyovers and payment to their god fathers with little impact on the citizens.

The clueless one in Ondo State is not even building a single flyover in the state capital. The incompleted one he met is literally abandoned.

He is only using the state money doing jamboree with his cronies. No major developmental projects, only the refurbishment of old roads.

Ondo State has entered one chance with anini on the driving seat.

Nteogwuija:
Lol, I thought u guys made a covenant that an Igbo man can never be president.

Is Soludo an Omoluabi?

Soludo is an Igbo's Omoluabi.

Come 2031, on Soludo's mandate we stand.