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  • Mutfwang, Plateau APC and 2027 battle

    Mutfwang, Plateau APC and 2027 battle

    There is a groundswell of support for Governor Caleb Mutfwang’s re-election bid in Plateau State where the political class is closing ranks and working closely for development. Deputy Editor EMMANUEL OLADESU, who witnessed the defection rally in Jos, the state capital, writes on the preparations for next year’s poll in the Northcentral state

    The crowd was huge. It was not a rented gathering. The atmosphere was electrifying. Smiles lit the face of Caleb Mutfwang, lawyer and governor on the Plateau as joy was bold on the faces of all and sundry.

    For the first time, the Northcentral state was in one accord. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) forces, led by the governor, moved enmass to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to continue the journey of development and progress.

    The Polo Field in Jos, venue of the defection rally, was filled to the brim by party members from across the 17 local governments, who were locked in excitment.

    They endured the sun from sunrise to 3.30pm when the APC leaders stormed the field for a popularty walk. The party chairman, Rufus Bature, who was Mutfwang’s senior in the secondary school, exuded happiness.

    The chairman and the governor are expected to jointly tackle the challenge of harmonisation of party structures imposed by the entry of new members.

    It was a day of concrete resolutions. The people resolved to back the re-election bid of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu because he has lived to expectation.

    Also, APC resolved to field its state leader, Mutfwang, for a second term. There was no dissenting voice. Indeed, also for the first time in a long while, unity and peace were restored and the governor received applause as the symbol of harmony, cohesion and transquility.

    Also defecting along with the governor were his deputy, Josephine Piyo, Senator Pam Nwadkou Dachungyang (Plateau North), PDP members of the House of Assembly, other federal lawmakers, local government chairmen and local opposition leaders.

    Mutfwang’s defection was significant for another reason. It marked the completion of the allegiance shift to the progressive bloc in the Northcentral geo-political zone, which is now a stronghold of the ruling party.

    APC National Chairman Prof. Netanwe Yilwatda, who was Mutfwang’s rival during the 2023 poll, assured that he will get the second term ticket and win in next year’s election.

    He said there is no vacancy in the Plateau Government House because APC is waxing stronger, having become one bigger family.

    He expressed excitment that the governor, who was his senior in secondary school and opponent, would team up for APC during the general election.

    Yilwatda said:”My joy knows no bound. The candidates of APC,  PDP, Labour Party and other parties are now in APC. All the structues are now in APC, which is more powerful, more united,more intimidating and more prepared to deliver victory to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. We are better, stronger and more united.”

    The chairman added:”There will be justice. There will be no tribal sentiment. There will be peace in Plateau State. We will work together, not by words, but by action.

    “That brotherhood that made us one, that brotherhood that makes us thick should expand. The time for unity, justice and peace is here.”

    Turning to Mutfwang, the chairman said:”Our broom will give you strengty to sweep all your supporters to APC.  The broom will sweep away disunity. The broom will ensure that we are one.”

    Yilwatda also said in 1027, both the President and the governor will win in Plateau overwhelmingly.

    He added:”Anybody who does not belong to the APC is a minority. All our federal and state lawmakers are APC. Our local government chairmen are APC. I urged those who are yet to join APC to come.”

    ‘APC wooing more governors’

    Yilwatda said APC would not relent in wooing more opposition leaders to the ruling party, adding that the membership drive embarked by the party has offered opportunity to Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members to jump out of the sinking platform to safety.

    Currently, APC has 29 states, and with Mutfwang’s defection, Northcentral states of Kwara, Kogi, Niger, Benue, Nasarawa and Plateau have come under the progressive banner.

    However, Yilwatda said APC intends to enlarge its coast for more states and generality of  Nigerians to savour the benefits of the Renewed Hope Agenda of the Tinubu administration.

    He stressed:”APC now has 29 states. We will be expecting more. We are not tired of getting everyone. Our intention, our motive is that everyone become members of APC.”

    He added:”PDP is drowning. Come to the party that will give you life. Come and take the broom that will give you the life jacket.”

    Mutfwang: in unity we stand

    Mutfwang,  who spoke after receiving the party flag from Yilwatda,  promised to be a symbol of unity in the state.

    He said he and other defectors have not come to take over the structures of APC in the state but to add value to it.

    Stressing that “Plateau is a must-win state in future elections,” the governor who hailed President Tinubu’s gestures, said “ it is better to follow a man that kniws road.”

    He added:”We have not come to take over. We have come to add value. All disunity and rilvaries will now disappear. Plateau will be united.  No more opposition in Plateau. We are not defecting. We are realigning. We are re-engineeribg. Plateau will be the joker in 2027.”

     Mutfwang promised to fortify the party to achieve victory in future polls, saying: “Today’s movement is a landmark. It is statement that the people on the Plateau have made and they are here in their thousands to publicly declare their support for the APC and to return President Tinubu back to office in 2027.

    “We are beginning a journey that our forefathers had long expected that we be united for peace and development.”

    He thanked the president,  Akpabio, Abbas and other party leaders for encouraging him to join the ruling party.

    Why ruling party is waxing stronger, by Shettima

    Vice President Kashim Shettima,  who represented President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is away in Turkey, noted that APC has continued to wax stronger and enlarge its coast because the administration is fulfilling its promises to Nigerians.

    He described Mutfwang’s defection as an affirmation that the ruling party is a truly national platform open to all Nigerians committed to unity, peace and inclusive development.

    He said the realignment underscored the party’s identity as the destination for all  who believe in a united future for the country.

    The vice president said: “Plateau is a reminder that what powers every nation is unity, not unity rooted in sameness, but unity anchored on shared purpose,” the Vice President said, adding that the state’s entry into the APC symbolised Nigeria’s shared destiny.

    He recalled Plateau State’s historic role in Nigeria’s survival and cohesion, paying tribute to former Head of State, Gen.  Yakubu Gowon,  Wash Pam, Solomon Lar, Joshua Dariye, Lalong, Tallen,  and other eminent sons and daughters whose sacrifices woven into the fabric of the nation’s survival.

    Shettima said “Plateau gave Nigeria a leader whose strength lay in reconciliation. Nations survive not by conquest but by healing”.

    The Vice President conveyed assurances from President Tinubu that Mutfwang would enjoy full standing and recognition within the APC, stressing that good governance is an asset to any political movement committed to national progress.

    He described the governor as a unifying leader whose administration has begun to reposition Plateau from conflict and stagnation towards peace and transformation.

    He alluded to Mutfwang’s initiatives in peacebuilding, renewable energy deployment for primary healthcare centres, agricultural expansion, transport infrastructure revitalisation, and people-focused budgets in education, healthcare and youth empowerment, urging him to sustain the tempo

    Shettima said the defection marked the restoration of unity, justice peace, harmony to the state.

    He said the president has ordered the construction of the Akwanga/Jos Road and recruitment of 1,000 forest guards in Plateau to complement the push for security in the state.

    Tinubu is  most Christian-friendly leader, says Akpabio

    Akpabio, who led his colleagues, including Deputy Senate President Jibrin Barau, Senate Leader Opeyemi Bamidele, Simon Lalong, Rochas Okorocha, and Adams Oshiomhole, said it is now evident that President Tinubu will win the next poll and Mutfwang will secure a second term.

    Addressing fears that the defections could lead to a one-party state, Morka dismissed such concerns, arguing that Nigeria had experienced similar political dominance in the past without undermining democracy.

    Akpabio described President Tinubu-led administration as the most Christian friendly government since Nigeria came into existence.

    He therefore, dismissed the insinuations of religious discrimination as unfounded.

    Akpabio said:  “Let me place on record that the President Bola Tinubu- led administration is the most Christian friendly administration since the creation of Nigeria. He has shown this through his actions and deeds. He treats both Christians and Muslims equally.”

    The Senate President hailed Mutfwang for taking Plateau to the centre of Nigeria’s political gravity.

    He said: “Mr Governor, I congratulate you on this action of taking the people of Plateau to the centre of national politics. Let me assure you that insecurity will soon come to an end in the Plateau.

    “We will support your government in all sectors inorder to better the lives of your people. We will not leave you alone. Today’s action has finally brought all the states in the North Central geo- political zone into the party. This is significant.

    “Government will do everything within its powers to protect Nigerians no matter their religious inclination and belief. We will support President Tinubu through approval of funds inorder to shut down all IDP camps in the state.”

    Abbas: Governor should reconcile Plateau

    House of Representatives Speaker Tajudeen Abba, who hailed Mutfwang’s courage, urged him to embark on reconciliation in the state to foster cohesion and harmony.

    He described the occasion as historic, noting that Plateau was the last state in the Northcentral to join the APC.

    He urged Mutfwang to embrace reconciliation and provide inclusive leadership as the party leader in the state.

    He said:”As the state party leader, you should embrace reconciliation and promote brotherhood. Take members of APCand PDP as one indivisible family and give everyone a sense of belonging.”

    APC will bring prosperity,  says Uzodimma

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     Uzodimma said APC will nit renege on its promise of renewedhope, development and prosperity.

    He described Mutfwang as one of the best and brightest, assuring that Plateau would reap the benefit of defection.

    No formidable team like Tinubu/Shettima, says  Sule

     Nasarawa State Governor Sule said Northcentral is now a stronghold of APC, noting that the six ststes are under the leadership of the ruling party.

    He said Plateau had chosen a path that would reposition it to fully support President Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027.

    He praised the President’s passion for national unity and progress, urging Nigerians to work together to steady the nation.

    The governor paid special tributed to Vice President Shettima, acknowledging his pivotal role in encouraging his defection to the ruling party.

    At the rally were Governors Babajide Sanwo-Olu (Lagos State), Ahmad,Aliyu (Sokoto), Dikko Raddah (Katsina), Monday Okphebolo (Edo), Abdullahi Sule(Nasarawa), Babagana Zulum (Borno), Agbu Kwfas (Taraba), and Francis Nwifuru (Akwa Ibom).

    Other dignitaries included Secretary to the Government of the  Federation Senator George Akume, former Deputy Governor Pauline Tallen, former House of Representatives Deputy Speaker Idris Wase, Prof. David Yakubu,  APC National Secretary Senator Ajibola Basiru, and other National Working Committee (NWC) members -Saliu Muazu, Duro Meseko, Chinedu Ogah, Senator Lawrence Adudu, Abdulkarim Kana, Garuba Datti, and Mustapha Saliu.

  • Ekiti council rejects imposition of chairmanship candidate

    Ekiti council rejects imposition of chairmanship candidate

    ‘We need an urgent stakeholders’ meeting’

    Efon political leaders have rejected moves by Ekiti State Physical Planning Commissioner Karounwi Oladapo to impose a chairmanship candidate on the local government on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) without consultation with the stakeholders.

    Expressing surprise at the attempted personalisation of power and influence, they urged Governor Biodun Oyebanji to pay attention to the brewing nomination crisis in Efon local government ahead of the council polls.

    Karounwi, an APC stalwart, was said to have arranged for the controversial endorsement of an aspirant, Ifetade Ola, without consultation with other party leaders, including Chief Joseph Alake, stakeholders’ leader; Prof. Adio Folayan, former Agriculture commissioner, Elder Odunayo Ategbero, former local government chairman and commissioner, Victor Kolade, former special adviser,  Chief Joel Omoniyi, former council chairman, and Bode Adetunji, former council chairman.

    Also, other commiited party chieftains – Chief Bode Olayinka and Chief Dele Jeje, respected chieftains and community leaders; Olaitan Olayinka, a retired federal civil servant,  and Afolabi Ige, a lawyer and businessman, dissociated themselves from the imposition.

    A community leader, Ajiroba Patrick Ojo, who condemned the brewing hulaballoo, urged Oyebanji to call the commissioner to order.

    In a statement titled: ‘When men dare to play God,’ called for a stakeholders’ meeting to discuss the political crisis.

    Ojo, former President of the umbrella township association, Efon Development League (EDL), said it is important to prevent chaos and instability in the lical government.

    The statement reads: :For over a week now, we have been following the activities of certain party men and women in the political land space of our local government. I have personally been reading with interest the several media posts of our dear Hon Commissioner, Mr Karounwi, his boastful assertions and his claim of been the singular authority to choose for Efon Alaaye, who and who represents us without any regard or consultation with the Efon traditional council, Efon Development League, Efon stakeholders and the majority of APC leaders.

    “Having consulted widely and generally with several notable leaders and people of our kingdom, I, Ajiroba of Efon Alaaye, in my capacity, wish to advise Commissioner Karounwi to tread softly.

    “This current attitude of his only tends to throw our dear community into chaos and instability. Not a single known and recognised political heavyweight in APC has supported any of his spurious claims. From Chief Alake, Chief Jeje, Chief Olayinka, Prof Adio Folayan, Chief Omoniyi, Elder Ategbero, Engineer Skiddo, Victor Kolade, Olaitan Olayinka, Afolabi Ige and several other party leaders and their followers, none has has shown any sign of support for this sole candidate of Hon. Karounwi.

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    “Their cold silence, the silence of the traditional council and the rest of us the good people of Efon Alaaye, show our discontent and disapproval for this arrogance and undemocratic attitude.”

    “The constant and irresponsible attitude of picking our third eleven to represent us should stop forthwith. We will forever remember that this same attitude of rebellion led Efon to loosing a Federal Government College during the Teacher Training College episode a few decades ago.

    “My dear people of Efon, we would be calling a meeting of all Efon Alaaye stakeholders shortly. Our respect, love and support remains forever undiluted and strong for our Omoluabi Governor BAO. Those presently misrepresenting his government will surely be put to shame eventually.”

    But the commissioner fired back, saying that Ojo should let him be.

    Oladapo said in a statement:”I read with rude shock about your outbursts and unnecessary defamation of my characters through your post to various Efon social media platforms.

    “I am only taking your write-up and propose next move with philosophical calmness and understanding knowing fully that you are not a practicing politician.*

    “With due respect Sir,  you are free to form your own opposition party without insulting or tarnishing my long built reputations in my party APC.

    *As one of the APC political leaders in Efon Alaaye Local Government and Ekiti State, I am entitled to play my role based on my party dictates.  I don’t think I have ever interfere in any areas of your own choosing careers. Let everybody maintain his or her own lane with respect for individuals.

    “Election time is still far and we have alot of opposition parties e.g. PDP, LP, AAC, etc. from where concerned citizens of Efon can showcase their own preferred candidates for LG elections without causing disharmony. Please, let me be sir.”

  • The men who ruined a republic

    The men who ruined a republic

    •Sam Omatseye’s review of Ayo Opadokun’s Gun Hegemony

    A context is necessary to review a book like Ayo Opadokun’s. First, the use  of the phrase gun hegemony may be problematic. The word hegemony was popularized by the Italian activist and theorist Antonia Gramsci. He was not referring to things but humans. He was talking about how segments of society try to lord it over others.

    Human societies have always been about hegemony, whether it is the hegemony of ethnic superiority, or the sway of certain set of ideas.

    Opadokun, in this book also wants Nigeria’s contemporary history to be written by the gun. That is a large claim for any writer. On the fictional level, writers tend to give narrative voices to anyone to tell the yarn of a society. They give it to children as in Abiku or Ogbanje in Ben Okri’s The Famished Road, to a long-gone ancestor like Mofolo’s Chaka. In fact, the Nigerian novelist Chigozie Obioma gave the honours to a chi, the private god in Igbo mythology. It was in his second novel and Booker Prize finalist, the Orchestra of Minorities.

    On the nonfictional level, however, Opadokun seeks to raise the stakes. Is it a question of the gun or the man. The debate is hottest today in the United States. George Bernard Shaw suggests the conundrum in his play, Arms and the Man.

    In the U.S, those who say it is not the gun that kills but man have argued that guns are not to blame. Guns are innocent. Guns are sinned against. Man is the sinner. You can have a thousand guns on street, and not a murderer and not a shot fired. The reason? Guns cannot shoot themselves.

    Every year, the country laments a school massacre, a neighborhood bereavement, a church funeral, and old man fallen, or community leader pockmarked. But those who want their guns defend the guns. They do not accept any argument about a gun hegemony. We have to fix the people, not the guns.

    It is a very important part of Opadokun’s argument, although he does not probe the interstices of this issue.

    He does well to probe the origins of guns and how it changed forever the turn and tone of warfare over the ages. Man no longer had to refer to the great horse man of war wielding swords and slashing throats. No more the grand battle Caesar leading the troops against the Roman hordes trying to tear the empire apart. War became more clinic. Death was efficient.

    But the concern of our author is how the gun has changed the Nigerian narrative forever. He laments how we missed an opportunity in January 1966. In doing so, he has excavated some facts that were known to a few, and even those who knew did not insist on the veracity of their witnesses.

    It is a story of false heroes. January 1966 was the day we might have saved democracy for Nigeria. We might have demonstrated in the contagion of coups in the sub region that Nigeria’s democracy had a resilience of spirit, and the guns would not have dared any form of hegemony. Many have asked, when the coup failed, how come we had a military in charge? What happened to the parliament? According to records from men like Richard Akinjide and Shehu Shagari, after no one saw prime minister Tafawa Balewa, members of the parliament picked Dipcharima from the northeast to act as prime minister. It was the task of Nwafor Orizu to legalise it by swearing him in. He would not.

    Even though he had all the powers to do so, he dithered. He said he was only acting on Zik’s behalf. But he was told he was going to formalize it since Zik was on the high seas. Zik has reportedly been tipped off by Emmanuel Ifeajuna about the coup and the coward was not in air or land.

    If you read Opadokun’s earlier work, Aristocratic Rebel about M.D. Yusufu, Nigeria’s top spy and former inspector general of police, you would understand that all Nigeria’s coups were known ahead of time. The eminent powers did not act because they were like drones, fat and too bulky to roll. For instance, The Dimka coup was dismissed and they claimed they would not worry themselves about a drunkard.

    It turned out, back to 1966, that Nwafor Orizu knew he had power to swear in an acting prime minister. His eyes were set on his kinsman K. O. Mbadiwe. The rumble within the parliament was that it seemed Orizu was confirming the fears that the coup was dictated by ethnic designs. This is a very serious allegation. He obviously could not pull it through.

    That opened the window for a very cruel option. Individual ambition trumped national interest. General Ironsi, the man who moved about with a baby crocodile, had control of the army. He was even triumphal.

    According to the eyewitnesses, Ironsi summoned the lawmakers in one room and read them the riot act. It was either they surrendered the power to him as gentlemen or he would take it by force. That was not the language of a democrat but a despot.

    So the lawmakers wanted to make it clear that they did not give up power without resistance. The soldier had taken over with guns. Dialogue and constitution were out of the window. Some context is necessary for Ironsi. He was supposed to be one of the targets of the coupists. He was basking in the sun while his colleagues had expired like Maimalari and Sodeinde.

    Ifeajuna, who should have eliminated the general according to their plan, left him. Ifeajuna fled to Ghana. He and his rival colleague Kaduna Nzeogwu would eventually die in the civil war. Many believe that Ironsi was grateful to the young men for sparing his life. Was it to spare his own life that he took over power? Was he feeling guilty? Was he anticipating a sort of  institutional revenge from the army because he was breathing why they, his soldier colleagues, lay dead, some as yet undiscovered in bushes?

    Was he paranoid? If he survived, was that any reason for any parliament to come after him? to come after him would be to legitimize the coup. No lawmaker was going to do that. Opadokun is a writer with an attitude, and that gives him punk. What he has asserted are the facts . That is, that Ironsi and Orizu destroyed the First Republic. We must understand that it was not politicians that killed the republic. The coupists had failed. They were scrambling for their own lives. They had been arrested. What was the next step? Of course try them. Ironsi would not. The issue was raised in parts of the country, especially in the north and west that Ironsi’s reluctance to do the logical thing was because these men were his kinsmen and the “kinsman in trouble,” as Chinua Achebe asserts in No Longer At Ease, “must be saved, not blamed. Anger against a brother was felt in the flesh, not in the bone. He is a fool who treats a brother worse than a stranger.”

    The claim that some of us took over from our classrooms in the 1980’s was that civilians were responsible for the demise of the republic.  That politicians failed democracy. Politicians can always be bumbling. Yet, as we have seen, they might have been running a flawed system. Yet they kept the faith. Part of the illusion was resonance of a speech. That was because of the soaring and self-serving rhetoric of the Nzeogwu coup speech about 10 percenters, etc.

    Ironsi swaggered to power as a messiah. He was just a soldier but suddenly, he was going to govern the country. There was a sore thumb in the tale. Obafemi Awolowo. According to Nzeogwu, he was being released from Calabar Prison to lead the country. The bars of Calabar did not rattle. Some of the coupists moved to eastern and midwestern regions at the time and probably had tea with the premiers while the Sardauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Samuel Ladoke Akintola were slaughtered in the presence of their families.

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    We have to keep returning to January 15. Shall we say the foolhardiness of Orizu and Ironsi led to the eventual slaughter of the Igbos in the pogrom that smeared parts of the north from Sokoto to Makurdi? If Dipcharima became acting prime minister, there might have been no Ironsi. We might not have heard of pogrom, Gowon or Murtala or some of the bloody chapters of the civil war.

    The promulgation of Decree 34 has become one of the contentious laws in our history. Some historians have tried to excuse Ironsi with the explanation that it might have been naïve. It was called unification degree, but it was a clarion call for ethnic domination. As Opadokun noted in his Aristocratic Rebel, Ojukwu had exploited the decree to ask all prefects to take charge across the civil service. The decree was bad enough, but Ojukwu’s cry poisoned the pool. The civil servants in the north were the first to feel alienated.

    If it was naïve, the resistance in the north should have restrained Ironsi. Yet he did not. Middle ranking officers in the north had written letters saying they would act if it was not reversed. Ironsi was deaf. The Igbo streets across the country became self-righteous. They burnt the Sardauna in effigy, and were singing triumphantly. In the barracks, the Igbo officers’ wives were mocking their northern counterparts. The tension was in the air. The Ironsi men knew a plot was afoot. He could not do anything to stop them. If he tried, it would be an open sesame of civil war. Yet, he would not reverse course. Historians do not say anything is inevitable. But something was going to happen. It was like King Oedipus of Sophocles’ play who saw tragedy and was careening towards it as though there no other course. A literary critic known as Killam described it as insistent fatality, and we see this in Okonkwo’s  Things Fall Apart. And it happened in what is known as the revenge coup of July 1966.

    The issue of death and destruction was all the January 15 night brought us. The revenge coup in July was blood roll. It might not have happened if Nzeogwu and his colleagues were tried. It is a story about how we must not allow our heroes to destroy our societies. Orizu has been memorialized today, but what of the millions of Igbo that were slaughtered in cold blood because he was trying to pursue the same ethnic agenda? It brings to mind the poem by Claude Mckay

    If we must die, let it not be like hogs

    Hunted and penned in an inglorious spot,

    While round us bark the mad and hungry dogs,

    Making their mock at our accursèd lot.

    If we must die, O let us nobly die,

    Another crucial part of this book is the person of Adekunle Fajuyi. He has been mythicise as a hero as a host. In July 1966, he and Ironsi were picked up, and the widespread belief was that the soldiers wanted to spare him, but he insisted on being shot. The eyewitness, including Theophilus Danjuma, say otherwise.

    Here are the words of Lieutenant Colonel William Walbe (rtd):

    “We arrested him as we arrested Aguiyi-Ironsi. We suspected him for being party to the January coup. You remember the Battle Group Course which was held in Abeokuta…Fajuyi was the commander of the Battle Group Course…All those who took part in the January coup were those who had taken part in the course… he had to suffer too. I am sorry about that but that is the nature of the life of a military man…”

    Danjuma said it was under Fajuyi the training on the raid of the Sardauna took place. After Fajuyi’s arrest, he said, “The chaps could not stomach Fajuyi such that if there was anybody who should die first, as far as they were concerned , it was Fajuyi, not even Aguiyi-Ironsi.”

    Opadokun’s Gun Hegemony is meditation on a nation’s dark moment, and he nudges to look back again on that day, this day, to understand how to treasure the beauty of democracy.

  • Osimhen: Oliseh talks the talk

    Osimhen: Oliseh talks the talk

    Post-Africa Nations Cup (AFCON), Morocco 2025, Sunday Oliseh, former Super Eagles captain and ex-national team coach, has outed with why Nigeria lost in the semi-final, against the hosts, Morocco: Victor Osimhen, the Eagles talisman and goal machine, bullied Ademola Lukman, lovable gentleman and attack dynamo.

    By that, Oracle Oliseh just roared, Osimhen killed the team spirit during the Round of 16 Mozambique match, which the Eagles won 4:0. Though Nigeria had already scored a quad of goals, Osimhen berated his colleagues for not passing to him, since he had a good chance of adding to the goal tally.

    Some folks claim Osimhen was desperate for a hat trick — and thus selfish — since he already got a brace. But that’s all bull, given the beautiful goal he crafted for Akor Adams against Algeria, when he could easily have gone for glory himself. No, Osimhen is no selfish player. Yes: he wants to score. But beyond that, he always plays for the team. That’s clear to every rational and unbiased mind.

    But to the Oliseh charge that Osimhen “killed” the team spirit against Morocco, even after decisioning Algeria, who became a mere 90-minute wimp, mesmerized by Nigeria’s dazzling, attacking football, immediately after Mozambique? Let’s just say Oliseh suffers from the win-all-the-time syndrome of the Nigerian ball fans.

    But again, Osimhen will answer for his mercurial on-field temper, just to get the job done. In the same mien, Lukman will ever gross more admirers, when the subject is eternal cool and politeness, even under match tension and provocation. The Eagles manager, the often unsung Eric Chelle, did a good job managing both at AFCON.

    Still, Oliseh pontificating on discipline while flogging Osimhen? Wonders shall never end! Of Oliseh’s generation, who was more truculent than Oliseh? Talk is cheap!

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    Oliseh’s notorious truculence, with teammates and officials alike, was among reasons the team was disbanded; and he couldn’t go to Korea/Japan 2002 World Cup. The Eagles had nicked yet another bronze at the Mali AFCON in 2002.

    Oliseh might be the most articulate of his generation. But he’s in no place to posture over humility or discipline. As a player, he was the diametric opposite of both!

    Why, even, as a coach, his hauteur led to losing Vincent Enyeama, one of Nigeria’s safest pair of hands, ever! What’s more? After the late Stephen Keshi, Oliseh was brought in to build the team. But he rather scattered it because of draconian codes he wouldn’t, as a player, take from any coach. Enyeama, the team’s captain then, called his bluff and walked out.

    Horrors of horrors! He even fled from the wreckage he caused by a hasty resignation! What crass cowardice!

    But Oliseh’s cheap talk over Osimhen is a media crisis. He knows Nigerians often lack institutional memory; and could blab anything and get away with it. An Eagles captain booted out of the World Cup, because of indiscipline, has nothing to teach anyone on discipline.

  • The Dean departs

    The Dean departs

    I walked into Lewis Obi’s office at the African Concord, and I saw a man of deceptive simplicity. Babafemi Ojudu had hinted me there was an opening in the magazine for a staff writer position.

     Obi, soft-spoken and grave, said he had been reading me, but wanted me to prove my mettle.

     None of my scripts with Newswatch had impressed him as much as a hand-written note on a fading post-it paper from Dan Agbese. Agbese, who passed recently, had commended me for a series of stories I did where I filled the magazine from cover to cover, from soft stories to an international piece. Bylines are no guarantees you wrote them yourself. Great editors redeem poor writers.

    So, I started a journey with African Concord and with the editor I must give credit for making me bloom uninterrupted.

    Newswatch editors shaped me and honed my skill. Obi allowed me blossom. He is one of the underappreciated journalists in our history. He became editor of African Concord and the magazine was nondescript for a while until he did something extraordinary.

    He recruited some of the best minds of the trade. Some of them have become the backbone of the industry for a generation. They include Ohi Alegbe, Babafemi Ojudu, Dele Momodu, Kunle Ajibade, Femi Macaulay, Kunle Solaja and Seye Kehinde. We joined Okey Ifionu and Victor Omuabor.

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    No intruder, Obi had Bayo Onanuga as deputy and he was a sort of operations manager. The magazine became the best in the country in style, courage and content. When Obi became editor in chief, Onanuga was editor and Dapo Olorunyomi joined the crew.

    I moved to the newspaper’s political desk. No newspaper or magazine has had such a constellation before or since. Each of the fellows in that stable turned out to become leading lights. It is credit to Obi for his genius in getting all of us under one roof and engineering great intellectual discussions that lasted late into the night.

    Under Obi, I started writing essays and cover stories. He handed me a copy of Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses mailed overnight by Onanuga from London, and I had four days to read it and do a review and story of the crisis it generated.

     I returned on Friday only to be told there was a Hezbollah threat fueled by a staff of the company. A glum Obi said not to publish.

    I called him Dean of Nigerian columnists then because from the late 1980’s to mid-1990’s he wrote the best columns in the country. Few will forget his masterpiece, The Caliphate’s army. Oga Lewis, thanks for the memory.

  • Did Akintola commit suicide?

    Did Akintola commit suicide?

    History often likes its villains, sometimes more than its heroes. Heroes titillate but can make you yawn. Virtue stirs the soul. Vice pushes us over the cliff. So, Villains make us gasp for exploits of the unknown. In John Milton’s Paradise Lost, Satan tempts with tempests in contrast to Christ’s even temper.

    In the Southwest, a familiar villain is Samuel Ladoke Akintola. He was a premier, a polyglot, a wordsmith, a thinker, a wit, a maoeuvrer and a political thespian. If he had all these before he departed history, he would still be a boring, if an eminently accomplished, man. But his imprint on time is what many of his Yoruba folks highlight: his epic betrayal.

    There have been efforts in the past few decades to nuance his tale, to pose him as a man of principle and an icon of governance, and even a faithful follower of the great Yoruba avatar: Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    This season marks 60 years since he was dispatched during the 1966 coup. Some thought he met his comeuppance while inking their displeasure at the reason behind the episode when a certain Captain Okoro led some soldiers to his Agodi Residence.

     But a question remains quiet in the tale. Why did Akintola not surrender? His deputy, Chief Fani-Kayode, was not killed. They grabbed him, and Akintola was aware. After initial gunfire exchanges, the soldiers ordered him to drop his gun. But the premier would not. He battled to the death.

    This act may benefit from historical insight from a book largely ignored. Aristocratic Rebel is a biography of Nigeria’s top spy in the 1960’s and later an inspector general of police, M.D. Yusufu.

    The book is written by Ayo Opadokun, former secretary of NADECO.

    The book was presented with Yusufu in attendance in 2006, which means he endorsed all that Opadokun wrote in that underplayed classic of the Nigerian story.

    According to Yusufu, Akintola had been invited over to Kaduna by the then premier of Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello on the eve of the coup. What was the reason? According to Yusufu, the NPC with then governor Kashim Ibrahim had asked the Sardauna to convey the decision of the Northern People’s Congress (NPC).

    “It is very clear that the Yoruba don’t like Akintola. Please, call Akintola and tell him that this alliance is off. Let him go and sort out his problem with the Yorubas.” That was the message the Sardauna conveyed to S.L.A.

    “I was the most senior Federal officer, so I had to receive Chief Akintola at the airport. The Sardauna sent along with me one of his ministers – Abuto Obekpa. That is why the New Nigerian (newspaper) photograph on the day of the coup captured me receiving Akintola at the Kaduna airport,” said Yusufu.

    According to Opadokun, …”if Major Kaduna Nzeogwu and his fellow plotters had lingered past that week before staging their coup, perhaps the course of Nigerian history would have altered.” History does not follow a script. It happens based on a constellation of forces. Hence, all true historians know that nothing is inevitable. It does not follow a dice. Hence, we cannot say the coup was inevitable.

    When Akintola returned to Ibadan, what might have boiled over in his mind? We shall never know. But it was obvious from the meeting with his coalition partners, he was a lonely man. Could he have gone back to his Yoruba folks? Could he have bended a knee to Awo and his people? Could he have apologized for his alliance with the NCNC against Awo, for his role in the wetie and the conflagration in the West? For his attitude to Ogunde and the songs of the minstrel that made him a pariah of the region? As professor Jide Akin Osuntokun has reminded us, he was disappointed with appointments at the centre with the Tafawa Balewa government. He was beginning to see that his quest for justice was now belly up. He was already seeing the fruits of treachery. He was not only isolated by his federal allies but also the Yoruba street where some had corrupted his initials S.L.A to Ese ole, that is the leg of a thief.

    Did he welcome the coup as denouement? Was his act of defiance to the soldiers actually a bravado of surrender to fate. Was it an escape route for his pride? Was the Are Onakakanfo  playing out the last act of a Yoruba eschatology?

    This is not only a material of historical inquiry but also for a sort of psyco-history. Did death save him from disgrace? For the realist, this is a grist to investigate the last chapter of valour, a man who had been a fellow traveler of Awolowo and his Action Group, and was such a loyal deputy that he was a natural to take over from Awo as the premier of the region.

    He was a great administrator who actualized much of Awo’s dreams, from Cocoa House to the now Obafemi Awolowo University. Yet, as Shakespeare wrote, the “spirit of men is in their blood.” Akintola saw power and imbued its hubris. The artist, novelist and playwright might see the conflict between character and ambition unfold in a brilliant soul. The playwright may tempt the premise that the man saw death as an opportunity and his great escape from a public apology or opprobrium. That is what a Gibbons or Tacitus or, Ibn Battuta or any  classic historian may dig up from an Akintola narrative.

    But there is another angle, for the traditionalist or cultural historian. One, it is the belief that the Are Onakakanfo, the post of the Yoruba generalissimo, is fated to tragedy. Afonja set the blood-strewn stage. By taking that position, he had signed a cultural death warrant. Did he contemplate it that night of bullets?

    The other point was farther back when the young men of the Yoruba race went to Ife to swear an oath to accept Awolowo as the leader of the Yoruba. The deal foreordained the AG. The other part of the oath is not this essay’s remit. But Akintola was part of the young men. And a line in that oath is, eni to ba dale abale lo. He who betrays will die.

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    Eminent lawyer Rotimi Williams also swore. When he turned his back on Awo, he did not oppose him. It is said that his mother warned him against defying the oath. The man turned to his profession and was never a politician again till he died.

    Was S.L.A’s fate tied to his breaking an oath, or it is mere superstition? This is the sort of story that excites political scientists and historians. Insights into the past and its big men are  not just about what they do but how they are framed by the societies they made and made them.

    In Sophocles’ King Oedipus, the Greek playwright teases the audience as to whether the story of Oedipus’ end is a matter of prophecy or hubris, or both. Our own Ola Rotimi has no patience in his adaptation, he thunders “the Gods are not to Blame.”

    He is taking the realist tack while the play nurtures doubt and sometimes endorses the agenda of the mystical.

     In his essay about such artistic quandary, Soyinka writes of Achebe’s Arrow of God and the author’s contempt for cultural mystery.

    The Nobel laureate describes it as “the secularisation of the profoundly mystical.” Shakespeare addresses this ambiguity in his Macbeth, a king who thinks no man born of a woman can kill him. Mystic fuels hubris to death.

    But to begin any such dialogue here, historians and biographers must address the riddle: Did S.L.A. commit suicide?

  • Police arrest ‘Okada rider’ for raping five females at gunpoint in Ondo

    Police arrest ‘Okada rider’ for raping five females at gunpoint in Ondo

    The Ondo State Police Command has apprehended a suspected serial rapist and armed robbery suspect, Olamipekun Elegbeleye, for allegedly sexually assaulting and robbing several women in Akure, the state capital.

    The suspect, a commercial motorcyclist otherwise known as “Okada Rider,” was said to have lured his female victims under false pretences before attacking and raping them at gunpoint.

    Confirming the arrest in a statement on Sunday, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Jimoh Abayomi, said the suspect was apprehended following credible intelligence and technical tracking by operatives of the Command.

    According to him, one of the incidents occurred on November 21, 2025, at about 11:30 a.m., when the suspect allegedly offered a female victim a ride on his TVS motorcycle to Afunbiowo Housing Estate, Oke Aro.

    He, however, reportedly diverted into a nearby bush where he sexually assaulted the victim at gunpoint and dispossessed her of her valuables.

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    According to him, police investigations later revealed that the suspect allegedly used the same method and location to assault and rob four other female victims.

    “The suspect reportedly diverted into a nearby bush where he sexually assaulted the victim at gunpoint and dispossessed her of her valuables.

    “Further investigation revealed that the suspect had, in a similar manner and at the same location, allegedly sexually assaulted and robbed four other female victims.

    “Acting on credible intelligence and technical tracking, operatives of the Command apprehended the suspect at his hideout,” he said.

    Items recovered from the suspect include two SIM cards, two iPhones, a shirt, and Opay and Moniepoint ATM cards believed to belong to the victims.

    Abayomi further disclosed that the suspect allegedly transferred money from one of the victims’ bank accounts into another account without authorization.

    He, however, added that the Commissioner of Police, CP Adebowale Lawal, reiterated the Command’s commitment to protecting lives and property and assured residents that perpetrators of violent and sexual crimes would be tracked and prosecuted.

  • Three injured as truck crashes into car in Oshodi

    Three injured as truck crashes into car in Oshodi

    Two pedestrians and a driver were injured on Sunday following a serious road traffic accident involving a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)–laden truck and a private vehicle at the Apakun Bridge, inward Oshodi, Lagos.

    The accident occurred at the summit of the bridge when a heavy-duty truck, with registration number EKY 120 YK, allegedly driven at excessive speed, rammed into a moving silver Toyota Corolla marked EKY 289 HM.

    LASTMA spokesperson Adebayo Taofiq, in a statement, stated that the truck driver ignored basic traffic safety protocols, which led to the collision at the Apakun Bridge.

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    He noted that the impact caused significant traffic disruption and posed an immediate danger to lives and property in the area.

    “In a tragic turn of events, two unsuspecting pedestrians were struck during the collision, while the driver of the Toyota Corolla sustained grievous injuries of considerable severity,” he said.

    Officers of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) promptly mobilised to the scene and carried out a coordinated rescue operation.

    The injured pedestrians and the driver were extricated from the wreckage and rushed to a nearby hospital, where they are currently receiving medical care.

    To ensure public safety and prevent secondary incidents, operatives of the Ajao Police Division provided security support during the rescue and evacuation exercise.

    The Lagos State Fire and Rescue Service was also deployed to the scene as a precautionary measure due to the truck’s gas load.

    Reacting to the incident, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Transportation, Hon. Sola Giwa, condemned the rising cases of road crashes linked to reckless driving and overspeeding, particularly among operators of trucks, tankers, and articulated vehicles.

    He described such actions as irresponsible and dangerous, warning that the Lagos State Government would apply the full weight of the law against any driver found endangering lives through negligent or unlawful driving practices.

    He urged drivers to strictly comply with traffic laws and speed regulations.

    Hon. Giwa also expressed prayers for the speedy recovery of the injured victims and reassured residents of the state government’s commitment to road safety and effective traffic management.

    The Lagos State Traffic Management Authority reiterated its call for collective responsibility on the roads, urging motorists to exercise caution, respect speed limits, and adhere strictly to traffic regulations in the interest of public safety.

  • Scores of terrorists killed as Military foils Civilian attack

    Scores of terrorists killed as Military foils Civilian attack

    …soldiers pay supreme price

    Scores of terrorists were killed and others brutally injured during a gun battle with troops of Operation Fansan Yamma in North West Nigeria.

    The operation followed days of intensive surveillance by ground troops and the Nigerian Air Force, who intercepted the bandits on January 31, spokesperson of Operation Fansan Yamma, Lieutenant Colonel Olaniyi Osoba, said in a statement on Sunday.

    According to Osoba, the operation was triggered by credible intelligence revealing that over 100 bandits had gathered at the camp of notorious bandit leader Dan Karmi to coordinate large-scale attacks on local communities and military supply lines.

    He said, “A fierce firefight ensued as the terrorists attempted a flanking and encirclement maneuver. However, they were overwhelmed by the superior firepower of the troops.

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    “While many bandits were eliminated, others fled with gunshot wounds. The Camp was set ablaze before the troops withdrew.”

    The spokesperson confirmed that some soldiers were killed during the fierce encounter, while a combat support vehicle was hit by an enemy rocket-propelled grenade and caught fire.

    He said the Nigerian Air Force is currently conducting interdiction missions to intercept the fleeing remnants, while ground troops maintain dominance over the area.

    “The Nigerian Army honours fallen soldiers’ sacrifice and remains determined in its mission; combat efficiency remains high as troops continue to dismantle bandit networks and disrupt their supply chains across the region,” Osoba said. 

  • Six countries that legalise undocumented immigrants in recent years

    Six countries that legalise undocumented immigrants in recent years

    Several countries have recently taken steps to grant legal status to immigrants living and working without authorization, recognising both their contributions to the economy and the need for integration. These initiatives often focus on long-term residents, essential workers, or those with strong family or community ties, reflecting a pragmatic approach to immigration policy.

    1. Spain

    In 2026, Spain announced a programme granting legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. The initiative continues the country’s longstanding practice of regularisation schemes aimed at formalising the status of workers and promoting social inclusion.

    2. Portugal

    Portugal has recently carried out legalisation programmes targeting undocumented migrants with employment or long-term residence. The goal is to integrate these individuals into the formal economy while ensuring labour rights and social protections.

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    3. Ireland

    In 2022, Ireland introduced a scheme offering legal status to long-term undocumented residents, providing a pathway to work permits and formal residency. The programme sought to stabilise the lives of migrants contributing to the country’s workforce.

    4. Italy

    Italy continues to operate sanatoria programmes, particularly for domestic workers and caregivers. These initiatives allow eligible undocumented migrants to obtain temporary or permanent legal status, supporting both humanitarian and economic objectives.

    5. Germany

    Germany has offered limited pathways for long-term undocumented residents, particularly those who have been in the country for many years or have strong family ties. These are smaller-scale than Spain/Portugal but are official programmes.

    6. Canada

     Canada has implemented targeted regularisation programmes for undocumented workers in essential sectors like healthcare, agriculture, and caregiving. These programmes allow workers to formalise their status while addressing labour shortages.