The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • The 2027 jostling begins in earnest

    The 2027 jostling begins in earnest

    While former Kaduna State governor Nasir el-Rufai was excitedly reeling out the names of political chieftains huddled together in the grand coalition to unseat President Bola Tinubu in the next elections, including imperiously determining who among the president’s current cabinet would be retained in the ‘next’ dispensation, the Labour Party’s former presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi, was still adamant he would contest the next presidential poll on the LP platform. Don’t believe them. Mallam el-Rufai is glib and full of exaggerations, Mr Obi is evasive and full of cant, and their pied piper, the caustic former vice president, Atiku Abubakar, remains a hybrid of all their failings and personifies all their delusions.

    Last week, while the former vice president dithered, Mallam el-Rufai simply cut the Gordian knot and announced that the coalition was all but fully formed, with appointments already made by the League of Northern Democrats as to who would head panels tasked with determining whether to go it alone in a fresh party or fuse into an existing one. It was nothing but an inconvenient detail that the former Kaduna governor spoke glowingly of their coalition fusing into the African Democratic Congress (formed in 2005) just weeks after he lionised the sedate Social Democratic Party (SDP) to which he had tried to lure every political malcontent in Nigeria, including the pussyfooting Alhaji Atiku. Though the former vice president has insisted he will remain in the PDP, he knows he is being untruthful, for there is no way he can secure or even procure the presidential ticket for 2027. If he is determined to stay in the party, it is probably to get his pound of flesh for their irreverence and iconoclasm.

    It is reassuring that even while the coalition was still inchoate, and while they were still undecided whether to fuse into and take over an existing political party or form a brand new one, Mallam el-Rufai gazed into his crystal ball, saw victory in the poll, and began to toy with composing a future cabinet. Prominent on the cabinet list, he said without any hint of shame or irony, would be Bosun Tijani, the Minister of Communications and Digital Economy. It is not clear what impressions the youthful minister made on him, but the grand and still amorphous coalition would retain Mr Tijani in 2027. What is indeed clear is that the jostling for 2027 did not begin weeks ago, when in frustration Mallam el-Rufai, with Alhaji Atiku in hesitant tow, began speaking assertively of a new coalition. Even though it was at first done in whispers, the jostling actually began moments after the electoral commission announced the 2023 election results. The rhetoric about a coalition rose to a strident level after President Tinubu assumed office, becoming deafening when the self-important Mallam el-Rufai was officially scorned.

    After unsuccessfully conspiring to undermine the new government, especially with ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo giving them helpful and subversive hints in an eerie replay of the legitimisation he gave the 1993 presidential poll annulment, the opposition finally and reluctantly accepted that they erred greatly in the run-up to the 2023 poll. They should have gone to the poll united, they drawled in muffled epiphany, but went on with questionable logic to blame former Rivers State governor and now Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister for being a wet blanket in the PDP. So, the coalition leaders are precisely at a point where they have silently acknowledged their mistakes, and are supposed to be remedying them. They are instead still making many more mistakes, most of them perpetrated by the unrestrained Mallam el-Rufai who is scheming to be both the leading spokesman of the group and the indispensable fulcrum upon which the coalition is balanced. At the right time, despite his noise and rage, they will cut him to size. The coalition will of course not form a new party, for they neither have the intellectual girth to run one nor the financial heft to fund it. As a band of opportunists united by diverse grudges, their main interest is winning votes.

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    Two things will, however, shape the politics of the next 12 months before the primaries are conducted. One is whether the coalition can really get their act together and give the ruling party a run for its money. And two is the response of the ruling party itself, whether it can effectively and continuously turn the table on the coalition. For the coalition to get its act together, they will have to go beyond hijacking a party to also running it well and imbuing it with purpose, drive and vision. Should the ADC be their final destination, they will need to display humility and become team players. But Alhaji Atiku has a short attention span in which he has compressed his ambition, an ambition that sadly excludes nearly everyone else. He is also domineering. Of course he will let you have your say, but in the end it will have to be his way, and if the resistance seems plucky, he will wear it down with financial muscle. On his own, Mallam el-Rufai is prickly, arrogant, and talkative. He will not let anyone get in a word when he is in full rhetorical flight. In addition, he has a fondness for second-guessing everyone and jumping the gun. If there is no one able to browbeat or outwit him, the party will become captive to his caprices. Should the mercurial Kayode Fayemi, former Ekiti State governor, finally abandon his tentativeness and throw in his lot with the coalition and the ADC, he might offer some intellectual perspective deeper and better than the flighty Mallam el-Rufai’s, but his casual approach to principles will leave the party unprotected.

    Wherever Alhaji Atiku goes, the weakened former Osun State governor, Rauf Aregbesola, will also go. He has a long-running grudge he is nursing against President Tinubu. Saddened by his former mentor’s 2023 electoral victory, and armed with his half-baked religious and ideological philosophies, he has dedicated himself to joining anyone willing to and capable of unhorsing the president. No mean troubadour himself, he is keenly aware of the saying that there is strength in numbers and he has thus surrounded himself with praise singers and rhapsodists who inflate his ego. Former Rivers governor Rotimi Amaechi will of course also be numbered among the coalition leaders. Diminished by his long absence from office, and having derived meaning and sustenance from being in public office all his adult life, he will yearn for the new beginning a coalition offers, which enables him to speak sarcastically , sometimes bordering on treason, and to display the self-deprecating humour that partly signposted his governorship.

    If they can somehow magically discover a leader who will drive and inspire their coalition and perhaps the party they might fuse with, they will make hay out of the ruling party’s weaknesses. They were too impatient to wait for a little longer before shooting their feeble arrows at imaginary targets thereby forcing the growling All Progressives Congress (APC) out of its lair. Now that the jostling has really begun, the battle may be over before it commences. For while coalition and opposition leaders are still shuffling their feet and unable to determine exactly how to proceed, the ruling party has moved stealthily to depopulate, deplete and degrade their ranks. The coalition bared their fangs prematurely and unwisely, thus enabling the APC to reshuffle its cards and anticipate and checkmate their every move. Even if they overcome the initial and deadly hurdles the ruling party will strew all over their path, it remains to be seen how in light of the country’s delicate ethnic balancing, which far outweighs religious balancing, the coalition would overcome the informal but all-important rotation principle that disadvantages a northerner from receiving a significant hearing from the electorate at the next presidential poll.

    The APC partly banks on this rotational necessity as well as the radical and fruitful measures it has taken to reposition the economy. Every coalition movement and statement will in the months ahead likely be interpreted as being tantamount to political intolerance and promotion of either regional or ethnic exceptionalism. Given the tenor of the defections so far, it does appear like the next electoral contest will be judged significantly against the coalition’s opportunism. Mr Obi knows this, and, as a southerner whom Alhaji Atiku has assured of succession on a joint ticket and is thus being used to spook the APC, he is positioning himself to take advantage of this scenario should all else fail. In addition, key movers and shakers of the core North know this and recognise and reflect on the danger to national unity of aborting the South’s eight-year reign. The meddlesome Chief Obasanjo, despite his tactical impotence in political strategy also senses this, thus his promotion of political neophytes. But much more, the APC knows this even more abundantly and has been content to let the coalition forces welter in the coming storm.

  • Trump’s nasty, ambush politics and diplomacy

    Trump’s nasty, ambush politics and diplomacy

    If this generation had not witnessed the election of Donald Trump a second time as United States president late last year and experienced his ignoble approach to politics and diplomacy, they would have died with a smile on their faces convinced that America was infallible, invincible, thoroughbred, and an exemplar of all that is noble. In his first term, which was truncated by the mitigating election of Joe Biden, President Trump did his best to abridge his worst instincts and habits. He was of course no less nasty and insufferable, but he tried his best not to extend his brutishness beyond American borders. Even when he did, it was half-hearted and unconvincing, with many analysts still giving him the benefit of the doubt. Barely a hundred days into his second term, he has shown without a shred of doubt that no one, no matter how gifted, can plumb the depths of his nastiness.

    In one area, he has demonstrated he cannot be bettered: he is condescending to heads of states, except the autocrats among them. And he has fiendishly displayed the art of diplomatic ambush of the meanest kind. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky was the first to taste of President Trump’s galling style during a visit to the White House two months ago to solicit for help in the war against Russia. Instead, he was ambushed, ridiculed, taunted and even haunted out of the Oval Office. He held his own quite alright, but because he was the one who needed help, he left the US in unquenchable grief. It began inauspiciously as President Trump baited his visitor; then when it seemed Mr Zelensky would ride the storm with surprising eloquence and logic that far outweighed and bettered the performance of the incoherent US president, a planted and groveling newsman asked a dismaying question about the visitor’s ‘inappropriate dressing’. Even this, too, the Ukrainian president tackled with aplomb. Sensing their quarry was getting away with a stellar performance, Vice President J.D. Vance weighed in on cue with a nasty comment to a visiting head of state no vice president was ever thought capable of. The ambush of February 2025 was complete.

    Barely three months later, as if thirsty for more blood, another ambush has been sprung against visiting South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa who asked for and received an invitation to visit the US to try and convince President Trump that no White genocide ever took place in South Africa nor was any contemplated. In visiting the White House after the Zelensky debacle, Mr Ramaphosa obviously reposed too much confidence in his composure, eloquence and the logical unassailability of his position regarding allegations of state-sponsored crime. It was a big mistake. The problem Mr Zelensky encountered with President Trump was not that he did not have a similarly unassailable position nor was he devoid of eloquence and poise, particularly under fire. The Ukrainian president’s problem, Mr Ramaphosa should have known, was that Mr Trump resorts to despicable tactics when he encounters his betters, or when he is losing an argument. More, Mr Trump has a closed mind and tunnel vision of diplomacy: once he makes up his mind, often without any spadework, he is both unmovable and implacable.

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    But Mr Ramaphosa, perhaps grieving over the fallacies Mr Trump had peddled regarding an inexistent White genocide, thought that if he went to the White House armed with facts and truths, his host would relent. Alas, his host does not work with facts and has contempt for truths; he is fascinated by lies and fabrications. The more the South African president displayed profundity, the surlier the US president became, until finally he sprung the said ambush using wholly tendentious videos and photographs depicting a so-called genocidal grave. Mr Ramaphosa was stupefied in a way Mr Zelensky, with his perfect and combative ripostes, was not. The South African was so badgered with falsehoods concocted in the US that he even began to doubt himself, asking tremulously at a brief point whether Mr Trump had verified the so-called genocidal graves. The American president simply waved off Mr Ramaphosa’s queries, for he had made up his mind, and would not and indeed could not be flustered by any doubts or facts to the contrary. It was not until later when he addressed the press unencumbered by the antics of his host that the dazed South African president found his voice. Of course, on the whole, he conducted himself excellently well, and gave a great, not just a good, account of himself. But with Mr Trump, it is futile to argue armed with facts.

    More, with the American president, it is futile to visit him except you are an unremitting autocrat he had taken a fancy to, or a gift-bearing and sinister head of state. After the Zelensky and Ramaphosa debacles, Mr Trump’s appalling tactics have been made very clear and unmistakable to the world. Not too many stouthearted presidents would be willing to visit the White House henceforth. Here, Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu should learn a lesson. He should give the American president a wide berth, not out of fear, but because of common sense. It will be pointless dealing with such a man at close quarters. There will be nothing President Tinubu can say or show to convince Mr Trump that Nigeria is not carrying out genocide against Christians, not even if the Nigerian president were to show proof that his cabinet and military commanders are, to the last man, Christians. Mr Trump will simply goad a nasty reporter to ask the Nigerian president a tricky and provocative question, and then all hell would break loose. Not only should President Tinubu give President Trump a wide berth, he should also proactively put machinery in motion to ensure that for the four years the American president would hold sway in Washington, the Nigerian president should never be invited. Better safe than sorry. As the English say, discretion is the better part of valour.

  • Atiku not a nationalist

    Atiku not a nationalist

    The topic above is another sanitised way of saying that former vice president Atiku Abubakar is the most self-centred politician in Nigeria today. But he is not fazed by whatever label anyone slaps on him, nor discomfited by rules, regulations, agreements, or conventions. In 2003, he ignored the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) rotation principle and tried to vie for the presidency against his boss, ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo. The principle was and remains an informal mechanism to infuse inclusion into Nigerian politics. Since 2003, and down to the 2019 presidential election when a northerner stood to spend eight successive years in office, Alhaji Atiku has studiously disregarded any principle that has the capacity to regulate and stabilise Nigerian politics.

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    A week or so ago, pretending to ignore former Kaduna State governor’s giddy revelation about the former vice president ditching the PDP, Alhaji Atiku told the media that he had no intention of defecting anywhere. Of course no one believed him. But whether he would go to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) as Mallam el-Rufai revealed months ago, no one could tell. Finally, it seems all but clear that he will be jumping ship and landing in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in his obsessive bid to run for the presidency one last time. It is all about him, after all, never about the country. By now, everyone is conversant with his messianic complex and his passion for ethnic exceptionalism. Yet, far more remarkable is his absolute lack of concern for the mechanisms by which the country’s ethnic, religious and social diversity must be balanced if the country is not to tilt over. He really doesn’t care, and has never cared. If he doesn’t get what he wants, balancing be damned. But just balancing? No; for a man so patently truculent and whose hatred for those who upstage him has remained malignant and incandescent, the entire country itself be damned.

  • SNAPSONG  256

    SNAPSONG  256

    You capture the evening’s rapture

         With the vigilance of your camera

    Your piano finger on the button

         Which unfolded the shutters

    Quiet evening, almost night

         A friendly wind whispers among the eaves

    The walls endure the murmurs

         Without betraying their loyal silence

    Above the trees

         Below the sky

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    And the moon which looms above the trees

         Like an orange lamp

    What colour of Paradise

         The leaves are wearing tonight

    Do they swing and sway, as always

         To the summons of the silent wind

    And you on the balcony

         Of your book-embowered house

    With a heart full of songs

         And a goodness that never wanes

    Your camera captures the tropical temper

         Of a sky that is evening into night

    Behind its orange moon is a dawn

          Crystal-cool from the diamond of the dew

  • Alaafin, Olubadan, Soun: A renewed power tussle

    Alaafin, Olubadan, Soun: A renewed power tussle

    A renewed power struggle is creating tension among three foremost traditional rulers in Oyo State. Like their predecessors, Governor Seyi Makinde and the House of Assembly may not find it an easy nut to crack.

    The tension cannot be totally doused by legislation, litigation and force. History connects the three monarchs, their domains, the natives and the residents.

    The bone of contention is: who should preside, permanently, over the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs? The poser is about the hierarchy among the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Akeem Owoade; the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, and the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Ghandi Laoye.

    The Traditional Rulers Amendment Bill being considered by the House of Assembly had proposed the Alaafin as the permanent chairman, the Olubadan as the deputy chairman and the Soun as the vice chairman. The Alaafin was naturally comfortable with this arrangement, which affirms his historical superiority and supremacy over all Oyo towns and villages in the old Oyo, Oke Ogun and even Osun divisions.

    But the Olubadan and the Soun kicked against the proposals. Instead, they suggested a rotational chairmanship, which they believe would foster equality and, in their view, equity. The House of Assembly adopted the second view and proposed a rotational chairmanship among the three monarchs.

    The proposal has not gone well with the Alaafin. To his people, the government is trying to trample upon culture, tradition and history. They are reminding Governor Makinde and the House of Assembly that there is a pending case before the court on the controversy.

    Reminiscent of the past, there is an ego tussle among the three royal fathers. It may be difficult to arrive at an amicable resolution of the long-standing conflict due to the lack of fidelity to history. Many historians are taking sides in this highly controversial matter due to sentiments. Others are rewriting history, thereby peddling falsehood and worsening the confusion.

    The controversy is not alien to the state. It started in the old Oyo State. The leadership composition of the traditional rulers’ council led to a quarrel between the Alaafin, the late Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, and the Ooni of Ife, the late Oba Okunade Sijuade, the type of rift that never reared it ugly head in the early days of the same Alaafin and the late Oba Adesoji Aderemi.

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    Following the appointment of the Ooni as the President/Permanent Chairman, the Alaafin protested. He reminded the government that he was the king of Yoruba in the pre-colonial days. To prove his case, he alluded to the Oyo Empire, which covered all Yoruba land, up to Ilorin, parts of Lokoja and Popo in Benin Republic. The Alaafin also pointed out that during the Kiriji War, his grandfather, Oba Alowolodu Adeyemi’s correspondence with the British showed that he was recognised as the number one monarch in Yorubaland and his authority was undisputed.

    Oba Adeyemi III was well versed in Yoruba history, tradition and culture. He had also read widely. Thus, he came up with quotations from British papers in the archives and notable history books by Rev. Samuel Johnson, Prof. Ade Ajayi and Prof. Akinjogbin, among others.

    But Oba Sijuade’s response also appeared lucid, reasonable and logical. Ile-Ife, he said, is the cradle of the Yoruba race where the progenitor, Oduduwa Ateworo, the grandfather of Oranmiyan, who was the first Alaafin, called the shots in the beginning. Thus, he argued that the stool of Ooni is sacred and all Yoruba crowns evolved from Ife.

    To buttress his claim to superiority, Oba Sijuade, reminded his contenders that when an Ooni (may be, Derin Ologbenla, who was also Baale of Oke-Igbo), had cause to leave his palace at Ife for Lagos as a guest of the Colonial Governor of Nigeria, all the monarchs in Yoruba land, including the Alaafin, vacated their palaces and relocated to the outskirts until the Ooni returned. It was in reverence for the supremacy of the Ooni as the head of the household of Oduduwa, the father of the race.

    In protest, the Alaafin shunned the meetings of traditional rulers. When it was made rotational, the Ooni also refused to attend meetings. At that time too, the Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland complained that his interest was not considered.

    The crisis was resolved when Osun State was calved out of the old Oyo State. The Ooni naturally became the head of the Obas’ council in Osun. In Oyo, the struggle has continued.

    After the collapse of Oyo Empire and the incursion of British interlopers, monarchs under Alaafin’s domain started, more or less, to assert independence. It was not sudden. But the colonial masters, after a study of the local imperial structures, even tentatively shifted their administrative headquarters from Ibadan to Oyo.

    What the colonial authorities met on the ground was the Suzerain; the Alaafin was the overlord, with a great influence, consenting authority and the power to approve the appointment of heads of Ibadan, Ogbomoso, and other towns in Oke Ogun. So powerful were the Alaafins of yore that one of them, Ajagbo, created the title of Aare Ona Kankanfo and made him the Generalissimo of Yorubaland.

    The usual practice, as was the case in Ibadan, reputed to be Alaafin of Oyo’s military outpost, was for a man of valour to climb the hierarchical leadership ladder before becoming Balogun, Basorun, Aare and Baale through merit, with His Royal Majesty sending a high chief or viceroy from Oyo to put on his head the Akoko leave, as a mark of approval.

    But the Alaafin was also empowered to approve any application by Ibadan leaders to levy wars. He retained the power, up to 1920s, to also depose any baale in Ibadan, just as Alaafin Siyenbola Ladigbolu sanctioned Baale Shittu, son of Aare Latoosa, who later went on exile.

    Kingship in Ibadan of old was not hereditary. The crown never came from Ile-Ife. But the brave soldiers, who came from all parts of Yoruba land and assembled at Ibadan for military exploits that shook the entire race, built a prosperous city worthy of pride and established a stable system of administration and a pattern of traditional succession that has endured.

    It is to the credit of Ibadan soldiers that Yoruba never came under the feudal rule of the Fulani. When the Fulani/Hausa soldiers nursed the dream of dipping the Qur’an in the Lagos sea, the ambition was truncated at Osogbo by Ibadan leaders.

    Ibadan became the most populous city in West Africa; a city of commerce and economic opportunities. Its geographical centrality to the Yoruba positioned it as the headquarters of Western Region.

    Like Ibadan, Ogbomoso had played a big role in the defence of Yoruba territory. Three Aare Ona Kankanfos – Toyeje, Ojo Aburumaku and Ladoke Akintola – came from the town. It is the second largest city in Oyo State. When the rift between Alaafin Adeyemi III and the late Soun Jimoh Oyewumi Ajagungbade blew open in the media over seniority, the Alaafin came up with publications that suggested that his father crowned his father as Baale.

    Apparently, former Oyo State Governor Bola Ige had these historical facts in mind when he declared that Olubadan and Soun were baales without ancient crowns and that they were promoted to obaship by Western State Military Governor David Medayese Jemibewon.

    Ibadan frowned at the statement. The remark inflamed passion. Consequently, Ige’s Aare Alasa title was withdrawn and bestowed on the Ewi exponent, Lanrewaju Adepoju.

    How to resolve the repressed tension between the Ooni and the Alaafin is the responsibility of the three monarchs, their brother obas and eminent Yoruba leaders.

    Some people have suggested that making the Alaafin President of the Oyo Obas and asking the chairmanship to rotate between Olubadan and Soun would be fair.

    Others suggest that the old traditional hegemony had collapsed in these modern times.

    But there is a need for the government to promote further dialogue among the three traditional rulers to foster understanding, friendly relationships and peace in the council.

  • Waiting for schoolboys

    Waiting for schoolboys

    What excites me about the Moroccan but now Spanish gazelle Laminr Yamal isn’t just his fascinating soccer skills nor is it his baby face. No. What bowled me over about Yamal is the fact that he is a proven schoolboy whose seamless ability to combine playing the beautiful game and his academics would no doubt encourage parents to allow their kids to combine both tasking professions to their wit’s end.

    Each time I sit at home or join my colleagues to watch FC Barcelona play their matches, I keep pinching myself to be sure I wasn’t in a dreamland or not hearing correctly the emphasis placed on Yamal being a student by the commentators either on television, radio or what have been written about the talented Spaniard.

    Still having doubts, I put the question across to Google if Yamal is a schoolboy, this was the response I got: ”Yes, Lamine Yamal is currently in school and is considered a schoolboy,” according to The Guardian. Despite his professional football career, he is still a teenager and has been actively pursuing his secondary school education. He even passed his secondary school exams, according to flashscore.com.ng.

    I probed further by again asking Google the name of Yamal’s school and this message popped up thus: ”Yamal was a member of La Masia, FC Barcelona’s youth academy. He is currently attending school, presumably in the fourth year of ESO (the equivalent of middle school) in Spain, according to reports Goal.com. He passed his fourth ESO exams recently. FOX Sports mentions that he was taking individual classes.”

    Satisfied with what I got from Google, I sought to find out if Yamal would be the only schoolboy at the U-20 World Cup? I didn’t have to consult Google, several names popped up such as Wayne Rooney. Rooney didn’t come with the English side which partook in the 1999 U20 World Cup hosted by Nigeria. Spain won the competition by beating Japan 2-0. The Japanese had the White witch doctor, Phillipe Troussier as their coach. You remember Troussier? Topic for another day.

    Quickly, my residual knowledge reminded me about this salient fact that as talented as Yamal is and a match winner for FC Barcelona, he won’t be included in Spain’s U-20 side to the World Cup? Did you, dear reader ask why? Yes, Yamal has been discovered, nurtured and exposed to world soccer thus giving way for others being prepared for stardom in the different nurseries in Spain. Foresight.

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    This writer isn’t pointing accusing finger at any player in te country’s U-20 side, the Flying Eagles because I’m not their parent, guardian or relation. It is rather a passionate plea to our soccer chieftains that those who would be flying the country’s flag in Chile are confirmed schoolboys like Yamal. The exceptional good ones like the Spaniard who have been exposed to make way for another talent. One is only stressing here that Nigeria has the the biggest chance to reinvent our football if our soccer administrator decree that those who would be picked to represent Nigeria in Chile must be schoolboys or those whose educational background can be tracked. In fact, Nigeria’s youth football must essentially be driven by verifiable data across the country. It isn’t enough for us to say that other countries are cheating. Foul.

    Those who qualified the country to participate in the next edition in Chile have been adequately compensated. If they haven’t, steps should be taken to reward them now. The time to turn a new page about how we administer youth football in Nigeria is now -youth soccer should be domiciled with the 36 States in the federation and Federal Capital City’s Ministries of Education and other tertiary bodies, not NFF, whose role should be to function as the clearing house as custodians of the beautiful game on FIFA’s behalf.

    What does it tell you about our football development here, if we splash cash as much as N192 million on kids under 20 years instead of offering them scholarships to improve on their education? It is this crazy cash rewards to kids under 20 that emboldens the young lads and their parents, guardians and relations to falsify their wards ages to the detriment of the growth and development of the game. Otherwise, how do you explain how any U-20 kid can’t spell his name correctly to necessitate assistance from the team’s secretaries to fill their passport forms?

    Need I waste space to list several spelling mistakes of otherwise simple names by team secretaries who would rather use their discretions to what they presume are the right letters to spell such names where Uan… is spelt as Van…? Interesting times in Nigeria’s soccer. The pain in this instance, is that the boy spelt his name correctly. The mistake came from one of the team’s officials.

    Civilised countries develop their sports through the neighbourhood system where facilities are built to engage the youth and push them away from social vices. Nurseries serve as the bases for storing the data of those discovered. Such information helps to nurture and monitor the good ones to stardom. Besides, nurseries lay the foundation where the athletes are taught the rudiments of the game. It is at such factories that playing styles and patterns unique to such countries are evolving.

    We have lost budding talents to mismanagement, even after the Federal Government had directed that past soccer federations nurture their future. Our administrators bask in the euphoria of being recognised in the world, leaving the game’s development on the lurch for shylock European scouts to exploit to the disadvantage of our young ones.

    We can’t be talking about growing talents at the nurseries without standardising the academies that abound in the country. The fraud committed by some disgruntled folks in the name of soccer academies can only be curtailed if the NFF through its state affiliates compel all such bodies to register with it. That way, the authorities can identify who the fraudster is if such allegations arise. This collegiate arrangement will eliminate age cheats because a kid discovered in Edo State, for instance, Ikponwonsa Ikponwonsa in 1988 as a 12-year old, cannot be Etim Etim in 2008 claiming to be 16. The details of his data from his first registration in Edo State will give him out even as Etim Etim.

    I’m not a fan of Nigeria’s age-grade teams across all levels and gender. The reason is straightforward. Our age-grade stars hardly make it to the pinnacle of their career because there is little willpower that can propel an ageing player to compete with younger boys. Indeed, the wholesale transition of most cup-winning age-grade teams to other teams leading to wearing the Super Eagles shirts regularly has been like a mirage.

  • The seed of terror

    The seed of terror

    Preamble

    Yoruba language may have no plural or gender in its structural syntax.

    It may be poor in vocabulary and clumsy in grammar. But it is surely not lacking in proverbs and mythology. In that language, you can hardly express a sentence without enriching it with two or three proverbs. One of its famous proverbs has become an axiom in theory and practice. And many other languages have borrowed it for a token of experience. It goes thus: “A toddler who insists on preventing his mother from sleeping will surely not enjoy the serenity of the night rest”. This subtle axiom has its equivalence in English language. “A drastic problem requires a drastic solution”.

    Language is the root of all human cultures. It is the means of communicating thoughts, ideas and experiences. A people without language can be said to be without culture. Take a man out of his culture and he will immediately become like a fish out of water. His next action will be to rebel against the new but strange environment.

    That is the kind of situation that is cloaking the world in form of terrorism today.

    Language and Culture

    From time immemorial, language has been like a double edged sword. At a time it is used to attack. At another, it becomes an instrument of defence. Concord and conflict as well as love and hatred emanate from the use of language. Without language, there can be no marriage or divorce. Neither can there be business or even government. As a matter of fact, no tribe or nation can lay claim to civilisation in the absence of language.

    In Islam, language is everything human, including life and death. That is why a stammering prophet like Musa (Moses) would need an interpreter like Harun (Aaron) in his mission. Buddhists, Hindus, Judaists, Christians and Muslims, all proclaim Holy Books in one form or another, through their endowed languages. Not only must a prophet possess the power of language, he must also be eloquent in it. Prophet Muhammad (SAW) recognised the enormous power naturally embedded in language and warned the Muslims thus: ‘Tongue is like sword, if you fail to hold it, it may hold you”.

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    A person’s first language is called mother tongue while a standardised dialect within a tribal language is said to be ‘received’. If there is one aspect of culture that is not substitutable, it is language. The greatest havoc ever done to any group of people in history, especially through slave trade and colonialism, is language substitution. Nothing is more enslaving than substitution of language. Once language is renounced or substituted, nothing else is left of culture. The black citizens of the world, outside Africa, otherwise classified as Diaspora, are victims of this indelible psychological trauma.

    There are only four countries in the world today with English language as their mother tongue. These are Britain, the United States, Australia and Ireland. What would have been the fifth country is only partially English speaking. And that is Canada. All other countries that speak English as lingua franca only adopted it. Believing English to be the language of modern civilisation, the rest of the world have tacitly adopted it either as a lingua franca or as language of business. Yet the natural speakers of the language don’t seem to be satisfied with this development.

    Evil Axis

    With the role which America played in bringing an end to slavery in the 19th century, the world had expected the self-styled ‘God’s own

    Country’ to be the messiah of the modern age. But that expectation has turned forlorn. Rather than championing the course of peace and tranquility, America has replaced Germany as the greatest threat to humanity in the 21st century. And she has found an inseparable ally in Britain to form an ‘Evil Axis’ of untamable aggressors.

    Both English speaking countries had jointly piloted the modern world into a technological civilisation culminating in what is now known as global village. But they have used the same technology to turn themselves into ‘policemen of the world’.

    There is no part of the world today where a suffocating effect of their presence is not felt. Like a pair of scissors, both countries have jointly subjected many nations and races to untold terror and humiliation forcing countries to disintegrate and compelling friendly tribes to become foes all to further the course of their capitalist interest. Thus, they have planted the seed of terrorism in all corners of the world either in the name of capitalism or under the disguise of democracy.

    In the process of doing this, they have drawn the wrath of many nations, groups and individuals who now tend to react with venomous reprisal. If the militant liberators in Ireland or the patriotic defenders of motherland in Falkland are quiet today, it is not because they have been placated. The fact is that they have not got the power with which to demand for their rights. When they do, the situation may change.

    And, from Vietnam to Cambodia; from Panama to Korea, the feelings are the same. Even Germany and Japan which were de feated in World War II by the American-led Allied Forces in 1945, are still nursing their wounds. Isn’t it amazing that, 69 years after that devastating war, American and British forces are still stationed in those two countries under the cover of North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). Claiming to be maintaining regional security, these aggressive allies continue to lay siege on those countries despite throat-cutting reparation they had forced them to pay. Today, the entire Middle East is engulfed in a ceaseless turmoil at the instance of the ‘Evil Axis’, and the whole world has become hopelessly restive.

    Propaganda

    Now, using their propaganda machinery to bully the rest of the world, the US and Britain have almost succeeded in branding any revengeful reaction to their brigandage as religious terrorism. What is the religious connection in Britain’s claim of the Falkland Island far away in Argentina?

    What is religious in America’s capturing of the ruling President Noriega of Panama in his country and taking him for trial in the US where he was jailed and had to languish in prison for years? What is religious in forcing monolingual countries like Korea and Cambodia to break into North and South? What is religious in invading Iraq even after it became evident that the poor country was not harbouring any deadly weapons as alleged? What actually qualifies the US, Britain and other Western countries to be nuclear powered and disqualifies others?

    Even if a country chooses to use religion as her guide in governance as in the case of Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran how does that affect Britain and the US thousands of miles away? Is Northern Ireland not a Christian country like Britain? Why the aggression against that country? And is Britain not using religion as an instrument of governance? Why does the Queen of England combine the two designations of Head of State and Head of the Church of England?

    If the truth must be told, the real problem of the world today is the greedy willingness of Britain and America to dominate the economy of other countries in a manner of brigandage. And that has led the duo to adopt military might as a means of cowing down some countries while subjecting others to terrorism.

    It is rather unfortunate that those who are bearing the brunt of the evil actions are innocent people going about their businesses legitimately. Otherwise, neither America nor Britain would have deserved any sympathy for the various terrorist attacks on certain targets in the two countries. Their plight would have been taken for merely reaping the fruits of their labour.

    Religion is being used as a scapegoat in the world today, not by Afghanistan or Ireland, but by Britain and the US because that is their most convenient alibi for unbridled aggression against weaker countries.

    Who wants to die?

    No one loves to die deliberately in Palestine or in Iraq or in Afghanistan or in Ireland. But when you are forced to live without essence, the tendency is to ask yourself the need to live at all. And, to answer such a question some people might desperately conclude that if they must not live, those who are forcing them to die must also not live.

     “Man is not innately wicked, but when an attempt is made to consign him to the scrap-heap he shows resentment in no uncertain terms”. Terrorism begets terrorism. But what is one nation’s terrorism is another nation’s heroism. And it is the innocent world that will pay the price of peace. Unfortunately, what Nigerians know how to imitate most is evil machinations of other countries. That terrorism has become a conundrum in Nigeria today is an evidence of this assertion. But one fact is very clear about terrorism. It is incontrovertibly a product of corruption and the latter is a bigger terrorism. Those who want to end terrorism therefore must first endeavour to end corruption.

    Allah warns against corruption and the acts of brigandage in chapter 8:25 of the Qur’an thus: “And guard against calamity that may afflict not only the wrong doers (but even the innocent ones among you). Know that Allah’s punishment can be very severe”.

    Solution

    How can we change this evil trend? This, perhaps, is the new reality which dawned on the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, when he was about to exchange baton with his predecessor, Tony Blair, some years ago. In a chat with Labour Party members in Manchester shortly before he assumed office as Prime Minister, Brown said he recognised the fact that global extremism could never be defeated by military force alone.

    His words:

    “Our foreign policy in the years ahead will reflect the truth that to isolate and defeat terrorist extremism now involves more than military force….it (terrorism) is a struggle of ideas and ideals that in the coming years will be waged and won for the hearts and minds here at home and around the world”. Many well-meaning, foresighted Nigerians have drummed the same warning to the ears of Nigerian government. But a government that is wiser than its subjects will never heed such a warning.

    When he was making the above statement, Brown never thought that Britain would soon come under a new terrorist attack. But just a few days after that famous speech, Glasgow Airport became a target of terrorist attack. And that was on the very day he formally assumed office as Prime Minister. What became clearer especially with September 11, 2001 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, was that no country is actually immune to terrorist attack.

    History has not cited a single example of terrorism which was conquered on the battle field. Thus, since no power on earth can claim to have monopoly of terror peace would better be achieved by sharing the wisdom of others through dialogue in ending terrorism.

    Reality

    That is the reality to which the West, especially Britain and the US, had deliberately been blind. If that reality now becomes the spectacle with which the West wants to view the world, then, peace may return to its rightful place as the reigning force of human universe. But then, the idea of manufacturing and supplying weapons to some people against others will have to stop permanently.

    The religious world was once peaceful until America renounced her policy of isolationism in 1945. It took that country to join Britain in using the Press to invent labelling names and acronyms to derogate certain religions (particularly Islam) and demoralise their adherents.

    The misfortune in this which the world is yet to realise is that every religion is built on the foundation of culture.

    Therefore, no religion can be attacked to the exclusion of its culture. And nothing in the life of man is called civilisation outside culture. That is why some people are ready to die when their religion comes under a violent attack from those who are ignorant of it.

    The Greeks, the Romans, the Assyrians and the Persians of the ancient world did not fight wars because of religion. Their motives were material but today they have all gone into irreversible oblivion.

    Those of today will eventually follow their way. Materialism is nothing but vanity which is invariably ephemeral. That is why Prophet Muhammad (SAW) or any of his disciples never crossed swords with Christians when they were alive.

    The very first international wars fought for religious reason which by necessity pitched Muslims against Christians were the Crusade Wars.

    And these were caused by sheer miscarriage of information. Yet, about one thousand years after those unwarranted wars, their scar still remains indelible in the world today.

    Violence on the basis of religion can terminate lives. It can destroy properties and ruin cities and towns as well as cause dislocations and relocations of people and settlements. But it can never win hearts nor change conviction. Truth is bitter and thus abhorrent to people of falsehood. But no matter how much it may be suppressed, Muslims are ready to join other oppressed people of the world in welcoming a new initiative from the West with a view to forging peace for all and sundry.

  • North West Commission a golden opportunity

    North West Commission a golden opportunity

    The NWDC Mandate within the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu

    It is interesting that the North West Development Commission (NWDC), has become active after successful legislation, enactment into law and the appointment of a leadership team that is driving the Commission. The Commission’s leadership has hit the ground running at a very important time in the political history of Nigeria. Certainly, this is an important milestone for the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. I commend Mr. President for balancing the regional intervention initiatives across all the six (6) geopolitical zones in Nigeria. Consequently, as we approach the midterm of President Tinubu’s administration, all eyes are on all the regional development commissions, to witness how they perform and make high tangible impacts in line with their mandates, build up to the 2027 general elections.

    Indeed, the NWDC is part of the strategy of President Bola Tinubu to ensure the delivery of not just of good governance, but deepening and widening the scope and the impacts of development and good governance in all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. It therefore behooves on the Board of Directors, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, and other top executives of these development commission to succeed.

    I commend Mr. President for the consolidation of the regional development agencies or corporations under the Ministry of Regional Development, it is also a welcome development. Indeed. the regional development Commissions will be streamlined, more organized, efficient, and effective under the current federal executive structure.

    I am particular about the North West, because where there’s a lot of work cut out for the NWDC in terms of poverty alleviation, support for infrastructural development, in terms of the addressing the serious education deficit in the north, which is a fulcrum of the dwindling, the backwardness of the northwest in the scheme of things in northern Nigeria.

    It is important to note that out of the about 70% of the over 100million multidimensionally poor Nigerians (according to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics), about 70% are in northern Nigeria, out of which about 50% of them are from the northwest. The vagaries of the insecurity which has pushed a significant number of our farmers from farms thereby impacting food security and other economic variables, natural disasters like flooding, the teeming unemployed youths, increasing number of out-of-school children including the almajris, increasing number of adults, adolescents and children beggars on the streets of the Northwest are all pointers to the dire need for developmental impacts of very important institutions like the North West Development Commission, and by extension, the North East Development, and the North Central Development Commissions.

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    In addition, the reason why I am reflecting on the NWDC in particular is because I am from Kano State in North West Nigeria. Plus, I believe that the North West, having delivered the highest number of votes to President Tinubu, and indeed to almost every Nigerian that had become a president in this country; the NWDC is a golden opportunity for the northern political leadership in this administration improve good governance impacts. They have no choice but deliver in the next two years.

    Setting the Agenda:

    What is the vision and what are the Strategic Objectives?

    The question is, what is the vision of the current board and the CEO of the NWDC? What is the strategic blueprint NWDC to ensure that they are front-facing, sure-footed, decisive, and speedy in delivering the mandate?

    In my humble opinion, we expect the NWDC to come up with a communication strategy that will key into the overall strategy which will ensure that in the next three months, six months, one year, etc.; the entire North West region and all Nigeria are able to see and feel the footprints and impacts of the NWDC across North West region.

    Moreover. I look forward to synergies between the Commission and all the state governors of North West. I am delighted that the executive governors of states in the North West, are fully cooperating and ready to support to this commission across party lines because actually the NDWC is about governance and it is also about the progress of Nigeria. It is also highly impressive that some well-meaning business leaders of Nigeria, from the North West, particularly Ahaji Abdulsamad Isyaku Rabiu, the Chairman, BUA Group of Companies, and Professor Adamu Abubakar Gwarzo, the President and Founder of the MAAUN Group of Universities, have demonstrated yet again high level of patriotism by donating an entire building blocks of buildings at different locations in Kano State, to the NWDC for their management and operations. I comment the two model indigenes of North West, and model citizens of Nigeria for the very laudable display of uncommon patriotism and love for there people. Certainly, Alhaji Abdusamad Isyaku Rabiu, and Professor Adamu Abubakar Gwarzo have set a good precedence for other leaders of the region to emulate, and I am confident that they. We have a lot of good men and women of sterling character in the North West as always.

    The truth is that this Commission is not about political party, ethnicity, tribe of religion, and should not be so or made to be so in any way. The NWDC and other regional development commissions are about developmental impacts on the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Accordingly, I advise the Commission to, as a matter of urgency, convene a strategy session to review their situation. Look at the vision, and what they intend to do with their resources allocated the NWDC and timelines for performance. I expect, that a strategy blueprint in ready or will be ready the next 1 month.

    One of the banes of our developments as a nation and as a polity, especially in most part of the past 25 years of this 4th Republic; is the lack of adequate and proper planning, and worse lack proper execution, measurement of performance, and demonstrable impacts. Many leaders fail o communicate properly to Nigerians, and more importantly for the people to feel the impacts. Impacts are dimensioned at different levels, and it is very important for the NWDC to demonstrate a sense of responsibility with a sensing strategy to deliver their mandate. With profound respect, may I remind the NWDC that, “to whom much is given, much is expected”. I am optimistic that the current leadership of the NWDC will succeed. We will continue to support to the NWDC to succeed, as I wish them good luck. I also hope and pray that this will be yet again another layer that will bring succor to the people of the North West in particular and people of Nigeria in general

    Critical Success Factors

    Here are some of my initial thoughts with regard to some key focus areas some of which actually align with the NWDC’s priorities:

    •I will use this opportunity to still reiterate the importance of governors to the success of the NWDC. They are the leaders of the region, and they have their core responsibilities as enshrined in the 1999 constitution. I urge them, as many Nigerians, to give the ultimate support, which I know they will, to the Northwest Development Commission across party lines.

    •Tackling the issue of rising out-of-school children and almadjiris, should be a high priority focus area for which; education, poverty alleviation, and youth empowerment are very critical success factor. On the issue of education, the focus I suggest in my view should be on primary school and secondary school education. Of course, I note clearly that it is a key responsibility or the primary responsibility of state governors.

    •A collaboration, with respect to the kind of specific interventions that will be clearly delineated from what the governors are doing is very key in trying to provide interventions for the states to ensure that the teeming uneducated children, and youths are educated, and gainfully employed, in terms of the core academics and more importantly, in technical education. and vocational skills. These is also another critical success factor the NWDC in collaboration with the state governments, for this to be part of the sates’ economic recovery and growth strategy.

    •Simultaneously, addressing the issues of unemployment and poverty alleviation, wholesome, recognizing that Northwest Nigeria is one of the major locations of the majority of the multidimensionally poor people of Nigeria.

    • Providing healthcare support system interventions is another a critical success factor; specially in the areas of infant maternal mortality, communicable diseases, waterborne diseases, etc.

    •Dealing with the issues the issue of agriculture which is directly related to the level of insecurity in Nigeria and therefore dealing with insecurity, is very crucial and it’s a key priority area for the northwest of Commission to collaborate with state governments to see how they can also support, you know, to deliver this issue.

    I will be closely watching developments in NWDC and I hope and pray that this will be the be one of the ways for a turnaround of the socioeconomic situation of our region which is a very critical stakeholder in the scheme of political and socioeconomic structure of schemes and dynamics of Nigeria.

    In a subsequent episode I will share more of my thoughts on the very important government initiative.

    Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Oloyede: Beyond the glitch

    Oloyede: Beyond the glitch

    In His almost nine years as registrar of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof Is-haq Oloyede, has scored many firsts. He has discharged and is still discharging his duty diligently. He has done what his predecessors could not do, leaving the public in awe of his feats.

    His record speaks for itself. A record of diligence, truth, excellence, passion, industry, timely delivery on tasks, fairness, equity and justice. For all these attributes to be found in one man is rare, but Oloyede has them and more in abundance. Regrettably, it is this same record which earns public officers plaudits in other places, that is now threatening his own work.

    He is in this bind because of the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), which was written between April 24 and May 5. The results were woeful. This is not new. That has been the pattern for years now. As usual, nobody paid any attention despite JAMB’s regular release of the statistics of performance at the end of the examination each year.

    Who takes responsibility when a student does not do well in an examination, where the examining body is not found wanting? To me, it should be the parents/guardians, teachers and the candidates – in equal measures. The parents for not paying close attention to what their children/wards are doing; the teachers for not monitoring the pupils well and the candidates for not taking their studies seriously.

    Also, what did we do as concerned citizens every year that JAMB sounded the alarm of a fall in education standard after releasing the results? We turned deaf ears. To us, the government must take responsibility for the fall in education standard without the citizenry playing its part.

    We forget that no good parent toys with the education of his child. As I tell my friends, the home is a child’s first school, not the four walls of a classroom or the church. As parents, many of us love to blame others for our failure. This is precisely what we are doing in this instant case. We believe that JAMB must take the fall for the mass failure in the 2025 UTME. Nothing will make many of us happy than to see the back of Oloyede in office.

    It is not all about Oloyede. Yes, he is the head of JAMB and must take responsibility for everything done under his watch. We forget that Oloyede is also human and cannot solely discharge the enormous duty of his office. He has others working with him to ensure the smooth running of JAMB, especially its main task of conducting the UTME. The row over the 2025 exercise broke out not only because of the mass failure, but the technical issues that many candidates in the LAG/Southeast regions encountered.

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    These issues did not crop up in other centres and that says a lot about JAMB’s efficiency. Still, we have to tell ourselves the truth. It is not good enough that there were technical glitches during the examination. I also agree that JAMB should have ensured that everything was in shape before conducting the exam.

    I believe that the mock exam it conducts prior to the main UTME is to test run its system and ensure an hitchfree exercise. But as they say, “things do happen”. I am not holding brief for Oloyede, but I know him to be a thorough person with eyes for details in everything he does. Again, things will go wrong when they are bound to go wrong. This unforeseen factor undid all JAMB’s plans for the 2025 UTME.

    Calling for Oloyede’s head is not the answer. His good work of almost nine years at JAMB should not be undone by this unfortunate incident. His track record speaks for itself. He had no control over what happened, but he has taken responsibility for it. If the situation can be reversed, Oloyede will go beyond the call of duty to ensure a seamless UTME. What has happened has happened. As a way out, the 397,997 affected candidates have resat the exam and their results were released yesterday.

    Oloyede will be turning nine in office in August, meaning he has 14 months left to complete his two-term of 10 years. He completed the first term of five years in 2021 and was reappointed by President Buhari. He cannot afford to, on the eve of the completion of his tenure, allow anything like this incident,  mar his reputation.

    There cannot be any person more pained by the incident than him. It was obvious that he took what happened as a challenge on his integrity when he addressed the media on May 14 in Abuja. In tears, he tendered an unreserved apology to the nation, pleading for the understanding of the candidates, their parents, and schools. Oloyede is not a run-of-the-mill administrator and academic. When it comes to tertiary education and administration, he is no push over.

    So, it would have taken every fibre of his being for him to publicly admit that JAMB’s efforts at conducting a hitchfree 2025 UTME were thwarted by “human and technology errors”. He noted: “ what should have been a moment of joy has changed due to one or two errors… While this was not a case of sabotage, the oversight by one of our two service providers is inexcusable. I apologise. I take full responsibility “.

    The hitches, Oloyede explained, were later traced to a failure in the deployment of updated grading software by the service provider’s officials. His lofty years in JAMB should not be measured by this incident. He has done and is still doing more than enough to uplift the board. It is heartbreaking enough that the incident happened under him and if there is anything that can be done to rectify it, Oloyede will be more than ready to do it. This is why he quickly organised another exam for those affected. This is the kind of person he is.

    He has shown capacity in the discharge of his responsibility. What is more. Oloyede has shown that we still have forthright persons that can hold public office without being influenced by filthy lucre. Rather than persecute him, it is for us as a nation to address the rot in our education system for better results in future UTMEs. For now, the statistics are not cheery.

    They are scary. In 2016, 1.59m candidates (64.24%) scored below 200 out of 400; 2017, 1.72m (73%); 2018, 1.19m (77%); 2019, 1.40m (77%), 2020, 1.54m (79.2%); 2021, 1.14m (87.2%); 2022, 1.33m (77.8%); 2023, 1.17m (76.7%); 2024, 1.40m (76.1%) and 2025, 1.5m (78.5%). The 2025 result is the third worst since 2016.

    The first and second worst results were recorded in 2021 and 2020, and interestingly there were no technical glitches then. So, to what do we blame that, if not failure of parenting, teaching and candidates’ indiscipline? This is not to exonerate JAMB for the lapses that marred the 2025 UTME, though. We should, therefore, direct our energies to treating the disease and not the symptoms.  

  • Pope Leo XIV

    Pope Leo XIV

    Pope Leo XIV, 69, former Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, formally began his pontificate by the inauguration service on Sunday the 18th of May 2025 at Saint Peter’s Square in the Vatican, attended by dignitaries from all over the world, including our President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, J.D. Vance, the Vice President of the United States, and the American Secretary of State, Marco Rubio. The two of them are practising Catholics.

    Ordinarily the United States, and especially Donald Trump and his Republican cavemen, do not pay much attention to Catholic affairs because that is not where the votes are.  Besides that, apart from presidents JF Kennedy and Joe Biden, no other Catholic has been in the White House since 1776. But in this particular case they have no choice.

    The Pope is an American priest serving in a Catholic district after a distinguished missionary service in Peru, one of the poorest countries in the world.  It was there that the former Pope Francis appointed him a cardinal and sent him back to his native Chicago, where he was born to devout Catholic parents born in Saint Louis, Louisiana, in the southern part of the United States.

    The Pope’s grandparents, particularly the grandmother, was born in Santo Domingo or in Haiti, and it was from there she migrated to Saint Louis in Louisiana.  She then married a French man, the father of the pope’s mother who, like her own mother, married a French man in Saint Louis before they headed to Chicago where the pope was born.

    The young Robert Prevost went to university in Chicago and got an honours degree in mathematics before entering the priesthood in the Augustinian order.  What is the Augustinian order? This order, also known as the Order of Saint Augustine (OSA), is primarily known for its emphasis on friendship, charity and missionary work. They are inspired by the teachings of Saint Augustine of Hippo, a 4th century friar born in North Africa who had a great influence in the development of the early universal church.

    Augustinians strive to live out a Christian vocation of love for God and neighbours. The Augustinians are a mendicant order that relies on the generosity of their hosts for their sustenance. They place much emphasis on community, education, pastoral care; and are involved in sending out missionaries all over the world, and are seriously involved in the work of evangelisation. They have pastoral presence all over the world and    devote their time to the study of the works of Saint Augustine, the writer of the famous book “The city of God. “

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    Robert Prevost’s adherence to the Saint Augustinian order influenced him in becoming a missionary and leaving the easy world of Chicago and going to Peru as a missionary where he was for more than 10 years; not even in the city of Santiago de Chile, the capital, but in a rustic village in the southern part of the country where he was known for regularly cooking for poor peasants.

    When Cardinal Robert Prevost chose the papal title of Leo XIV, it was an indication of the line he wanted for his pontificate to follow and this was the path of Leo XIII. Leo XIII was pope between 1878 and 1903. He was the Italian Cardinal Carpineto Romano, who on being made pope chose the title of Leo XIII. He belonged to the order of Saint Thomas Acquinas, a Catholic friar and philosopher who was born in the 14th century. 

    Thomas Acquinas was an Aristotelian philosopher who, in his writings, tried to bring cooperation between church and state.

    Leo XIII was a kind of a revolutionary pope in his time, who moved away from the previous antagonistic relations of the papacy to the state. He supported the poor people, when necessary, but not in antagonism to the state. It seems the new Pope Leo XIV wants to follow the path of his namesake in being socially relevant in these times of wars in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and immigration all over the Americas and Africa.  Time will surely tell how steadfastly the new pope will answer the call of the masses to help share their burdens.

    This pope came in a dramatic way. No one guessed that the United States was going to produce the pope. But God works in mysterious ways. Who would have believed that the time of President Trump, when through the American president’s economic actions of raising tariffs and freezing global trade relations and devaluing the American brand, an American pope will emerge to palliate the wounds of the American political tzar!

    When the white smoke signalled that the concave of cardinals on the second day of being locked up in the Sistine Chapel had chosen a new pope, we all held our breath waiting to know who had been chosen. This was the reaction of Christians, Muslims and others. When we were told it was Cardinal Robert Prevost, and not any of the Italian and Filipino front runners, I knew the new pope was chosen by God and not by man. 

    Who would have thought an American would follow an Argentinian to occupy the throne of Saint Peter. I join all Catholics and fellow Christians to pray for him that indeed “Habemus papam. “

    In fact, when I saw he shares things in common with Pastor Adejare Adeboye of the RCCG mission, I said ‘Hallelujah,’ and can’t wait for what will be an ecumenical meeting of the two men of God with mathematics backgrounds.