The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

The saga of foreign herders

Two Thursdays ago, the Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-General Markus Kangye, told newsmen that most of those involved in violent and extremist attacks in Plateau, Benue and other states were foreign herders. He is probably right, especially given the brutal fashion those militants have levied war against local Nigerian communities. But he stopped short of stereotyping them as Fulani. The foreign herders’ racial identity is, however, not in dispute, despite loud protestations from a section of the Nigerian elite. What in fact puzzles Nigerians is how the said herders traversed the farthest parts of the North of Nigeria with all their weapons to perpetrate unimaginable violence against the Middle Belt. Victims of those horrifying attacks finger local conspirators who fantasise racial hegemony at all costs, facilitators for whom territorial borders and national identity mean nothing.

Throwing more light on why the Nigerian military believes the attacks are planned and executed by foreign herders and their sponsors and accomplices, Gen. Kangye explained: “When you hear them talk in some instances, you’ll be able to decipher whether these people are from here or not, and from the North. For instance, if I speak Hausa and my brother from the South-East speaks Hausa, you’ll know that his Hausa is a borrowed one, and Hausa language, like any other language, has different versions and intonations. If somebody from Sokoto, for instance, speaks Hausa, and my friend from Katsina speaks Hausa, you’ll hear some differences, and somebody from Kano, you’ll hear some differences. So the Hausa spoken in Nigeria is different from the Hausa spoken in Mali, Central African Republic, or Ghana. So when we arrest these herders and terrorists, even from the way they speak and appear, it is clear to see, and even the hair will tell you that this person is not from Nigeria. I think the only community in Nigeria that has hair similar to the Shuwa in the Sahel region is probably the Shuwa Arabs in Borno State, but they don’t even have the same. So, one will also admit that many of those terrorising our people are foreigners, even though some of them are also Nigerians.”

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There has been little doubt that foreign herders are the arrowhead of the ethnic cleansing going on in Nigeria, regardless of the contrary arguments adduced by some northern political and traditional leaders. Nevertheless the criminal herders constitute just one of the tripartite existential threats facing Nigeria. The bandits of the Northwest form a second vicious component of the threat, while the Boko Haram/ISWAP insurgents constitute probably the deadliest terrorist group threatening Nigeria. Smaller spinoffs have now arisen in the Northwest whose modus operandi borrow aspects of the ideologies and characteristics of the three other major threatners. These spinoffs are the Lakurawa group which operate from the Sokoto-Kebbi axis, and the Mahmuda group which operates from the Benin Republic and Kwara State sectors. The knives are out for Nigeria, with at least five terrorist groups fighting to carve huge slices of the country into either feudal enclaves or jihadist caliphates. In the face of these threats, however, Nigerian political and ethnic leaders have deliberately and conspiratorially equivocated.

Gen. Kangye’s submission on the identity of just one the terrorist groups battling Nigeria, the foreign herders, need no further interrogation. One or two Fulani associations in Kaduna State and elsewhere have tried to argue that the problem is largely homegrown, insisting that the attacking herders are mainly local and are reacting to grazing restrictions and cattle rustling. In fact, to illustrate their audacity, after every attack, the associations come out to justify the herders’ actions as well as give the authorities conditions that must be satisfied for the restoration of peace. But none of the associations’ arguments persuasively contradict the assessment of the Nigerian Defence Headquarters concerning the identities of the marauding herdsmen, most of whom, the military has established, do not even engage in livestock business.

In a recent television interview, Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Musa, identified international conspiracy and foreign sponsorship as factors explaining the viciousness and longevity of the terrorist threats facing Nigeria. He is right, even though there is also local conspiracy by political and traditional elites fascinated by jihadist and hegemonic ideologies. Because there has been no sense of national identity, and since Nigeria has remained structurally skewed, the country has become a fertile ground for all kinds of extremist forces. It is thus not only in the geographical sense that the borders are porous, in the ideological sense, the country is also fragile. That is why little or no effort has been made to restrict the influx of foreigners, whether herders or traders or clerics, and a sense of entitlement has been forged among the attacking hordes. What began as a manageable case of herder-farmer conflicts has thus morphed into a far more frightening and probably apocalyptic crisis deliberately orchestrated to carve Nigeria into fragments.

The military may have got their analysis right, but together with the government, they have so far been unable to devise holistic solutions to the burgeoning threats. What began as Boko Haram after a few hundred militants achieved a foothold in the Northeast in 2009 has now morphed into recombinant ISWAP, banditry, Lakurawa and Mahmuda. The threats to Nigeria’s existence are real and foreboding, and the time to find an answer to the crises is running out. In the face of a lack of elite unity to tackle these cancers, even if the terrorists are pacified today, nothing suggests the diseases will not recrudesce tomorrow far more virulently.

May 18, 2025
Propping up Akinwumi Adesina

Retiring president of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, has had a stellar tenure at the foremost African bank, serving for two terms since 2015 when he was first elected into the position. A first-class scholar and economist, it is not surprising that the 65-year-old meets the classical definition of a technocrat. Perhaps bored by technocracy, he seems, according to wide speculations, to be interested in veering to politics. If so, he will be following in the footsteps of another illustrious technocratic forebear, the late Adebayo Adedeji, a professor of Economics and former executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) between 1975 and 1991. Like Professor Adedeji who briefly forayed into presidential politics before discovering that the presidency demanded a different kind of endowment, Dr Adesina, who is rumoured to be propped up like his illustrious forebear by the restless ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo, may soon discover that the Nigerian presidency is a bridge too far for technocrats.

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It is not clear whether there is any truth to the rumours, but Dr Adesina has been visiting people and dignitaries, locally and internationally, such as the Egyptian president Gen. Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and former president Muhammadu Buhari. It seemed like a goodbye tour of some sorts, but commentators are reading meanings, including asserting that Chief Obasanjo is toying with the idea of using him to rob the hated President Bola Tinubu of a second term in office. So far, Dr Adesina has not directly responded to the rumours, but soon he will. Whatever he decides, he will, like Prof. Adedeji, discover that running for the presidency is unlike anything taught or learnt in the university, whether the student is a first-class scholar like him, or a precocious scholar like Prof Adedeji who became a professor at 36.

May 18, 2025
Trump consistently exceeds himself

United States president Donald Trump is an ominous example of how empires and kingdoms begin their precipitous fall. His general and contemptuous disregard for the US constitution, rationalisation of $400m Boeing 747-8 aircraft gift from the government of Qatar, ongoing development of his $5.5bn luxury resort in the same Qatar, flip-flop over Iran, Gaza, Syria, and the three-year-old Russo-Ukrainian War, not to talk of the dizzying somersault over tariff wars with friends and enemies alike, all show both the unpredictability of his administration and the greed that has become the fulcrum of his policies.

President Trump and his advisers have tried to defend the Qatari gift, but the US constitution stipulates congressional approval to receive such gifts. He has waffled considerably over Iran, annulling agreements and whimsically restarting negotiations, has welcomed the Sunni-led Syria perhaps on the prompting of Sunni Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States from which he is receiving gifts, and has left Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu apoplectic over the Gaza War as he mildly berates him for the continuation of the war, just stopping short of blaming Israel for undue exuberance. And after months of pampering Russia and falsely blaming Ukraine’s president Volodymr Zelensky for igniting the war, he has seemed to lose interest in the instant peace deal he initially fantasised.

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Other than some Americans, few global affairs analysts expected anything stable and progressive from the Trump administration. But the US president has exceeded even his own inconsistencies, upending and endangering the global security and power balances, and redefining the ethical structures upon which relations between countries as well as global politics are built. The Gulf States have become Mr Trump’s Kryptonite, after recognising how easily they can deploy hundreds of billions of arms deals and investments to get him to do their bidding. And he has wiped the self-satisfied smirk from the faces of many of his admirers and early supporters, like Mr Netanyahu, while the rest of the world waits with bated breath, if not disgust, to see what unprincipled moves he would make next. It was said of the Army of Frederick the Great that it could not be bought or sold. It is sad that Mr Trump has turned America into a mercenary nation available for hire.

May 18, 2025
And JAMB’s Oloyede wept

Last week, following the 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) debacle, JAMB registrar’s Ishaq Oloyede’s high-profile and well-oiled media and public relations machinery went into overdrive. While countless commentators brought out the scalpel asking for the registrar’s head over the technical and human errors that undermined the examination and invalidated the results in the Lagos and Owerri zones, savvy media relations experts worked round the clock to reduce the stridency of the negative narrative against Prof. Oloyede. By last weekend the two sides were gently stalemated. The glitches affected nearly 380,000 candidates who sat for the examination, leading to outpouring of anger and grief among parents and students alike. One disconsolate candidate reportedly took her life, adding to the urgency of the crisis. But by last weekend also, the rescheduled examinations were already being written.

After the results were first released two Fridays ago, JAMB officials defended the integrity of the examinations and adduced logic for the abysmal scores of about 75 percent of the candidates. Infuriated, some experts, affected parents and students insisted that something was definitely wrong with the exams and markings. Startled by the unusually loud and persistent outcry, JAMB ordered a review, and discovered, grief-stricken, that in fact, part of the blame for the unflattering scores was attributable to the exam body. In the process of reading his prepared speech in which he accepted full responsibility for the errors, Prof. Oloyede choked and wept. The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) would make amends, he promised. But by that time, the image and reputation of the institution had been dented. This probably explained why some commentators asked for his head, indicating that they were unmoved by any emotions. Conversely, because he owned up to the errors and accepted full responsibility, other commentators, including highly placed government and legislative officials, saluted his courage and asked that he should be allowed to continue in office. In short, whether he resigns or stays put is entirely up to him, at least for now.

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Since he assumed office in 2016 as JAMB registrar, Prof. Oloyede has made sterling contributions to the growth and performance of the exam body. He has inspired groundbreaking and transparent innovations to modernise the institution and make it accountable. But even as sterling as his contributions have been, neither JAMB nor any other institution saddled with such humongous and centralised responsibility is immune to the kind of glitches that undermined the 2025 UTME. Some commentators who damned him with faint praise have also been quick to counsel him to ensure avoidance of a repeat of the glitches. Perhaps the debate should not be about Prof. Oloyede, regardless of his exemplary contributions, but about the huge remit of JAMB, particularly whether the exam body should be saddled with such overarching responsibilities in a vast and heterogeneous society of over 230 million people.

In the UK, to complete secondary school, students have to write the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam. Afterwards, they could either pursue subject-based qualifications such as A-levels or take vocational qualifications for two years. Different universities and colleges have variable requirements for each undergraduate course. Most require qualifications, subjects and exam grades and assess students suitability based on skills, experience, personal statements, interview performances and national tests (only) for medicine and law programmes. Applications are usually made through a Universities and College Admissions Service (UCAS), which also limits the number of universities that each student can apply to. Undergraduate requirements in the United States are quite different. There is no national entrance examination administered by the state or federal government or general admission service. Each university has its own admission requirements. Many undergraduate programs require one or more U.S. standardised test (SAT or ACT) scores as part of the application process. Institutions then evaluate these test scores as well as students academic record, before offers of admission are issued based on those assessments.

If the 2025 UTME could be undermined by technical glitches and human errors, despite the best efforts of officials, the problem could repeat itself in the future with dire consequences. While stringent measures are usually employed to ensure the integrity of examinations and academic tests in many parts of the world, no system is completely immune to errors, for a chain is as strong as its weakest link. For example, far more technologically advanced societies like the United Kingdom witnessed an embarrassing failure in the conduct of a centralised professional examination involving the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians of the UK some two years ago. The federation admitted that about 283 doctors who sat the Part 2 examination in September 2023 received incorrect results. This suggests that the doctors who believed they had passed or failed the exam, in reality had different outcomes. As reported by the British Medical Association (BMA), an estimated 1,451 medical doctors took the exam, which is a key component of the three-part assessment required for doctors in the Internal Medicine Training pathway to graduate to higher specialty training. Prior to the release of this statement, some of the affected candidates had gone on to sit for the third part of the exam and a few had secured higher specialty training positions based on their perhaps flawed results.

Prof. Oloyede’s tears exaggerated the flaws that undid the 2025 UTME. He has done very well in elevating the standard of the institution he assumed responsibility for in 2016. Whether he throws in the towel or not, it will not diminish his contributions. He may have got entangled in the whirligig of innovating the institution into the future, but even then the conversations Nigerians should be having now should transcend his innovations or the complacency of some of his officials. After all, if he steps down, nothing guarantees a better or more innovative registrar would be found for the exam body. The UTME debacle should instead lead Nigeria into reassessing its counterproductive centralisation of its affairs. Whether it relates to politics, economy, or social programmes, it is time to alter course and find more workable and less cataclysmic methods of running the affairs of the country. It is not about Prof Oloyede; it is about the implausible and dangerous unitary system upon which the country pivots. When a crash occurs, the consequences are always unnerving and disastrous.

May 18, 2025
There’s no mollifying Fubara, Wike

They seem to have a different temperament down there in Rivers State, a difference probably unrelated to the March 18 proclamation of a state of emergency. It must be something far deeper, far bigger, and perhaps much more intense to frame in inoffensive words. Between suspended governor Siminalayi Fubara’s tactlessness and Federal Capital Territory minister’s intransigence, no one has been able to settle the question of whose deportment is worse or who is more voluble. Unfortunately, Rivers State has had the undistinguished honour of abiding both vices since Mr Fubara became governor, or, more correctly, since he was foisted on the state by the unappeasable Mr Wike who hides his fractiousness under his charisma.

These typifications are not a deliberate attempt to slander Rivers State. Having been known through decades of election cycles as probably the most remarkable churner of dizzying electoral figures, much of these statistics coming from the fishing creeks, the state is now acquiring a different label of irresoluble political conflicts confined to its leadership elite. Tonnes of essays have been written to pacify or placate the state, to make it amenable to finer discourses and get it in tune with the rest of the country, but few in that state seem to pay heed. They have raved and ranted, and insulted and cursed. And the two men at the centre of the disagreeable mood suffocating the state have ridden blissfully on the disputative waves in the state, thundering against each other, and making snide remarks about each other’s followers.

Last week, just one day apart, while posturing as earnestly questing for peace, Messrs Fubara and Wike once again lanced each other, one by the agency of a church service in honour of the late Niger Delta icon, Edwin Clark, and the other by the beaten path of a media chat. They were adamant, sarcastic and corrosive. The two had met in April in Abuja to see whether they could paper over the cracks between them. They seemed to have reached a tentative understanding which, however, quickly unravelled when their combative supporters, who have been conditioned to fight to the finish, recklessly began throwing barbs again. During last Sunday’s service of songs in Port Harcourt, Mr Fubara sounded surprisingly more conciliatory, even though he ended his remarks with a hint of sarcasm.

Hear him: “I have peace. If you have known me, you’ve been seeing me; you can see I look better now…Some of you, have you asked yourself, do you think I’m even interested in going back there? I want to ask you, don’t you see how better I look…Do you think I’m interested in it? If I have my way, I would say this is it. This is an altar of God. I don’t wish to go back there. My spirit left that place long ago…So, all these, I want everybody to focus, please. There are fights you don’t fight, there are some things you don’t do because you need to ask the person, Does he want it?…If I had my way, I wouldn’t want to return. But many people, including the late Chief Clark, have made sacrifices for me. That’s why I must stand by them.”

If Mr Wike had appreciated his predecessor’s verbal awkwardness, he would perhaps be less scathing. In the suspended governor’s quoted remarks, he inadvertently displayed two eccentricities: one, that he is often truly naïve about the import of his many weighty but sometimes circuitous remarks; and two, that he is feckless and eternally prone to wilting before the most tenuous of oppositions. Instead of appreciating the semantic limitations of Mr Fubara, and taking his generally innocent statements gamely, the primed and judgemental FCT minister took umbrage, drew his verbal sword, unfastened his scabbard and flung it away, and went for his predecessor’s jugular.

Here is how he thrust his triumphalist sword into his predecessor’s heart during the media chat: “I told him (Fubara) I don’t think you have the capacity to really make this peace. It’s not easy; if you’re making peace, your people are demonstrating every day. If you are making peace, your people are busy on television insulting people…Yes, he came with two governors and another person, but unfortunately, the two of them are APC governors. I wouldn’t pursue him. He said he wants peace, and I said I want peace too. But there are steps. You people think this is about just saying, ‘I want peace’ and then you go. What that means is that there’s an open window for you, take the necessary steps to show you want peace. Indeed, this is a self-inflicted injury. He doesn’t need it. When this crisis started, I called him. Seyi Makinde, Ortom, Ikpeazu, and Umahi were there. We sat him down and said, ‘This is not good for you. God has given it to you; don’t allow people to push you. You’re a governor, we know. Don’t forget people laboured day and night. What I have said is: don’t forget people who toiled day and night.”

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Clearly, for every inch Mr Fubara’s nursery rhyme went, Mr Wike’s tirade went a yard, for he is a far more consummate politician than his dour predecessor. Indeed, during the media chat, the FCT minister went beyond triumphalism; he also displayed a frustrating sense of entitlement and came close to playing God. He said: “I told him, ‘Go this way, and you will not have a problem’. People came and said, ‘Don’t mind him; assert yourself as governor’. Now trouble has come. They declared a state of emergency. He who wears the shoe knows where it pinches him. Who suffers? Assuming you don’t settle this problem and the state of emergency is called off, has the problem ended? I told him, ‘I don’t think you have the capacity to make peace. Your people are demonstrating every day, going on television to insult people’. Have you met the Assembly people? There are leaders you should meet. It’s not just to say, ‘I want peace.’ You must show, by conduct and action, that you want it.”

Mr Wike was angry that some people close to the governor advised him to assert himself. Given the FCT minister’s imperious remarks, not to talk of the tone of finality with which he couches his decrees, it is not hard to imagine how heavily he obtruded upon the governance of the state. On the few occasions in the past when the governor had mellowed down and sounded conciliatory, Mr Wike had remained unyielding and supercilious. Mr Fubara of course has his faults, obviously amplified by his unpolished and indecipherable approach to politics, but nothing suggests that Mr Wike has all the solutions. Until they find a common intersection in their approach to politics and governance, the disagreement between the two men will be exacerbated by their dissonant backgrounds. Hopefully, someone somewhere will arrive on the scene and help them beat their swords into ploughshares, especially as the state of emergency begins to run its course. If no meeting ground is found, it could spell disaster for the state. Mr Fubara cannot regain the six months lost to emergency; he should, therefore, find a way to be all things to all men, guileful, proactive, and witty. If nothing else, let him at least have a great one term.

May 18, 2025
The Pope of Good Hope

Reimagining a new world order

It is a wonderful irony of history that the papal conclave in Rome should choose as the new pontiff, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, who , at 69, is the 267th occupant of the throne of St Peter and the first American ever to be so elected. The Roman Catholic conclave and its grizzled cardinals are consummate past masters and poker-faced gnomes of global geopolitics and its great, irrational dynamics. There are many shrewd observers who believe that this is not a play of irony at all but a compelling game of bridge enacted at the highest echelon of global politics. As the new pope, Leo X1V brings to office the exalted virtues of humility, compassion and nobility of worldview. In a world sent reeling and gasping for breath by the combustible and disruptive politics of another American, these are values so antithetical to the worldview of Mr Donald Trump that one can be forgiven for wondering whether it was the same country that threw them up.

Yet they are. Both president and pope represent two antipodal possibilities of leadership in the same society and the promise of redemption once a society gets it right. Consequently, no human society, nation or race can be written off on the basis of current misdirection or misapplication of national genius. It is the triumph of hope and human salvation over the horrors of actual existence. It is to be noted that unlike Mr Trump who comes with overwhelming military, political and economic capability to impose his will on a global scale, the pope is armed only with his moral authority and the leverage of outstanding personal example. It is the might of example over the example of might.

It is a long time ago when Josef Stalin as the undisputed master of the Soviet Empire and arguably the most powerful man in the world at that point sucked at his famous pipe and wondered aloud about how many divisions a sitting pope could muster. This was in response to diplomatic murmurs that the pontiff was very unhappy about Stalin’s conduct. Among the communist triumvirate that took over power after the Russian revolution Stalin, a failed seminarian, was the most militant and open in his hostility to formal religion. In a story possibly apocryphal, it was said that when Stalin after becoming the undisputed master and law-giver of the Soviet Empire returned home to his native Georgia, his mother, a feisty Georgian matriarch, reportedly crowed that it was a pity the great man failed as a priest.

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The old woman may have a point. Long after the Soviet Empire had collapsed and disappeared in the sand of time, the church, particularly the Roman Catholic empire, is still standing and waxing stronger. Despite the great political turbulence occasioned by ever-shifting geopolitical dynamics, despite the occasional resort to underhand economic deals and fiscal dodginess, despite the frailties and peccadilloes some of its priests, the Catholic church has fought along the side of the people particularly in predominantly Roman catholic nations such as Brazil, Portugal, the Philippines and East Timor in their struggle against autocracy and indigenous tyranny. Its great Jesuits and brilliant priests have contributed greatly to the expansion of the frontiers of knowledge and learning, opening new vistas in science, astrology, astronomy, geophysics and philosophy. For every Copernicus and Galileo persecuted, there were great pathfinders such as Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Spinoza, Ignatius of Loyola and several other lesser known grandees of human thought and development such as the liberation theologians of Latin America. Almost six centuries later, the voice of Bartolome de las Casa, the local Catholic Bishop of Chiapas, continues to ring out from the grave about the horrendous atrocities committed at the Spanish mines of Potosi leading to the extermination of the indigenous populace and captive Africans who were dragooned to work the mines.

This is the great tradition and the heroic forebears that have thrown up Pope Leo and his illustrious predecessor, the much revered and much beloved Pope Francis who originally hailed from Argentina and was a man of cosmopolitan distinction who labored greatly to enhance the status of the poor, the underprivileged and the under-represented of the world. Pope Leo himself did some back-breaking work among the poor and the wretched of the earth in Peru. Such was his devotion to his congregation that he took up Peruvian citizenship and for a long time many were wont to think of him as a Peruvian rather than as American-born. Such is the solidity and organic coherence of this noble tradition that Pope Leo has reaffirmed his commitment and adherence to the path taken by his noble predecessor. His opening gambit has not disappointed those who expected him to be a champion of the poor and he has made a pitch for the global underclass and voiced his concern about the horrific carnage in Gaza and Ukraine and the plight of their hapless denizens in his usually calm demeanour.

This quiet stubbornness and insistence on what is right, just and fair for everybody, this steely obduracy about speaking out against injustice and about the appalling condition of the human species and the growing abridgement and outright abrogation of freedom of speech in an America lurching to the far right is bound to push the new pope on the path of conflict with the new authorities in the land of self-evident truths about the unalienable rights of humanity. The fact that the new pope is American-born heightens the contradictions and poetic ironies. For it gives him greater clout than his predecessor could ever dream off to act as a countervailing voice against the new autocrats of Europe and the authoritarian fiasco brewing in his own backyard. This is probably why the conclave pushed for him in a moment of inspired calculation. Since this is essentially a battle of will and a duel of wits, matters are not expected to get out of hand, but if they do, one can hear the American royal protagonist screaming: “Who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” This is just as it happens in Murder in the Cathedral. It will not be the first time a pope is in mortal danger because of his steadfast convictions.

Without any iota of self-irony and in a revelation laced with blindness and insight in equal measures, Donald Trump has let it be known that he was responsible for the election of the new pope. As we can see from the preceding analysis nothing can be closer and farther from the truth at the same time. The pope might have been elected because of Donald Trump but not for the reasons he thought as he is bound to find out in the long run. As we have noted in an earlier column, it will be unfair and unwise to demonize the American president just because of what he is. Donald Trump is a product of the American society and its regnant contradictions. From a particular transactional prism, much of what he has to say is true and telling. Even in the most liberal and generous of traditional African society, there is a saying that they will not continue to invite you to communal dinner if you have nothing to contribute. As Franz Kafka would have put it, “it is not that what you say is untrue but it is so harsh”. Economically beleaguered countries must get their act together.

As a young nation and fresh society, that is if we discount the decimation of the indigenous populace, America has been spared the pathologies of old traditional societies and their memory-encrusted traumas. This vigour and freshness of vision are what have borne the new nation along as it traversed new political and economic territory, leaving older nations stranded behind. But like a mysterious and mythical bogey, the old world and older civilizations often disturb and destabilize America’s self-assurance and swashbuckling confidence by the imponderable deviousness of their ways and their unfathomable political resilience. In dealing with this bogey, America oscillates between extreme calculated cruelty and stupendous child-like generosity. This is what has brought Trump as a final solution.

In re-imagining a newer and better world away from the current meanness of spirit and horrific destruction, it is the America of oceanic plenitude of resources which it was willing to share, the America of the massive and paradigm-changing Marshall Plan that rescued Europe from economic ruination, the America that left thousands of its own behind in Parisian graves as it fought to rescue Europe from the clutches of fascism, the America of the Peace Corps and ASPAU and the America that lent its enormous resources to prodemocracy forces in Nigeria in their struggle to rid their nation of military despotism that must come to the fore of the human imagination.

This is the America that threw up the current pope with his nobility of purpose, his compassion and charity towards all. There are millions of Americans like him out there. But we must not get carried away by the euphoria of premature triumphalism. The pope’s voice does not carry any economic weight, nor does he have troops at his command, as Stalin famously reminded his papal forbear. His is the force of overwhelming moral authority and outstanding example. This is what should matter in a re-imagined world. We say welcome to the Pope of Good Hope.

May 18, 2025
Okon heads to the east to join wonder-boy

Despite the recent presidential charm offensive and promises of wondrous sweeteners, all is still not well in the land of the rising sun. There is still a lot of turbulence in the air. With the dreaded IPOB threatening another massive lockdown which will shake the entire beleaguered enclave to its roots, there is reason to believe that something nasty and sinister is in the offing. Like an old metrological savant, yours sincerely has been monitoring the inclement clouds with mounting concern and anxiety wondering whether it will all fizzle out or end in a malignant downpour. IPOB and its trigger-happy affiliates have promised to honour and celebrate the departed icons and heroes of its struggle even if it means putting the entire region on a war-footing. How it expects the authorities to sit idly by and watch this challenge to the legitimacy and authority of the state remains a source of profound mystery. The only problem is that the Nigerian security forces are fighting off too many challenges to the sovereignty of the state on many fronts.

All of a sudden, Okon crashed into the living room and dropped a heavy bag on the floor, disturbing the peace and harmony of the hour after the gentle drizzles which went on all night. A startled snooper sprang up on the sofa. But before one could say a word, the crazy boy opened up.

“Ha, oga no vex at all. I wan quickly reach dem old Orlu Province make man join dem Biafran volunteer group”, the mad boy announced with flourish and excitement. The heart warmed and glowered at the prospects hoping that this time around the lunatic will meet his terminal comeuppance.

“General Okon, welcome to the front!” yours sincerely noted with a cynical guffaw.

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“Ha oga, I no be general at al at all. Dem general no fit shoot and dem dey run even from dem rabbit. I be Commander Gburugburu from Oji River”, the mad boy shouted. At this point, the ancient generator that had been working all night suddenly hissed like a mad camel and then went dead.

“Ha oga, you see yourself now? We never chop meat for dis house for six months now. Na so so Yoruba insect and dem ancient mushroom. Now dem generator don kaput. Even dem Biafran people no dey treat dem old officer like dis. At least dem still dey supply dem with monkey meat and manpower. And….” At this point, yours sincerely tried to hush up the crazy fellow and his subversive ranting.

“Wo, Okon shut up and face your own problems. By the way, you never said you are Ibo and a member of IPOB”, yours sincerely noted with a blackmailing frown.

   “Oga, na double-barrel question you dey ask me. I no dey answer double-barrel question”, the mad boy retorted.

   “So, how are you going to get to IPOB heartland?” snooper demanded from the crazy fellow.

    “When I reach Uturu Junction from Afikpo, I go cross to Ihube in Okigwe and from there I go reach Isuochi from the backdoor and then on to Mbala and Agwuata,” Okon reeled out as if reading from a war map. His knowledge of the Igbo heartland was so compelling and detailed that it set off a quiet wave of panic in yours sincerely.

    “If I had known that I have been harbouring a rebel insurgent in the house, I would have invited these people to come and take you away a long time ago..” yours sincerely moaned as fright and premonition set in.

“ Ah oga no be like dat ooo. No be like dat at all. I no dey fight oo. I no be soldier. I just dey supply dem with fresh palm wine from Itigidi and Biakpan. You no say na my papa dey sell better palm wine for Calabar. Even dem Awolowo dey come drink palm wine for dem place after dem mala capture am. At time, dem old Yoruba witch go disappear and him go reappear just like dat”, Okon sang.

“Shut up, Okon. Awolowo was a teetotaler “, yours sincerely screamed at the mad ruffian.

    “Taller dan who? Oga, Awo na short man, him no tall pass nothing”, the crazy boy retorted and then winked. “Oga, I no be dem IPOB. Na dem mad boy for Anambra who dey fire and wire all dem Ibo women who come invite me make I become him assistant. Him say work dey boku and Ibo women plenty yanfunyanfun and dem go pay me for direct gbam and for assist”. On that note, snooper threw a shoe at the urchin which sent him packing.

May 18, 2025
Significance of Ahmadu Bello Platinum award to Air Vice Marshal John C. Ifemeje (rtd).

By Kalu Okoronkwo

At a time when Nigeria’s socio-political fabric is constantly tested by divisions, insecurity, and economic turbulence, a moment of national unity has arisen that signify hope. One such moment came with the conferment of the Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership Award on Air Vice Marshal John C. Ifemeje (Rtd) by the Arewa Youth Council (AYC).

More than just a ceremonial honour, this award symbolizes something deeper, a recognition of selfless service, a celebration of integrity, and a powerful gesture towards national cohesion.

This national honour recognizes the retired military officer’s exceptional contribution to national development, security, and the unity of Nigeria.

Air Vice Marshal John C. Ifemeje (Rtd) is not a stranger to excellence. His career in the Nigerian Air Force was marked by tactical brilliance, disciplined leadership, and a commitment to the security of the nation.

From commanding air operations to shaping military policy, AVM Ifemeje rose through the ranks with honour and distinction. But even beyond the battlefield, he remained a statesman, quietly mentoring, guiding, and building bridges where many only saw walls.

The Arewa Youth Council, a leading voice among young northern Nigerians, saw in AVM Ifemeje a model of the leadership that Nigeria desperately needs, one grounded in humility, merit, and national interest.

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His tenure in the Nigerian Air Force was marked by a series of strategic and leadership roles that have significantly contributed to the operational efficiency and administrative excellence of the force till date.

As the former Air Secretary at NAF Headquarters, a position that entrusted him with the critical responsibilities of overseeing personnel management and administrative policies, he was known for notable initiatives that enhanced the welfare and professional development of Air Force personnel, reflecting his dedication to the human capital that constitutes the backbone of the military.

He was also at a time, the Commandant of the Armed Forces Command and Staff College (AFCSC) in Jaji. a premier military institution dedicated to the professional development of officers in the Nigerian Armed Forces and allied nations.

This role was instrumental in implementing advanced training programs that emphasized leadership, strategy, and joint operations, thereby preparing officers for the multifaceted challenges of modern military engagements.

His leadership at AFCSC not only elevated the institution’s standards but also reinforced its reputation as a center of excellence in military education.

The Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership Award is no ordinary accolade. Named after the legendary Sardauna of Sokoto — a visionary leader who championed education, unity, and development. The award is reserved for individuals whose leadership reflects these enduring values.

By honoring retired Air Vice Marshal Ifemeje, the AYC made a profound statement: that excellence knows no ethnicity, and service to the nation transcends regional divides. It is a recognition not only of what he has done, but of what he stands for, unity in diversity, strength through service, and leadership by example.

Nigeria’s history has been defined by regional loyalties and ethno-political fault lines. But this award marks a pivotal counter-narrative, one that says a new generation is rising with a different vision. The Arewa Youth Council, through this recognition, declared that leadership should no longer be judged by geography but by character.

Therefore one can boldly that , this is not just an award but a message to the country, a message that Nigeria can still be united, a message that young people can choose role models not by tribe, but by track record, a message that integrity still matters

Though retired, AVM Ifemeje continues to inspire. His voice remains active in national discourse — often advocating for peace, responsible governance, youth empowerment, and security sector reforms. His leadership has seamlessly transitioned from the rigid lines of military command to the flexible but impactful corridors of civic influence.

In a world where many fade into silence after public service, AVM Ifemeje chose to stay visible, not for applause, but for responsibility. This is the essence of true leadership: when the medals have been worn, and the uniforms folded, the heart for service still beats.

The conferment of this award offers Nigeria a moment to pause and reflect — on what kind of country we want to build and what kind of leaders we want to follow. It challenges citizens, especially the youth, to seek inspiration in those who lead by action, not by noise.

It reminds us that the ideals of the founding fathers , unity, sacrifice, and integrity, are not relics of the past but blueprints for our future.

As Air Vice Marshal John C. Ifemeje stood to receive the Sir Ahmadu Bello Platinum Leadership Award, he did not just accept a medal. He carried the weight of a national hope, that somewhere between the lines that divide us, there are leaders who still believe in one Nigeria.

And for the Arewa Youth Council, this moment was not about celebrating the past, but shaping the future. A future where merit is honoured, unity is embraced, and youth-led initiatives become the driving force behind national rebirth.

In a land thirsty for true leadership, this was more than an award.

It was a statement.

It was a spark.

And, hopefully, it will be a turning point.

May 18, 2025
Oloyede, victim of own standard

Hullabaloo over UTME glitch because of the superhuman heights he has taken JAMB. We saw worse scenarios before.

Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the registrar/chief executive of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), knew what he was saying when he appropriately titled the speech he delivered at the press briefing he held last week Wednesday, on the technical glitch that happened in some centres during the last Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), “Man proposes, God disposes”.

As a former vice-chancellor, Oloyede had addressed many press conferences. He had also addressed many press conferences in his present capacity. He had spoken to the ‘gentlemen’ of the press in his several other private or official capacities.

But the press conference of May 14 was of a different kind. It’s good music when you come prepared with record achievements that you want newsmen to tell the world. It’s good music when you won national or international accolades for exemplary performance. Good music when you are to be showcased as a man who has breathed life afresh into an institution that was on the brink of collapse.

But it’s something else when all eyes are on you for the wrong reason. This is especially so for a man who has worked conscientiously to earn whatever he has become today. It is the more so for a man that has come to be known as ‘Mr Integrity’ because he cares about his image.

The saying that when you don’t plan before embarking on a project, you have only planned to fail is an acclaimed truism.

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In terms of preparations, JAMB had done what was humanly possible to ensure a hitch-free 2025 UTME. Realising that its workers cannot do the job alone, JAMB brought in a lot of people of integrity across board to ensure a smooth conduct of the examination, and as part of its quality assurance measures.

As Oloyede said at the press briefing, “There are peace monitors, of 41 women of substance who are or have been principal officers of Nigerian universities; we have chief external examiners (CEEs), who are vice-chancellors, rectors and provosts of universities, polytechnics and colleges of education. Each state also has chief technical adviser, a reputable professor who is an expert in computing and cybersecurity.

“We have peace monitors, civil society group, equal opportunity group, the general monitors group, high-powered opinion leaders, the roving group, technical advisors group and the virtues vanguards. All of these groups play critical roles and complement our staff in ensuring quality and troubleshooting challenges.”

That was for adhoc personnel.

What of technology? If we begin talking about this, we won’t ever finish because it is the backbone of whatever Oloyede has achieved in JAMB, after God.

So, how do you now explain that 379,997 of about 1.9 million candidates who sat for the exam that you had so elaborately prepared for are to resit the same examination?

That is the big question. And that must have been the basis of Oloyede’s ‘man proposes, God disposes’.

The answer was found in discrepancies linked to faulty server updates in JAMB’s Lagos and south-east (Owerri zone) comprising the five South-east states: Abia, Enugu, Imo, Ebonyi and Anambra, which led to the failure to upload candidates’ responses during the first three days of the examination. Unfortunately, this was not detected before the results were released.

The mass failure that trailed the release of the result on May 9 was attributed to this avoidable lapse. More than 78 per cent of candidates scored less than 200 points out of the 400 maximum obtainable points.

There was public outcry and JAMB consequently emplaced a committee of various examination and educational experts to review the results. It was in the process that the glitch was discovered and Oloyede publicly accepted responsibility for the technical error and tendered an unreserved apology to the nation.

“As registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider. I unreservedly apologise for it,” Oloyede

said, tears in his eyes.

Agreed, people are usually interested in result, not efforts. Again, the gravity of what happened notwithstanding, the apology should do. After all nobody is perfect. Even if such a glitch occurred elsewhere, the best that would be ordered is a retake of the examination in the affected centres, and not a wholesale cancellation of the result as some people were canvassing, since the glitch was not nationwide.

But, what do we see? A barrage of criticisms calling for Oloyede’s head in a golden plate. It is refreshing though that some of the professionals in the social media space did report and analyse the incident professionally.

Really, sometimes one is usually at sea to decipher certain things, especially where Oloyede’s tenure in JAMB is concerned. One finds it difficult to differentiate between genuine critics of the board and those who do so because they are part of the people that Oloyede’s stringent policies have denied the opportunity of fleecing either the hapless candidates through all manner of illegalities, or even the country.

There is the third group that is neither here nor there. This comprises armchair critics who think the only way they can be relevant is to criticise the system, whatever happens. To them nothing good can come out of the country and when it does; it must have been a mistake.

But it is unfortunate that the technical glitch of 2025 UTME provided an ample reminder for people who never saw anything good in either the government or JAMB under Oloyede to reopen the debate on the huge remittances that he has been making to the federal purse since his assumption of office. To date, that is said to be over N50 billion in seven years, a thing the Federal Government has commended JAMB for.

This is despite the fact that Oloyede has reduced the application fees for UTME forms by N1,500. To date, he has never thought of increasing it despite the

vicissitudes of the nation’s economy.

The critics keep saying he should still reduce the fees to help poor parents even when we can see some of the benefits the money has been spent on through the awards the board organises every year to encourage the higher institutions to keep to the rules.

Curiously, such critics are mum about those who either embezzled or misapplied what Oloyede has been remitting to the government since the board came into existence in 1978.

What a country!

Under him, JAMB has demonstrated uncommon courage in enhancing accountability, transparency, and openness in its financial practices by making public its income and expenditure profiles weekly since 2017. How many government agencies can do such?

All of these are aside the technology that he has leveraged on to improve the fortunes of JAMB and the integrity of its examinations.

One thing many of us, including Oloyede himself, may not realise is the fact that he is a victim of his own standard. Many things that people would simply have shrugged off as one of those things in the dark years of the board have now become cornerstone expectations from his JAMB.

And the brickbats, could either come as genuine friendly fire from people who feel, ‘no, this man has gone past this kind of mistake’. Or from people who, as I said earlier, Oloyede’s policies have deprived the opportunity of fleecing candidates or the country, who would want to seize a moment like this to extract their pound of flesh from him. To such disgruntled elements, Oloyede is an irritant and pollutant whose ouster from the system they would gladly embrace and or orchestrate.

I said this not to make light of the UTME glitch but to just put the record straight.

Indeed, while putting this piece together on Thursday, I saw a piece written by someone who said he scored 90 something in his UTME and that when his father wrote JAMB because he trusted in his ability to have done better in the exam, his mark was changed to over 200. I was taken aback. I thought it was part of the fallout of the current UTME, only for me to read down the line that that happened about 24 years ago! That was where we were coming from with regards to JAMB and UTME. Sadly, we have forgotten so soon. These days, UTME is held without many people, except those directly concerned, knowing.

The chaos of the past whereby candidates would be running from pillar to post in search of their centres, the very many problems associated with the manual conduct of the examination, etc. have since Oloyede’s coming become things of the past.

Oloyede has since his appointment been conducting UTME yearly. He had been vice-chancellor in one of the country’s top notch universities, among others. So, he knows his onion. He has international recognition for his handling of his assignment as JAMB registrar and, in fairness to him, his performance every year has always been better than the previous year.

But it is gratifying that some institutions and individuals have shown solidarity with him at this point in time. He needs such; the country needs such. Otherwise, we would be inadvertently yielding the space to the vocal critics who are in the minority, thus giving the impression that they are in the majority. Ours is a country with too many critics, many of who cannot administer a single classroom but they are fast at calling for the heads of otherwise hard-working Nigerians simply because of one mistake or grouse, or the other.

It is sad that one candidate, Faith Opesusi, took poison allegedly over her ‘failure’ in the mass failure and died. Ordinarily one would only have stopped at sympathising with her parents and relatives, but it is also good to counsel both parents and candidates over an incident like this. In this kind of situation, the youths need counselling.

If there was mass failure in UTME as it happened, JAMB and the tertiary institutions would not go to America or South Africa to look for students. They would still have to admit students from those that ‘failed’. If it meant lowering further the requirements, it would be done. That was what happened as it was reported that her admission letter came shortly after she had committed suicide. Many great people in the world had cause to resit some examinations several times before finally making it. We need to drive the fact that an examination is not always a true test of one’s ability into their heads.

This is not an occasion to dwell extensively on why standards are falling in many of our schools, because mischief makers could term it as dancing on the grave of the poor girl. Mischief-making has no limit in our clime.

Suffice it to advise JAMB to use the technical glitch of the exams to reflect, once again, on its processes. It is sad that an examination that the board had envisaged as a poster exam has been marred by this avoidable human error.

At 70, going to 71, Oloyede should know that such is life.

May 18, 2025
Cricket, lovely cricket – A nod to Ewa Henshaw

People in my baby boomer generation were brought up on a relentless diet of sports in a way that cannot be appreciated by those who are now growing up. In our time, we all went to schools to which a sports field was attached and were encouraged to use them. After all, sporting activities were part of the curriculum and we went to school with our PT shorts under our school uniform so as to take part in whatever sporting lessons that had been scheduled for any particular day.

When the time came for me to go to the secondary school, my overblown interest in sport paid up most handsomely. At the brutal five day interview process at Igbobi College, we were minutely examined for our sporting potential and given my weakness in arithmetic, I am convinced that my eventual success in that stern examination was due as much to my ability to manipulate the English language, my dexterity with a football at my feet as well as my lung capacity which allowed me run a rather long distance in the wake of the school athlete who put us through our paces. My interest in sports has not wavered an inch since I ran that first cross-country race. That was all of sixty-fouf years ago.As anyone who lived through the sixties would testify, Igbobi College was a powerhouse of sports at that time. I have no doubt that this shaped me as much as the hours I spent in the pressure cooker atmosphere of the typical Igbobi College classroom.

I was extremely lucky to have made an acquaintance of newspapers, particularly the Daily Times very early on. Indeed, I am convinced that I learnt how to read properly from reading the Daily Times. And, my incentive for developing my reading skills was to keep abreast of what was happening in the world of sports. This was at a time when radio penetration was low and not a single television station existed anywhere in Nigeria. Most, if not all we knew about sporting events we got from the newspaper or by word of mouth from any available source. Given the unreliability of such sources, you can imagine that a great deal of fantastic stories were current in those days.

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The first Nigerian sports hero that I was made aware of was Hogan Bassey. Before he became world featherweight champion by beating Charif Hamir of France in 1957, he was Kid Bassey but after becoming world champion, he became King Bassey throughout the length and breadth of Nigeria. He became a hero, a legend even and for good measure, has a popular street, appropriately next to the National stadium named after him. Those were really exciting times for Nigerian boxing. Dick Tiger was soon to become world middleweight champion and great things were expected of the flamboyant Rafiu King Joe whilst Dele Jonathan was also making a name for himself in the ring. It was a time of great expectations and members of my generation followed their exploits with great interest on radio and the newspapers we read with bated breath. In those days when each weight division had only world champion, any world title fight commanded our full attention and our heads were full of the exploits of those heroes.

Then as now however, our passion for football was dominant. We not only read about football in the newspapers but listened to all available commentaries on radio. And there were some legendary football commentators to keep us titillated, the doyen of them all being Isola Folorunso. Without the benefit of sight we were transported to KGV (King George V) stadium on the sound of Isola Folrunso’s voice and taken to sporting Nirvana for ninety exhilarating minutes time and time again. And there was no shortage of football competitions to keep us interested. This was the period of the ECN FC domination, followed by the arrival of Stationery Stores FC with her hordes of fanatical football fans, their fan base sprinkled with more than their fair share of hooligans. Such was the influence of this team that the tempo of football activity in Lagos was toned down somewhat by the death of Israel Adebajo who went as far as recruiting players from Ghana to build the Stationary Stores FC, arguably the most exciting football club in the country at that time.

Unlike now, when virtually all our sporting heroes live abroad, all the sportsmen and women we heard of or read about lived and breathed amongst us. We trod the same earth and they mingled with us in the same space. I remember, how can I forget, the day, when on my way to the National stadium, I saw the king, Hogan Bassey no less, hanging out in his garden on Hogan Bassey Street. What joy it was for that little boy to be in the presence of a man who until then was only truly alive in the vividness of his imagination.

This is very much unlike now when our elite sportsmen and women are only seen in the flesh on the occasion of their infrequent visits to Nigeria. They are about as real to us as a mirage in the desert. A great many of our Eagles, are, in the manner of tokunbo cars flown in from Europe a couple of days before a match. Many of them are indeed qualified to be called Tokunbo since they were born abroad. It is not impossible to think that in the future, the bulk of Nigerian football teams both male and female will be Tokunbos.

In those days, those long gone days when there were no television broadcasts, we depended very much on the words of those who were lucky enough to be spectators at the venue of football or other sporting contests. We were too young not to trust the veracity of our interlocutors and so, we swallowed their every word hook, line and sinker. Actually, much of the news we received had been recycled through many mouths before they were whispered into our ears. It took the filter of many years before we twigged on to the fact that most of the stories which we also passed on were pure, unadulterated fiction. Our heroes sprang fully formed from fertile imagination. The subject of some of the most lurid of these tales was Etim Henshaw or to give him his most recognisable appellation, Henshaw of Marine.

From reliable history, what we can say of Etim Henshaw with confidence is that he was the first person to captain a Nigerian selected Football XI. He also played for the Marine team. But what he was famous for was his reported ability to propel a football at such pace and with such venom that several goalkeepers who rashly stood in the way of his shots ended up in hospital and on one tragic occasion lost his life and was buried with the offending football. Very colourful stuff which we believed implicitly. For all that, the Henshaw in the title of this article is not Etim Henshaw but Ewa Henshaw, his son.

My first acquaintance with Ewa Henshaw was as unforgettable as it was unfortunate. That year, Igbobi College was drawn in the first round of the Zard cup against Kings College. That was in 1964. The year before we had come within less than five minutes of winning the cup in a tense replay against Lagos Anglican Grammar School as they were called then. Although the mighty Asiodu had left, we were more than confident of shifting Kings College out of the way. We really should have but football is played out on a field and reputations have very little to do with the outcome of football matches. We lost that game to KC by a margin of two unreplied goals, both of them scored by their muscular centre forward, Ewa Henshaw. Ewa scored many goals that year which is why Kings College went all the way to winning the trophy. He also weaved his magic the following year and took his team to the final, at which stage they were eviscerated, clinically taken apart by Ahmadiya College parading what was arguably the most potent schoolboy strike force of all time; containing as it did, Shamsheden Osodi, Muyiwa Osode and Tunde Disu. All of them names to conjure with.

By the time the competition came around in 1966, we at Igbobi College were elated to have captured the biggest fish imaginable when Ewa Henshaw was admitted for the two year HSC course. We were sure that we had captured the last piece of the jigsaw with which we were going to break the jinx which year after year had stopped us from winning that elusive trophy. Unfortunately, there was no fairy tale ending to that story as we were knocked out of the competition in the first round of the competition in the next two years, the presence of a Henshaw notwithstanding. It was clear that Etim’s boots were too big for Ewa to fill. But he could and indeed he found another pair of boots to fill. He was a superlative cricketer, a batter who scored many runs for Kings College, Igbobi College, LACC and Nigeria.

As I have had cause to admit several times that there was a time in my life that I allowed the possibility of becoming a professional cricketer to flit through my juvenile mind. It did not take hold because I quickly realised that I had not been born at the right time or in the right place to give my dream any chance of being fulfilled. I don’t know if Ewa harboured the same thought about becoming a cricket professional but in the end that is what he had the courage and resilience to be.

Less than two years after leaving school, in 1969, Ewa made his debut for the Nigerian cricket team under the captaincy of Namse Eno. He quickly became a fixture in the team such that his day job at Ports Authority became secondary. In the end he embraced cricket fully and became a coach with Lagos state.

Cricket is even now, no more than a fringe game in this country. But, we are beginning to make waves, small waves for now but waves all the same. It is worth noting that our U19 female team is currently rated fifth in the world. And this is because of the foundational work of selfless coaches like Ewa Henshaw. These are the unsung heroes who deserve to be brought out into the limelight and their contributions suitably acknowledged from time to time. Even as we keep importing visiting talents at great cost to coach our national football teams, there is a multitude of Ewa Henshaws labouring unsung, brushing up sporting talents in many games. With a little encouragement these enthusiastic young men and women labouring in the shadows are quite capable of making a name for themselves and for Nigeria.

For all it is worth, Ewa Henshaw, who has done wonders for Nigerian cricket, please step out and take a bow. You have earned your place in the sun.

The series on the rise, rise and rise of capitalism continues next week.

May 18, 2025