The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

  • James Faleke’s unflagging flame of service

    James Faleke’s unflagging flame of service

    To have been at the forefront of progressive politics in a dynamic, diverse, cosmopolitan and sophisticated constituency like Ikeja, the capital of Nigeria’s commercial, financial and industrial nerve-centre, and with unbroken electoral success for over two decades since 2004, Honourable James Abiodun Faleke, is no doubt made of no mean stuff.

    On Christmas Day, Honourable Faleke clocked 66 eventful years this side of eternity. Ikeja Federal Constituency and far beyond were agog. What can be described as the constituent elements of Faleke’s political philosophy and praxis? First, is an uncompromising commitment to the communal good.

    The efficiency, diligent organisation, methodical exactitude and consistent regularity with which he organises his constituency outreach poverty alleviation programmes for maximum impact reflect his educational training in logistics planning, procurement processes and business management.

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    A second element of his politics is ideological fidelity and loyalty to leadership and party ethos. He is one of the enduring and unflinching pillars of support, ever constant as the northern star in President Bola Tinubu’s political firmament. The third essential feature of his politics is a humble disposition, a close affinity with the grassroots and personal accessibility to both the high and the low.

    He was the first Executive Secretary of the Ojodu Local Council Development Authority (LCDA) and was elected as substantive Chairman of the Council in 2004. Apart from his indelible achievements in infrastructure provision and social service delivery, it is noteworthy that he was the Chairman of Conference 57, the association of Local Government Chairmen in Lagos State, during his tenure.

    In 2011, he was elected to represent the Ikeja Federal Constituency in the Federal House of Representatives and has brought his characteristic commitment and seriousness to the enormous responsibility of law-making and pursuing the interests of his constituency.

    Faleke was elected to Nigeria’s Federal House of Representatives in 2011, to represent the Ikeja Federal constituency of Lagos State. He is currently the Chairman of the House Committee on Finance.

    An indigene of Ekirin-Adde in Ijummu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Faleke’s teeming supporters in the state are awaiting his next political move, especially given his continued close links with the formidable structure of the late political colossus, former governor Abubakar Audu, in the state.

  • Happy in our misery

    Happy in our misery

    Soccer in Nigeria is ugly. Indeed, the game is dead here if one recalls that not a single home-based player was considered good enough to either sit on the bench or taken to th 2025 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Morocco as a mascot. Yes, mascots are those budding young talents taken to major competitions for exposure. Indeed, Gernot Rohr literarily took Victor Osimhen to the Nations Cup ahead of Kelechi Iheanacho. Look at what Osimhen has become, dear reader?

    One only hopes we are sincere in our deliberate efforts to reinvent the Super Eagles  with truly younger boys not age mates of some of the retirees. One must commend William Troost Ekong for quitting the international scene with Nigeria when the ovation was at the highest. Being voted the best player at the last edition of AFCON held in Cote d’ Ivoire is massive for a defender. It won’t be out of place to write here that Ahem Musa may have taken a cue from Ekong’s decision to also bow out of the Super Eagles. Musa deserves all the applauses that he has received, particularly his decision to decision to return to the domestic league to play for his Nigerian club, Kano Pillars FC. We need many of our retired players to play for the local clubs to give the domestic league the fillip of growth since the NFF are satisfied with having 28 players representing Nigeria at the ongoing AFCON in Morocco without a single home-based player as mascot.

    It is unfortunate that we haven’t cultivated the culture of sending forth our elite players from the Super Eagles. The send forth organised for Austin Okocha in the past inside the Warri Township Stadium was laughable as players had to lift the ball a bit to kick it. The refurbished playing turf ended up being waterlogged the as channels constructed for the water to pass through to designated outlets were blocked. It still hurts that Okocha’s greatest moments in the game are recordings from the international media.

    I’m happy that Alex Iwobi proved his mettle in last week Tuesday victory over Tanzania which was scrappy. The manager may have found his rightful position as Iwobi’s passes were accurate, especially the one that resulted in Nigeria’s first goal. One is still scratching his head to find out the reason Chelle substituted Chukwueze. Nigeria’s biggest problem would rely how well Chelle reads the matches and the quality of substitutions he makes from the benh in the course of the game.

    In the game against Tanzania, Chelle’s changes did little to improve the team’s performance because the Tanzanians trouble our defenders with their swift counter attacking style of play. Back home here, most Nigerians watched the closing stages of Tuesday’s game with bated breath. The Tunisians are better players and could hurts us badly if we fail to track back to mark them a soon as we lose possession of the ball.

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    I ask Chelle again here what informed his decision to substitute Victor Osimhen in the last ten minutes with Onuachu?  This isn’t to say that Onuachu isn’t good enough for the role. My grouse rests with the fact that Osimhen’s exit from games always changes the rhythm of our matches with attacking foray melting away like ice cream placed underneath the scorching sun. No African side would see Osimhen upfront on the field and discount him.

    One had thought Osimhen had a knock and wanted to leave the game in order not to aggravate he injury. My thought was wrong going by Osimhen’s countenance as he walked off the pitch. Dear Chelle, there shouldn’t be any margin for tactical error in tonight’s game against the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia. Nigeria should aim to top Group C by beating the Tunisians. It is the only option for the Eagles going by our low goals aggregate of one compared to the Tunisians plus three goals with no goals against.

    Against the Tanzanians, two o our goals were ruled out as offside offences largely because Osimhen and Adams Akor didn’t time their runs perfectly like the Tanzanians did with theirs. Chelle’s instructions to the boys to play the ball from behind is good our players must show sufficient hunger for goals by opening up chances towards the flanks since our strikers are fast runners. Those needless passes backwards not kills the attacking forays but exposes our players as inefficient dribblers of the ball.

    Nigeria shouldn’t lose tonight to the Tunisians. We need to be happy in our World Cup misery  with any form of victory than a defeat which would translate to a double jeopardy. Even if our football is the ICU, we restore hope of a sustainable revival by beating the Tunisians. That way the last game be a befitting ceremonial game for Chelle to tested other players ahead of the much difficult fixtures beginning with the Round of 16 games next week. Good luck Nigeria.

    However, we cannot allow foreign coaches through our administrators who recruit them to kill our joy with the chain of bad results recently. Let it be known to Chelle that his contract won’t be renewed if Nigeria fails to lift the winners’ trophy at the 2025 AFCON currently holding in Morocco. No half measures anymore.

    In Europe, the game of soccer is beautiful to watch. You can spend hours watching games live at home or at Stadia. You can equally be excited watching recaps of major matches at home or any gadget you choose to watch the matches, yet you will derive the same excitement as if you are watching a live game.

    For the soccer game, the end of the season throws up certain puzzles surrounding who the  best players, coaches, etc are with different parameters used in picking different winners. Such subtitles as the best striker, best defender, best goalkeeper whose prize would be a golden glove,  best midfielder, best winger, highest goal scorer (men and women), young player of the year, you name them. But it is the best footballer of the year male and female that attracts the fans’ applause and attention the following season.

    If we must achieve excellence and meet the objective requirement for the rapid development of our sports industry, then we must broaden the finance base of the industry and create the right conditions for private sector funding and investment in sports.

    We must accept that there is the need for us to have the political will to make sports a big business, which inevitably will create the platforms to unemployment. We need to cultivate business concerns to embrace sports, but with a caveat -transparency and accountability.

    There was the need to create enabling environment for business concerns to key into sports patronage, first to change the way it is run in Nigeria and then to get Nigerians to know that sports help increase the country’s G.D.P as seen in other climes.

    Grassroots development can be actualised through the hosting of international and continental sporting events. Most countries use these big competitions to woo the blue-chip industries to identify with sports. Besides, these competitions open up the hinterland with the facilities constructed creating jobs in the locality. The facilities would attract the villagers to learn the games and, inadvertently, improves their health.

    Big sports competitions generate revenue, create jobs, improve financial bases and provide the best opportunity for foreigners to have first hand interaction with Nigerians. Such competitions improve tourism, a sure money spinner. Need I state the benefit that business concerns will gain from the volume of foreign exchange during such competitions?

    Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year, dear reader.

  • Fake prophecy

    Fake prophecy

    There is something strange about prophecy which remains a puzzle to mankind. It is like the night which is invisibly pregnant but delivers wonders in the day. Genuine prophecy is neither by coinage nor by pretext. Its roots are firmly planted in the rich soil of divinity.

    And only Allah appoints prophets for an appropriate nation with an appropriate mission at an appropriate time. But this has been bastardised by self-styled prophets of the modern world who see prophecy as an umbrella of fortune under which they can hide to mine gold and silver. Such people only sooth-tell satanic dreams to their ignorant and parochial victims who are callously milked in the name of prophecy.

    Except for King Daud (David) and his son King Sulayman (Solomon) who were divinely guided to show the world how wealth is legitimately acquired and managed, no prophet of Allah was stupendously rich. This can be compared with today’s situation where prophecy is measured in terms of billions of dollars or naira at the disposal of fraudsters parading themselves as prophets. Today, prophecy in religion has been fully turned into a platform for preaching prosperity rather than posterity at the expense of godliness and humanitarianism.

    Genuine Prophecy

    It is not by clandestinely predicting the number of Kings who will die in a locality in the coming year or the governors who will lose their seats to opponents that a person can proclaim self a prophet. Genuine prophets are known not by words of mouth alone or amount of wealth they possess but by the exemplary actions that may serve humanity in good stead for many, many centuries. Prophets Isa (Jesus) and Muhammad (SAW) are good examples of this.

    Prophecy, therefore, is not to be judged on the basis of yearly predictions. Virtually all the religious tenets and regulations in Christianity and Islam today are reflections of the prophecies of the two great men mentioned above in the past two millennia or thereabout.

    In contrast, however, fake prophecy today is a product which finds a large market in Nigeria. Ignorant and parochial people queue up in multitudes before fraudsters with the intention of moulding their future to suit their wishes or solve insuperable problems. Such people are forced to carry out satanic instructions which eventually bring ruins to them and pave ways for those fraudsters to zoom into material fortune without any care for conscience. Most broken homes and criminal activities of Nigerian youths today are traceable to fake prophecies and insensitive display of wealth in Churches and Mosques in this country.

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had forewarned the Muslim Ummah, over 1400 years ago, against the calamity which false prophecy could bring to them. Addressing his disciples on a particular occasion, he said:

    “There will be calamity!” He repeated this three times. But rather than asking him of its cause, the disciples simply asked for the solution. They had no cause to doubt him. And he told them to look for the solution in the legacy he was leaving behind. That legacy is the rule of law contained in the Qur’an and Sunnah.

    Rule of law

    The Prophet emphasised to them that nothing besides the rule of law would ever bring them the needed harmony in the world. He described the Qur’an as the all-time permanent solution to the various problems of all times reiterating that only individuals, groups or nations that hold it (Qur’an) tenaciously would never go astray.

    The Qur’an, according to Prophet Muhammad (SAW) is the mirror with which to view the past retrospectively and draw a lesson from its experience. It is the effective compass with which to find the way in the hazy wilderness of the present. It is also the impeccable telescope with which to view the future. In other words, the Qur’an is an everlasting prophecy recalling the occurrences of the past, serving as the guidance of the present and tuning focus on the future.

    By asking the world to follow the rule of law in all their ways, the Prophet never aimed at rising from his grave to govern any particular nation or region of the world. Neither did he leave any heir behind who would inherit the governance of the world. His objective, according to the mission he bore, was for the world to be in harmony.

    And, it is only in the interest of mankind to uphold the rule of law for the sake of their harmonious co-existence.

    To marry according to the rule of law; to divorce, if need be, according to the rule of law; to raise families according to the rule of law; to transact businesses according to the rule of law; to play politics according to the rule of law; to give judgment according to the rule of law; to conduct elections according to the rule of law; to legislate according to the rule of law; to govern according to the rule of law, these and more are the elements of the mission preached by Prophet Muhammad (SAW). And, is there any individual, group or nation not affected by all these in the world today?

    Every aspect of life has its rule of law. We work in the day and rest in the night not by our own volition but in accordance with the natural rule of law that guide our existence. The sun rises in the East and sets in the West to obey the rule of law that controls its operations. Fishes live in water. Plants grow generically and are fed by their roots in obedience to the natural rule of law that governs them. Harmony becomes disrupted when deviation occurs in any of these.

    Carnivores like lions, vipers and eagles will never voluntarily feed on plants. Neither will herbivores like elephants, camels and goats, feed on flesh. To force them to do otherwise, in the name of experiment, is to cause disharmony in the animal kingdom.

    Cause of disharmony

    The world is in disharmony today because of deliberate deviation from the rule of law by those in power. Stronger nations want to dominate weaker nations as in the case of America in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Governments want to enslave the governed as in the case of Nigeria between 1999 and 2014. Groups want to exploit individuals as in the case of the business elite and the consumers. It is all an evidence of dogs eating dogs in the stable of greed. Why won’t disharmony prevail?

    But Allah so much loves mankind that He does not leave them permanently in the hands of devilish pirates. From time to time, Allah sends conscientious individuals either as rulers or as counselors to rescue the oppressed people. That was the fortune of Nigeria when Umaru Musa Yar’Adua emerged as President.

    His insistence on rule of law first sounded odd to some lawless elements who took such stand for granted because they never experienced rule of law in Nigeria. But that is the blessing which our country needed as a solid foundation for a strong building. Rule of law is the first sign of sanity in a society.

     It is an evidence of decency in a people.

    Remembering Yar’Adua

    In beaming the light of rule of law on Nigeria, Yar’Adua was not a mere touch-bearer he also recognized the fact that one did not necessarily have to be governed by Shari’ah to abide by rule of law.

    What the Qur’an teaches which the Prophet emphasised is for everybody to follow the rule of the law by which he or she is governed. To do this is to follow the guidance of the Qur’an.

    If we had a President in Yar’Adua who could voluntarily return his annual security vote of about two billion naira to the national treasury because he did not see the need to spend it and he did not see it as a personal booty; if we had a President in him who could return the budget to the National Assembly for amendment because he felt it was unnecessarily inflated at the expense of the populace; if we had a President in him who could promptly react positively to the cry of the people on high cost of food items in the market, who could cause the price of cement to crash in favour of the downtrodden masses and suspend any increase on price of petrol indefinitely until his death, it was only because he had the fear of Allah at heart. Thus with him in power it was becoming crystal clear that Nigerians were beginning to appreciate the fact that harmony was truly in sight. And such great gestures which had eluded this country for a long time before he became President came to add greater values to the lives of Nigerians. Rule of law is about conscience and decency of character.

    It marks the difference between man and beast.

    If Yar’Adua did not achieve anything beyond establishing the rule of law in Nigeria that singular achievement was great enough for posterity. And what is more, he achieved much more by bringing a ray of hope to millions of Nigerians in less than two years of his leadership in a country where the sky had been dangerously cloudy. No sane person will sensibly compare sleep with death.

    Lost Paradise

    Prophet Muhammad never spoke in a vacuum. His utterances were divinely guided. And the Qur’an confirms this thus: ‘’He (Muhammad) never spoke out of sheer whim; his expressions are no other than inspired revelations; he is taught by the One who is mighty in power…”

    Nigerians of today have become like the Israelis of yore who after being rescued by Prophet Musa (Moses) from the scourge of Pharaoh, showed ingratitude to Allah and were thrown into the wilderness of life. Having suffered in the hands of a blind and deaf Nigerian Pharaoh for eight terrible years and having been liberated by an unexpected Moses, it only behooved conscientious people to be grateful not necessarily to that Moses but to God who used him for this divine gesture. The sharp difference between the road to hell and the one to paradise which Nigerians have experienced within one decade had shown how wonderful Allah is in His deeds. It also confirms the genuineness of Prophet Muhammad prophesy as attested in Qur’an 20 verse 124 thus:

    “When my guidance is revealed to you, he who follows it shall never err nor be afflicted; but he who gives no heed to My warning shall live in distress and be raised blind on the Day of Resurrection…”

    In his message to the nation on the occasion of Mawlidu-n-Nabiyy and

    Easter of 2008, President Yar’Adua appealed to Nigerians, with humility, to exercise patience with his administration saying there was need for thoroughness and decency to take off. He neither used any abusive language that was the hall-mark of his predecessor nor did he ask Nigerians to continue to bear the unbearable while his own family lived aristocratically.

    Having a man like him at the helm of affairs while he was alive was a special blessing of Allah which Nigerians only came to realize after his demise. And today, that reality is a lost paradise. The Qur’anic verse quoted above must always be a reference point for all decent, law-abiding people. From all indications then, there was a sign of light at the end of our tunnel. When one compares the governing style of today with that of yesterday and weighs the one with the other, it will be obviously realised that the difference is clear. It is impossible for a man to give what he does not possess. For both the rulers and the ruled the only panacea to Nigeria’s plight, especially in a situation where ordinary feeding has become a luxury, is the rule of law. Anything contrary may only pave the way to waterloo. For rulers and politicians, to rely on fake prophesy, as now prevalent in Nigeria, is to cling desperately to a sinking straw. Those who did it in the past are now part of the debris of history. The dreamers of today cannot be different tomorrow. Let those who have ears heed this axiomatic warning.

    “Allah does not change a people’s lot unless they change what is in their hearts. If He seeks to afflict them with a misfortune, none can ward it off. Besides Him, there is no protector (for any rational being).” Q.13:11. God save Nigeria!

    Watch Out!

    In an effort to rejuvenate the Nigerian Muslim Ummah educationally against the ongoing emasculation by the power that be, the Nigerian

    Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) has started a quarterly

    Magazine titled ‘Prime Renaissance’. The magazine being packaged by the Media Committee of the Council has a variety of issues that will serve the Ummah in good stead. And yours sincerely is its Editor-in-Chief.

    To know some details about the aims and objectives of the magazine, please read the opening of its maiden edition entitled ‘OUR MISSION’ below:

    Intention is a mission upon which every human action is based. This fact was emphasised in the very first Hadith of Prophet Muhammad (SAW) in which he said that: “all actions are surely based on intention and everybody’s action shall be judged according to intention…”.

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    The intention of this timely noble magazine is to genuinely carry out the three basic objectives of journalism: Information, Education and entertainment which have been grossly abused and even bastardised by agents of bias through the colouration of politics and religion. This modest effort is aimed at putting the records straight by bringing genuine, unpolluted knowledge and correct information to the teeming population of Nigerian Muslims and others who are desirous of genuine and undeniable facts and figures. And this is why the magazine is rightly titled ‘PRIME RENAISSANCE’….

    In the course of our publications, we intend not only to right the wrong in terms of information and education dissemination but also in terms of character building in our youths and harmonisation of the society, especially the Ummah, for the purpose of peace and tranquility.

    Thus, the activities of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic

    Affairs (NSCIA) as well as those of the regional or provincial Muslim organisations in the country will be projected and highlighted for the generality of Nigerian Ummah. Muslim women in Nigeria will occupy their rightful place in this magazine as much as the Muslim children, the handicapped, the underprivileged and the crème de la crème of Nigerian society.

    This magazine shall be purely religious in contents and in outlook.

    But religiousness here does not mean that such areas as politics, economy, social events and international trends will be non-Grata.

    Every aspect of human life is encompassed in Islam and none shall be compromised in this magazine for whatever reason. It is our mission to make this magazine a compendium of knowledge and genuine information that will serve as a worthy reference for generations of yet unborn Nigerian Muslims…

    With this unprecedented step from the apex body of Islamic Affairs in

    Nigeria, one of the hitherto missing points can be said to have been found. It is hoped that sustaining it should not be a problem. Readers, Muslim and non-Muslims alike, are welcome on board of this new ship as it cruises on the storming sea of this era.

  • Malami’s burden

    Malami’s burden

    As the federal government files 16-count charge of money laundering, concealment, and unlawful acquisition of proceeds of illegal activity, against the former Minister of Justice, and  Attorney General of the Federation, Mr. Abubakar Malami SAN and his son, Malami has been moaning, lamenting, and and claiming that he is being persecuted by the federal government. Interestingly, Malami is painting himself as a victim which in my opinion is tantamount tas the saying goes, “putting a lipstick on a pig “, which will actually not change its looks.

    All Nigerians are aware of the activities of Abubakar Malami during his heydays as the Chief Law Officer of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It is interesting how leaders in Nigeria become deaf , dumb and blind to realities and the trappings of power while they are in charge. Ironically, they  become activists and claim to be victims when they are out of power and when they are asked to account for their deeds or indeed when are asked to take responsibility for their actions.

    One of the things I am very interested to hear from Abubakar Malami is how he transited from being just a lower middle class Nigerian, an average lawyer, and within the eight years that was the Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation, he accumulated such stupendous wealth that are alleged to belong to him, valued at about almost 212 billion Naira which is one 140 US Dollars. I am very keen to listen to Abubakar Malami’s defence,. And that’s the fair hearing that Malami he is currently given by the EFCC and our Courts. This is despite the fact that is on record that Abubakar Malami denied people fair hearing when he was Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation. Therefore. I am not interested in the feeble defenses he is putting up

    These are interesting times for Malami and all the political leaders that are currently facing various investigations and prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and Independent Corrupt Practices, and Related Offenses Commission. Instead of Abubakar Malami to step up to defend himself in the court of law and demonstrate to Nigerians that he is a man of honor by clearing his name, he has rather taken the route of shouting that he is a victim, shouting that is is being persecuted. This is inspite of he very ominous and pungent smell reeling out of the daily reports we are getting about his shenanigans when he was the Minister of Justice. Personally, I would be very interested to hear and see the defenses that will be put up by the former Chief Law Officer who interestingly is a Senior Advocate of Nigeria to demonstrate his legal sagacity, legal strategy, and understanding the rudiments of the law.

    Indeed, if the allegations are true, I wonder how his understanding of the law will save him.The level of shamelessness of politicians to claim persecution and innocence on a clear cases of corruption and /or abuse of office that require that person to defend himself or herself leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

    In the eight years that Abubakar Malami held sway as the Attorney General, and Minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he was actually building a house, furnishing it with the bed he would like to lie on. As the saying goes, “as you make your bed, so you shall lie on it.”. I expect Malami to man up and face the current prosecution, answer the questions, neutralize the evidences, counter the witness statements, and also demolish all exhibits presented before him to clear his name, in which case I will congratulate him. But anything less than that to me amounts to insulting the intelligence of Nigerians. He will have to take responsibility for his actions.

    Back in the days, Malami was disrespecting court orders, refusing to comply with court orders, he was not able to advise former president, Muhammad Buhari, and Ministries Departments and Agencies of Government (MDAs), to comply with court orders,. Ironically, he is now the one wanting the orders of court to be respected and complied. The same man that oversaw the travesties of justice. Personally, I am witness to such travesty of justice, when Abubakar Malami frustrated the position I took to defend this country on matters of national security and economic sabotage. His officials sent to me a veiled threat for me to stand down on that matter, which of course I ignored. This speaks volume of the character of Malami, when the chief law officer of Nigeria.

    The Integrity, and Competence of the EFCC Chairman is intact:

    Abubakar Malami’s position that Barrister Olukoyode, the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), should recuse himself on this investigation, and prosecution, claiming that Mr Olukoyode was indicted in the Salami Panel Report , is irrelevant and is clearly diversionary. There is no reason why the CHairman of EFCC should recuse himself from this case. The executive chairman of EFCC is not the issue here. Abubakar Malami needs to answer questions and stop chasing shadows. No amount of deflections or attempts of circumvention will make this matter go away.

    I commend the Chairman of the EFCC, Mr. Olukoyode for a job well done, with he forensic manner the investigation and prosecution of Abubakar Malami’s case and other cases that the EFCC are executing. The development of the case and the various achievements of the EFCC in 2025 demonstrate the capacity of the EFCC in pursuing this case to its logical conclusion. Therefore, I encourage the EFCC Chairman, not to be deterred or distracted, from his current trajectory, not just in the case of Abubakar Malami, but on all matters before the EFCC . We should support such institutions to cleanse our country. Indeed the integrity, capacity, and competence or Mr. Olukoyode is not in doubt.

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    Furthermore, the allegations of persecution by opposition politician, is laughable. I will not support any politician who has questions to answer to hide under the guise of persecution avoid accountability. If and when people get into position of power, they should remember there is a day they will leave that office. This should also be a lesson to all political leaders that your power today could become your vulnerability tomorrow! Therefore use your power, time and opportunity wisely! Leaders should be conscious of their actions and inactions because a time will come that they will account for their tenures. The ongoing cases being investigated and prosecuted by the EFCC, and ICPC includes leaders in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), and also the leaders that are in opposition political parties. Therefore, we should all stand as Nigerians to fight against corruption, irrespective of party affiliation, ethnicity, religion and creed. That is the only way we can progress and develop as a nation. By the way, if for any reason, a government is power is using the weakness of corruption that have been perpetrated by an individual, well, so be it, because that person has created the situation

    It is also on record that the EFCC and subsequently the courts, have made provisions for Malami to be able to get bail. Malami should satisfy the bail conditions and go home. Interesting, during his tenure,  conditions were made so difficult that some bail conditions were actually not supposed to be met. The question is, what did Abubakar Malami do to ensure that such bail conditions were not entrenched in the system. In any case, he could actually seek for variation of the bail conditions subject to consideration of the Court(s).

    As you make your beds so you shall lie on them:

    During his time as the Chief Law Officer of Nigeria, Malami was alleged to have attempted to undermine the institution he belongs to, the institution that made the a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), i.e the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), just because the NBA was speaking truth to power – the federal government at that time; to the extent that it is alleged that he was the brain behind the creation of a parallel legal association/ Bar association, to counter the NBA. What a Paradox!

    The fact that Abubakar Malami is malingering from one court to another, trying to set aside subsisting court orders that affirmed his detention, speaks volumes with regards to how life is so transient and how power is transient. That we should be cautious what we do when we are in power, for it is very easy how time flies that we will be on the other side of the table at the receiving end. Malami’s desperation is increasing and it is telling. His he grandstanding  is only making matters worse for him. Because Nigerians are wiser.

  • Ethnic nationalism and national development

    Ethnic nationalism and national development

    The First World War had ramifying effects on the world including the people of Africa and Nigeria was not an exception. In the case of Nigeria, the colonial administration feared that Islam could be exploited to rally the defeated Muslims in Northern Nigeria against the British because of Turkish propaganda calling for jihad against infidels all over the world. This was the only major threat to British hold on Nigeria but by this time the Fulani rulers who were united in sharing with the British the booty of the Native Treasuries (Beit-el-mal) which were taxes on cattle (jangali) and crops had something in common. This commonality of interest between the colonial powers and the native rulers was to, by and large, draw a wedge between the Northern Effendiyyah and the educated elite in the south before and after independence and possibly till today.

    The idea of native treasuries were extended to the South where it largely met resistance and even uprising in the East which had no hierarchy of chiefs because it was sociologically a chiefless or headless society or what anthropologists call an acephalous society and attempts to create chiefs among the Igbo by colonial administrators by giving warrants to some identified supporters to act as chiefs led to uprising in many parts of Igboland. In Yorubaland where there were chiefs, some of them were elevated beyond their traditional status. This also led to armed resistance in upper Ogun area of former Oyo Empire.

    The effects of the First World War were accompanied by several political and economic ramifications in Nigeria. The Nigerian soldiers and carriers came back with natural exaggerations of themselves in the face of enemy fire while their white colonial officers ran away. Their stories spread to their home cities and friends who demanded rights and better salaries and more respect from their rulers. Political parties initially confined to Lagos and other coastal cities like Calabar began to spread into the hinterland that by the outbreak of the Second World war, the demands and influence of the educated Nigerians in Lagos and the urban centres began to be echoed by illiterate Nigerians saying that service must deserve its rewards. Their leaders began to be known and cultivated by the colonial rulers and their bosses In London.

    Newspapers that had been in reasonable numbers but whose interest and influence were confined to Lagos colony alone began to have wider readership and credibility in regional hubs and places like Ibadan, Abeokuta, Benin, Enugu, Port Harcourt, Kano, Bauchi, and Jos.  The Second World War which began in 1939 and ended in 1945 began with a muffle but ended with a bang in terms of its influence in Nigeria. Tens of thousands of Nigerian troops fought under the Union Jack in the jungles of Burma against tough and intrepid Japanese troops sworn to fight for victory or death in defence of Japan and its emperor Hirohito and its people s ‘interest in Asia particularly in the pacific islands of the Philippines and Taiwan as well as mainland China, Korea and Burma. Nigerian troops saw action mostly in Burma.

    On   returning home, many of the ex-servicemen were courted by the main political parties in existence. Particularly, the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) which was formed in 1944 mainly by former students of Kings College who then surrendered leadership to Herbert Macaulay as president and the America-educated Nnamdi Azikiwe as Secretary General. The NCNC was like the various Rassemblement Africain in several French African countries. It was hoped it will be an umbrella political organisation for the various existing African parties some of them existing since the Lugardian years. Unfortunately, this hope was not realised because Herbert Macaulay, the president of the NCNC died in 1948 and Azikiwe, the fiery journalist and nationalist took over and gave the leadership more élan and vigour but in the process, he was accused of leaning too much on Igbo tribal support. This led to the emergence of the Action Group which had its roots in the Egbe Omo Oduduwa formed in1950 and eventually the Action Group (AG) by Obafemi Awolowo, a journalist and trade unionist in 1951 and the Northern Peoples Congress, NPC ( jamiyyar Mutanen Arewa or JMA. These two parties representing the West and the Northern peoples tried unsuccessfully to make the NCNC look as a tribal Igbo party without effect until independence in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Tinubu vows deeper faith-leader engagements to curb conflict, promote peaceful coexistence

    The issue of tribalism or ethnic differences have largely ruined the success of the country. It has infected our politics to the extent that people either vote along ethnic lines and where they tried to look at issues rationally and nationally, they are immediately slapped back into supposedly tribal redoubts or ostracized as traitors or saboteurs. There is widespread rigging of votes to enhance ethnic figures in the census which are usually rigged because revenue sharing is tied to census. This is a problem that affects states creation, education, financial allocation and inability to have genuine democracy and stability which have been the bane of our society.

    The constitution which was a negotiated federal constitution before independence has been undermined by the military dictatorship egged on by civilian politicians who have less than noble or patriotic motives. Most of the political problems Nigeria has had since independence are traceable to tribalism or ethnic parochialism. Example of this can be seen in the Action Group crisis of 1961 to 1963 which split the party into two rival groups which indirectly led to the incarceration in 1963, of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, the then leader of opposition in the federal parliament. The ruling NCNC/ NPC coalition government combined the forces of the tribally rooted Northern politicians and their collaborators from the Eastern Region to remove Awolowo from the political scene. 

    .Awolowo may have been ambitious, but it is doubtful that he would have  tried to violently overthrow the federal government of Nigeria with a few party toughies trained in Kwame Nkrumah’s WINNEBA ideological school where the likes of Samuel Grace Ikoku, a former Secretary General of the Action Group was a lecturer. The evidence presented at the famous trial for reasonable felony were not overwhelming enough to condemn a major political leader without upsetting the equilibrium of the country and its stability. The reaction of the people of the West got to a crescendo in 1965 when the Chief S.L. Akintola’s government which was obviously unpopular, decided to manipulate the voting process when the Deputy Premier Chief Remi Fani-Kayode boasted that whether the people voted for their party or not “… angels would vote for them” took laws into their hands, burning and looting while the cabinet prepared for the worst.

    When some elements in the army struck at dawn of January 15, 1966 ,some of the ministers felt that their opponents were behind the “attempted coup d’état while the BBC radio network was telling the whole world that there had been an attempted coup and the prime minister  Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa seemed  to have been kidnapped and two regional premiers namely Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Chief S.L.Akintola, the Are ona Kakanfo of Yoruba land had been killed and many senior army officers seemed to have been killed. When the news were confirmed, and regional and ethnic dimensions of the killings were analysed, the original cheering for the army putsch petered out in fear of what may happen because Nigeria had never seen anything like this before. The counter coup of July 1966 about half a year later appeared as if the equation was balanced by the number of army officers who were killed. But sadly the situation got out of hands when the pogroms against the Igbo in the North began and the whole country became destabilised setting the stage for the three year civil war after the mediation by Ghanaian military leaders failed and General Gowon on return from the Aburi reconciliation meeting in Ghana, appeared to have been outflanked by those who wanted to militarily sort out the issue.  

    Going to war was a terrible denouement for which Nigeria is yet to recover. Previous opportunities for Nigeria to be more united had been missed in 1954 and 1959 to form a forward looking governments and the July coup of 1966 tragically followed the same trajectory.

  • Trekking in the wild

    Trekking in the wild

    • Papiri schoolkids ordeal in captivity

    Many Hearts would have skipped at the sight of the kids. It was not something to behold. As they alighted from the buses that brought them to the Government House, Minna, the Niger State capital on Monday, I shuddered as I beheld the tiny tots on television. These kids are too small to undergo what they have just experienced, I muttered under my breath.

    They had just gone through what could be likened to hell and back. Some would say that the kids are lucky they returned alive, while others would wonder what kind of human beings could have kidnapped them. The thought of kidnapping itself is repulsive, not to talk of the act. It happened, anyway, in the chilly hours of the night of November 21.

    They were in their hostels when the marauders struck. The invaders number is unknown, but they reportedly went away with 280 people, comprising 265 pupils and 15 teachers. Fifty of the pupils escaped, leaving 230 others in the hands of the kidnappers. With 230 souls, they knew that they had the government by its balls. To them, the remaining 215 pupils and 15 teachers was ‘good business’ in terms of what they would get from the head of each abductee.

    This is what human life has been reduced to by these terrorists, as the Federal Government has now classified all these criminals, whether kidnappers, bandits, militants or insurgents. Classification is not enough. They should be wiped away from the face of the earth to give the public the assurance that no child would ever be kidnapped from school again. As a nation, we have allowed this criminal act to fester to the extent that terrorists now see themselves as being above the law.

    It is time to draw the line for them, using the Papiri incident to say enough is enough. The kids cut a pitiable picture, as they filed out in a straight line on arrival at the government house. I blinked several times as I watched them walk into the place so that my eyes would get accustomed to what I was seeing. I was shattered by what I saw. I never expected any sane person to kidnap such kids, many of who are under seven or below, judging by their looks. Believe it or not, they had just gone through roving in mangroves as they were being herded from one forest to the other by people old enough to be their parents.

    They are too small to have undergone that harrowing and horrible experience. These kids; these children who do not know their right from their left were sent to boarding school by parents who believe in the life changing power of education. Their parents wanted the best for them in life, and the first steps toward achieving that was to enrol them in a school where their outlook will be shaped. They might have chosen a boarding school, believing that it is a proper place for grooming children.

    Can we blame their parents for sending them to boarding school? This is not just any boarding school, but a faith-based one, the kind of which many of us attended in the past, without any hitch. Then, schools never had this kind of nasty experience of kidnapping, vandalising, killing and looting. Schools even in the remotest part of a community were safe and secure for learning. It was unheard of that some mad men stormed a school to kidnap pupils and teachers. Papiri was not the only school invaded in November.  A girls school in Maga, Kebbi State, was attacked on November 17, four days before the Papiri incident.

    Read Also: Tinubu vows deeper faith-leader engagements to curb conflict, promote peaceful coexistence

    There is a historical angle to these invasions. These marauders struck in Chibok, Borno State in 2014; Dapchi, Yobe State, 2018; Kankara, Katsina State, 2020, and in 2021, four secondary schools and a private university in four states of Katsina, Niger, Zamfara, and Kaduna were attacked. In 2024, two schools in two states of Kaduna and Sokoto suffered the same fate. By now, the nation should have overcome the challenge, but it seems to have defied solution, with the rate kidnappers now strike across the country. In Maga, they snatched 24 schoolgirls on November 17, and four days later, they hit St Mary Catholic Private Nursery, Primary and Secondary Schools in Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State.

    The invaders always caught the security agencies flatfooted whenever they struck. At times, the security operatives withdraw from the scene hours or minutes before the attackers strike. The Kebbi school raid might not have happened, if the soldiers posted there had not left about 30 or so minutes to the invaders arrival. The soldiers claimed that they were directed to withdraw. Governor Nasir Idris has been shouting blue murder since, alleging that it was an act of sabotage. Truly, there is no other way to describe what happened. The matter is said to be under investigation. By now, a preliminay report should have been issued to assure the public that there is no cover up.

    The nation must know what happened in Maga. As the nation rejoices over the release of the  Papiri kids and their teachers, the point must be made that things cannot be allowed to continue like this. There must be a reason for the spike in school kidnapping and related incidents in recent time. It is up to the government to find out those behind the rising incidents and deal with them. The government cannot sit back and allow some elements to make the country ungovernable.

    Whatever may be the motives of the perpetrators and their sponsors, the government, which has all the coercive and suasive power should always be a step ahead of them. Of what use is our intelligence security outfits if they cannot nip these acts in the bud? The public has borne for long with successive governments on the security issue, yet the problem keeps rearing its ugly head. There cannot be any excuse for kidnapping to thrive as if it is an industry. It is not and it should never be allowed to become one under this administration’s watch.

    As the President has repeatedly said, he was elected to take hard and courageous decisions to make life meaningful for the people. Nigerians can only get a better life under a safe, secure and serene environment where children go to school; parents go to work, and citizens travel across the country without the fear of being kidnapped. They cannot do all these now because of the fear of terrorists.

    It may not be the President’s fault, but it is his lot today to restore sanity in the land. He can do it and he must do it for the sake of posterity. The haunting looks of those freed  Papiri schoolkids should propel him to cut these kidnappers to size. No innocent schoolkid should be allowed to undergo such trauma again.

    •Merry Christmas, dear readers

  • From memory, not mimicry

    From memory, not mimicry

    It is sheer folly to watch a house burn while bickering over who should hold the bucket of water for quenching the fire. Such is the madness that has gripped Nigeria for decades; generations chanting placebo therapies prescribed by scheming colonists for the country’s behavioural cancer. The land is rich, but the minds are colonised.  The soil is fertile but poisoned by imported seeds of thought.

    Nigeria’s corruption, for instance, is not just a matter of flawed governance, but a crisis of ethics exacerbated by an inordinate lust for expedience. The 2023 National Bureau Statistics (NBS) corruption data reveal a worrisome trend: over 87 million bribes paid, amounting to over $1.26 billion, mostly money stolen by fathers, mothers, uncles, aunts, grannies, clergy, principals, and officials. How did we get here?

    We got here because Nigeria’s postcolonial elite, groomed in the mould of their colonisers, learned to loot with logic and a grin. They speak of “efficiency” and “modernisation” while defunding schools and pawning national resources to foreign interests. They are dangerous for their dexterity at dismemberment. It is not the devil that plagues Nigeria; it is a culture of systemic dysfunction rooted in the disintegration of social conscience.

    Nations do not emerge fully formed from constitutions or borderlines. They are shaped by the character of their citizenry. And the latter, in turn, are shaped by their most intimate institution: the family. The family is the receptacle in which the values of a nation are first kindled or corrupted. It is where character and social conscience are either nurtured or strangled in the cradle. The integrity of our public life, therefore, depends on the morality of our private lives.

    Family is key. From this sacred unit, a people’s sense of self, place, and purpose begins. If the family is compromised, then society itself becomes a ghost town of ethics: full of laws but lacking justice and compassion; rich in rhetoric, but bankrupt of vision. Societal growth, therefore, cannot be engineered solely by policies or economic indices. It must be cultivated through the slow, careful evolution of the human spirit. Through education, yes, but not the kind that alienates the learner from their origins.

    Francis Nyamnjoh, in his excavation of Africa’s epistemological crisis, recalls Okot p’Bitek’s Song of Lawino with painful clarity. Ocol, the educated African elite, emerges as a walking corpse; a clearing agent for foreign ideologies and an enemy to his kin. His education does not liberate; it enslaves. It turns him against his wife, his people, and ultimately, himself.

    Read Also: Tinubu sets up high-powered APC committee to tackle internal crises ahead of 2027

    This is the face of the Nigerian elite: fluent in multiple languages and philosophies but unable to communicate with their grandparents; draped in academic garlands but disconnected from indigenous wisdom; eloquent before foreign audiences but dismissive of local realities. They are, as p’Bitek lamented, hens that eat their own eggs.

    The fetishisation of colonial values of beauty and notions of African reality has entrenched a psychological war on the African self. It is no surprise, then, that many Nigerians continue to bleach their skin, speak with borrowed accents, and look to the West for validation. Modernity, as defined by the West, becomes the Nigerian holy grail. Young Nigerians are taught to despise our histories, distrust our systems of knowledge, and to measure success by how far they can flee from our roots. In so doing, they become, like Ocol, a walking corpse, alive to foreign endorsement, but dead to native truth.

    This crisis manifests across every sphere: from university syllabuses that erase indigenous knowledge systems to national policies crafted in donor-pleasing jargon. Even religious institutions, once cultural sanctuaries, have turned into imported franchises of guilt and prosperity.

    Apollos Nwauwa rightly posits that Western education produced a contradictory elite in West Africa; one that served as both an agent of colonisation and nationalism. But nationalism, in our case, did not mature into sovereignty of thought. Instead, it hardened into mimicry. We changed flags, not philosophies. We rewrote our constitutions but kept the same epistemic shackles. What we call modernisation has often been little more than domesticated colonisation—metacolonialism, as Hussein Bulhan rightly names it.

    This metacolonialism is no longer imposed with rifles and chains, but through curriculum, cinema, policy consultancy, and international development models. It creates a class of elites who worship at the altar of foreign approval; those who speak of development only in the metrics handed down by British colonialists. They are the Ocols of our generation, trained to quote statistics, but unable to feel the pulse of their people.

    Thus, while the skyscrapers rise and the GDP is celebrated, the Nigerian mind continues to rot. We build flyovers over potholes of the mind. We chase digital revolutions while ignoring the intellectual genocide that is the continued erasure of indigenous knowledge.

    It’s about time we reclaimed Nigerianness. We must start prioritising what we think of ourselves over what the West thinks of us. This recovery requires a radical revaluation of knowledge, a turning away from borrowed epistemologies toward what Nyamnjoh calls a reality larger than logic. We must reprioritise native philosophies over Western syllogisms.

    We must dismantle the myth that science, stripped of ethics, context, and community, is the only path to progress; we must pay attention to knowledge systems that value Nigerian reality over Western logic. This means listening to market women who manage micro-economies more efficiently than government programs. It means engaging hunters, herbalists, griots, and artisans—custodians of ecological wisdom, history, and sustainable living. It means revisiting the shrines of thought that colonialism labelled “backwards” and asking: what did we lose when we stopped kneeling there?

    We must re-educate our educators, decolonise our curricula, and refuse the seduction of validation by foreign wile. A child who learns to love their name will not be ashamed of their accent. A nation that learns to love its essence will not need to bleach its soul.

    We must stop treating ordinary Nigerians as disposable extras in the theatre of governance. The people who truly challenge the status quo: those who resist the prescriptive gaze of foreign-funded NGOs and speak truth in idioms absent in Western textbooks, must be centred in the national discourse. It is from these everyday realists that a true renaissance will manifest.

    The media must also unshackle itself from the imperial narrative machine. Too long has it amplified the metacoloniser’s myth of a Messianic Europe, while muting narratives of African resistance, resilience, and rebirth. The press must recover its role as griot and conscience, not just a content factory.

    There is a future worth dreaming of: one where our development models are rooted in communal values; where schools teach both code and calculus alongside cosmology and craft; where governance is not about appeasing international donors, but serving the child hawking bananas on a dusty road in Madagali, Agbado-Ijaiye and Sankwala. Such a future demand that we stop waiting to be invited to someone else’s table and start building our own.

    It’s about time we dislodged the clearing officers and coronated Ocols using Nigerian institutions as pit latrines of foreign ideologies. Shall we instead cultivate a new generation of thinkers? Those who can walk between worlds without losing their way, who can marry tradition with transformation, while acknowledging that progress is not a synonym for alienation.

    Civilisations are rarely built with concrete and currency alone, but with narratives, rituals, and native wisdom. Nigeria’s rebirth will come from memory, not mimicry.

  • Xmas; Lottery: Use sold tickets only; Fela; MEXAHANIA

    Xmas; Lottery: Use sold tickets only; Fela; MEXAHANIA

    Today is Christmas Eve. Christmas = Christ’s Mass celebration, marking the birth of Jesus Christ. In safer times, it was at midnight mass and at 12 midnight, ‘We wish you a Merry Christmas’ would ring out . It was a privilege, a right and a rite of passage for midnight to ‘meet you in church’. Xmas was introduced by Greek scribes from the 15th Century and even 1010 AD [Google] as shorthand form of ‘Christ’ [meaning ‘anointed’] which in Greek starts with X representing ‘Chi’, followed by Mas. So, Xmas is not a heathen plot against Christ or Christmas. It is merely historical shorthand for which the ancestors can be referenced and not evil IT. We pray against violence targeted at Christmas and New Year events. But prayer is not enough. We must be vigilant. We must also assist the poor.

    There is a ‘Naked Christmas Tree’ movement not to add any decorations to the Christmas tree. The first Christmas tree had no lights obviously. It was the ancestors of today’s ‘event managers’ and ‘content creators’ who added expense and decorations.

    Powerball jackpot in the US is $1,600,000,000 a 1:292million chance of winning according to CNN. After tax, it will still be $700,000,000. Mad money even though Elon Musk has $800,000,000,000 – $800b-madder money.  Sadly, study of winners of huge fortunes less than  $700m – $1.6b rarely found such money brought real happiness and joy. Rather big money can bring big suffering.

    In a country with wealth, t here is poverty manifest by millions doing 2-3 jobs and an army of homeless.  Google records 771,480 US people as experiencing homelessness one particular night in 2024. Paradoxically and coincidentally, the $700m mentioned above would give each of them almost $1,000,000, $1m/head.

    Imagine if the lottery draw each month must be drawn until won and not rolled over. In 2026, why not automatically record all sold tickets and restrict the draw to only sold ticket numbers with many smaller $1-200,000 prizes so as to reach more citizens quicker with useful, meaningful winning.

    Nigeria must not follow current misguided mega-wealth creation lottery schemes. Nigeria’s lottery system should also tackle poverty all around.

    The Nigerian Lottery Commission should take this up so as to ensure that lotteries in Nigeria are handled so as to utilise only actual lottery numbers sold to help distribute winnings wider to contribute to the reduction of poverty by reaching many more citizens.

    Fela has at last been inducted into the 2026 Grammy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award as the first African to be so awarded. Fela Anikulapo Kitu, who died in 1997, the masses’ musician, decibel defender of democracy and musical menace to the military, will be laughing from wherever he is. Just last year his famous record Zombie was inducted into the Grammy Award 2025 Hall of Fame. When Fela returned to Nigeria sometime in 1964+/-1 year, he came to play his saxophone in St Gregory’s College, Ikoyi, Lagos, where I was in boarding school. Our housemaster asked us to clap for him even if we did not like him, just to encourage him as he had recently returned from the UK after music studies.

    Highly energised, we needed no encouragement to clap wildly unaware we were in the presence of a man at the beginning of an adventurous long road signposted with the Koola Lobitos, Africa 70, Egypt 80, and massive record hits en route international greatness, musical majesty and real royalty.

    Read Also: First Lady urges peaceful coexistence, says unity is key to Nigeria’s prosperity

    Of course, he suffered greatly in advancing the causes of the citizenry to the extent of a 1984 20 months out of five years imprisonment under Buhari and released by Babangida, 200 arrests, having his home Kalakuta Republic burnt and his mother, the aged Mrs Funmilayo Ransome Kuti being thrown from the second floor by the infamous Unknown Soldier, later a ‘record’ of the event and sustaining a broken leg and dying shortly thereafter.

    Songs like Water no get enemy, Shuffering and Smiling, Yellow Fever, International Thief Thief, Trouble Sleep, VIP, Yanga Wake am, Unknown Soldier etc are so fundamentally right that Fela could do no wrong even though he encouraged the free use of marijuana in his Shrine and married 23 wives and often went around scantily clad, and used his Range Rover to carry firewood to spite the wealthy and their favourite vehicle of oppression.  Sadly, he succumbed to the rage of the time – AIDS. There is only one Fela.

    Having known Fela since the late 60s ‘Sunday Jump Days’ in Surulere’s Africa Shrine, my friends and I never inhaled, though now marijuana is being seen less as a demon drug and more medicinal in the West and spreading into the USA. Long after Fela has gone, the jury on this is still out among the medical profession in Nigeria, of which I am a member. Personally, I believe there should be a serious health warning regarding unrestricted marijuana use. As my father, Yaba Psychiatric Hospital Chief Psychiatrist, Dr Abayomi Marinho warned me in 1965, for the vulnerable, just one inhalation can permanently alter the brain, while for those with marijuana tolerance or resistance, there may be little permanent effect of repeated use. Only inhalation will separate the two. Dare you and yours take the risk?

    Wishing you a  ‘MEXAHNYIA’=  ‘MErry Xmas And Happy New Year In Advance’. Amen!!

  • Tunji-Ojo: Redefining public service

    Tunji-Ojo: Redefining public service

    I can’t exactly recall who it was that forwarded to me a short video clip of an encounter between Interior Minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo and a station officer in one of Federal Fire Service (FFS) stations in Abuja. In the clip, the minister had stopped by, apparently on an unscheduled visit to know the state of the fire trucks stationed in the premises particularly the state of their readiness in the event of an emergency. An encounter would turn out as much a revelation as it is a testimonial on the state of the nation’s public service: not only was the entire place in deplorable conditions, the few trucks parked in the premise had no water – the official excuse being that the trucks had gone out for operations days before had not had enough time to take in fresh supplies of water!

    The account, later put out by the minister would convey not so much his palpable disappointment (which was evident in the brief encounter), but a firm, even barely stated resolve, to clear the mess the same way he had battled the daemons in the service points under his watch: 

    “Today, I paid an unscheduled visit to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) FCT Command and the Federal Fire Service command, Wuse Zone 3 station. The visit helped in the conduct of an on-the-spot assessment of our facilities, and the general preparedness of our gallant officers to address incidents as they can emerge quite unexpectedly. The orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) are clear in his yesterday’s national address to the nation where he noted that all hands must be on deck in our collective responsibility to secure this great nation. Security is life, and Mr President is trusting our officers to deliver on the issue of internal security and the protection of critical national assets.

    As Minister of Interior, I believe that they will deliver on this, so that we can all be proud of Nigeria, and be able to call this great country a home. More importantly, I will continue to conduct unscheduled on-the-spot assessment of paramilitary commands across the country, as I want to see things the way they are. For me, I want to see the sort of service that Nigerians are getting across all our agencies because like what I always say, a good service is not good enough for Nigerians, but the best, always”.

    Minister Tunji-Ojo is right to expect the very best from his front line officials. After all, he is known to have improved the capacity of the agency with the purchase of new equipment, rapid response vehicles, and systems that enhance response time. The story of how the minister has remodelled Federal Fire Service Academy in Abuja is out in the open. But what chance would he have had to turn things around without such surprises designed to keep operatives on their toes? 

    No doubt, a lot has been written about Nigeria’s Interior Minister, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, as one of those bright faces that have delivered not just values to the Bola Tinubu administration, but unparalleled innovations. Talk of redefining the public service in its entirety, Tunji-Ojo, whom his friends call BTO, appears to have captured the imagination of Nigerians as an exemplar of the kind of leadership that Nigeria sorely requires particularly at this time of transition: resourceful (IT-savvy); disciplined and focused – a goal getter. Given that Nigerians are not the easiest to please, it is a measure of the value he represents that Nigerians continue to speak of him in glowing terms.

    Read Also: We have capacity to return Tinubu in 2027, says Fubara

    Here is a minister who moved the mountains where others before him could only skate in circles. Where others saw problems, he thought of them as challenges – and so solvable. Just when successive ministers had sold the passport problem as intractable, he chose to tackle it headlong. First was the issue of the 200, 000 backlog which he inherited. The problem, we were led to believe at the time, was shortage of passport booklets! How the backlog was cleared in a matter of weeks must go on record as the stuff of a genius. There was also the issue of debts said to be to the tune of N28 billion – and this, ironically, for services for which Nigerians are required to pay upfront! This, we now know, have since been retired with Nigerians still wondering about the magic deployed by BTO to clear the mess. With the seamless process currently in place, Nigerians readily testify that the nightmare once associated with passport acquisition is over.

    While it is no secret that the minister possesses a background in Information Technology, the marvel is how he has managed to bring the discipline of that technology into virtually every aspect of the job entrusted to him in a public service traditionally known to resist change – and still get fulsome praise for the results!

    A good example is the collapse of the 96-odd decentralized personalization centres to a single, secure, centralized and highly efficient passport processing centre, located at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja. That initiative, midwifed by Tunji-Ojo, not only aligns with global best practices but has significantly improved the quality, security, and also reduced the processing and issuance time of Nigerian passports.

    His record at the nation’s gateways – the airports – would again attest to the same zeal undergirded by knowledge. Under his watch, some 40 e-gates across the Abuja, Lagos, Kano, Port Harcourt airports have been deployed to facilitate easy passage and maximum comfort. He has equally deployed the “Smart Border Solution” cutting edge technology with the implementation of Smart Border Management and Advanced Passenger Information Systems (APIS). Then is the INTERAS- Electronic Record and Archival Systems, aimed at digitizing records and streamlining operations across various services and agencies, the ECOWAS National Biometric Identity Card (ENBIC) and the new digital platform, Comprehensive Expatriate Residence Permits and Automated Card (CEREAL) application process – the common thread of which is to make service delivery less cumbersome with efficiency and effectiveness as goal.

    He has equally paid due attention to the Nigerian Correctional Services. He has ensured the completion of ultra-modern furniture, leather, and shoe factories to afford inmates the opportunity of comprehensive rehabilitation and skills acquisition; the rehabilitation, renovation, and upgrades of some correctional centres across the country has been done. And then, a 4.81 tier petabytes Command and Control centre with 4.1MW  battery capacity solar farm which was established to serve the need of Nigeria Correctional Service.

    What I consider the most touching of the interventions by the minister is his mobilisation of N585 million from corporate bodies as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative to pay the fines of 4,068 inmates serving jail terms for petty offences in various correctional centres across the country. That, to me is a novelty, beyond the call of duty. But then, that is the essence of public service – touching lives in meaningful ways. If only for this, the man they call BTO deserves to be garlanded.

    Merry Christmas dear readers.

  • Youths and Detty December

    Youths and Detty December

    The Christmas season is a time to catch fun as the Nigerian youths would say. It is a season for what one can describe as unending open air party for everyone. In many parts of the country, it is the best time for traditional marriage ceremonies, church weddings, title-taking ceremonies, community football competitions, masquerade displays, carnivals and sundry street parties. But should Christmas be only about partying?

    The slang ‘detty’ December is increasingly gaining notoriety. The Ai describes it as a vibrant energetic Nigerian slang term for wild, non-stop festive season in December, meaning to “party-hard” and “let loose” with concerts, parties, and events, a period also boosting tourism and culture, especially with the diaspora returning home for holiday celebrations. It says that efforts to make the word ‘detty’ gain traction can be alluded to Mr Eazi’s usage and trade-marking efforts.  

    The Youths of St. Mulumba (YSM), made up of young Catholics committed to faith, discipline, and service, took a slightly different route to the detty December. The YSM Region 3, made up of Lagos Island sub-council, Badagry sub-council, Festac Town sub-council, Satellite Town sub-council, Ojo sub-council and Amuwo-Odofin sub-council organized a mega rally, at the Navy Town Stadium, Navy Town, Lagos, last Saturday, with the theme: Faith in Action: Building the Future Together. The one-day event started with a Holy Mass, and featured a talk by Moyo Falola, a creative digital marketer, advertiser, graphic designer, artist, and member of the YSM, Badagry sub-council.            

    This writer commends the theme of the mega rally as a guide to every youth as they celebrate Christmas. While partying, the celebrants must have faith in what they are celebrating, which is the birth of Jesus Christ – true God and true man. The Christian faith teaches that Christ came to redeem man from the original sin of Adam. While celebrating, they must not lose track of the fundamental message of Jesus’s birth, and ministry, which is, His examples of humility. For Christian believers, despite being a divine King, in humility Jesus choose to be born in a manger, not in a Castle, as befitting His status.

    Interestingly, the lowly birth of Jesus Christ, never affected His rise to greatness. Born to a poor carpenter, Joseph and a young maiden, Virgin Mary, in the lowly city of Bethlehem, Christ became the greatest man that ever lived. Despite Jesus’s poor background, he sat among the leading scholars of His time, teaching in their synagogue. One of Jesus’s greatest show of humility was the washing of the feet of His apostles, during His last supper with them, which is akin to a master washing the feet of his servants. 

    For the youths of St. Mulumba, and every youth out there, the message is that with humility in action, attaining the greatest goals in life is possible. If one is humble, and is dedicated passionately to a cause, then achieving a set of goals is very possible. That is faith in action. For example, many of the present movers and shakers of the world were not born with silver spoons; neither are they the most educated. The world-famous Bill Gates, is reputed not to have finished his university education. Yet with his skill and passion, he became the richest man on earth, for several years.

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    The story of the Blessed Carlo Acutis, canonized on September 7, after dying at age 15, in 2006, for his deep faith and use of the internet to spread devotion, particularly to the Holy Eucharist, resounded deeply with what the youths should also busy themselves with, in detty December. Falola who alluded to the well celebrated actions of Carlo Acutis in his presentation, told his fellow young adults that they can live fully as a young person and still put their Christian faith in action.

    The youths from the six sub-councils, also engaged in competitive activities amongst themselves. The program included a march past, a quiz competition about the life/history of the founder of the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba, Rev. Fr. Anselm Ojefua, and the Order which was founded in 1953. The also engaged in various sporting activities, like egg race, fill in the basket, penalty kicks, and gele-tying and make-up by the boys and knotting of tie by the girls.

    The events culminated in an open air dance party and feasting. With the DJ blaring modern music, the young adults between 14 and 25 years had a fun-filled early Christmas party. Many of them were meeting for the first time, but the conviviality was awesome. They mingled, chatted, did selfies, danced, ate together, played and competed, with the hope of building the future together. The choreograph of their march pasts, in their different colours, enthralled the leaders who had gathered to witness the first mega rally of the Youths of St. Mulumba, Lagos Metropolitan Council.

    Leading the eminent personalities from the Order of the Knights of St. Mulumba was the Deputy Supreme Knight, Sir Dan Egwu, followed by the Metro Grand Knight, Sir Godwin Nosa Ehigiator. In his message, Sir Egwu reminded the youths that they are the hope of tomorrow, for the organization and for Nigeria. He urged them to embrace the values of faith, unity and selfless service. In his message Sir Ehigiator, said the event reflects a shared commitment to nurturing faith, discipline, and leadership amongst young people.         

    Deputy MGK, Sir Benjamin Ofodile, represented by Sir Falola, reminded the youths that the event was not just a celebration, but a call for action. A similar sentiment was expressed by the coordinating Deputy Grand Knight, for region 3, Worthy Brother Vincent Iwueze (Festac Town sub-council). He said the event celebrates the vitality, faith, and promise of our youths. No doubt, the call on the youths to build the future together and have faith in action, applies to the youths of Nigeria at large.

    Interestingly, many states in the country are keying into the tourism potentials of detty December. With massive diaspora returns, the tourism and entertainment industry experience a boom. Clearly, Nigeria has the great potential to increase its GDP from the tourism and entertainment industry. With a very clement weather in most states of the country, especially in December, when winter makes most European tourism centres very unattractive, states in Nigeria can take advantage to increase their internally generated revenue, by promoting tourism.

    For the Youths of St. Mulumba, their catch word for any similar mega rally will remain to pray and play. As DGK, Amuwo-Odofin sub-council, this writer commends his brother DGKs, WB Anthony Obioha, Badagry sub-council, WB Bernard Ebuzoeme, Lagos Island sub-council, Sir Vincent Ojukwu, Satellite sub-council, Sir Chijioke Muoneke, Ojo sub-council and the body of mentors, who helped members of YSM, Region 3, to build their faith together, through action. The seeds of friendship, sportsmanship and community engagement, which have been sown among the youths, will bear fruit.

    As we celebrate Christmas, let every Nigerian youth, key into the message.