The Nation Newspaper

Category: Femi Orebe

  • For President Tinubu to win the insecurity war

    For President Tinubu to win the insecurity war

    As long as sponsors of insecurity remain unmasked, shamed and made to have their day in our courts, so long will the powerful factors motivating them, be they religion or money, continue to consume them, and for so long will insecurity remain with us no matter the number of military emergencies declared by the President.

    Even his most virulent political enemy will concede that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is smart, redoubtable, and never afraid to take tough political decisions not minding whose ox is gored, as long as he believes they are in the best interest of the country.

    Unlike his immediate predecessor, President Muhammadu Buhari, he is never shackled, nor burdened with primordial or ethnic considerations in doing so.

    These are all the factors he will now have to fall back on if he truly wants to fight, and win the  resurgent insecurity war in the country.

    In this, he must be guided by history and remember that Nigerian governments have many times claimed to have tamed insecurity, citing for instance, how many Local Government Areas Boko Haram was claimed to have been expelled from in Borno state.

    He must also know that this is probably  going to be the toughest fight of his entire administration because it is going to be against some of the most powerful people in the country.

    Also, another election is approaching, and though he might have been kept in the dark, being non – Fulani,   when, in 2014/ 2015, then intending Presidential candidate of the APC, Muhammadu Buhari, was rumoured to have convoked a  meeting of some top Fulanis to plan how to oust President Goodluck Jonathan from office in order to retrieve  ‘their British inheritance – Nigeria’, and put it smack  back in Fulani hands. He must have since learnt about that as WhatsApp never forgets.

    And I dare say that despite the current deluge of decampments into the APC,  who says the same design may not be in the works against him now because we are dealing here with a  people whose major concern, always, is Fulani expansionism.

    READ ALSO: Delivering in despair: Why maternal deaths remain high in Cross River

    Or why the sudden, astronomical rise in security breaches?

    And what can be worse than three mass kidnappings, still counting, within days in Kebbi, Kwara and Niger states, as a result of which the Federal Government had to order the immediate shutdown of as many as 47 Federal Unity Colleges across the country, just as a slew of Northern states shut down literally all their schools?

    There isn’t the slightest  doubt some Fulanis believe it is time they conquer the rest of Nigeria which they arrogantly claim the British handed over to them at independence.

    Or haven’t they been out of power  for two very long years, plus!

    Below is part of the translation of a pamphlet allegedly written in Arabic and distributed in selected Mosques in Northern Nigeria by   FUNAM as far back as November 6, 2019 from which I have had cause to quote severally in the past:

    “This is the time to act. This is the time for second Holy War. We started in 1804. The British stopped us. We must regain the territories lost. It is against Islam to rotate power with infidels. Forget about election that will only lead to sharing of power”.

    “We must take the enemies in the West, Central and the North by surprise. That is the plot.

    Disperse and occupy their homes, forests, streets, schools, markets and act as spies. Our attacks on the infidels must be total and overwhelming. We must begin by instilling fear in them, weaken their resolve through kidnaps, brutal rapes, making it difficult for them to farm and subdue them before the war etc”.

    Which of these have Fulanis not shamelessly done or are currently doing all over the country?

    That was in 2019, but till date, not a single member of FUNAM has been invited for questioning by the Almighty Nigerian  security.

    All the above are, however, only minor parts of what is a much bigger challenge President Tinubu will have to frontally confront if he hopes to successfully deal with an insecurity conundrum that has convulsed Nigeria for over 15 years.

    And this is: “Who is really paying for Nigeria’s bloodbath?

    We talk endlessly about “terrorists”, “Fulani herdsmen”, “bandits” – as if they are ghosts who appear from thin air, armed to the teeth, fuelled, fed and endlessly re-supplied by magic.

    They are not ghosts.

    They are funded.

    And the sponsors are not barefoot militants in the bush – they are people in suits, kaftans and uniforms; sitting in air-conditioned offices in Abuja, Lagos, Kaduna, Dubai and beyond”.

    Chima Nnadi – Oforgu, quoted above, in a special report on terrorism and banditry in Nigeria, wrote at length on all these issues.

    Let us now dive into that seminal report from which we shall be quoting at some length.

    Wrote Chima – Oforgu:

    “In 2022, the Nigerian government quietly admitted that 96 terrorism financiers had been identified by the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) as backing Boko Haram and ISWAP.

    These were not rumours. They were based on financial intelligence – bank records, transfers, suspicious transaction reports – shared with law-enforcement agencies for prosecution”.

    “Yet till today, Nigerians do not have a public, detailed list of: who these 96 people and entities are,what political or business networks they belong to.

    What has become of the cases?

    So when government officials and foreign partners repeat the cliché: “We will go after the sponsors,” understand this: they already know many of them. The problem is not lack of intelligence. It is lack of political will”.

    Fortunately, nobody can any longer doubt that President Tinubu has political will the manner in which he removed  fuel subsidy and unified the foreign exchange market.

    To successfully fight terrorism in Nigeria, which has now been worsened by what Senator Adam Oshiomhole disclosed on the Senate  floor about those funding the bandits  guiding illegal mining operations, the President must be prepared to do much more.

    He must expose the names, shame and get tried, the following saboteurs, as detailed by Chima Oforgu in the article: “Terror financiers in government, Terror collaborators in the military; Terror enablers in the security agencies; Terror protectors in political parties

    Terror profiteers in the procurement system as well as the powerful individuals allegedly involved in illegal mining.

    Without the slightest doubt, the military emergency declared by the President is of great significance and will help the war on insecurity greatly.

    The significance of the emergency could, however, be greatly undermined if these powerful sponsors of Terror are left untouched, just like President Buhari and his Attorney – General, Abubakar Malami, left untried, the Nigerians who were named by the UAE, and recommended for trial.

    I say this because, as Oforgu wrote:”Here is the final warning:

    If Nigeria does not name the sponsors today, Nigeria will collapse under the terror they created tomorrow. And when that day comes, neither the rich nor the powerful will escape the consequences.

    The time for pretence is over”.

  • Time to tell ourselves the truth

    Time to tell ourselves the truth

    Of Nigeria’s 65 years of independence, leaders of Northern extraction have controlled the Federal government for approximately 40 to 41 years.

    Nigeria gained independence from Britain on October 1, 1960. This means  that leaders from the North have held the primary executive power for over four decades out of Nigeria’s 65-year history as a sovereign nation.

    Throughout that period, Northerners ruled the region, whether as Sultan, Emir, Governor etc but, unfortunately, with no discernible positive developmental impact, whatever .

    As a result of this negativity, the following factors  combined to birth a virulent banditry and all kinds of terrorism, spearheaded by all kinds of murderous Islamic groups, which soon spread their violence to the southern extremities of the country:

    widespread poverty, unemployment,  competition over scarce resources, poor, almost non- existent education with more than 10 million -out – of – school children which, as a group, has become a super market for recruitment of would – be terrorists; poor governance and

    the weakening of state authority as well as poor law enforcement which have all further exacerbated the problem and allowed armed groups to operate with impunity in every corner of the region.

    Additionally, the North became literally ungovernable, especially given the large swathes of ungoverned spaces which terrorist groups, keen on spreading Sharia, use to maximum effect, daily killing in numbers.

    Terrorism was given such free rein, no arrests, no trial, that some sponsors of Boko Haram, fingered by the UAE, and recommended for trial in Nigeria, were  left completely untouched by the Muhamadu Buhari government.

    Back during the Buhari years, as a result of neither the Federal Government,  respective Northern states nor consequential leaders in the region doing anything meaningful to stanch the  unbelievable bloodletting, I saw all that was happening then as only a precussor of far  worse things in the future and I have been more than proven right.

    This, indeed, was the background to my article of 21 April, 2019 which now appears on pages 195 – 197 of my book ‘ Simply a Citizen Journalist’ (Amazon Link:   https://a.co/d/dXnfY77).

    Read Also: Tinubu: I’m determined to eliminate bandits, terrorists in North

    What particularly underpinned that  premonition was the attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari when he visited Benue State on March 12, 2018 in response to mass killings by  Fulani herdsmen which saw  no less than 70 people killed and mass buried in the state.

    He had visited only because of significant public criticism, including that from former President Olusegun Obasanjo and, even,  Ibrahim Babangida, both of who condemned his delayed and  indifferent response to the killings.

    And what did he, an ethnic Fulani, tell the grieving people of Benue?  “Live in peace and cooperate with your neighbours”, meaning those who had just killed them in numbers. Meanwhile, that was the  same man who, a few years earlier, led a Miyetti Allah delegation to the Oyo state governor to protest the killing of a few Fulani herdsmen.

    Titled: The North – Militancy, Bandits and The Rest of Us’, the referenced article reads as follows:

    “It is really a crunch time. This harvest of despair is the product of many years of servile bondage, repression, suppression, deliberate pauperization of the people and placing their destinies and lives at impossible angles. My late father used to warn the

    Northern elite. This is morning yet, the Somalization of the far North is fast becoming a reality” – Dr C.C. Nwagwu.

    Completely unknown to me that this newspaper would be running an interview it had with Anthony N. Z Sani, my friend, and Secretary- General of the Arewa Consultative

    Forum, in its edition of Sunday, 14 April 2019 in which, incidentally, my own article:’It is Crunch Time’ appeared, I had written to him as follows some three days earlier on Friday, 12 April, 2019: “Tony what’s the problem with the North? Please talk to me at some length.

    Why has the North become a killing field? Is it that human lives mean nothing up there?

    I am at a complete loss; so am raising these questions in my column this Sunday.

    I wrote further:

    Without a doubt feudalism, I guess, is the root of Northern problems. For far too long education was denied the children of the poor. Of course, you know that  religion and illiteracy are the two things invigorating Boko Haram.

    But who and who is funding BH and are our security agencies so helpless they can’t find them out all this while? Has it occurred to Northern leaders that the region is becoming

    a massive drain on the country?

    What is the exact cause of the problems in Zamfara? The million dollar question really, is: how do we exit these North- inspired problems?

    Please feel free to share this within your circle so that we can generate well distilled reactions.

    Never known to disappoint, Tony wrote back as follows: “Good morning and thank you for the concerns. I think there is a swarm of locust in the land and we do not seem to know the pests. Hence our inability to device the appropriate pesticides. I am happy some of you down there are also concerned. This is because Nigeria is a big river being fed by tributaries, and when one tributary is poisoned, the whole river is contaminated.

    When in 2011 there was post election problems and the hoodlums burnt down some traditional rulers’ houses, Prof Bolaji Akinyemi called, and warned about the consequences of destroying the only platform of effective control in the North. To him, it is not time to dismiss the vestiges of indirect rule. That is, he saw wisdom in indirect

    rule by the British. Then there was the problem of education whose slow pace of development in the North cannot be blamed entirely on the leadership all of who could not possibly be depicted as feckless. I told him to consider the time Western education started in the South and when it reached the North which is almost a century. There is also the factor of unbridled growth in population. I mentioned “unbridled growth in population” because, the rate is not commensurate with growth of the economy, hence

    the poverty that comes with unemployment. For instance, the population of Nigeria and Britain were at par at our independence but today Britain is 62M while Nigeria is

    about 180M. What rate of GDP can cope with such increase? Without a doubt, the challenges are far more overwhelming than the capacity of the leaders, considering the difference between the level of education at independence, and today, in the North. The difference is much. Somehow, I believe in what Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore once wrote that: order, justice, liberty, common decency, and prosperity, are never the natural order of things, but are attained through ceaseless hard work by the leaders, and the led, and that there is no country or society that is perfect. What matters when challenges arise is consciously directed effort to overcome them. I believe that President Buhari has what it takes to overcome our challenges.

    Terrorism is universal, and unfolding; and Nigeria has predisposing factors that encourage it. The sponsors of BH may not even be Nigerians. During one of our interactions with Alhaji Atiku Abubakar on the underlying factors of terrorism or insecurity, he traced BH to thugs used by Gov Kachalla and Senator Modu Sheriff. Whether he is right or not, one cannot say. When the minister of finance (read Defence) accused traditional rulers in Zamfara of complicity in banditry, I had my doubts. 

    Sani and I went on, and on, in a few  exchanges later, but then let’s cut to the chase and properly distil his full-throated piece in which he identified: lack of education, uncontrolled and unbridled population growth and poor governance.

    It is sad that poor governance continues till today as exemplified in the 10M plus out – of – school children who wander about as Alamjiris, whilst the governors live in opulence and go about in their free flowing

    babarigas, at best buying them okadas after which they are trucked down, in their hundreds, to every nook and cranny of the South, as Okada riders maiming themselves as well as their patrons. I am sure the governors see this as Youth Empowerment. May Allah forgive them.

    So, what has been the response of the Northern elite to the  factors so perspicaciously identified by the Secretary – General of the ACF which, this past week, weighed in on the increasing Somalisation of the region when it called on President Buhari to stop the killings? Northern political elite read politics into it when, before and after independence, Chief Obafemi Awolowo drew their attention to what trouble the North was breeding when it chose, deliberately, not to educate the children of the poor; when it looked askance at both the Western and Eastern regions putting massive investments into education.

    Today village chiefs, even some minor

    Emirs, are being chased out of their palaces in the North. And like Dr Nwagwu wrote in my intro, this, unfortunately, is only the beginning, as Somali, Sudan and Syria have shown.

    With regards to over population, what was the North’s take away when during the 2015 campaigns Mrs Patience Jonathan, poked fun at the North on account of its many children most of who are thrown into the streets from early age? Which one single governor made a move towards checking his state’s unproductive population growth? Or which cleric lent a hand in their tough preaching’s which governor El Rufai had to warn against? The North has many, if not most, of our highly regarded monarchs.

    What has any of them done to mitigate the factors that continue to undermine the North economically, and socially?

    Isn’t political, even traditional power, for a purpose?

    How exactly has the Northern traditional and religious elite – helped to positively impact the region? Or wasn’t it only this past week we heard that Zamfara monarchs are helping bandits with intelligence? Have they taken time to reflect on a future when the North begins to reap the whirlwind?   Finally, as we can infer from Sani’s statement, when will this Northern tributary stop  contaminating the big Nigerian river?

    When?

    A stitch in time can still save nine.

  • More on Trump declaring Nigeria ‘Country of Particular Concern’

    More on Trump declaring Nigeria ‘Country of Particular Concern’

    As I ended this column last Sunday, I write again: “the President owes it a duty to peace – loving Nigerians, to first rein in these enemies within, no matter their status or how untouchable they consider themselves”.

    This has become of considerable importance now that he has to dispel the unverified, trending video of a Northern Lady, who claimed she refused an appointment, early in his presidency because he said he cannot fight sponsors of terrorism in the North as doing so would eventuate in his being killed.

    My instant reaction to that balderdash was that this would certainly not be the doughty Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu I have known for well over two decades.

    Today I go further into what I described as the predisposing factors for the mercurial and egocentric U.S President Donald Trump declaring Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern whereas in truth, both Christians and Muslims are being Killed in Nigeria’s orgy of unrelenting bloodletting in the North of the country where, by far, too many Christian communities had been deliberately targeted for annihilation and expulsion from their ancestral lands.

    To do this, as is fast becoming my wont, I re- publish below, an article that was first published here in 2021 titled:

    Insecurity In Nigeria Can Become History If The Buhari Government Is Sincere In Fighting It

    Happy reading.

    The chicken has, indeed, come home to roost. I have always known that the predominantly, mono – thought process underpinning the Buhari administration, majorly a result of his North- centric appointments into critical areas of government, was bound, sooner or later, to impact Nigeria negatively. The evidence is all over the place:  that the monopoly a  particular culture – one that believes that an elder cannot / should not, be controverted on any issue, was going to have its consequences. This is the same culture that made the North an arid zone for newspapering for a very long time in the region. Other than the New Nigerian, Newspapers die off as soon as they were established because there were simply too many cultural taboos.

    This situation worsened by the coming to power, of the awe- inspiring persona of President Muhammadu Buhari. All over Nigeria, at least  until he became president and began to show a seemingly unquenchable love of the North over the others, he was massively loved and respected.

    Indeed, more than being respected, he was lionised as a highly principled military General who, unlike many of his compeers, was not tainted with corruption.

    When the highly respected Tai Solarin came up with the allegation of some  stolen oil money, Nigerians so disbelieved it had anything to do with Buhari until Pa Solarin confessed that it was a mere molue (public transport) gossip.

    Such was General Buhari’s incandescent honesty and widespread respect then. Indeed, both when Boko Haram named him one of its representatives at negotiations with the federal  governmenr and  when he led a Miyetti Allah delegation to the Oyo state governor, Lam Adesina, to protest on behalf of Fulani herdsmen,  most Nigerians believed  that it was  those groups – Boko Haram and Miyetti Allah – which wanted  to profit from his huge profile; a profile that was fast approaching that of a god, nationwide.

    Unfortunately, these past six years have so reduced this halo to only within his government circle where happenings in the country suggest that people closest to him are too respectful of him, if not overwhelmed by his persona, to offer him any good advice.

    Nothing affirms the truism of the diminution of how the president was held, pre office, more than bandits going to    his home state of Katsina to kidnap school children who would not be freed from the kidnappers’ embrace until two weeks later, and after hundreds of millions of naira must have been paid in ransom.

    And to resolve the problem, President Buhari must have assembled an entirely Northern group, probably all Muslims, military and civilian.

    Even if he has been magnanimous enough to involve  his entire security council, the group would have been more than 80 per cent Northern – that same group that not only think alike  but are culturally forbidden to oppose their elders.

    According to the Report of  The Chinua Achebe Foundation Research Project on Fulani Herdsmen, “Most Nigerian Fulanis are no longer migratory herdsmen. They are either Emirs, Sultans, heads of parastatals, oil barons, Imams, Christian Pastors, Governors, Federal Reps and Senators. However, they all maintain their cultural ownership of cattle. These wealthy Nigerians increase their wealth astronomically through cattle rearing by using their not well off brothers, impoorted from outside Nigeria, to rear these cattle. Instead of investing in ranches or buying of grasses from the South, they chose the cheaper alternative of having their kinsmen, imported from outside the country, arm them with AK 47’s, and order them to take these cattles from the north to the south seasonally. For these people, the entire Nigerian space is their “grass kingdom”.These cattle, in turn, destroy farms on their path, rendering farmers economically bankrupt to further enrich the wealthy Fulani “remote herders”.

    All these, under the Buhari administration, and probably now, under President Tinubu, with no security agent – military or police – bold enough to question them.

    What the above shows is that non – Fulani Nigerians are wrongly accusing poor Fulani herders of all the criminalities they commit whereas the various cattle owners mentioned above are the real troublers of Nigeria, the reason the President simply has no interest in solving  the  massive insecurity problem caused by these people.

    This is why they attack in hundreds on motor cycles, kill in scores but with a single one of these terrorists, never arrested nor tried.

    Read Also: SWDC MD: How Nigeria can transform through business, policy collaboration

    Indeed, in the one case tried, the victim, who barely escaped before he eliminated the Fulani herdsman terrorist, was sentenced to death in a case that went up to the Supreme court.

    I was not surprised when I heard Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), say that security agencies were informed of the killings in Igangan, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, over a week before the attack but that nothing was done by the Nigerian security.

    I was not surprised, thanks to the same research of the Chinua Achebe Foundation which took the team to the

    “Ama Hausa and Garki” camps in both Enugu and Abia States where they  interviewed neighbors from the local communities living within and around the Hausa communities in both states. They affirmed that  both the Northerners and the local community were very open and volunteered valuable information to their team.

    Below is how the report captured a typical Fulani herdsmen attack:

    “Fulani Herdsmen Attack”:.

    We learned from the surrounding communities and from some of the Hausa elders about what constitutes a Fulani herdsmen attack. According to information we received, when there is a disagreement between host communities, or between herdsmen and farmers, the Fulani herdsmen who accompany the cattle will locate the nearest Fulani settlement and if there is none, they will locate the nearest Garki or Ama Hausa. When they arrive, they will narrate their story. The Fulani (Nigerian middlemen) cattle managers will notify their top Fulani Herdsmen which in this case, include governors and other top Fulani top officers who own the cattle. 

    A decision will be made about whether there should be an attack or not on the said village or host community. If an attack is sanctioned, then modalities will be mapped out and a date will be chosen for the attack. Most times, Fulani herdsmen in the military and police are notified and everyone sends a representative. Neighboring settlements sends out representatives and arms cache are opened and arms are distributed to the participants. The major participants are the 20 to 40 Fulani herdsmen who reside in the Garkis and Ama Hausas. These are the Fulani warriors whose job is to kill.

    During an attack, every Fulani person in the area knows there will be an attack and all will contribute to make sure it goes on successfully. Fulanis in the higher levels of the military will ensure all commands under them stand down, and the top Fulani police officers will do the same. The road is then clear for the Fulani herdsmen to carry out their attacks.,

    Based on the findings from which they understood that the attacks are never carried out by the herdsmen we see escorting cattle on the roads and bushes, but are well coordinated and  most times sanctioned by very influential Northerners,  nearly  all of  them, herd owners.

    The Foundation proposed the following solution:

    “Many of those who interacted with us suggested solutions that are very interesting. Most of the northern Hausas and the local communities suggested a ban on grazing in the affected states. A total ban would be the only way to solve this problem. Some argued that with the Fulanis’ nature of encroaching on other people’s land and territories, any attempt to give them land would aggravate the problem and not solve it.

    Most villagers from Abia State suggested that these cattle be penned in the north while government releases money for people in the South to cut grasses, process the grass, and send to the north. This is the practice all over the world. They indicated that any attempt to take their lands and give to the Fulani would definitely result to a civil war.

    We agree, the solution is very simple; ban grazing, establish ranches for the cattle in the north, pay the southerners to harvest grass and send to the north. With this, everyone would be pleased with the outcome. This solution is expected to generate 1 million jobs in the South and about 500,000 jobs in the North. Also Fulani herdsmen terror will be totally eliminated”.

    The correlation between this 2021 article and President Trump’s threat of an attack on Nigerian killers, not Nigerians, is that nothing has changed between then and now, whether they were protecting their herd or killing and running Christians away from their ancestral homes.

    Otherwise the likes of Sheik Gumi, who is in and out of these killers’ lairs would long have been run out of town, and our prisons would, by now, be crawling with concicted terrorists as well as their sponsors, at least those ones criminally  protected from trial by President Buhari and his attorney – General after they had been convicted and sent to Nigeria by the UAE.

    The lesson of all these is that to solve the menace of insecurity and  avoid constant external embarrassment, the Nigeran government must put its house in order.

  • Trump declares Nigeria Country of Particular Interest: the predisposing factors

    Trump declares Nigeria Country of Particular Interest: the predisposing factors

    Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria.Thousands of Christians are being killed.  Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern.’

    “But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, are slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria  something must be done! I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter and report back to me.” – President  Donald Trump in a post on his Truth Social.

    Ever rambunctious and irascible, President Donald Trump of America did not just wake up, as if from a bad dream, to declare Nigeria a Country of Particular Interest(CPC).

    Before he did, a slew of  congressmen and other stakeholders had bombarded him with reports of the killings in Nigeria, especially in Christian communities where thousands are, of a truth, being killed, their houses and churches incinerated, those alive banished for ever from their ancestral lands on the pain of death, the names of their lands promptly changed, and Sharia declared.

    All these obviously to the satisfaction of Northern Muslims, most of who are eager to see the whole of Nigeria declared a Muslim country.

    Truth be told, these sundry killers – bandits, Fulani herder terrorists, Boko Haram, ISWAP etc also kill Muslims, but  never as intentionally targeted as their Christians counterparts.

    President Trump was moved to this action by an  appeal from a U.S law maker to the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, to take  immediate diplomatic action against Nigeria over what he described as the systematic persecution and slaughter of Christians in Nigeria; a country  he described as the deadliest place in the world for Christians”.

    He called for Nigeria’s re-designation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) and for the suspension of arms sales to it until the government demonstrates a “tangible commitment” to ending the violence. Citing figures from Open Doors, he claimed that more than 7,000 Christians had been killed in 2025 alone and that at least 19,100 churches have been  destroyed since 2009″.

    How did we get here?

    Let me start off by saying that the U.S action is a massive stricture of the incumbent Nigerian Federal government and  there is a lot President Tinubu can do to both rectify the ugly situation, and   molify President Trump who has shown, severally, that he hasn’t the  slightest respect for international law.

    I have always believed that Nigeria was bound to suffer this embarrassment of being described by President Trump as  a “disgraced country”, but to properly situate that, we would have to go far back, that is, beyond the Tinubu administration, all the way back to that of President Buhari when the entire Nigerian security apparatti was under the  stranglehold of Northern Muslim generals whose primary, but undeclared, interest alongside President  Buhari himself, was to see Sharia  extended over all of Nigeria.

    Buhari and some other significant Northern leaders are on record as saying that fighting Boko Haram is the equivalent of fighting Almighty Allah.

    This reminds me of my article of 17 May, 2020 titled:”Waves and Waves of  Northerners  Coming South Despite Ban on Interstate Travel: What is a  Presidential order now worth”, from which I shall quote at some length in this article.

    I wrote: “Now  with the new massive resurgence of banditry in Katsina,  Kaduna and Zamfara,  he (Professor Ibrahim Gambari, then newly appointed Buhari’s Chief of Staff) should be able to dig deep into both the Boko Haram and banditry conundrum with a view to reaching an agreement which would stanch the ferocious blood letting in the north and put a stop to the billions of dollars the government was wasting but which  could  be put to much better use, especially in the North which accounts for more than 70 percent of the country’s poverty index.

    He should equally devote some time to seriously interrogate the nuisance the Fulani Nationality Movement, (FUNAM) is fast turning to.

    As recent as on  2 May, 2020, that atavistic organisation issued a statement to Northerners who were then being furiously  rushed southwards:

    Read Also: Trump, not Nigeria, is of particular concern to the world

    “We your leaders held meetings across the key Northern States of Sokoto, Bornu, Katsina,  Kano, Yobe, Kebi, Bauchi and Kaduna. Our resolve is that Northern youths should move, enmasse, to Southern States. Relaunch the mass movement in ways they have never seen … If the towns and cities are hostile,  hang out on the street corners, in uncompleted buildings, occupy the forests, pitch tents, make anywhere available as your abode, your rest places, your home.We urge you to be armed. The infidels may want to attack you”.

    What was that if not a Jihad declaration, eager to dip the bible in the sea as Ahmadu Bello admonished them long time ago?

    That is one of the precursors to President Trump’s threat.

    Then to the issue of the day, a grievous  matter of great national interest, given the way Northerners are being rushed to the South in waves, after waves, even after President Buhari had expressly banned inter-state travel.

    In my view, this indicates that torrid days  are ahead with regard to insecurity in the country as these people could very well be killer herdsmen, elements of Boko Haram/ISWAP soldiers or  outright bandits. They are being moved like consignments of commodities, hidden behind cows or cement, and covered with very heavy tapaulen.

    All these in a country where even the President is preaching social distancing as a means of checking the spread of covid-19.

    That is  the way some evil-minded characters are being transported from the extremities of Northern Nigeria, in blazing sun and inclement weather, over hundreds of kilometers to forment trouble in the Middle Belt and Southern Nigeria.

    The hurried manner in which they are being moved point to the fact that the people behind this scheme are up to no good. They are either preparing for a massive uprising in the South or, alternatively, trying to plant an advance party for RUGA which the South rejected, to the last man, and will continue to reject even with the last drop of their blood. Initially coyly presented by the Federal Government as a silver bullet for herders/farmers clashes, RUGA was to have seen Fulani herdsmen as well as elements of Boko Haram, respledently settled in  well – provisioned new towns, carved out from other peoples’ ancestral lands, while the owners of the land would have been left to eke out life in their old, decrepit ways.

    “That this exodus of biblical proportions are being presented to vigilante groups in the South as commodity consignments, is certainly ill- intentioned and the fact that the Inspector General of Police has not  deemed  it fit to say  anything about it, says a lot”.

    God bless the eagle- eyed vigilantes who were not deceived as many of these un-invited guests were immediately turned back where they came from, even though it is certain many of our forests down South may by now be crawling with thousands of  killer herdsmen, elements of Boko Haram etc”.

    That last bit, that is,  their being in our forests,  though conjectural, is a very reasonable supposition, given their battle order from FUNAM, and whoever wants to dispute it must first explain to  Nigerians how,  with the President’s express ban on interstate travel still subsisting , these people  are able to come  down, all the way, from the furtherest corners of the North, without  being stopped by security agents who ought to have felt duty bound to, at least, respect the President’s directive on interstate travels. Of course, Nigerians are no longer  deceived.

    A study by the Chinua Achebe Foundation has long shown that when Fulani herdsmen/ terrorists are to attack in a given  area, directives are usually given from the top, to security  agents, military or whatever, around the target area not to intervene in any manner. They only show up long after the killings.

    It is obvious that this exodus, hidden under the covid-19 lockdown, must be a much bigger project than the well known Fulani herdsmen’s/ terrorists murdering escapades,  but whatever the motive or motives, those behind this project should know that things have  since changed in the South.

    The people have taken their security into their own hands and would respect no orders not to respond in kind if attacked or

     if their ancestral  lands come under any threat. They should know that in  no way would they overrun the South like they did Benue,  Plateau, Borno and some other Northern states.

    Nobody in these parts would live to see total strangers take an inch of their ancestral lands.

    God bless Dr Junaid Mohammed who has honestly called on his Northern brethren who might be behind all these shenanigans to think again . He has suggested that security operatives who collude in this matter should be investigated and those found guilty be  brought to book; but we know that is where it ends because those behind the macabre dance are executing an ethnic and religious agenda to make Nigeria the Fulani homeland as FUNAM has severally asserted, and Nigeria proclaimed a Muslim country.

    FUNAM is never tired of saying Nigeria is the only country Allah gave Fulanis as their homeland.To justify that  joke , a people who arrived Nigeria for the first time ever in the 1800’s, and as tenants of the Hausas,  are now claiming a one thousand year ownership of Nigeria.

    Prof Gambari should be able to let them know their history, in case they have forgotten it.

    One other thing they should know though, is that recent experiences in  Africa, and the world at large, have shown that nobody is too big, important,  or powerful, that cannot find him or herself in a REFUGE CAMP, ESPECIALLY IN A FOREIGN LAND.

    That is where the Trump threat becomes very resonant.

    A stitch in time can still save nine if those behind the spoilation, and ruination, of Christian communities, especially in Northern Nigeria will not desist.

    As to the U.S attacking Nigeria, I trust President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to be able to diplomatically, and meaningfully engage  President Trump, to see why the U. S and Nigeria deserve nothing but healthy and cordial relationship.

    But he owes it a duty to peace – loving Nigerians, to first rein in these enemies within, no matter their status or how untouchable they consider themselves.

  • Simply a citizen journalist

    Simply a citizen journalist

    Those who have attempted to write, or even those who are accomplished authors and writers, will testify that it is no mean feat to consistently write, and maintain a column, for close on 20 years.

    Why does the writer describe himself as a Citizen Journalist? Are there other types of journalists who may not quite qualify as ‘citizens’, though they may be carrying valid National ID cards?

    Google offers that “in the internal creative drive that motivates a writer to create, or the social role of a writer, is the conscience of society. 

    The internal conscience is the writer’s inner sense of purpose, driving them to write intentionally, and to hold themselves accountable, while the social conscience refers to a writer’s duty to expose societal wrongs, advocate for the vulnerable, and hold the powerful accountable through their work”.

    For me, this sums up what I think the writer has spent the last 20 years, or so, doing, that is, serving and probing, while holding himself accountable.

    I recall the story of TheNews/Tempo stable of publications. Right from the get-go, the founders rejected the notion of unbiased, neutral journalism. They chose, ab initio, the partisanship on the side of the disadvantaged, marginalised and voiceless Nigerians who were labouring  under the yoke of military misadventure in Nigerian Politics.

    Thus, they registered the company, not with their own names, but with the maiden names of their wives, and sought funders who did not expect financial reward.

    Orebe’s journalism has not been about newsreporting, which should be unbiased and fact – based. Rather, his journalism has been about commentary, Education,  intervention and mobilisatþion.

    And in these, he never had a chance to be neutral” –

    Hon. Idowu Obasa, Industrialist, former Chairman, Onigbongbo LCDA, and Lead Presenter of ‘SIMPLY … during the Author’s 80th birthday celebration.

    READ ALSO: Obi Cubana blames solo-ownership culture for African business failures

    Book: Simply A Citizen Journalist. 

    Author: Femi Orebe.

    Publishers: Mindscope Africa, Lagos.

    Year of Publication: 2025

    Amazon Link:https://a.co/d/dXnfY77

    Reviewer: Olakunle Abimbola, Editorial Board member/columnist, The Nation Newspaper, Lagos.

    I will start this review, of ‘Simply A Citizen Journalist’, with two very popular Yoruba sayings. (1) “Omode gbon, agba gbon, la fi da’le Ife” and (2) “Ogbon ol’ogbon ki je ka p’agba ni were”. 

    Both, translated roughly into English, mean ideas — or more narrowly, wisdom — is no monopoly of the aged or of the youth. That means a liberal mind soaks in ideas from far and wide: young or old, familiar or strange.

    So, the greatest strength of this collection of column essays (from 2006 to 2025), is its eclectic mix. It is a  616-page

    book, going by the Publisher’s preface.  The work draws from far and wide, foreign and local, sweet and sour, over a range of issues. But lo! That’s its greatest weakness too. The author, liberal and extremely polite, rather gives these ideas full “probative value”, as the lawyers say when jousting in the court, especially when they support his view point.  But more on that, presently.

    In the Preface, the Publisher, Okanlomo Seye Adetunmbi of Mindscope Africa,  detailed the book’s structure. 

    He spoke of five sections: “Reminiscences”, “Interrogative Political Essays”, “Mixed Cogitative Writings”,”Commendations, Reflections and Tributes” and “Reviewed Books”, as duly listed under the Table of Contents. 

    In his Preface, the Publisher shared, with readers, the rigour that went into shaping these five sections — and did a rather convincing job of that.

    But hey, a caveat emptor!  You want to dive into this huge ocean?  Then, you had better be a consummate swimmer, but not that cocky one the Yoruba warn against, that drowns with his skills!  The author, need I say again, is humble to a fault!  He also writes in clear, flowing and sparkling prose that just comes alive! 

    But don’t be deceived: his logic and rigour take no prisoners!  So, to best enjoy him, you must bring, to the table, your own counterpart intellectual humility.  Who knows?  You’ll probably take home a few new words, extremely readable as he is!  He comes to the party with a rich vocabulary — as expected of a rich mind and a lover of words.

    In this work, Orebe writes about others: persons, issues and places, though with his native Ekiti — of which he is immensely proud, with absolutely no apologies! — central in his thinking.  It’s as the Avatar, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, said: you can’t be a good Nigerian without first being a good Yoruba man. 

    So, from this tome, he oozes the Awo paradigm of patriotism: proud son of Are Ekiti, refined Ekiti gentleman all his long life, unapologetic Yoruba nationalist, and a very patriotic Nigerian. 

    He is very proud of his country, yes.  But he is also very angry at any thought that Nigeria, tremendously gifted, could be punching below its immense weight!

    Except you thoroughly understand these critical fundamentals, you just might not fully appreciate the passion — frothing and exciting — that the author brings to bear on each and every topic on which he sets his sharp mind, and applies his flowing pen.

    Which is why former President Olusegun Obasanjo is perhaps, in this book, the Ekiti “Enemy No. 1” — “enemy” here in inverted commas. But if by Ekiti, Obasanjo could hardly do anything right, then Dr. Kayode Fayemi, an Ekiti son in whom the author is well pleased, could hardly do anything wrong! 

    But on this too, the author seems to follow the pathway of another great Nigerian, the humble-to-a-fault, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, former military Head of State.  I don’t know if Orebe sees eye-to-eye with Gen. Gowon.  But the polished General always said he would always honour his elders; and sort out his mates.  But those younger than him?  To those, he’d never be cavalier: for you never know what they’ll become tomorrow!

    This Gowon-like humility, towards the far younger folks, seem to drive Orebe’s love for former Governor Fayemi, in power and out of it.  That’s clear from  many essays in this book.  Sure, that Fayemi halo is far from universal.  But tell me which public figure’s is?  Suffice it to say that the author respects anyone, of any age, that adds value.  That intellectual bent is very clear from these beautiful column pieces. 

    Indeed, that has been my impression of him, since I have had the privilege of knowing him at The Nation. Which is why I wondered: why me, when he asked me to do this review.  Why not his battery of brilliant and erudite protégés, young and old?  Besides, he could have phoned — and I would have jumped to make his day.  But no!  He  personally come to ask, bearing his tome!  Such humility!  God bless you sir!

    Simply A Citizen Journalist teems with the glut of polished humanity in the author’s cultured universe.  This prompts, in your mind, that famous quip — “Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are!” — as you meet that galaxy.  That’s the cultivated world to which the columnist speaks.

    The first of the two Foreword pieces was written by Prof. Richard Adeboye Olaniyan, his teacher as a History undergraduate at the then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo Univeristy), Ile-Ife. The second, by Dr. Dapo Fafowora, a retired ambassador and respected, former columnist with The Nation Newspaper.

    In “A stint in University Administration”, he listed Prof. Hezekiah Oluwasanmi, the iconic vice-chancellor that shaped the golden age of the old UNIFE; Chief S. J. Okudu, the lengendary Registar at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria’s first university, Prof. Ladipo Akinkugbe, ex-UI, famed medic and scholar, and first Principal of the University College, Ilorin (now University of Ilorin), Dr. Christopher Kolade, the famed Mr. Integrity that just passed on, Prof. Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate: the quintessential normative force and voice against moral and allied decay in Nigeria, etc.

    Move over to his heroes in “Tributes”, and who do you find?  Nelson Mandela, Barack Obama, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (now Nigeria’s president), Dr. Amos Akingba, Chief Deji Fasuan, Justice Olajide Olatawura, Chief Alex Olu Ajayi, Chief JGO Adegbite.

    The others are: Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, Prof. Sam Aluko, Prof. Jide Osuntokun and Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi (in a single tribute piece), the “Moremi” of Ekiti, the late Mrs. Funmi Olayinka, the other half of the Fayemi stolen mandate, recovered after three years, but who died of cancer before their term ended, Prof. Kayode Osuntokun, Sesan Ogunro, and Chief Samuel Bamidele Felegan, among others. 

    Add to this stellar list the suave, highly respected and unassuming General Ipoola Alani Akinrinade, whose Agbajo Yoruba Agbaye (Yoruba World Congress) the columnist toasted to no end as a must for every Omoluabi Yoruba, across partisan aisles.

    Of course, Prof. Oladipupo Akinkugbe also made the list, not shutting out Christ’s School Ado-Ekiti at 80 (in 2013) — the school that produced the author, and many, if not most, of the Ekiti icons that dominate his “Tributes”.

    Now, what does this tell you about the Orebe world?  It’s a universe of excellence — brilliance that teems with character — a twin-attribute lacking in today’s Nigeria. 

    Take “Nelson Mandela’s 12 avatars” (29 July 2007).  It was the author’s cultured, yet candid way, of telling the fresh ex-president how he had traded true greatness, ala Mandela, for a near-pariah status, despite his global clout — no thanks to his “do-or-die” voter heist of 2007, aside his collapsed Third-Term gambit.  Still, he scolded Obasanjo with love, even suggesting how he could repair his battered image.

    So, honest but brutal candour runs through the entire collection: his anger that Nigeria was a joke at 50 (12 September 2010); that the insane pay structure of the National Assembly could bankrupt the country (29 May 2011); his prescribed leadership for Nigeria: referencing the Edo/South West ACN gubernatorial class of Adams Oshiomhole (Edo), Babatunde Fashola (Lagos), Rauf Aregbesola (Osun), Ibikunle Amosu (Ogun), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo); and Labour Party’s Olusegun Mimiko (Ondo). He reckoned the bumbling President Goodluck Jonathan, at Abuja, could pick up one or two things from this sub-national ensemble (5 June 2011).

    Other major issues that he treated were restructuring and the national question, in his endless engagement with other minds, on Nigeria’s unitary federalism — what an oxymoron! 

    Indeed, he always went back to this topic: as the unrepentant Awoist and unflappable post-June 12 progressive that he is. 

    The ludicrous 16-is-greater-than-19 stance of PDP Plateau Governor, Jonah Jang, who lost the Nigerian Governors Forum election to Rivers Rotimi Amaechi, but went to church for thanksgiving for his “win”! (28 July 2013).  The war-without-end among the Afenifere grandees, the Afenifere younger elements’ futile efforts to settle these ancestral feuding and the eventual birth of the Afenifere Renewal Group (ARG).

    Indeed, what other topic of the age did he not treat?  The Ekitipanupo intellectual-fest on Nigeria?  The Yoruba Academy and its brilliant DAWN: the Development Agenda of Western Nigeria?  The odyssey of Justice Ayo Salami, then President of the Court of Appeal, for doing right by Ekiti voters, by helping to retrieve the Fayemi/Olayinka stolen mandate?  

    Boko Haram and its variant of banditry and kidnapping for ransom? The Fayose second coming in Ekiti, and the shame of a “photochromically” rigged election by the Jonathan Presidency, even as Governor Fayemi and his Ekiti progressives fought to the death?  The EndSARS riots of 2020? Or: What I call the Orebe-Buhari puzzle? 

    The Orebe-Buhari puzzle! The columnist backed Gen. Muhammadu Buhari to the hilt as the APC candidate. But as President, he also railed at him, with no less ferocity, during that southern hysteria against the “Fulani herdsmen” and “nepotism”!

    In fairness though, outside the bogey of an alleged Fulani rogue force, surreptitiously taking over Yoruba forests for evil motives, he still showed the former President grace, understanding and empathy. 

    Of course, he also wrote on COVID-19, the direst public health pandemic, so far, of this 21st century.

    In this tome, posterity would find the true spirit of the age, as captured by a fecund, influential and significant columnist.  That’s why it should prove a priceless collection for any tertiary education library worth its name.

    Also, though not a career politician, his role — and his darts — in helping to shape Nigeria’s progressive politics, especially in his native South West, made a compelling reading. 

    He was “Saul” in pushing the Akin Omoboriowo’s gubernatorial cause.  But he turned “Paul” by backing Governor Michael Ajasin, after Omoboriowo had crossed over to the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN).  Thus, he reinforced his Yoruba progressive credential.  That, in the terrible violence of the period, made the difference between life and death!

    Still, his family — nuclear and extended — was caught up in that 1983 Ondo State electoral violence, which buried the Second Republic (1979-1983).  Though the author and his young family of four: his wife and three young children escaped unscathed, his brother-in-law was felled in it all!  This bitter-sweet tale honed his progressives bona fides.

    Why, there was even a grim humour to it all: the military take-over also buried his new job as Board Chair, Sungas Ltd, an Odua Investment subsidiary.  But all his nuclear family could offer was a mock celebration: “No more chairman!  No more chairman!”  His wife and treasured young brood won’t touch politics — not even with a long pole!  Yet, his mother-in-law, Mama Chief (Mrs) Adeyinka Fagbola, the one they called AG MOTHER in Ile – Ife, was among the first eleven, in Chief Awolowo’s Action Group (AG), at Ile-Ife!

    Is the collection perfect?  No.  Hardly any work is — and that takes us back to how the columnist liberally quotes from others, and gives all of them full probative value, to reinforce his point of view. 

    In truth, most of those voices do justice and add value, as the Obama and Fayemi takes, which the columnist fulsomely quoted, in his Mandela obituary piece. 

    But a few of them too end as flabby emotions.  A good example is a University P

    rofessor, so irked at the huge pay to National Assembly members, he asked that the Senate be abolished.  The author promptly agreed.

    Well, just imagine.  By population, Ekiti and Bayelsa are among the tiniest Nigerian states.  What, if you abolish the Senate, six members represent Ekiti in House of Representatives; against 24 representing Kano!  Won’t tiny Ekiti shriek marginalization?

    That’s the point!  Federalism is no mere label.  Rather, it’s a rigorous concept, to balance the interest of the tiny against the mighty, in a federal territory.  So, with all due respect, suggestions to abolish the Senate, because the cost is prohibitive, is emotive rather than rigorous.  Any thinking that suggests that reminds one of that quip: if education is expensive, try ignorance!

    On the technical side, the book’s editing is tight.  But not so tight, the proof-reading.  Many compound words: e.g. “short-lived”, “people-friendly”, etc, which ought to have been hyphenated, roll out as two words.  But happily, these glitches hardly define the work.  The chapter heading/text contrast and display, for reader-friendliness, could be better.  But again, vintage pictures, at various stages of the author’s long and illustrious life, were used to break the monotony of text.

    Now, on a lighter note! The Irish, James Joyce, wrote on his alter ego, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). Baba Femi Orebe, in whose honour we are here gathered, turned 80 on September 24.  Happy birthday sir!

     But in his tribute of 28 September 2025: “Salute to citizen journalist extraordinaire”, the Snooper in The Nation Sunday, Tatalo Alamu, was in a rare impish mirth, away from his grumpy jeremiad, over the collapsing “post-colonial state”!  He recalled how, a editor of Cobra, that militant UNIFE campus magazine, created one “posthumous” Love me Obere — to fend off, he warned, any legal complications!  To which the suspect would gamely respond to his mischievous teasers: “Awon omo radarada!” — infernal rascals!

    No prize for guessing right: it’s Tatalo’s impish portraiture of our grandee at 80 as a dashing, cerebral and sociable young man!  Even at 80, he remains the ever dapper one!

    I will end by congratulating the   Orebe family, starting with the matriarch, Mama Atinuke Orebe, whose abiding sweetness, the patriarch always spares no superlative to vouch.  To their three lovely offspring, and their own spouses and children, you’re indeed blessed to belong to such a lovely family.

    But my parting words to him would be this: Baba, it’s those same words you used to honour your late mentor, Prof. Oladipupo Olujimi Akinkugbe, when he turned 80 in 2013:  Wa daigbo sir!  May you live longer than your hero in health, wealth and an ever acute mind!

    Thank you, ladies and gentlemen for your attention.

  • Northern Nigeria: Untameable and prospect of Nigeria achieving trillion dollar economy

    Northern Nigeria: Untameable and prospect of Nigeria achieving trillion dollar economy

    Northern Nigeria matters, but not just because of the reasons many Northern Nigerians think it matters. The region matters beyond arguments about land mass and controversial population statistics, but mainly because it is a foundational partner in the establishment of Nigeria as one country through the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914.

    There is a big problem in the North today, and that problem also affects the overall pace of economic, social and political progress of Nigeria as a whole.

    We need to agree on what exactly that problem is because we can’t overcome an obstacle if we don’t understand clearly what it is, or if we know, but pretend not to know, or if we mischaracterise the problem and thus confuse ourselves  and the whole picture of poverty” – Professor Kingsley Moghalu, former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, in a ramifying, no holds- barred address he   delivered  at the Mallam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Conference Hall, Kano, June 2019.

    Titled:”Northern Nigeria’s Prosperity: Imperative of Social, Economic Transformation”,

     Moghalu held in the address that if Nigeria,with its 200M plus population, (as against India’s 1.5 Billion) is the poverty capital of the world, then Northern Nigeria is the poverty capital of Nigeria.

    He went on to situate the Nigerian poverty index as follows:

    “Northern Nigeria is the poverty capital of Nigeria, which makes the region the poverty capital of the world’s poverty capital. Comparative regional poverty rates in Nigeria, he went on  are: North-West: 80.9%, North-East: 76.8%, North-Central: 45.7%, giving a northern poverty average of 67.8%. Compare this with the southern regions: South-West: 19.3%, South-South: 25.2%, South-East: 27.4%, with a southern average of 24%. Northern Nigeria is nearly three times poorer than Southern Nigeria”.

    This parlous state of affairs has been further worsened by a multiplicity of problems. Among them: very poor education with over 10Million out of school children and an all- encompassing state of insecurity which, for more than a decade, has made lives short and bruttish for Nigerians living in those parts.

    Our task here then is to examine how all these will impact on the Tinubu government’s ambition to turn Nigeria into a one trillion Naira economy.

    As my good friend, and former Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Front (ACF), the erudite elderstatesman, Tony Sani, used to say, Nigeria is like a big river with all the other parts as mere tributaries – he often puts it more elegantly – so whatever touches one part touches the other.

    I say that to acknowledge the fact that the North does not have a monopoly of Nigeria’s developmental challenges.

    There fore, the prospect of Nigeria achieving a trillion dollar economy in the short run, seems like a distant dream, a mirage, given the myriad challenges plaguing the country. 

    Insecurity and unrestrained child-bearing in the  North, for instance, have far-reaching consequences that will continue to threaten the country’s economic stability and development.

    The region has been ravaged by insecurity for over a decade, with Boko Haram  being a major contributor to the crisis.

    The group’s activities have led to the displacement of millions of people, destruction of infrastructure, and loss of lives. This has  had a devastating impact on the region’s, ipso facto, Nigerian economy, with many businesses shutting down and investors reluctant to invest in the region.

    Unfortunately, insecurity there is not limited to Boko Haram’s insurgency. Banditry, kidnapping, and armed herdsmen have become common occurrences, further exacerbating the security situation. Government’s inability to definitively deal with this problem has led to widespread fear and mistrust making it almost impossible to achieve economic development.

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    All these have negatively impacted government’s sustained efforts at improving the general well- being of the citizenry.

    Unrestrained child-bearing is another existential challenge confronting the North. The region has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, with women in rural areas giving birth to an average of 5.6 children, compared to 3.9 children in urban areas.

    This rapid population growth puts a strain on the country’s resources, especially: healthcare, education, and infrastructural development.

    This state of affairs is attributed to various factors; among them, poverty, lack of access to family planning  as well as cultural norms, topmost of which is religion.

    This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of out of school children, with young girls of school age being forced into early marriage and motherhood.

    Insecurity and lack of family planning have led to many schools  being closed down with the pupils being forced to consequently  drop out of school.

    This is further accentuated by poverty and lack of access to educational resources. These, in turn, resort in limited economic opportunities, increased poverty, and a perpetuation of the cycle of violence, to break which, education is a sine qua non.

    For these reasons, and especially to break the cycle of poverty and insecurity, both government and the other stakeholders must wake up and prioritise education in the region.

    Worse is that all these negativities have combined to upend economic activity in the country.

    One area very badly affected is agriculture – a  source of livelihood for the greater majority of Nigerians. This has very negatively impacted food security in the entire country with prices of foodstuffs, where available at all, becoming unduly astronomical.

    Indeed, farmers are routinely being killed or kidnapped either on their way to the farm or right there on their farms. Benue, Plateau and Borno states have suffered the most in this respect.

    Like it or not, Nigeria is obliged to find a solution to all these, predominantly,  Northern conundrum, if it is to survive, economically, at all, not to talk of achieving a trillion dollar economy.

    The problems require a multifaceted approach that should include reforms in the country’s security architecture, ditto education, as well as instituting deliberate economic reforms that will encourage small and medium enterprises, thousands of which can be created in the North particularly in agro- processing and animal husbandry.  Government must frontally confront, and defeat, illegal mining in the region, and elsewhere else in the country given how foreigners involved have worsened our internal security, using helicopters to drop, food, arms and munitions to terrorists on ground.

    For this reason too, government, at all levels, must prioritise security in the region.

    This should include  adequate funding as well as increasing the use of technology as a means of not only combating insecurity, but seriously implementing policies that will address its root causes  as well as the sympathy these evil elements seem to enjoy from some people in the region either for ethnic or religious reasons.

    Investing in education is equally crucial, even critical, to enhance human capital development.

    Finally, government, at all levels, must endeavour to provide access to credit, training, and other resources that can help entrepreneurs and small business owners in the region.

    Concluding, though the whole idea of Nigeria achieving a trillion dollar economy presently looks like a mirage,  it is absolutely achievable, given the seriousness with which  the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government has approached the country’s economic development – efforts which have since  been warmly commended by both the IMF, the World Bank as well as some other global financial agencies.

    To confirm that the President’s ambition of a trillion dollar economy is not a pipe dream, he informed the entire citizenry as follows during his 2025 National day broadcast:”Our administration has redirected the economy towards a more inclusive path, channelling money to fund education, health care, national security, agriculture, and political economy and infrastructure such as roads, power, broadband, and  social investment programmes.”

    Speaking further he highlighted the fact that Nigeria’s economy is showing signs of strong recovery by  recording a GDP growth of 4.23 percent in the second quarter of 2025, the fastest in four years, and higher than the 3.4 percent projected by the IMF.

    He added that inflation fell to 20.12 percent in August 2025, its lowest in three years.

    The country, he said, “has achieved 12 remarkable economic milestones in the last two years through sound fiscal and monetary policies. Among these, she recorded a “record-breaking increase in non-oil revenue, achieving 2025 targets by August with over 20 trillion”. “In September 2025 alone, he continued, we raised 3.65 trillion. That is 411 percent higher than the amount raised in May 2023.”

     “We have restored physical health, our debt service to revenue ratio has been significantly reduced from 97 percent to below 50 percent. We have beat down the infamous ways and means advances that threaten our economic stability and triggerred inflation”, said the President.

    Northern Nigeria’s current challenges, properly diagnosided, interrogated and seriously handled, can be the very  linchpin to achieving the ambition of a trillion dollar economy. The North is that endowed.

  • Lt. Gen. Ipoola Alani Akinrinade: The Colosus

    Lt. Gen. Ipoola Alani Akinrinade: The Colosus

    When the history of that era is written, Gen. Alani Akinrinade would be one of its guiding lights.Home and abroad, Gen. Akinrinade fought the military regime for the soul of Nigeria as entrenched in the democratic rights of Nigerians. For that, he paid heavily.

    The general had a thriving large-scale farm before the crisis. To get back at him for his effrontery to confront the military roughnecks, the Abacha regime went for the general’s economic jugular. They ruined his farm. His shipping business too was fair game. If he had tarried at home, they most probably would have sent a killer gang after him. That is the only logical deduction from the arson agents of the state committed on his house.

    But after all the trauma, Gen. Akinrinade stands firm and formidable in his beliefs. Whatever he had lost in that struggle, he gained in the estimation and affection of the grateful Nigerian masses, who were not only tired of military rule but were also irked by the arrogant cancellation of a mandate they freely gave Basorun Abiola.

    Gen. Akinrinade may have been disillusioned at 70, seeing the gulf between his vision of what the Nigerian military should be when he signed up; and what it was when he left. But history will bear him testimony that despite all the rot of his generation, he maintained his personal honour and integrity; and remained the quintessential officer and gentleman.

    No one could wish for more, in a generally traumatised era, when honour had gone to the dogs and debauchery was the new high point of state culture – Olakunle Abimbola in: Akinrinade – An officer and gentleman at 70″.

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    This piece, simpli cita, is not a biography of, definitely, one of the most outstanding generals ever produced by the Nigerian Army.

    Lt. Gen. Akinrinade who turned 86 on October 3, 2025 was, as usual, more than generously celebrated by the high and mighty.

    One of those who congratulated him, appropriately the Executive Governor of his Osun State, Senator Ademola Jackson Nurudeen Adeleke,

     fulsomely celebrated the elder statesman, describing him as “a patriot of the highest order, a military legend, and a shining example of statesmanship whose life is defined by service, sacrifice, and courage.”

    This article, therefore, deals with only one of the General’s post military engagements, namely, his always very courageously, providing communal leadership for both country and the Yoruba race which explains his multi – pronged roles in NADECO, the group that provided a dignified escape route for Yorubas of Southwest Nigeria when the ruthless General Sanni Abacha was intent on annihilating the entire race.

    This then leads me to my review of the  General’s ALAROYE LECTURE  of 3 December, 2006, now definitively

    etched in history on pages 313 – 315 of my book: ‘Simply a Citizen Journalist’ ( Amazon link:https://a.co/d/dXnfY77

    Happy reading.

    Yoruba Nation Politics, Irridentism And Issues Arising

    Until I read an in- depth analysis of General Alani Akinrinade’s lecture delivered on the occasion of the 10th anniversary of Alaroye, Thisday, 28 NOV.2006, by Philip Ogunmade, I had almost concluded that there was a press conspiracy to black it out.

    All I had seen of the event, before then, consisted only of the photographs of politicians and Kabiyesis, and it would have been a great dis-service if the lecture, entitled ‘Yoruba and Their Neighbours After 2007’, had been reduced to nothing more than a photo opportunity.

    First, a word about the guest lecturer.

    Lt. Gen. Alani Akinrinade, one time Nigerian Chief of Army Staff, was a twotime Minister of the Federal Republic. An officer and a gentleman, if ever there was one, Gen. Akinrinade was run out of town during the reign of the goggled one with his house literally bombed out of existence whilst on exile with his “co-conspirators”in NADECO.

    As God would have it, he and his associates saw the end of Abacha and returned home to Nigeria.

    Since coming back, Gen. Akinrinade has resumed where he left off in the service of Nigeria and the Yoruba race in particular. Around him, and at his great inspiration, an organisation is in the works to which every Yoruba man and woman would be only too happy to register his/her unborn child as member.

    Modelled after the Jewish council, the organisation, unlike extant Pan – Yoruba groupings, will be all-inclusive, non-partisan and there would be no joiners, but co-equals,  despite the many months of ground work the General and his associates have invested in the project. It will suffice for now, that I am jumping the gun, to say only that the organization will have as its primary duty, the re-invention, reinvigoration and nurture of Yoruba culture, language and the Arts, as well as the ‘gathering’ together of all Yorubas, whether here at home in Nigeria, in Brazil, Cuba or  the United States and wherever on earth our compatriots practice IFA in its pristine originality; an institution which happily, has now become a UNESCO responsibility.

    Given the above background, Lt. Gen. Akinrinade is eminently qualified to give the ‘Alaroye’ lecture which he concluded to a rapturous applause from the audience which included the high and mighty in society.

    Highly respected across  board, General Akinrinade, with neither airs nor ego, is a deep and very committed Yoruba leader. Indeed, a natural Yoruba leader, almost of the old school, very accommodating and tolerant of others’ views. General Akinrinade spares nothing, not time, nor resources, in the service of motherland.

    May his tribe increase.

    The General, in his lecture under review, went down memory lane; traversed centuries of the history of various Nigerian nationalities, emphasizing how British imperialism undermined local authorities and completely vaporised all.

    He concluded this section with how the South came to be unequally yoked with the North.

    In his view, the principal job of the Yoruba in the post-Obasanjo era will be the need to ‘see to the promotion of a true peoples’ constitution which will reflect the aggregated wishes of our various nationalities’.

    As long as the status quo remains, he continued, the death struggle which our politics has become can only intensify.

    The Yoruba, continued the General, ‘must now find a unity that transcends politics, religion, social status, gender etc’. He believes that  Yorubas must show the way for they it is who have a tradition for reform, decency and abhorrence of cheating and hegemony over others.

    Finally said the general, ‘we must rise to the struggle to entrench a constitution that can bring good governance, return power to the people, remove career politicians whose only contribution is looting; entrench the rule of law and repudiate majoritarian democracy in a heterogeneous society like Nigeria’.

    This is no doubt a laudable road map for the Yoruba and it will only be in our tradition to lead the way.

    However, I believe that the audience at the Alaroye lecture would have been better served if General Akinrinade had been given the luxury of choosing his topic or, alternatively, if he was asked  to appraise the place of the Yoruba in these ‘our’ – read as Obasanjo’s two terms of almost eight years.

     A critical examination of what Yorubas suffered during the Obasanjo administration – 1999-2007′, would have better made their day as it was a ruinous era for the entire race.

    Traditionally, Yorubas have always belonged in opposition to the

    Federal government of the federation. This has largely resulted from a hard-headed, consensus- based preference for our own political leaders who know exactly what we want as a people.

    Beginning with Chief Obafemi Awolowo, through Chief Adekunle Ajasin; from Chief Adesanya to Late Chief Bola Ige, the Yoruba has come to be well served by their ‘opposition’ governments until 2003 when Obasanjo started his so – called mainstreaming against our wishes.

    Things have since gotten so bad that only this past week, the Yoruba Council of Elders, a body that owed its birth, and life-line, for quite a while, to the Obasanjo regime, railed unrepentantly about the misfortune that has befallen education in the South West since 2003.

    I was amazed to hear members of the Parents/Teachers Association of Queen’s College, Lagos, assert painfully, on an AIT Kaakaki programme, that they saw a copy of the Federal government’s letter inviting Chevron to come and buy the School. Even NEPA may have been invited by Obasanjo’s dutiful daughter, as Minister of Education, to buy King’s college.

    This would practically have had the down-side of taking quality secondary education beyond most Nigerians.

    Not too long ago,  Agbajo decided to set up a rapid response committee of three, under the leadership of Professor Jide Osuntokun when it became obvious that rarely was any of the multibillion naira road and water projects announced routinely after Executive Council meetings meant for the South West.

    Not many would now remember when the uncompleted Ibadan -Ilorin road was awarded nor when the Ilorin-Ado-Ekiti road project which has become a perennial, would be completed. The least said about  the Lagos-Ota road, in his own neck of wood, the better. A documentary on the Benin-Ore road, brought tears to many eyes even in this era of multibillion petrol dollars.

    The case is probably worse in the Federal Ministry of Water Resources where the Obasanjo government , with Muktar Shagari as minister, has out-spent every other government in the history of the nation, weekly announcing multi- billion irrigation projects for only the North.

     Meanwhile, Obasanjo expects Ekiti State to be industrialised even when, like Bayelsa, it is yet to be connected to the national grid. This is not to mention the Lagos state experience during this ‘our’ tenure, when ‘our president’ cruelly seized all Local Government funds.

    In conclusion I believe that Yoruba is in a double jeopardy if, during ‘our tenure’ we have been treated as shown above, only God knows what lies –in wait for Yorubas in a new administration headed by a Northerner. Therefore, the need for a Yoruba leaders to rigorously interface with the various party presidential candidates, whenever they emerge, to agree minimum parameters to have our electoral support, should be considered a must.

  • A gratuitous insult from an ill – mannered Ife Arowosoge

    A gratuitous insult from an ill – mannered Ife Arowosoge

    At first, I was going to pay no attention, whatever, to his scurrilous write-up, seeing how uncannily his hectoring resembled that of his late stable-mate, the equally rude, Ilawe – born, one time minister of the Federal Republic,  Dr Bode Olowoporoku.

    I and Bode, who thought nothing of politically up – ending his Uncle, the Honourable Pa Akomolafe, who gave him ‘life’ when as a child, his mother allegedly became incapacitated to be a commissioner in the Pa Adekunle Ajasin government from which he was later sacked, were friends at the Great Ife (University of Ife, Ile – Ife) but I just couldn’t stand his ways, and whiles,  as a chapter in my new book clearly shows.

    He was simply too rough and he knew I detested his ways.

    I am, therefore,  not writing like this because he is not around to defend himself.

    No human being will escape death. Mbanu, as Igbos would say.

    I had read, and mentally threw into the dustbin, Dr Arowosege’s absolutely unmerited put down of Chief Oladeji Fasuan  who, without a scintilla of doubt, is one of the few remaining titans of our Land of honour – Ekiti.

    That though, was until I kept running into the Arowosoge verbiage severally, and then, my U- S based friend, Jide Oguntuase forwarded the same trash to me asking, since he knows my intimate closeness to Papa, whether I would let the idiotic diatribe go unreplied.

    Each of Arowosoge’s line crawled with insult, his thoroughly abrasive language failing to show he  went to school at all or have any respect for elders.

    This last bit was, however, the part that did not surprise me at all because, if one is not careful, he could summarily conclude that such behaviour is Ilawe-sque. Fortunately not me, as I have terrific Ilawe sons and daughters who I have related with for ages and  who are paragons of what Yorubas call Omoluabi.

    Among these, please permit me to mention His Lordship, Bishop Femi Ajakaiye, the Catholic Bishop of Ekiti, who called, all the way from the UK, to greet and pray for me on my 80th birthday, the eminent duo, my ever worthy Aburos, and 

    Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), Elder Dele Adesina and Femi Falana,   each of who already, deservedly, have a signed hard copy of my forthcoming book well ahead of its official presentation.  Also count among these worthy Ilawe’s,

    eminence greese, my long- time friends, Professors Idowu Odeyemi and Bode Asubiojo, the respected Prince Adefolalu, the no less regarded Sina Awelewa,  as well as my younger friends – Senator Yemi Adaramodu, Gbenga Araoye, Tokunbo Omolase, the gifted commentator on national affairs,

    and my incredible Great Ife mates and friends, Kayode & Funke(Mr & Mrs) . The list is simply inexhaustive.

    But juxtapose these decent human beings with the inflammable minority of Ilawe political rabble rousers, among them the late Olowoporoku and the instant irritant, Arowosoge.

     I will be loathe to count Idowu Odeyemi(Senior) among them despite what you will soon  be reading below).  If one is not careful, you could quite easily, but wrongly, conclude that Ilawe – an otherwise large, and respectable town – breeds many of these moral outcasts – the types who would look a whole Chief Fasuan in the face and vomit the kind of inanities the ill- educated Arowosoge hauled on him.

    As I used to say: ki la gbe, ki le ju? What are these Ilawe outcasts fighting over, that they won’t accord Papa Fasuan the slightest regard?

    Before I welcome the reader to a precursor of the instant case, that is,. when Idowu Odeyemi(Senior) also of Ilawe, flaggelated, and poured no less venom on Chief Fasuan, I urge every true born citizen of Ilawe – Ekiti to please find, retrieve and read Arowosoge’s idiotic nonsense on Pa Fasuan. If the reader has more time at his disposal, he could go back 17 years to  also read the Senior Odeyemi on the same subject as contained in my article of 23 September , 2007 in reply to him. You will not but wonder what these Ilawe self appointed emissaries are fighting over, noting in particular, that both are an absolute political minority in Ilawe.

    Read Also: Army, DSS arrest suspected kidnap kingpin Emmanuel Akpan

    Or could it be the rumoured neglect of Ilawe by consecutive Ekiti governments? If so, Ilawe should simply wake up, buckle up and emulate Ikere-Ekiti  which, by dint of hard work, and the citizens’ untramelled love for their town, have turned Ikere- Ekiti to the fastest developing town in the whole of Ekiti state. Arowosoge and his ilk certainly do not represent the redoubtable Ilawe we know and respect. Welcome then to my article:’Standing History on The Head’, of 23 September, 2007, now captured on pages 59 – 61 of my 619 – page book:’SIMPLY A CITIZEN JOURNALIST (Amazon Link-https://a.co/d/dXnfY77).

    It reads as follows while, in the meantime, awaiting Arowosoge’s promised hagiography: Chief Idowu Odeyemi is my friend of over two decades though details of that friendship

    need not delay us here. He knows that I hold him in high regards. I was, therefore, completely taken aback by the amount of vitriol, if not banality, displayed in his riposte

    to Chief Deji Fasuan’s piece on the creation of Ekiti which appeared in your flagship, The Nation on Sunday, September 2, 2007.

    I am not unaware that given the melodramatic, even rancorous Ekiti politics, the paths of these two gentlemen may have crossed variously. Unfortunately, in Ekiti today, it is politics or nothing, which explains our condition. But even when that is conceded, I still could not find, in Chief

    Fasuan’s article, the pillars on which Idowu sought to erect that level of venom, most of it personal insults unbecoming of a journalist of many years. To make his point, which he subsequently did not, Chief Odeyemi need not have resorted to such scurrility. It was tantamount, in my view, to the occasion when the Yoruba would say, Ki la gbe, ki loju? It is analogous too, to hauling a bag of cement at a petty thief who stole a biro pen. It will be intolerable if he were fighting his own case but totally reprehensible when it turns out he was no more than a surrogate fighter; crying more than the bereaved.

    I personally believe that with his contributions to the success of the PDP in the April elections, he no longer needs to be anybody’s good boy to land a juicy federal appointment.

    And by the way, what is the casus belli? Fasuan had written that Chief Afe Babalola was not allowed to speak for more than six and a half minutes before he was (rather rudely, in his words) stopped from further presentation at the Mbanefo Panel on States and Local Government Creation. From my reading of that portion of the offending article, which I have since read all over again, I could not see any denigration of Chief Babalola by the writer who had, rather than wear any air of indispensability in the struggle, as is being conjured by Odeyemi, went to great lengths in naming names, even of Obas, and all those who contributed in one way or the other to the eventual success of the project. It was, therefore, in very bad taste, when Odeyemi sought to flagellate, or indeed, ridicule the elders who had to sleep on the road on their way back from Abuja when their vehicle ran out of fuel. He should be humble enough to apologise. In all, his diatribe was unnecessary; the language needlessly acerbic just as the personal insults, which decency forbids me to repeat on this page, were totally undeserving of a man who gave his all to a peoples’ collective struggle.

    It becomes more irritating when you discover that Chief Odeyemi had, in fact, stood history on the head in his reading the events leading to the creation of Ekiti State as his views are at variance with the overall impression of the generality of Ekiti people, many of who wrote to thank Chief Fasuan.

    Here was a man whose perspicacity and total devotion to a cause provided the sterling leadership to crown the long-standing struggle of Ekiti people to a glorious end at a time when the much more politically (and economically) connected Ijebus, whose son was in fact number two in government at the material time, could not realize their equally well- deserved state. I will like to crave Chief Fasuan’s permission to quote, at some length, from his well-written book, ‘Creation of Ekiti – The Epic Struggle of a People’, especially some of the about thirty letters addressed to him by appreciative Ekitis, either individually or as groups.

    Given the current level of revisionism, I thank God who laid it on Chief Fasuan’s heart to commit his experiences during that era into a book.

    Writing on the 1st of October, 1996, the Ajero of Ijero-Ekiti and paramount ruler of Ijero kingdom wrote as follows: “Myself, all Obas and chiefs in Ijero kingdom and our entire sons and daughters, home and abroad, join all Ekiti in thanking Almighty God for the creation of our dream state. We are also pleased to congratulate you as the chairman and all members of the committee for the creation of Ekiti-State. We commend you for your hard work, resourcefulness and perseverance. It is our hope that all Ekitis will maintain and even strengthen the age-long unique homogeneity and peaceful co-existence. To God be the glory for this great thing He has done for us all. Once again, please accept our congratulations.” Their Royal Highnesses, Oba J.O.

    Awolola and Oba J.K Akinola representing the Ilejemeje Community wrote as follows on 9 October, 1996: “The entire Royal Highnesses and their people in the Ilejemeje community have considered it a deserved courtesy to send you this special congratulatory message on the occasion of the newly created Ekiti state. It needs be stressed that your un-weary efforts and enlivened spirit from the beginning of the agelong struggle up to the last moment of official declaration of Ekiti Ethnic groups as a state shall remain indelible in the ‘Blue Print’ books of Ekitiland, and not the least in the history of Nigeria. Your seriousness and great concern over divesting conditions

    and total abandonment of any meaningful social, economic and cultural developments of our land were glaringly manifested in your total commitment to the issues in a most unlikely fashion which was a further proof of article of faith in the ability of Ekiti to metamorphose their own state into an egalitarian society. We pray God to further fortify you against future greater challenges of harnessing and developing Ekiti state’s natural endowments.

    Finally, we join hundreds of thousands of Nigerians to rejoice with you on this epoch-making occasion of the birth of Ekiti state. Once again, please accept our joint congratulations.”

    The Ekiti Parapo, Port Harcourt, on the 12th of October sent the following letter to Chief Fasuan: “The president and members of Ekiti Parapo, Port Harcourt, has directed me to send a congratulatory letter to you for the gallant fight you put up on the fight for the creation of Ekiti state. The Club is proud of your brilliant and effective efforts and pray that the Almighty God should compensate you…’ Chief Bade Gboyega wrote as follows: ‘Please kindly permit me to share my heartfelt joy and deep satisfaction with ‘your good self’, on the occasion of the creation of Ekiti state by 7.20 this morning. I also wish to sincerely congratulate you personally because God has thus crowned your great, tireless, commendable and historic efforts with huge success’.

    Former Deputy Governor of Ondo state, Chief Akin Omoboriowo wrote: ‘I wish to congratulate you and your committee for working most selflessly, consistently and sincerely for the creation of Ekiti state in our life time…’

    This writer did not allow the occasion pass without his miniscule appreciation for a job well done. On the 15th October, 1996, I wrote to Chief Fasuan as follows: I wish to put on record my sincere appreciation for your worthy contribution, in brains and sheer physical exertion, to seeing to a successful end, the long, arduous and sustained struggle for the creation of Ekiti state.

    You have brought to bear on your Chairmanship of the steering committee, your now historical loyalty and devotion to cause, and your exemplary leadership qualities. While you cannot go to sleep yet, I feel positive that you can indeed, legitimately, count your blessings and thank God. Sir, now more than ever before, you will need to devote your time to nurturing, to a meaningful end i.e. the even-handed and overall development of the new state given the fact that successive governments made us a developmental backwater. I sincerely hope you will join hands with political likeminds to emerge in that pioneering team that will translate our yearnings and aspirations to fruition. In this you can count on my support and co-operation. Thank you and God bless.

    Finally, I shall quote from the very long letter, call it an Epistle from my Lord Bishop, The Rt. Revd. Peter Awelewa Adebiyi, the Lord Bishop of the Diocese of Lagos West who was then of Owo Diocese, as he sought to get Ekiti leaders to seek the face of God in matters appertaining to the state.

    In short, he admonished them to hand over the state to God Almighty. Amongst other things, the Bishop wrote:

    “I am sure the Lord is happy about what you have done. I personally congratulate you for your good leadership and tenacity when many people were thinking that the creation would not be possible. I am sure that the creation is a credit to you in particular and the committee in general but it is a blessing.  …finally, I hope you will organise an interdenominational thanksgiving service to place the new state in the hands of God, the builder of nations. If I know the time before hand, it may be possible for me and a host of us in the sacred ministry to be there.’

    I doubt they ever did, given the rolling crisis that has engulfed the state, a state that should ordinarily be a beacon to others but for which total strangers continue to enthrone their cronies as rulers. I rest my casel

    Where, I ask finally, is this outright interloper coming from?

  • Re- inventing Nigeria

    Re- inventing Nigeria

    Jeremiah 29:7 says, “Seek the prosperity of the city to which I have exiled you, and pray for it, because your prosperity depends on the prosperity of the city”

    The above passage encourages God’s people to seek the common good of their  communities,(countriies) even in exile, and to be agents of peace and prosperity very much unlike what you see the El Rufai’s, the Atiku’s and the Obi’s do daily, either crying revolution, revolution or  importing Fulani terrorists into Nigeria when they are not spreading other negativities that  easily feed into AI negative data repository on Nigeria.

    One person who has allowed that biblical injunction to guide his thoughts, and actions towards our country, even though we are not in exile in Nigeria,  is Pastor Poju Oyemade, using the instruumentality of his ‘The Platform Nigeria’, to continually interrogate critical issues affecting the country at well publicised global media events.

    Not in any way suprising, therefore, the latest of these, held 1 October, 2025 had as its theme “Rebuilding Our Nigeria”, which subject

    speakers were brought in from as far afield as Kosovo (from where the First Female President, Atifete Jahjaga, was tapped) to join a group of Nigerian Public Intellectuals to interrogate.

    It is time more Nigerians emulate the Visionary Pastor as he has himself urged.

    Introducing the event, Pastor Oyemade wrote:”Our journey so far represents a reflection on the past in order to fashion out the right policies for the future. Every Nigerian, knows that the country is in a strategic place where the opportunity to take the country into the League of Nations with a strong upward trajectory, is largely based on us— the citizenry”.

    As an aside, let me quickly say that I have always been fascinated by The Platform, Nigeria as I recall briefly discussing, on these pages, Prof Charles Soludo’s appearance as guest speaker a while ago.

    This year’s theme particularly fascinates me as it is a subject I have not only thought deeply about, but have actually taken time to write about.

    In the article:”That Nigeria May Survive These Precarious Times”, published Sunday, 13 September, 2020 and now reproduced on pages 228 -231 of my book:’Simply a Citizen Journalist'(Amazon link:https://a.co/d/dXnfY77).

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    I wrote as  follows in a piece which I will sincerely urge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to take a hard,  and sympathetic  look at, since the economy, under his able guidance has since turned the corner, as he did not fail to inform Nigerians during his Independence day speech; a fact with which the Bretton Wood institutions as well as some other international financial agencies agree.

    Happy reading.

    Anyone who does not yet admit that the unworkable unitary constitutional arrangement of Nigeria is the tap from which all the miseries being lamented flow, and that the solution lies in turning off the tap instead of mopping more vigorously, is either irredeemably dishonest or hopelessly ignorant. Nigeria’s problem is structural and not the Leadership problem being bandied around. The former is directly responsible for the latter and the solution to Nigeria lies in the fundamental reconfiguration of it’s damaged constitutional basis,  not in changing its leadership bandwagon.

    It is a monumental disaster that those who should know these are still discussing political party reconfiguration (ie Restructuring of Political Parties) instead of Union Reconfiguration (Restructuring of the Country)” – Tony Nnadi.

    As you read this not a few Nigerians are now convinced that restructuring Nigeria is, in fact,  too little, too late, but not this columnist who many have accused of being an incurable optimist for believing not only that the country can still be salvaged, but that it can, indeed, still rise to glorious heights as well as take its place among the comity of civilised Nations.

    I admit though, that time is of the essence for an ailment left untreated can be fatal.

    As a historian, I am neither forgetful, nor unmindful of what this country was in its days of competitive federalism; the pre ’66 days before the military mangled its essence, and a period that witnessed growth and development in every sphere of the economy, and in all parts of the country.

    Agriculture – not this oil boom turned doom, was the country’s mainstay. In education, not only did Chief Obafemi Awolowo  give the West free education, each region established a University which has since been taken over by a predatory federal government. Industrialisation went apace with textile industries copiously established in the North, and saw the very beginning of industrialisation in the East which has since emerged about the most industrialised part today, not forgetting Awo incredibly turning Ikeja and Apapa into a giant industrial complex. Among those myriad of  industries is the roofing number one company in Nigeria today , Nigerite Ltd, a Belgian – Odua Ltd jointly owned company yours truly was privileged to have headed its Board of Directors.

    In healthcare delivery, the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, ranked amongst the best hospitals in the entire Commonwealth. Fiscal freedom  facilitated all these, and more, to the extent that regions had their own envoys in overseas countries.

    All these now read like ancient history  but with restructuring, and a return to the pre ’66 era – though  with some minor adjustments here and there – Nigeria cannot only be salvaged but could very well rise gloriously to become a great country; not the perennially feuding one we now have with a slew of  truly murderous groups now ferrociously battling the federal government for control of large swathes of territory.

    It is in remembrance of  those days that I made it  celebration galore on these pages last Sunday as I wrote on  how, patriotically, the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) spoke on behalf of corporate Nigeria. , cogently presenting to the government of President Mohammadu Buhari what things it must now do  to reverse the country’s  galloping drift  to Golgotha.

    Although my enthusiasm was, unfortunately not shared by many, I remain persuaded, that restructuring is the way to go to keep Nigeria not only united but solid.

    Not a few, especially in the South, believe that NEF was merely out on a decoy,  just trying to lull the rest of us into a non- existent revelry. They asked, for instance, how many times I heard former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, by far the most enthusiastic  Northern supporter of restructuring, mention restructuring in the region during the last presidential campaigns.

    They believe that the North unduly enjoys, by far, too many  unfair  advantages to care, and that indeed, popular as President Buhari is in the North, his party would suffer massively there, if he toys with the idea.

    I, however,  believe that a man who could defend  his country on the battlefield, thus demonstrating his preparedness to pay the utmost price in its service, should not be put off by such puny ethnic considerations from doing that which will stabilise his country to an era of  peace and development.

    I do not believe that the President needs any further lessons in patriotism.

    For ease of reference, l reproduce , in bold relief, some of NEF’s prescriptions for sustainable peace and progress  in Nigeria.

    It opined as follows: “Nigeria’s future  rests largely on its willingness to address major constraints to Equity and Justice (or where is equity when most consequential appointments go to only one section of the country, incidentally their own), have a functional structure, (not one being bigger than the rest, put together), with consistent good governance, security for all citizens – (not when fissiparous tendencies are now  truly alarming), with a credible electoral process(the least said the better since the return of democratic governance in ’99), enjoys a growing understanding between, and among all groups (unlike herders and farmers) and an economy that grows, and narrows inequalities between classes and regions”.  Were this the situation, 82 million Nigerians will not be living below poverty line).

    “The Forum then recommends the alternative of leaders of thought, elders, groups and professional organisations and representatives of government, to freely discuss every element of our co-existence as a country under principles of voluntarism, genuine representation – preferably by election – mutual respect and integrity of the process”.

    Specifically, it said: “A Nigerian Peoples’ Conference on Review of the Constitution will benefit from past work in this direction in addition to contemporary challenges, which the country needs to address in a context that allows free and productive engagements without pre-determined ends.”

    “The outcome of this conference, it concluded, should be submitted to the two arms of government, which should provide for a referendum in the constitution so that Nigerians can directly decide on how they want their nation to be structured and function”.

    In making a case for restructuring to the Buhari government, even though the APC  disdained the Jonathan 2014 National Conference, I am not asking President Buhari to re- invent the wheel. Should he not wish to proceed along the lines  suggested, or being  canvassed by the Northern Elders Forum, itself  an essemble of reputable Northerners who do not love the North less than he does – (since many believe that his attitude to restructuring derives from his fear of the  North losing some advantages it currently enjoys) – or just in case he does not agree with certain portions of the suggestions, then he should, at the very least, be able to  order that the report of his party’s El Rufai Committee on Devolution of  Power, be exhumed from whatever cooler it  has since been consigned.

    The committee, while submitting its report to the  APC National Chairman , Chief John Odigie – Oyegun, in January 2018, told Nigerians that  it was making several  recommendations, based on the opinions of Nigerians.

    Some of these are: resource control, making local government an affair of states, constitutional amendment to allow merger of states, state police, state court of appeal and independent candidacy, amongst others.

    These recommendations were so well received, nationally, that not only was then Bayelsa state governor Seriake

    Dickson, though of the opposition PDP, euphoric about it, stalwarts of various  Niger – Delta movements equally commended it.

    It was therefore a rather bewildering  surprise that  despite these  positive vibes, and the fact that the party’s National Executive Committee allegedly approved it, the party still decided to remit it to a sub committee where it has been gathering dust, all in deference to the President’s body language, if not say so.

    Nigeria does not deserve to splinter because the Northwest looks like dead set on continuing with the axyphisiating status quo. Apart from the wholesale advantages to the citizenry, a United Nigeria has too much to offer the world, especially Blacks all over the world, who see it as Motherland (Ghana has already extended an official invitation to Black Americans to come and settle there) for a few people, or one man, not to allow Nigeria to blossom and attain her destiny.

    The story has become cruelly unendifying, talking about how Nigeria was at par with most   South East Asian countries at a point in time, some of which have now graduated to the First world while Nigeria continues to wallow at the very nadir of the Third, and shamefully dubbed the Poverty Capital (PC) of the world. This becomes more nauseating given its  natural endowments and stupendous  human resources.

    As the BBC recently reported on January 25, 2020 there are about 4000 Nigerian doctors practicing in the USA, with another  5000 currently registered in the UK .The remaining are reportedly spread across Canada and Australia.

    As the Northern Elders Forum  has shown, no section of this country, or least of it, an individual, has the right to unnecessarily hold her down . Not only has the presidency prevaricated, the National Assembly, though taking a large chunk of the country’s resources, has once surprisingly voted against Power Devolution.

    President Buhari must now, once again, demonstrate his love for the country  by  setting in motion the process of convoking a national committee, preferably  along the lines suggested by NEF, to further add value to the recommendations of the APC  Power Devolution Committee”.

    These musings are, as relevant today, as when first written in 2020.

  • Nigeria at 65: Nation on the brink of uncertainty

    Nigeria at 65: Nation on the brink of uncertainty

    Afew Sundays ago, I got published on these pages, an article I titled: ‘The Coming Storm’.

    That was on the 17th August, 2025.

    Still shackled by the same fears for our country, especially given the toxic rhetoric of both former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar and his soul mate, the former Abambra state governor, Peter Obi, I am today examining how very close they daily draw Nigeria to the brink of uncertainty ahead the make or mar 2027 Presidential election.

    I believe the duo think it pays their adversarial politics to heat up the polity by being unnecessarily critical of everything the government, or somebody near government does.

    Worse, they even attempt to interpret anything that happens, elsewhere, be it in Jupiter or Mars, as having implications for the Tinubu government.

    Let’s take two examples.

    Atiku hears about an uprising in Nepal, and whether or not he can locate that tiny country of the map of Asia, prompto, he jumped out,  triumphantly, warning of “possible unrest or at best a revolution in Nigeria due to what he called hunger and starvation ravaging the country”.

    Atiku has easily forgotten how he masterminded the sale, in sweetheart deals, of about N100B national assets for less than N10B, working with (his hand-picked) El Rufai during his Vice- Presidency. Then there was no thought of a revolution even as thousands were made to kiss their jobs, and livelihood, bye.

    Then as if Atiku must not have one on him ahead their coming contestation for the ADC presidential candidacy, the political wanderer, Peter Obi also jumped, needlessly, into First Lady Remi Tinubu’s birthday Appeal for financial support for the completion of the National Library.

    Hear Peter in a critique he titled “We (they) are finished”,  criticising the request that birthday well-wishers donate towards completing the National Library in Abuja, as an indictment of Nigeria’s leadership priorities.

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    Writing on his X account he claimed that while the First Lady’s appeal was “noble and selfless on the surface,” it exposed the failure of government to fulfill its responsibilities”.

    Didn’t they say this man read Philosophy at the University or is Logic not a component of that subject at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka?

    Or please tell me: where is the Logic:rather than her well- wishers pouring billions on adverts, a thinking soul wants such funds put on a national asset, but a ‘brewery industrialist’ thinks otherwise, believing he knows better.

    For all⁹ Nigerians, these two incidents should be enough to seal the fate of ADC, come 2027.

    Let’s now get to brass tasks.

    As Nigeria celebrates its 65th anniversary, the country’s political landscape is bracing up for another crucial test in 2027.

    With the current toxic and divisive nature of the political opposition, concerns are rising about the potential consequences of their actions if they lose the upcoming presidential election, as they sure will. Will they torch the country, or find a way to navigate their defeat with civility?

    What’s the current state of our politics?

    Nigeria’s democracy has been marred by electoral violence, corruption, and insecurity. The 2023 general elections were characterised by reports of intimidation, vote buying, and sporadic violence. As the 2027 elections approach, tensions are escalating, with opposition leaders accusing the ruling party, albeit without any concrete facts,  of plotting to rig the elections. They even accuse President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of attempting to foist a one party state on the country, all because their parties are haemorrhaging as many of their top ranking members rush to join the ruling party.

    Any, or all of these could have serious consequences for the country.

    These include the following;

    Electoral Violence,  as protests and clashes between rival supporters could escalate into full-blown violence, undermining the country’s fragile democracy.

    Insecurity: The already precarious security situation could deteriorate further, with armed groups and bandits taking advantage of the chaos.

    Economic Instability: Investor confidence could be shaken, leading to economic instability and exacerbating the country’s existing economic challenges.

    These will worsen, without a doubt, the following factors presently  contributing to our current crisis:

    Economic Hardship: Nigerias economy is presently struggling with hìgh inflation, unemployment, and poverty.

    Polarisation: The country’s politics has become increasingly polarised, with politicians exploiting ethnic and religious divisions to mobilise support.

    Also,  our institutions,  the judiciary and electoral commission, inclusive, are facing challenges in maintaining their independence and effectiveness.

    To mitigate the likely risks to the 2027 elections, several steps should be taken.

    These include: deliberately

    strengthening the judiciary and the electoral commission just as our security agencies must be equipped to ensure their effectiveness.

    We must also promote  civic education whereby citizens will be educated about their rights and responsibilities, as well as the importance of peaceful coexistence.

    Here one must give kudos to the National Orientation Commission with its many ongoing advertorials.

    Our political leaders and stakeholders must learn to engage in dialogue to find common ground as well as promote peaceful coexistence.

    Concluding, our 65th anniversary presents an opportunity for reflection on the country’s progress and challenges. As the country approaches the 2027 elections, it is crucial for stakeholders to prioritise peaceful coexistence, strengthen institutions, and promote civic education.

    The fate of Nigeria’s democracy hangs in the balance, and it is up to all of us, the citizenry,  and leaders alike, to ensure that the country emerges stronger and more united. By working together, Nigerians can build a brighter future and avoid the pitfalls of violence and instability.