The Nation Newspaper

Category: Nuances

  • Rivers State politics: What you see is not what you get

    Rivers State politics: What you see is not what you get

    The former Governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, his erstwhile political mentee and current Governor of the state, Siminalayi Fubara, and the Rivers State House of Assembly (RSHA) led by the Speaker, Rt. Hon.  Martins Amaewhule, have been engaged in a fierce horse-back battle over the control of Rivers State politics. In every normal war, the combatants end up at the negotiation table.

    Negotiating an end to the Rivers State crisis was facilitated by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu more than once. The first time he attempted it on 18 December, 2023, his promising efforts were trashed, and each of the combatants had a bloody nose to show for the intransigence. On 11 May, 2025, during his suspension from office as governor, Fubara said, at a programme of tributes to the late Chief E.K. Clarke: “[To] make statements against the minister and the president … is not what I need now. … [Do] you think I am even interested in going back [to office as governor]? … Don’t you see how [much] better I look? … If I have my way, I say it here, this is an altar of God, I don’t wish going back there.  My spirit has left that place long ago.”

    Probably noticing what seemed to be battle fatigue, the President made another effort at brokering peace on 26 June, 2025, and this appeared to have been successful. Minister Nyesom Wike was reported to have remarked at the reconciliatory meeting: “I want to give God the glory that today is the 26th of June 2025, that peace has finally returned to the state. … We all agreed to work together with the governor, and the governor also agreed to work together with all of us.” He was further reported to have said: “Just like humans, you have disagreements, and then you also have a time to settle your disagreements – and that has been finally concluded today. We have come to report to Mr. President that this is what we have agreed. So, for me, everything is over, and I enjoin everybody to work together. There is no more acrimony.”

    READ ALSO: PDP: Wike gets upper hand again

    Governor Fubara was also reported to have said: “For me, it’s very important that this day has come to be. What we need for the progress of Rivers State is peace, and by the special grace of God this night, with the help of Mr. President and the agreement of the leaders of the state, peace has returned.” It was gratifying to see the FCT minister in a warm handshake with suspended Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, at the Presidential Villa. It was also pleasing to see Fubara with the same show of camaraderie with suspended RSHA Speaker, Martins Amaewhule. Seeing the trio, along with other lawmakers and stakeholders, in a crescent-shaped photo with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was equally joyful to behold. Another cause for optimism was that, on 28 June, 2025, both Fubara and Amaewhule attended the burial of Wike’s uncle in Port Harcourt.

    Considering the seeming renewed amity, on 17 September, 2025, the 6-month State of Emergency imposed on Rivers State on 18 March, 2025 to safeguard peace and security in the state was lifted, and the nation was justifiably relieved. But the amity did not endure.  Grumblings started soon after, and impeachment proceedings against Governor Fubara and his deputy were initiated in the House of Assembly. Then some lawmakers made a public appeal to their colleagues not to proceed with the impeachment process, but rather explore political solutions to the crisis. Again, soon after, those four legislators reversed their appeal and restated their commitment to the impeachment, alleging that the governor was uncooperative.

    The crisis was compounded by a 16 January, 2026 court order, sought by Governor Siminalayi Fubara and his Deputy Prof. Ngozi Nma-Odu, restraining the Chief Judge of Rivers State from constituting the panel of seven constitutionally required to consider the grounds of impeachment and equally restraining the RSHA from continuing with the impeachment process. Some saw this as meaning that the impeachment process had reached a dead end, and mocked the legislators for embarking on a failed political mission. Others also derided Wike who was believed to be the one pushing the legislative endeavour.

    Before then, sixteen members of the House of Assembly had defected to APC, and Governor Fubara also defected to the party thereafter. With the governor’s defection, he was declared the new leader of APC in Rivers State by the National Chairman of the party, Professor Nentawe Yilwatda. This declaration was reiterated by the National Secretary of APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru, who also underscored the fact that Wike was not a member of APC. In fact, the support for the governor created acrimony between Minister Wike and the National Secretary who went as far as advising Wike to resign from President Tinubu’s cabinet, if he prioritised Rivers State politics.

    This sequence of support for Governor Fubara made Minister Wike’s detractors to make him the butt of jokes and taunts presumably for having been used and dumped by President Tinubu and APC. In typical schadenfreude fashion, they rejoiced at what they saw as Wike’s political misfortune. In fact, some had already started to sing Wike’s Nunc dimittis – a song indicating the “conclusion of labor” and symbolising “the end of a long, challenging task or season of service, akin to a ‘farewell’ or a well-earned rest.” Some counselled mockingly that, since in their opinion he had become a political spent force already being given signs that APC no longer had much use for him, Wike should relocate outside Nigeria to enjoy his acquired wealth. Even otherwise respectable public analysts painted a gloomy picture of Wike’s political fate.

    Then on 26 January, 2026, the APC primaries for the 21 February, 2026 bye-elections for the Ahoada East II and Khana II Rivers State House of Assembly seats held. The former was won by Mrs. Bulabari Henrietta Loolo, and the latter by Napoleon Ukalikpe, and both were Wike’s supporters. This has befuddled many who had been pontificating magisterially about Wike’s presumed declining political clout or impending political doom and Fubara’s unchallengeable ascendancy in the state’s branch of APC.

    Again, Wike was in Port Harcourt on 30 January, 2026 for the launching of Rivers State Senatorial Districts and Local Government Areas coordinators of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors for the support of President Tinubu in the 2027 elections. At the event which was not attended by Governor Fubara, Wike addressed a massive crowd and alleged that the state government had denied the group access to the Yakubu Gowon Stadium which was the originally-intended venue for the programme. This allegation has since been denied by the Fubara administration. Wike also said: “I thank Mr. President for supporting the Joint Coalition to produce the candidates for February 21 state constituency elections. Mr. President has given the Joint Coalition [the challenge] to make sure [that] in Khana Constituency II, we support Mrs. Loolo; in Ahoada State Constituency II, we support Napoleon Ukalikpe.”

    Moreover, a Grand Civic Reception was organised on 31 January, 2026 in Ogu, in honour of Minister Wike by the Wakirike Ethnic Nationality of Rivers State. The Chairman of the Central Planning Committee, who is also the Chairman of the Rivers Ijaw People’s Congress, Senator George Sekibo, told Wike in his welcome address: “Your Excellency, our gratitude knows no bounds. Words alone are insufficient to convey our appreciation for giving us opportunities and benefits that by ordinary human effort we might not have attained. … The Wakirike people will forever remain grateful to you, your family and your kindred.”

    The Chairman of the occasion, High Chief (Dr.) Wilcox Idaminabo, also told Wike: “The Wakirike people said I should tell you that … wherever you lead, we shall follow. …Whatever you tell us to do, we shall do.” The Chief Host, Hon. Boma Iyaye, told the FCT minster, “You’re my political creator”; and Hon. Linda Stewart, on behalf of other Wakirike members of the state legislature told Wike: “You’re the wind behind our sails.” Furthermore, Hon. Akuro Tobin, the Executive Chairman of Okrika Local Government Area, called Wike “The leader of Rivers State Politics.” In response, Wike assured his hosts: “Go home and sleep very well, with your two eyes closed. We are in-charge.”

    In a 28 January, 2026 interview, Channels Television’s Bukola Coker claimed, regarding Wike: “It’s a healthy consensus that many do not like his politics in Rivers State.” Wike’s Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication and New Media, Lere Olayinka, objected, and asked Coker who the conductor of the poll was to justify the use of the word “many”.

    Bukola Coker also asked Lere Olayinka whether the minister had got the message that APC was getting fed up with his interference in Rivers State politics, considering the public statements by some APC functionaries, the latest of which was from Daniel Bwala, President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy Communication, who said that the president had adequately compensated Wike for his support of the president. Similarly, Geoffrey Uzono, another Channels Television interviewer, asked whether Wike got the “proxy signalling [or indirect message] of the Presidency” to Nyesom Wike “to taper or back off” Rivers State APC politics.

    To this question, Lere Olayinka responded: “A lot of things that people come on television to say is different from what happens behind the scene.” The National Secretary of APC also said, in a 29 January, 2026 interview with Nifemi Oguntoye of TVC News: “It is not through press statements that you … articulate real politics. Real politics are done behind closed doors.”

    On Wike, Senator Ajibola Basiru noted: “He is an avowed supporter of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu even though not a member of [our] political party. … So, as somebody who is interested in the success of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Rivers State is critical to that success, … definitely he [Wike] would be engaged and he’s being engaged on the amicable resolution of the issue in Rivers State as expected.” This has blindsided political analysts who had been citing the National Secretary’s express support for Governor Fubara and Senator Basiru’s open disagreement with Wike as unmistakable indications of Wike’s irreversibly declining influence in APC and Rivers State politics.   

    Notably, Wike was one of the few senior officials who were at the airport to bid President Tinubu farewell when he was leaving for Turkey on 26 January, 2026, and he was there again, among four or so senior civilian officers who welcomed the president back to Nigeria on 31 January, 2026.

    It could therefore be concluded that, to a large extent, in Rivers State politics, what you see is not what you get.

  • APC and the Yilwatda doctrine

    APC and the Yilwatda doctrine

    Professor Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda was elected National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on 24 July, 2025.  Prior to this appointment, he was a Professor of Electrical and Electronic Engineering at the Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, in Benue State, a Resident Electoral Commissioner for the same state, an APC governorship candidate for Plateau State, the Coordinator of the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council for Plateau State, and a Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development.

    In his acceptance speech as National Chairman, he said to the National Executive Committee of the party: “I pledge, without hesitation, that I will work with everybody in the party, I will unite the party, I will build the party, I will expand the party with you as the focus and the building block and the support that I will require to drive the party as needed by all of us so that we can fulfil the dream of Nigerians who have reposed their hope in the Renewed Hope Agenda.” This may be perceived as the general outline of his political article of faith or what may be called ‘The Yilwatda Doctrine’. In a number of speeches, Professor Yilwatda has defined aspects of this doctrine.

    The first aspect deals with leadership within the party in different states. In this regard, he declared on 2 January, 2026: “In all the states, … the state governors … lead the party.” In the specific case of Rivers State, he said that Governor Siminalayi Fubara, who joined APC on 9 December, 2025, is the leader of the APC, but that, in running the party, he would need to carry along other key stakeholders.

    Vice President Kasim Shettima had made a related point, at Governor Peter Mbah’s defection rally in Enugu on 14 October, 2025, when he said: “As per the APC convention and constitution, the governor is the leader of the party in the state. Your Excellency, you are now the leader of the APC family in Enugu State. I am the Vice-President, but the leader of the APC in Borno is Professor Babagana Umara Zulum. The President of the Senate is the Number 3 citizen, but the leader of the party in Akwa Ibom State is Governor Umo Eno. The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the Number 4 citizen, but the leader of the party in Kaduna State is Senator Uba Sani, the Governor of Kaduna State. We are one family tied to a common destiny.”

    READ ALSO: Gov Abba Yusuf’s convoluted defection

    As Simon Sinek put it in a 13 April, 2010 article on the logistics of leadership, “There are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or influence. Those who lead inspire us. We follow those who lead not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead not for them, but for ourselves.” Elucidating this point, Hidayat Rizvi said on 5 September, 2024, on her website: “Leaders typically hold formal positions of authority, recognized by titles and accompanied by the power to make strategic decisions. Those Who Lead, on the other hand, influence without formal authority, often inspiring teams and shaping outcomes through emotional intelligence and adaptability.”

    In Rivers State, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, is among ‘Those Who Lead’ both within his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and across parties, and he may be regarded as a special kind of “non-APC-member”. He has ceaselessly declared his commitment to the success of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the president’s second term election in 2027; he helped APC to win 20 out of 23 seats in the 30 August, 2025 Local Government elections in Rivers State; all the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who defected to APC on 5 December, 2025 are his loyalists; and he rallied both APC and PDP chairmen to attend his “Thank you tour” which held from December 2025 to January 2026. All of these indicate that Minister Wike has the capacity to impact both the APC governorship primary and the general elections in the state in 2027.

      The Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, who is himself a member of APC, added his perspective on the question of leadership, on 10 January, 2026, when he said to a group of elders: “I’m a governor, but I still have leaders. There is no local government [in which] I don’t have leaders. I have leaders. You cannot say because you are a governor, … you are all in all. Nooo! You must be loyal to your people, because we are just serving them.” In other words, there are leaders and there are ‘leaders’.

    Moreover, when, at the venue of the 2 October, 2018 governorship primary election of the APC in Lagos State, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was asked why he was not supporting Governor Akinwumi Ambode for a second term, he said: “I brought Ambode to the people. He was a civil servant under me. He performed very well as a civil servant. And when he showed interest in politics after, … we gave him the opportunity. I introduced him to the party. The party accepted him. He became the governor. Now, if the party … says they want either a change or they want to reaffirm his governorship through open exercise [direct primaries], if they elect him today, so be it. You know, you remain relevant as a leader if you submit yourself once in a while to what your people want.”

    Asiwaju further noted: “If the party who made me the leader of the structure in Lagos says what they want, it’s only if you have followership that you are a leader in democracy. If I look back [and] I don’t find them again, if I don’t respond to them, if I fail to accede to their request, I would have failed the leadership test. … If this house that accommodates all of us is saying we’re facing one way … we’re supporting a change …, I have to abide by that. I have no choice.” In other words, ‘Those Who Lead’ can horse and unhorse ‘Leaders’.

    The second aspect of the Yilwatda Doctrine deals with automatic tickets. On 2 January, 2026, Professor Yilwatda declared: “I’m not the person to choose people in the primary election. Everybody undergoes primary election.” This means there would be no automatic tickets for new members of the party. So, all candidates must take part in the party’s primaries. In the specific case of Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, the National Chairman said: “If Siminalayi emerges as the candidate of APC in Rivers State, I’ll stand by him. But if any other person emerges as candidate of APC in Rivers State, I’ll go with [that other person]. I go with candidates, not individuals. … So, when Sim picks a form, he’ll be an aspirant. If he emerges as a candidate, I’ll support him. If he loses, I’ll sympathise with him and go with the person that wins the primary election.”

                  This seems to be a dampener on the presumption that since Governor Fubara has defected to APC and FCT Minister Wike remains a non-member of the party, the minister’s capacity to stop Governor Fubara from securing a second term ticket has been undermined or eliminated outright, especially given the spat between Minister Wike and the National Secretary of APC, Senator Ajibola Basiru, arising from the senator’s support for Governor Fubara. In fact, just a few days ago, Professor Yilwatda’s declaration that there would be no automatic tickets was reiterated by the APC Director of Publicity, Bala Ibrahim, and an unnamed National Working Committee member, as reported in the 19 January, 2026 issue of The Punch. This means that, within the Yilwatda Doctrine, the people’s will will be supreme in candidate selection, supposedly through direct primaries, especially with the ongoing e-membership registration in the party.

    Meanwhile, the presumption of Minister Wike’s declining influence seems to have contributed to Governor Fubara’s rather unrestrained throwing of the darts of creative insults at his erstwhile benefactor. For example, through innuendos, Governor Fubara has recently called Minister Wike a rat and an ignorant barking dog. The governor had also earlier, on 11 July 2024, spoken of people who “come to the media and dance, [but] when they go behind, they cry.” This innuendo is related to Minister Wike’s disclosure in a 2 June, 2025 interview that “sometimes when I go back in my quiet moment, I play the video of speeches of the governor (Fubara), what he said, what he did to me, I weep.”

    In contrast to Governor Fubara’s applause-generating insults, Minister Wike has kept his message simple, consistent and resonant. The frequently-repeated message is that, for the 2023 governorship election in Rivers State, a mistake was made by supporting an ingrate who doesn’t keep to agreements; and that because “Agreement is agreement” and should be inviolable, Rivers State voters must not make that kind of mistake again; and so, Fubara must not get a second term as governor.

    The third article of the Yilwatda Doctrine is captured in the following declaration which he made on 21 January, 2026: “In 2027, as a party chairman, I will stand strong to defend the position that if you are not prepared to join us, you shouldn’t be given appointment. … If you know you are a technocrat, go and be a consultant, [rather than] taking political appointment and not going back to support the party that brought you to power. If all of us, …if all appointees, decide to become technocrats, the party will never return to power.” This disavowal repudiates the Pidgin English principle, “Monkey dey work, baboon dey chop.”

    In other words, the National Chairman believes that it is unethical to be benefiting from APC through political appointments without joining or working for the party to become stronger or win re-election. Indeed, one state legislature had in the past withheld approval for some nominees for appointment on the ground that those nominees had not used their prior political appointments positively for the party.

    The Yilwatda Doctrine rests on the following tripod: one, the governor is the leader of APC in each state that has an APC governor, but the governor must reckon with other stakeholders in the state; two, all aspirants would face party primaries, as there would be no automatic candidates for the 2027 elections; and three, in the spirit of giving back to APC, beneficiaries of political appointments cannot hide behind being technocrats to evade the moral responsibility to fully identify with and work for the progress of the party. Being critical principles of Nigerian democracy, it would be interesting to see how these principles would be sustainably applicable.

  • Transforming Nigeria’s economy: Policies, progress and continuity

    Transforming Nigeria’s economy: Policies, progress and continuity

    Today’s article is an adaptation of the keynote speech this columnist delivered at the Southwest Integrity Summit 2025 held in Osogbo, on 17 November. The summit was convened by the National Chairman of the Integrity Group of Nigeria (The Renewed Hope Ambassadors), Dr. Oke Idawene, and hosted by the Osun State branch of the group headed by the state Chairman, Comrade Salam Mustapha Olamilekan.

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, has demonstrated that, however much a person may have noble and workable economic ideas, they must first acquire the requisite political power in order to be able to put into practice those great ideas. So, he made huge intellectual, psychological, emotional, physical, social and material investments into seeking presidential power. Once he got it through pragmatic patience and strategic sacrifice, the President acquired the ability to institute economic policies he believed could enhance the welfare of Nigerians.

    As is now common knowledge, then-presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu promised to remove fuel subsidy; and he kept that promise right from his inaugural address as president on 29 May, 2023. The President also embarked on the floating of the naira and the unification of the multiple exchange rate regime. These policies led to a fall in the value of the naira and high inflation.

    Notwithstanding, some economists believed that the policies were sound, and would eventually stabilise and generate growth in the economy. However, critics condemned the President for being hasty in the introduction of the policies. This argument was countered by those who thought that delaying the implementation of the policies would have given the fuel subsidy cabal and exchange rate racketeers the opportunity to re-strategise and mobilise against the corrective economic policies to protect their obscene privileges.

    President Tinubu acknowledged the fact that the economic policies had come with some unintended pains. He also assured Nigerians that those pains were like the pangs of childbirth which are normally followed by pleasure after safe delivery. The President therefore used every opportunity he got to plead with the citizens to be patient and to show understanding.

    To ease the pains, the government introduced Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses; CNG vehicle charging centres; the monthly award to federal civil servants of thirty-five thousand naira for six months; the upward review of the minimum wage of federal workers from N30,000 to N70,000; the increase in the salary of judges; the approval and signing into law of the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) to ensure that nobody who desired to acquire tertiary education was prevented from fulfilling the noble dream due to lack of funds; and the introduction of the Tertiary Institution Staff Support Fund (TISSF), a loan scheme under which a beneficiary could get up to ten million naira, subject to the ability to repay.

    READ ALSO; Obi’s defection sets teeth on edge

    Moreover, in line with the proverbial principle that when the issue of food has been sorted out, poverty abates (“Tí oúnje bá kúrò nínú ìsé, ìsé bùse.”), the government put in place a number of policies. These include the temporary removal of tariffs on grains and essential food items; enhancing irrigation facilities and improving water resource management; increasing agricultural mechanisation; enhancing access to credit for farmers through the Bank of Agriculture; establishment of the National Commodity Board; addressing the challenge of insecurity through the establishment of Forest Guards; introduction of dry season farming; and the creation of the Federal Ministry of Livestock Development, among other measures.

    In addition, undergirded by the principle that “Health is wealth,” the government removed tariffs on some imported pharmaceutical products to halt the worrisome rise in the cost of medicines. The government also embarked on the direct importation of essential medicines to ensure their availability and affordability. Furthermore, cancer centres were established in the six geo-political zones to reduce the need for medical tourism and relieve the pressure on the country’s foreign exchange reserves. 

    Meanwhile, power supply had become a huge challenge to the nation’s economic well-being. The unstable supply or very high cost of electricity had aggravated inflation, and made goods produced in Nigeria more costly than the same kind of goods imported from abroad. To address this and related problems, on 8 June 2023, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed the Electricity Bill 2023 into law as Electricity Act, 2023.

    In a June 2023 article titled “Commentaries on the Electricity Act, 2023,” Ayo Salami, Partner & Head, Energy and Natural Resources Group, at KPMG in Nigeria, noted: “Section 63(2)(b) allows persons to operate an undertaking for generation, transmission, distribution, supply, and sale of electricity within a State, pursuant to the law enacted by the House of Assembly of the relevant State …” This means that a state, a group of private investors or individuals can participate in the generation, transmission, distribution, supply and sale of electricity and other renewable forms of energy in this country today.

    In fact, in a 16 October, 2024 Nigerian Tribune report titled “I generate about 15% of Nigeria’s electricity – Davido’s father, Deji Adeleke,” Adam Mosadioluwa stated: “Adedeji Adeleke, the father of award-winning Nigerian artiste, Davido, has revealed that his company, Pacific Energy, generates about 15% of Nigeria’s electricity. … The billionaire businessman highlighted his investments in the nation’s power sector, particularly focusing on his thermal power plant, which is expected to become fully operational by January 2025.”

    So, the next time you find a post on social media claiming cynically that President Tinubu said that if he does not provide stable electricity in Nigeria, the electorate should not vote for him for a second term in office, let the critics know that, in fact, rather than merely providing Nigerians with fish, the President has, as the proverb goes, taught them how to fish. As such, if the stakeholders do not seize the opportunity for electricity sufficiency provided through the liberalisation of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), that would be their fault, because as our elders say, “Alágemo ti bímo rè tán, àìmòójó dowó rè.” (‘The chameleon has already performed its duty of giving birth to and enabling its child; if the child does not know how to dance, that’s the child’s fault.’)

    Moreover, with respect to the “Crude-for-Naira Deal”, a piece in The Nation newspaper of 6 October, 2025 reported the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, as stating: “The sale of crude oil and refined products in Naira has officially begun as directed by the Federal Executive Council. This initiative marks a bold step towards economic sustainability and currency stability.”

    A 10 April, 2025 report in The Nation newspaper also quoted the Federal Ministry of Finance as stating: “The Crude and Refined Product Sales in Naira initiative is not a temporary or time-bound intervention, but a key policy directive designed to support sustainable local refining, bolster energy security, and reduce reliance on foreign exchange in the domestic petroleum market.”

    With respect to blocking revenue leakages in the mining sector, President Tinubu has been reported to have directed that all new mining licences must have local value. That is, licences would be issued only to those who give a commitment to process, locally, minerals they extract in Nigeria, as a means of boosting local employment opportunities, rather than export them in raw form.

    This range of policies and many related ones have cumulatively had a positive impact on the Nigerian economy. This has earned positive ratings by various international institutions, resulting in increased confidence in the Nigerian economy. In an 18 November, 2025 story in The Nation, the Controller-General of Customs, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi, was reported to have said: “In the first half of 2025, Nigeria’s trade with other African countries reached N4.82 trillion – an increase of more than N600 billion compared with the previous year.”

    Moreover, internally, state governments have been receiving increased allocations from the federation account and have been able to pay their employees more easily. Dr. Muda Yusuf, CEO, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE), commenting on the Nigerian economy on 21 November, 2025 in a TVC news interview said: “We’re heading in the right direction.” He noted that there was a stable and even marginal rise in exchange rate, steady decline in inflation, and robust external reserve (which according to the Central Bank, has risen to $46.7 billion as at 14 November, 2025).

    Dr. Yusuf further observed that the impact of these achievements is already visible in the drop in the prices of consumer goods. For example, a 50kg of rice which was around N120,000 last year, has fallen to around N58,000 this week. He also cited the price of a street motorcycle (Okada) which was around N1,200,000 last year, but is around N800,000 now. Checks with sellers of food items and motorcycles confirm a remarkable reduction in prices. The reduction in the prices of medicines has also been confirmed.

    To sustain the positive economic trend the nation is experiencing now, it is important to implement robustly the 11 July, 2024 Supreme Court landmark judgement affirming the autonomy of Nigeria’s 774 Local Government Councils. This would enhance the optimal participation of a significant proportion of Nigerians living at the grassroots level in the economic life of the nation and consolidate the efforts of the federal government. It would also minimise the alienation and disengagement of a large section of the citizens from the government. This alienation has made it attractive for them to exchange their votes for a piece of gala, a can of malt and N500 or N1,000.

    A more intense engagement of the youth in the economic progammes to the government would also be immensely invaluable in ensuring the continuity of the well-directed policies. The youth are energetic, resourceful and exceptionally courageous. They therefore constitute invaluable components of any enterprise. It is for this reason that the former Lagos State Governor and former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Raji Fashola (SAN), asked recently in Lagos, why our youth have not been sufficiently oriented towards participation in the affairs of the society at large, such that there would be students wings of political parties even in our universities. These exist in the Botswana political culture.

    Meanwhile, even some of the traditional critics of President Tinubu and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) are acknowledging the improving economic situation of the country, as the Renewed Hope Agenda is steadily progressing towards full actualisation. It is this happy trend that the factional National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Kabiru Tanimu Turaki (SAN), a former Minister of Special Duties, set out to disrupt when he invited United States President Donald Trump and other leaders to invade Nigeria, to help PDP to resolve its internal crises and ‘save democracy’.

  • Channels Television and the mosque bombing

    Channels Television and the mosque bombing

    In Southwestern Nigeria, which is the heartland of the Yoruba ethnic group, it was commonplace for families to be religiously heterogeneous and harmonious. In the circumstance, the husband could be a practising Muslim and the wife a practising Christian; a mother could be a practising Muslim and the father a practising Christian; and a father could be the adherent of an indigenous religion while the child could be a Christian or Muslim. This heterogeneity created conditions in which various religious festivities were jointly observed.

    This harmonious living was at its peak before the introduction of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) in 1986 by the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida military administration inspired by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a means of restructuring the Nigerian economy to create sustainable economic growth and reduce poverty. Features of SAP included the reduction of government spending on social services (including education), trade liberalisation (which meant commodities could be imported into Nigeria without measures to protect the national economy) and the devaluation of the nation’s currency.

    These measures came with a sharp rise in inflation, reduction in purchasing power and a lot of economic hardship. In other words, SAP created the direct opposite of the advertised benefits of its adoption. To cope, some citizens had to embark on different kinds of activities. Some of these activities led to aggravated corruption. Some others saw an economic headway in establishing commercially-oriented religious centres, complete with business models and business ethics. This developing entrepreneurial religious culture came with rabid competition for members and the employment of strategies which were not particularly morally edifying.

    This led to intra-or-inter-religious conflicts in Southwest Nigeria, and remarkably undermined the religious harmony for which the region was reputed. As the saying goes, “If gold rusts, what shall iron do?” So, inter-religious conflicts, especially between adherents of Christianity and Islam, festered in the other less religiously harmonious regions of Nigeria, and it is widely acknowledged that the media played critical roles in such conflict or potential conflict situations.

    READ ALSO: No place for terrorists, kidnappers in Kwara, says Abdulrazaq as forest guards end training

    In the April 2006 pamphlet by Andrew Puddephatt titled Voices of war: Conflict and the role of the media – commissioned, edited and published by International Media Support – the phenomenon is described as follows: “Mass media often play a key role in today’s conflict. Basically, their role can take two different and opposed forms. Either the media take an active part in the conflict and have responsibility for increased violence, or stay independent and out of the conflict, thereby contributing to the resolution of conflict and alleviation of violence. Which role the media take in a given conflict, and in the phases before and after, depends on a complex set of factors, including the relationship the media have to actors in the conflict and the independence the media have to the power holders in society.”

    These views are relevant for Channels Television which is a privately-owned Nigerian media outfit with a Christian proprietor who is not known to be particularly close to the current leadership of the country. The views are also relevant for conflicts in, especially, Northern Nigeria, which some see as primarily motivated by contests for land, pure criminality and herders-farmers issues, but which some others see as primarily motivated by the desire to launch genocidal attacks against Christians in Nigeria. With time, probably aided by some sections of the media, the allegation of ‘Christian genocide’ gained resonance with some Christian politicians in the United States, and President Donald Trump declared Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern”. He also threatened to invade Nigeria in a war that would be “fast, vicious, and sweet”, to protect Nigerian Christians.

    The Nigerian government has countered the ‘Christian genocide’ narrative, and US and Nigerian officials have met with the Nigerian officials assuring their US counterparts that there is no genocide against Christians in the country. The meetings have also discussed strategies for combating the agents of insecurity who have been indiscriminate in their choice of targets and victims.

    In the same vein, in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Christmas Day broadcast to the nation on 25 December, 2025, he said: “As your President, I remain committed to doing everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect all people of different faiths from violence. … Throughout the year, I have had the privilege of engaging with prominent leaders from the two major faiths in the country, particularly amid concerns about religious intolerance and insecurity. We will build on these conversations to strengthen collaboration between government and religious institutions, prevent conflict and promote peaceful coexistence.”

    It was in the context of these efforts to promote religious harmony that a mosque in Maiduguri was bombed during Maghrib (early evening) prayers on 24 December, 2025. The BBC’s headline of the report on the attack was “Bomb blast in packed Nigerian mosque kills five”; Al-Jazeerah’s was “Explosion rocks crowded mosque in Nigeria, killing at least five; Deutsche Welle (DW)’s was “Nigeria: Explosion rocks Borno mosque during evening prayers.”; The Cable’s was “Five worshippers killed, 35 injured as suicide bomber attacks mosque in Maiduguri”; The Guardian (Nigeria)’s was “Deadly explosion rips through Maiduguri mosque, at least 7 killed”; and Daily Trust’s was “Many feared killed as suicide bomber attacks Borno mosque.”

    However, Channels Television’s headline of the same event was “BREAKING: Many feared dead as bomb blast rocks Maiduguri on Christmas eve.” In a swift response to this misleading headline, an impassioned commentator on X, Boss kitty kitty @Aashfinn, on 24 December, 2025 wrote: “How are we supposed to be fighting terrorism when we’re also forced to fight stupid, bigoted Nigerian media that thrive on twisting facts to inflame religious tension? Terror has no religion, but manufacturing a Christian genocide narrative is sickening, irresponsible and dangerous.”

    Moreover, in a 25 December, 2025 release, the Executive Chairman of MPAC, Disu Kamor, said in part: “The Muslim Public Affairs Centre (MPAC), Nigeria, strongly condemns the misleading, insensitive, and deeply troubling editorial decision by Channels Television in its reportage of the bombing of a mosque at a market in Maiduguri, Borno State. … Channels Television, in its caption and framing of the story, deliberately omitted any reference to the mosque and the Muslim identity of the victims, while introducing an entirely unrelated and inflammatory reference to ‘Christmas Eve.’ … Evidence shows that the report was initially published without any reference to Christmas, only for the phrase to be inserted later – clearly to drive engagement, provoke emotion, and potentially inflame religious tensions in an already fragile national context.”

    MPAC further stated: “This action raises serious concerns about intentional manipulation, institutional bias, and the weaponization of language in media reporting. MPAC notes with deep concern that this is not an isolated incident. Channels Television has, on multiple occasions, demonstrated intense hostility against Islam and a tendency to downplay, distort, or obscure stories involving Muslim victims, often erasing their religious identity while amplifying narratives that invite suspicion, fear, or hostility toward Islam and Muslims. When Muslim lives are lost, their identities are muted. When Muslim spaces are attacked, the spaces are unnamed. When Muslim pain is reported, politics is inserted. This is unacceptable in a plural, multi-religious society such as Nigeria.”

    As a Christian-oriented media outfit, Channels Television threw itself into the religious fray through blatant media bias, which according to Mediatheory.net, in a 2024 account, “refers to the systematic favouritism or prejudice present in the dissemination of information by news outlets. It can manifest in various forms, affecting the way news stories are framed, sources are selected, and also how language is employed.” In other words, as Provalisresearch.com rightly noted in 2025, “Media framing often manifests itself by the choice of some key words, key phrases and images that reinforce a particular representation of the reality and a specific emotion toward it, and the omission of other elements that could suggest a different perspective or trigger a different sentiment.”

    In a 23 May, 2025 article in Dextermanley.com, titled Editorial framing choices: How headlines shape public perception and drive engagement, Jessica Hughes noted: “Framing choices often manifest in headlines, where brevity meets persuasion. Compelling headlines utilize keywords to attract clicks, steering readership toward particular narratives.” Hughes also noted: “News outlets often reflect specific ideological perspectives through their editorial choices. Language selection influences audience perception, as certain terms can evoke particular emotional responses aligned with political views.”

    In a 23 March, 2025 article titled, How headlines shape public opinion and hide bias, Media Moogle noted: “[H]eadlines serve as gatekeepers of information, filtering what we consider worthy of our attention. They tend to highlight conflict, controversy, or novelty – elements that attract clicks and shares. This focus can distort the overall context, emphasizing sensational aspects while downplaying nuance or complexity. The result is a simplified version of reality that fits neatly into a headline, but may mislead or misrepresent the full story.”

    In this regard, the Channels Television’s misleading headline aptly exemplifies ‘confirmation bias’ which the platform, Catalogue of bias, defines as follows: “Confirmation bias occurs when an individual looks for and uses the information [gathered] to support their own ideas or beliefs. It also means that information not supporting their ideas or beliefs is disregarded. Confirmation bias often happens when we want certain ideas to be true. This leads individuals to stop gathering information when the retrieved evidence confirms their own viewpoints, which can lead to preconceived opinions (prejudices) that are not based on reason or factual knowledge. Individuals then pick out the bits of information that confirm their prejudices.”

    In a 26 December, 2025 sobering counsel on the Channels Television’s grand error of judgement, a commentator on TikTok, @mrabdulreacts, asked: “How can we heal our fragile unity when our own media fuels division?” He also noted: “Narratives can be more dangerous than bullets … A bomb may destroy a building in seconds, but misleading headlines can destroy trust for generations.” This note is critical when it is considered that a widely held position in media studies is that most people only read headlines, but also go ahead to share, widely, the often misleading and sensational headlines like the Channels Television’s Maiduguri bombing one.

    As Andrew Puddephatt suggested, as quoted earlier in this piece, an independent medium may decide, perversely though, to work at cross-purposes with the leadership of the society with respect to conflict. As President Tinubu was trying to encourage peace through his, usually pre-announced or pre-released, Christmas Day message, Channels Television appeared to be trying to exacerbate mutual religious suspicion and hostility. Did Channels Television decide to be pulling in the opposite direction as a counterforce to the government’s efforts to guarantee social cohesion in the country?

    Meanwhile, is level of religious bigotry a consideration in the awards Channels Television has been obtaining?

  • Femi Fani-Kayode’s ambassadorial nomination

    Femi Fani-Kayode’s ambassadorial nomination

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s announcement of ambassadorial nominations on 29 November, 2025 have produced a harvest of words. A calm look at the overabundance of comments and criticisms on the nominations yields a very clear understanding of what is meant by the ‘Dunning-Kruger Effect’.

    According to psychologist Kendra Cherry, “the Dunning-Kruger effect is when people overestimate their skills because they don’t know enough to see their own lack of knowledge or ability.” Cherry illustrates the Dunning-Kruger Effect with the following commonplace dinner table situation at a holiday family gathering: “Throughout the meal, a member of your extended family spouts off on a topic at length, boldly proclaiming that they are correct and that everyone else’s opinion is stupid, uninformed, and just plain wrong. While it may be evident that this person has no idea what they are talking about, they prattle on, blithely oblivious to their ignorance.”

    Just like this prattling family member and seemingly oblivious of the Yoruba proverbial counsel that many words do not fill a basket, all manner of commentators or critics have spoken extensively and passionately about the ambassadorial nominations. One of the non-career names on the list who has received particularly negative attention is Chief Femi Fani-Kayode who is an articulate lawyer, a former spokesperson to former President Olusegun Obasanjo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and is also a former Minister of Aviation in the same administration.

    On 20 August, 2020, he called a Daily Trust journalist, Eyo Charles, “stupid” in Calabar, because the reporter asked him who was bankrolling his unofficial assessment tours of several southern state governments in Nigeria. Specifically, as the 26 August, 2020 issue of Daily Times Nigeria reported, Fani-Kayode responded: “What type of stupid question is that? Bankrolling who? Do you know who you are talking to? … What type of insulting question is that? Which bankroll? … Please don’t insult me here. … I could see from your face before you got here, how stupid you are … You have a small mind, very small mind. Don’t judge me by your own standards.”

    Fani-Kayode was further reported to have said to his audience: “I’m sorry, that was deeply insulting. I don’t often get annoyed in press conferences. I’ve been doing this kind of thing for very many, many years. … Bankroll who? … Don’t ever try that with me again o. Don’t, please. …  I have a very short fuse.” The former presidential spokesperson was widely condemned for this outburst.

    In response, in the same 26 August, 2020 issue of Daily Times Nigeria, Fani-Kayode was reported to have apologised as follows: “I met with my advisors till late last night and I wish to say the following. I hereby withdraw the word ‘stupid’ which I used in my encounter with a journalist in Calabar. I have many friends in the media whom I offended by losing my cool and using such words. I hereby express my regrets for doing so.”

    Considering the tendency by some Nigerians to see anything they believe to be wrong as peculiarly Nigerian and incapable of happening in ‘saner climes’, Fani-Kayode must have been in comfortable company, as shown in a 28 November, 2025 PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) News YouTube video titled “WATCH: ‘Are you stupid?’ Trump rebuffs reporter’s question on Afghan resettlement vetting.”

    In the video of a 27 November, 2025 interview, a CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) reporter, Nancy Cordes, tried to deflect Trump’s castigation of the Joe Biden administration’s lack of vetting and checking of immigrants for allowing the entry into the United States of the Afghan man suspected of shooting two members of the United States National Guard on 26 November, 2025, in Washington, DC. Nancy Cordes noted: “Your DOJ IG [Department of Justice Inspector General] just reported this year that there was thorough vetting by DHS [Department of Homeland Security] and by the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] of these Afghans who were brought into the U.S. So, why do you blame the Biden administration?”

    To this attempt to correct him, Trump interrupted her and said angrily: “Because they let them in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person? Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here. And you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.” The difference between the Fani-Kayode and Trump outbursts is that while the former Nigerian minister expressed regret and apologised for calling a journalist ‘stupid’, the American president showed no remorse.

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    Opponents of Fani-Kayode’s nomination as ambassador discountenance his apologies and his claim that “I don’t often get annoyed in press conferences. I’ve been doing this kind of thing for very many, many years.” They also disregard his politeness to the other members of his audience when he said, “I’m sorry, that was deeply insulting.” Moreover, they ignore his statement that he was withdrawing the offensive word to assuage the feelings of his media friends. In fact, his detractors argue unforgivingly that his reaction to the Daily Trust reporter was evidence of the fact that he did not possess the temperament suitable for the efficient performance of the duties of an ambassador.

    Those who are against Fani-Kayode’s nomination as an ambassador also refer to previous statements in which he had castigated Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu with respect to the nomination of Professor Yemi Osinbajo as vice-presidential candidate to then-candidate Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). In one of those statements during the PDP campaigns for the presidential elections, Fani-Kayode was shown on video to have said: “Senator Tinubu … is desperate to be president for his own selfish reasons.”

    However, as the Director, New Media of the Tinubu-Shettima Presidential Council, Femi Fani-Kayode said about candidate Tinubu in a 7 January, 2023 YouTube video of a TVC news interview titled, “Tinubu has distinctive policies for Nigerians”: “He’s the only man that’s truly sincere about moving this country forward. He wants power for the people. He wants electricity to be generated throughout the country. He has distinct policies that he wants to establish.”

    Moreover, Fani-Kayode was accused of inconsistency for refuting the claim of exclusive ‘Christians genocide’ in Nigeria. To this, he said in a 4 October, 2025 article titled, “The fiction of Christian genocide and the conspiracy against Nigeria,” on his website femifanikayode.org: “A number of years ago I was amongst those that erroneously believed that only Christians were being targetted and subjected to genocide by the terrorists in Nigeria. This was the case until 2020 when I went on a tour of the North West and North East and discovered that as many, if not more, Muslims and Muslim communities had been targetted and subjected to mass murder, ethnic cleansing and genocide as the Christian ones in that area.”

    Fani-Kayode continued: “What I witnessed in Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina, Kaduna, Yobe, Borno, Bauchi, Adamawa, Gombe and other parts of the majority Muslim core North shocked and shattered me and constrained me to accept the assertion that this was not an onslaught against Christians and Christian communities alone but rather an attack on Nigerians of every faith. … From the day I came to appreciate all this I took an oath before God and man that I would speak out against the atrocities being perpetuated against not just Christians but also Muslims. I also accepted the fact that to do anything other than that would not only be inherently intellectually dishonest but also would add to the problem and make it worse rather than solve it.”

    Incidentally, his new views about the non-existence of exclusive ‘Christian genocide’ in Nigeria align with those of the Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia who is a Catholic priest, Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese Most Reverend Father Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Chairman of the Borno State Branch of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), and above all, the Federal Government of Nigeria. So, how does this agreement constitute a ground for disqualifying him as an ambassadorial nominee? Indeed, he has also written extensively and powerfully in support of Nigeria’s position on the Israeli carnage in Gaza.

    Regarding what is perceived as the inconsistency of Fani-Kayode, people seem to be judging him by standards harsher than the ones with which they judge themselves. In fact, who has not had cause to change their own position before? One common principle is that the only permanent thing in life is change. A related Yoruba musical proverb says: “T’órin bá ti yí, k’ílù yípadà” (‘Once the song changes, the accompanying drumming changes.’) Moreover, what is called inconsistency in some social contexts is called flexibility in politics. And in politics, flexibility is not a vice.

    In any case, who is to be preferred? One who had been a beneficiary of your generosity and large-heartedness in the past, had praised you to high heavens, and had told the whole world you were uniquely primed to be Nigeria’s president, but, when you strove for the high office, told the world how unsuitable you were for that office? Or one who worked for you to get to office, and then, due to impatience with the pace or nature of your reward system goes all out to bring you down? Or the person who first worked against you when you were striving to get to office, but who, in the midst of the struggle, had cause to change their views about you, and so supported your efforts during the campaigns and has gone the extra length to make you succeed in office?

    Should President Tinubu have thrown the baby away with the bath water? And should those now charged with screening Chief Femi Fani-Kayode for suitability as Nigeria’s ambassador discountenance his current value? One Rasheed Oniyangi, on Facebook, on 30 November, 2025, recalled this President Tinubu quote: “I plan for betrayal, I plan for backstabbing, I also plan for reunion and forgiveness long before they happen. In life, I expect nothing, I expect anything, I expect everything.” Why then do the critics of Fani-Kayode’s nomination take it upon themselves to cry more than the bereaved?

    In line with the principle that all actions shall be judged by intention, the opposition to Femi Fani-Kayode’s ambassadorial nomination raises a number of questions. Are the opponents of the nomination driven by goodwill to President Tinubu? Are they driven by ill-will and the desire to denude the president of the stout support this nominee has been giving him and the government? Are the opponents driven by the desire to penalise and discomfit the nominee for unabashedly supporting a president the detractors would rather see fail?

    Consider this 1 December, 2025 quote from “Deep Shallow Dive Podcast” on Facebook titled, “Hard Truth Time”: “Maybe it’s time we stop letting the loudest, angriest voices write the script.”

  • Celebrating peace amidst threatening war

    Celebrating peace amidst threatening war

    Trying times are moments for a nation’s intellectuals to show their mettle. Nigeria is in one of those times now with respect to insecurity, and our intellectuals are proving their worth. For example, from 24 to 28 November, 2025, the Society for Peace Studies and Practice (SPSP) held its 19th International Annual Conference at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Oyo State. The conference theme was “Economic Challenges and the Tasks of Building Sustainable Peace in a Globalised World,” and the conference consisted of the society’s General Assembly and the Investiture of Fellows.

    Mr. Nathaniel M. Awuapila is the President of the society and Dr.  Olanrewaju L. Yusuf is the Secretary-General.  Professor Suleiman Elias Bogoro, the former Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund), is the Chair of the Board of Trustees, whilst Ambassador Fatima Sa’ad Abubakar is the Acting Chair of the Board of Fellows. Moreover, Professor Isaac Albert was the Host of the conference, and Professor K.O. Adebowale, the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ibadan, was the Chief Host. Dr. Ozonnia Ojielo (United Nations Resident Coordinator in Rwanda) and General Christopher G. Musa, Rtd. (Former Chief of Defence Staff) were the Keynote Speakers.

    SPSP, which has as its motto “Peace to Humanity,” is a renowned professional body committed to advancing peace, conflict resolution, and security studies in Nigeria and far beyond. The society was born out of the increasing occurrence of violent conflicts, ethnic tensions, and security challenges in Nigeria and the need for research-driven interventions by and collaboration among stakeholders. Since its inception in the Peace and Conflict Studies Programme at the University of Ibadan around 2000, the society has played a pivotal role in advancing peace research, fostering academic and practical interventions, and building capacity among scholars, practitioners, and policymakers in and outside Nigeria.

    In celebration of the remarkable contributions of a selection of distinguished personalities to peace studies and practice, SPSP has awarded them the 2025 fellowships of the society. They include Chief Bisi Akande, former Governor of Osun State and former interim National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and current Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of the University of Ibadan; CG Kemi Nanna Nnadap, the Controller-General of Nigerian Immigration Services; General Christopher G. Musa, Rtd.; Dr. Abiodun Essiet, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Community Engagement; Professor Olayinka Ramota Karim, Vice-Chancellor, Fountain University, Osogbo; and Professor Akinkunmi Adegbola Alao, former Director of the Institute of Cultural Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; among other personages.

    With respect to the absence of peace in some parts of Nigeria at the moment, language has played a crucial role. Some Nigerians had invited the United States to intervene in the country to stop ‘genocide’ against Christians. To this request, United States President Donald Trump had condemned Nigeria and pledged to invade the country in an operation that would be “vicious, fast and sweet” to save “our cherished Christians.”

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    This raised the question, “What is genocide?” Answers to this question are as varied as the different interest groups in the country. A related question is “Is there genocide against Christians in Nigeria?” The answers to this question are as varied as the ones to the preceding question. One person who has been most viciously attacked on the basis of his perspective on the ‘Christian Genocide’ question is Governor Hyacinth Alia of Benue State who is a Catholic priest.

    In a 19 November, 2025 Punch newspapers video, in response to those questioning his credentials as a priest for saying that there was no genocide in Benue State, Governor Alia said: “I am a Reverend Father. So, being in government does not take that away from me. I am still a Reverend Father. I came in as a governor as a Reverend Father, I am working with the fear of God and the compassion of Christianity and humanity, and at the end of the day, I am still going back to the Church as a Reverend Father and a good Christian.”

    Governor Alia then elucidated: “In my state of Benue, we don’t have any religious, any ethnic, any racial, any national or state genocide. We don’t have that. Do we have a number of insecurities in the state? Yes, we do. But it is not a genocide. Someone would need to … check the United Nations definitions for this. Have we lost a number of people? Yes. We have, at different stages. I am giving you a background of the challenges we’ve had many years ago; talking about the agro-pastoralists, the herders, and then we’re talking about the agro-farmers, typical farmers. … But that does not fit into the parameters of a genocide. So, for those who seek to politicise everything, there is no genocide in Benue State.”

    Moreover, in a 19 November, 2025 report by Falmata Daniel in Premium Times, titled “No religious genocide in Benue – Governor Alia,” the Governor was reported to have said: “So, it’s on the record that I had an interface with the American ambassador to let him know that … in Nigeria, particularly in Benue State, there is no genocide, unless it’s my description, and the United Nations description of a genocide [that] does not fit within the parameters.”

    One of the most acerbic attacks on Governor Alia is in a 20 November, 2025 report by Agbemu James, in Idoma Voice newspaper, titled “Genocide: ‘shut up’ – Fr Kelvin Ugwu tears Gov Alia apart for betraying Benue people.” In it, Fr Kelvin Ugwu was reported to have said, to his audience: “Benue’s governor, and all the politicians for that matter, can speak all the grammar they want, call it genocide or ungenocide… At the end of the day, it is still you who will be left to bury your dead. The government and politicians will always try to water everything down so that this initial garagara around insecurity will fade and the international community will become confused on what really is the issue. It is every man to himself. Nobody is coming to help you. Don’t ‘let bygones be bygones’ when you can simply buygun before you get gunned.”

    According to a 23 November, 2025 Punch report, the governor made the following clarification: “The situation is multi-sectoral. Don’t reduce it to religion. Both Muslims and Christians have been killed. Benue is the most populous Christian state in the North. So, naturally, there are unspoken expectations, but let us not politicise people’s pain.” He further noted: “The crisis began as farmer–herder conflicts before escalating into full-blown banditry and terrorism. Several people from different faith backgrounds have suffered losses. So, attempts to frame the killings as religiously motivated are misleading and harmful.”

    Explaining the way in which such wrongful framing could be harmful, Governor Alia was reported in the 21 November, 2025 issue of Idoma Voice to have said about the insecurity which really arose from criminality, land-use disputes, and targeted attacks: “It is important to emphasize that the killings should not be defined or framed purely along religious lines. Misdiagnosing the nature of the crisis may hinder the multi-sectoral solutions already being implemented.”

    One of the problems that have often been seen as bedeviling Nigeria is lack of elite consensus. Amazingly, President Trump’s threat to levy religious war on Nigeria seems to have resulted in a measure of elite consensus with respect to vehemently opposing an American invasion of the country. The disparate range of Nigerians who have opposed such an action include Femi Falana (SAN), Omoyele Sowore (the 2023 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress), Seun Okinbaloye of Channels Television, Dele Farotimi (a regular critic of President Tinubu), Senator Jimoh Ibrahim, Senator Shehu Sani, and Nobel Laureate Professor Wole Soyinka. 

    Some Nigerians in the Diaspora have also been remarkable in their explanation of the true situation in Nigeria and their recommendation of caution by concerned foreign entities.  One such patriotic Nigerian is Ms. Oge Onubogu, Director & Senior Fellow, Africa Program, Center for Strategic and International Studies. She submitted as follows at the 28 September, 2022 US Commission on International Religious Freedom  hearing on Nigeria: “Nigeria’s overlapping conflicts, including the insurgencies from the north, secessionist agitations in the south, and inter-communal violence, have killed thousands of people and displaced hundreds of thousands. … In Nigeria, religion intersects and interacts with ethnic identity, region, social class, and profession. Nigeria’s protracted violent conflicts between farmers and herders is an example of this complex intersection.”

    Moreover, at the 20 November, 2025 US congressional hearing on the redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), she submitted: “It is important to understand the nature of the violence in Nigeria – and its causes, which extend beyond the religious or ethnic overtones that appear to motivate that animosity. … [A] narrow narrative that reduces Nigeria’s current security situation to a single story of widespread persecution and mass slaughter of Christians, misses other important considerations and oversimplifies the complexity of violence and inter-faith relations in the country.”

    Ms. Onubogu further notes with respect to Nigeria’s CPC redesignation: “On one hand, Nigerians, Christian groups in particular, welcome the current international spotlight, viewing it as an overdue opportunity to pressure the Nigerian government into taking decisive action against violence. At the same time, many Nigerians of all faiths, including Christians, worry that President Trump’s rhetoric – especially the threat of unilateral military action against the country – will be counterproductive and draw attention away from the specific problem of pervasive insecurity across the country, by inflaming existing political tensions and divisions.”

    Mr. J. Japheth Omojuwa also stood up for the country at the 2025 Halifax International Security Forum, held from 21 to 23 November in Nova Scotia, Canada. There, United States Senator Kevin Kramer of North Dakota said: “I think the Christians in Nigeria today are probably feeling pretty good about Donald Trump’s position.” To this cheeky remark, Mr. Omojuwa responded: “Senator, … I’m a Christian from Nigeria. … I do not feel good about Donald Trump. … Is there a way that powerful countries can help less powerful countries … without [leaving] them worse off? … [T]here’s a correlation between the point Donald Trump spoke about Nigeria’s challenges and the escalation of terrorism. … Is there a way to decently help Nigeria without making things worse and without disrespecting Nigerian Christians and Muslims?”  

    Reflecting on the whole debate about war and peace in Nigeria today, one cannot but remember the propaganda slogans in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. The manipulative, contradictory slogans are “War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” It is noteworthy that, as our people say, “Ogun ò dà bí iyán; ogun ò dà bí èko” (‘War is not as delicious as pounded yam; war is not as delicious as cornmeal.’)

  • The opposition’s ‘Nigerians’

    The opposition’s ‘Nigerians’

    Vagueness, the insufficient specification of the meaning of an utterance, is one of the characteristics of political language. This characteristic makes political utterances potentially ambiguous. Ambiguous utterances possess more than one clear meaning; and vagueness and ambiguity often create conflict between what speakers intend by their utterances and what hearers perceive the utterances to mean. This conflict is one of the reasons why politicians are said to lie and create confusion.

    In Nigerian politics today, one interestingly vague and increasingly popular opposition utterance which concerns the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is: “The 2027 election is going to be between APC and Nigerians.” It’s not clear who first uttered this statement. It’s however certain that it has become an opposition catchphrase. According to Merriam Webster dictionary, a catchphrase is “a word or expression that is used repeatedly and conveniently to represent or characterize a person, group, idea, or point of view.”

    On 3 November, 2024, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, who belongs to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), addressed party members as follows: “If you’re accusing the ruling party that they are the ones putting their hands into all other parties to ensure that they don’t get their acts together so that there will be no opposition in 2027, … please let us all work together, unite our base. That is all we need to do. The next elections will be APC versus Nigerians. It is not even APC versus PDP.”

    Moreover, on 15 April, 2025, in a Channels Television interview, Governor Makinde said: “Most people in this country, what they’re saying to us is that, look you guys, go and get yourselves together and then leave the rest to us. And I kept saying it, 2027 election … won’t even be PDP versus APC. It will be Nigerians versus APC.”  Furthermore, on 14 October, 2025, Governor Makinde said in a media chat in response to the spate of defections of legislators and governors from PDP to APC: “[A]bout governors defecting, senators defecting, … we’re not concerned and we’re not bothered, because the ultimate decider here will be the Nigerian people.” Then in a rhetorical flourish, he said: “[T]he only time I’ll be concerned or … that we will be concerned as a party is when we see hunger defect from the ordinary people on the street and join APC.”

    A stalwart of the PDP, Mazi Dickson Iroegbu, also reacted to the possible effects of the defections as follows in a 28 October, 2025 News Central TV interview: “[Our party] is the Peoples Democratic Party, not ‘Governors Democratic Party’, ‘Senators Democratic Party’, not ‘House of Representatives Democratic Party’. … Like the Governor of Oyo State rightly stated, until hunger defects, until poverty that is ravaging the nation defects, until insecurity defects to the ruling party, … we will [not] worry. … Let me put it on record … that 2027 is going to be Nigerian people against the APC, because we are the ones directly affected [by APC’s governance].”

    The catchphrase has been used by other opposition politicians. For example, in a 16 October, 2025 Premium Times piece titled “Defections: ADC says 2027 elections will be between APC and Nigerians,” the National Publicity Secretary of the African Democratic Congress (ADC), Bolaji Abdullahi, was reported to have said: “2027 would be between Nigerians and the governors ‘who deserted them politically.’” Two readers of the Premium Times report demonstrated their sharp perception of the acute vagueness of the opposition catchphrase through their comments. One of them, Eugene Igiewe, said sarcastically: “Those who will vote for APC are from the moon.” The other one, Adeyinka Peter Kolawole, asked rhetorically: “Are the governors from Ghana? Are they not Nigerians?”

    Even as late as 10 November, 2025, the former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, former member of APC and current ADC chieftain, Mr. Babachir Lawal, while reacting to the remarkably poor performance of his party relative to that of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 8 November, 2025 Anambra State governorship election said: “[O]ur battle is in the coming election in Nigeria versus APC, not APGA.” This is another example of the appropriation of the label ‘Nigerians’ by the opposition and the exclusion of members of the ruling APC from the term’s coverage.

    The opposition catchphrase seems to be a mark of despondency and the abandonment of any hope of offering any meaningful challenge to APC in 2027. In a research article titled “What kind of opposition do citizens want?” and published online on 9 June, 2025 in the journal West European Politics, Tom Louwerse and Elina Zorina note that one of the functions of opposition parties is “providing voters with alternative, both in form of policies different from the ones proposed by the incumbent government, but also in form of an alternative cabinet [or government] at the next elections.” This is the democratic duty of legally recognised Nigerian political parties like PDP and ADC, and not that of the nebulous ‘Nigerians’ to whom the opposition seem to have voluntarily ceded electoral responsibility.

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    Another tired opposition catchphrase or even buck-passing cliché which has resonated with some Nigerians is that APC is working towards creating a one-party state. The charge had been so strident that Iniobong Ibok and Taofeek Oyedokun published a 4 May, 2025 report in BusinessDay titled, “Is Tinubu plotting a one-party state in Nigeria?” The report stated: “Notably, 17 prominent Nigerians, among them human rights advocate Chidi Odinkalu, legal activist Richard Akinnola, and former presidential adviser Babafemi Ojudu, issued a joint statement on April 25, 2025, titled ‘Defending democracy: A call to resist the march toward a one-party state in Nigeria.’”

    Furthermore, with respect to allegations that the incumbent government had been unduly pressurising or bribing opposition members to defect to APC, the report noted: “Although the fears are not unfounded given Nigeria’s political history, the current wave of defections lacks hard evidence of coercion or systemic abuse. The claimants have not presented documents, recordings, or testimonies that substantiate allegations of bribery or blackmail originating directly from the presidency or federal authorities.”

    Ironically, the main opposition party PDP, which has been stridently promoting the one-party state narrative, has been dragged to court by a founding member of the party, Alhaji Sule Lamido, for depriving him the right to purchase an application form to enable him to vie for the position of National Chairman in the anticipated elective national convention of the party. He prayed the court to order the convention to be stopped until a level playing field has been guaranteed. In reaction to the 11 November, 2025 Federal High Court, Abuja, restraining order issued in favour of Alhaji Lamido and against the holding of the convention, a former PDP Deputy National Chairman, Southwest, Eddy Olafeso, in an interview with Channels Television’s Seun Okinbaloye, said that the agenda of those who did not want the national convention of the party to hold “is to entrench a one-party state.”

    Related to the defeatist opposition catchphrase is also the claim that the opposition is not bothered by the recent defection of governors, especially from the PDP, into the ruling APC. The opposition’s argument, in this respect, is that a governor has only one vote, and that in 2023, for example, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu lost elections in some states with APC governors. The fallacy in this argument is that the new defections of governors into the party give no cause to cheer. Well, an English proverb, associated with the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, says, “You can’t step in the same river twice.” The political circumstances in 2023 were radically different from those of today, and would most certainly be different from those of 2027.

    Having created the impression, through the opposition catchphrase, that they have washed their hands off any responsibility to give the electorate a credible alternative come 2027, the opposition seem to have a lot of idle time on their hands to engage in all sorts of political shenanigans. For example, on 31 October, 2025, shortly after a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that the National Convention of the PDP scheduled for 15 to 16 November, 2025 did not follow due process and ordered the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to observe the convention and not to recognise the resolutions from it, a chieftain of the PDP, Umar Sani, condemned the judgement in his interview with Trust TV’s Hamza Idris.

    He also said that the fear that the National Legal Adviser of the party, Kamaldeen Ajibade, SAN, was working against the party in cahoots with the incumbent PDP-member Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Nyesom Wike, was the reason the National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum, appointed a legal team led by another lawyer, Chris Uche, to represent the party rather than allow the National Legal Adviser to coordinate the party’s legal defence in court, as specified by the party’s constitution.

    The National Secretary, National Legal Adviser, Deputy National Legal Adviser, and National Organising Secretary of PDP, who presumably belonged to Wike’s group, were subsequently suspended from the party by the National Chairman and his group. Counteracting the suspension, the Wike group led by the National Secretary announced their own suspension of the National Chairman and some officers of the party for incompetence, financial misconduct and disregard for court judgement. Abdulrahman Muhammed was thereafter declared the new Acting National Chairman of PDP. Shortly after, his faction declared their disbandment of the Board of Trustees of the party and the appointment of a new one. The other opposition parties, probably with the exception of APGA, are bedevilled by their own debilitating crises.

    The results of the 2025 Anambra State governorship election seem to show what the consequences of such crises could be. INEC announced that out of 584,054 accredited voters, the ruling party in the state, APGA, scored 422,664 votes; the ruling party at the federal level, APC, scored 99,445 votes; the less well-known Young Progressives Party (YPP) scored 37,753 votes; Labour Party (LP), the party of the former governor of the state and 2023 presidential candidate of the party, Mr. Peter Obi, scored 10,576 votes; ADC scored 8,202 votes; and the main opposition party in the country, PDP, scored 1,401 votes. 

    It is hoped that, moving forward, the opposition would recalibrate and strive to hold themselves up as a credible alternative to APC, rather than throwing up their hands and defeatistly saying that the 2027 election is going to be between APC and ‘Nigerians’. As things stand now, that vague and uninspiring expression seems to be a euphemistic repudiation of democratic or electoral responsibility. It is like the proverbial one finger pointing at APC, while the remaining four are pointing at the opposition parties themselves in a most unflattering manner. 

  • Trump’s ‘guns-a-blazing’ threat to Nigeria

    Trump’s ‘guns-a-blazing’ threat to Nigeria

    In his popular essay, titled “Politics and the English Language,” the famous English writer George Orwell notes: “Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.”

    On 1 November, 2025, on his social media platform, Truthsocial.com, President Trump posted: “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities. I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”

    This follows the 31 October, 2025 message in which he wrote: “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical 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, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done! … We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”

    Over the years, some Christian priests and ethnic advocates have been promoting internationally the claim that Christians were being killed, for being Christians, in Nigeria by Muslims and ‘Fulani herders’. Videos of Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi, Benue State, and Rev. Ezekiel Dachomo of the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) based in Barkin Ladi, Plateau State, are trending on social media in this regard. After a while, the narrative of the occurrence of genocide against Christians gained traction in the United States, and Republican Senator Ted Cruz spearheaded the recent move to pass legislation to declare Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

    After President Trump’s declaration, representatives of an Igbo group were shown rejoicing in a video on social media. The group also wrote a letter dated 2 November, 2025 to the president in which it said, “The American Veterans of Igbo Descent (AVID) sincerely and warmly welcome the recent designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) by your administration. We express our deep gratitude for this action, which offers renewed courage to Christians in Nigeria to continue practicing their religion. The whistle blower behind this genocidal act is Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, who prophesied the killing of Christians by the terrorist groups sponsored by the government years ago.”

    On 1 November, 2025, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu issued a release on his X handle, in which he wrote: “The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians. Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.” President Tinubu also asserted: “Since 2023 [when he assumed office], our administration has maintained an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges which affect citizens across faiths and regions.”

    Moreover, the BBC’s Joseph Winter, in a 3 November, 2025 report titled, “Trump tells military to prepare for ‘action’ against Islamist militants in Nigeria,” noted: “Groups monitoring violence say there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are being killed more than Muslims in Nigeria…” Similarly, a 5 November, 2025 report by Michael Crawley of Canadian Broadcasting Corporation titled, “Trump’s claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria bump up against facts. A long-running insurgency in northern Nigeria has killed thousands, Christians and Muslims included,” noted: “There has also been ongoing violence in other parts of northern Nigeria that has at times been depicted as fighting between Muslims and Christians, although access to land and resources is at the heart of the conflict, according to research by the International Crisis Group, a Belgium-based conflict-prevention organization.”

    Specifically, the International Crisis Group’s 26 July, 2018 Report No. 262 on Africa stated: “The conflict between herders and farmers in Nigeria, centred in the Middle Belt but spreading southward, has escalated sharply. Since September 2017, at least 1,500 people have been killed, over 1,300 of them from January to June 2018, roughly six times the number of civilians killed by Boko Haram over the same period.”

    Governor Charles Soludo of Anambra State, who belongs to the Igbo ethnic group and is himself a Christian, also noted: “I’m pretty convinced that Nigeria is doing quite a whole lot to safeguard lives and property, and like I said before, this conversation about banditry and killings and so on requires deeper national conversation and introspection. In this part of the world, Eastern Block, we are 90 something percent Christians, and the insurgence that we are faced with here and around the South-East is Christians-on-Christians. The people in the bushes and so on killing, kidnapping others, they are called Christians; some bear the names Christian, Emmanuel, Peter, James, John and so on. So, it’s much wider than this categorization of … Christian-Muslim.”

    Moreover, in spite of the famed intelligence gathering capabilities of the technologically advanced countries which have invaded different countries in the past, such invasions have been shown to have been based on faulty or false intelligence, and the war plans have been known to have miscarried disastrously. For example, a 26 October, 2015 CNN report by Jethro Mullen, on the war on Iraq and the killing of Saddam Hussein, stated: “‘I can say that I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong because, even though he had used chemical weapons extensively against his own people, against others, the program in the form that we thought it was did not exist in the way that we thought,’ [British Prime Minister Tony] Blair said in an exclusive interview on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS that airs Sunday.”

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    History has shown that when an invasion is framed as a religious war, it complicates matters. For instance, in response to the 11 September, 2001 Al-Qaeda bombings in America, President George W. Bush said: “This crusade, this war on terror, is going to take a while.” The word “crusade” triggered the image of carnage and devastation by Christian military expeditions motivated by the desire to capture the Holy Land from Muslims, as Peter Waldman and Hugh Pope reported in a 21 September, 2001 article in the Wall Street Journal titled, “‘Crusade’ reference reinforces fears war on terrorism is against Muslims.” This article is alternatively titled, “Some Muslims fear war on terrorism is really a war on them.”

    More recently, in a 22 July, 2025 article titled “George W. Bush saw Iraq war as ‘crusade,’ declassified British reports say,” in Straight Arrow News, Alan Judd reported: “President George W. Bush viewed the 2003 invasion of Iraq as a ‘crusade’ by ‘God’s chosen nation,’ according to newly released documents from Britain’s National Archives.” There were also upbeat declarations that Iraqis were going to be so pleased with the invasion that they would meet the American troops with bouquets of flowers. However, the troops were met with stiff opposition, as some saw them as “crusader armies”. Iraq also became precariously divided and a virulent insurgency and strain of terrorism developed.

    In the circumstance, the situation of Christians in the country became worse, and many of them had to flee Iraq. A 5 March, 2021 Associated Press report titled “Timeline of disaster and displacement of Iraqi Christians,” stated: “Iraq was estimated to have nearly 1.5 million Christians before the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled … Saddam Hussein. … Now, church officials estimate only a few hundred thousand, or even less, remain within Iraq’s borders. The rest are scattered across the globe, resettling in far-flung places … Many of those who remain in Iraq feel abandoned, bitter and helpless, some wary of neighbors with whom they once shared feasts and religious celebrations, Muslim and Christian alike.”

    On 19 March, 2011, U.S. President Barack Obama ordered an airstrike on Libya on the excuse that it wanted to save Libyans from the dictatorship of Col. Muamar Ghaddafi. This led to the killing of Ghaddafi and some of his children. It also led to the devastation of the country, the collapse of governance, the growth of insurgency and terrorism which spread to other parts of Africa, and the disruption of the lives of Libyans, including those who called for or collaborated with the U.S. invasion. Even the U.S. Ambassador to Libya, John Christopher Stevens, was killed by the Libyan resistance on 11 September, 2012. President Obama was later reported to have admitted that failing to plan for the aftermath of the invasion was the “the worst mistake” of his presidency.

    Considering the Libya experience, President Trump’s claim that if America invades Nigeria, “it will be fast, vicious, and sweet” is presumptuous. True, a war is by nature “vicious”, but expecting it to be “short” and “sweet” is not justified, as various military interventions show. A notable example is the U.S. intervention in Somalia and the concomitant humiliating Black Hawk Down episode of 3 October, 1993. The U.S. military operation to arrest some of the fighters of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid which, reportedly, had been planned to last only one hour became bogged down and took over 15 hours, saw two U.S. Black Hawk helicopters shot down by Aidid’s supporters, 18 U.S. soldiers killed, 78 wounded and 300 or more Somalis dead.

    Arlene Levinson’s 16 January, 1994 Los Angeles Times report of the operation has this long title: “Dead soldier dragged through Somali streets a modern-day unknown: Mogadishu: Pentagon says naming the mob’s victim serves no purpose and would only pain those who loved and lost him.” According to the report, the corpse of “a U.S. soldier was dragged like a dead dog through the dust of Mogadishu by jubilant Somalis. … Only four days later, President Clinton announced troops would withdraw from their mercy mission within six months, by March 31, 1994. The withdrawal was … inspired in great part by the revulsion of the American people when they saw the humiliating spectacle made of that one slain soldier.”

    Many commentators recall that whenever the U.S. intervenes in a country, the invaded nation more often than not ends up more devastated. It is this history that has accounted for the widespread and growing opposition to President Trump’s threat to invade Nigeria which many see as actually meant to plunder the country’s natural resources.

  • Rivers State’s bloodied bowed and unbowed heads

    Rivers State’s bloodied bowed and unbowed heads

    As literature enriches life and life enriches literature, the feud between the suspended-and-now-reinstated Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, the House of Assembly, Fubara’s immediate predecessor Minister Nyesom Wike, who is now of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Rivers State’s elders, cannot but bring to mind the following 1875 poem, by William Ernest Henley, titled “Invictus”:

    Out of the night that covers me,

          Black as the pit from pole to pole,

    I thank whatever gods may be

          For my unconquerable soul.

    In the fell clutch of circumstance

          I have not winced nor cried aloud.

    Under the bludgeonings of chance

          My head is bloody, but unbowed.

    Beyond this place of wrath and tears

          Looms but the Horror of the shade,

    And yet the menace of the years

          Finds and shall find me unafraid.

    It matters not how strait the gate,

          How charged with punishments the scroll,

    I am the master of my fate,

          I am the captain of my soul.

    Fubara and Wike had been soul-mates of sort and, in fact, in street parlance, had been ‘five and six’ with respect to politics and governance. However, Satan found itself a comfortable seat between them, and in no time, again using street imagery, created enough gulf between the former buddies and a trailer passed through.

    One of the causes of the crisis was, allegedly, Fubara’s desire to take control of the House of Assembly by getting his trusted aide to take over the speakership of the House. This boomeranged and created a schism in the House which saw him have only four loyalists, and with twenty-seven or so others supporting Wike. This made the fear of Fubara’s impeachment real. To forestall that fate, it is alleged that Fubara caused the House of Assembly’s chamber to be set on fire.

    Rather ill-advisedly, he directed that the whole structure be pulled down on the ground that it had been compromised. Moreover, possibly to demotivate the majority in the House of Assembly from using the Sword of Damocles hanging over him, Fubara withheld salaries and allowances of the members. The non-Fubara loyalists of the House therefore seemed to have metaphorically suffered bloodied heads. But their bloodied heads were unbowed. They continued to challenge Fubara in spite of their pitiable fate.

    Even Wike, believed to be the patron of the majority legislators, suffered a bloodied head. Possibly due to the magnet of incumbency, some of Wike’s erstwhile backers (or flatterers) gravitated towards Governor Fubara and overlooked the former governor where he had hitherto been pumped up. Not known to hide his feelings, in one of such cases where he was not given accustomed recognition at a church programme, Wike lamented and lambasted the officiating clerics. Wike also became a punching bag of sorts for some media houses, media personalities and sundry political analysts.

    In a pitiable moment, Wike said: “The governor, unknown to me, gave himself to be the tool for those who couldn’t fight me to fight me. You see, … sometimes when I go back in my quiet moment, I play the video of speeches of the governor, what he said, what he did to me, I weep. … This is somebody who brought you, gave you food, gave you everything, did this for you, and then you became a tool for his enemies to fight him. … We are all human. …  How do you feel? You know what you passed through to send your son to school. You know what you passed through to make him be a human being. All of a sudden, in the night, your son came with people with gun to shoot you. … Your son is the one carrying the gun. He said your time is up.”

    The elders of Rivers State have also had their heads bloodied in all sorts of ways. On 7 May, 2024, Governor Fubara told a delegation of Bayelsa State elders who had come to him on a solidarity visit: “It’s unfortunate. Let me also say this, what brought us to this level, we don’t have elders in Rivers State. Let’s not pretend. What is happening in Rivers State even happened in Bayelsa State, but people could call and say, don’t do this, don’t do this, and they said let’s let it go. It was done here, but nobody listened, because the leaders have sold their conscience.”

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    Moreover, on former Governor of Rivers State and elder statesman, Sir Peter Odili, Wike was reported by The Nation to have said on 29 December, 2024: “You know, I didn’t want to say anything. But somebody called me last night, and told me what someone said in the social media. I said until I read it myself. This morning, I read in the newspapers what our former Governor, Sir Dr Peter Odili, said. What did he say? He said that the present governor has been able to stop one man who wanted to convert Rivers State to his personal estate.”

    Wike was further reported to have said: “Between him and myself, who has turned Rivers State to his personal estate? His wife is a Chairman of Governing Council, his daughter is a commissioner, his other daughter is a judge and he is the general overseer. Who has now turned Rivers State to his private estate? I am sure if care is not taken, if there is a chance, he can even arrange a marriage for the governor. It was his nephew, his late senior brother’s son, that was recommended for commissioner. He took the slot and gave it to his own daughter. Someone who didn’t remember to stand for the son of his late elder brother, is that an elder statesman?”

    But the most bloodied head of all was Fubara’s. His administration was distracted, and some alleged that significant sums of money were frittered away on legal and other efforts to gain the upper hand in the Rivers State feud.  The most tenure-threatening bloodied head that he got was the declaration of a state of emergency in Rivers State and his suspension from office as the governor for six months. And, he did not hide his discomfiture. In fact, on one occasion, he cautioned his supporters against using incendiary rhetoric, noting that the way some of them were antagonising his presumed ‘enemies’ was worsening his condition.

    It is hoped that Ijaw elders would cut Fubara some slack. They should stop taunting him over his conciliatory choices. Politically, he should be allowed to be the master of his fate and the the captain of his soul, adopting the words of William Ernest Henley. In this regard, considering the highly critical views of Ijaw elder, Ms Ann Kio-Briggs, in a 12 September, 2025 interview with Symfoni Television tellingly titled “’Fubara Is on His Own’ – Ann Kio-Briggs Says Wike & Tinubu Will Force Fubara to Work with His Rivals,” a special appeal needs to be made to her to be sofer with him. In any case, Fubara’s capacity to work seamlessly with his rivals, for example members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who were democratically elected in their own right, would be a measure of his political competence.

    It is a thing of joy that Rivers State is now attracting positive headlines again. Of particular note is the following from Channels Television on 22 September, 2025: “ECOWAS Parliament Opens 2025 2nd Extraordinary Session in Port Harcourt.” Another salutary headline, from The Port City News of 23 September, 2025, is “ECOWAS Parliament Meet in Port Harcourt, Call for Utilization of AI in Strengthening Accountability.”

    Both the Deputy Governor of Rivers State, Professor Ngozi Odu, representing Governor Siminalayi Fubara, and the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Mr Martins Amaewhule, delivered endearing speeches at the ECOWAS event, regarding the theme which is “Harnessing Artificial Intelligence for Parliamentary Efficiency, Ethical Governance and Development in the ECOWAS Region.” Those are the kinds of endearing speeches that should be associated with principal actors in Rivers State politics.

    While the feud lasted, Wike had declared that he would ensure that Fubara did not get a second term in office as governor. That declaration was made in a fit of anger, of righteous indignation, but the declaration cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, be called an empty threat. Notably, Fubara was and is Wike’s creation. And Fubara’s failure is as such Wike’s failure. For Wike to do anything inimical to Fubara would therefore be like using your hands to work and then using your legs to scatter and destroy the enviable product of that work.

    So, unless it becomes apparently or absolutely impolitic, Wike should watch the flower he planted bloom. In other words, unless anything happens, going forward, to show that the fear of mischief or treachery is real, Wike should not work against Fubara’s emergence as a candidate for second term. However, should it become impossible for a Fubara second term to be pulled off, Wike should work towards ensuring that Fubara’s political career does not end with the end of the ongoing first term.   

    In striving to ensure that Fubara stays afloat politically, Wike should discountenance those who would be crouching in wait to remind the FCT Minister of his earlier threat and dramatise his ‘inconsistency’. This column has always been of the opinion that every promise comes with an unstated proviso – “All things being equal.” Senator Biodun Olujimi of Ekiti State validated this thinking in a 31 July, 2025 interview on Channels Television.

    After defecting from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Party (APC), Seun Okinbaloye, in the Channels Television interview, reminded her: “You said there was nothing good coming out of the APC, but now you’re joining APC. What happens to everything that you have said in the past?” Senator Olujimi responded: “The APC we talked about in the past, the government that was in power then, is not the current one in power. … There is a different APC now.”

    In the past two or so years, Rivers State politics has thrown up politicians with bloodied but unbowed heads, as well as those with bloodied and bowed ones. In the particular case of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, as a Yoruba proverb says, “Ikú tó lóun ó bé ni lórí, tó bá sín ni ní fìlà, ká maa dúpé ló tó” (‘If death set out to cut off your head but ended up merely removing your cap, the right thing is for you to be grateful.’) As another one says, “Ajá tó relé ekùn tó bò ká kii pé ó kú ewu” (‘When a dog enters a lion’s den and comes out alive, we need to congratulate it.’) So, hearty congratulations, SIM! Make the best use of this second chance.

  • Nigeria @ 65: Of hope, hurdles and an unbending will

    Nigeria @ 65: Of hope, hurdles and an unbending will

    Nigeria will be 65, as an independent country, on 1 October, 2025. That means the country has come a long way since its 1 October, 1960 Independence Day, and the country has had a chequered history. This nation has had high hopes. One of the key indicators of this hope was in the introduction of Nigeria on the floor of the United Nations Organisation on 7 October, 1960, prior to the speech of the Prime Minister, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa. The United Nations compere said: “We are confident that as a member of the United Nations [Nigeria] will contribute much in making speedy solutions and wise solutions. We are confident that in our deliberations we will benefit from their wisdom, from their ingenuity of thought.”

    The compere said further: “In this Assembly, we are sure that their entrance will give our deliberations more vitality and more speedy progress. Apart from that, Mr. President, we are also certain that Nigeria as an independent country, Nigeria, in facing their problems, Nigeria, solving their problems, will also give inspiration to all of us especially to the newly independent countries. The methods in which she is solving her problems, either politically, economically or technically or socially will certainly will be of great advantage for other nations, especially the newly independent countries or the technically underdeveloped countries.” The introduction received resounding applause.

    In his speech, Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa said: “Mr. President, Last Saturday, the country which I have the honour to represent, the Federation of Nigeria, became independent and assumed the rights and the responsibilities of a sovereign state. Today, Nigeria has been admitted into the United Nations Organisation and assumed still more responsibilities. On behalf of my countrymen in Nigeria, I thank you all most sincerely for accepting us as a fellow member in this organisation.”

    Moreover, the Prime Minister said: “First, it is the desire of Nigeria as I have said already to remain on friendly terms with all nations and to participate actively in the work of the United Nations Organisation. Secondly, Nigeria, a large and populous country, of over thirty five million, has absolutely no territorial or expansionist intentions. Thirdly, we shall not forget our old friends and we are proud to have been accepted as a member of the British Commonwealth. But nevertheless, we do not intend to align ourselves as a matter of routine with any of the power blocs. … Fourthly, Nigeria hopes to work with other African states for the progress of Africa and to assist in bringing all African territories to a state of responsible independence.”

    Moreover, the famous United States President John F. Kennedy invited Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to America on a state visit from 25 July, 1961. Watching the United States Information Service documentary of that visit, it is difficult not to be proud to be a Nigerian. The Prime Minister was received at the airport by US Vice-President Lyndon Johnson and American officials, with elaborate and colourful military honours. This was coupled with Sir Tafawa Balewa’s self-assured and rhetorically skillful speech delivery which justified his endearing naming as the “Golden Voice of Africa”.

    But most striking of all was the spectacle of ordinary American citizens lining up to catch a glimpse of the Nigerian Prime Minister and waving as he arrived. Among other places of note, Sir Tafawa Balewa visited a number of American universities, which could have been motivated by his fascination with education.

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    He also visited the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, site of one of the 1863 decisive battles of the American civil war, and took photographs at the site. This is ironical, because six years later, on 30 May, 1967, a civil war broke out in Nigeria itself. The Nigerian civil war was a fallout of the unprecedented military coup of January 1966 which was an ill-advised reaction to ethno-religious disagreements. In that coup which was predominantly carried out by Igbo soldiers, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, along with many other non-Igbo leaders, was brutally killed. The virtually exclusively non-Igbo casualties of that coup stoked ethnic suspicions, and an ethnically-coloured retaliatory counter coup took place in July 1966. Ripples from the coups precipitated the 1967 civil war which went on until January 1970.

    Considering the fact that some Nigerians are readily threatening war today if their demands are not fulfilled, it is important to look at some examples of the rhetoric of that war. Addressing Biafrans, the Biafran war leader Lt. Col. Odumegwu Ojukwu said: “Fellow Biafrans, on the occasion of your rally to demonstrate your solidarity with the struggles of your kith and kin back home, I send to you all fraternal greetings. As one who has been entrusted with the onerous responsibilities of guiding our young republic through these difficult times, I must confess that it is always a source of deep pleasure and encouragement to me to receive assurances of the support of the people and their continuing determination to persevere until complete victory is achieved.”

    He went on: “You are all aware that for over four months now, Nigeria has been waging a war of aggression to destroy Biafra and her people. This invasion by Nigerian hordes was mounted because the people of the former Eastern Region of Nigeria were forced on May the 30th, 1967 to declare themselves the Independent State of Biafra in order to assure the security of their lives and property. … The inordinate ambition of the Hausa-Fulani oligarchy to continue to dominate the whole of what was formerly the Federation of Nigeria, the unrealistic desire to acquire the wealth and resources of Biafra while rejecting their people, the mad and homicidal desire to exterminate from the face of the earth fourteen million Biafrans drove Gowon and his clique towards unleashing a costly war to attain the unattainable – the subjugation of this young, but promising republic.”

    He said further: “Even with the vast resources of the former Federation of Nigeria with which they prosecute the war, even with the active collaboration of those international opportunists, Britain and the Soviet Union, an unholy alliance of vested interests, even with their attempt to subvert our government by suborning some of our highly-placed military and civilian personnel, an attempt which was foiled at the nick of time, Gowon has failed to make good his boast to crush Biafra – a campaign which he bragged would take only forty-eight hours to accomplish has now dragged on for almost five months and will drag on for as long as it takes Gowon and his clique, both Nigerian and others, to realise that nothing can shake the will or crush the spirit of a determined people.”

    Around two and a half years after that speech, Ojukwu, the Biafran war Commander, fled Nigeria, and Col. Olusegun Obasanjo, the Commander of the 3rd Marine Division received the instrument of surrender from Col. Effiong the Biafran Army Commander on 15 January, 1970; and the war came to an end. The occasion provided an opportunity for the Head of State at the time, Col. Yakubu Gowon, to respond to Ojukwu’s negative comments on him.

    Gowon was asked by the media “Why do you think Ojukwu left Biafra?” He responded: “The foreign press seemed to know him better than we do. … You seem to give him all sorts of excellent qualities. … Ojukwu the gallant chap who said I will fight to the last man and I will be the last man to fall. What a pity! How are the mighty fallen and in such a cowardly way! If he had done a Hitler, probably [he could have been a man] of courage. He didn’t do a Hitler. Hitler took poison, died and ordered his body to be burned up.”

    Some estimates put the number of Nigerians who died in that war at around three million. So, it was not an experience any patriotic Nigerian should wish for. This is why it is bothersome that a Chieftain of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), Buba Galadima, said in an ARISE News interview on 16 September, 2025: “Come November, there are rumours all over the place that this [Tinubu] government is nominating a just retired Court of Appeal judge who is known for notoriety to be the Chairman of INEC. I wish it is not true, because if that man becomes the Chairman of INEC, be rest assured that this government is inviting a civil war in this country.”

      Another dimension of the unpatriotic disposition of some Nigerians is that, ironically, a nation which the UN in 1960 hoped would provide a guide to other nations on how to solve their problems has now become seemingly unable to solve its own problems, and at every turn, some individuals or collectives of Nigerians have the tendency to invite foreign powers to help solve the country’s problems. One of the latest examples of this was former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar’s invitation of the international community to come and help the country out of Atiku’s presumed problems with the widely-commended 30 August, 2025 Rivers State Local Government elections.

    One other obstacle to the fulfillment of the dream of Nigeria’s independence is the perverse promotion of negative narratives about the country by some Nigerians. It is heartening that as the ‘Niger-pessimists’ continue to sink deeper in their self-defeating obsession, new associations of ‘Niger-optimists’ are emerging. One of them is the Transformative Governance Forum (TGF) – a self-motivated and self-sustaining group of patriotic Nigerians of diverse professional callings within and outside the country.

    The TGF specifies its philosophy as follows: “Conscious of the enduring socio-political and economic challenges confronting our people; challenged by the erosion of public trust in governance, and the dwindling spirits of patriotism; believing in the power of communal solidarity and grassroots democracy to transform society; recognising that the challenges of our time demand collective courage and unwavering commitment to progressive values in our polity; some Social Welfarists within the Progressive camps constitute themselves as the Transformative Governance Forum, to work for a social democratic Federal Republic of Nigeria; a nation where no child sleeps hungry, no elderly suffer unaffordable healthcare, and no talent is squandered by want.”

    The interim National Coordinator of the TGF is Aare Mojeed Alabi, a Professor of Law and former Honourable Speaker of the Osun State House of Assembly. Members of the Board of Trustees include Her Majesty Ambassador Dr Omolola Ogunwusi, Dr. Ademola Rabiu, CEng, Lady Nkechi Fidimaiye, Dr Abiola Oshodi, Prof Anthony Okoh, Lt Gen Abdulrahman Dambazau, Hon Kayode Adebiyi, Prof Amuda-Kannike (SAN), Aare Mojeed Alabi, and Hajiya Zainab Mohammed Pawa. The TGF has scheduled a range of activities, including the inauguration of its National Executive, for 22 to 23 September, 2025 in Abuja.