The Nation Newspaper

Category: Nuances

  • Robert Mugabe passed here

    Robert Mugabe passed here

    In his journey through the circle of birth on 21 February, 1924, to living for up to close to a century, and to dying on 6 September, 2019, former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe passed here. And his sojourn was quite eventful. On this sixth anniversary of his passing away, this column honours his memory today by bringing together a selection of his thoughts enunciated at public forums.

    Very many witty quotes have been attributed to the late President, especially on social media. It is not certain how authentic the attributions are. However, it is widely acknowledged that, in his days, Mugabe was the world’s most educated President who earned not less than seven university degrees, with two at the Masters level. He had a B.A. in History and English, B.Ed., BSc. in Economics, LLB, LLM, and B.A. in Administration, among other qualifications.

    It is therefore not surprising that he had an attention-grabbing style of speaking. And it is not certain whether a replacement has yet been found for him with respect to his witty, sometimes irreverent, rhetoric on the international scene. At the 68th Session of the United Nations General Assembly, in New York, on 26 September, 2013, the then-89-year-old Mugabe said: “We cannot accept situations whereby the UN Security Council is increasingly encroaching on issues that traditionally fall within the General Assembly’s purview and competence, including in the area of norm setting.”

    Mugabe continued: “Indeed, recent events have revealed that its [Security Council] formal decisions have provided camouflage to neo-imperialist forces of aggression seeking to militarily intervene in smaller countries in order to effect regime change and acquire complete control of their wealth. This was so in Libya where in the name of protecting civilians, NATO forces were deployed with an undeclared mission to eliminate Muammar Gaddafi and his family. A similar campaign had been undertaken in Iraq by the Bush and Blair forces in the false name of eradicating weapons of mass destruction which Saddam Hussein never possessed.”

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    Mugabe also noted: “For Africa, the reform of the United Nations Security Council is especially long overdue. The anachronistic and unrepresentative character of the Security Council must be redressed. For how long should Africa continue to be denied the right to play a pivotal role in the United Nations Security Council as it decides measures on conflicts within its own borders?”

    Mugabe further declared: “Zimbabwe strongly condemns the use of unilateral economic sanctions as a foreign policy tool to effect regime change. Thus, the illegal economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by the United States and the European Union violate fundamental principles of the United Nations Charter on state sovereignty and non-interference in the domestic affairs of a sovereign state. Moreover, these illegal sanctions continue to inflict economic deprivation and human suffering on all Zimbabweans. In the eyes of our people, the sanctions constitute a form of hostility and violence against them for the simple crime of undertaking the land reform programme by which land was put in the hands of the then majority landless Zimbabweans.”

    In addition, the Zimbabwean President asserted: “Our small and peaceful country is threatened daily by covetous and bigoted big powers whose hunger for domination and control of other nations and their resources knows no bounds. Shame, shame, shame to the United States of America. Shame, shame, shame to Britain and its allies. Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans, so are its resources. Please remove your illegal and filthy sanctions from my peaceful country. If these sanctions were intended to effect regime change, well, the results of the recent national elections have clearly shown you what they can do.”

    He further declared: “We are preached to daily by the west on the virtues of democracy and freedom which they do not totally espouse. Zimbabwe took up arms precisely to achieve our freedom and democracy. Yet we have been punished by United States through the odious Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act enacted in 2001 to effect regime change in the country.”

    Concluding the speech, Mugabe said: “It appears that when the USA and its allies speak of democracy and freedom they are doing so only in relative terms. Zimbabwe however refuses to accept that these western detractors have the right to define democracy and freedom for us. We paid the ultimate price for it and we are determined never to relinquish our sovereignty and remain masters of our destiny. As we have repeatedly asserted, Zimbabwe will never be a colony again!!”

    Furthermore, on 21 September, 2017 at the 72nd Session of the UN General Assembly, Mugabe targeted President Donald Trump as follows: “Some of us were embarrassed, if not frightened, by what appeared to be the return of the biblical Giant Gold Goliath. Are we having a return of Goliath to our midst, who threatens the extinction of other countries? And may I say to the United States President, Mr. Trump, please blow your trumpet — blow your trumpet in a musical way towards the values of unity, peace, cooperation, togetherness, dialogue, which we have always stood for and which are well-writ in our very sacred document, the Charter of the United Nations.”

    Mugabe also had tough words for non-governmental organisations (NGOs). In a 9 August, 2004 News24 item titled “Zim slams ‘imperialist’ NGOs,” Mugabe declared: “We know their tactics, these imperialists … as they deploy hordes of their compatriots under the cover of innumerable non-governmental organisations to destabilise our country and to try and effect the so-called regime ‘change.’”

    Relating this view with the detrimental activities of local NGOs in South Africa, such as the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI), the Acting Mayor of Cape Town, Kenny Kunene, was reported by TimesLIVE, on 25 May, 2023, to have angrily said: “I understand why Robert Mugabe banned all NGOs in Zimbabwe, and only allowed NGOs led by Zimbabweans that seek to help Zimbabweans to exist.” He also remarked cynically that NGOs should stop masquerading as political parties, and that rather, “If they want to govern, they must go and contest elections like we did. NGOs must not get involved in the work of government. It is none of their business.”

    Mugabe was most unsparing of homosexuals. In fact, he was reported by International Business Times UK, on 24 July, 2013, to have said: “[We] have this American president, [Barrack] Obama, born of an African father, who is saying we will not give you aid if you don’t embrace homosexuality … We ask, was he born out of homosexuality? We need continuity in our race, and that comes from the woman, and no to homosexuality. John and John, no; Maria and Maria, no. They are worse than dogs and pigs. I keep pigs and the male pig knows the female one.”

    He was also reported, by UPI.com, on 25 November, 2011, to have said: “It becomes worse and satanic when you get a Prime Minister like Cameron saying countries that want British aid should accept homosexuality.” To make it clear, Mugabe told the 70th UN General Assembly on 28 September, 2015 regarding Africans: “We are not gays!”

    It is amazing that in spite of his blatant opposition to Western hegemony and culture, and despite the spirited efforts of these hegemons to topple his government, they could not readily get enough capable renegade Zimbabweans to incite to do the dirty job. In fact, Aljazeera, on 6 September, 2019, reported Mugabe to have said: “Only God, who appointed me, will remove me – not the MDC [Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change], not the British. Only God will remove me!”

    Meanwhile, Mugabe had overstayed his welcome in power. He didn’t seem to be sufficiently guided by the admonitory Yoruba proverb which warns: “Tí a bá pé l’órí imí, esinkéesin níí bá’ni níbè. (‘If you stay too long on passing faeces, all sorts of weird flies would meet you there.’) Moreover, Mugabe did not seem to set much store by former United States President Barrack Obama’s admonition to African leaders to respect term limits.

    Specifically, in his 28 July, 2015 speech to African leaders at the African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, President Obama said: “I have to also say that Africa’s democratic progress is also at risk when leaders refuse to step aside when their terms end.  … I am in my second term.  …  I love my work.  But under our Constitution, I cannot run again. … So, there’s a lot that I’d like to do to keep America moving, but the law is the law. And no one person is above the law.  Not even the President. When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife … And this is often just a first step down a perilous path.” 

    Obama further said: “And sometimes you’ll hear leaders say, well, I’m the only person who can hold this nation together. If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation.

    … And just as the African Union has condemned coups and illegitimate transfers of power, the AU’s authority and strong voice can also help the people of Africa ensure that their leaders abide by term limits and their constitutions. Nobody should be president for life.

    And your country is better off if you have new blood and new ideas.”

        In spite of these nuggets of wisdom, Mugabe clung to power in Zimbabwe, and some of his aides, to whom he had become a presidential pawn due to age-related infirmities, urged him on. In fact,

    the Zimbabwean newspaper NewsDay of 18 February, 2017 reported his wife, Grace Mugabe, to have said: “You hear people accusing me of still wanting to continue as the First Lady of this nation, saying that is why I don’t want to tell the President to retire. I am not the only one who voted for him. Only a fool will say that. We will field a candidate of a corpse on the ballot if God takes Mugabe and people will vote for him just to show how much the President is loved.”

    However, Mugabe’s faculties were declining, his steps were becoming increasingly unsteady and his capacity to continue to provide effective leadership waned dramatically. In the end, Mugabe was worsted by age, and on 21 November, 2017, at 93 and having ruled for 37 years, he was forced to resign as President to preempt impeachment.

    Robert Mugabe is an African hero. But our heroes are not saints, and nobody else’s are. So, let’s not throw the baby away with the bath water, but aggregate the noble visions and thoughts of our myriad of remarkable African leaders. From that aggregation, let’s build a workable template for a new African destiny.

  • Rivers State local government elections delivered

    Rivers State local government elections delivered

    On 30 August, 2025, the Sole Administrator of Rivers State, Vice-Admiral Ibok-Ete Ibas (rtd) delivered local government elections widely acclaimed as exemplary.

    It is gratifying for this column that Ibas delivered so impressively, because on 23 March, 2025, in an article titled “The Rivers state of emergency,” the column had challenged the Sole Administrator “to organise new free and fair local government elections or at least prepare the ground for free and fair elections to hold into the offices of that very crucial level of government,” before the end of his tenure,  in the light of the Supreme Court’s declaration of the 5 October, 2024 local government elections as null and void.

    In his comment on the elections by the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) appointed by the Sole Administrator and headed by Dr. Michael Ekpai Odey, who is a Cross River State indigene, the Director-General of the Centre for Credible Leadership and Citizens Awareness, Dr. Gabriel Nwambu, said in an election day interview with TVC News: “I [am] the Head of Mission for election observation here in Rivers State. … We noticed [that in] the pre-election [activities] there was no election-related violence. There was no acrimony. People were campaigning strictly … issue-based and personalities were not being attacked … unlike [in] the conventional elections in the past.”

    Nwambu further remarked, about the law enforcement agencies: “They are well-briefed. They are strictly adhering to the rules of engagement. You see, this is one of the best elections in terms of the performance index of the law enforcement agencies. They are not beating up anybody. They are no brutalising anybody. Unlike in the past where you even introduce yourself as an election observer [and] they would pretend as if they were not even hearing you. This time they are even ready to assist you to cross [the checkpoints] and go your way provided you conduct yourself in a peaceful manner.”

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    Nwambu continued: “So, I think the security situation here in Rivers State is excellent. … We believe that the electorate are happy. They came out en masse to exercise their franchise which they feel is long overdue. … We would recommend this patten of election for Nigeria any day, any time, because of the peaceful disposition of … the electorate, the peaceful disposition of the candidates themselves and then the peaceful disposition of the Rivers State Independent Electoral Commission which so far has demonstrated capacity and competence in terms of level of preparedness and dispensation of the electoral mandate. … [There] is no case of vote buying observed anywhere. I mean, this is a pacesetter. This is how an election should be.”

    Monitoring polling activities on election day, as reported by Symphoni Television, Ibas said: “The process has been peaceful, and from the turnout and from the conduct of all who are involved, those voting and those who are conducting the elections, I believe, at the end of the day, we should have something [to be] proud of. I think generally from all the reports I’ve gotten so far the situation is reported to be calm. The process has been also very seamless and we’ve not had any major negative reports from any of the polling units or centres.”

    Ibas further noted, in the spirit of the lizard that fell from the iroko tree which praised itself even if nobody else praised it: “I believe all indigenes of Rivers State are desirous of having in place, even at the grassroots, what they desire, and that’s a manifestation of what we have seen through the conduct. And for me, I think it’s one of the primary objectives that I was mandated to offer from the aspect of putting the state back on its footing. I want to believe that we’ve done a good job. … People are happy.” 

    However, some have condemned the elections. And that’s understandable. After all, as a Yoruba proverb puts it, “Gbénàgbénà ti gbénà tán, ó wá ku ti gbénugbénu” (‘The carver has carved; it’s now the turn of the critic to criticise.’) One of such criticisms by the 2023 presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) Peter Obi, on his X handle, on 31 August, 2025, is: “The conduct of the Rivers State local government election is rascality taken too far. It represents a double tragedy for our democracy when a Sole Administrator – himself illegally appointed – dares to conduct an election that should empower the people. … Such actions are unconstitutional, legally untenable, and morally indefensible. … Illegality can never give birth to legitimacy.”

    On his own X handle, also on 31 August, 2025, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, the 2023 presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who has now defected to the African Democratic Congress (ADC), wrote: “The local government election conducted by the occupation government in Rivers State is an awful absurdity and a travesty to the very notion of elective democracy. By the shameful and shambolic manner in which the occupation government went ahead to conduct local government elections in Rivers State, it is clear that the ruling APC [All Progressives Congress] party is not leaving anyone in doubt that it is prepared to throw caution to the wind in order to achieve an inordinate political advantage.”

    The former Vice-President then declared: “It therefore becomes necessary to call the attention of well-meaning Nigerians, international community and all friends and partners of Nigeria to the dangerous curve that the President Bola Tinubu regime is taking our dear country. I will also call on all opposition parties in Rivers State to reject the local government election on the premise that the occupation government that conducted the exercise is extraneous to our laws, with absolutely no legitimacy to undertake such a crucial and sensitive assignment.”

    The former Governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Nyesom Wike, gave an equally abrasive response to Obi and Atiku. He said that Atiku was venturing into an area of law which he had no knowledge about, due to the fact that he was busy undermining President Obasanjo when Atiku was the Vice-President, rather than noting that Obasanjo had signed a legal instrument which validates Ibas’s conduct of the local government elections. Wike also said that Obi’s undemocratic antecedents as Governor of Anambra State, including the fact that he refused to conduct local government elections until two months to the end of his 8-year tenure, make it hypocritical for Obi to be upbraiding the expansion of the democratic space through last month’s local government elections.

    Some have also questioned the pattern of the results announced by RSIEC. In them, APC won 20 local governments and PDP won 3. Public Affairs analyst Jide Ojo said there’s nothing strange in this pattern, and cited the case of the 2024 Rivers State local government elections in which Action Peoples Party won overwhelmingly in spite of the fact that the Governor of the state belonged to the PDP. He also recalled the case of Abia State, on 2 November, 2024, where the Governor belonged to LP, but Zenith Labour Party won 15 out of 17 local government chairmanship seats, and the Young Progressives Party won the remaining 2.

    The 30 August, 2025 elections have some features which deserve particular notice. One of them is the collaboration between the ruling APC and the main opposition PDP. This strategic bi-partisanship is a positive development in Nigerian politics today. Another noteworthy feature is suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara’s strategic silence and tactical withdrawal from view all through the elections. These may be indications that Fubara is becoming a more astute politician.

    As work on this article progressed, it became clear that it was difficult to address the issue of the Rivers State local government elections without giving significant attention to Nyesom Wike, among other persons. In other words, Nyesom Wike was a recurring decimal, as mathematicians would put it, and he reminded the writer of the tortoise in Yoruba folktales. In these folktales, hardly can any story escape the tortoise’s mention. This is represented in the saying, “Òrò gbogbo ò kìí sé lórí alábawun.” And this seems to have attracted envy and opprobrium to the FCT Minister.

    In fact, Wike has been demeaned as a jester. But is he really one? A proverbial lyric of the late popular Yoruba fuji musician, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, can provided perspective to this. The musician sang: “Wón n pe ‘Wèrè ni, were ni,’ ó n fi apá ewúré j’iyán. Wón n pe ‘Wèrè ni, wèrè ni,’ ó n fi itan àgùntàn je’kà. Wón n pe ‘Wèrè ni, wèrè ni,’ ó n gun esin l’ósán ó n gun omo ènìyàn lóru.” (‘They say, “This person is mad; this person is mad,” but the person eats pounded yam with goat arms. They say, “This person is mad; this person is mad,” but the person eats amala with ram thighs. They say, “This person is mad; this person is mad,” but the person rides a horse in the afternoon and rides a human being at night.’) So, who, really, between the abuser and the abused, is the mad one?

    You may not like Wike’s choices or even his actions, but with some circumspection, you would realise that he tends to constantly stand on the side of the law or constitutionality, as has been shown in his insistence that the South must produce the PDP’s presidential candidate in 2023 and for 2027; his resistance to the removal of then-Acting National Chairman, Umar Damagum; his resistance to the removal of the National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu; and his unyielding insistence that the 5 October, 2024 Rivers State local government elections were illegal.

    According to some commentators, given the pattern of results, Wike has taken back the structure of the PDP in Rivers State. In navigating the web of derogation woven around him,

    one of Wike’s major instruments of survival is the media – both friendly and hostile. Looking closely at the Wike issue, it would be seen how potent stereotypes could be; how unyielding prejudices could remain; and how valid the saying is that even when a lie has been travelling for twenty years, truth catches up with it in just one day of journeying. (‘B’író ba lo l’ógún odún, ojó kan soso l’òtító yóó baa.’)

    In the meantime, let all who have facilitated the epoch-making 30 August, 2025 Rivers State local government elections savour their uncommon achievement, even as cynics continue to question the legality of the declaration of the state of emergency in the state, the suspension of the elected governor and members of the state’s House of Assembly, and the organisation of the local government elections by the Sole Administrator. The Court will pronounce on this in due course.

  • Proverbs, politics and Bode George

    Proverbs, politics and Bode George

    This column’s article for last week, titled “World Folklore Day 2025: Proverbs,” celebrated the Day which came up on 22 August with a look at proverbs and how some of them derive from certain fields of the social sciences, agriculture, natural sciences, engineering and medical sciences. Today, a continuation of the celebration looks at how proverbs relate with politics and how they are used by an individual to achieve specific communicative goals in particular contexts. 

    Human beings are political animals. This is the famous Greek Philosopher Aristotle’s summation of the belief that it is from participating in community with others that a human being achieves the ultimate human goal of being happy. Derived from a keen observation of human nature, and being short, witty and often repeated, this Aristotelian statement has become a political proverb.

    A Yoruba proverb which deals with the nature of the political system adopted by a society is: “Idálú ni ìsèlú” (‘How a community originates determines how it is run.’) In other words, the peculiar circumstances surrounding the creation of a society determine the political system, for example between Liberal Democracy or Communism, that would be most suitable for its administration.

    Another political proverb is: “Ohun tí a fún èsó só ni èsó n só” (‘It’s what a guard is charged with guarding that the guard guards.’) With ‘guards’ meaning the armed forces in today’s context, the underlying principle is that different categories of human beings in a society are trained to play different, but complementary, roles for the stability of the society and the benefit of all. This Yoruba proverb therefore abhors coups d’état which undermine both the quality of governance (for which the army are not conventionally assigned or trained) and the quality of security coverage which is the military’s primary duty.

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    A quite confounding political proverb that a respectable, elderly Yoruba man once cited in a conversation with me is: “Eni tó bá gò níí joyè” (‘It’s a foolish person who accepts leadership position.’) This proverb presumes that there are all sorts of people in a community, with some of them quite wise and some glaringly foolish. Usually, even the foolish would insist that they are wiser than the leaders, through pontificating and expressing magisterial opinions about issues they are ill-informed about. And it is the duty of a ruler or politician to play the fool once in a while, and allow these foolish people to have sway, and strategically allow foolish pressure to supplant wise vision.

    One interesting dimension of the proverbs and politics nexus is the use of proverbs by or with respect to a politician. It would be insightful to see how this plays out in the case of Chief Bode George, a retired Commodore of the Nigerian Navy, a former Military Governor of old Ondo State (before it was split into the current Ondo and Ekiti states) from 1988 to 1990, and a former Deputy National Chairman and now Life Member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He is from Lagos and belongs to the Yoruba ethnic group.

    Remarkably, the eighty-year old Chief Bode George has had numerous television interviews on, notably, ARISE News, Channels Television and TVC News. In a 4 July, 2025 Channels Television interview with Maupe Ogun-Yusuf, Bode George called the PDP “the real iroko political tree”. Explaining the point, he said: “You know what is called an iroko tree in the bush? It is the strongest. Its roots are so deep rooted. No matter the storm, they will weather it.”

    It would therefore be interesting to look at Bode George’s use of proverbs in the context of PDP politics. The party has been bedevilled by a series of internal problems. First, as the national ruling party from 1999, it was defeated in the 2015 presidential elections and thrown into disarray and abandoned by a remarkable number of those who were its leading lights.  Second, the PDP national convention in preparation for the 2023 elections threw up a Northerner, former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, as the presidential candidate of the party, despite the fact that another Northerner, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, was already the National Chairman.

    This contravened the PDP’s constitutional stipulation that if one of the two offices was held by a Northerner, the other one should be occupied by a Southerner. This Atiku upset gave room for other unsalutary developments which have undermined harmony in the party. This has led prominent members of the PDP to defect from the party and join others to form a coalition yoked to the African Democratic Congress (ADC) which they declared was to remove President Bola Ahmed Tinubu from office in 2027.

    Asked, by Vimbai Mutinhiri in an 11 July, 2025 interview on ARISE News, about his assessment of the coalition political parties to which PDP members have been presumed to be flocking, Bode George said: “There is an adage in my part of the world that says ‘No matter how many clothing a young man has, he can never have as many rags as the old man.’” In its original Yoruba form, the proverb is: “Tí omodé bá l’áso bí àgbà kò lè l’ákísà bí àgbà.” ‘Clothing’ in this proverb is a metaphor for the zeal of the smaller coalition parties, and ‘rags’ are the vast experience and extensive structure that the PDP possesses. The underlying message is therefore that defecting to those weaker opposition parties was ill-advised.

    Moreover, in a 21 August, 2025 interview with Nifemi Oguntoye of TVC News, Bode George said that the PDP members who moved to the ADC were exactly the ones who created the mayhem at the last convention of the PDP. He also noted that Atiku wanted to contest when President Muhammadu Buhari, a Northerner, had just completed an 8-year term. Chief George continued: “We said, ‘No. … Mr. Atiku, you cannot.’” Chief George also said that it was this position that accounted for Atiku’s “shifting, rolling around like a rudderless ship,” and “running helter-skelter like a little rat.” He then cited the proverb, “A rolling stone gathers no moss” to admonish Atiku to be politically stable to be able to record significant achievements.

    Furthermore, some aggrieved and influential members of the PDP, including the party’s Governors’ Forum, wanted Senator Samuel Anyanwu to be removed as National Secretary; and the South East zone of the party had, in fact, already chosen a replacement for him. However, he could not be removed due to legal encumbrances. In an effort to appease those who could not have their way, Chief George, in the interview with Vimbai Mutinhiri asserted: “Sometimes in an association, you lose some, you win.” This consolatory proverb is normally cited as “You win some, you lose some.” 

    With respect to the PDP’s zoning of party and electoral offices to accommodate diversity and promote inclusivity, Bode George said: “In the First Republic, majority had their way, minority were onlookers. Second Republic, the same thing. That’s why they collapsed.” The proverb which Chief George varied for communicative here effect is: “The minority will have its say, but the majority will have its way.” He cited the varied proverb to show his opposition to the inconsiderate exercise of numerical superiority and the foisting of a Northern presidential candidate on the party for the 2023 elections, in disregard of democratic equity.

    Furthermore, on those who claim to be PDP members, but concurrently belong to the ADC-based coalition of opposition forces or pledge to work for the presidential candidate of the APC in the 2027 election, Chief Bode George said in a 13 August, 2025 ARISE News interview: “You cannot serve two masters.” Christian.com elucidates the point as follows: “In Matthew 6:24, Jesus states, ‘No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.’” In other words, the Naval Chief used the biblical proverb to condemn political double-dealing.

    Chief George also notes in a further romanticisation of the PDP in the 4 July, 2025, Channels Television interview with Maupe Ogun-Yusuf: “There’s no individual in our party that can claim that he owns this party. That’s the beauty of the PDP. … No individual owns our party. It will be a collective decision who will be our presidential candidate. We need to show to the electorate that this party can be trusted. … How do the lawyers say it now? He who comes to equity must come with clean hands.” In other words, using the legal proverb, he continued his public relations offensive to encourage those who had defected from the PDP to return and make the party attractive to the electorate in forthcoming elections.

    Moreover, in the 13 August, 2025 ARISE News interview, Bode George stated: “In any organisation, there must be laws … and there are also red lines. You should not cross the red line. … If you want to be a responsible, respectable member of this organisation, you must obey their laws. If you can’t stand the heat, get the hell out of the kitchen.” He complements this culinary and temperature proverb with the following proverbial admonition: “… let’s call a spade a spade. … Enough is enough.”

    Commenting on the 25 August, 2025 National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting of the PDP at which significant reconciliatory decisions were reached, Chief Bode George, in a 26 August, 2025 YouTube post of a Channels Television interview with Geoffrey Uzono, said: “It’s a refreshing gallop to see us come together as one indivisible members of this party; because the more a divided house, it will remain a defeated house.” The proverb here is an electoral adaptation of “A divided house cannot stand.”

    He also said with respect to other salutary NEC decisions, including zoning the 2027 presidential candidacy to the South: “No matter how long a load of lies keep flying, it doesn’t take time, when the truth is said, [for it to] catch up and leave [the lies] behind.” This is an adaptation of the Yoruba proverb “Tí iró bá lo l’ógún odún, ojó kan soso l’òdodo ó lee bá” (‘If a lie travels for twenty years, truth will catch up with it in just one day.’)

    As Nigeria continues to strive to reform its electoral system, attention needs to be paid to folklore which can facilitate the process. But even closer attention needs to be paid to folklore which can undermine the effort. For example, an electorally-perverse Yoruba proverb is: “Omodé ò j’obì, àgbà ò j’oyè.” (‘If the youth don’t eat kolanuts, the elders can’t reach the throne.’) Like ‘stomach infrastructure’, ‘kolanuts’ in this proverb is a fanciful or permissive name for electoral inducement or bribery.

  • World Folklore Day 2025: Proverbs

    World Folklore Day 2025: Proverbs

    According to a 28 July, 2021 article by Ruben Balanta titled, “Why is Folklore Day commemorated in Argentina?” in Calendario Argentina.com, “On August 22, 1960, the First International Folklore Congress … took place [in Buenos Aires, Argentina] …. In this event, representatives from more than 30 countries met [and] agreed with UNESCO to declare this date as World Folklore Day.”

    With respect to the meaning of the word, the Ghana Folklore Board states: “As defined in the UNESCO Recommendation on the Safeguarding of Traditional Culture and Folklore (1989), “folklore (or traditional and popular culture) is the totality of tradition-based creations, of a cultural community, expressed by a group or individuals … Its forms are, among others, language, literature, music, dance, games, mythology, rituals, customs, handicrafts, architecture and other arts.”

    It is to the language and literature components of this definition that proverbs belong. Proverbs are usually short, often-repeated, witty statements borne out of an observation of individuals, societies and natural phenomena. A proverb often starts as a literal statement arising out of that observation, and then becomes metaphorical when it is applied to contexts outside the one in which it originated. While proverbs are items of folklore, they also express opinions about other forms of folklore. Proverbs are therefore a huge store of cultural beliefs and attitudes and an invaluable source of cultural knowledge.

    Proverbs tend to be erroneously regarded as verbal artefacts and a store of antiquated knowledge. However, their vitality even in modern day communication is becoming increasingly manifest whether it’s in today’s popular music, politics, mass media, science and technology, medicine, business and the teaching and learning process, just to mention a few.

    In the continuing celebration of World Folklore Day 2025 on Friday, 22 August, this column today looks at how different academic and professional disciplines and practices are a source of a variety of proverbs and how these proverbs continue to be applicable outside the domains from which they were created. For the purpose of sharpening the focus of the discussion, the examples to be considered will be limited to Yoruba proverbs of southwestern Nigeria, but the insights would certainly have significance for the proverbs of other languages and cultures.

    Sociology, the study of human societies and their interactions, is an area that has been a source of proverbs. One proverb derived from this source is: “Báyí ó wù kí imú alágbàse ó gùn tó, eni t’ógbe oko fun un lògà è.” (‘However long the nose of a labourer may be, it’s the person who gave them the farm to tend who is the boss.’) This proverb deals with labour relations and underscores the need for employees to know the limit of their rights and authority, as they relate with their employers.

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    In other words, whatever superior knowledge or skills the employee may possess they are still subordinate to the will and authority of the employer. This proverb is often used to admonish a subordinate, even outside the employer-employee context, to moderate their assertiveness when relating to their superior or benefactor.  

    Some Yoruba proverbs also derive from the field of economics. One of them is: “Òwò kìí fún òwò lórùn. (‘One business enterprise should not strangulate another.’)

    This proverb is related to the principle of competition in economics. Such competition promotes innovation by producers, efficiency by marketers and the lowering of product prices to the benefit of the consumers. Undermining such salutary trends by any of the players through the attempt to kill or demarket competitors would therefore amount to an unfair and condemnable business practice that should attract due punishment in well-regulated markets to protect the respective victims.

    In its metaphorical application, this economic proverb is used to admonish people who are in competition in whatever human endeavour or who are merely co-existing in a shared environment to avoid hostile actions against their co-actors or co-occupants. This counsel is based on the understanding that, as another Yoruba proverb puts it, there’s enough space in the sky for birds to fly without colliding (‘Ojú òrun tó eye fò láì fara kanra.”) It is therefore a piece of advice to people to keep away from avoidable conflicts. 

    The field of agriculture has also contributed to the stock of Yoruba proverbs. An example is: “Ògèdè ló wo kòkó yè, kó tó d’igi burúkú.” (‘It’s after nursing the cocoa seedling to maturity that the banana starts to be seen as a bad plant.’) In other words, the bigger banana plant is used by farmers to protect the vulnerable cocoa seedling from the vicissitudes of the weather and the farm. Thereafter, as the cocoa plant has matured and gained resistance, the banana plant is cut off to yield more space to the cocoa plant.

    This agricultural proverb is usually invoked metaphorically when people decide to harm those who protected them or their associates in the vulnerable moments of the ingrates or those associates. 

    Proverbs are also drawn from mathematics – the science of numbers. An example, is “Ènìyàn méta ò dúró ní méjìméjì.” (‘Three people cannot stand in two pairs.’) The mathematical principle underlying this proverb is that a pair consists of two things. So, to have two pairs, there has to be a minimum of four things. As such, if you have only three things, you can only have one pair plus a single thing. In other words, if you have three people, they cannot stand in two pairs.

    This proverb can be used to underscore the impossibility of realising a desired goal. It would within that context be an invitation to face reality.

    Physics has also provided opportunities for creating proverbs. One example of such proverbs in Yoruba society is: “Lááláá tó r’òkè ilè ló n bò.” (‘Whatever goes far up comes down in the end.’) The principle which this proverb enunciates is that of the “pull or force of gravity”.

    A simple description of this principle, by Science Learning Hub, is as follows: “Gravity is a force that attracts all objects towards each other – every object with mass pulls on every other object with mass. When a person jumps off a chair, the person is attracted to the Earth and the Earth is attracted to the person. The Earth moves a tiny distance towards the person as the person moves towards the Earth. However, the forces are quite small, and it takes a great deal of mass to exert an easily detectable force.”

    The proverb is therefore used, for example, to remind a person who occupies a position of authority that just as the force of gravity pulls objects to the ground, time will bring those who are in elevated positions to the ground. Such a pull could be conditioned by the fact that tenured positions come to an end. The proverb therefore cautions occupants of such high-up positions to be careful in the exercise of their temporary authority. The proverb is also used to encourage the victims of, for example, an over-bearing boss to endure the difficulty, since the oppressor’s period of power will inevitably end.

    Engineering has also been a source of proverbs. One subfield which is relevant for proverbs is metallurgy. According to the  New World Encyclopedia, “Metallurgy is a domain of materials science and materials engineering that studies the physical and chemical behavior of metallic elements …” The Yoruba proverb of note in this regard is: “Tí irin bá kan irin, òkan á tè.” (‘When an iron encounters an iron, one will bend.’)

    This metallurgical proverb relates to the aspect of engineering called “strength of materials”. According to The Efficient Engineer, “Strength of materials, also known as mechanics of materials, is a branch of engineering that deals with the behavior of solid objects when acted upon by [other] objects.” In other words, as explained by Nuclear-Power.com, “In the mechanics of materials, the strength of a material is its ability to withstand an applied load without failure or plastic deformation. The strength of materials considers the relationship between the external loads applied to a material and the resulting deformation or change in material dimensions.”

    The principle underlying the proverb is similar to that of the common folk saying “Power pass power.” It is used outside the field of engineering to warn that one tough person or group would surrender to or be subdued by a superior one, as happens, for example, when a strong football team or political party is defeated by a stronger one. The proverb is also used to explain a situation in which the defeat has already taken place.

    The medical sciences have also been a veritable source of proverbs. For example, with respect to obstetrics, the sub-field which deals with pregnancy, childbirth and related issues, this proverb exists: “Pípé títí aláboyún kò kojá osùn mésán.” (‘However long a pregnancy may be, it cannot exceed nine months.’) In creating this proverb, Yoruba society was not oblivious of pre-term babies who are referred to as “Kíyèséní” (‘Watch the mat.’) This name is based on the relative smallness of the children born before nine months. The society is also not oblivious of children born beyond the nine month standard who are referred to as “Omópé” (‘The child was late in coming.’)

    In its metaphorical application, the proverb is used to exhort people to be patient when they are expecting something with high anticipation or when they are experiencing some form of difficulty. In this regard, the proverb would be assuring that what is expected would come in due course.

    Proverbs are a versatile form of folklore. They appear everywhere and deal with every subject. Since human societies in different locations have vast areas in which they are similar, due to the commonality of human experience, an appreciable number of proverbs of different languages may be similar, corresponding or relatable. Proverbs are also variable due to changing circumstances. So, a single proverb in one location may have more than one slightly or radically differing versions. When locations differ, the proverb variations may be more pronounced.

    Proverbs are didactic; that is, they teach. They are also entertaining due to the different rhetorical devices employed in their creation. They have been called the palm oil with which words are eaten, and have been referred to as the horse of speech with which lost words or messages are found. Proverbs could be comforting, but could, on the other hand, be nasty. In fact, they could, for example, be misogynistic (that is, propagating female-demeaning messages) or even genocidal (promoting racial hatred and destruction).

    Proverbs therefore need to be given significant attention in the programmes of Nigeria’s Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and Creative Economy, in the light of the increasing global recognition of the value of folklore, and as we continue to celebrate World Folklore Day 2025.

  • KWAM 1’s second chance

    KWAM 1’s second chance

    Prominent Nigerian musician King Wasiu Ayinde Marshal (KWAM 1), who is otherwise called K1 De Ultimate, and whose father’s name is Anífowóse, has just had a confounding near-death experience, and it has made many to be repeating a question from one of KWAM 1’s lyrics. The question is “Irú kí lèyí, omo Anífowóse?” (‘What’s this for goodness sake, Son of Anífowóse?’) In its current context, this rhetorical question wonders, rather sarcastically, how KWAM 1 could have deliberately put himself in a life-threatening situation.

    According to reports, KWAM 1 had wanted to board a ValueJet commercial flight from the local wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport, Abuja, to Lagos on 5 August, 2025, but had a flask with him in which was a liquid substance. He was told that he could not board with the liquid substance in keeping with a well-publicised aviation safety regulation. He was said to have refused to obey the directive, in spite of the intervention of the lead pilot of the plane, Captain Oluranti Ogunwale-Ogoyi.

    It was further reported that in anger, he willfully spilt the liquid substance on Captain Oluranti and some other people. While some believed that what was spilt from the flask was alcohol, KWAM 1 claims that it was water. Reports also had it that because the head pilot could not persuade him not to board without the liquid in the flask, she returned to the cockpit. Once the boarding of the other passengers was concluded, the plane’s door was shut.

    Reports further said that in order to stop the plane from moving without him on board, KWAM 1 stood in front of the aircraft. From some of the videos of the incident trending on social media, the pilot moved slightly to make the readiness to commence the flight unmistakable, but KWAM 1 was unfazed. So, the plane stopped; and she revved the engine; and the plane started taxing in earnest.

    At this point, KWAM 1 left the front of the plane, but was now quite dangerously in the line of the wing of the moving plane. Then he bent dramatically, and escaped being hit or killed by the wing. It is this scenario that has given KWAM 1’s rhetorical question “Irú kí lèyí, omo Anífowóse?” its new resonance, and all sorts of comic contents have been created around KWAM 1’s near-death experience.

    For example, his own caustic humour was redirected at him with respect to a Yoruba expression he had created or popularised. The expression, ‘ganusi’, literally means ‘to set one’s mouth’ in readiness for free or undeserved food or money. He had used the word to denigrate some Muslim priests who, when the funeral ceremonies of his mother were being conducted, had come to him in his personal house rather than go to his father’s house where the main activities were taking place. 

    The expression became instantly popular, and means going where you’re not expected or invited, in anticipation of a favour, or pressurising somebody for something. Now that KWAM 1 has done the unthinkable by standing in front of a plane to prevent it from moving, he has become the object of the humorous use of his own expression ‘ganusi’. As one humourist put it, “Wasiu ganu si bàlú” (‘Wasiu stood suicidally in front of a plane.’)

    The KWAM 1 episode came with other interesting optics, including Oluranti’s widely-circulating iconic photograph. In her immaculate white shirt, with her slightly tilted right shoulder showing clearly that she was a four-striped pilot, it was unmistakable that she was a Captain. In aviation parlance, a Captain is more explicitly called Pilot in Command (PIC), whose ‘word is law’ as far as the plane she is flying or about to fly is concerned.

    In fact, an informational on https://www.law.cornell.edu states: “The Pilot in Command of an aircraft is directly responsible for, and is the final authority as to, the operation of the aircraft.” The Australasian Legal Information Institute hosted by University of Technology Sydney Faculty of Law also states: “The PIC has the authority to remove or restrain individuals on board who pose threat to safety.” Even a simple Google search on the subject reveals: “The Pilot in Command has the ultimate authority on board and can refuse boarding to any passenger deemed a safety risk.”  Did K1 De Ultimate know that Captain Oluranti was The Ultimate authority on that ValueJet flight?

    To be clear, regarding unruly or disruptive passengers, SKYbrary states: “Annex 17 to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Chicago Convention (Convention on International Civil Aviation Security Safeguarding International Civil Aviation Against Acts of Unlawful Interference) defines a disruptive passenger as: ‘A passenger who fails to respect the rules of conduct at an airport or on board an aircraft or to follow the instructions of the airport staff or crew members and thereby disturbs the good order and discipline at an airport or on board the aircraft.’”

    The KWAM 1/Oluranti scenario reminds one of the following lyrics by the popular Yoruba female musician, Salawa Abeni: “Gentle lady ni mí, èmi kì se fighter o. Kènikéni má tì mí lo síbi ìjà.” (‘I’m a gentle lady. I’m not a fighter. Let no one draw me into a fight.’) In his regard, Oluranti seems to have followed William Shakespeare’s counsel in his play Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3: “Beware of entrance to a quarrel; but, being in, Bear’t that the opposed may beware of thee.” That is, avoid getting into a quarrel as much as you can; but once a quarrel has been forced on you, fight in such a way that your opponent becomes scared of you. 

    Another language-related point about the plane-stopping episode is that Wasiu Ayinde is a ‘Marshal’, and Air Marshals are charged with preventing or dealing with violent acts on planes. Ironically, it was Ayinde Marshal himself who was prevented from boarding the ValueJet plane to stop him from compromising security and safety. 

    The first name of the ValueJet Captain is also noteworthy. She is Olúrántí (‘God remembered’), and the shortened form of the Yoruba name is Rántí (‘Remember’). In her 5 August, 2025 response to passenger unruliness, she has given KWAM 1 and Nigerians at large something to remember for a very long time to come. In one comic skit, she was named “Pilot Kògbérégbè” (‘Pilot No Nonsense’).

    KWAM 1 refused to take instructions from Oluranti, but he was forced to ‘bow’ to the wing of her plane. This image has also been a source of morbid humour, and KWAM 1 has been called “Aríkúyerí” (‘One who bows to escape death’). Moreover, Portable, the irreverent popular Yoruba musician sang sarcastically, in his new single titled “Plane Stopper”: “Ìbèrè mo wà. Ìbèrè mo wà. Ikú rékojá, ìbèrè mo wà” (‘I’m in a bending position. I’m in a bending position. Death flew over me. I’m in a bending position.’) On 9 August, 2025, one humourist called KWAM 1 “The No.1 Plane Bender in Nigeria.”

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    Moreover, one of the lyrics of the late Yoruba apala music star, Ayinla Omowura, is “Òré, b’ó sògùn òwò, jòwó má se dúro dè mótò” (‘My friend, if you’ve fortified yourself with a touch-me-not, danger-repelling magical charm, don’t stand in the way of a moving vehicle.’) If Ayinla had been alive today and witnessed KWAM 1’s ValueJet action, maybe Omowura would have revised the song to “Òré, b’ó sògùn òwò, jòwó má se dúro d’aropúlènì” (‘My friend, if you’ve fortified yourself with a touch-me-not, danger-repelling magical charm, don’t stand in the way of a moving plane.’)

    A new word has also come into Nigerian English courtesy of KWAM 1’s 5 August airport show. As pointed out on the TVC News programme “Your View” of 11 August, 2025, the word is ‘kwamish’. Ms. Morayo Afolabi-Brown noted with respect to this word: “kwamish behaviour … is [the disagreeable conduct of] passengers … when there’s an altercation between them and flight attendants or airport officials.” An adjective, the novel word also means ‘self-endangering’.

    Additionally, when an Ibom Air passenger, Comfort Emmanson, was alleged to have become unruly and violent on board and she had to be physically removed, and bundled into a waiting airport bus by aviation security on 10 August, 2025, she was referred to as “KWAM 2”. Indeed, one writer referred to other potential disruptive or unruly air passengers as “KWAMS”.

    Since KWAM 1 has been President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s bard, detractors have been holding him vicariously responsible for KWAM 1’s audacity and indiscretion. This is in spite of the President’s demonstration of intolerance of clearly disagreeable conduct from anybody – family, friend or foe.

    On 8 August, 2025, KWAM 1 tender this apology : “… I take full responsibility for all [the] incidents. Once again, I seek forgiveness from Mr. President, the Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who’s also my father and father of the nation, the Honourable Minister for Aviation, the pilot, the airline, the airline staff, passengers, and above all, my fans across the globe, my family, for the incident. … Please accept my apology.”

    In a press statement on 13 August, 2025, the Honourable Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN, said: “In the case of KWAM 1, the NCAA is to reduce his flight ban to a one-month period. FAAN will also work with the music star with a view to engaging him as an ambassador for proper airport security protocol going forward. … Having publicly demonstrated penitence, the NCAA is also to withdraw its criminal complaints against KWAM 1 earlier lodged with the Police.”

    The Minister continued: “In the case of Captain Oluranti Ogoyi, and the co-pilot, First Officer Ivan Oloba of VALUEJET, the NCAA is to restore their licenses after the same period of one-month ban after undergoing some mandatory professional re-appraisal.” As further acts of clemency inspired by the Minister, the court case instituted against Comfort Emmanson has been withdrawn unconditionally by the plaintiffs and dismissed by the court; and she has been freed from detention.  

    Today’s Wasiu is inescapably different from the pre-5-August-2025 Oluranti-encountered KWAM 1. In his very sober moments, he would, most likely, be having nightmares or shuddering flashbacks of the incident. Fortunately, he got the divine second chance of missing death by a whisker. He also got the ministerial second chance of missing litigation and the possibility of imprisonment if found guilty of disruptive and life-threatening aircraft-related conduct. He should use his double second chance productively.

    KWAM 1 remains a popular brand in the Nigerian music industry, but it’s at present a battered brand. He therefore needs a public relations offensive to attract overriding positive attention. This could entail, for example, instituting a schools debate competition, establishing a broad-based scholarship scheme, initiating a robust entrepreneurial empowerment programme or building a strategically-located multi-purpose community centre.

  • Resurgent PDP

    Resurgent PDP

    It can be safely claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has finally re-established its bearing as a consequential party. This was amply demonstrated in the Consultative Conference of PDP Founding Fathers and Stakeholders which held at the Nigeria Airforce Conference Centre, Abuja, on 23 July, 2025, and was convened by Professor Jerry Gana, a member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the party who is also a former Minister of Information and National Orientation in the PDP-controlled administration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. The theme of the conference was “Reclaiming our Legacy, Renewing our Collective Vision.”

    In his welcome address, Professor Jerry Gana invited the party stalwarts “very graciously, on behalf of all of us who are Founding Fathers representing our elders here, to kindly join me to really thank the Acting National Chairman for bearing the burdens. … Put your hands together for the Acting National Chairman and the Acting National Secretary. … Thank you very, very much.” The conference was also an occasion for reliving PDP’s glorious days and expressing commitment to repositioning the party.

    Professor Gana then said, regarding the crises rocking the party and the defections to other parties by some erstwhile members: “We are pleased to reaffirm to all of you and to Nigerians that the Peoples Democratic Party is alive, is flourishing, is mobilising, is moving. … The PDP is alive. … We are remaining in PDP. We are progressing in PDP. We are mobilising in PDP, and we are going to win in PDP.”

    He continued: “In forming the Peoples Democratic Party in 1998, the Founding Fathers were profoundly moved by timeless principles, deep-rooted values and fundamental objectives. Those leaders [did] not gather just to capture power. That is what other people do. They just gather to capture power. We were not gathering to capture power. We had very clear ideals and values and principles.” He specified these as follows: “The first two were really to terminate military rule in Nigeria and to restore democracy. … And the second part of it was really to ensure that civilian rule can be authoritative … so that the people can really enjoy.”

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    Furthermore, Professor Jerry Gana said: “Hope is not lost. A new PDP is emerging. A new PDP is being reformed. It’s going to be responsive. It’s going to give excellent leadership. It’s going to move things forward. We shall not rest until Nigeria is rescued, until our economy works, until our schools and hospitals function, until security is restored, until our democracy thrives, until our national economy transforms and really creates wealth so that poverty is banished from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. By the grace of God, we shall rise again…. And we shall triumph.”

    In his remarks, the Acting National Chairman of the PDP, Ambassador Umar Damagun, said: “This gathering is more than symbolic. It is an affirmation that the Peoples Democratic Party is alive, resolute, and focused on reclaiming its rightful place at the centre of Nigeria’s political life. … Like any living institution, we have faced internal rifts, betrayals, and moments of national disappointment. In 2013, we witnessed one of such practices that shook us to our very core. A group of party leaders walked away from our party seeking new alliances. Today, we witness yet another. But history reminds us that splinters may form, but they do not define the tree.”

    Ambassador Damagun continued: “We are not easily shaken, because our roots run deep. The PDP offers more than a political structure. It embodies ideological clarity, resilience of spirit and the staying power to stand and overcome turbulent winds. But we must also confront the hard truth. Much of the injury the PDP has suffered has been self-inflicted from the Obasanjo era to this moment. We have often jettisoned ideology in favour of personal ambition.”

    He then reassured: “However, let it be said and known that our doors remain open to those who wish to return. … Our past has proven that self-inflicted wounds can be healed. If we return to our core and rise above personal interest, there remains a bright and redemptive future for the PDP and Nigeria. I want … to tell our members, ‘PDP is one.’ If you belong to PDP, you belong to PDP. You can’t have two parties at a time. You either stay or leave us in peace.”

    Bauchi State Governor, Bala Muhammed, who is also the Chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, also said: “Even our elders that have gone, we don’t want to diminish them. We don’t want to denigrate them or abuse them. We we are telling them with humility, ‘Come back.’ That’s what the National Chairman has said. ‘Come back. This is the house we have built where there are governors, where there are senators, members of the Houses, Speakers, offices, Local Government Chairmen. You are going to a party that has no office. How is that smart?’”

    Governor Bala Muhammed continued: “But certainly, as the Chairman has said, we cannot take indiscipline to a level where it becomes contagious. If you are in PDP, you are in PDP. You cannot be in PDP and be in the coalition or another party. … You cannot belong to two places. You cannot be a hermaphrodite. You cannot be a man and a woman at the same time. PDP is a man, and we are moving.”

    Governor Muhammed also noted: “But we will still give you opportunity to have a [rethink], because you are our leaders. But if you are going, don’t demarket us. Demarketing the PDP is not fair. Most of you actualised your political aspirations through this party. Some of them left us and caused our loss in 2015, and yet we accommodated them and they left and came back. Some of them became governors and some of them took tickets. This is PDP for you. It is only in PDP you get that [kind of accommodation].”

    In his goodwill message, former Senate President Bukola Saraki said: “I think it was Victor Hugo who said that there’s nothing like an idea whose time has come. This meeting has come at the right time and that is why I thank you all for organising it, because it is time for us to write our own story. It is time for us to provide direction for this great party. For many, they have already buried this party before now. But your presence here speaks volumes that nobody is going to bury this party. We are going to rescue this party.”

    Senator Saraki continued: “Yes, the party will have its challenges and is having its challenges. But the question we should ask is ‘Should we abandon this party because of these challenges?’ Yes, mistakes have been made in the past, but the question still is: ‘Should we abandon this party?’  I stand here as someone who has experienced being in this party and not being in this party.  I stand here as somebody who left this party with anger. Anger does not provide purpose to leadership. A lot of people who are leaving the party now are leaving with anger. … Yes, we have problems. But the other parties we’re talking about also have problems. … So, what are they offering Nigerians that PDP cannot offer?”  

    The former Kaduna State Governor Ahmed Makarfi, who is also a former Senator and a former National Chairman of the PDP, in his remarks, provided the following perspective: “You see, we had internal issue, not because we hate each other, [but having] to do with the office of the National Secretary. It took legal issues [and] INEC regulation issues. Leaders said: ‘Look, let’s not walk into a trap. What does the law say? What does INEC regulation say?’ And when we saw it clearly, we said: “Let’s bury the hatchet. Let’s move to our convention united, and elect new national officers that will drive the party.’” 

    The former Niger State Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu also remarked: “… many a time, if you don’t look at your little history, you would be repeating the same problem. And I heard both the Chairman and the Chairman of the Governors’ Forum [being] very diplomatic, and [saying] ‘Come back. Come back.’ No, you don’t invite nomadic politicians back to your place. These were people with the history of nomadism. … We cannot keep on knowing that the black sheep in the family keeps on destroying whatever we’re building and then [keep saying] ‘Come back.’”

    He also pointed out: “Our party is not just to win elections. The party is also to ensure the culture of sane, real, principled politics. So, even if we don’t win elections but we are one united, principled party, we will be recognised. Please let us pay attention to what we should be doing rather than looking at those people who will never, never, ever think of you, but only think of themselves.” 

    The major test of the strength of the resurgent PDP would come in the form of how the leaders address “the Wike issue”. There is the tendency for some people to declare, without discernment, that the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, Barrister Nyesom Wike, is the problem or main problem of the PDP. When on 11 July, 2025, an impassioned young female ARISE News interviewer, expressed impatience with PDP’s handling of the Wike issue ‘with kid gloves’, the elderly, experience-rich Chief Bode George, a member of the BoT of the party, responded: “He is also a member of the Board of Trustees. So, you just don’t fire people of that status. … We had had to bend over backwards.” 

    Moreover, in a 31 July, 2025 Arise News interview with former Governor Mu’azu Babangida Aliyu, he noted with respect to indiscipline within the party: “There are many people in the PDP we should have suspended or dismissed. But we are so incapable, because they have been able to use money to penetrate all the organs of the party, and now we are trying to get it back together. And our frustration is that the people that would have joined hands together to get this party in a better form are the ones who are running away.”

    From all indications, the resurgent PDP seems to be a party of the future, with that future, all things being equal, starting from 2031. In the interim, the capacity of the current leaders of the party to stay the course would be put under sustained test. At present, PDP is a dazed party, but given how upbeat key participants at the Jerry-Gana-convened conference were, it is a stupor with an expiry date; and even that date can be brought forward with focus, tenacity and self-sacrifice.  

  • Yusuf Buhari: Dining with elders

    Yusuf Buhari: Dining with elders

    As a Yoruba saying goes, “When a young person knows how to wash their own hands, they dine with elders.” The funeral rites of and tributes to President Muhammadu Buhari involved an array of elders and leaders of this nation. But it also had a place for the youth. For example, Seyi Tinubu, Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s son, could be seen ‘standing sentry’ to his father at the graveyard of our late president. Even more notably, Yusuf Buhari, the late President Muhammadu Buhari’s son, was seen taking part in the most sacred physical, religious and spiritual duties of the interment of his father.

    Yusuf came into national consciousness after he had a near-fatal accident on a power-bike in Abuja on Tuesday, 26 December, 2017, while playing one of the games that children of well-to-do parents play.  Following that incident, he seemed to have appreciably disappeared from public view. Then on Friday, 20 August, 2021, he re-emerged for his wedding. He was again in the public glare on 13 July, 2025 taking brisk steps and with an unflappable disposition in the London Clinic where his father had just passed away.

    Most noticeably, Yusuf captured public imagination at the burial of his father on 15 July, 2025, where he was seemingly the Chief Mourner to President Buhari. Yusuf showed how suddenly a young person could have thrust upon them the responsibilities of a much older person. And he discharged those responsibilities with grace and remarkable composure.

    Taking part in the interment of a departed Muslim is believed to be a most spiritually rewarding act. Adherents of Islam therefore strive not to let the opportunity to take part in the performance of that sacred duty pass them by, wherever and whenever they can. When a person is a close relative, or, as in Yusuf’s case, a son to the departed, that duty assumes an even grander significance.

    Yusuf could be seen, along with others, receiving the body of his father shorn of all appurtenances of office and worldly embellishments, and lowering him, with all sacredness, into the simple grave that had been dug as his last worldly abode. Following this, there was the arrangement of planks and the laying of mats on them to prevent heaping sand directly on the body. Next was the mud-dressing of the grave.

    At this point, Yusuf himself seemed to have risen above worldly care. With the sleeves of his kaftan rolled up, and kneeling down to ensure that he could reach the right points of the grave, he received mud from the late President Buhari’s Minister of Communications and Digital Economy, Malam Isa Ali Ibrahim, otherwise called Isa Ali Pantami, who is an Islamic scholar in his own right, and performed the sacred duty to his father. In his company at this sobering moment was also the teary and profusely sweating Governor of Katsina State, Malam Dikko Umar Radda.

    When the dressing of the lower part of the top of the grave was completed, the Vice-President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, His Excellency Kashim Shettima, among others, took a shovel and partook in the final spread of sand on the grave, symbolising the Federal Government’s optimal discharge of one of its most sacred duties to our departed President.

    If a dead person can see what those they left behind are doing, President Muhammadu Buhari must be proud of the solemn honour that his dear son had done him. Hajiya Aisha Buhari, the former First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, must also be comforted to see the demonstration of her successful motherhood, seeing Yusuf come of age so admirably in the family’s moment of trial. And Yusuf’s sisters must be pleased seeing how competently he was assuming the role of the man of the house. The Daura Emirate must also be reassured that they acted right in conferring on Yusuf the title of Talban Daura, a top traditional position, in 2021.

    In the continuing performance of his duty to his departed father, Yusuf was with and spoke for the family at the Special Expanded Federal Executive Council Meeting held in honour of the late President. President Tinubu had endearingly spoken about President Muhammed Buhari.

    In deep appreciation of all of the care, sympathies, accolades, and honour, Yusuf Buhari read the following prepared speech:

    “Good evening, everyone. I would like to acknowledge the protocols already established. On behalf of the entire members of the family of the late Muhammadu Buhari, …  I wish to sincerely extend our deepest gratitude to Mr. President, His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the First Lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu, the Vice-President, His Excellency Kashim Shettima, and his wife, Hajiya Nana Kashim, for your outstanding support [to] the family from the time he took ill until he peacefully passed on … on Sunday 13th July, 2025.

     “It has shown that he was regarded [as] far more than a politician, but regarded as a friend, and a father to all members of the Federal Executive Council. For the care and befitting burial accorded to our late father, we appreciate you all.

    “I also wish to thank the Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and all the distinguished and honourable members of the National Assembly for honouring the memory of our late father during the state burial in Daura. I will also not forget to mention and convey our appreciation for the support from the Attorney-General of the Federation and members of the Judiciary, Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs, Nigeria High Commission in London, the Governor of Katsina State, Borno State as well, and all his colleagues for identifying and standing firmly with us during this difficult period.

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    “Let me specially and specifically acknowledge the Chief of Defence Staff, the Service Chiefs, Heads of Security and Law Enforcement Agencies, as well as all members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, our late father’s first and primary constituency, for the esprit de corps, solidarity and the befitting military burial given to our late father.

    “Finally, we thank all members of the diplomatic corps, traditional and religious leaders, political associates, friends, family members, the press and indeed all Nigerians at home and in diaspora for the numerous calls, messages, condolence visits and prayers offered for the repose of the gentle soul of our departed father. Your visits, calls, and prayers symbolise a great honour to the memory of our late father and we’re sincerely grateful for all the support and solidarity extended to the family. May Allah continue to bless us all and to bless all of us.

    “Thank you, daddy. Thank you, daddy. Thank you, daddy. May Allah continue to bless, guide and protect you throughout your tenure successfully. Long live Mr. President and long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Thank you.”

    The comprehensive appreciation was a fine speech for a 33-year old man addressing a rare major public forum for the first time, and it accordingly generated resounding applause.  

    Before the programme ended, President Tinubu proposed: “In honour of his memory, with this Special Session of the Federal Executive Council (Expanded), can we adopt the renaming of University of Maiduguri … as Muhammadu Buhari University, Maiduguri.” The proposal was approved with thunderous applause.

    Muhammadu Buhari University, Maiduguri

    The Federal Government’s decision to rename the University of Maiduguri after President Buhari has elicited different reactions. Some have received the decision with excitement and have commended the government. Such supporters have cited the fact that he was the military Governor of North-Eastern State with its capital in Maiduguri and he was the first military Governor of Borno State, and that he had repelled Chadian soldiers who invaded parts of Borno State in the past. They also noted that, even as President, Buhari showed strong affinity with the state and most likely visited it more than he did any other state in the country.

    However, some have condemned the decision. For example, in a 24 July, 2025 set of resolutions of the University of Maiduguri Branch of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the union states as follows: “Congress views any attempt to rename the University of Maiduguri after fifty (50) years of esteemed existence as a flagrant disregard for University Autonomy, a disruption of cherished academic traditions and a direct affront to the collective heritage and identity of the University Community.”

    The union also said: “Congress mandates the ASUU-UNIMAID Executive Committee (EXCO) to explore all available legal avenues to challenge the renaming and ensure that the University’s original identity is preserved.”

    The UNIMAID Branch of ASUU further stated: “The Congress calls upon ASUU at the branches, zone and national levels to urgently engaged the National Assembly, Civil Society Organizations, and other relevant stakeholders, including students to resist any legislative endorsement of the renaming.”

    Time will tell how this will pan out. Meanwhile, it is important to note that the University of Maiduguri itself has honoured President Buhari by naming the Senate Building of the University after him. Moreover, the Maiduguri International Airport has been named after him. Some of those who oppose the renaming of the University of Maiduguri after President Muhammadu Buhari argue that it is superfluous to rename the university after him.

    Regarding this argument, it is important to note that naming one thing after a public figure of note does not preclude naming other things after the same person. A good example of this is former United States President J.F. Kennedy. Several things including an airport, a university, or key units of universities have been named after him, even outside the United States. Looking at the various things named after him, it would be noticed that there is a gradation of honours.

    With respect to President Buhari, the naming of the University of Maiduguri after him could be regarded as a magnum opus – the greatest of the honours that could be done to him, given the wider global reach of a university and the rarity of President Buhari’s globally acknowledged personal character. This point is important, because one of the cancers eating up every part of Nigeria’s body politic is corruption.

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s rare public morality would therefore be a wonderful subject of intellectual inquiry, which can produce results which could help to get Nigeria out of its moral morass. Indeed, if the renaming of the University of Maiduguri stands, it could be an opportunity for establishing the university or any of its set of appropriate units as a Centre of Excellence in Public Ethics.    

  • Wike’s PDP

    Wike’s PDP

    The case of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the current Honourable Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, evokes deep thought. The PDP had been appreciably damaged by its loss in the 2015 presidential election. Like fair weather friends, many stalwarts of the party who had benefited immensely from the party abandoned it. In fact, in a most unkind manner, one of the foremost beneficiaries of the PDP made a public show of destroying his party membership card. Some others who were not so negatively dramatic displayed betraying indifference. At the peak of the party’s tribulation, some suggested that it should change its name to renew its public appeal.

    But there were people who did not give up on the PDP. Foremost among these loyalists of the party was Nyesom Wike, especially during his tenure as the Governor of Rivers State. He provided requisite funding and associated support and breathed life back into the PDP. Then those who wouldn’t touch the party with a long pole or kept what they imagined was a safe distance from the party started to fly back to it like moth towards light. And they returned with renewed predation and the attempt to sideline those who had stayed loyal to the party in its most trying times.

    Nyesom Wike was one of the most prominent of the PDP stalwarts who suffered the conspiracy. Based on the belief that with the All Progressives Congress (APC) President Muhammadu Buhari, who is a northerner, about to end his 8-year tenure in 2015, it was expected that a southerner would be presented by the party. So, Wike showed interest in contesting the presidential primaries of the PDP towards the 2023 general elections. The popular belief at the time was that he was well-paced to emerge as the party’s candidate for the election. But that did not come to be. It was reported that last minute ethno-regional and political manoeuvres and manipulation accounted for his loss.

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    There were also proposals that Wike be nominated as the Vice-Presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who won the PDP primary. This too did not materialise. And the question of undermining the zoning formula which was believed should have favoured the South arose. In line with this belief, Wike declared that he would only support a southerner for the presidency in 2023. Incidentally, the most prospective southerner at the time was Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu of the APC. So, Wike supported him in the presidential election, while simultaneously working for the victory of the PDP at the State House of Assembly, House of Representatives, Senate and Governorship elections in Rivers State.

    Wike’s support for President Tinubu during the elections and his subsequent appointment by the President as the Minister of the FCT has made him prone to accusations of anti-party activities by some members of the PDP and certain members of the national elite, especially some sections of the Nigerian media. But Wike has robustly defended himself against this accusation. In fact, when Seun Okinbaloye, in a 30 August, 2023 Channels TV interview, asked him, “Governor Wike, you are a PDP member in an APC government. Is that right?”, Wike replied: “Governance is not about party. Party is a vehicle that conveys you. … I’m a PDP member … unrepentable.”

    Wike also cited a precedent: “Remember Obasanjo and Atiku, President and Vice President in this country in 1999, … took late Bola Ige, who was an AD [Alliance for Democracy] member not just to become a Minister of Power, but [also] Attorney-General, No. 1 Minister of the country, … because Obasanjo and Atiku believed that he could contribute in these areas. … I never hid my intention. As a PDP member, I came out and [said] I’m going to support equity, fairness and justice. Did I not say so? Did we not say that you cannot as a party, if you mean well for this country, continue with the line you are going, [which] means that we [Southerners] don’t have a place in the party? … So, what is new now about anybody talking about I’m serving APC [while] in PDP.”

    Wike explained further: “I was in PDP; I supported Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Yes, did I hide it? … I’m not here to work for a party. I’m here to support the President who has confidence in me to help him to deliver the renewed hope, and I owe nobody any apologies at all, at all. I was in PDP, I worked for Ahmed Tinubu to be President of Nigeria. In fact, … if people have forgotten history, in the South-east and South-south, there’s no … state the President won, except Rivers State. … We came out to say it earlier that we were going to support a southerner to be president.”

    With respect to getting the approval of the leadership of the PDP before taking up the President’s offer of a ministerial position to him in an APC-controlled government, Wike said: “I respect the party. I wrote to the National Chairman and his people that this is the offer made to me by the President. Did they say they told me not to accept? I wrote a letter to the Zonal Chairman of my party. … They said, ‘Accept it. It’s a call for duty.’ I wrote to the State Chairman of my party. He said, ‘Accept it.’ I wrote to my Governor. He said, ‘Accept it.’”

    Wike also disclosed: “This government wrote to all the governors of PDP and APC to nominate people for appointments … and … PDP governors nominated people for appointment. … I challenge anybody, anybody, anybody who is the governor of PDP that said he never wrote any letter to this government for so-so people to be appointed under this government. Has anybody come to challenge me?” To underscore the veracity of his claim, he dared any governor who could do so to counter the claim. It is uncertain whether any PDP governor has taken up this challenge.

    Those who have been castigating the PDP for indulgence in relation to the party’s seeming inability to discipline or expel Wike from the PDP for accepting a position in an APC government and declaring his intention to support President Tinubu’s second term election in 2027, while still being a member of the PDP, thus appear to be oblivious of the real state of affairs of the party. In fact, to Okinbaloye’s question, “Are you afraid that your party might move against you and expel you?”, Wike replied: “No. Who’s the party?” To this question, Okinbaloye replied: “The PDP.” And Wike asked: “Who are the PDP people?” Okinbaloye responded: “The Executives of the party, the NEC [National Executive Committee] of the party.”

    Then Wike remarked: “How can anybody talk about expelling me, [in] a state that brought a state governor, a state that brought three Senators, a state that produced 32 House of Assembly members, a state that produced 11 out of 13 House of Reps members.” He also asked: “Who are these people coming to say they would discipline me? Discipline who? Discipline who?” He further boasted: “I have not seen that person, with all due respect, who would do it. … Nobody would do it. … I should be the one calling for the discipline of these people who violated the party constitution … in the way that the party said there must be rotation.”

    Meanwhile, some prominent members of the PDP declared that they were committed to stopping President Tinubu from getting a second term in office, but, in a defeatist way, said that the PDP could not achieve that goal alone. So, they decided to defect from the PDP and form a new party or move to an existing one. These PDP members have been working in collaboration with some disaffected members of the APC and some members of the Labour Party (LP). Recently, the coalition against President Tinubu decided to join the African Democratic Congress (ADC). The defection of the PDP members of the coalition has further created a challenge to Wike and his allies to see that the PDP does not die.

    In fact, one of the erstwhile vocal promoters of the PDP who is enamoured of the coalition, Dele Momodu, said: “There is only one major stakeholder in PDP and that is Nyesom Wike.” Momodu said that Wike had insulted and alienated key figures in the party. Momodu also declared: “Without any doubt, people are leaving the carcass of PDP to Wike and his cronies.” Wike also said about members of the coalition: “The buccaneers and vampires – We have sent them parking.”

    In the PDP, there have been those who have manifested the inconstant, nectar-seeking butterfly syndrome and who, like rolling stones, have gathered no moss. Then there have been migratory political birds who usually have not been making any significant political appearance until the approach of elections. Moreover, there have been political hibernators who have withdrawn from the political scene to save themselves from the exertions which constantly nurturing the party can require. In addition, there have been what may be called ‘transitional politicians’ whose souls, as some PDP leaders have put it, have left the party with only their bodies remaining in it.

    These categories of PDP members have provided a backdrop for politicians like Nyesom Wike who, once the curtains of stereotypes are drawn, reveal them as having been the true pillars of the party. In the circumstance, the PDP needs revaluation, reformation and regeneration.

  • Patrice Lumumba in his own words

    Patrice Lumumba in his own words

    As Paul Jenkins says, “The value of history lies in its power to elucidate the past events, inform  present conditions, and guide future decisions.” So, following last week’s 65th anniversary of the independence of the Congo from Belgium on 30 June, 1960, and as ‘regime change’ rents the air in relation to the Israeli-Iranian war, let’s look at some critical aspects of the history of the Congo and its first Prime Minster, Patrice Lumumba, as revealed in his Independence Day speech, which read:

    “Men and women of the Congo,

    “Victorious independence fighters,

    “I salute you in the name of the Congolese Government.

    “I ask all of you, my friends, who tirelessly fought in our ranks, to mark this June 30, 1960, as an illustrious date that will be ever engraved in your hearts, a date whose meaning you will proudly explain to your children, so that they in turn might relate to their grandchildren and great-grandchildren the glorious history of our struggle for freedom.

    “Although this independence of the Congo is being proclaimed today by agreement with Belgium, an amicable country, with which we are on equal terms, no Congolese will ever forget that independence was won in struggle, a persevering and inspired struggle carried on from day to day, a struggle, in which we were undaunted by privation or suffering and stinted neither strength nor blood.

    “It was filled with tears, fire and blood. We are deeply proud of our struggle, because it was just and noble and indispensable in putting an end to the humiliating bondage forced upon us.

    “That was our lot for the eighty years of colonial rule and our wounds are too fresh and much too painful to be forgotten.

    “We have experienced forced labour in exchange for pay that did not allow us to satisfy our hunger, to clothe ourselves, to have decent lodgings or to bring up our children as dearly loved ones.

    “Morning, noon and night we were subjected to jeers, insults and blows because we were ‘Negroes’. Who will ever forget that the black was addressed as ‘tu’, not because he was a friend, but because the polite ‘vous’ was reserved for the white man?

    “We have seen our lands seized in the name of ostensibly just laws, which gave recognition only to the right of might.

    “We have not forgotten that the law was never the same for the white and the black, that it was lenient to the ones, and cruel and inhuman to the others.

    “We have experienced the atrocious sufferings, being persecuted for political convictions and religious beliefs, and exiled from our native land: our lot was worse than death itself.

    “We have not forgotten that in the cities the mansions were for the whites and the tumbledown huts for the blacks; that a black was not admitted to the cinemas, restaurants and shops set aside for ‘Europeans’; that a black travelled in the holds, under the feet of the whites in their luxury cabins.

    “Who will ever forget the shootings which killed so many of our brothers, or the cells into which were mercilessly thrown those who no longer wished to submit to the regime of injustice, oppression and exploitation used by the colonialists as a tool of their domination?

    “All that, my brothers, brought us untold suffering.

    “But we, who were elected by the votes of your representatives, representatives of the people, to guide our native land, we, who have suffered in body and soul from the colonial oppression, we tell you that henceforth all that is finished with.

    “The Republic of the Congo has been proclaimed and our beloved country’s future is now in the hands of its own people.

    “Brothers, let us commence together a new struggle, a sublime struggle that will lead our country to peace, prosperity and greatness.

    “Together we shall establish social justice and ensure for every man a fair remuneration for his labour.

    “We shall show the world what the black man can do when working in liberty, and we shall make the Congo the pride of Africa.

    “We shall see to it that the lands of our native country truly benefit its children.

    “We shall revise all the old laws and make them into new ones that will be just and noble.

    “We shall stop the persecution of free thought. We shall see to it that all citizens enjoy to the fullest extent the basic freedoms provided for by the Declaration of Human Rights.

    “We shall eradicate all discrimination, whatever its origin, and we shall ensure for everyone a station in life befitting his human dignity and worthy of his labour and his loyalty to the country.

    “We shall institute in the country a peace resting not on guns and bayonets but on concord and goodwill.

    “And in all this, my dear compatriots, we can rely not only on our own enormous forces and immense wealth, but also on the assistance of the numerous foreign states, whose co-operation we shall accept when it is not aimed at imposing upon us an alien policy, but is given in a spirit of friendship.

    “Even Belgium, which has finally learned the lesson of history and need no longer try to oppose our independence, is prepared to give us its aid and friendship; for that end an agreement has just been signed between our two equal and independent countries. I am sure that this co-operation will benefit both countries. For our part, we shall, while remaining vigilant, try to observe the engagements we have freely made.

    “Thus, both in the internal and the external spheres, the new Congo being created by my government will be rich, free and prosperous. But to attain our goal without delay, I ask all of you, legislators and citizens of the Congo, to give us all the help you can.

    “I ask you all to sink your tribal quarrels: they weaken us and may cause us to be despised abroad.

    “I ask you all not to shrink from any sacrifice for the sake of ensuring the success of our grand undertaking.

    “Finally, I ask you unconditionally to respect the life and property of fellow-citizens and foreigners who have settled in our country; if the conduct of these foreigners leaves much to be desired, our Justice will promptly expel them from the territory of the republic; if, on the contrary, their conduct is good, they must be left in peace, for they, too, are working for our country’s prosperity.

    “The Congo’s independence is a decisive step towards the liberation of the whole African continent.

    “Our government, a government of national and popular unity, will serve its country.

    “I call on all Congolese citizens, men, women and children, to set themselves resolutely to the task of creating a national economy and ensuring our economic independence.

    “Eternal glory to the fighters for national liberation!

    “Long live independence and African unity!

    “Long live the independent and sovereign Congo!”

    This speech upset King Baudouin of Belgium who was in attendance and whose earlier address glamourised, especially, the plundering and genocidal reign of his great-uncle, Leopold II, over the Congo. So, Belgian and American collaboration toppled Lumumba’s administration on 14 September, 1960. Lumumba was arrested, publicly humiliated, and on 17 January, 1961, assassinated. His corpse was cut into pieces, much of it dissolved in sulphuric acid, and the rest burnt. Before his death, he wrote the following letter to his wife, Pauline, in December 1960:

    “My beloved companion,

    “I write you these words not knowing whether you will receive them, when you will receive them, and whether I will still be alive when you read them. Throughout my struggle for the independence of my country, I have never doubted for a single instant that the sacred cause to which my comrades and I have dedicated our entire lives would triumph in the end. But what we wanted for our country – its right to an honorable life, to perfect dignity, to independence with no restrictions – was never wanted by Belgian colonialism and its Western allies, who found direct and indirect, intentional and unintentional support among certain high officials of the United Nations, that body in which we placed all our trust when we called on it for help.

    “They have corrupted some of our countrymen; they have bought others; they have done their part to distort the truth and defile our independence. What else can I say? ‘That whether dead or alive, free or in prison by order of the colonialists, it is not my person that is important. What is important is the Congo, our poor people whose independence has been turned into a cage, with people looking at us from outside the bars, sometimes with charitable compassion, sometimes with glee and delight. But my faith will remain unshakable. I know and feel in my very heart of hearts that sooner or later my people will rid themselves of all their enemies, foreign and domestic, that they will rise up as one to say no to the shame and degradation of colonialism and regain their dignity in the pure light of day.

    “We are not alone. Africa, Asia, and the free and liberated peoples in every corner of the globe will ever remain at the side of the millions of Congolese who will not abandon the struggle until the day when there will be no more colonizers and no more of their mercenaries in our country. I want my children, whom I leave behind and perhaps will never see again, to be told that the future of the Congo is beautiful and that their country expects them, as it expects every Congolese, to fulfill the sacred task of rebuilding our independence, our sovereignty; for without justice there is no dignity and without independence there are no free men.

    “Neither brutal assaults, nor cruel mistreatment, nor torture have ever led me to beg for mercy, for I prefer to die with my head held high, unshakable faith, and the greatest confidence in the destiny of my country rather than live in slavery and contempt for sacred principles. History will one day have its say; it will not be the history taught in the United Nations, Washington, Paris, or Brussels, however, but the history taught in the countries that have rid themselves of colonialism and its puppets. Africa will write its own history and both north and south of the Sahara it will be a history full of glory and dignity.

    “Do not weep for me, my companion; I know that my country, now suffering so much, will be able to defend its independence and its freedom. Long live the Congo! Long live Africa!

    “Patrice.”

    These personal accounts of Belgian colonial brutality are invaluable records of Congolese and African history.

  • Nigeria’s democracy and its malcontents

    Nigeria’s democracy and its malcontents

    A series of events which took place within the past three to four weeks have brought to the fore the question of democracy in Nigeria. The pivot of these events was the celebration of the 2025 Democracy Day which was marked with a national holiday on June 12.

    On June 12, 1993, after about eight years of political merry-go-round by the military regime headed by General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida from 27 August, 1985, Nigerians, with a lot of hope and enthusiasm, went to the polls to vote in the presidential election between the candidate of the National Republican Convention (NRC) – Alhaji Bashir Tofa – and that of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (popularly called MKO Abiola).

    When it became apparent that Chief MKO Abiola had won the election, Babangida’s military regime suspended the announcement of the results and annulled the election, thereby dashing the hope of millions of Nigerians across the nation. The regime went ahead, on 26 August, 1993, to install an illegitimate contraption called the Interim National Government (ING) headed by a well-known industrialist, Chief Ernest Sonekan, who, like MKO, was from Abeokuta in Ogun State.

    This weak impostor government was unsurprisingly sacked on 17 November, 1993, and General Sani Abacha was declared military Head of State. It is not clear whether the Babangida regime, the ING contraption and the Abacha junta anticipated the reaction of citizens to the electoral travesty. The winner of the election, MKO Abiola, resisted the annulment and the subsequent illegal administrations and insisted on the restoration of his mandate, and at a point in time he had to leave Nigeria to go and pile international pressure on the Abacha regime.

    There were widespread protests against the annulment, and various resistance groups emerged, with the most famous being the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) formed on 15 May, 1994. The longstanding Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, was part of this coalition. In 1994, MKO Abiola returned from exile, and on 11 June, 1994, he declared himself President at Epetedo in Lagos. He was arrested by the Abacha regime and kept in detention until he died on 7 July, 1998, after resisting all attempts to get him to drop his claim to victory at the June 12, 1993 election.

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    One of the Nigerians who stood by Abiola prominently and continued the pro-democracy struggle even after MKO’s death was Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. He represented Lagos West Senatorial District from 1992 and his membership of the Nigerian Senate was terminated with Abacha’s dismantling of all democratic structures in 1993. Going into exile in 1994, he continued the pro-democracy agitation, collaborated with other pro-democracy activists and provided refuge and sustenance to a lot of others outside Nigeria.

    Dismissive of this democratic antecedent, the former Governor of Jigawa State and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Alhaji Sule Lamido, in a 21 June, 2025 interview with Arise News, said: “I feel highly entertained by Tinubu’s rhetoric. The way he is dramatising his own role in Nigerian democracy. … With all respect to him, he was part of those people who were supporting Babangida’s annulment of June 12. He was part of it. His own mother, Hajiya Mogaji from Lagos, was organising Lagos market women to Abuja to pledge support for Babangida.”

    In a 22 June, 2025 press release, Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, countered Lamido’s claims as follows: “Let us set the record straight: Mrs Mogaji never mobilised market women to support the unjust annulment.” Similarly, on 4 June, 2001, at the renaming of the newly-dualised Oregun Road in Lagos “Kudirat Abiola Way,” in honour of the Late Alhaja Kudirat Abiola (MKO Abiola’s wife), a then much younger Femi Falana (who has since grown to become a Senior Advocate of Nigeria), acknowledged Alhaja Mogaji’s condemnation of the annulment. He noted that Alhaja Mogaji asked the Federal Government, through Oyinlola who was in a Federal Government delegation to Kudirat Abiola’s burial: “E ti oko m’ólé, e p’aya è. Èyí wa daa bí?” (‘You imprisoned the husband and killed the wife. Is that good?’)

    Onanuga also stated: “It is important to remind Nigerians that Mr Lamido, as secretary of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) – the party whose candidate, MKO Abiola, won the June 12 election – was among those who failed to oppose the military’s injustice. The SDP leadership, including Mr Lamido and chairman Tony Anenih, wrote their names in the book of infamy by surrendering the people’s mandate without resistance. To their eternal shame, Messrs Lamido and Anenih teamed up with the defeated National Republican Convention to deny Abiola his mandate. … In sharp contrast, Bola Tinubu stood firm even before General Abacha dissolved the political parties and all democratic institutions, including the National Assembly, on 17 November 1993, following his coup.”

    Moreover, in a 25 June, 2025 interview on Channels Television, Senator Shehu Sani said: “The contribution of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in the struggle for the restoration and revalidation of the June 12 mandate was unequaled and unparalleled by anybody in the political realm.… In fact, the first time I met him was in the sitting room of Chief MKO Abiola [along with] the late Dr. Beko [Ransome Kuti] and Frederick Fasheun … strategising on how to mobilise a national resistance and a national protest at that very era. Tinubu played a pivotal role in triggering a national uprising that gave birth to the recognition of June 12 decades after. … Lamido played a role in Abiola’s victory, but he was absent in the resistance, and as far the resistance was concerned, Tinubu was in the forefront.”

    With the sudden death of the Head of State, General Sani Abacha, on 8 June, 1998, General Abubakar Abdulsalami became the new Head of State and drew a swift timetable for the return of democratic governance on 29 May, 1999, ushering in the Nigerian Fourth Republic. The more liberal outlook of the Abdulsalami military regime paved the way for many of the pro-democracy activists in exile, including Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to return to Nigeria to take part in the new politics enabled by the new administration.

    Tinubu contested the governorship election for Lagos State on the platform of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) which was a party formed by Afenifere. He won and was Governor of Lagos State from 29 May, 1999 to 29 May, 2007. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former military Head of State, who became the first democratically-elected President of Nigeria in the Fourth Republic, did not find it easy adjusting to the appreciably liberal nature of democratic governance.

    To President Obasanjo, it was an afront for Tinubu, the Governor of Lagos State, to create Area Councils in the state. For this reason, the allocations due to Lagos State from the Federation Account were withheld. The Lagos State Government approached the Court, and the Supreme Court ruled the Obasanjo administration’s action illegal and ordered the release of the withheld funds to the state. However, the Obasanjo-led Federal Government did not comply with the Supreme Court judgement. This was a flagrant contempt of the Supreme Court and an attack on the rule of law which is one of the major pillars on which democracy rests.

    Obasanjo’s manifestation of discontent with the democratic principle of separation of powers and his lack of respect for the free choice of the people was also shown in his attempt to muscle victory. In 1999, the bulk of the South-west voters did not support him at the ballot box. Being from the South-west himself, this amounted to a big source of embarrassment. To remedy the situation, Obasanjo approached the leaders of Afenifere and AD with a plea. He wanted the South-west to give him handsome votes in 2003.

    One of the terms of the agreement was that the South-west AD members would vote for him in the presidential elections, and he would work for the South-west AD governors in the gubernatorial elections. The governors fulfilled their part, but Obasanjo did not fulfil his own. So, while he earned good votes in the South-west and won in the zone, the acquiescent AD governors lost their seats to Obasanjo’s Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The only governor who didn’t swallow the bait was Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

    Referring to this episode, on June 12, 2025, a day that had been thoughtfully and duly declared by President Muhammadu Buhari as Democracy Day in Nigeria in honour of Bashorun MKO Abiola’s victory, Tinubu said in his speech to the National Assembly: “In 2003, when the then-governing party tried to sweep the nation clean of political opposition through plot and manipulation, I was the last of the progressive governors standing in my region. … My allies had been induced into defeat. My adversaries held all the cards that mortal man could carry. Even with all of that, they could not control our national destiny because fate is written from above.”

    Relating this to the allegation that the Tinubu administration and the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) were working to turn Nigeria into a one-party state, the President said: “Look at my political history. I would be the last person to advocate such a scheme.” He also noted: “A greater power did not want Nigeria to become a one-party state back then. Nigeria will not become such a state now.”

    Even with respect to the APC, some believe that Malam Nasir El-Rufai’s inability to scale through the Senate ministerial screening in 2023 led him to defect from the APC, and become a strident critic of both the party and the president. Former Governor Rotimi Amaechi, in his case, didn’t leave the party, but due to his loss in the 2022 APC primary election to then-Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he seems to have become an inconsolable critic of the winner. Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, who was the candidate of the PDP in the 2023 presidential election has also been an implacable critic of the president.

    These political figures are part of a coalition named the All Democratic Alliance with the principal declared aim of stopping President Tinubu from winning a second term election in 2027. The National Chairman of the new SDP, Shehu Gabam, noted, in a 24 June, 2025 press conference, that there are certain “forces of the coalition who believe that SDP must be hijacked at all cost or who believe crisis must be induced in SDP because they couldn’t hijack SDP.”

    Democracy is by nature conflictual, and such conflicts where properly moderated can propel growth. It is necessary to assess the extent to which these conflicts, instances of which are mentioned above, have been managed in the Nigerian experience, and which expectations for development citizens should realistically have.