The Nation Newspaper

Category: Nuances

  • Did the Israeli attack anticipate the Iranian response?

    Did the Israeli attack anticipate the Iranian response?

    George Lakoff and Mark Johnson’s famous 1980 book has an interesting title: Metaphors We Live By. The book is of the view that metaphor (the indirect comparison of two or more things which share one or more features) reflects or influences how people think and what they do. In this regard, metaphor is related to stereotypes (uncritical assumptions and positive or negative over-generalisations) and myths (ideas which are based on long-standing or widespread fascination, fear or awe).

    Metaphors, stereotypes and myths have been on ample display since 13 June, 2025 when Israel carried out a surprise attack on Iran. According to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the attack was carried out to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, Israel itself is widely believed to have hundreds of nuclear weapons, and it has refused to admit or deny its possession of these weapons in media interviews. Israel has also refused the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) access to its nuclear research facilities, and has declined to sign the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

    Apart from being used to produce offensive weapons, nuclear capabilities can be put to peaceful uses for human well-being, especially to provide access to alternative energy sources for overall development. Such peaceful uses of nuclear resources are approved by the IAEA. For a country to seek to prevent another sovereign one from developing its nuclear capabilities or even possess nuclear weapons, while the aggressor nation possesses those capabilities, is therefore an overreach and amounts to a usurpation of the regulatory duty of the IAEA.

    Some have argued that the best thing for humanity is to create a nuclear-free world, because of the unimaginable devastation that usually attends nuclear accidents or the deliberate use of nuclear weapons. Such people however contend that if the world cannot be made nuclear-free, then all countries which have the capacity to develop nuclear weapons should be free to do so, to facilitate their development and guarantee their security.

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    In fact, it has been pointed out in this regard that it is countries that do not have nuclear weapons or which agree to abandon their nuclear programmes (e.g., Iraq and Libya) that end up being attacked. Conversely, it is countries that possess nuclear weapons or stockpiles of other forms of weapons of mass destruction (e.g., Pakistan and North Korea) that appear to be safe from aggression however much such nuclear nations or their leaders may be hated or despised by some sections of the international community.

    It is for these reasons that some have argued that Iran does not actually possess nuclear weapons and is not on the verge of acquiring them. In fact, attention has been drawn to the fact that Benjamin Netanyahu has been alleging, ostensibly as a scaremongering tactic, for the past thirty-three years now, that Iran is only weeks, months or a few years away from possessing nuclear weapons.

    For example, Al Jazeerah, like CBS, noted that in 1992, as a member of parliament, Netanyahu told the Knesset that “within 3 to 5 years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear weapon.” He made related claims three years later and also in 2009 and 2012. As Al Jazeerah notes, “and, 33 years after Netanyahu’s first so-called imminent warning, Israel attacks Iran [and he said], ‘If not stopped, Iran could produce a nuclear weapon in a very short time. It could be a year. It could be within a few months.’ … That’s despite the US Director of National Intelligence saying Iran isn’t building a nuclear weapon, months earlier. … But for Netanyahu, the slogan has been the same for decades.”

    Whatever the credibility or lack of Netanyahu’s allegations may be, Israel took it upon itself to attack Iran on 13 June, 2025, and the surprise attack has wrought remarkable damage on Iran in human, intellectual and physical terms. Specifically, the attack led to the killing of top Iranian nuclear scientists, some top Iranian military personnel, Iranian civilians, and also resulted in immense physical damage.

    In spite of the devastation, Iran has not appeared to have been dazed for too long, and it didn’t seem to have had the time to mourn its dead, considering the fact that within hours of the Israeli attack, Iran started its retaliation. And it was spectacular. It launched a mass of ballistic missiles against Israel. Some were successfully intercepted by the Israeli defence system respectively metaphorically named ‘Iron Dome’, ‘David Sling’ and so on, but some of the missiles beat the Israeli defence and managed to hit their targets. Considering the ease with which these Iranian missiles seemed to have been penetrating the Israeli anti-missile system, some have claimed that rather than call it “Iron Dome”, it should be called “Paper Dome”.

    There have been speculations that as the attacks and counter-attacks continued, Iran was launching more advanced missiles which were increasingly beating the Israeli defence system. This drew attention to some metaphors of the war. The Israeli attack on Iran was code-named “Operation Rising Lion”. However, given the robust retaliation by Iran, and speculations that at some point Netanyahu had fled from Israel under pressure, and also from the images of Israelis scampering to safety as the sirens were constantly sounding, some suggested that the Israeli attack should actually have been codenamed “Operation Running Rabbit”.

        The Iranian missiles hit various strategic targets in Israel and have caused extensive damage. These include the headquarters of the Israeli military, the offices of Israel’s famed intelligence agency (MOSSAD), Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport, and the strategic Haifa Port. The Iranian missile attacks have created an unaccustomed image of devastation in Israel and widespread panic among the citizens, leading to desperate efforts to leave the country to escape the Iranian barrage. One estimate put the number of Israelis who had fled to Cyprus within the first week of the war with Iran at 30,000.

    Following Iran’s confounding response to the Israeli attack, Israel has been inviting America to join it in the war to decapitate any presumed imminent Iranian nuclear endeavours and to topple the current Iranian government. According to CNN in a 20 June, 2025 report, “Under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Kameinei, Iran has emerged as a formidable power in the Middle East and a vital counterweight to US dominance – just as China is working to expand its own diplomatic and economic footprint in the region.”

    There have been ambivalent signals from America’s President Donald Trump regarding Israel’s call, and the American ambivalence has been eliciting threats by different countries, such as Pakistan, to come to Iran’s aid, should the United States accede to Israel’s request.

     In the meantime, Pakistan has made the following demands of the United Nations Security Council as reported on 20 June, 2025: “First, categorical rejection and condemnation of Israel’s attacks on the Islamic Republic of Iran since 13th of June … Second, play its role to end the hostilities and promote de-escalation for achieving a comprehensive ceasefire before the situation spirals out of control and threatens the peace and stability of the entire region.”

    Pakistan continued: “Third, clear denunciation of the targeting of IAEA safeguarded nuclear facilities against provisions of international law and the UN Charter as reflected in the UN Security Council resolutions, IAEA resolutions and international humanitarian law including the Geneva Conventions. The Security Council must implement its own resolution 487. Fourth, call for dialogue and diplomacy to promote a peaceful and lasting resolution of the crisis. Diplomacy must be given a chance. … Regrettably, Israeli unlawful strikes against Iran came at a time of intense diplomatic engagement on Iran’s nuclear issue.”

    Meanwhile, Israel has been creating the farfetched scenario that when Iran finishes with Israel, the US will be Iran’s next target of attack. This is a further attempt to try to persuade America to join the war on the side of Israel. Moreover, as the Telegraph of 19 June, 2025 reports, “Israel has warned that missiles launched by Teheran could hit Europe as it intensified efforts to win Western support for its war with Iran in an online advertising campaign.” These propaganda efforts designed to denigrate Iran seem to be ironically lionising the country.

    A war or military attack must have a strategic objective. Was seeing Tel Aviv devasted, Haifa in ruins, and Ben Gurion Airport shattered a strategic objective of Netanyahu’s 13 June, 2025 surprise attack on Iran? Was exploding the myth of the unmatchable Israeli intelligence as symbolised by MOSSAD and the shattering of the stereotype of the invincibility of the Israeli military one of Netanyahu’s strategic objectives? Was shredding the close to a century of cutting-edge research as represented by the destruction of the Weizmann Institute Netanyahu’s strategic goal? Was seeing Israelis die and making Israelis feel unsafe in Israel an anticipated outcome?

    As a Yoruba proverb cautions, war is not like a delicious dish to be relished by either the person serving it or the person to which it is served. Another Yoruba proverb admonishes that it’s the beginning of war that we know; we never know how it will end. It is therefore never out of fashion to preach and maintain peace.

  • Wike’s OAU lecture

    Wike’s OAU lecture

    Barrister Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, former Local Government Chairman, former Chief of Staff to the Governor of Rivers State, former Minister of State for Education, former Governor of Rivers State and current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, was at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU)’s iconic Oduduwa Hall, Ile-Ife, where he delivered the well-attended and well-received 5 June, 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture of the university titled “Nigeria of our dreams.”

    In the 24-page lecture, Barrister Nyesom Wike remarked: “In an era when leadership is often misunderstood or misjudged through partisan prisms, I consider your invitation a balm and your recognition, a vindication and a challenge.” He then declared: “I thank the Governing Council and the University Management for this remarkable gesture, which I do not take for granted.”

    The Minister noted: “Nigeria, as we know it today, was conceived in the crucible of a paradox: consummated by the colonial imperative of amalgamation, yet nurtured by the enduring hope of unity in diversity. From the very beginning, there has always existed a powerful dream that this vast land of many tongues and traditions would someday become a beacon of harmony, justice, and prosperity.”

    He observed that contrariwise, “The Nigeria we see today is not the Nigeria we dreamt of. … We stumbled on the jagged rocks of corruption, danced too long with the ghosts of mediocrity, and surrendered too frequently to the paralyzing cynicism of despair. Our institutions, once envisioned as pillars of progress, have buckled under the weight of impunity and ethnicity. The rule of law is often treated as an inconvenience.”

    He continued: “Insecurity festers across the land. Infrastructure lies in ruins. Our public school system is gasping for breath, and our economy is reeling under the weight of bad policies, runaway inflation, and a currency in free fall from a time when one dollar exchanged for one naira, to today, when over 1,500 naira chases a single dollar. The Nigerian passport has become a red flag at foreign airports. It is a symbol of suspicion rather than pride, our global image tarnished by decades of corruption, fraud, and state failure.”

    He also noted: “Religious institutions, which ought to be moral beacons, have joined the parade. … The litany of woes is long, and for many Nigerians, the dream has faded into a nightmare. … And yet, in the face of this bleak landscape, we must ask: Is all hope lost? Is this the end of the Nigerian story? Can we no longer dream of a nation that works, that cares, that inspires?”

    Wike opined that reclaiming Nigeria’s dreams required a framework with pillars, including leadership, infrastructural development, democracy and good governance, the rule of law and justice, quality education, health and human development, economic prosperity and inclusive growth, security and national cohesion, unity in diversity, cultural renaissance and moral rebirth, and strengthening local government and community resilience.

    On leadership, Wike said: “Many scholars agree that the greatest challenge confronting Nigeria and chronically militating against her development is the plague of bad and mediocre leadership.” He thus declared: “A leader of our dreams must be one who is prepared to lead. … This leader must have the courage and audacity to act, build, innovate and generally expand the frontiers of development with a hands-on approach that would emphasize excellence over mediocrity.”

    The FCT Minister then declared: “Our current president [Bola Ahmed Tinubu] embodies a lot of the qualities that I have stated above. … Leaders before him all spoke about the evil of fuel subsidy, but none had the courage to dare the blackmail of removing it. Tinubu did and is fittingly grappling with the inevitable, unintended and sometimes orchestrated consequences of this removal.”

    Wike continued: “The security situation is being addressed through proper funding and the training and retraining of our army and other security forces. There is no doubt that with the recent Presidential approval for the recruitment of forest guards across the country to take charge of our forests, bandits and terrorists would no longer find incubation points and free territories to operate.”

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    On infrastructural development, the Minister noted: “In this journey towards realizing the Nigeria of our dreams, it is both necessary and noble to acknowledge the efforts of President Tinubu. … Through massive investment in infrastructure, President Tinubu has demonstrated a commitment to tackling the inherited complexities of our federation with candour and courage.”

    The FCT Minister also observed: “The rapid transformation of Abuja is a clear testimony to the President’s dedication to infrastructural revolution in Nigeria. It goes without saying that, although I drive the process in Abuja, it would not have been possible without the overwhelming and ceaseless support of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.”

    On democracy and good governance, the guest lecturer opined: “At the heart of the Nigerian dream lies the vision of a thriving democratic culture. … In this vision, public office is not a privilege to be exploited, but a sacred trust to be honoured, a platform for transformation, not self-enrichment. Good governance is the engine that drives this dream, ensuring that institutions function efficiently and equitably, and that the government remains responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people.”

    On the rule of law and justice, Wike declared: “The Nigeria we dream of is one where the rule of law is not merely enshrined in the constitution but enforced with courage and impartiality, without fear or favour. … Central to this vision is an independent and courageous judiciary, immune from manipulation, and committed to safeguarding human rights and upholding justice for all.”

    On quality education, the Minister remarked: “At the core of the Nigerian dream lies the unwavering belief that qualitative and functional education is the bedrock of national development. … From nursery school to the university level, education in the Nigeria of our dreams must be accessible, inclusive, and relevant, reaching every child regardless of geography, gender, financial status, or ability.” He noted further: “In this regard, for instance, the establishment of the Nigeria Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) is … a monumental step towards realizing the Nigeria of our dreams, a nation built on knowledge, equity, and opportunity.”

    On health and human development, the lecturer said: “At the heart of the Nigerian dream is the unfailing commitment to the health and well-being of every citizen … We envision a Nigeria where health is not a privilege but a right … This vision moves beyond hospital walls to encompass access to clean water, proper sanitation, and a resilient public health system capable of responding decisively to crises.”

    On economic prosperity and inclusive growth, Wike said: “We dream of a Nigeria where prosperity is not the preserve of a privileged few but a shared reality that cuts across regions, social classes, and sectors. … Critical to this vision is the creation of a citizenry empowered with self-reliance and control over critical aspects of their lives, food, shelter, education, and health, with the ultimate goal of eradicating poverty and underdevelopment.”

    On security and national cohesion, Wike observed: “Security is the bedrock upon which every meaningful national aspiration must rest, for no dream can flourish in an atmosphere of fear or instability. At the heart of the Nigeria we envision is a society where every citizen feels safe in their homes, in their communities, and across the federation. … Ultimately, security is not just about protecting borders, it is about protecting hope. It is about building a society where every Nigerian can aspire, strive, and succeed without fear, a nation where peace is the norm, not the exception.”

    On unity in diversity, Wike said: “Fundamental to the Nigerian dream lies a profound recognition: our diversity is not a burden, but a blessing, a source of strength rather than division. … The Nigeria we dream of does not erase differences but celebrates them; it does not impose uniformity but inspires unity.”

    Furthermore, he noted: “At the heart of many of Nigeria’s challenges is a deficit of trust between leaders and followers, ethnic groups, religious communities, and even neighbours. Rebuilding this trust requires more than lofty rhetoric; it demands honesty, transparency, fairness, and justice. Our national policies must be inclusive, participatory, and responsive to both current needs and historical grievances.”

    On cultural renaissance and moral rebirth, the lecturer said: “The dream of Nigeria demands not just institutional reform, but a profound moral and cultural renaissance. … We must return to the timeless values that once defined us: honesty, hard work, mutual respect, and community spirit. Nigeria of our dreams is one where our cultural heritage is preserved, our stories are told with pride, and our values form the moral compass that guides both leadership and followership.”

    On strengthening local government and community resilience, Wike observed: “Without functional, transparent, and empowered local governments, the dream of national transformation will remain a distant illusion. The Nigeria of our dreams is one where development does not hover above in abstraction, but reaches the very doorsteps of the people, through decentralized governance, fiscal responsibility, and vibrant, community-led initiatives. The status, structure, staffing, operations, and funding of the local government system are not mere administrative concerns – they are central to the survival and consolidation of democracy itself.”

    Wike averred that Nigeria is “bruised, perhaps battered, but never broken,” and that “her voice is rising above the din of disillusionment, summoning her sons and daughters, at home and abroad, not to mourn her fate, but to mold her future.” He also counselled: “And above all, we must act not because it is convenient, but because it is essential. … Let us write a new story, not of how Nigeria collapsed under the weight of its contradictions, but of how it rose on the strength of its convictions.”

    In concluding, Wike admonished: “Nigeria of our dreams will not fall into our laps by wishing; it will be won by working. It will demand of us not only passion, but patience. Not only inspiration, but perspiration. Not only courage in moments of glory, but character in seasons of testing. … Let us rise above cynicism and mediocrity, and embrace vision, sacrifice, and purpose. Let us dare to believe that greatness is not beyond us, but within us, waiting to be awakened. Let history record that we gathered here not to mourn what Nigeria has become, but to proclaim what Nigeria must be.”

    The content of Minister Nyesom Wike’s cerebral and illuminating lecture was remarkably broad in its coverage and on point. The style was dignified and engaging, with an effective dose of soundbites and claptraps. The lecture impressively exemplified the positive value of inviting such distinguished, sometimes controversial, personalities to share their thoughts and experiences on an elevated academic platform. For this, the authorities of OAU truly deserve commendation.  

  • Malcolm X and Africa

    Malcolm X and Africa

    In the African-American civil rights struggle of the 1960s, Malcolm X’s mission was to assert the equal humanity of Blacks. This principally meant fighting against the lynching of Blacks, the setting of dogs against Blacks to tear off their flesh, the brutalisation of Blacks by the police, the washing of Blacks down the drain using water from high pressure hoses, and other sundry racial indignities in America. It also meant challenging the government for passing civil rights legislations without the ability or willingness to enforce them and the inequitable refusal to offer Blacks reparations for centuries of slavery to propel them to economic respectability.

    Within the African-American community itself, Malcolm was committed to inspiring Blacks to have a sense of positive self-esteem or racial pride in and unity amongst themselves, and the promotion of the desire to exert themselves optimally to free themselves from the racial quagmire of America. He also believed that America did not have the capacity to solve the problems of Blacks by itself when considered as civil rights problems, and that the problems needed to be internationalised as human rights problems. The starting point in this regard was to reach out to Africans and African governments to let them know the true condition of Blacks in America.

    In carrying out his mission, Malcolm was conscious of the power of the media to misinform and misrepresent, and famously said, “The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses.”  So, he counselled: “Never believe what you read in the newspapers. They’re not going to tell you the truth.”

    Relatedly, a 19 December, 2023 report of ThisWeekInLibraries noted about Malcolm X: “Firstly, he urged individuals to question the motivations behind media messages. He encouraged people to consider who owns the media outlets, and what their interests might be. This could help to reveal any potential biases and agendas. Secondly, Malcolm X emphasized the importance of seeking out alternative sources of information. He believed that mainstream media did not always provide a complete or accurate picture, and that it was essential to look to other outlets for a more balanced perspective. Lastly, he advocated for the creation of independent media … to combat the misrepresentation and give a voice to marginalized communities.”

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    Malcolm also noted: “The best thing the White man ever did for me was to make me look like a monster all over the world, because I can go any place on the African continent and our African brothers know where I stand.”  And Malcolm X did travel widely in Africa, and he was cordially received by various African heads of government.

    In a speech titled “OAAU Homecoming Rally (November 29, 1964)”, he said that, over an 18-week period, he visited Egypt, Sudan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Guinea Conakry, Algeria, and Senegal. According to Malcolm X, “in all the travelling that I did in … Africa, everywhere I went, I found nothing but open minds; I found nothing but open hearts; and I found nothing but open doors. Our people love us. All they want to know is do we love them.”

    Malcolm also declared: “My main theme while I was travelling with our brothers abroad on the African continent was to try and impress upon them that 22 million of our people here in America who consider ourselves inseparably linked with them that our origin is the same and our destiny is the same. … [So] what is necessary, we have to go back [to Africa] mentally; we have to go back culturally; we have to go back spiritually, and philosophically and psychologically; and … when we go back in that sense, then this spiritual bond that is created makes us inseparable.”

    With this, Malcolm opined, “they can see that our problem is their problem, and their problem is our problem. Our problem is not solved until theirs is solved; theirs is not solved until ours is solved. And when we can develop that kind of relationship, it then means that we will help them solve their problem and we want them to help us solve our problem. And by both of us working together, we’ll get a solution to that problem. We’ll only get that problem solved working together.”

    Malcolm reiterated: “This was the essence of any discussion: that the problems are one; that the destiny is still the same; the origin is the same; even the experiences are the same. They catch hell, we catch hell. And no matter how much independence they get on the motherland continent, if we don’t have … respect over here, when they come over here, they’re mistaken for one of us and they’re disrespected too. Well, in order [for them] to be respected, we must be respected.”

    Malcolm was most irked by the colonial administration of Congo by Belgium which he described as “one of the worst racist governments that have ever existed on the face of the earth.” In an 18 July, 2023 YouTube record titled “The speech that got Patrice Lumumba killed,” at Congo’s independence ceremony in Leopoldville, King Baudouin of Belgium praised his country’s colonial record and patronisingly counselled the new Congo government not to change the colonial policies. The Belgian colonial legacy being glamourised here is one which was so racistly brutal that it reportedly caused the death of over ten million Congolese.

    Patrice Lumumba, the new Prime Minister, responded at the event: “Today, we have won our struggle for independence. I salute you in the name of the Congolese government. To you all my friends, who have fought without respite at our sides, I ask you to make of today, this 30th June, 1960, an illustrious day that will be etched on forever on your hearts, a date whose significance you would pass on with pride to your children who in turn will pass on to their sons and grandsons, the glorious story of the struggle for our liberty.”

    Lumumba continued, listing the evils of Belgian colonial rule: “We have known ironies, insults. We have had to submit to beatings morning, noon and night, because we were Negroes. A Black was always addressed in the familiar form, certainly not as a friend, but because the respectful form was reserved for the Whites. We whose bodies have suffered under the colonial oppression, we say to you, it is all over now.” After that brave and patriotic public challenge of King Baudouin, Lumumba became a marked man.

    Shortly after independence, disagreements began between Lumumba and the President, Joseph Kasavubu. These created an opportunity for a military intervention on 14 September, 1960, led by Congolese Chief of Army Staff, Col. Joseph Mobutu (later known as Mobutu Sese Seko), and it resulted in the arrest of Patrice Lumumba. Lumumba was assassinated on 17 January, 1961 at the age of 35 within the territory of Moïse Tshombe, the President of the secessionist mineral-rich Katanga State (from 1960 to 1963) and later Prime Minister of Congo (from 1964 to 1965).

    As Britannica.com reports, “Lumumba and his associates were … executed by a Katangan firing squad, under Belgian supervision, and in the presence of Katangan and Belgian officials and officers. The bodies were then thrown into shallow graves. A Katangan government official later ordered that the bodies disappear. At that point, a Belgian police officer led a group that searched for the graves, dug up the bodies, hacked them to pieces, and dissolved as much of the body parts as they could in sulphuric acid. Anything that remained was set on fire.”

    Condemning Tshombe who was believed to have collaborated with Belgium and the United States to murder Lumumba, Malcolm said passionately: “If there’s the worst African that was ever born, it was the man who, in cold blood, cold blood, committed an international crime, murdered Patrice Lumumba, murdered him in cold blood. The world knows that Tshombe murdered Lumumba, and now he’s a big partner of Lyndon B. Johnson [the 36th President of America]. … Johnson is … propping up Tshombe’s government; the murderer.”

    Imam Omar Suleiman, in a 21 February, 2021 Al Jazeera article reported: “Malcolm also spoke to the internalised racism of Black people that was essential to overcome for true liberation. As the late James Cone states, ‘Malcolm was a cultural revolutionary. Malcolm changed how Black people thought about themselves. Before Malcolm came along, we were all Negroes. After Malcolm, he helped us become Black.’”

    Given that on 5 May, 1962, Malcolm said to Black women, “We teach you to love the hair that God gave you,” how would he have reacted to today’s ‘educated’ African women’s still self-hating humongous investments on different kinds of wigs or ‘hairs’ to make them look like White women? And how would he have reacted to Nigeria’s japa syndrome, considering the fact that he said that he insulted the African-Americans he met in Ghana who cut themselves off the Black struggle back in America and were living in luxury in Africa?

    Considering the state of leadership in Africa today, and possibly because he died at the young age of 39 in 1965, Malcolm X’s vision of an Africa which would unite with the African-American world to carry out joint actions for the mutual benefit of both partners seems not to have gained much traction. All the same, Malcolm has set down an invaluable template for current and future African leaders.

    On Malcolm’s personal identity, Omar Suleiman noted: “In championing his movement’s philosophy, some seek to secularise him, intentionally erasing his Muslim identity. And in championing his religious identity, others seek to depoliticise him. This was a tension that Malcolm noted in his own life, saying: ‘For the Muslims, I’m too worldly. For other groups, I’m too religious. For militants, I’m too moderate, for moderates I’m too militant. I feel like I’m on a tightrope.’”

    On 7 March, 2024, Aaron Bonderson of Nebraska Pubic Media reported: “On Sept. 12, 2022, Malcolm X became the first Black man or woman voted into the Nebraska Hall of Fame. By May, a bust of Malcolm X will be inside the Nebraska State Capitol, along with 26 other Nebraskans.” Moreover, as Jake Anderson reports in a 19 May, 2025 story, in MSN, “Omaha is celebrating its hometown hero and civil rights icon on Monday. It’s Malcolm X Day. The city issued a proclamation in honor of the 100th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s birth. Malcolm X was born in Omaha in 1925.”

    Malcolm X’s birth was a boon to humanity. He was not just an American phenomenon, but also a pan-African star, and, above all, an exemplary human being.

  • Oloyede and UTME 2025

    Oloyede and UTME 2025

    The 2025 Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) has put the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) and the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the board, Professor Is-haq Oloyede, in the eye of the storm. There was widespread suspicion that something had gone wrong with the poor results released on 9 May, 2025 in respect of a range of candidates in some parts of Lagos and the Southeastern states.

    The resultant strident outcry challenged the reputation of the board and the integrity of its boss.

    This led to investigations by JAMB which revealed that the complaints against the poor results released in respect of those candidates were genuine, and Professor Is-haq Oloyede, with contrition, addressed a press conference on 14 May, 2025 to disclose this fact to the public and take personal responsibility for the problem.

    This brings to mind the story of Dwight David Eisenhower, the World War II hero who later became the 34th President of the United States and served for two terms from 1953 to 1961. In 1943, the Allies (countries such as the United States, Great Britain, France, Canada and the Soviet Union challenging the German occupation of other European countries including part of France) were considering appointing a Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Forces to lead ‘Operation Overlord’ to free France from the grip of Germany and work towards ending the Second World War. The searchlight fell on the highly-reputed five-star American General Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

    One of his major charges was to land an overwhelming mass of troops at Normandy in France, and he prosecuted the assignment with diligence. As Military.com reported it, in a 5 June, 2018 National Archive document on American Military History, “An invasion force of 4,000 ships, 11,000 planes and nearly 3 million soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors was assembled in England for the assault.” But on 5 June, 1944, the day before “D-Day” which was 6 June, 1944, Eisenhower started to have doubts about whether the invasion would succeed, considering the fact that, as Military.com noted, the Allied forces were to face “a highly defended and well-prepared enemy.” It was at that point that Eisenhower did something that makes him most relevant to this column today.

    As Lucas Reilly reported it in a 6 May, 2024 account, “Despite a year of strategizing and a boatload of confidence, Eisenhower had a quiet plan in case his mission failed. If the armada couldn’t cross the English Channel, he’d order a full retreat. One day before the invasion, he prepared [and kept the following] brief statement – just in case: ‘Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based up on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine alone.’” As Military.com put it, “Eisenhower’s letter was not needed, because D-Day was a success, opening Europe to the Allies and a German surrender less than a year later.”

    It is a version of Eisenhower’s legendary preparation to accept responsibility for the possible failure of the invasion of Normandy on D-Day that Professor Is-haq Oloyede re-enacted at the press conference of 14 May, 2025, with one of the major differences being that while Eisenhower’s action was pre-emptive and out of the pubic glare, Oloyede’s came after the problem had occurred and on a public platform.

    Like Eisenhower’s massive preparations for D-Day, Oloyede said: “I can assure you that we scale all heights, fathom all depths and traverse all horizons to ascertain that quality assurance mechanisms permeate all our operations from the take off point to the finish line. We burn the midnight oil and we set our standards high. This is why we have guidelines, checklists and protocol guiding our activities right from the time of registration to the points of monitoring and supervision to the processing of results.”

    He also said, “we have several committees in place that are part of our quality assurance system. … All of these groups play critical roles and complement our staff in ensuring quality and troubleshooting challenges.” He continued: “Furthermore, we also have an in-house consultant and expert in software development and cybersecurity. Besides, we have introduced mock examinations since 2017 as primarily a quality assurance measure to test our systems and intervene where necessary prior to the time of our examinations, knowing the nature of technology.  … We also have a robust team of in-house electronic testing experts led by a renowned professor of Software Engineering.”

    In addition, Oloyede noted: “We deploy our systems to the use of high-profile organisations within and outside Nigeria as part of the broader strategy of ensuring that everything works well when we need it to work. As part of our preparations for this year, we upgraded our system from form-based to the single item-based examination, the latter of which is the international standard now. … We improved on the examination system, simulated everything end-to-end before the examinations and we thought everything was perfect.”

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    In accepting responsibility for the problems with the 2025 UTME results, Oloyede declared: “Despite being able to identify the source of the problem and the affected centres, we are conscious of the painful damage it has inflicted on the reputation of JAMB. As Registrar of JAMB, I hold myself personally responsible, including for the negligence of the service provider, and I unreservedly apologise for it and the trauma that it has subjected affected Nigerians to, directly and indirectly.  … It is our culture to admit error because we know that in spite of the best of our efforts, we are human, we are not perfect.  The only consolation we have in this case is that it is just one of the two service providers that did not do well …”

    On apologising, Erika Andersen, in a 5 June, 2012 article, titled “Courageous Leaders Don’t Make Excuses…They Apologize,” in Forbes magazine, said: “Apologizing freely requires a good deal of courage.  It’s not comfortable for any of us to admit an error, or to acknowledge that something we’ve done has caused others harm or inconvenience. So when someone truly apologizes, we know [they are] putting honesty and honor above personal comfort or self-protection.  It’s inspiring, and it feels brave.”

    In the same vein, in an article which is in part critical of JAMB, Professor Oloyede and the Honourable Minister of Education, Abimbola Adelakun, in her column in the Punch of 22 May, 2025 remarked: “I sincerely think Oloyede’s willingness to admit mistakes is commendable. He could have staged a cover-up …. But Oloyede admitted his errors. In our society, that basic minimum is worth acknowledging. I have never really bought into the whole thing about the man exemplifying integrity, simply because JAMB returns unspent funds to the government. However, for that one moment when he admitted failure, Oloyede modelled public accountability. Now, that is a much better example of personal integrity.”

    However, some sections of the society did not see Professor Oloyede’s acknowledgement of failure and personal apology as worthy of adulation. Rather, they cite the acknowledgement and the apology as strong reasons why he should resign as the Registrar of JAMB. Incidentally, such calls seemed to be overwhelmingly coming from critics of Igbo origin. As is usually the case with conspiracy theories, while some Igbo individuals and groups have regarded the 2025 UTME problem as deliberately targeted at Igbos, some other people have seen the problem as an Igbo scheme to discredit a performing Yoruba public officer.

    This ethnicisation of the 2025 UTME problem has itself attracted criticism. For example, Lasisi Olagunju, Editor and columnist with Nigerian Tribune, resented the ethnicisation in his 19 May, 2025 article titled “JAMB, glitches and an inter-tribal war.”  

    Moreover, in a 17 May, 2025 article, titled “JAMB’s fiasco is horrible, but it’s not unexampled,” the US-based Professor of Journalism and New Media, Farooq Kperogi, who is also a columnist with Nigerian Tribune, listed the United States, the United Kingdom and India as countries in which computer glitches have affected public examinations, but in which the heads of the examination bodies did not resign as Professor Oloyede has been ethno-religiously bigotedly asked to do. This belies what may be referred to as “the myth of the saner clime” (that is, the tendency to say, without evidence, that certain things that happen in Nigeria do not or cannot occur in so-called advanced societies).

    In fact, on the call on Professor Oloyede to resign, Professor Yusuf Ali, SAN, a former Chairman of the Committee of Pro-Chancellors of State-Owned Universities in Nigeria (COPSUN), remarked, in a 17 May, 2025 article, in Premium Times, titled “Why Professor Is-haq Oloyede of JAMB is an uncommon person, By Yusuf Ali”: “No serious leader will abandon his people in a time of crisis, which is what his resignation at this point will translate to. This unfortunate incident happened under his watch and it makes a lot of sense that he should not abandon ship but be man enough to see to the end of the problem. Good leadership is not about taking flight when negative consequences arise.”

    Professor Siyan Oyeweso, the incumbent Pro-Chancellor and Chairman of the Governing Council of Obafemi Awolowo University expressed a similar opinion in a 21 May, 2025 article in ThisDay titled “Oloyede’s leadership at JAMB deserves commendation, not reproach.” So has Professor Tunde Akanni in a 15 May, 2025 article titled “This trial of Brother Oloyede” in The Shield Online; and Professor Mahfouz A. Adedimeji, in an article titled “Oloyede’s burden of truth and integrity,” in The Sun of 21 May, 2025.

    Others who have shown circumspection in their reactions to or comments on the 2025 UTME problem include The Nation columnists Tunji Adegboyega, in an 18 May, 2025 article titled “Oloyede, victim of own standard”; Idowu Akinlotan, in an 18 May, 2025 article titled “And JAMB’s Oloyede wept”; Niyi Akinnaso, in a 21 May, 2025 article titled “The 2025 JAMB technical glitch”; and Lawal Ogienagbon, in a 22 May, 2025 article titled “Oloyede: Beyond the glitch.” 

    A wide range of institutions and organisations have also passed a vote of confidence on Professor Oloyede. These include, among others, Lagos State University, University of Ilorin, Fountain University, Nigerian Institute of Public Relations, Muslims of Southwest Nigeria (MUSWEN), and Egbe Agba Itesiwaju Yoruba (a Yoruba elders group).            

    The foregoing shows that there are Nigerians, like Professor Is-haq Oloyede who, against all odds, commit themselves to showing that much good can still come out of this beleaguered and much-maligned nation. When problems occur, such endearing antecedents come in as mitigating factors.

  • Malcolm X’s birthday

    Malcolm X’s birthday

    Monday, 19 May, 2025, marks a hundred years since Malcolm X was born as Malcolm Little on 19 May, 1925. His father was Earl Little and a follower of the black Jamaican Marcus Garvey, and so was his mother. Marcus Garvey had devoted himself to the promotion of the universal unity of black people, founded the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in 1914, and even established a shipping line – The Black Star Line – to move blacks in the diaspora back to Africa.

    This grand establishment-challenging agenda had its risks, including to his life, but Garvey declared: “In life I shall come back, or in death even to serve you as I served before. In life I shall be the same; in death I shall be a TERROR to foes of African liberty. … If I may come in an earthquake or a plague or a pestilence, or if God would help me, then be assured that I shall NEVER desert you and make your enemies triumph over you!” On his impending imprisonment, he said: “If I should die in Atlanta, my work will only just then begin. For I shall live in the physical or the spiritual to see the day of Africa’s Glory.” So, he exhorted, “Look for me in a whirlwind or a storm! Look for me all around you!”

    Due to Malcolm’s father’s Garvey-inspired activities, the father was a prime target of hatred by the white extremist group Ku Klux Klan (KKK). And when his father died in what looked every bit like very cruel circumstances, his family believed that it was the handiwork of the KKK, though the authorities ruled the death as suicide. This official position denied the family any death benefits, and it complicated the family’s trauma, leading to the eventual emotional breakdown of Malcolm’s mother.

    From then on, Malcolm who was six years old was denied direct parental upbringing. Living in a foster home and with his aunt did not adequately compensate for this deprivation. That his teacher racistly dissuaded Malcolm from the aspiration of becoming a lawyer in future, while rather advising him to aspire to become a carpenter, aggravated his social destabilisation; and Malcolm took to a life of petty crimes which eventually led him to jail at the age of 21.

    READ ALSO: Issues in Lagos APC LG primaries

    Malcolm spent the time in jail reading voraciously, educating himself and developing his oratorical skills. By the time he left prison, Malcolm who, when he entered prison, could barely sustain a logical argument, had become a quintessential debater. Even TIME magazine which was evidently hostile to Malcolm could not help but describe him as “a spellbinding speaker.”

    On unity, Malcolm said to black people: “When black people wake up and become intellectually independent enough to think for themselves as other humans are intellectually independent enough to think for themselves, then the black man will think like a black man, and he will feel for other black people. And this new thinking and feeling will cause black people to stick together. And then at that point, you’ll have a situation where when you attack one black man, you’re attacking all black men.”

    Malcolm then noted: “And this type of black thinking will cause all black people to stick together. And this type of thinking also will bring an end to the brutality inflicted upon black people by white people. And it is the only thing that will bring an end to it. No federal court, state court, or city court will bring an end to it. It’s something that the black man has to bring an end to himself.”

    Moreover, in a 1963 speech titled, “Blacks Do for Yourself,” Malcolm said: “20 million black people in this country have been like boys in the white man’s house. He even calls us boy. … [No matter] how big you get, he calls you boy. You can be a professor; to him, you’re just another boy. … If you can’t do for yourself what the white man is doing for himself, don’t say you’re equal with the white man. If you can’t set up a factory like he sets up a factory, don’t talk that old equality talk.”

    Malcolm then admonishes: “Get off the welfare. Get out of that compensation line. Be a man. Earn what you need for your own family. Then your family respects you. They are proud to say this’s my father; she’s proud to say that’s my husband. Father means you’re taking care of those children. Just because you made them … don’t mean that you’re a father. Anybody can make a baby. But anybody can’t take care of them. Anybody can go and get a woman, but anybody can’t take care of a woman.”

         Malcolm was a black women’s rights advocate who declared: “The most disrespected person in America is the black woman. The most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The most neglected person in America is the black woman.  And as Muslims, the Honorable Elijah Mohammad teaches us to respect our women and to protect our women. Then the only time the Muslim gets really violent is when someone goes to molest his woman. We will kill you for our women. I’m making it plain.”

    Malcolm continued: “We believe that if the white man will do whatever is necessary to see that his woman gets respect and protection, then you and I will never be recognized as men until we stand up like men and place the same penalty over the head of anyone who puts his filthy hands out … in the direction of our women.”

    In the words of his wife, Dr. Betty Shabazz, “Malcolm was a good man. … Whatever discipline I have came from Malcolm. Whatever strength I have came from Malcolm. Whatever tolerance and love of my people came from Malcolm. … [For] that, I have Malcolm to thank.” She also said that she had “a husband who served in the streets of America. But I was never fearful. … Malcolm took the fear out of my heart, out of my mind and out of my existence.”  

    On what young people should know about Malcolm X, his friend, the famous female African-American literary icon, Maya Angelou, said: “They should know he had an incredible sense of humor. … Malcolm was a faithful man, great loving person who really loved black people, and then one of the most courageous persons I’ve ever known. Courage is the most important of all the virtues, because without courage you can’t practice any other virtue consistently; you can’t be consistently kind, consistently fair, merciful, just, loving; you cannot.”

    In a 4 June 1964 interview, Malcolm remarked: “I found that anywhere I went, if someone tried to attack me for being blunt and frank and vocal about our problem, there was always someone in the audience ready to put them down. … When I was in Nigeria [in 1964], I spoke at the University of Ibadan which is a beautiful African school … and I did the same thing. I indicted America really by just describing the real plight of the black people of this country. And after I had given this lecture, a Negro stood up, from the Caribbean area here, and tried again to attack me. The students came up on the speakers stand, took the microphone away from him, ran him not only off the stand, ran him off out of the hall and off the campus.” 

    Regarding this kind of examples, Malcolm said: “I cite them very bluntly so that our people in this country will realize that we shouldn’t be fighting our struggle for independence and for the liberation of our people as if we were underdogs. Everybody on this earth is on our side who has a true understanding and knowledge of the nature of the plight or the struggle that we’re facing.”

    In a 20 February, 1983 interview with Gil Noble, Robert Haggins, Malcolm’s personal photographer, said in response to the question on what it was about Malcolm that struck him: “For one thing, the discipline. The fact that everybody was organized. The respect for each other and the way Malcolm addressed me: ‘Sir.’ ‘Yes, sir.’ ‘No, sir.’ Immaculate cleanliness. … The whole demeanor of Malcolm as an individual.”

    He also noted: “Malcolm had an uncanny sense of the value of the media and the value of pictures. He knew that the media was creating him in terms of being a monster … fist clenched, blazing eyes, teeth clenched, all these sorts of things. He wanted me to make photographs of him as a human being.” Haggins further declared: “Malcolm was the only leader out there that taught black people to be proud of being black.”

    In the Gil Noble interview, another of Malcolm’s aides, Earl Grant, who had skills in photography, electronics, research, and some training in the services, and recorded Malcolm’s speeches in addition to serving as his body guard, noted: “The whole existence of black people in this country has been a struggle from Day 1. And what little progress we have made was because somebody made it happen. … And that was what Malcolm was trying to do. He was trying to make it happen.”

    Grant noted further: “This country doesn’t allow black males to mature. It allows them to grow up physically, but not to mature mentally, intellectually, spiritually. And Malcolm gave black men that chance in this country.” According to Grant, “Malcolm was the best thing that ever happened to us. … For one thing, he was honest.” Grant also remarked: “[Malcolm] was a historic figure. He was a holy man. That’s one of the reasons he’s not alive today. … He was too clean to be kept alive in this country.”

    Malcolm was constantly transforming: from being a street boy and prisoner to being a morally-upright, intellectually-inquisitive and inspirational international figure; from being a Christian to being a Muslim Minister; from regarding whites as “blue-eyed devils” to appreciating, from his experience from performing the pilgrimage to Mecca in 1964, that it was possible to find good whites; and from bearing the “slave-master’s name” Malcolm Little at birth to becoming “Detroit Red” in his street days to becoming Malcolm X when he left prison (and joined the Nation of Islam) to becoming El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz when he performed the pilgrimage.

    The moral of Malcolm X’s birth and life is that nobody should give up on themselves or be written off by society. You can always rise above your personal limitations or the encumbrances of your birth. Being a Muslim Minister himself, Malcolm’s life personified Chapter 39, Verse 53 of the Qur’an which says, “Do not lose hope in the mercy of Allah.”

  • APC, April showers and May flowers

    APC, April showers and May flowers

    April showers bring May flowers.” This climatic-cum-horticultural English proverb is significant for Nigeria’s developing political story. Incidentally, we’re currently in the April-May weather nexus, and the proverb is metaphorically relevant for the current state of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

    The party was formed on 6 February, 2013 from a merger of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), General Muhammadu Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change (CPC), the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and part of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Thereafter, a group of members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called “New PDP”, including former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar, defected to APC.

    In this column on 17 November, 2024, in an article titled “Nigeria’s somnolent opposition,” it was shown how the country’s opposition parties seemed to have been in slumber due to, among other reasons, the victory of APC in the 28 March, 2015 presidential elections. Now, it seems that the opposition have woken up, but have done so on the wrong side of the bed, resulting in their befogged perception of the state of the nation’s politics.

    This befuddlement is manifested in the tendency to see the opposition’s different woes as caused by malevolent agents of the ruling APC. So, rather than face their own demons, the opposition and their sympathisers have been blaming APC for striving to create a one-party state. Even the Social Democratic Party, which is itself already receiving defectors, has joined the opposition bandwagon of offloading their problems on to the APC.

    Ironically, it has been APC’s President Tinubu who, since 18 December, 2023, has been making widely-acknowledged efforts to resolve the crisis between the PDP’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister Nyesom Wike, the PDP’s now-suspended Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State, and the suspended PDP legislature. Moreover, Wike said in a media parley on 18 April, 2025: “Two governors under APC … came to talk to me, and I said, ‘Look, I’m not the governor, I’m FCT Minister. … I said, look, I’m here for peace. What does he [Fubara] want? … And they said, ‘We’ll do everything to make [peace happen].’”

    According to Britannica, a one-party state is “a country where a single political party controls the government, either by law or in practice. Examples of one-party states include North Korea, China, Eritrea, and Cuba.” With the constitution declaring the country as a multiparty democracy, with the multiplicity of parties in the nation’s legislatures and with multifarious parties running different states and local governments, Nigeria is neither a one-party state by law nor in practice, and its prospects of becoming one are farfetched. Indeed, the current unfettered, publicly-dramatised attempts to cobble together an opposition coalition to wrest power from APC in 2027 are inconsistent with the movement towards a one-party state.

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    April 2025’s dizzying torrent of defections to APC from different opposition parties show that, as the English proverb says, “It never rains but it pours.” And the one-party phantom in the country seems to be the escapist excuse of politicians who have shirked their responsibility for stabilising, reforming or rebuilding their parties, but who still want to sleep easy. The accusation of working to establish a one-party state is also a ready weapon in the arsenal of APC’s political detractors, and has become a self-deluding form of political denigration.

    For some, the motive for defecting is the attraction of being part of the winning team; for some it is the desire to benefit from inducement; for some it is the need to seek refuge; and for some, it is primarily existential, with respect to the survival of their political careers. The conflict bedeviling the different opposition parties are of importance in this regard, especially concerning those who look forward to contesting elections into executive or legislative offices between now and 2027.

    The Secretary of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) sent a reminder to political parties on the procedures for submitting nominations of candidates for the 2013 Anambra State governorship election as follows: “a) Every political party shall submit the list of the candidates the party proposes to sponsor in Form CF 002 duly signed by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the Political Party. b) The list shall be accompanied with a covering letter duly signed by the National Chairman and National Secretary of the Political Party.”

    As Nyesom Wike alerts, these subsisting INEC procedures put at risk of improper nomination a candidate in whose party there is controversy about who the legitimate National Chairman or National Secretary is. And this is not speculative, as was shown in the relatable Zamfara State APC crises of the recent past. Some members of the party successfully challenged in court the legitimacy of all of the party’s candidates for all of the positions for which they contested, on the ground of improper nomination.

    This is the way the Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room reported the matter on 28 May, 2019: “After a protracted legal tussle, the Supreme Court Friday, 24th May 2019, delivered a judgment nullifying the victory of all Candidates of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Zamfara State in the 2019 General elections. APC Candidates who had been declared winners of thirty-six elective positions in the State, comprising the Governorship, National and State Assembly positions have lost their seats to Candidates of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), who were the first runners-up in the elections. Describing the votes scored by APC in the State as a waste, the Court held that the party did not conduct primaries in Zamfara State and as such, could not field Candidates in the General elections.”    

    In an 8 May, 2025 interview on TVC News, the Leader of the Labour Party Caucus in the House of Representatives, Hon. Afam Ogene, noted with respect to defectors from his party: “And why are they defecting? They are not sure that the Labour Party offers a credible platform to run elections and sustain it. They don’t want a situation [as] happened in Plateau State to happen where they will go for primaries, campaign, win elections, only to be told by the courts that this man has been long thrown overboard as Chairman of the party. And that is why they are seeking their political fortunes elsewhere.” For this, you can’t blame the receiving or ruling party. Even babies don’t spit out honey.

     Considering the gale of defections into APC, the Acting National Chairman of PDP – Ambassador Umar Damagum – and PDP chief Segun Sowunmi warn that APC faces the risk of implosion. Though this counsel comes from opposition sources that cannot easily be said to wish APC well, it is invaluable in the sense that it nudges the party not to lose sight of the fact that even dry land may be slippery. Another Yoruba idiom similarly admonishes: “Acquiring too many friends leads to acquiring treacherous friends.” (“Àyànjù òré tíí mú’ni yan èké.”). It is also believed that the size of the head determines the intensity of its headache. (“Bí orí bá se tóbi tó níí se fó olórí.”) The message here is that grace has pains.

    This brings us to the APC’s Oyo State sore thumb. Oyo State was a solid APC domain. Its troubles in the state started with what some members regarded as the imposition of governorship candidate for the 2019 election. Taking offence at what was believed to be this perverse treatment, some of the other aspirants defected to other parties, and some stayed on but worked against the party. Consequently, APC lost the gubernatorial election to PDP in the state that year.

    History repeated itself in APC’s primary elections for the 2023 elections. The primaries were believed to have been grossly manipulated and some disaffected candidates and members of the party defected from the party. Some even contested the elections on the platform of other parties. Some of those who did not defect worked against the party from within. So, with this protest, complemented by PDP’s incumbency factor, APC lost the governorship election again. The 2027 governorship election would be the third consecutive one. Will APC work to lose again this time around? There’s already grumbling in the air, and APC needs to act right before the grumble becomes a rumble.

    There is also the problem of the zonal dominance of source of governorship candidates in Oyo State. There are five geo-political zones in the state. These are: Oke-Ogun 1 (with Iseyin, Kajola, Iwajowa, and Itesiwaju Local Governments) and Oke-Ogun 2 (with Atisbo, Saki-West, Saki-East, Oorelope, Irepo and Olorunsogo Local Governments), Ogbomoso zone (with Ori-Ire, Ogbomoso North, Ogbomoso South, Surulere and Ogo Oluwa Local Governments), Oyo zone (with Atiba, Oyo West, Oyo East and Afijio Local Governments), Ibarapa zone (with Ibarapa North, Ibarapa East and Ibarapa Central Local Governments), and Ibadan zone (with Ido, Akinyele, Lagelu, Ibadan North, Ibadan North-East, Ibadan North-West, Ibadan South-East, Ibadan South-West, Egbeda, Ona Ara and Oluyole Local Governments).

    Of these five zones, with the exception of Ogbomoso, all of the civilian governors of the present Oyo State, since its creation on 27 August, 1991, have hailed from the Ibadan zone. Oyo State Governor Seyi Makinde put this problem in perspective in a 15 April, 2025 Channels Television interview. Asked by Seun Okinbaloye which zone of Oyo State his successor would come from, he replied: “Politics is a game of numbers. … Still at this particular time, about almost 50% of the population of Oyo State is still domiciled within Ibadan.”

    Governor Makinde continued: “However, well before I became a governor, I told them that the only way the governorship would leave Ibadan is when you have a governor that has performed excellently well, that has had the trust of the people, and if he’s able to find a successor from any zone, then he can push that through. We’re still on this journey. I don’t know if we have … 100% trust from people just yet, but if we focus on what we’re doing, by the end of this year, we will definitely hear what people are saying.”

    Propositions have been made for a constitutional review to stipulate the rotation of presidential candidacy between the different zones of the country, governorship candidacy between the different senatorial districts of a state, and chairmanship candidacy between different parts of a local government. This is the time to give these equitable proposals impetus to facilitate the accommodation of diversity, boost faith in the political system and enhance socio-political stability.

    As has been shown in Nigeria and Botswana, dominant parties don’t last in ascendancy out of sheer size. They last due to methodical politics. Meanwhile, let APC, blessed with April showers of defection, continue to enjoy its May flowers – its increasing chances of victory in the 2027 elections.

  • Labour Party’s compass

    Labour Party’s compass

    There’s the tendency for people to think that Labour Party (LP) – Nigeria – is a young party. But that’s really not the case. The party was formed by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in 2002 as the Party for Social Democracy (PSD), and its name was officially changed to Labour Party (LP) in 2003. The motto of the party is “Forward Ever”.

    According to its website, “the vision of the Labour Party is to urgently transform all facets of the Nigerian nation with a view to: Ensure job-led growth and transform the economy. Overcome under development, vicious backwardness and the paradox of poverty in a wealthy Nation. Redress the extremes of affluence and deprivation. Guarantee social justice for all. Cultivate a new Nigerian and African Personality. Build a knowledge-based society.” It also specifies its mission as the establishment of “a new social contract that must bring together committed and altruistic political actors for democratic consolidation in Nigeria.”

    Furthermore, it states: “In furtherance of our mission, the Party will embark on programs and policies aimed at but not, limited to the following: Programs and policies aimed at ensuring that national cohesion, peace, security, stability and prosperity shall be the collective concern of all because most Nigerians would be made to realistically feel, believe and see that Nigeria cares, inspires and exists for all. All processes aimed at entrenching a culture of democracy and development politics. All processes aimed at contesting elections. Transforming the Party into a vanguard for the defense and sustenance of democracy.”

    One of the first curious things about LP was that though it was formed during the tenure of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as President of the NLC (1999 to 2007), he did not contest on the platform of the party in 2007 when he sought to be Governor of Edo State. Rather, he contested on the platform of Action Congress (AC). The candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Professor Osorheimen Osunbor, was declared winner of that election. Oshiomhole successfully challenged the declaration, and on 11 November, 2008, he assumed office as Governor of the state. He won a second term election in 2012, and was in office till 12 November, 2016.

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    The first major politician to launch LP into national prominence is Dr. Olusegun Mimiko. On 14 April, 2007, he contested, on the platform of the party, the governorship election of Ondo State against the incumbent Dr. Olusegun Agagu of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Mimiko was declared the loser in the election, but that electoral verdict was overturned on 23 February, 2009, when an Appeal Court ruling, citing irregularities in the 2007 election, replaced Agagu with Mimiko as the legitimate Governor.  LP also won some legislative seats in that election. On 20 October, 2012, Mimiko contested again on the platform of LP for a second term, and again, he won. However, in a surprise move, Mimiko returned to the PDP in 2014.

    Before then, as articulated by ABTC NG on 22 February, 2022, “Mimiko’s first political appointment saw him move to the position of commissioner of health and social services in Ondo State from 1992 till 1993 when a coup terminated the third democratic republic. Right after resumption to democratic government in Nigeria, Mimiko again served as a commissioner of health in Ondo State from 1999 to 2002. In 2003, he was appointed secretary to the Ondo State Government. He held this position till July 2005, when he was appointed as the federal minister of housing and urban development.”

    In spite of Mimiko’s return to the PDP, LP was becoming increasingly popular in the Southwest; and when some disaffected members of the PDP in Oyo State in 2015 and the APC in Osun State in 2023 were seeking succour and brighter electoral prospects, it was to LP that they turned.

    Unfortunately, its National Chairman, Alhaji Abdulkadir Abdulsalam, died on 29 December, 2020. According to Vanguard, the eulogy of the Coalition of United Political Parties (CUPP), read in part: “We received the sudden death of Alhaji A.A. Salam with utter shock and total disbelief. A.A. Salam was a major pillar and voice who formed the CUPP and remained committed to its ideals until he breathed his last. A very accommodating, intelligent, experienced, generous and patriotic leader, A.A. Salam was a true democrat and a fighter for justice. He was a father to all and always focused on anything he believed was right and just. … Alhaji Salam was a man with a good spirit, caring, loving and always positive. … We have lost a giant in the political space of Nigeria.”

    The death of Abdulsalam led to the election of the National Secretary at the time, Barrister Julius Abure, as the new National Chairman, by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party on 29 March, 2021, for a four-year term. With the ascension of Abure, Lamidi Apapa became his Deputy National Chairman (South).

    Peter Obi joined LP very close to the primaries of the party for the 2023 elections, and he put up a stunning performance in the presidential election of 25 February. However, the fortunes of the party declined sharply and LP won only one governorship seat in the state elections that held two weeks after.

    Meanwhile, Abure’s administration was bedevilled by various allegations of misdeed, including the betrayal of the party’s foundational principles, the use of the party for personal gain, and financial impropriety. Calls were therefore made, including by NLC, for his removal as National Chairman. Different court cases were also instituted across the aisle. The most notable of these is the Supreme Court judgement of 4 April, 2025, in which the Court held that leadership issues were internal affairs of parties and so courts had no jurisdiction over them. The Court therefore set aside the judgements of lower courts on the National Chairmanship of LP.

    Lamidi Apapa responded as follows in a press conference: “Following the decision of the Supreme Court on setting aside all judgments that recognise the leadership of Julius Abure as National Chairman, I, Alhaji Bashiru Lamidi Apapa, who is the most senior Deputy National Chairman of our great party and in consonance with our party constitution’s Article 14(2)(a)(b) hereby take over the running of affairs of our great party with effect from today, Wednesday, the 9th day of April, 2025, in acting capacity.”

    Senator Nenadi Usman, according to an 11 April, 2025 Arise News report declared: “It is with deep humility and a profound sense of responsibility that I accept the resolution passed at the NEC meeting [of 9 April, 2025], appointing me as the Acting National Chairperson of the Labour Party. I am grateful for the unanimous vote of confidence and for the trust you have placed in me to lead during this transitional period. We followed up this important milestone with a formal visit to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), where we presented the Supreme Court judgment affirming the legitimacy of our party’s leadership transition and communicated the outcome of our NEC proceedings.”

    On 24 April, 2025, Mr. Obiora Ifoh, the National Publicity Secretary of LP, of the Abure faction, addressed a press conference in which he said: “The Supreme Court judgement delivered on the 4th of April, 2025, … actually reaffirmed the national convention of the party held on the 27th of March, 2024 at Nnewi. … [which duly elected] … in line with the internal mechanisms of the party, the current NWC (National Working Committee) of the party [chaired by Julius Abure] …”  Ifoh also noted that the concept of an “expanded stakeholders meeting” which held on 4 September, 2024 and purportedly chose the Nenadi Usman “caretaker committee” was unknown to the constitution of LP, and was therefore illegal, and could at best be described as a mere “political jamboree”.

    The press statement then warned: “Consequently, we admonish Alex Otti, the Governor of Abia State, and Peter Obi, the former presidential candidate of the party in the 2023 general elections, who are the protagonists of the current division in the party to hear the Supreme Court loud and clear.”

    Moreover, in a 2 May, 2025 document titled “Resolutions Reached At The National Executive Council (NEC) Meeting Held On 02/05/2025 At The LP National Headquarters”, jointly released by Barrister Julius Abure, as National Chairman, and Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim, as National Secretary, included the following: “NEC reviewed the anti party activities of Dr. Alex Otti, the Abia State Governor and other erring members and consequently sets up a disciplinary committee as follows: Ayo Olorunfemi – Chairman, Alhaji Umar Farouk Ibrahim – Secretary, Kehinde Edun – Member, Dudu Manuga – Member, Callistus Ihejiagwa – Member. The committee is given two weeks to submit its report.”

    In addition to the above-mentioned three claimants to the National Chairmanship of LP, there is the NLC which tries to exert proprietary influence on the party, but which meets resistance, because very many members of the union do not belong to the party. Just as it’s not clear who the National Secretary of PDP is, it’s not clear who the National Chairman of LP is. It was therefore not surprising for Governor Alex Otti, the only governor produced by the party in the 2023 election to give an ambivalent response to a question on whether he would remain in the LP until the 2027 elections.

    Peter Obi’s commitment to the party is even more tenuous as shown in the following exchange between him and Charles Aniagolu of Arise News on 1 April, 2025:

    Charles Aniagolu: “Are you going to stick with the Labour Party, given the disarray that’s in the Labour Party?

    Peter Obi: “The disarray is caused by the government.”

    Charles Aniagolu: “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter who caused it.”

    Peter Obi: “No, no, no. That’s what I’m telling you.”

    Charles Aniagolu; “Are going to stick …?”

    Peter Obi: “Yes, I’m in Labour Party.”

    Charles Aniagolu: “And are you going to stick with it?”

    Peter Obi: “Well, I’m there. It’s not something I can tell you now. I’m there today, and as time goes on, Charles, if things change, I will tell you. I’m a member of Labour Party. And this is one of the things I told you I will do. I will make sure that parties work.”

    Charles Aniagolu: “But the Labour Party, some would say, Labour Party isn’t working under you.”

    Peter Obi: “It has nothing to do with under me. I’m not the one running the party.”

    You can’t have two captains in a ship. So goes the naval proverb. Now, with four captains in the Labour Party’s ship, and with each captain with their own compass pointing in a different direction, how will it be determined which compass is pointing the right way? And what’s the fate of those onboard this drifting ship?

  • PDP’s fateful trajectory

    PDP’s fateful trajectory

    Who exactly is the National Secretary of the party?” Olajumoke Olatunji of TVC News asked a senior member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Adetokunbo Pearse, on the interview programme “Politics Tonight” on 15 April, 2025. Dr. Pearse replied: “As we stand now, Udeh-Okoye is the National Secretary of the party. … It is only at the National Convention of the party that you can legally, formally, properly decide on this issue, even though it has been decided in-house indirectly.”

    In an 18 April, 2025 interview of former Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose on the Channels Television programme “Politics Today”, Seun Okinbaloye commented: “The PDP and its state of affairs worry a lot of people who watch our democracy and its development in the country. How can a major opposition party be decimated this badly? Bloody nose in … three consecutive elections.”

    Moreover, on 21 April, 2025, Daily Trust reported Dr Kabiru Sufi, a political analyst and Senior Lecturer at Skyline University, Kano, to have noted: “Despite its strength and its past chances, the PDP is withering away for now, considering the divisions within. The fault lines are increasing by the day. We used to have maybe two opposing camps – now three, then four, now five.”

    The party was in government at the federal level from 1999, when the Fourth Republic started, to 2015, when the vitality of Nigeria’s democratic culture was established with the defeat of the ruling party by the erstwhile new opposition All Progressives Congress (APC). After its 2015 loss, leaders of the PDP appeared to have been so demoralised that the party was left enervated and virtually rudderless.

    Then the Governor of Rivers State at the time, Nyesom Wike, stepped in, and provided funding and other forms of support. These halted the party’s slide, but it remained fairly anaemic. And the PDP has been manifesting different forms of that political anaemia ever since.

    The condition of the party was aggravated on 28 May, 2022 when, at the party’s special convention and presidential primary, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar won with 371 votes and Wike trailed him with 237. But that election had complicated antecedents and aftermath. Section 7(2)(c) of the PDP constitution states: “In pursuance of the principle of equity, justice and fairness, the party shall adhere to the policy of rotation and zoning of party and public elective offices.”

    Read Also: Atiku and the Delta defections

    The interpretation of this constitutional provision by some PDP stakeholders, such as Governor Nyesom Wike (who is at present the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory – FCT) and Chief Bode George, who is a member of the Board of Trustees of the party, was that Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ought not to have contested the primary election. They held this view because the position of National Chairman of the party was already being held by another northerner, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu. In addition, the incumbent President of the country at the time, President Muhammadu Buhari, who was on the verge of completing eight straight years of democratic governance, was also a northerner, even though a member of the APC.

    Moreover, the acceptance by the Delta State Governor at the time, Ifeanyi Okowa, to be Atiku Abubakar’s Vice-Presidential candidate touched a raw nerve. On 17 June, 2022, Vanguard reported the issue as follows: “In a statement collectively signed by Chief (Dr.) Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, OFR, CON, Leader SMBLF/PANDEF, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, Leader, Afenifere, Pogu Bitrus, President-General, Middle Belt Forum, Ambassador (Prof.) George Obiozor and President-General, Ohaneze Ndigbo Worldwide, Okowa was … lampooned for accepting the Vice Presidential ticket.”

    Part of the statement read: “It bears recalling that the 17 Governors of the Southern States of Nigeria, both of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), under the Chairmanship of the Governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN, met in Asaba, the capital of Delta State on May 11, 2021, and took far-reaching decisions, including that, based on the principles of fairness, equity and justice, the presidency should rotate to the south, at the end of the statutory eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari’s tenure. And this very Governor Okowa was the host of that historic meeting.”

    According to Vanguard, the statement continued: “The Southern Governors later met again in Lagos, on July 5, where they reaffirmed their decision, and again in Enugu, on September 16, to restate the call that the presidency should rotate to the south in 2023. … It is, therefore, most unfortunate that the Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa who should know better, accepted his appointment as running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. We do not have anything personal against Ifeanyi Okowa but his action is treacherous and tantamount to a despicable pawning of the political future of the people of Southern Nigeria.” Many southerners therefore decided not to vote for the Atiku-Okowa PDP presidential ticket.

    After the PDP’s 2023 presidential election loss, Ayu was suspended by his ward on 26 March, 2023 for working against the party at different levels; and the next day, an interim court injunction restrained him from parading himself as the National Chairman of the PDP. The 28 March, 2023 issue of Premium Times in a story titled, “UPDATED: PDP replaces Ayu as national chairman,” reported the PDP spokesperson, Debo Ologunagba, as declaring: “The National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party at an emergency meeting today, Tuesday, March 28, acknowledged the Order of the Benue State High Court, dated March 27, 2023 with regards to the chairmanship position of our great party.”

    The spokesperson declared further: “After a careful consideration of the Court Order and in line with Section 45 (2) of the Constitution of the PDP (as amended in 2017), the NWC resolved that the Deputy National Chairman (North) His Excellency, Amb. Umar Iliya Damagum assume the National Chairmanship of our great Party in acting capacity with effect from today, Tuesday, March 28, 2023.” But after a while, Damagum himself began to face his own problems with some sections of the PDP, and he was purported to have been suspended from the position of Acting National Chairman.

    This led to litigation, and Channels Television reported as follows about the 11 October, 2024 judgement: “The Federal High Court in Abuja has restrained the National Executive Committee (NEC) and Board of Trustees (BoT) of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from removing Umar Damagum as the Acting National Chairman of the party. Justice Peter Lifu ordered that no person other than Damagum should be recognised as PDP national chairman until the party’s national convention scheduled for December 2025.” Channels Television further reported: “The judge held that in line with articles 42, 47, and 67 of PDP, it is only at the national convention of the party that national officers can be elected.”

    Regarding the controversy on who the real National Secretary of the party should be, on 21 March, 2025, the Supreme Court ruled that the issue was an internal affair of the PDP, and that the courts had no jurisdiction over it. So, Senator Samuel Anyanwu maintains that having not resigned from his position, and having not listed the position of governorship candidate, by the PDP constitution, as a position which can qualify a person to have automatically resigned from a party office they were previously holding, he remains the National Secretary of the party until the National Convention holds.

    PDP Chieftain, Daboikiabo Warmate, who like FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, supports Anyanwu’s position, defended the arguments spiritedly in a 17 April, 2025 interview with Arise News. Warmate also argued that the PDP Governors Forum is not recognised by the PDP constitution as an organ of the party, and that the governors overreached themselves at their 14 April, 2025 Ibadan meeting, by purportedly appointing an Acting National Secretary, where a vacancy did not exist.

    Barrister Nyesom Wike has consistently stated that he would support President Tinubu’s second term election, and so has PDP’s Akwa Ibom State Governor Eno Umo. More concretely, Delta State Governor Sheriff Oborevwori announced his defection to APC, along with the total structure of the PDP in the state, on 23 April, 2025. Moreover, according to the Daily Trust of 21 April, 2025, there has been “a new campaign billboard in Iwo Local Government Area of Osun State featuring both Tinubu and Adeleke. … The APC in Osun accused the PDP of attempting to ride on Tinubu’s popularity to boost Adeleke’s profile.”

    In addition, PDP’s former Governor Fayose has explicitly declared that he would work for APC’s Ekiti State Governor Abiodun Oyebanji’s second term election success. Furthermore, the Chairman of Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Christopher Zakka Maikalangu, all the councillors in the council and over 20,000 supporters were reported to have defected to the APC on 17 April, 2025, to avoid an uncertain political future due to the seemingly intractable crises in the PDP.

    According to PDP’s former Benue State Governor Gabriel Suswan in a 15 April, 2025 Arise News interview, “There are very fundamental problems in PDP. Those problems have not been sorted out, and so a lot of people, in their minds, are no longer in PDP. …  And that is why, because of the failure of leadership in PDP, a lot of people feel that they are politicians and so they should begin to engage other stakeholders across other parties.”

    Like former Governor Suswan who said, “People have lost confidence completely in PDP,” party elder Chief Bode George in a 14 April, 2025 interview with Seun Okinbaloye on Channels Television remarked: “My party is in total confusion now.”

    Similarly, in a 29 January, 2025 Channels Television report of a National Secretaryship reconciliation meeting convened by Ambassador Damagum, the PDP’s Acting National Chairman noted: “Most of this crisis that you see today within the NWC is propelled by our leaders that are supposed to unite us. Some of us are also complicit. And I want to use this opportunity to caution us, caution our leaders. You may have ambition, but you don’t ride on a dead horse to reach your destination.”

    The foregoing notwithstanding, Segun Sowunmi, who has been interested in becoming the National Chairman of PDP, appealed in a 20 April, 2025 Arise News interview: “Please, anybody who’s giving up on PDP now, I’ll just say to you wait until we count the votes [in 2027] and let’s see who’s going to win. But I can guarantee you the PDP will put in a good heart. We’ll put in a best fight. We’ll try to bring the best candidate.”

    Meanwhile, the complex web of acrimony between different tendencies within the PDP is mutually discomfiting. It is like the case of the fowl and the clothes line. When a fowl perches on a clothes line, neither the line nor the fowl is at ease.

  • Niger Republic’s linguistic geo-politics

    Niger Republic’s linguistic geo-politics

    International politics in the West African sub-region entered a dynamic phase when a fresh wave of coups-d’état started to take place in the French-speaking part. Especially noteworthy among these were the coup in Mali on 24 May, 2021 led by Colonel Assimi Goita, the one in Burkina Faso on 30 September, 2022 led by Captain Ibrahim Traore, and that in Niger Republic on 26 July, 2023 led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani. 

    The coups constituted a violation of the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS) December 2001 “Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance Supplementary to the Protocol Relating to the Mechanism For Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security”. Specifically, the protocol in Article 1(b) and (c) states: “(b) Every accession to power must be made through free, fair and transparent elections. (c) Zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.”

    The coups were also a challenge to Nigeria because the country’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu became the Chair of ECOWAS on 9 July, 2023. The coup in Niger Republic was particularly perceived as an afront to Nigeria, because it took place after Nigeria had become Chair of ECOWAS and because Niger Republic was bordering Northern Nigeria. Hawks within and outside the Nigerian government therefore started to contemplate an invasion of Niger Republic to remove the anti-France coup leaders and re-install the deposed pro-France civilian government of President Mohamed Bazoum.

    In fact, Aljazeera’s Shola Lawal, in an article titled “West Africa’s ‘coup belt’: Did Mali’s 2020 army takeover change the region?”, reported on 27 August, 2024: “Tinubu convened an extraordinary meeting of West African leaders immediately after the Niger coup. ECOWAS suspended Niger, shut its borders, cut electricity and demanded that Bazoum be reinstated. All 15 countries except Cape Verde committed troops for a possible ‘military intervention.’”

    The fear that such an invasion could take place led to unimaginable backlash. The geographical contiguity and ethnic and religious affinity between Northern Nigeria and Southern Niger Republic generated stout opposition to any possible invasion. Politicians and other sections of the elite from Northern Nigeria claimed President Tinubu was trying to repay the electoral support they gave him in the 2023 presidential elections with an attack on their kith and kin across the Nigerien border. They also complained that any hostile actions against Niger Republic and the closure of the border between the two countries would jeopardise the economy of Northern Nigeria due to the extensive cross-border trade between both countries.

    Read Also: FULL LIST: Trump mulls shut down of US embassies in Africa

    It was also argued that though Niger Republic looked like an enemy that could be easily subdued, the ramifications of any warlike situation between both countries could have long-lasting negative implications for the internal security of Nigeria. This implies that a smaller or militarily weaker country could thump its nose at a bigger or more militarily powerful one, at least in the short term, if the consequences of the exercise of that power could result in a Pyrrhic victory.

    In fact, the attention of the government was drawn to the near-conflict situation between Nigeria and the United Kingdom arising from the 4 July,1984 abduction, drugging, crating and attempt to fly former Nigerian Minister in the Alhaji Shehu Shagari administration, Alhaji Umaru Dikko, to Nigeria, on a specially-provided Nigerian Airways plane, from Stansted Airport. He had been accused of embezzling humongous sums of money, and the General Muhammadu Buhari military government was reported to have sought to bring him back to Nigeria alive to answer for the charges.  

    When the plan fell through, the Nigeria Airways plane was detained at Stansted airport. In retaliation, the Nigerian government forced a British Caledonian flight which had already taken off with over two hundred passengers on board back to Lagos. With this development and probably considering the relative potential losses, the British authorities released the Nigeria Airways plane and the British Caledonian aircraft was then allowed to resume its journey.

    Possibly noting the potential costs of a military offensive, especially in view of the threat by Burkina Faso and Mali to come to the defence of Niger Republic if it was attacked, the Nigeria-led ECOWAS coalition was dissuaded from trying to remove the Nigerien military administration by force. But this did not reassure General Abdourahamane Tchiani, and every visit of President Tinubu to France has been a cause of trepidation for the General.

    So, when President Tinubu embarked on a three-day visit to France from 27 November, 2024, Tchiani addressed a press conference on 25 December, 2024 in which he was reported to have said that, during the visit, the Nigerian President and the French President Emmanuel Macron reached an agreement to collaborate to destabilise Niger Republic. This was promptly denied by the Nigerian authorities.

    Meanwhile, Niger Republic’s military government has continued to consolidate its efforts to break the colonial yoke binding it to France. One of the latest profound efforts at decolonisation by the military government was to adopt Hausa as the national or official language of Niger Republic in place of French. On 9 April, 2025, The Cable newspaper reported the story as follows: “The military government in Niger Republic says the country is adopting Hausa as the national language, replacing French. The change was announced in a new charter released on March 31, which said, ‘the national language is Hausa’ and ‘the working languages are English and French’.”

    The Cable further reported: “This move follows a national conference held in February, which strengthened the ruling junta led by Abdourahamane Tchiani, to remain in power for the next five years. The conference also led to the recognition of nine other local languages as ‘the spoken languages of Niger’, including Zarma-Songhay, Fula, Kanuri, Gourmanche, and Arabic. Hausa is the most widely spoken language in Niger, with around 26 million people reportedly using it, particularly in the central-southern regions of Zinder and Maradi, and in Tahoua in the west. However, only about 13 percent of the population, just over three million people, speak French.”

    It is widely acknowledged that language is an instrument of personal and group or national identity and a store and reflector of the cultural values of a people. It is, in other words, adopting Oprah Winfrey’s idiom, a socio-cultural GPS (Geographical Positioning System) or even, in a sense, an effective tool for articulating what Reverend Martin King Jr called ‘life’s blueprint’. It is for this reason that the issue of language death – the going out of existence of the speakers of a language – has been of major concern to multilateral organisations like the United Nations. Language death constitutes the loss of critical cultural knowledge and could result in social disorientation.

    Within neo-colonial contexts, the decision of Niger Republic to drop French for Hausa as a national or main official language signals national pride and the assertion of sovereignty, given the asphyxiating colonial hold of France on its former colonies, especially in West Africa. As far as language policy is concerned, this new shift is quite significant, because there has been the tendency for colonialists to project their languages as status symbols and instruments for access to power and privilege and portray the indigenous languages of the colonised states as indices of primitivity. This colonial mentality has been detrimental to the interests of the majority of the citizens of these colonised countries and has ultimately compromised national development.

    With respect to Niger Republic’s apprehension about and stategising against military action against it by ECOWAS, the country’s new language policy could be regarded as astute geo-politics. In other words, if Northern Nigeria could rise in condemnation of any move to attack Niger Republic in 2023 before it adopted Hausa as a national or official language, more robust opposition to any such military moves is to be expected now that the country has more profoundly manifested its cultural and linguistic affinity with Northern Nigeria. A situation is therefore being created which would strongly cause the declaration that “injury to one is injury to all.” Disregarding this principle would have serious implications for Nigeria’s national unity and internal security.

    Niger Republic’s new language policy also has the potential to rectify the alienation that often attends the use of colonialists’ languages as national or official languages. As has been noted above, with French as national or official language in Niger Republic and with only 13 percent of the population speaking the language, 85 percent of the population have been excluded from the circle of opportunity, privilege and power which competence in the colonialist language creates.

    On the other hand, if well-managed, the new status of Hausa, which is spoken by the largest percentage of people in the country, has immense potentials to engage significantly the largest number of people in the cultural and socio-political affairs of the nation. This potential for enhanced broad-based engagement of the citizens of the country has positive implications for the nation. For example, if it is properly harnessed, especially by using Hausa substantially as a medium of instruction in schools, access to education would be remarkably increased. This would have the potential to facilitate the development of the nation.

    As a 20 April, 2023 article by the United Nations, titled “Why mother language-based education is essential,” notes, “UNESCO has been leading the way and advocating for multilingual education based on the mother tongue from the earliest years of schooling. Research shows that education in the mother tongue is a key factor for inclusion and quality learning, and it also improves learning outcomes and academic performance. This is crucial, especially in primary school to avoid knowledge gaps and increase the speed of learning and comprehension.”

    The document further states: “And most importantly, multilingual education based on the mother tongue empowers all learners to fully take part in society. It fosters mutual understanding and respect for one another and helps preserve the wealth of cultural and traditional heritage that is embedded in every language around the world.” For practical reasons in specific environments, “education in the mother tongue” is usually qualified with “or in the language of the immediate environment.”

    Niger Republic’s adoption of Hausa as its new national or official language in place of French is a remarkable repudiation of neo-colonial dominance. It is also a strategic move to enhance the country’s protection against potential ECOWAS-initiated external aggression. Moreover, it is a significant effort towards eliminating social alienation and disengagement between the elite and the hoi polloi that often attend the adoption of colonialist languages as national or official languages in subjugated nations.

    Finally, the new language policy creates the challenges of re-examining or re-defining concepts such as ‘national language’ and ‘official language’, and of contextually defining and elucidating such terms as ‘working language’ and ‘spoken language’. The policy is therefore an interesting linguistic and geo-political development.

  • The Uromi killings and matters arising

    The Uromi killings and matters arising

    On his Facebook page, on 28 March, 2025, a popular United-States-based Professor of Communication, Farooq Kperogi, stated and asked in exasperation: “Several people have sent me unwatchably bloodcurdling videos of northerners being burned alive in what is said to be Edo State. What exactly is going on? I am despondent as I am confused. Edo has no history of hostile relations with the North. Can someone explain to me what’s going on? None of the people who shared the videos with me was able to answer my questions satisfactorily. That’s why I am asking publicly.”

    In a 29 March, 2025 article, Kperogi noted: “My inquiry has led me to understand that the Uromi community has been gripped by abductions for ransom, which sometimes result in deaths. Seething with rage and vengeance over the incessancy of deadly kidnapping by ‘Fulani herdsmen,’ the community was primed for jungle justice. When local vigilantes accosted a bus traveling northward through the town, they found Hausa hunters armed with hunting guns and machetes aboard. In the bigoted, know-nothing estimation of the Uromi vigilantes, Hausa hunters were one and the same as Fulani kidnappers. So, they burned the innocent Hausa hunters for the crimes of anonymous Fulani bandits.”

    Kperogi noted further: “I honestly couldn’t bring myself to watch the dreadfully nightmarish videos to the end. I broke down at the point when one of the hunters was thrown into a flaming fire from a wheelbarrow and he exclaimed “Wayyo Allah!” in anguish. It was too much for my fragile heart to handle. These sorts of savage slaughters of innocents persist in Nigeria not just because of a progressive loss of faith in formal institutions for the redress of communal grievance, heightened anxieties about safety, and increasing faith in the efficacy of jungle justice but also because of the absence of consequences for them.” 

    According to Abubakar Adam Ibrahim in a 3 April, 2025 article on “Grieving in a time of feast,” in Daily Trust, “They had been travelling to celebrate [Eid] with their own loved ones before they were intercepted at Uromi, beaten, clubbed, hacked, and torched in the most inhumane way possible. The suspicion that they could possibly be a kidnapping gang that had terrorised Uromi of late has been given as a justification – they were, after all, travelling with locally made guns and hunting dogs because they were hunters.”

    As Ibrahim further notes, “On the part of their murderers, there are three possible motivations – not vindications – for the barbarism that resulted in these lynchings. One might be fear, the other might be hate, and the third might just be sheer savagery. Fear because, according to reports, kidnapping gangs have besieged Uromi recently, and in response, the community had set up a vigilante group to secure the lives of the locals. Fear has made people do the most awful things in the name of self-preservation. The possibility of hate being a motive cannot be ruled out entirely, considering the ethnic hues that have coloured these killings. If it is neither of these two, then it has to be just the intrinsic savagery of the masterminds, who simply could not pass up the chance to spill the blood of others. None of these is good or even acceptable.”

    Furthermore, Ibrahim observed: “The Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, has, to a large extent, made a significant effort in damage control. Already, the killings were poised to draw retaliation from the North. The statement of the Edo State Government regarding the lynching was reassuring, or at least it sounded reassuring, and his visit to Kano, where most of the victims were from, to pay condolences and appeal for calm, was a great work of interstate diplomacy. Only God knows the number of lives that have been saved as a result. This does not discountenance the fact that the lives that were lost should never have been lost to begin with.”

    Ibrahim said in this regard: “The failure of our security systems has meant that individuals, groups, and communities are taking security into their unprofessional and unregulated hands. The consequence is the democratisation of violence, whereby those with the greater capacity for violence fare better. Violence is something that the state must retain a monopoly of and not be made accessible or normalised under any circumstance. Until this monopoly is restored, and until criminal groups are obliterated from the Nigerian system, incidents like the one at Uromi will recur where innocent travellers and non-native locals are murdered in cold blood.”

    As Emeka Omeihe stated, in this regard, in his column in The Nation on 7 April, 2025,  “The killing of 16 travellers of northern extraction by a vigilante group in Uromi, Esan North East Local Government Area of Edo State, has exposed the dangers in the quasi security outfits that emerged in response to the festering insecurity in the country. More than anything, the chilling incident highlights scant regard to law and order, due process and sanctity of the human life. In it can also be located a culture of violence that is increasingly enveloping this country and increasingly threatening its social fabric. If this culture of violence, mistrust and easy resort to self-help is not urgently stemmed, it may soon begin to define us as a people.”

    Possibly in response to the view that illegal vigilante groups like the one which perpetuated the Uromi murders were operating due to the absence of optimal security cover by authorised security forces, the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council (NIREC) organised a webinar on 8 April, 2025 on “Preventing Extrajudicial killings in Nigeria: The role of the security agencies.” The presenter at the webinar was CP Adewale Saka Ajao, Commissioner of Police, Federal Capital Territory Command.

    In his remarkably dispassionate and highly intellectual presentation, CP Ajao noted that extrajudicial killings, whether perpetrated by conventional security agencies or unrecognised or illegal persons or groups, were killings not authorised by the court. He also distinguished between extrajudicial killing and loss of life in the process of self-defence.  According to him, going ahead to kill a person as an act of retaliation after the person has been effectively restrained and arrested is not self-defence, but a case of extrajudicial killing.

    Moreover, CP Ajao identified the causes of extrajudicial killings as weak and inefficient judicial system and delay in or undue lengthening of the trial process, perception of the security agencies and the judiciary as corrupt, resulting in lack of confidence in both the security agencies and the judiciary. He also identified lack of human rights training by the personnel of security agencies, the use of violence as an electoral strategy by politicians, the political, ethnic and religious partisanship by security personnel, drug addiction and undiagnosed mental health issues. 

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    As is usual with social media reactions, comments on Kperogi’s post at the beginning of this article seeking to verify the gory videos ranged from the measured to the reckless. One deeply reflective commentator sought to know why about twenty-four hours after the dastardly act, information about it was still scanty on the mainstream media. The same kind of question was raised in a more rigorous manner by Yushau A. Shuaib in The Guardian of 31 March, 2025.  Specifically, he stated: “In school, we are taught that the media – often described as the Fourth Estate – exists to educate, inform, and serve as a watchdog for society. Yet behind this noble ideal lies a troubling reality: media narratives are frequently shaped by the interests of their proprietors, patrons, and editors. Even on deeply sensitive national issues, editorial direction can be swayed by commercial gain, political allegiance, or ethnic loyalties.”

    He further observed: “A … recent and … distressing case underscores this troubling trend: the lynching of Northern hunters—predominantly Hausa-speaking Muslims – in Uromi, Edo State, on Thursday, March 28, 2025. The victims, reportedly en route to Kano for Eid al-Fitr celebrations, were travelling in a truck when local vigilantes intercepted them and allegedly found dane guns. This sparked a mob attack. A harrowing video showed the men pleading for mercy as they were beaten and burned alive, while onlookers stood by with chilling indifference. … Despite the horror captured on video, most national newspapers downplayed the incident. Shockingly, the atrocity was eclipsed by frivolous matters that received more prominent coverage.”

    Shuaib then said: “Several factors fuel this persistent media bias, including ownership influence, where proprietors and sponsors shape narratives to align with their interests; lack of diversity, as many newsrooms are dominated by personnel from a single region, leading to skewed perspectives; and commercial priorities, where advertising revenue and political patronage often outweigh the public interest – as evident in the prioritisation of birthday tributes over national tragedies.”

    This view tallies with the following admonition from Lawanti: “History has shown us how societies unravel – not all at once, but step by step, lie by lie, silence by silence. Hausa and Fulani have weathered invasions, colonialism, and political exclusion – together. What must not happen now is for digital agitators to succeed where imperial powers failed.

    The whole saga indicates the increasing significance of the social media in the collection and dissemination of information. Unfortunately, the social media is largely unrestrained, and the consequences of social media exuberance could be dire. As Kabiru Danladi Lawanti notes in the 11 April, 2025 edition of Daily Trust, “Genocide never begins with violence. It begins with language – systematically crafted to dehumanise, divide, and desensitise. Rwanda and Yugoslavia were not failed states; they were fractured societies, where identity was weaponised through the media until violence felt logical. Northern Nigeria today is not Rwanda. But some of the same psychological architecture is quietly forming – this time, across the digital landscape.”

    The largely unsatisfactory performance of the mainstream media in the Uromi murders brings to the fore the skepticism about the existence of ‘a free press’. What this situation underscores is the fact that communities or segments of a community underserved in the existing media ecology need to consider the establishment of a variety of media outfits, targeted at different audiences (local, state, regional and national) and the intensive training of requisite personnel, as a matter of urgent strategic investment to avoid the kind of media silence or blackout or media de-prioritisation that was witnessed in the reportage of the Uromi murders.