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Category: Sunday

  • The opposition’s ‘Nigerians’

    The opposition’s ‘Nigerians’

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Tinubu’s clarion call for nationalist reawakening

    Tinubu’s clarion call for nationalist reawakening

    Last week may well go down as one of those defining junctures in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s leadership—one in which he deliberately set aside the noise of politics, the distractions of the moment, and the burdens of statecraft to deliver a clarion call rooted in the soul of the Nigerian project. It was a week of patriotic reawakening, of reminders, of responsibilities, and of the subtle but unmistakable tone of urgency: Nigeria must be built, protected, and dignified, by all of us.

    That call began on Thursday afternoon in Abuja, when the President received senior military officers enrolled in the National Defense College (NDC) Course 33. It was, a sober reaffirmation of what Nigeria must urgently become: a nation sufficiently productive, sufficiently unified, sufficiently advanced, and sufficiently equipped to defend its sovereignty without fear or apology.

    Standing before the participants, the President delivered what may be his strongest statement yet on the patriotic obligation shared by every citizen, civilian and soldier alike.

    “It is our joint responsibility to ensure that this nation, Nigeria, is productive, governed inclusively, and takes care of the future of our generation yet unborn,” he declared, his voice firm, measured, and prophetic. “It is our patriotic duty to look further into the horizon, to be determined and resilient… to train our people, develop our economy, promote industrial development, and ensure that sovereignty is assured, protected, and remains resilient.”

    This was more than a charge to a roomful of uniformed officers. It was, in essence, a call to Nigeria’s last line of defense, those entrusted with the integrity of the borders, the protection of the people, the deterrence of foreign aggression, and the preservation of the authority of the Nigerian state. Coming on the heels of recent provocations and mischaracterisations by certain foreign interests, the President’s tone was unmistakable: Nigeria must rise above internal divisions and external distortions. Nigeria must be strong, strong in economy, strong in industry, strong in knowledge, and strong in the spirit of nationhood.

    Yet the President did not stop there. With the precision of a statesman linking national security to national productivity, he challenged the NDC participants to deepen their analytical capacity and interrogate Nigeria’s vulnerabilities without sentimentality. “We challenge our intellectual curiosity by being highly inquisitive,” he said, urging them to study what other nations have done, understand where Nigeria currently stands, and examine the forward path.

    The research theme submitted to him: Harnessing Indigenous Manufacturing for Enhanced National Security by 2040, fit neatly into his wider national vision: Nigeria must not depend forever on imported solutions; sovereignty in defense requires sovereignty in production.

    But the President’s nationalist message did not begin with the military, nor did it end there. Just a day earlier, he had delivered another stirring address, this time to an audience that, in his words, “shapes how the world perceives Nigeria”: the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE).

    At the opening of the 21st Annual Conference of the Guild (ANEC 2025), the President stepped into uncharted territory as the first Nigerian leader to formally declare a Guild conference open. But beyond symbolism, his message carried a tone of expectation. If the NDC represents the defense of Nigeria’s territorial integrity, then the Nigerian media, particularly the editorial gatekeepers, represent the defense of its image, its narrative, and its psychological fortitude.

    “It is our country,” the President reminded the more than 400 editors and senior journalists present. “What should be worrisome to you is the image of the country we project to the outside world. Your institutions must help build a nation of credibility and integrity.”

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    It was not a plea. It was a patriotic nudge. For in the era of globalisation, perception is power; misinformation is weaponry; journalism is diplomacy; and national cohesion depends as much on facts as on framing. A nation that speaks poorly of itself cannot attract investment, cannot rally confidence, and cannot evoke the esprit de corps required to surmount internal challenges.

    President Tinubu’s call to the editors echoed the same theme he delivered to the NDC officers: nation-building requires shared responsibility. It requires truth, not weaponised partial truths. It requires perspective, not cynicism. And most importantly, it requires a recognition that the Nigerian story is not the enemy; the enemy is the impulse to diminish the country in the eyes of its own people.

    Even as he acknowledged the severe pressures facing the media industry; declining revenues, rising operational costs, and the struggle to adapt to digital disruption, the President assured editors that their requests for tax reliefs, VAT extensions, and economic incentives would be considered within the framework of broader fiscal reforms. It was an affirmation of partnership, not patronage; of accountability, not appeasement.

    But perhaps the most symbolic moment in the week-long narrative came on Thursday evening, after the stadium lights in Gabon had dimmed and the Super Eagles had secured a resounding 4–1 victory. For a nation often united mostly by football, the President seized the moment to amplify his theme of patriotic resilience.

    In his message celebrating the victory, he described the performance as “a powerful display of Nigeria’s resilience and winning spirit”, a metaphor that extended far beyond the confines of sport. “Every match,” he said, “is an opportunity to show discipline and character. This is the true Nigerian spirit of resilience against all odds.”

    It was as if the victory had become a living illustration of the very nationalism he had been preaching all week: courage under pressure, unity in purpose, and an unwavering determination to rise.

    And so, as the week closed, a pattern emerged, clear and coherent. The President had addressed three constituencies; soldiers, journalists, and footballers, but his message was intended for more than 200 million Nigerians.

    To the military: Defend the nation, by strength, by strategy, by intellect, by readiness. To the media: Protect the narrative, through truth, responsibility, and patriotic balance. To the footballers: Inspire the nation, with discipline, resilience, and the spirit of victory. And to the citizens: Believe in Nigeria, build Nigeria, and defend Nigeria.

    In a period when global pressures weigh heavily on the country and domestic cynicism threatens national cohesion, Tinubu’s call for nationalist reawakening could not be more apt. For nations are not simply built by policy, they are built by spirit. They are sustained by shared purpose. They endure through collective effort.

    Last week, President Tinubu reminded Nigerians of that simple but profound truth: Nigeria will become what Nigerians choose to make of it.

    Beyond the weighty calls to patriotic duty that defined his engagements, the President’s week was textured with moments that reflected the breadth of leadership; moments of statesmanship, compassion, national acknowledgement, and deliberate continuity in governance. On Sunday, he opened the week by congratulating Anambra State Governor, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, on securing a second term in office—a victory he described as an “affirmation of visionary leadership.” It was a presidential nod to democratic continuity, a recognition of performance, and an encouragement to a people who conducted themselves peacefully at the polls.

    By Monday, the President’s attention turned to more solemn duties. He mourned the passing of retired Justice Mukhtar Muhammad Dodo, a former Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court, paying tribute to a jurist whose integrity and fearlessness left deep imprints on the nation’s judiciary. He also extended warm felicitations to former Kano State Governor Ibrahim Shekarau on his 70 th birthday, celebrating a career defined by discipline, scholarship, and humanity. And in the same breath, he reached out empathetically to two political contemporaries; former Bauchi State Governor, Ahmed Muazu, and Environment Minister, Balarabe Abbas Lawal, commiserating with them over the loss of their mothers, both women remembered for moral strength and lifelong service to family and community.

    The President’s Monday also carried the imprint of policy seriousness, as he hosted a delegation from Siemens Energy and reaffirmed that the administration is taking power supply “very seriously.” His message was blunt: Nigeria’s industrial, educational, healthcare and transportation ambitions rest squarely on a stable electricity backbone. It was another reminder that the nationalist call he sounded throughout the week is not rhetoric—it is anchored in reforms that determine the country’s future competitiveness.

    On Tuesday, the President honoured the Emir of Ilorin, Dr. Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari, on the 30th anniversary of his ascension to the throne, calling him a custodian of dignity, justice and peace. He also celebrated Senator Ibrahim Oloriegbe at 65, praising hisexceptional service to the health sector.

    By Thursday, tributes flowed again, this time to the Asagba of Asaba, Professor Epiphany Azinge, on his 70 th birthday, and to veteran journalist Tajudeen Ayodeji Kareem, whose four decades in media have shaped national discourse.

    The week closed on Friday with continuity in public service as the President reappointed Brigadier-General Mohammed Buba Marwa (rtd) as Chairman of the NDLEA, extending a tenure that has brought renewed vigour to the nation’s anti-narcotics fight.

    So, whether in celebrating excellence, consoling the bereaved, strengthening institutions or pushing reforms, President Tinubu’s week ultimately threaded into one narrative: a leadership calling a nation to believe again, to build again, and to rise together.

  • Soludo’s triumph, Obi’s humiliation

    Soludo’s triumph, Obi’s humiliation

    As this column predicted before the November 8, 2025 governorship election, Chukwuma Soludo, an economics professor, won with a healthy margin. He did better than that; he won with a landslide – all the local governments and nearly all the wards. The performance was so commanding and clearly so one-sided that it left no one in doubt who was the winner and who were the losers. The media looked out for how both the Labour Party (LP), often associated with former Anambra governor Peter Obi, and the African Democratic Congress (ADC), now inextricably linked with former vice president Atiku Abubakar, would perform. Both did very poorly, the LP more shockingly so. The ADC, which took only 8,208 votes out of 595,298 votes cast, was a non-starter, and is likely to remain a non-starter in every election nationally henceforth. But Mr Obi, down to his polling unit which his candidate lost to the All Progressives Congress (APC), proved surrealistically inexistent. The LP candidate, George Moghalu, secured a meager 10,576 votes.

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    Overall, Prof. Soludo took 422,664 or 71 percent of the votes, a ringing endorsement of his style, capacity, and campaign. He and many of his supporters interpret the unalloyed endorsement as also a total repudiation of Mr Obi, the Teflon politician and former LP presidential candidate. With coruscating wit, the victorious governor dismissed Mr Obi’s politics, adding that even though LP leader was not on the ballot, he lost his polling unit in Agulu Ward 11. Hundreds of kilometers away in Lagos, some busybody APC politicians sarcastically counselled Mr Obi to abjure his presidential ambition and go home and rest because his time was over and had lost his so-called Midas touch. Mr Obi may have become irrelevant in Anambra for obvious reasons, but nationally, especially as he embarks on cobbling together a sizable political platform on which to run for president, his dismissal may be premature. Those who support him are not discerning or discriminating. They love him, down to his flaws which they find masochistically endearing. Should he eventually get a platform on which to run for office, no matter how flimsy or tenuous it is, they will flock to his side and give his campaign fresh oomph. He will of course not win, and indeed cannot conceivably win, but his obsession has never been about winning. To him, politics is an inscrutable game, and only he can disentangle it.

  • Defections: Why APC should be worried

    Defections: Why APC should be worried

    At the last count, following a series of defections, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) now unassailably dominates the Nigerian polity with 25 state governments out of 36, 76 senators out of 109, and 231 House of Representatives members out of 360. Instead of that domination being weakened or overthrown before 2027, the party may even get more entrenched. The reason is not far-fetched. Firstly, the party has remained cohesive, disciplined and not averse to extraordinary and heroic policy risks that have benefited the states. Secondly, and in contrast, the opposition parties have lacked cohesion and charismatic leadership. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) convulses with internal dissension, almost completely destitute of discernible leadership. The Labour Party (LP) has lost the only defective compass its former presidential candidate, Peter Obi, lent it. And the African Democratic Congress (ADC) of former vice president Atiku Abubakar hangs precariously on the horns of a dilemma, its main financier unsure whether the mule he is riding is not in fact lame of feet.

    It may be convenient for the opposition, singly or combined, to denigrate the APC and accuse it of cajoling defectors into the ruling party, but the truth is far simpler than that. The defectors are making rational choices for political survival. Events of the last few months in the LP and ADC, not to say the past two weeks in the PDP, suggest that the defections were rationally instigated even if not morally justified. The defections may, therefore, continue apace if the opposition parties continue their dithering. With or without further defections, the APC already commands and rules the roost. But often, unassailability breeds complacency. Yet, that is not the APC’s worst fears. The danger lurks within the darkened recesses of the souls of a beaten opposition that sees no hope for the future. They will go for broke. They fear that in 2027, even if the APC does not make a clean sweep of its 25 states, and its overwhelming lawmakers do not stamp their authority on their constituencies, the party would still win with a healthy margin, the election metaphorically completed months before the first ballot is cast.

    He that is down needs fear no fall, John Bunyan says in The Pilgrim’s Progress. The opposition will, therefore, embrace any tactic, any plot, any underhand dealing to destroy the whole building, not caring whose ox is gored. Going by the animosity the defections have already stirred, and the abuse and the agitations, worse should be expected than just mere propaganda damage to the APC, its candidate, or the nation itself in the months ahead. There are too many powerful interests in the polity, among traditional institutions and security agencies, being systematically dismantled by the ongoing reforms. Those who find themselves holding the short end of the stick will lash out furiously using any means possible – street action, defamatory propaganda, economic sabotage, and even domestic and international religious agitations. The opposition will not be neatly delineated, and may defy regional and faith boundaries, but they will manifest with similar and remorseless intensity. Four years after 2027 would seem to the opposition like a century away, a time lag they are not prepared to tolerate.

    The 2027 presidential election primary will be conducted in some six or seven months. The LP is unlikely to get its act together before then. Mr Obi has given up on the party and is fishing for a collegiate of parties upon whose scrawny necks he hopes to find political fulfillment. He will be lucky to cobble that collegiate, and even luckier to get the inspiration and the acumen to run a hydra-headed party looking in different directions at the same time. Carrying out that task is certainly beyond his ken. Last week, in defiance of the law and the courts, PDP leaders tried to force a consensus on their party in order to forge ahead. It was left stranded, apoplectic and defiant by a few court judgements that interrupted its efforts. The party must now race against time after having dug its heels in by conducting a convention barred by the courts and following it up by sacking more than a dozen key factional leaders. It’s a cul de sac, and worse, in a few months, it must conjure magic to organise a primary. But with no outstanding leader with the heft and money to walk his talk, it is beginning to look like the party will need a miracle to transcend its abysmal limitations and self-destructive predilections.

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    Until Alhaji Atiku finalises his membership of the ADC and brings all speculations and insinuations to an end, the special purpose vehicle he and his cohorts have acquired for his presidential ambition will work in fits and starts. His men are tired of his vacillations, not to say his obduracy, and have begun to wonder whether it would not be wise of him to back a younger, more enterprising, and perhaps more charismatic southerner. But the former vice president has not exorcised his messianic bent nor acquired the visionary depth needed to plan his political future. For now, he will stick to his guns and tower above the party.

    With no party capable of overthrowing the APC, and no aspirant in sight gifted enough to outmuscle the APC candidate and sitting president, the only choice left to the opposition will be to go incredibly nasty. In the months ahead, and shortly before the next polls, they will exude such nastiness that the country has never before experienced. And as the APC continues to win off-cycle elections to the consternation of the leading choristers of the opposition who had confidently predicted otherwise, the stage might be set for truly desperate measures, some of which may skirt dangerously on the margins of treason. That is what the APC must worry about, not about whether it can win or lose the next elections. The defections have all but assured a great outcome in 2027. But the defections have not guaranteed that the turmoil the opposition will engineer will not push Nigeria to the edge of disaster.

  • Genocide: NSCIA misses the point

    Genocide: NSCIA misses the point

    The Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA) did not receive sound advice on how to respond to the Christian genocide charge raised by United States president Donald Trump against Nigeria. As many commentators have noted, and as condescending as the US president’s warnings and language were, in no part of his cryptic messages thundered a little over two weeks ago on social media and press conferences did he give the impression he would fight Muslims, let alone Nigerian Muslims. The Council, however, assumed that judging from Mr Trump’s bellicosity and his decidedly pro-Christian stance, the message could in fact signal a subterranean war against Muslims. The Council’s fear is exaggerated and sadly revelatory. Paragraphs after paragraph unintentionally peeled away layers of obfuscations and hidden affiliations in the NSCIA statement. In one breath, the Council debunked the Islamic identity of the jihadist groups laying Nigeria waste, and in another breath, the statement virtually but inadvertently owned the militants. Yet, as demeaning as Mr Trump’s message was, his warning was about coming to Nigeria to deal with Islamic terrorists, a group the Council correctly admitted had killed nearly as many Muslims as it had murdered Christians.

    In their very first paragraph, the Council unfeelingly tries to controvert Nigerian Christians’ belief that they are victims of genocide. Couched disingenuously, the statement insists there is no religious war, insisting that Muslims have on their own been silent over the killings of their brothers. There are, however, better and non-combative ways of scripting their conviction without seeming to lack empathy for Christians in the North and Middle Belt who are being displaced from their ancestral lands by groups of insurgents deceptively or conveniently fighting under the banner of Islam. The statement appeals to the emotions of patriots in paragraph two and attempts a definition of genocide in paragraph three, both striving to debunk the claims of genocide. Paragraph four is even more justificatory of the NSCIA position, while paragraph five seals the tonal deafness of the Council’s argument. Both paragraphs unfortunately show that the Council’s premises undergirding its responses to Mr Trump’s provocation are irredeemably defective.

    Paragraphs six and seven, which reference the background of the terrorists wreaking havoc on Nigeria, are nugatory. The NSCIA says the terrorists are deviants who do not represent Muslims, adding that they are also the ‘mortal enemies’ of Muslims. If someone promises to help get rid of the vermin, why be up in arms against the helper then? And in paragraphs eight and nine, the Council attempts a dispassionate analysis of what it terms the ‘drivers’ of terrorism in Nigeria, to wit, the economy, climate change, and alienation caused by poverty, mining corruption and all kinds of criminality. The Council is right; but why go the extra length of arguing over a threat Mr Trump has directed not at Muslims generally, but at terrorists?

    The next 10 paragraphs or so are devoted to exploring the arguments regarding the domestic and international dimensions and beneficiaries of the Trumpian view of terrorism in Nigeria and the best approach to dealing with the crisis. Apart from being tedious in absolving mainstream Islam and putting all the blame on deviant Islam, the NSCIA also embarks on selective laudation of Christians who have taken the pains to debunk the regnant opinion in the US about Christian genocide in Nigeria. It is completely unnecessary. It is also not clear why the Council should delve into the geopolitics of Mr Trump’s campaign or his domestic political agenda, not to talk of trying to make sense of the international economic dimension, particularly what kind of economic alliances and arrangements Nigeria is deemed free to enter into.

    But when in paragraph 23 the Council casually and carelessly declares that there is no religious intolerance in Nigeria, it takes dishonest analysis to its acme. The facts on the ground in many northern states is that there is palpable religious intolerance, and it is probably this intolerance, not to say the initial apathy to the depredations wrought by Boko Haram against Christians in the North, that formed the basis for the Christian genocide conclusion. Many Nigerians have observed that some states in the North, probably as a result of the myopia or populism of their political elite, have become a vast tapestry of religious intolerance. Why the NSCIA fails to at least acknowledge the fact of religious intolerance in parts of the North is hard to explain. Whether the Council likes it or not, years of intolerance and denying Christians their constitutional rights in some states in the North probably or partially encouraged terrorists and jihadists to pretend to fight under the banner of Islam, believing that the elite in the region would be less inclined to stand in their way.

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    In addition, decades of the northern elite shirking their responsibility to ensure justice for Christians murdered for their faith, sometimes in the name of blasphemy, may also have contributed to strengthening the allegations of official genocide. In Kano, Sokoto, Abuja, and elsewhere, some Christians had been lynched for blasphemy, and their attackers were identified. In Kano, prosecution of the lynchers was dropped and the federal government declined to take the matter up; and in Sokoto, no prosecution was even attempted as leading legal minds and academicians stood up as one man to defend the lynchers. Why would Christians not think the state connived at the killings? In some northern states, as some public officials appear to embrace militant Islam, indigenes deserving of promotion into sensitive positions in the civil service and the judiciary were overlooked until a Muslim replacement could be found. Why would Christians not fear they were being persecuted, despite being indigenes of those states? The NSCIA statement tells itself a lie when it argues that religious intolerance does not exist in Nigeria. Yes, it does not exist in many states; but it exists in some northern states. The Council should at least have acknowledged this fact. What the Trump explosion indicates is that if a country promotes fissures in its polity, outsiders will be tempted to do something about it, and they will always find local collaborators.

    In many paragraphs, the NSCIA merely regurgitates admittedly sensible arguments about the questionable US justification for intervening in Nigeria. Mr Trump is himself amoral, for by his own admission he is not even a Christian, and his arguments are also largely self-serving and designed to advance American interests over Nigerian interests. Getting bogged down in the definition of genocide is, therefore, meaningless, a point the NSCIA misses very badly. What cannot be disputed, however, is that mass killings of Christians have taken place in some parts of the Middle Belt and their lands seized without any attempt by the state to enforce restitution. Much more than the concomitant killings of Muslims in other parts of the North by insurgents and bandits, it is the killing of Christians and the land element involved that has triggered the cry of genocide. The NSCIA should not have pretended that these jarring anomalies and paradoxes do not exist. They should have patiently, carefully and empathetically worded their statement, and acknowledged the various nuances of the insecurity ravaging the North particularly. Instead, they went at the untrustworthy Mr Trump hammer and tongs and try to portray his justifications as selfish and fallacious. But the Council should also in the same breath have provided an explanation for the adoption of Sharia as part of the criminal laws of some 12 states in the North when the constitution disowns state religion.

    Had the Council explored the Christian position and admitted that some states in Nigeria needed to review their governing paradigms, its apparently tendentious conclusions about genocide would have been less certain and provocative. It is incontrovertible that a significant percentage of northern leaders, mainly because of religion and to some extent regional exceptionalism, have refused to admit that to run a united, stable, progressive and peaceful country, they would have to live and let others live, and engage in so many give and takes. Unfortunately they do not seem prepared to sacrifice anything, a reason the Christian genocide claim has resonated with many Nigerians in the Christian Middle Belt and the South. If sooner rather than later nothing is done to coax the country to work together and for each dominant group to give up on some of their fanatical and unsustainable ideas and expectations, the country will itself soon become untenable.

  • China’s Xi Jinping, Trump and Taiwan

    China’s Xi Jinping, Trump and Taiwan

    Two Thursdays ago, United States President Donald Trump met briefly with China’s President Xi Jinping in South Korea to discuss and diffuse US-China trade tensions. It was not clear what else they discussed other than trade issues. But speaking on a US television programme, “60 Minutes” on CBS last Sunday, he offered a perspective on the contentious China-Taiwan relations. Despite not discussing the long-standing disagreement between the two Asian countries, in which China still lays claim to Taiwan and was disposed to swallowing it by force, Mr Trump said he was sure China would not attack Taiwan during his presidency. To him, that assurance, which he claimed Mr Xi gave him, was sufficient. It must be noted that the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act obligates the US to provide Taiwan with the resources to defend itself in the event of an attack by China.

    Sometime in the future it will be clear whether indeed Mr Xi gave such assurances, or whether in fact the matter was discussed at all. If the issue was not discussed, as Mr Trump claimed on television, how then were the assurances given? Assuming the assurances were really given, it is striking how the US president said it was issued. Hear him: “He has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘We would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences.” His response to the CBS question undoubtedly underscores his megalomaniacal posturing. The issue may not have been discussed, but Mr Trump was satisfied that at different fora, Mr Xi and other Chinese officials gave commitment to holding back because they feared the mercurial US president.

    Narcissistic leaders are often so self-absorbed that they fail to realise how they sound, or what their responses connote. As far as Mr Trump is concerned, it was okay for him and his ego that if China would attack Taiwan, it should at least not happen during his presidency. He showed no commitment whatever to reviewing the 1979 Taiwan Relations Act or of lending his vaunted gargantuan weight to secure a long-term accommodation with China on the sore topic of Taiwan’s sovereignty. There is a biblical parallel for this extreme and destructive self-centredness. In Isaiah 39, the Prophet Isaiah visited King Hezekiah of Judah on God’s order, and the following dialogue ensued, including the context:

    39 At that time [a]Merodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that he had been sick and had recovered. 2 And Hezekiah was pleased with them, and showed them the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them.

    3 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?”

    So Hezekiah said, “They came to me from a far country, from Babylon.”

    4 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?”

    So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”

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    5 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the LORD of hosts: 6 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,’ says the LORD. 7 ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.’ ”

    8 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the LORD which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “At least there will be peace and truth in my days.”

    It has been conjectured that King Hezekiah felt there was nothing he could do to reverse God’s divine will, or that he simply lacked leadership perspective, or that he was too wearied by the illness he suffered to fight another spiritual battle, particularly for the next generation. Whatever was on his mind, it seemed abundantly evident that he simply lacked the character of a great leader. The next generations always mattered to a great leader, whether of a country or of a business, or even of a political party. Mr Trump is a mirror copy of King Hezekiah. For anyone who doubts the abysmal level the US president has sunk, including those who suggest that his actions and policies simply reflect the dynamics of the American society, his statement on what might happen to Taiwan after he was gone is a reminder and a confirmation of who he is at bottom. Mr Trump is unreflective, instinctive, self-centred, and simply incapable of complex reasoning. Unlike King Hezekiah (716-687 BC) who would die 100 years before the foretold exile in 586 BC, it won’t be long before dire consequences come rushing at Mr Trump. They are inescapable.

    And who would not notice how seemingly deferential Mr Trump was to President Xi at the South Korean meeting? His boasting and muscle flexing came only after the meeting, on a US television programme. He could talk down on small Greenland, threatening to annex it, bomb boats in Venezuelan waters in defiance of international law, and cocked a snook at Canada which he coveted on behalf of the US. But to the iconoclastic and defiant North Korea armed with nuclear weapons, Cuba, China and Russia, he would never dare. It’s the nature of brutes and bullies – traits exemplified by Mr Trump’s narrow-mindedness on Taiwan – to know their limits. But on this subject, Nigeria is befuddled.

  • PDP’s relentless decay

    PDP’s relentless decay

    Every time an analyst thought it could not get worse for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the ill-fated party dredged up more shocking details about its structural atrophy. The party began to decay when former vice president Atiku Abubakar cajoled it into gifting him the nomination for the 2023 presidential election. Then it began to fracture awkwardly into about three or four parts when it refused to restructure its zoning arrangement post-nomination. After the inevitable electoral loss, the party became so dispirited that it forgot how to dress its wounds to trigger the healing process. The party hierarchy never regained stability after that epochal falling-out.

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    Fast forward to today. Believing that once it managed to conduct an elective convention, the healing balm would materialise, it tried to force itself into an arrangement that would conduce to that healing by producing a consensus chairmanship candidate. Instead, through the litigation of a faction, it was slammed with a Federal High Court, Abuja, judgement that forbade the convention. An appeal might do some good here, right? Yes, in a rational party. But the main faction simply countered with a court order, not a judgement, from Oyo State where the convention was billed to hold on November 15-16. It didn’t make legal sense, but the discomfited party was at this point past caring what anyone thought.

    The PDP and a few other opposition parties have now worked themselves up to a point where they argue that the ruling and ‘omnipotent’ All Progressives Congress (APC) is behind their ordeal. And they believe their own lies. The last opportunity to revivify their party is, however, closing. It is now feared that as they decay, they may lack the men and ideas to redeem themselves or reclaim their once dominant position in the polity. 

  • Letter to President Donald Trump

    Letter to President Donald Trump

    • Nigeria has security issue, not genocidal one

    My dear President,

    At the risk of sounding patronizing, even though it is not exactly so, let me start by telling you that I am not an average Nigerian because an average Nigerian does not see anything good in your presidency. They never gave you any chances in the last American presidential election. That was not my problem and is still not my problem. And I made that clear right from the outset. As a matter of fact, I will quote part of what I wrote in my column in The Nation Newspaper of November 10, last year, titled ”Weep not for America”, so you will know that I am not your enemy; so I deserve your attention.     

    ” Unlike many Nigerians, I was not in any way excited about the just-concluded presidential election in the United States of America, right from the beginning. I knew that many of us in this part of the world anticipated a Camara Harris victory. I also knew that many of us would weep louder than the bereaved if Donald Trump eventually triumphed. In our minds’ eye, including many of the pollsters in America, Trump could never have won. I don’t blame such people, after all, it is said that people see what they want to see.

    ”Now that the election has been won and lost, many of us are not happy with the result. I can understand if Americans are sad. But what is our own…

    ”Democracy is about numbers. In terms of both the popular votes and the Electoral College, Trump, the Republican Party candidate, clearly trumped our favourite Harris of the Democratic Party. With 74,333,299 popular votes (50.7 per cent), he defeated Harris who had 69,857,510 (47.7 per cent). And, in terms of the Electoral College, Trump had 295, 25 more than the required 270, while Harris had 226. This was clear shellacking.”

    That was me speaking in November, last year.

    I still believe in what I said back then. People should weep for their own country; not that they should feel sad that Americans elected wrongly, when democracy is a game of numbers. And, as I said in subsequent paragraphs in that piece, even if your election was a mistake, that should be the business of the Americans.

    I needed to go this far to convince you that I am not necessarily an enemy. What I am therefore going to say is not coming from a biased mind, whether against Your Excellency or for the Nigerian government.

    I can see you have a secretary of war (formerly secretary of defence until Trump redesignated the office) in Pete Hegseth, who is ready to deploy troops to Nigeria for the purpose of killing bandits and terrorists who are, according to you, killing Christians in Nigeria. In other words, you are accusing the Nigerian government of genocide against Christians.

    Let me say that you took your eyes to the market while shopping for the right candidate that fits that designation. You left no one in doubt about your intention: yours is not about defense, it is about war. It would appear that Americans are less bothered about that, otherwise, they should have reacted. And, the way the man talks, one does not need to be told that he is ready to go into action in a twinkle of an eye. Hear some of his statements: The Department of War is preparing for action: either the Nigerian government protects Christians or we will kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities”.

    This was Hegseth’s statement on November 1, after Your Excellency instructed his department to prepare for potential military intervention in Nigeria. The man has made some other statements that tell me that he is ready to go beyond what you want if only he has the go-ahead.

    At this juncture, Mr President, let me thank you for showing concern about Christians in Nigeria. We Christians cannot thank you enough for this. The snag, this time around is that America is about to be pushed to act based on a misjudgment.

    Your Excellency, I beg to disagree that Christians in Nigeria have been mincemeat for bandits and terrorists because (especially the present) government is not doing enough to protect them. Nothing can be more fallacious.

    I have been a Christian right from my mother’s womb. As a matter of fact, I can’t count how many generations of mine had been Christians. That was why I knew there must be more to it than meets the eye when you threatened to attack Nigeria to protect Christians because of alleged genocide against them. Your Excellency, you must have been roundly misinformed.

    And the Nigerian government has said this much. Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview with Al Jazeera on November 2, denied this claim of mass killings of Christians in Nigeria.

    Yes, “We are not proud of the security situation that we are passing through, but to go with the narrative” that only Christians are targeted, “no, it is not true. There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria”, he said.

    “We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed… The majority is not the Christian population.”

    Several other Nigerian officials, including the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, and Bayo Onanuga, the president’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, have spoken in the same vein.

    Mr President, if you had talked about insecurity as a Nigerian challenge; there cannot be any doubt about that. And I am sure the government of Nigeria is in any way denying that. But the security issue is sans religion, sans borders, sans tribes, and what have you. The bandits usually come to steal, to kill and to destroy whoever is unfortunate to cross their path.

    Your Excellency, I do not know what your impression of the Tinubu administration is; what I know however is that it is going to be difficult for anyone to suggest you have returned Nigeria to the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) because you do not like Tinubu’s face. I say this because you had in 2020, under the Buhari administration included Nigeria in the list for engaging in or tolerating particularly severe violations of religious freedom. This was only lifted by the Biden administration that succeeded you in 2021. As a matter of fact, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal government commission had as far back as 2009 recommended Nigeria for the CPC list!

    Of course, since the issue broke, so many people have been talking as experts on international relations and sundry matters. Some have said America’s military intervention in Nigeria over claims of genocide against Christians is against international law because it touches on Nigeria’s sovereignty. But we all know this cannot be dragged too far. ‎If we say the world is now a global village, it is not only about international network (internet) but also in terms of the effect of what happens in a country on another or other countries.

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    Even the African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) also try to influence policies and directions in member-countries. The only difference in the US threat is that Nigeria is not in any such member-state relationship with America. But then, if any religious crisis breaks out in Nigeria, America would be part of the countries to bear the brunt. Even now that there is nothing of the sort, America is home to some 700,000 people of Nigerian descent as per data from 2024 and 2025 reports.

    The truth is, international politics has always been a matter for the strong; the weak are perpetual victims or mere observers of the process. They can only be seen, not heard. And if they must be heard at all, that must be with the approval of the strong. That was why Your Excellency did not approach the United Nations (UN) or any international organisation before declaring that you would hit Nigeria with sanctions and follow it up with military action. All you need to act decisively is your country’s International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Although the CPC designation is largely symbolic, U.S. law states that governments must “take targeted responses to violations of religious freedom.”

    I have seen all manner of figures quoted by various sources as the number of Christians that have been killed by bandits and terrorists in Nigeria but deliberately ignored them because I know many of them cannot be true. If Your Excellency had not tainted your reason for the proposed military action against Nigeria with alleged Christian genocide, may be some of us would have kept quiet.

    But, we cannot afford to in a situation where unverified statistics are being bandied as factual figures in a matter as serious as genocide.  

    I want to believe that those feeding you with these reports about genocide against Christians in Nigeria are either ignorant of the real situation or politicians fighting political battles by some other means. The fact is, the Tinubu administration, just like your humble self’s, has a lot of detractors who would stop at nothing to discredit it. 

    Yes, there are one or two dark spots. Like the case of Deborah Yakubu, a Christian student who was burnt to death in Sokoto State in May 2022 by about 50 of her classmates. They even had the temerity to video their cruelty against a weaker sex and put same on the internet for the world to see their level of barbarism in the 21st Century. It is sad no one was ever punished for that. 

    Then, the Owo, Ondo State Catholic Church killings in the same 2022. The case is not progressing as expected.

    In essence, there are lessons to learn from your threat and I hope the appropriate agencies of government are taking judicial notice of these.

    I want to believe that the Tinubu administration in a space of about 29 months has done far more to eliminate terror leaders than any of its predecessors since the insurgency started in the country about 16 years ago. The big names are all over the public space.

    Your Excellency, let me end this letter by saying that if truly, there is genocide against Christians in Nigeria, and you said you want to come and rescue us; as a Christian from the womb, I would be the first person to jump at the offer. This is not only about patriotism because I have to be alive first to be patriotic. It is about survival. And, as it is said, ”a drowning man would not mind clinging to a serpent for help”.

    But there is no such thing as genocide against Christians. We have insecurity and if Your Excellency has useful assistance for us, I do not think the Federal Government would turn it down.

    Yours faithfully,

    • Adetunji Adegboyega.
  • ‘Professors travel first class’

    ‘Professors travel first class’

    On a cool autumn evening in October 1976, I was in the departure lounge of Heathrow Airport. In my hand luggage was a freshly bound PhD thesis of the Victoria University of Manchester which I had successfully defended a little over a month before. This was the end of a journey which had occupied my mind for just over three years, indeed ever since I landed in that same airport three years before on my way up north, to Manchester, to start my postgraduate studies in Pharmaceutical Microbiology. At the beginning of that course, I was cocky enough not to entertain any fear of failure. After all, I already had a degree from the University of Ife under my belt and was sure that I could rely on the quality of my preparation for my Manchester adventure. And so it proved. That was at a time when all our external examiners were invited from British universities which meant that our degrees were as good, if not better than the degrees awarded in Britain. To tell the truth, I was so relaxed about the whole thing that I was looking forward to the challenge before me. I was also eager to link up with my friend and classmate at Igbobi College, Remi Olatunbosun who at that time had already spent four glorious years in Manchester. With his help, I settled down quickly and was soon hard at work because I wanted to get back home as quickly as possible. That was also because I missed home with an intensity which caught me by the throat and acted as a spur towards the completion of my course. That urge to be done with it was so strong that I did not give any thought to waiting around in Manchester after the defence of my thesis to attend the graduation ceremony which was to take place in December. This was to the evident disappointment of my father who would have loved to have a photograph of his first son in the colourful robes and baggy cap to show the extent of my success which was a reflection of his own.

    On that cool autumn evening, my excitement level was sky high as I waited for the call which was to precede the actual boarding of my plane to Lagos. As I waited for that call, I saw a well suited man who I recognised as a Professor at Ife. To while away the little time I had left on British soil, I went over to engage him in conversation. The quizzical look on his face when I bade him good evening showed that he had no idea who the hell I was so, I quickly introduced myself. I was going to say that I was Mr. Lamikanra when I remembered in the nick of time, that I had earned the right to be addressed as Dr. Lamikanra of the Faculty of Pharmacy and quickly made that correction.

    ‘What has brought you to London?’ I was asked.

    I replied that I was going home having just completed my PhD programme in Manchester.

    The Prof’s eyes lit up behind his glasses when he heard this and he congratulated me very warmly. And he said he looked forward to seeing me in Ife. This happened in the following years but always from some distance. At this point our boarding announcement was heard over the loud speaker and I made my way quickly to my seat on the plane as if there was some danger of being left behind in the rush for takeoff. It was a night flight but I did not sleep a wink throughout. On two or three occasions during the flight, I took a walk up and down the plane and it suddenly occurred to me that the professor had simply vanished because I did not catch any glimpse of him anywhere on the plane but I was too excited to spend any time thinking about that strange disappearance. I even thought that there was a possibility that he was not on the plane at all. But after the plane had landed in Lagos, I caught sight of him waiting for his luggage just as I was about to do.

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    ‘Good morning sir’ I greeted him respectfully.

    His response was warm in the way of an elder to a deserving younger person. I was therefore prompted to tell him that I was wondering where he was during the flight. His response was full of enlightenment.

    ‘Professors travel first class’ I was told. In other words, I had been looking for him in the wrong place. I may have earned the right to be called Doctor but my place was still in economy class! Travelling first class was something I could look forward to when I became a professor, whenever it was that I joined that exalted group of academics. I quickly put that thought out of my mind as that possibility was at that time too lofty for my attention since I was still, at least technically a lowly graduate assistant. Not even a proper lecturer until I had completed the interview which was to be staged on arrival at Ife. Seven years later however that flat statement was thrust into my face at a meeting of the University Appointments and Promotion Committee. By that time, I had become a Senior Lecturer and was representing Congregation on the committee. We had just approved a sabbatical leave for a Professor of Agriculture who was going off to spend his leave outside the country. The first six months of the leave were to be spent in the Philippines and the other six months in the USA. The Head of Department who had come to present the case was gathering his papers preparatory to taking his leave when the Vice Chancellor made a passionate appeal to him.

    He reminded him and the rest of us that the professor was entitled to a first class round trip ticket as a result of the approval that his application had just received. The University finances were however not sufficiently buoyant to give him what in effect was a round the world first class ticket. Could the HOD appeal to the professor to accept an economy class ticket so that there would be money left over to accommodate the application of other deserving members of staff? The Head promised to pass on that passionate appeal to the professor. Come to think of it, I have no idea if the appeal worked or not but knowing the temperament of most academics, I am sure that the professor took that trip in economy class. He must have thought he was taking one for the team. As for me, when I went to Sweden on sabbatical leave two years later, my wife and two children were, in addition to me, furnished with return tickets to Arlanda. That was at a time when there was a fully staffed department within the Registry which dealt with staff travels. So many members of staff were going abroad for various reasons that the members of that department were kept busy all year round. The chilly winds of poverty had just begun blowing ever so gently over the university in 1985 but it was soon to achieve the status of gale force winds. Since then, those harsh winds have swept the academic environment bare of all comforts and the issue of professors travelling first class became the subject of bitter anecdotes a long time ago. So long ago that those presently serving as lecturers in our universities are likely to dismiss it as the result of an overactive imagination. The prevailing reality is that Professors hardly get to travel out of the country at all these days, not to think of travelling first class.

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

    Trump declares Nigeria Country of Particular Interest: the predisposing factors

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    How did we get here?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    That is where the Trump threat becomes very resonant.

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

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

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