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Category: Sunday

  • Tinubu’s long week in the skies: sacrifices for Nigeria’s place in global space

    Tinubu’s long week in the skies: sacrifices for Nigeria’s place in global space

    When historians eventually sit down to chronicle President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s years in office, one of the inevitable themes they will encounter is the record of sacrifice — sacrifices of comfort, of health, of personal time, all committed to the singular mission of lifting Nigeria into its rightful place in global political economics. Last week, this dimension of his leadership came into sharp relief. For President Tinubu, it was a week not only of political and diplomatic intensity, but also of physical endurance, as he traversed continents and seas in pursuit of opportunities that will shape Nigeria’s future.

    From Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where he first stopped, to Tokyo in Japan for the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD9), and then onward to Brazil for a state visit beginning today, Tinubu’s itinerary was that of a leader driven by urgency. The arithmetic of his travels alone tells a story of grit. He flew about 7,979 kilometres from Dubai to Tokyo — roughly 14 hours in the air. From there, he boarded yet another ultra-long-haul journey of 18,539 kilometres to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, clocking around 16 hours in flight, not counting the 8,810 kilometres between Tokyo and Los Angeles during the stopover. It was, without question, one of the longest and most exhausting weeks of his presidency so far.

    But here lies the essence of his leadership style: President Tinubu did not embark on these travels to court personal grandeur, nor were these escapades meant as ceremonial gestures. Rather, they were strenuous undertakings aimed at securing measurable gains for Nigeria’s economy, diplomacy, and long-term development.

    There is a side of statecraft often overlooked by citizens and commentators alike: the physical toll of leadership. Statesmen of Tinubu’s calibre, particularly at his age, are expected to make sacrifices that younger men might hesitate to endure. Long-haul flights are not just a matter of sitting back in comfort; they are demanding ordeals that disrupt sleep cycles, put strain on the body, and drain energy that would otherwise be needed for crisp decision-making.

    Yet, while many Nigerians slept soundly, their President was airborne, adjusting to different time zones within days, and switching from one high-stakes engagement to another. It is a sacrifice that speaks to his determination not to delegate away the critical opportunities where Nigeria must be visibly represented at the topmost tables of international diplomacy.

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    By the time President Tinubu touched down in Tokyo, he had barely hours to acclimatize before stepping into the thick of TICAD9. There, he was not simply a passive participant. He was front and centre, delivering Nigeria’s message with clarity, asserting the nation’s readiness to lead in Africa, and to seize opportunities in trade, investment, and innovation.

    TICAD9, hosted in Yokohama, was themed “Co-create Innovative Solutions with Africa”. For President Tinubu, the platform offered more than speeches and photo opportunities. He defined Nigeria’s mission with unambiguous purpose: to unlock over $1 billion in trade and investment, drive green innovation, expand opportunities for young Nigerians, and position the country as the economic heartbeat of West Africa.

    In his own words, Nigeria was at the table, “not as a bystander, but as a leader shaping solutions for Africa’s future”. This statement alone encapsulates why Tinubu braves the rigours of long journeys. The stakes are too high, and the dividends too important, to risk being absent from such platforms.

    During plenary sessions, the President underscored a vital truth about Africa’s development: it will not come from perpetual aid dependency, but from bold reforms, trade partnerships, and innovation. He commended Nigeria’s armed forces for their resilience in safeguarding national stability, while also making the case that lasting peace lies in addressing the root causes of terror through inclusive governance and economic reforms.

    That message resonated in the conference halls because it was not abstract theory — it was borne out of Nigeria’s lived experience. And in making the case, President Tinubu positioned Nigeria not merely as another African participant but as a continental leader with the courage to chart new paths.

    Beyond the plenary speeches, Nigeria’s participation at TICAD9 carried significant diplomatic weight. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar, made clear that Nigeria was leveraging the platform to push for reforms in the global financial system, particularly in debt restructuring. This was a move to ensure that Africa’s economies, including Nigeria’s, can thrive without being perpetually strangled by debt burdens.

    Nigeria also sought to deepen trade ties with Japan, expanding on the current $1 billion trade volume. This involved not only conventional trade but also agricultural exports, industrial partnerships, and technical collaborations with agencies like the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO).

    Equally important, Nigeria used TICAD to lobby for greater representation on the global stage — from a permanent seat at the UN Security Council to roles in international institutions like the International Maritime Organization. For a country of Nigeria’s size and influence, these are not luxuries; they are necessities for shaping the international order in ways that reflect Africa’s demographic and economic weight.

    Those who watch these events on television may see only the ceremonial side: the handshakes, the speeches, the banquets. What they often miss is the hidden labour: the sleep-deprived hours, the endless briefings on flights, the quick switches between policy themes, and the pressure of delivering results in compressed timeframes.

    President Tinubu’s week in Japan was capped with a meeting with Nigerians in the Diaspora. In that interaction, he assured them that the rise of Nigeria had already begun. His words carried conviction because they were backed by the sacrifices he himself was making. “Things are stable, the economy is stabilized, the opportunity is immense,” he told them, before urging their contributions to national progress. For Nigerians in Japan listening to him in person, the message was clear: their President was walking the talk.

    Even before the jet lag from Tokyo could wear off, President Tinubu was airborne again, this time heading towards Brazil. His stopover in Los Angeles underscored the sheer magnitude of his journey. For most travellers, such transcontinental shifts would demand days of rest. For President Tinubu, there was none. The next set of engagements was already waiting.

    In Brazil, the mission is clear: deepen bilateral ties, sign agreements that will expand trade and investment, and anchor Nigeria more firmly as a bridge between Africa and Latin America. His host, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, shares an affinity for South–South cooperation, and Nigeria stands to gain immensely from this renewed partnership.

    The agenda includes a Nigeria–Brazil Business Forum and the signing of memoranda of understanding across sectors. Once again, President Tinubu is not travelling for ceremony. He is there for hard work — work that could deliver long-term dividends in agriculture, technology transfer, industrial growth, and cultural exchange.

    No discussion of such exhaustive schedules can be complete without acknowledging the elephant in the room: the potential toll on the President’s health. At 73, Bola Tinubu is not a young man. Long flights across multiple time zones, coupled with high-pressure diplomacy, are taxing even for much younger leaders, so the reasons for these efforts must be pressing, for him to be damning consequences.

    Yet what shines through is his willingness to make those sacrifices. In for-going rest and comfort, he is sending a message that Nigeria’s place in the world requires relentless pursuit, not half-measures. His critics may interpret the travels differently, but the facts speak plainly: these are not leisure junkets. They are tasking, demanding journeys aimed at extracting tangible gains for the country.

    If leadership were only about issuing directives from the comfort of Aso Rock Villa, Nigeria would not need a Tinubu. What makes his style distinctive is his readiness to lead from the front, to shoulder the personal burden of being present at global conversations, and to insist that Nigeria’s voice be heard.

    Senator Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning, captured this aptly when he praised the President’s personal commitment: “From Japan he is going to Brazil. That tells Nigerians how much personal effort he’s putting in to lead Nigeria’s diplomacy, to ensure that we get investment and to ensure that Nigeria regains its status in its place of pride in the world”.

    Bagudu’s observation reflects the essence of the Renewed Hope Agenda: Nigeria must engage with partners who respect it, not as a supplicant, but as a nation of dignity, ready to offer value and extract mutual benefit.

    What Nigeria gains from such weeks of sacrifice may not be immediately obvious to the ordinary citizen on the street. The dividends of diplomatic engagement often take months, sometimes years, to materialize. But they are real, and they are cumulative. The deals struck, the partnerships forged, the reputational capital built — these are the foundations of a stronger, more competitive Nigeria.

    In Tokyo, Nigeria secured visibility as a continental leader advocating for financial reforms, trade expansion, and innovation. In Brazil, it is poised to strengthen South–South cooperation. Together, these engagements reflect a strategic vision that sees Nigeria not as a local power only, but as a global player.

    President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s long week in the skies illustrates more than his stamina. It captures the philosophy of his leadership: the willingness to endure personal discomfort for the collective good of the nation.

    In an era when citizens demand results and critics are quick to dismiss foreign trips as wasteful, Tinubu’s week across continents is a reminder that diplomacy is hard work. It is not for the faint-hearted, and certainly not for those unwilling to sacrifice.

    As he begins his state visit in Brazil today, Nigerians should reflect not only on the policies and agreements he will pursue, but also on the quiet sacrifices that make such opportunities possible. For behind the handshakes and speeches lies a leader who is paying in the currency of his own comfort to secure the promise of a prosperous, respected, and globally competitive Nigeria.

    Tinubu’s Week: From Solemn Condolences to Bold Reforms

    Even as President Tinubu devoted much of the week to high-level engagements in Yokohama, Japan, he found the time to speak to Nigerians at home, balancing celebration with moments of solemnity.

    The week began on a note of reflection as the President mourned two prominent figures: veteran politician and businessman Alhaji Isyaku Ibrahim, and the Emir of Zuru, Major General Muhammadu Sani Sami, describing both as national losses of enduring significance. Yet in the same breath, he celebrated longevity and leadership, felicitating former Military President Ibrahim Babangida on his 84th birthday and commending his imprint on Nigeria’s political and socio-economic journey.

    Politics remained at the heart of his domestic attention. Tinubu congratulated winners of the August 16 by-elections across 16 constituencies, praising the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for conducting what he termed smooth, violence-free polls. He saluted the All Progressives Congress (APC), which swept 12 of the contests, and applauded his party’s new National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, for the emphatic victory. Days later, however, the mood turned sombre as he commiserated with the same chairman on the passing of his mother, Mama Lydia Yilwatda.

    Similarly, the President extended condolences to Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo of Kogi State over the death of his father, while also celebrating milestones such as the 50th birthday of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Managing Director, Dr. Samuel Ogbuku.

    By Friday, Tinubu, who was represented by his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, returned to reformist zeal. In Abuja, he charged graduands of the National Defense College to champion strong institutions and reaffirmed his push for indigenous defense manufacturing. Later, on his verified X handle, he unveiled an income tax calculator, assuring Nigerians that the recently signed tax recform laws were crafted to protect the vulnerable while ensuring fairness in redistribution.

    In sum, Tinubu’s week, aside the tasking outing in Yokohama for TICAD9, was a mosaic of grief, gratitude, and governance—an emblem of a leader carrying the burdens of the nation while still pressing forward with his Renewed Hope agenda.

  • It was more than by-elections

    It was more than by-elections

    Three political parties are much talked about in the build-up to the 2027 elections: the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and the coalition’s special purpose vehicle African Democratic Congress (ADC). The first two are political war veterans, while the third was born out of due season, a little disoriented and abused. Joined in battle for the first time on August 16 in a three-horse by-elections race, the first two proved their mettle, while the third came an embarrassing cropper. Had the ADC proved its mettle by outscoring one of the first two even without winning outright, the country would by now be in an uproar, and coalition faithful encouraged by that hypothetical performance to begin making vaunted claims and welcoming defectors en masse. The ADC may be led by talkative and intrepid champions, but its leaders were unwise to have rushed the still unprepared party into a bruising and bloody political war that has now prematurely revealed a number of noticeable undercurrents in the shifting politics of the core North.

    The elections were held in 12 states across two senatorial, five House of Representatives, and 10 state assembly constituencies. The APC won in 13 constituencies, while the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) won in two, and the PDP and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) won in one each. The overhyped ADC led and inspired by former vice president Atiku Abubakar, former governors Nasir el-Rufai, Rauf Aregbesola, Aminu Tambuwal, and Rotimi Amaechi, among many others, not only failed to fly, as a newspaper colourfully put it, but there were also doubts last week when the election results began to filter out that the party even had wings. It may be too early to project how the parties will finally shape out in the next general election, but if the APC had lost or struggled, or split the honours with another party, the celebration in opposition ranks would be without precedent. That it won hands down has given it bragging rights. Party leaders and rank and file are relieved that they won, and won very handsomely. Having secured this by-elections advantage, among many other advantages that give it an early lead, they will hope to build on the August 16 successes and profit from the discouragement certain to cast a pall over the competing parties.

    The APC has a curious genetic makeup. Though generally well-organised, it has really never produced a highly popular champion to be its standard-bearer. In 2015, it won both the presidency and the National Assembly against the run of play, and indeed by fairly comfortable margins. In 2019, despite shambolic governance, it again won the elections. After what many analysts saw as a dismal record weighed down even more by an underperforming president, the now late Muhammadu Buhari, the party again surprised bookmakers by winning the 2023 polls by a comfortable margin in a three-horse race that could easily have produced a hung parliament. The party’s genetics then got more arcane at the last by-elections. Certain that the APC and its president had executed gut-wrenching economic policies deserving of severe punishment at the next polls, any polls for that matter, the country placed their bets and waited for the ruling party to receive a drubbing. Instead, the APC swept nearly everything in its path, winning by emphatic margins across four geopolitical zones. To boot, the elections were generally fair, despite opposition bellyaching.

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    But a few unheralded shifts are beginning to be noticeable. Firstly, constituents and party faithful are beginning to stabilise their membership and own their political parties, producing an inexplicably filial attachment to the parties they are growing to admire or even love, regardless of their antinomian properties. These shifts are noticeable in states where their governors have started to perfect the art of connecting, sometimes colourfully, with the electorate. It is of course not impossible for unseen tectonic political plates to shift and cause a party or governor to be defeated, but that shift would likely henceforth require such force that no ordinary opposition leader can summon. In Edo, Governor Monday Okpebholo of the APC has matured very quickly and mastered the art of addressing the hearts and minds of the Edo electorate such that voters can’t imagine jilting their lover. For the vacant Senate seat of Edo Central, the governor’s APC swept the poll by a dizzying 105,129 votes to the PDP’s 15,146 votes. For the Ovia House of Representatives seat, the APC also took it by an astronomical 77,053 votes to the PDP’s meager 3,838 votes. It was a shellacking of the most definitive variety authored by a governor who, when he was a candidate, was ridiculed as lexically profane.

    In Kaduna, Governor Uba Sani of the APC has proved to be a revelation. Resolute, deep and unpretentious, he has moved mountains to heal the ethnic and religious divides in the state. Armchair analysts and critics had touted the by-elections in Kaduna’s three seats as a war between former governor el-Rufai, whether he had made up his mind regarding where to belong between the ADC or Social Democratic Party (SDP) or not, and Governor Sani. Mallam el-Rufai drew huge crowds to his rallies and, with his fiery rhetoric and political invectives, postured as the real master of Kaduna. He was unsparing and loquacious, but as temperamental, divisive and imperious as ever. In Zaria Kewaye state constituency where he campaigned for the SDP, a party he claimed he still belong to even though he is recognised as one of the top leaders of the ADC, the APC took it by a solid 26,613 votes to SDP’s 5,721 votes. And in Basawa state constituency, where the less acrimonious PDP was prominent on the ballot, the APC took the seat by 10,926 votes to the PDP’s 5,499 votes. Neither ADC nor SDP fared well. And in the even more significant Chikun-Kajuru House of Representatives seat, the APC got an emphatic 34,580 votes to the mild-mannered PDP’s 11,491 votes.

    Apart from the APC taking two state seats in Taraba and Adamawa, though by narrow margins of a few hundred votes, equally telling was the APC victory in Niger State where the party took the state seat of Munya constituency by 12,556 votes to the PDP’s 5,646 votes. In Niger State, Governor Mohammed Bago has become one of Nigeria’s most colourful governors. Though he sometimes finds illiberal tendency irresistible, he exudes courage and depth while showing clearly that he does not lack direction. Both he and Kaduna’s Mr Sani have deliberately worked to acquire a pan-Nigerian approach to politics, refusing to restrict themselves to the ethnic and religious cocoon with which Mallam el-Rufai has framed and constrained his politics. It is also remarkable that despite the unremarkable exit of former APC national chairman Abdullahi Ganduje, the APC was not embarrassed in Kano where the indomitable Rabiu Kwankwaso holds sway. The APC not only took the state assembly seat of Ghari/Tsanyawa, it insisted that the Bagwai/Shanono seat was stolen. In short, constituents may have begun to take ownership of both their parties and constituencies, probably indicating emotional connection far beyond the obtrusions of local supremos or the pains and gains of national economic and social policies.

    Secondly, and perhaps more pertinently but a little hazy, the results of the by-elections reveal a war of replacement taking place in the core North. The region had been dominated by political leaders who subscribed, either openly or covertly, to ethnic exceptionalism, sectarian politics, feudal economic practices, and general retrogression. Decades of holding sway at the national level had done little to assuage their greed or their disinterest in alleviating the circumstances of the poor and alienated in their region. Gradually, but somewhat steadily, new leaders with a totally different worldview of nationalism and service are replacing the Ibrahim Babangidas, Atikus, el-Rufais, and surprisingly Kwankwasos. They may resist the trend, and convince themselves that their politics of stirring revolt against their opponents, whether in Abuja or in other parties, would work if reinforced by malicious propaganda, but as the by-elections indicate, changes are afoot. The likes of Messrs Bago and Sani are deliberately flirting with new political paradigms of inclusion, service, secularism, and nationalism. They are slowly and secretly repudiating the politics and ideology of domination, and are reaching out to kindred spirits nationwide. They have seen the new approach work at close quarters, and are tantalised by its potentials. They suspect it will be difficult, for the poor people they preside over are not as exposed and knowledgeable to comprehend the fundamentals of the economic change and social and political realignment needed to lift the country from poverty, or appreciate the dangers that would follow the division hardening everywhere in their region. Indeed the Kaduna and Niger governors know that decades of administering jaded panaceas have failed the region and impoverished its people. More, they sense that if change is not courageously embraced now, the explosion certain to come later might be unmanageable.

    The by-elections indicate that the country might be moving in a different, beneficial direction. In the months ahead, and in coming polls, proponents of the old politics will stubbornly resist change, and will double down on the ancient methods of political mobilisation. Their tactics will work in many places, and a significant section of the electorate will be enticed by the sorceries of the regional ancients, but overall, the replacement afoot will continue apace until politics in Nigeria assumes ideological hues. New leaders unencumbered by the politics of hate, division, religion and supremacy are emerging. That emergence will not be surefooted for the core North, for there are too many ancient religious and ethnic roadblocks engrafted into the system, but it is hard to see how it can be aborted entirely or even delayed for much longer. What cannot be doubted, however, is that a struggle to determine which direction the core North will go is already being fought. The shape of the war and the identities of the combatants may seem a little foggy at the moment, but the fight will intensify in the years ahead, and Nigerians may even be pleasantly surprised to discover that the positive aspects and outcomes of the struggle will, sooner than expected, impact the next general election as the region’s old political soldiers fade away.

  • PDP still the main opposition

    PDP still the main opposition

    The diminution of the PDP did not start with their losses in the 2015, 2019, and 2023 elections. It started way back in the Olusegun Obasanjo years when the former president whimsically destroyed the party’s internal cohesion. If that long-lasting weakening is to be reversed, the party’s feuding leaders will have to inspire a deliberate rehabilitation of their party, its ideology, structure, and ambition. After many electoral debacles, however, it is uncertain that the party has learnt any lessons. Last Thursday, a section of the party’s leadership met in Lagos under the aegis of the PDP Southern Zoning Consultative Summit and ended up reinforcing their awkwardness at putting their house in order. Not only was the invitation to the summit lacking in rhyme or reason, it seemed to have been convoked to deliberate on the zoning subject agitating the party at every level. Much more troubling, there was no one among the summiteers who sounded placatory, accommodating, and circumspect.

    Nevertheless, as last week’s by-elections showed without a shred of doubt, the PDP still has so much going for it and can hopefully produce a leader worth his salt to reinforce their strengths, someone who has the spirit of the gods, a consensus builder capable of separating the wheat from the chaff. In the 16 seats contested in the by-elections, where the PDP not win, it came second in 11 constituencies out of 16. By winning just one seat (in the Ibadan North House of Representatives seat in Oyo State), the party clearly will be punching above its weight to think that after the destructions wreaked upon it by three distressing and epochal electoral losses, it could retake the presidency in almost one fell swoop. Politics is not magic. By coming second in 11 constituencies, the PDP, however, announced itself as the leading and undisputed opposition party in Nigeria. In contrast, the then Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, had presumptuously tried to knock the PDP off that perch in 2023, though the upstart party was infamously hijacked purposely for the presidential poll, and its presumptive leader never really had any sense of proportion or structure, nor respected any ideology.

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    When the PDP succumbed to the first of three election losses in 2015, no one doubted it was the main opposition party. It had been weakened by internal revolt and conflict, and abused and denounced by defectors, starting with former vice president Atiku Abubakar, but no loss was sufficient enough to obliterate its structure or wipe off the gains it had painstakingly accumulated since 1999. Hard as Alhaji Atiku and other coalition leaders have tried, they have been unable to assemble a force strong enough to overthrow the it as the main opposition party. Fortunately for the party, the coalition of anti-APC forces inspired, financed and directed by the former vice president and now domiciled in the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has so far been unable to present a united front. Until the August 16 by-elections, coalition leaders could not determine whether to move en masse into the ADC or Social Democratic Party (SDP), or remain in either the PDP or LP. Confused, destitute of ideology, and discouraged by the uncertainties surrounding their parties and the unsavoury turn of events, they projected interests that intersected in the three parties which they plan to deploy against the APC in 2027.

    The PDP may lack a powerful unifier or even a collegiate of implacable consensus builders, and may yet be undone by those deficiencies, but they are clear in their minds that they remain the unassailable opposition party, a runner-up to the APC as it were, the second leading party which the ADC, SDP or any other party willing to sell its soul cannot overthrow. It will be ambitious of the PDP to hope that even if they manage to unite and zone their presidential ticket to the South they can find a worthy champion to fly their flag at the next poll, let alone win. For the PDP, the chances of reaching an understanding with the inchoate political coalition may exist theoretically, but it is hard to see them submitting themselves, their nationwide structure, their ideology so-called, and their legacy to an amorphous group of ambitious coalition politicians. They may sometimes feel suicidal, judging by their often inane choices, but they have enough believers in their midst who understand that there are some people by whose hands they must not die. They were desperate to win in 2019, believing that their loss in 2015 was a fluke; and were even more desperate in 2023 when they were willing to be suckled by the tiger, Alhaji Atiku, but they must now educate and persuade themselves on their almost inexistent chances in 2027. Instead of desperation, they should reinforce their capacity as the main opposition party, and go back and reform and rebuild – a task they had shrunk from since 2015 – in order to have any chance in 2031.  

  • LET’S DO THE SING-ALONG 17

    LET’S DO THE SING-ALONG 17

    From coalition to collision

    Here comes the Party – Shopper (1)

    Tere pampa tere pampa

    Tere minnan minnan tere

    Hungry party shoppers 

    Are here again

         Here again

         Here again

    Hungry party shoppers

    Are here again

         Tere pampa tere pampa

    Their claws long deep

    In our carton of cash

         Carton of cash

         Carton of cash

    Their claws long deep

    In our carton of cash

         Tere pampa tere pampa

    Their eyes are red

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    Their noise is loud

          Noise very loud     

          Noise very loud

    Their eyes are red

    Their noise is loud

         Tere pampa tere pampa

    My big old party

    Has done me in

         Done me in

         Done me in

    My big old party

    Has done me in

         Tere pampa tere pampa

    When they gulped down the chicken

    They threw me the bones

         Bones, bare bones

         Bones, bare bone

    When they gulped down the chicken

    They threw me the bones

         Tere pampa tere pampa

    (To be continued)

  • Bandung, seventy years after

    Bandung, seventy years after

    • The Rise of Miniature Men

    It is perhaps the grand irony of our time that at a period when daring discoveries in space exploration, medical breakthroughs and the exploits of Artificial Intelligence are advancing the frontiers of human possibilities, there is also a dramatic contraction of leadership possibilities on a global scale. Unlike the titans of an earlier epoch who bestrode the world like supermen of the highway, contemporary international politics is marked by a retreat into the cocoon of the nation where vicious battles are waged on a daily basis against imagined and imaginary enemies said to be bent on sabotaging the sanctity and integrity of the collective union. It is almost impossible to find leaders who can come up with a unifying and overarching vision of the human collective, one that can effectively link the crisis of the nation to the global crisis of the nation-state paradigm itself. It is a long way from Bandung.

      The world and international relations as we know them are undergoing such a fundamental reset that the accompanying turmoil and turbulence have occasioned what can only be described as a pandemic of national traumas in many countries. Such is the crisis of values and political orientation that old certainties no longer hold true and the ancient navigational map with which nations negotiated their way in rough and inclement weather has been torn to shreds. There is a lurch to the right in many countries with America leading the way. Each country is so preoccupied with solving its “internal” problems that the possibility of a global solution to the crisis recedes every day.

    The Trumpian anti-revolution is gradually seizing control of the dominant American imagination. The mood of quiet hysteria is palpable in many American neighborhoods. There is a tame despondency abroad. In the relentless war of attrition, resolution is giving way to resignation and reconciliation under duress. In the new narrative, Trump is not so much an ogre or a bad person despite his manifest flaws and failings but an inevitable historical necessity needed to whip America back to its senses. The corrupt and dissolute East Coast establishment and its misbegotten hegemony have had it coming for quite some time. The Don is a mere historical catalyst. The Trumpian eruption represents a settling of scores between the blue-eyed Brahmins of the Boston corridor and the hardy, ill-educated descendants of later immigrants from Germany and central Europe who bitterly resent being put down and denied access to the innermost sanctuaries of power and privileges in their adopted homestead. It is an intersection between class and sub-race in all its violent concussions and overdetermination.

    The Irish, Italians, French, Swiss and Nordic Europeans had earlier cocked their snook at the American establishment and had been accommodated. Meanwhile in an attempt to rid the capital of destitute and unwanted homeless, the entire Washington perimeter has been placed on a war-footing with Trump himself often personally leading the charge. Anybody who raises a compassionate query about this procedure of crowd control is likely to be dismissed as a liberal leftwing loony and radical anarchist who should be taken in for immediate questioning. It feels like the House Un-American Activities Committee of the Joe McCarthy era of communist-baiting all over again.

       Unfortunately for the global order, the Russian rump of the old Soviet Union which used to provide some countervailing pushback to America’s hegemonic designs has itself mutated into a hyper-Slavic imperialistic hegemon on its own coveting alien territories and their riches at will. It does not matter to their sense of earlier brotherhood that the Ukrainian Nikita Khrushchev ruled the Soviet Empire for almost a decade or that Stalin himself was originally from Georgia. France is consumed by internal contradictions with Emmanuel Macron looking bewildered and disoriented beside Donald Trump this past week at the Whitehouse.

      Keith Starmer, diffident and essentially decent, came off as being discomfited and destabilized by internal murmurs of dissatisfaction as well as a politically ruinous wave of rebellion among Labour Party parliamentarians which have seen his approval rating plumbing in recent weeks. Among immigrant middle-class families in Britain and America, the Kemi Badenoch Disease, a vigorous and vibrant disavowal and disapproval of the Home Country and its values and a passionate endorsement of authoritarian jackboot are fast spreading. The weak and the poor are unlikely to inherit the earth, they contend.

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      Once again, and from whatever angle one looks at it, Africa is left holding the short end of the stick. With its parlous condition and enervated economic policies, Africa is unlikely to muster the strength, energy and resources to resolve the human and humanitarian conundrum confronting it. Yet it feels like eons ago when the hopes of a radicalized and avant-garde segment of western intelligentsia were focused on the possibility of Africa carrying the germs of the redemption and the regeneration of humanity. The hopes were not entirely forlorn and misplaced. Based on focused research into the wider currents and dialectics of history, these intellectuals came to the conclusion that as the most economically and racially brutalized section of humanity as well as the most naturally compassionate and generous, Africa and its denizens carry within their commodious heart, the capacity to reimagine and actualize a better, fairer and more humane world based on the authority and integrity of biblical suffering and dehumanization. Georg Lukacs, the great Hungarian easthetician and socialist theorist, came to this conclusion in his seminal book,  History and Class Consciousness, although his analysis was freighted more in favour of the Master-Slave dialectic and on class as a history changing category rather than race.

      Around the same time in a review of a collection of some works under the aegis of the new movement known as Negritude, Jean-Paul Sartre, while dismissing Negritude philosophy as anti-racist racism, called attention to the potential and possibility of the new movement energizing the struggle for the redemption of humanity through its disruptive and counter-hegemonic rhetoric. A lone voice of demurral at that point in time was the Martinique-born psychiatrist, Franz Fanon, who, based on his concrete evaluation  of  his  patients on the French colonized Caribbean island, came to the conclusion that the negro person was too psychologically, spiritually, economically and politically damaged to be of much use to humanity, not to talk of its redemption.

       But the aye-sayers received a tremendous boost from the Bandung Conference and its aftermath. That was exactly seventy years ago. It was a glorious conjuncture for Africa and the underdeveloped parts of Asia and Latin America. The decolonizing project had received a big shot in the arms after the Second World War. Many countries were clamouring for independence and self-determination. The two “world” wars had proved a ruinous exercise in self-demystification for the western world. Africans who fought side by side with white soldiers now discovered that there were no special creations in the face of relentless fire: men, all men, die like other men and are afraid of dying like other men; white soldiers suffer cold, hunger and exhaustion just like the enlisted Black. There are no superior races when humanity faces the same tribulation.

       The Bandung Conference in Western Indonesia was the first attempt by the emerging leaders of the non-aligned nations in Africa, Asia and Latin America to forge a common front and an identity which will distinguish them from the western and communist spheres which constituted the First and Second World. It is a brutal irony that before it became a veritable marker of underdevelopment and millennial suffering, the idea of the Third World was first conceived to separate a First World of capitalist countries and a Second World of socialist countries from a Third World of developing countries with a mixed economy and the political doctrine of liberal democracy.

      The spirit of Bandung resonated round the world with its message of fresh hopes and redemption for a stricken humanity. Its driving avatars were seen as men who have walked their talk. There was Achmed Sukarno who had led his country in a war of liberation against the Dutch; there was Pandit Nehru, the patrician intellectual and statesman who was leading India out of the dungeon of colonization and from Africa came Gamel Abdel Nasser who was the hero of the Egyptian revolution and Kwame Nkrumah who had just emerged from colonial jailhouse to lead his country away from the ruins of colonial interdiction. It was a gathering redolent of hope and brimful of promise. Hovering in the wing was China with Mao Zedong and his affable and aristocratic sidekick, Chou En Lai, puckishly stoking the fire of rebellion against the west. It was enough to send the Whitehouse under Dwight Eisenhower into a panic mode.

      Unfortunately for Africa and perhaps Asia, it all turned out a damp squib. The African renaissance most educated Africans could glimpse with independence looming, the Afro-Asian effervescence that could be noticed in the dramatic appearance of African titans of the decolonizing project on the global stage, all fizzled out within a few years of independence.  The heady promise of Bandung had all but evaporated. There was no third way or a Third World for that matter. In the contending babel of ethnic nationalities, the possibility of liberal democracy became a mirage and a postcolonial myth. In many African countries, particularly in the two Congos, Malawi, Equatorial Guinea, Togo, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Dahomey, Sierra Leone and Gambia, authoritarian personalist rule became the order of the day. In Ghana which showed a lot of pre-independence promise, Nkrumah lapsed into a despotic autocrat whose word could not be challenged. Egypt and most of the North African nations transited from semi-feudal agrarian societies into a neo-military state. Nigeria which did not show much political promise or the prospects of economic dynamism in the run up to independence simply lapsed into a semi- autocratic state with the trapping and veneer of modern democracy.

      With the foregoing, it is clear that seventy years after, the promise of Bandung has not materialized. Most of the great leaders thrown up by the ferment never realized their earlier promise or fulfilled the great expectations. Having been ousted in a military coup six years earlier, Kwame Nkrumah died of cancer in a foreign clime, a sad, lonely and frustrated man. In Indonesia, Sukarno succumbed to a violent military upheaval which uprooted all traces and vestiges of communism in the rich archipelago. In Egypt, it was said that a frustrated and embattled Nasser was heartbroken by the lack of heroic resolve of fellow Arab leaders who subverted and sabotaged his idea of a pan-Arab union just to protect their own fiefdoms and miniature empires. This was before his heart gave way as a result of serial military defeat and humiliations inflicted by Israel.

    Historians and sociologists of the human condition often believe they have a handle on the undercurrents which drive historical developments when in fact they are only privy to their superficial moorings. To be sure, some of the leaders of an earlier epoch who concentrated solely on solving the internal problems of their countries did very well by themselves. These include the celebrated Lee Kuan Yew of Singapore, the fabled Dr Mohathir Mohammed of Malaysia and even the early post-revolution Chinese leadership and their policy of autarchy which closed off China to the outside world until it was ready to negotiate on its own terms.

    The conundrum to ponder is whether it is the mysterious forces of history that summon great exceptional individuals, doers and  thinkers alike, to attend to the riddles of humanity or whether it is these extraordinary personages who summon the courage and the willpower to bend history to their iron dictates such as we found in the great Negritude movement, the Bandung Conference seventy years ago and the great surge in anti-colonial animus which led to the independence of many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Whatever happened thereafter is another matter entirely.

     It would appear that in its closing stage, the nation-state paradigm is having a lot of fun at the expense of history with its contradictory cadences just as it happened at the inception. America’s current splendid isolationism is just a passing fancy. The global titans will be back and Africa will rise again when the conjuncture is right and ripe. That is the lesson of Bandung.

  • Jamb and the rest of us (II)

    Jamb and the rest of us (II)

    At the introduction of JAMB into the Nigerian university system, there were only a handful of universities needing her services. This is very much unlike now when there are hundreds of institutions that have, by law, contracted their admission tests to this body. Apart from the number of institutions it caters for, the number of candidates, all of them hopeful but most of them incompetent, generates a concern for the administrators of JAMB. This is especially so, given the delicacy of every step involved in any examination process. The only saving grace here is that the vast majority of those involved in this particular process were also candidates for this examination, at one time or the other. It should not be difficult for them to put themselves in the shoes of current candidates, at least from the point of view of familiarity.

    Examinations are a test of character in many respects. They not only test your familiarity with your subject but demand that you show your competitive spirit. In this respect, you are in competition with yourself but more importantly, with many thousand others coming from any number of diverse backgrounds. It is one thing to score a passing grade, it is another thing entirely to pass well enough to be admitted to their preferred course of study in the institution of their choice. In other words each candidate is under considerable pressure to put their best foot forward and turn in a performance which under the circumstances must be the best.

    Nigeria was much saner in every respect at the time, before JAMB when I applied for admission to the pharmacy programme at the University of Ife, the only pharmacy degree awarding institution in the country then. The whole admission process went on with the precision of an expensive Swiss watch. The relevant form was obtained, filled and returned promptly, long before the advertised closing date. My HSC grades fell within the required range. I waited patiently for the result of my application which at the appointed time was published in the Daily Sketch two months before the resumption date. I duly turned up in Ife for a one week orientation programme on the appointed day, which was the first time I set foot on the hallowed grounds of the university, on which  I spent the next fifty years. The situation has changed drastically.

    As a university lecturer, I always got to know when JAMB results were about to be released. That is because I always received messages to that effect from relatives, friends, casual acquaintances and the occasional total stranger. In those days, before the now ubiquitous cell phone changed our lives, a few of these people took the trouble to come all the way from Lagos to deliver their message in a face to face encounter. They all made me aware of what their respective ward scored in the soon to be released examination result, as if I should be interested in their tidings. Whatever it was the score, it was followed by the fervent plea that I did all I could to ensure that the owner of that score was admitted to the course of their choice, usually, medicine, law, pharmacy or engineering. This was before the score was officially released! No matter, they had somehow subboned the system by finding a way through what I always thought was a tight security system to gain access to the JAMB computer. All this trouble was taken so as to give their ward some advantage in the lobbying stakes. The general and strongly held belief was that whatever the score was, the only way to secure admission was on the basis of who was going to champion their cause within the university.  When I asked those with high, even very high scores why they had bothered to come to see me, they always reminded me, as if I needed to be reminded; ‘this is Nigeria, you cannot afford to stay at home and expect that justice will be done in your case, whatever the merit of that case.’

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    Those who scored low marks, were also not shy about making the same journey. After all, what you needed to do, as far as they were concerned under whatever circumstance you found yourself in , in Nigeria your case was still strong as long as you had someone with some form of authority in your corner, to push your case. Both statements show the disregard that we all have for the fairness of due process in our country. Given this background, it is clear that JAMB or even panels of judges at the Supreme court are on a hiding to nothing, whatever their respective verdict in any case brought before them. People have arrived at this point after a spate of bitter experiences and therefore, cannot be questioned. But, the real lesson here is that all those who cannot show any confidence in any of our institutions also work within one of those institutions. For example, in the bad old days when JAMB computers were pregnant with results for weeks, it was the work of a few high denomination Naira notes for the pregnancy to be tampered with and marks altered in favour of those who knew their way around the relevant offices.

    In Nigeria, our institutions are to be subboned and prevented from delivering services as they are meant to be. That has come to be expected. Another factor that is designed to cripple the workings of a body like JAMB is our strong collective contempt for merit. It is something that we prefer to leave to the birds. How else can you explain why more than 1.95 million candidates were enrolled for an examination in which only just more than 400,000 scored a pass mark? Surely, those who have any respect for merit should on self assessment know that they have very little chance of passing that examination. In spite of their poor performance, they are still hopeful of gaining admission to the university of their choice even at the expense of people who have performed better in the examination. These are the kinds of persons JAMB has to deal with year after year, making theirs a high pressure cooker job for which they cannot be paid highly enough. There is no earthly reason why anyone who cannot score more than 160 marks out of a possible 400 should be exposed to the rigours of any form of education   at the tertiary level. Anything else is a waste of time as the demands of education at this level are too high for such creatures to cope with. They have already consumed a great deal of public resources for nothing up till that point. Going beyond it deprives other people the opportunity of utilising the resources which are only there to be frittered áway over nothing by inept persons. who cannot score above 40%.

  • The coming storm

    The coming storm

    As the world hurtles towards 2027, various factors are converging to create a perfect storm of global proportions. The year 2027 is not just a milestone in the calendar; it represents a critical juncture in human history where technological advancements, A1 in particular, geo-political conflicts, as we are witnessing in the Russo – Ukranian conflagration and the genocidal Israeli wiping out of Gaza,  economic trends, and environmental challenges, are bound to intersect in ways that will profoundly shake the entire world.

    As Nigeria approaches the momentous 2027 general elections, Nigerian politics is bracing up for a potentially tumultuous crescendo, if not a cataclysm.

    The sabre rattling is ear shattering just as the unspoken is pregnant with the unknown as we see failed politicians thunder ferociously from every corner of the country, promising to do wonders in 2027.

    The omens are not good at all.

    The nation’s complex, and mostly contentious political landscape is sure to be further complicated by a range of factors including the punishing effects of the current economic downturn, the enervating security challenges and the evolving dynamics of the country’s major political parties among others.

    The Nigerian economy has been facing significant challenges in recent years – especially since the extravagant Buhari years – including a decline in oil prices, currently hovering in the 60’s, as against the high 70- 80 dollar range of a few months back.Insecurity in the Niger Delta area, though significantly reduced, but still troubling, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially on the food chain. These challenges have resulted in a significant decline in government revenue, making it difficult for  government to adequately fund its budget and deliver on its promises . Indeed, the National Assembly has creatively created a situation in which the Federal government is now running with more than one budget in the same financial year. It is, however , hoped that the new tax regime will bring in far more revenue and change all that by 2026.

    The economic situation is certain to be a major issue in the 2027 electioneering campaigns, with opposition politicians expected to make promises to revive the economy and improve on the peoples’ standard of living – the reason a mummifying PDP could be asking Nigerians if they are better today than the corruption ridden PDP era when a whooping 16B dollars was sunk into improving  electricity but, instead, harvested more darkness. Their promise would, of course, be more noise than reality since politicians, once elected, often forget all about their campaign promises.

    The country is equally facing some absolutely intractable security challenges, including the Boko Haram insurgency in the Northeast, banditry in the Northwest, and separatist agitations in the Southeast. New terrorist groups are  mushrooming too. These security challenges have resulted in loss of lives, huge displacement of people, and destruction of property .

    The security situation will also be a major issue in the 2027 elections, with politicians expected to make empty promises to address it and protect the lives and property of Nigerians.

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    The major political parties in the country, namely, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are mostly going to undergo significant changes in the lead-up to the  elections. They may experience shifts in their internal dynamics, with new leaders emerging and old alliances being broken as is already happening. The parties may also be expected to redefine their ideologies and policies to appeal to the changing needs and aspirations of Nigerians.

    The 2027 elections may also see the emergence of new alliances as well as actors on the political scene. New parties may emerge to challenge the dominance of the APC and PDP, and new leaders may emerge to challenge the established politicians. The emergence of new parties, now getting late, could bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the political landscape, but it could also lead to increased fragmentation and instability. What we have seen to date, is an amalgam of disgruntled politicians who, mostly as a result of their being clinically defangled in the 2023 Presidential election, are now ganging up, trying their damndest to hijack one political party or the other, a phenomenon which saw the practised ‘games masters’ hoodwink a party Chairman whose term, opponents allege, has since lapsed.

    A slew of court cases are, therefore, lined up against them for hostile hijack.

    Technology is likely to play a significant role in the 2027 elections, with social media and other digital platforms expected to be used extensively by politicians to reach out to voters and promote their campaigns.

    The use of technology will increase transparency and accountability in the electoral process, but it could also be used to spread misinformation and manipulate public opinion.

    Concluding, the 2027 general election will be a complex and potentially tumultuous event.The country’s economic and security challenges, combined with the evolving dynamics of the major political parties and the probable emergence of new ones, are likely to shape the political landscape in significant ways.

    The use of technology is  expected to play a major role in the elections. As the country approaches the elections, it is necessary for Nigerians to be vigilant and to demand transparency and accountability from their political leaders.

    To ensure that the elections are free, fair, transparent and credible, the following suggestions should be given serious consideration:

    1. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) should doubly ensure that the electoral process is transparent and credible. Technology should be used massively to ensure the above.

    2. Politicians should prioritise the needs and aspirations of the people, and nnot go about making  unrealistic promises. They should, otherwise, be punished at the elections.

    3. The security situation should be more rigorously addressed through some comprehensive approaches.  will include kinetic as well as non- kinetic. The use of technology must be heightened and priotised.

    4.Nigerians should be vigilant and demand nothing less than transparency and accountability. They must hold politicians and others in sensitive positions  accountable for their actions

    These are the irrefutable measures to take if the 2027 elections is to reflect the people’s will. Only these can move Nigeria towards a more stable and prosperous future.

  • World Folklore Day 2025: Proverbs

    World Folklore Day 2025: Proverbs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Atiku, Obi, el-Rufai bewildered

    Atiku, Obi, el-Rufai bewildered

    The results of the last by-elections in 12 states have probably put coalition leaders in a quandary, their ambitions seemingly more jeopardised than ever. After the elections, the political parties the coalition leaders hoped to deploy as their weapons for seizing power in the next two years or so have spectacularly underperformed. Close to the elections, and having seen that their projections were too optimistically hinged on the packed crowds that attended their rallies, they publicly announced that the polls would after all not be a litmus test on their popularity. However, they cautiously hoped their declarations were misplaced.

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    In the end, their lowered expectations turned out to be an egregious overstatement. They have of course resorted to the time-worn excuses of accusing winners of the polls of rigging the election, probably to save face with their supporters, but in their private reflections, they must have begun to contend with the fear of having leapt into the void when they defected from their big parties to much smaller and lesser known parties. Unfortunately for them, regardless of where their reflections lead them, they can’t return to their former parties, and it may be too late to begin finding a new, more structured and ideologically sounder party. Trapped in the middle of nowhere, they may become more desperate and dangerous, flailing as well as lashing out viciously at the ruling party using fair and foul means. The country must beware.

  • Agunechemba, Ibom Air and women victims

    Agunechemba, Ibom Air and women victims

    Unknown to the public, more than two weeks before Ibom Air made Comfort Emmanson famous by stripping her of her dignity in the name of enforcing aviation regulations, an even more sordid attack on another woman, a youth corps member, Jennifer Elohor, had unfolded in Oba, Idemili South Local Government Area of Anambra state, on July 23. Where Ms Emmanson was dragged from the Ibom Air plane and stripped naked on August 10, her body becoming public and lasting spectacle, Ms Elohor was not only severely beaten, she was stripped even more stark naked, videoed, and threatened with all manner of gender violence. In the August 10 affair, the country was both puzzled and horrified to hear aviation officials, airport security men, and airline cabin crew attempting to justify their action. Furthermore, the Aviation ministry had expected that by quickly dousing the controversy, further revelations on both the questionable tactics employed by officials to handle the crisis and the antecedents of the affair that appear to exonerate the victim of blame could be avoided. The last has obviously not been heard of the matter.

    But in Anambra State late July – and video evidence exists to confirm the sordidness of the affair – the state-owned Anambra State Vigilante Group, Agunechemba, took the law into their own hands, brutalised the youth corps member, threatened her, and traumatised her colleagues living in the same Corpers’ Lodge. The incident took place on July 23, but it was not until last week that the public became fully apprised of the incident. All the people, authorities and institutions which should have managed the incident and ensured justice and redress were too inured to the victim’s pain and societal morality and standards to be outraged. Governor Chukwuma Soludo uncharacteristically quibbled about compensations involving replacement of phone devices, and Agunechemba operatives suspended and under investigations, and victim’s family reluctant to press charges. His senior special assistant on internal security also waffled about the affair, indicted himself by emphasising that, after all, the incident took place in July, and concluded by saying that the eight offending operatives were under investigations. There was no outrage in his voice or in the responses he gave to the media.

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    Worse, the state police spokesman was tame in his answers to the media. He hinged the law enforcement agency’s pussyfooting on the reluctance by Ms Elohor’s family to press charges. There was no attempt to convince the public that the family in question was not being intimidated. And in the face of Prof. Soludo alluding to the eight Agunechemba operatives as bad eggs in an otherwise effective security outfit which has enabled the state to sleep well at night and helped Anambra to become one of the safest states in the country, it was not surprising that those who should have taken firm and immediate action to deal with the affront to civilisation in the state were lulled into complacency. It took the human rights community leading the battle cry, perhaps after viewing the appalling videos of the assault on the corps member, before the authorities in the state stirred themselves to say a thing or two.

    It is also shocking that the federal authorities, including the police and the NYSC in both Anambra and Abuja, took the matter quite tamely. Had they expressed enough outrage, the matter would have come to light much sooner, and both Anambra State and the state/federal police would have taken decisive actions to punish the errant Agunechemba operatives, take down the offending videos, and propose realistic and reasonable measures to ensure that there would be no reoccurrence anywhere in the country. The brutalisation of women by so-called public officials hiding under the guise of law enforcement, either on a plane or on land is becoming an epidemic. If it is to stop, the state and federal authorities must take much firmer stand and much sterner measures to curb the recurring malady. It was not until the human rights community sensitised the country to the Anambra affront before the state dismissed the eight operatives. State officials cannot defend the tardiness of investigations or the tameness with which they viewed the assault. Have they also become desensitised?

    The Aviation ministry and Anambra State need to revisit the outrages that occurred on their watch. They must be honest enough to admit that they misjudged the situations, allowed themselves to be distracted, empowered shoddy and prolonged investigations, and incompetently tried to downplay the assault on the women. Worse, they have done nothing to ensure that the nude videos of the victims were taken down from the Internet. The videos are still circulating. The Aviation ministry and Ibom Air, which needlessly dragged in the judiciary in the case involving Ms Emmanson, are having a rethink over how they handled the matter, but Anambra State and Agunechemba think that it was enough that they had dismissed the vigilance operatives and ordered their prosecution. No, it should go farther than that. They need to show believable outrage and reassure the public about the lessons they have learnt from the affair and what training and reforms they would embark on going forward. It should never be business as usual. What happened in Anambra last month is unfortunately one more solid argument against state police.

    More crucially, despite operating a federal constitution, to which the country pays lip service, the federal authorities have not quite shown more than a passing interest when things go horrifyingly wrong in some parts of the country, especially when it involves the right to dignity of defenceless women. If the NYSC in Anambra had paid closer attention to the mistreatment of their corps member, and had escalated the matter to Abuja with a decisive note indicating their outrage, it is inconceivable that it would have taken so many weeks before the erring operatives were dismissed or handed over to the police for prosecution. The debasement of womanhood that happened on Ibom Air and Anambra State in the past few weeks is a terrible embarrassment to Nigeria. Sadly, by their reluctant and hesitant approach to tackling the malaise of public mistreatment of women, officials have not demonstrated the right attitude to ensuring that the debasement would end soon.