The Nation Newspaper

Category: Thursday

German election and the place of Germany in the world

I have always followed the development in the political economy of Germany for several reasons. I spent three months as a postgraduate student in the Historisches Seminar in Hamburg University in 1968 when I was researching for my doctorate degree on an aspect of the First World Way in which Imperial Germany (Kaiserlichen Deutschland) was a major participant. Any student of History who has not studied German history has missed a lot especially about the importance of geographical location, political leadership, military power, a people’s sense of history and their place in it and nationalism as an important factor in the national trajectory of a people.

I knew I had to visit the home of Bismarck to properly appreciate his position in German history. I also visited Germany when I was already a senior lecturer in the University of Lagos and had the privilege to have a ride on a German gunboat on the Baltic Sea and to watch the prickly relations between West and East German navies during the sad days of German division and loss of territories to Poland and Russia arising from Germany’s defeat in the Second World War creating feelings of irredentism in Germany up till today. The German authorities’ knowledge of my understanding of German history made Chancellor Helmut Kohl to tell me in 1991 that I was a lucky ambassador who knew Germany before being ambassador and he was right.

During the struggle for modern German unification in the1980s and 1990s, Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister was opposed to Germany’s unification by saying she loved Germans so much that she preferred to deal with two German states rather than a united big one! Of course she was overruled by the Americans who, for geo-political reasons preferred a unified German state as a bulwark against Russian communism. To appreciate European politics and the place of Germany in it, one must be solidly buried in the political and economic place of Germany in the world. One may not like Germans because of the terrible horrors inflicted on Europe and the rest of the world by Nazi Germany, but one must appreciate their role as the fifth or fourth economic power in the world. One of my favourite professors whose books I read with avidity when I was in England was the Regius professor of modern history at Cambridge University A .J P Taylor who wrote a book on “The origins of the Second World War” in which he explained and tried to justify the rise of Adolf Hitler as being due to the unfairness of the Versailles diktat of 1919. Even though his scholarship was impeccable, he was shouted down by the conservative forces in Britain and a colleague professor, Alan Bullock, a Regius professor of History at Oxford University wrote his voluminous study on Germany which he called “Adolf Hitler: A study in Tyranny” in which he systematically destroyed AJP Taylor’s thesis challenging his professional objectivity in the process. Since then, German war guilt has been established and Germany’s role in global politics and economy has always been viewed with historical hindsight and perspective.

The recent German election in which the AFD (Alternatif fur Deautscland) came second to the CDU (Christian Democratic UNION) and its smaller Bavarian partner the CSU (Christian Socialist Union) has been received with alarm in Europe but not in Washington Republican circles where right wing parties are currently favoured and especially in the White House where right wing parties in Europe and Asia are seen as allies or potential allies. In a highly contested election in which about 80 percent of the electorate voted, the AFD got about 20.9 percent which was about 10.3 million of the vote while the outgoing German chancellor Olaf Scholz’ party got only 16.4 percent which translates to about eight million votes while the winning CDU/ CSU led by Friedrich Merz won 29 percent, translating to about 14 million voters. Other parties such as the GREENS got about 11.6 percent which is about 5.7 million voters , the Left (LINKS) leftover of the Communist Party and fellow travellers 8.8 percent about 4.9 million voters, BSW ( this is an extreme left wing party founded in 2024 ) got 4.97 percent, about 2.4 million voters, FDP (Free Democrats/ Liberals) 4.3 percent about two million voters. This party was part of the coalition that has just been defeated. It will have no part in the next government because there is a law that prohibits any party with less than 5% support any role in government. The fate of the FDP or Liberals, the party of the long serving foreign minister, Herr Dietrich Genscher in Germany until his death deserves comment. Liberalism as a credo of political party is now almost discredited everywhere in England, America and in Europe; it’s almost a bad label in the United States. The other parties that do not qualify for representation in government or parliament include the LINKS (LEFT) which is by law excluded from coalition government.

The perennial political situation of coalition governments in Germany is because the country is doomed by a complicated constitution and electoral system of broad agreement, not the majority passes the post as in England, it is difficult to have a clear winner of election in Germany. Herr Friedrich Merz now has to shop for partners to form the government. He is likely to approach the SPD of Olaf Scholz who may decide not to be in government because he has become very unpopular in Germany and he may want to rebuild the dwindling Social Democratic Party which for some time was very dominant in German politics. It was the party of Willy Brandt, Helmut Schmidt, Gerhard Schroeder before Scholz. Friedrich Merz would also bring the Greens along into his government because protecting the environment is a major platform and obsession in Germany.

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I must say here from my experience that Germany is the greenest country in the world. When I was ambassador of Nigeria in the country and a member of our delegation to the first conference of parties to United Nations Conference on Climate Change dedicated to locating a secretariat for the conference, I had no reason not to nominate Bonn as the future secretariat because of the cleanliness and greenery of the city and our nomination was approved by the majority of the delegates. In short, we are likely to see a new German government headed by Chancellor Friedrich Merz in which the Social Democratic Party and the Greens will be involved and the AFD will become a powerful opposition in the Bundestag.

The government will be confronted with the problems of resuscitation of the economy which has remained flat for three years because of competition from China especially in the automotive sector where Germany was previously supreme as witnessed by the predominant position in the world by such German cars as Mercedes Benz, Volkswagen, BMW, and their subsidiaries in Europe. German domination of the fast train technology has been surpassed by Japan. The Germans are still very prominent in chemicals, medical and pharmaceutical sectors. The problem is that Germany has been lagging behind in innovation and cutting edge technology and with the coming of AI dominated by the USA and China and increasing protectionism championed by the United States of America and China. Germany is facing a difficult future. Germans are even beginning to question the European idea in which German economy and politics are tied up with because it doesn’t give the country the leverage and space to negotiate an independent path separate from that of the 27 country European Union. Facing Germany is both the new American administration of Donald Trump which wants to meddle in the politics of Europe as seen in Elon Musk and JD Vance the American vice president’s supporting the AFD the right wing party in Germany during the recent elections. Friedrich Merz is also determined to take a more pro-Ukraine line in the confrontation between Ukraine and Russia and in building a more potent German army even though Germany’s protocol of surrender in 1945 prohibits this and this is why Germany does not have nuclear arsenals protecting it from Russia and has to rely on nuclear deterrence from Great Britain and France, former enemies. If push comes to shove, Germany may be forced to defend itself by all means possible in a Europe decoupled from America which is increasingly asking Europe not to rely on it and to defend itself.

February 27, 2025
June 12 and IBB’s say nothing book

The real account of the June 12 saga has yet to be given. All that former military leader Gen Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB) did in his book in which he wrote extensively on the subject was to make himself look good and patriotic. IBB did not come clean with Nigerians about what really happened to June 12 beyond rehashing the tales they actually know about the annulment.

Writing on the subject in Chapter 12, under the title: Transition to civil rule and the June 12 saga, the ‘evil genius’ lived up to his appellation as he danced around the subject, looking for ways to justify the actions he took on the issue. He blamed every other person connected with the election, except himself, for what happened. But as ‘’president and commander-in-chief’’ he told readers that he took responsibility for everything. Who else does he want to take such responsibility?

His second in command, the late Admiral Augustus Aikhomu, who he tacitly accused of initiating the annulment with a ‘’terse, but poorly written statement on a scrap of paper’’ by the late former number two citizen’s press secretary, Nduka Irabor? Or the then National Electoral Commission (NEC) chairman, the late Prophet Humphrey Nwosu, who he alleged ‘’suspended the June 12 election results ‘until further notice’ without my knowledge or prior approval”.

The IBB autobiography: A journey in service is replete with such accusations and blame game. Every bad thing was done by a third party, while he was involved in only good deeds. Is this not the same IBB who once boasted that he “is not only in government, but also in power”? Did he not also tell the world that as a soldier, he was”trained to dominate his environment”? How then did he become a weakling in a situation where he was expected to show strength and damn the consequences?

As shown in his memoir, his authority was challenged time and again by some of his subordinates, especially his friend and ally, the late Gen Sani Abacha, and he never had the nerve to call them to order. According to him, it was not because he was afraid of Abacha, but for the safety of himself and his loved ones. If IBB so loved the country as he claimed in every portion of his book, no sacrifice would have been too much for him to make for his nation. But as he may say, he is not Jesus that laid down His life for the world.

Where then is the so-called patriotic streak that propelled all he did while in office? He was only patriotic to the point that it benefited him materially. He said he had no pact with Abacha to leave the latter in office when he “stepped aside” on August 27, 1993. Was that a wise decision since he knew how dangerous and power-hungry Abacha was? For a man who had “wanted to violently overthrow” him, IBB did not play the statesman by, so to say, bequeathing Nigeria to Abacha.

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For all he cared, Nigeria can burn as long as he and his family had their peace of mind. It is a cardinal sin for him to have done that and no amount of whitewashing can cleanse him of it. June 12 was a momentous event and it provided a chance for IBB to leave a lasting legacy after his exit from office. IBB missed the opportunity and posterity will never forget that when the time came for a soldier of his calibre who confronted a coup plotter, Buka Suka Dimka, with barehands and also executed a “loyal and childhood friend”, Mamman Vatsa, for alleged coup, to take Abacha down, his legendary courage failed him.

There is nothing IBB writes or says about June 12 today that will interest Nigerians until he is ready to come out with the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. He was a central figure, nay the main character in the saga. Everything about the June 12 election revolved around him. He held, as they say, the knife and the yam and he could cut it the way he liked without anyone challenging his authority. He was not ready to stand up for the country because it seemed he, just as Abacha, had animosity against Abiola which he did not write about.

As Abiola said of him in the heat of the June 12 imbroglio, with “a friend like IBB, who needs an enemy?” Abiola knew his enemy before he took on the over four-year battle for his mandate that eventually claimed his life in 1998. Today, IBB is shedding crocodile tears for that ‘friend’, and according him the honour he knowingly denied the business magnate while alive. Readers cannot be fooled about the sweet nothings he wrote about Abiola in his book because he was economical with the truth about the events surrounding the June 12 annulment.

It was obvious even before the election that the poll was going to meet with a bad end. The June 11, 1993 meeting of the National Defence and Security Council (NDSC), to which he unilaterally changed the name of the Armed Forces Ruling Council (AFRC) after he dissolved the nation’s then highest ruling organ, was full of foreboding for the election billed for the next day.

In a rare press conference, held somewhere in Lagos after the AFRC dissolution, former defence chief, the late Lt Gen Domkat Bali, accused IBB of running “a one-man show”. Prior to the NDSC meeting, the late Justice Bassey Ikpeme had on June 10 stopped NEC from conducting the June 12 election, setting off a chain of reactions, which prompted, among other things, the acrimonious NDSC meeting on the way out, which he recollected in his book.

The booby traps set for the June 12 election were many. There is no way that IBB can say with his hand on his heart that he was not part of those opposed to the conduct of the election from the outset. The speed at which he sent a United States (US) diplomat, Michael O’Brien, packing for issuing a statement that postponement of the poll would be unacceptable to America was alarming. It portrayed IBB as having his own agenda for the election and in the fullness of time, the nation saw the result. If Babangida is serious about laying to rest the ghost of the June 12 saga, he should be bold enough to do full disclosure.

At 83 going to 84, there is nothing for IBB to fear again. He has, as they say, seen it all. What the people want from him is a fair and accurate account of the June 12 poll annulment, and not this tale of how he was boxed into a corner to accept what others wanted in order to allow peace to reign in the military, and by extension the country. It is good as a leader for him to take responsibility for the action of his then subordinate, Abacha, who he claimed annulled the election.

But taking responsibility is not the same as being the one who annulled the poll. Or did he? His honest response is the only way to bring closure to the June 12 saga. If he needs to write another book to do that, why not? So far, the truth comes out.

February 27, 2025
Beyond Babangida’s Abuja crowd

The make-up of Babangida’s Abuja crowd during the public presentation of his autobiography- ‘A Journey in Service ‘last week was in character with a leader who like ‘Maradona’ takes delight in devious scheming. On hand to give him solidarity were five of his fellow former military Heads of State who see manipulation of the governed as great asset. They all believe that government doesn’t need to ask what the governed want. Why are they leaders if they cannot dream for their people?

The second group is made up of former products of Babangida’s school of democracy; he personally christened them ‘new breed’ politicians. They were from the onset forbidden from making contact with neither the past nor their corrupt leaders. Today, some are in the private sector while others have become part of our current governing class. The military is their role model and for them, government is about sharing spoils of war. They didn’t have problem raising N17billion towards the building a presidential library for their godfather, ex-President Babangida, accused by detractors of institutionalising corruption in Nigeria.

Babangida, the self-styled evil genius, often obsessed with self-preservation, loves none but self. He is as selfish as he is self-centred. He is a leader with no abiding faith. Babangida was the leader who carried out a palace coup against his principal he accused of not carrying people along in decision making only for him to take IMF loan roundly rejected by Nigerians as shown by the result of a national survey he commissioned. Despite experts’ advice and general rejection of the Structural Adjustment Programme, it was embraced by Babangida even as the result was the turning of our country into a dumping ground for foreign manufactured goods from all over the world. And finally, the evil genius, thinking he knew what we want, took a multi-cultural and multi-religion nation like Nigeria into OIC without consulting Nigerians.

This is why I think his last week act of contrition over his role in the June 12 1993 fiasco during the public presentation of his autobiography- ‘A Journey in Service’ was an assault on sensibilities of thousands of Nigerians beaten by and detained by the police or killed by soldiers while demonstrating in Lagos and across Nigeria against Babangida’s coup against the nation.

For anyone who is familiar with the style of the ‘Maradona’ who dribbled the academia, the media that made him, and the traditional institutions that bestowed on him honours without end across Nigeria including the (Opu Omu Alabo), the chief war leader of Rivers, the Oka ome Eme (a man of his words of Enugu) and the Comforter of the Igbos), it is not difficult to dismiss his last week act of contrition over his June 12 1993 coup against Nigeria an assault on sensibilities of Nigerians

And if one may ask, what is the Maradona apologizing for after blaming everyone else for the coup except self? As if the evil genius thinks he is still the Commander-in-Chief 32 years after Nigerians angrily chased him out office, he is identifying those Nigerians should hold responsible for the 1993 coup many believe he masterminded but executed by his friends. He has identified, Arthur Nzeribe, the Association to Better Nigeria (ABN), he admitted was his friend as the one who secured an illegal midnight judgment that threatened the conduct of the election; he named his Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, Clement Akpamgbo who in clear violation of Decree 13, which barred any court from interfering with INEC’s conduct or scheduling of the elections, he said misadvised government and Akpamgbo’s godson, Justice Ikpeme, whose Abuja High Court granted the ABN an injunction stopping NEC from conducting the June 12 elections.in the dead of night. Babangida also wants Nduka Irabor sanctioned. According to him the June 12 elections “was annulled on June 23, 1993 through “a terse, poorly worded statement from a scrap of paper, which bore neither the presidential seal nor the official letterhead of the government, read out by Nduka Irabor”.

Unfortunately, Babangida forgot that in spite his current denials and buck passing, he validated, all the above decisions he now says were not approved through a public broadcast and press conference where he also laid out plan for his Interim National Government contraption.

Sadly, Babangida, a common trickster thinks no one sees though his subterfuge. The other five perfidious generals who were out with him last week suffer from the same affliction

But how did we get here?

We are an endowed nation. At independence, Nigeria was seen as the hope of the black race. The East was rated as having the highest growing economy in the world, The West had television ahead of Belgium and Germany and was through welfarist policies including free education and free health services, was on the verge of creating an egalitarian society. Our dreams and hopes came into an abrupt end when ethnic irredentists turned the Nigerian Army into an army of balance of terror in 1966.

It is precisely because Babangida style is not different from those of other Nigerian former generals that ruled us like conquered people that I want us to look beyond his Abuja crowd and interrogate how total disrespect for Nigerians by our successive military leaders from Aguiyi Ironsi to Abdulsalami Abubakar has brought the nation to her knees.

Read Alao: Why Nigeria intervened in Liberia’s civil war, by Babangida

First let us take a journey through memory to see how we got here.

There was a military insurrection in January 1966. Ironsi who emerged as the new leader of the country in a moment of madness promulgated Decree 34 of 1966 that overnight turned a multi-cultural Federal Republic of Nigeria into a unitary state. Unitarism was a social system long canvassed by the Igbo ethnic group.

The response of the north to unification was the July 1966 vengeance coup that led to the killing of many Igbo military officers, massacre of Igbo people in the north and eventual civil war.

Gowon played the ethnic card by allowing himself to be railroaded into power in breach of espirit de corps of the military which favoured Brigadier Babafemi Ogundipe, then the most senior surviving military officer as Head of State. Of course, there wouldn’t have been any civil war but for Gowon’s refusal to abide by the terms of the Aburi Accord.

Obasanjo also betrayed the country when he, as an umpire in the 1979 election, chose to support Shehu Shagari. The rest of the country viewed Obasanjo’s action as a form of payback to the northern hegemonic power that allowed him to succeed assassinated Murtala Mohammed in 1976.

Buhari actually believed he could rule Nigeria without Nigerians’ consent. In 1984, he treated northern politicians with kid gloves while he sent their southern counterparts who, as government, officially cornered contract commissions to build universities and health facilities for the mass of their people in Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos to prison years ranging from 100 to 200.

Besides stealing the country blind, Abacha, the maximum dictator ruled the country on his own terms. He waged war against Abiola and his Yoruba people while preparing himself for self-perpetuation

Abdulsalami, besides imposing the 1999 Constitution regarded by many as Decree 24 as it was never discussed by Nigerians, believed he and other northern military officers that brought Obasanjo out of prison, and imposed him as Yoruba preferred candidate and went on to work for his victory, have neither patience or respect for the sensibilities of the Yoruba people.

The net effect of this on the nation was that at the birth of the fourth republic in 1999, there were no politicians with experience in parliamentary democracy or even or even the party system. What we had were military-baked new breed politicians that saw only the outgoing soldiers as role models.

This was why Ayo Opadokun, a former NADECO chieftain, speaking on the legacies of Ayo Adebanjo and Pa Edwin Clark who died after lifelong struggle on Channels Television last week said he holds exception to being told our current political class are politicians. To him as well as to many other Nigerians, they are military apologists who since 1999 could not even guarantee the status of citizenship Nigerians enjoyed under colonialism especially in terms of constitutional engineering.

As a way forward, Opadokun says President Tinubu who understands and has been part of the struggle for nation-building should engage the leaders of ethnic nationalities, the owners of Nigeria.

I think it is time to stop playing the ostrich and let those who claim they don’t know the meaning of restructuring that it is a quest to return our country to a federal arrangement which most multi-cultural societies in the world believe guarantees unity in diversity.

February 25, 2025
Ibadan is taking a new shape

I live in Ibadan and the Redemption City and sometimes for weeks I stay away from Ibadan because of unavailability of electricity in my area, sometimes for weeks, and to God be the glory for the spiritual and physical light available to us in the Redemption City, by the grace of God and the leadership of Pastor Adejare Adeboye. Yet my area is supposed to be in a low density area not far from Bodija, the first planned town in Nigeria after independence. The hellish heat these days makes life almost unbearable for people particularly elderly people. This is despite having a generator which does not really solve the problem because of the astronomical cost of fuel whether petrol or diesel. I have not yet tried solar option which is what some of my colleagues have adopted. Perhaps I will try solar devices when I am able to afford the cost.

I know my readers will probably say look at this old man talking about solar options when people are not able to afford the cost of food necessary for survival. I plead guilty and I agree I bear, alongside people of my generation, vicarious responsibility for the way the country has been run down all these years but in our old age, we deserve some comfort for some of our positive contributions in the past.

I can mention a thousand things and many risks taken by some of us to advance the national interest. Some of our young people may say that writing about the new looks of Ibadan is not worth celebrating because they should be regarded as ordinary events because they take place in all countries including African countries. Road construction and channelization should be regarded as routine. But when they are not routine in our clime, it is worth celebrating.

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This preamble is necessary for me to be able to put in context the recent efforts of the Oyo State government because I have had reasons to be critical of the government before and it is just fair to applaud the government when it is doing well.

A visit to Ibadan today will confirm the fact that Governor Seyi Makinde is in name and indeed, the executive governor of Oyo State. I sometimes laugh when a sitting governor is introduced as the executive governor of his state which I always dismiss as error of tautology but in the case in hand, the governor is really the executive governor just as any performing governor deserves the heavy duty description as “executive governor”. Entering Ibadan from Lagos through the Alhaji’s Arisekola Road and driving towards Molete, one is confronted with digging of gutters at the intersection of Felele and Molete where for years there had been some kind of spring that floods the road perennially in wet and dry seasons. This is the section connecting the road to late Lamidi Adesina’s house at Felele which he refused or could not fix while he was governor of Oyo State. It seems the government is determined to fix it once and for all.

From this point to Saint Anne’s School, heavy drainage equipment is at work digging deep gutters on both sides of the road. I pray this will be extended to all parts of the state capital and to all major towns like Ogbomosho and Oyo. Any government that can do this kind of work deserves to be commended. While on this road project, may I appeal to the Oyo State government to extend its revolutionary approach to road construction to the road linking Molete with Ibadan Grammar School and Saint Luke’s College going on to Saint David Cathedral in Kudeti. This road, for historical reasons, deserves to be fixed as a symbol of CMS contribution to the education and development of Ibadan. Government should look into the possibility of combined redevelopments of Saint Luke College and Ibadan Grammar school as a comprehensive technical college for training young people for the future industrial development of Oyo State.

The importance of street lights in Ibadan should be highlighted. There is need for Ibadan to have a night economy. It’s wasteful for a huge city like Ibadan to go to bed at seven O’ clock because that’s when the sunlight goes out. Government can double the economy of the city by lighting up the city if the government can provide electricity outside the present electricity generation mechanism.

There is also need for strict enforcement of traffic lights in the city. Government should also consider the tolling of some of the roads so that money will always be available for their maintenance. This is also the time to begin to plan the planting of trees and turning all our roads into avenues. This was the case with all major roads in Ibadan and in such places like Kano, and Maiduguri until some military governors decided to cut down the huge neem trees under the guise of beautification with streets lights! How could any sane person have done this in the Sahel towns of Kano and Maiduguri! Yes it was done while we all looked on in silent awe! We have to bring back the neem trees. Incidentally the leaves of the neem trees were potent cure for malaria when boiled and squeezed into juice.

The government of Engineer Seyi Makinde should embark on proper and simple street numbering of Ibadan away from its present antediluvian confusing numbering.

Let’s make Ibadan great again. I remember when we were young during the golden days of the old Western Region, Ibadan did not accept inferior status to Lagos the federal capital and those of us still in school basked in the glory of Ibadan. Ibadan has remained the capital city of Yoruba land with millions making the city their homes even if they had homes in their villages in Ekiti, Osun, Ondo, Ogun, Lagos and even Kwara and Kogi states because of their ethnic consanguinity with Oyo State people. There were of course people from all over Nigeria because of the presence of an institution like the University of Ibadan and the historical connection of the people from the present Edo, Delta and Bayelsa with the city of Ibadan from where they were administered. Those were the days and thinking of those days makes old people like us wonder if the creation of states was really worth the effort and the excitement that went into the splitting of Nigerian humanity into the present puny states only useful to the looters who have benefited from the division which, looking backward, amount to destruction of what could have been important blocks of national unity.

February 20, 2025
United in life and death

When beggars die, there are no comets seen; the heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes – Shakespeare

The nation is still reeling under the news of the death of two great men. Men who shaped the thoughts and opinions of others. Men who took the bull by the horns and faced down those who dared them. However, like all mortals, they were not perfect; they made mistakes now and then.

Chief Ayo Adebanjo (1928-2025) and Chief Edwin Clark (1927-2025) were two of a kind. Adebanjo died on February 14, and Clark passed away on February 17. Call them birds of the same feather and you will not be wrong. Though from different ethnic groups – Adebanjo was Ijebu; and Clark, Ijaw – they held similar positions on many issues. One cannot say if this was by design or default. Their age and accomplishments made them the natural leaders of their people.

Little wonder that their homes were a Mecca of sorts where political associates and friends from all walks of life gathered to learn at their feet. Mind you, they were forceful characters who went out of their way to get whatever they wanted. They were not quite, at all. They were fiery in speech. Many dared them at their own peril. They were not only power brokers, they were also king makers.

It is a funny world. They seemed to engage in what they accused national leaders of doing. Adebanjo and Clark never suffered fools gladly. They were on top of their game and always had their way. They parted ways with you if you did not see things their way. What is that saying again? Though raw, it can be roughly said of them that they would never stand by and allow anybody to wield a sword around them. Moral: they know what the sword wielder can do with it.

So, whenever they spoke of somebody being dictatorial or not listening to others, you knew where they were coming from. It is not in our tradition to speak ill of the dead. It is perceived as offensive to say of the dead that they were bad even if the world knew that is the truth. A person’s sins are forgiven once they are dead. Does that make the dead a saint? No, but society frowns at turning them into game after their passing.

Even though Shakespeare noted that “the evil that men do lives after them”, this evil is hardly mentioned upon their demise in order not to offend the sensibilities of the bereaved families, friends and associates. Conversely, we relish in speaking about the good that they did. We remember how they paid school fees for this; got a job for that and helped those they never knew to start a business. We talk about all these good deeds, which Shakespeare said “are oft interred with their bones”.

The dead do not talk. Whatever is said about them, they will never hear or respond to. It is those they left behind that will take the hit. For sure these people will not like it, especially if they did not share the views of the dead. But they have to put up a front, by defending the dead’s legacies, be they a father, mother, son or daughter. This is the lot of survivors which we can all relate with.

Read Also: Akpabio assures of Senate full participation in Clark’s burial

No man is entirely good or evil. No matter how careful we may be while walking, our heads will sway. The critic is good at one thing and that is to draw attention to the shortcomings of the national leader. In most cases the critic, as in the case of Adebanjo and Clark, may be a leader in his own right too doing the same things that he is accusing the national leader of, but he never sees it that way because he is not in the spotlight.

Criticism is the oil of modern day development. It acts as a spur to sensitive leaders who desire to bequeath a lasting legacy. It becomes another thing, however, when it turns to mudslinging. Adebanjo and Clark were critics of no mean repute. Their biting criticisms went a long way in helping our leaders to sit up. But they went too far at times. They always wanted it their way and no other way. They forgot that like the national leader, no critic is 100 per cent right.

As critics and leaders, Adebanjo and Clark have played their part and left the stage. We recall their sojourn on earth so as to make our lives too sublime. We do not do it to run them down, but to draw attention to the fact that as living beings, we are subject to human foibles and frailties. They were not perfect. If they were, they would not have walked this earth. It is because they were not saints that they had challenges within their respective groups.

We join the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, and the Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) in mourning these great Nigerians. Their roles in these groups will never be forgotten. Clark appropriated PANDEF. He was the group’s all in all. Something that he would never accept from any national leader. On the other hand, Afenifere was challenged in recent years because of the self-inflicted leadership tussle between Adebanjo and Pa Reuben Fasoranti.

The cause of the friction was something that should not have reared its ugly head in the first place, as Afenifere has a natural process for picking its leader. According to its hierarchical structure, the oldest person takes charge whenever the Leader’s position becomes vacant.

Fasoranti’s feeble health made him to cede his natural position to Adebanjo, but the latter declined to step down for the former who sought to return after feeling a bit better. The group became factionalised. Until his death six days ago, Adebanjo called the shots from his Ijebu Ogbo (Ogun State) homestead, while Fasoranti held court in Akure, the Ondo State capital.

Telling it as it is, to borrow the title of Adebanjo’s autobiography which he wrote to mark his 90th birthday six years ago, there is no better time than now for Afenifere to bind its wounds and resolve the crisis which has dragged on for too long. Adebanjo’s death should mark the beginning of a rapprochement within the group. Adieu, Pa Adebanjo! Adieu, Pa Clark!! May you find rest in the Lord’s bosom.

February 20, 2025
There is no perfect nation to be born

There is no perfect nation to be born yet Nigeria is deemed an ultimate hell to every newborn. Thus the rat race by most Nigerians to Japa. In 2013, an Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report ranked the country 80th out of 80 countries assessed in its Where-to-be-born-index. Twelve years on, Nigerians throng American and European consulates in a frantic bid to Japa.

No thanks to the Economist’s sister publication, most Nigerian kids may mature thinking they had been born where the neurotic tick-tock of midnight silences the whispers of dawn.

From birth through adulthood, each poor child glides down maturity like a greased pole to hell. The scriptural hell, we are told, shall be consequent at a future date: the judgement day. But here in Nigeria, we make our matches from mayhem and distil sulphur from sadness, ultimately to make our hell.

Predictably, the EIU report inspired doomsday forecasts about the country; foremost columnists and newspapers penned damning editorials affirming the report – as they do every International Child’s Day or Children’s Day in Nigeria. Amid the bleeding heart patois, child advocacy groups serially squeeze local and international donors of grants that hardly get to the touted recipients.

Through the preachment and plots, a crucial voice dies without recourse; the voice of the Nigerian child. If there has been any change since the EIU’s damning report, it is barely discernible.

To speak for the newborn and generations unborn, we must learn to speak ‘humane.’ We must reinvent Nigeria as a nation fit for every human segment, children, in particular. Nigeria must improve her education and health sectors.

President Bola Tinubu’s 2025 budget allocations to education and health signal an attempt to confront two of the most pressing challenges facing Nigerian children: access to quality learning and adequate healthcare. On paper, the numbers appear impressive—N3.52 trillion for education, with a significant portion directed at infrastructure and student support, and N2.48 trillion for health, including funds for strengthening primary healthcare systems. Yet, beyond the figures lies a deeper question: will these allocations translate into real, tangible improvements in the lives of Nigerian children?

In education, the expansion of higher institutions and the N34 billion earmarked for student loans suggest a policy shift toward accessibility, but the reality remains that the majority of Nigerian children struggle to receive even the most basic primary education. Many classrooms remain overcrowded, understaffed, and lacking essential teaching materials. While infrastructure investments may create new structures, without a corresponding investment in teacher training, curriculum improvement, and systemic reforms, Nigerian children may find themselves sitting in new classrooms that offer little by way of quality education.

On the healthcare front, the allocation of N282.65 billion to the Basic Health Care Fund offers a glimmer of hope, particularly in addressing primary healthcare needs. However, with Nigeria’s health sector plagued by a shortage of medical professionals, dilapidated facilities, and an overburdened system, the question remains whether these funds will effectively trickle down to rural clinics and urban slums where children face malnutrition, preventable diseases, and high infant mortality rates. The additional $200 million set aside to fill gaps left by the suspension of U.S. health aid is a necessary intervention, but it highlights the country’s continued dependence on external funding rather than a sustainable, internally-driven approach to child welfare.

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In 2023, President Bola Tinubu pledged that, on his watch, every Nigerian child, regardless of his or her background, would have access to quality education. Speaking while receiving representatives of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) at the State House, in Abuja, he said, “If we all believe that education is the greatest weapon against poverty, then we have to invest in it. If you eliminate poverty in one family, you can carry the rest of the weight. Poverty should not prevent anyone.”

In 2024, only 7.9% of the N27.5 trillion budget was dedicated to education, and in 2025, the figure dropped slightly to 7.3% of the N47.9 trillion budget. While the 2025 allocation of N3.52 trillion represents a nominal increase in funding, its proportion of the total budget remains disappointingly low. Given Nigeria’s struggling education sector—marked by dilapidated infrastructure, poor teacher remuneration, and inadequate learning resources—this level of funding is unlikely to drive the change needed. However, Mr President’s promise to allocate 25 per cent of the national budget to education, in time, is encouraging.

A 2022 UNICEF report states that Nigeria accounts for approximately 20.2 million out-of-school children, the second highest number of unschooled children globally after India. On Tinubu’s watch, the education system must be re-envisioned to address the disparities that make education incompatible with job market realities.

More importantly, a remedial education summit must be convened by the Federal Government where issues of impracticality and redundancy can be addressed; there, the curriculum must be reviewed and recalibrated as a Nigerian-centred syllabus driven to reflect global learning and cater to the immediate and envisioned realities of the country’s labour market and socioeconomic milieu.

The Tinubu administration must also cater to the health needs of children, revamp healthcare services and institutionalise incentives for health workers, to arrest brain-drain within the health sector. In 2023, the Special Adviser to the President on Health, Salma Anas, stated at a health summit in, Abuja, that President Tinubu has pledged to increase the annual health allocation to 10 per cent of the country’s total budget. Subsequently, the President of the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), Dr. Dele Abdullahi, urged Tinubu to allocate at least 15 per cent of the 2024 annual budget to the health sector. Abdullahi’s plea is worth consideration given the state of the sector; just 24,000 licensed physicians currently cater to the over 200 million population in the country. This negates the WHO minimum threshold that a country needs a mix of 23 doctors, nurses, and midwives per 10,000 population.

Foreign Trade Statistics by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) also reveals that the country is heavily dependent on foreign drug manufacturers thus subjecting the citizenry to the machinations of the mercantile and much dreaded big pharma. Between the third and fourth quarter of 2021 alone, Nigeria imported anti-malarial drugs worth over N110 billion. This requires urgent reinvigoration of Nigeria’s local drug manufacturing capacity.

Tinubu’s administration must also work with State governments to prioritise child protection by ensuring a comprehensive and enforceable legal framework and policies that safeguard children from all forms of exploitation.

To guarantee the success of these measures, Mr. President must evolve and sustain an effective monitoring and evaluative mechanism to effectively neuter the human and structural elements of sabotage. President Tinubu must never shy from wielding the big stick and instituting punitive measures against persons, groups or institutions that may work against the realisation of the highlighted policy goals.

President Tinubu must appreciate his position for the wonderful opportunities it offers; beyond his hard-fought victory, the status quo provides a priceless opportunity to reconnect with broad segments of the electorate in realistic terms and convert them to ambassadors of the Nigerian enterprise.

Nigerians expect him to lay the foundation for the fortune he promised. They expect him to midwife national prosperity built “on a fast-growing industrial base capable of producing the most basic needs of the people and an export track to other countries of the world,” as he promised. They expect him to deploy humane governance to resolve insecurity and socioeconomic crises.

They expect him to rebuild Nigeria as the best nation to be born.

February 20, 2025
Lessons from life and politics of Adebanjo

Chief Ayo Adebanjo, progressive politician, elder statesman, patriot, and unarguably, a foremost nationalist regarded by many as voice of reason but no doubt a controversial politician died at 96 last Saturday. Adebanjo, who started as a Zikist in the years Dr Azikiwe ‘elezikify’ Nigerian press before embracing Awoism in 1951 ended as an enthusiast of Peter Obi, an equally gifted master of political intrigue and propaganda, lived a fulfilled life.

He was one of the last surviving nationalists. Although he might have not won all his battle for a more inclusive, fair, just and equitable Nigeria society, I am sure he will rest well realising he has been succeeded by his some of his equally talented sons including our current president who understands that the Afenifere philosophy is not about Yoruba irredentism but about how Nigeria can fulfil her destiny, by returning to the ‘path to Nigeria Progress’ never taken.

Awoism with its Afenifere-slogan (wanting the best for others as one wants for self) is an ideology propounded by Awolowo and his colleagues including Pa Adebanjo Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Bola Ige Chief Abraham Adesanya Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Bishop Gbonigi, Reuben Fasoranti, Chief Alfred Rewane, etc. It celebrates public goods which find expression in free education, health, rural development welfarism and prosperity for all. Awoism, also celebrates values of federalism, regional autonomy and self-determination.

The transformation of Western Region in the First Republic to one of the most educated part of Africa within 10 years was the reason for thinking that foisting it on the rest of the country would transform the nation especially the marginalised and exploited minorities in the north and the east. Sadly, they fought and defended it for over 50 years with only scars of war from Nigerian state to show for their pains.

With the conspiracy of dominant hegemonic power and dominant Igbo ethnic group during the 1958 independence constitutional debate, the coalition of the two after independence, and the destruction of Action Group and its leaders by the coalition partners shortly after independence, the minorities that saw hope for freedom in Awoism, decided it was in their best interest to find accommodation with their overlords.

The east and the north were opposed to federalism. The former wanted a unitary system where citizens of their landlocked country would be free to thrive in other people’s land, and the latter, the feudal leaders of the north didn’t want their sense of entitlement to power in Nigeria questioned.

The collapse of the First Republic and the civil war meant diminishing relevance of Awoism. The outcome of the 1979, 83, 93, and 99 elections saw the minorities massively voting for dominant ethnic groups in their respective geo-political zones. The military backers of the unitarists and confederalists only brought more confrontation between them and Awoist ideologues misrepresented as arrogant Yoruba trying to impose their culture on the rest of the country.

This misrepresentation was widely promoted by Igbo and their northern hegemonic ruling class counterparts to delegitimize MKO Abiola’s unprecedented landslide 1993 electoral victory leading to the annulment of the most credible election in the nation’s history, the justification for imposition of the contraption called Interim National government, and the unilateral imposition of Obasanjo as Yoruba candidate who, without support of his Yoruba base, literarily climbed the palm tree from the top by winning the election.

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Of course, Obasanjo known for his vindictiveness ensured the Yoruba leading lights of Awoism were humiliated after the 2003 election when all the five governors of AD progressive states were overrun by PDP with exception of Lagos’ Tinubu.

Although Pa Ayo Adebanjo is on record for thanking Tinubu for liberating Yoruba from Obasanjo, he didn’t still believe Tinubu had done enough to earn the highly coveted position of Yoruba political leader. He therefore didn’t believe even with Tinubu’s achievement, there was a need for a change of strategy. Pa Ayo Adebanjo could not stand being told he was wrong when his children proved they could on their own win vote in Yoruba land after abandoning the carcass of his AD. For him, it only got worse when his children settled for Afenifere Renewal Group.

Pa Adebanjo forgot he was dealing with a highly discriminatory voters who Awo, the sage said would not vote for you because you are Yoruba if you have no agenda that will impact positively on his life. In 2015, he crossed the red line no Yoruba leader had ever done by decreeing Yoruba must not vote for Buhari but Atiku. His directive was of course ignored.

Although he correctly predicted that Buhari would betray Tinubu, but he underestimated Tinubu’s capacity for political intrigue that often put his political opponents in disarray, ahead of his political foes. Baba moved from blunder to blunder advising Yoruba who could make an informed choice between Obi candidacy with his uninspiring legacy in Anambra, his prostituting with PDP from where he crossed over to Labour Party to harvest undeserved 94-to 95% of Igbo votes and Tinubu and his legacies in Lagos, his silent persecution under Buhari government he helped to install and his betrayal by southwest governors he mentored and brought to national attention. Tinubu who managed to win four of the Yoruba sates was not expected to do more than that among his highly discriminatory Yoruba voters.

For the 2023 election, the Hausa Fulani hegemonic ruling class and their ever-willing Igbo brides were ready to forget their differences to fight Awoism, the perceived common threat.

The Igbo threat in the event that the presidential ticket of PDP, a party they faithfully served for 21 years was not ceded to the southeast, found expression in Igbo voting massively for Peter Obi, one of their own while call for justice and fairness counted for very little among the hegemonic power in the north who believe that democracy is about group interest and therefore had no problem rallying round Atiku Abubakar.

Pa Ayo Adebanjo along with Obasanjo joined forces with Igbo leaders and the Obidients in an effort to delegitimize Tinubu’s hard-earned victory by unpatriotically attacking the integrity of INEC and the Supreme Court, two institutions critical to survival of democracy in any society. They in addition openly called for military take-over. Atiku and his supporters headed for America in search of evidence to show Tinubu did not have a degree.

Unfortunately, Pa Adebanjo forgot his Yoruba people never had leaders they could not handle. If such leaders became too powerful and could not be controlled, they would adopt the help of the talking drum while such leaders danced until they discover they dance alone albeit naked.

Yoruba’s recent history is replete with examples. There was not too long ago Ogun Oba koso, the powerful and tyrannical Alaafin of Oyo who committed suicide when he discovered he was dancing naked. We had SLA Akintola, a foremost Yoruba irredentists, a terror to the colonial masters and their preferred northern hegemonic power. Yoruba culture detests biting the finger that once fed you. Following his legal removal from office, he was accused of seeking the help of northern hegemonic feudal lords to upstage Awolowo, his principal. He literarily committed suicide when he took up arms against trained soldiers during January 1966 military coup.

There was also Uncle Bola Ige, loved by the young and the old for being an unrepentant Yoruba irredentist whose major weapon against Yoruba detractors was his caustic tongue. His decision to spite his fellow Yoruba cult of elders to take up national appointment under Obasanjo against the warning of their late leader, Obafemi Awolowo attracted the anger of his fellow elders. He was believed to have been murdered by the state following his attempt to retrace his way back to fold.

Our consolation is that Pa Adebanjo, who like his leader believed that you can only be a good Nigerian if you were first a good representative of your people, will today be comparing note with his leader in the great beyond, a task he anxiously looked up to while with us here.

I have no doubt Awo would be pleased to let him know that he is pleased that Awoism has been repackaged by someone not on the succession line, in a new language now more pleasing to the ears of those who only yesterday complained Awoism jarred their ear lobes.

Awoism, beyond service and search for an egalitarian society, is true federalism, regional autonomy, fairness and distributive justice, virtues without which any nation can progress,

And lastly, Yoruba leadership often comes from behind and seldom from the aristocratic class. Awo the sage himself never had money to attend primary or secondary school at a time his age mates were securing six A1s from Government College, Ibadan Kings College Lagos and proceeding to London to study law. Tinubu is haunted by his poor background and derided by those who could not find his name in Government College Ibadan.

February 18, 2025
The artist as Nigeria’s true architect

A nation is more than its borders and governance. It is the sum of its stories, the melody of its anthems, the rhythm of its cultural heartbeat. Where politics flounders and policies fail, the arts endure, casting in ink, film, and sound, the indomitable essence of a people.

The soul of every nation is thus enshrined in its stories, the verses of its poets, the visions of its filmmakers, and melodies of its musicians. The arts manifest as both a mirror and map, reflecting our wounds and charting our path to redemption.

What shouldn’t we do for an evergreen story? What shouldn’t we give? If progressively spun, stories yield fresh insights through the imagination of the artist, who milks history and recalibrates reality to espouse a positive national lyric.

What is the Nigerian lyric? What is our reality? For decades, our storytellers have oscillated between two extremes: glorifying foreign ideals or perpetuating narratives of hopelessness. The former divorces us from the peculiarities of our existence, while the latter traps us in a cycle of self-loathing. The result? A people whose reflections in literature and cinema are often distorted caricatures, exaggerated traumas, and borrowed cultural paradigms.

Patriotism does not grow in the sterile halls of government houses, nor does it thrive in the acrid fumes of political speeches. It flourishes in culture—songs hummed by market women, fables whispered in moonlit courtyards, and cinematic retellings of our struggles and triumphs. Yet, Nigeria, rather than cultivating her fertile artistic landscape, has become an unwitting accomplice in her cultural erosion.

For instance, Nollywood churns out too many rabidly wrought revenge fantasies in which the Nigerian female perpetually scores retribution over her treacherous male; lest we forget the increasingly tiresome fiction plots that incite audiences to nurse toxic sexuality, ethnic intolerance, religious bigotry, virulent feminism, and sexist rage. In search of the proverbial elixir, we have drunk water from a pestilent stream and filled our bellies with toxins.

The superiority of Western democracy is one of the supreme constructions of imperialism and the poisonous elixir of Nigeria and her neighbours on the African continent. Nigerians elevate it with obsessive love. It is the magic pill to the nation’s ceaseless headaches.

But the West must never be blamed for our collective ignorance – the United States in particular. The latter’s democratic enterprise is one of its most profitable constructions in its bid to make America great again, at any cost. It is both music and philosophy, a sensory stream of thought feeding generations of writers, political activists, filmmakers, politicians, gender rights activists, academia, and so on.

We must understand, however, that Western democracy and foreign policy, while deliberately presented as two tines on the same fork, are sustained by oft-deceptive ideals and contradictory precepts of influence, crudely wedged into the nuclear powers’ global dominance stratagem. It is imperial politics without heart: ideologically deficit, dangerously manipulative, and Janus-faced.

A few good minds with an intuitive grasp of the hard-edged imperialist designs of the Western agenda are spuriously labelled as conspiracy theorists.

Those who love glorifying toxic foreign doctrines must understand that there is no way this could be achieved without horror, given the marked differences in culture, temperament, and histories defining different nations of the world.

It’s about time we identified values complementary to our precepts of humane governance and development. We cannot dwell, for instance, like Americans or Brits in Nigeria. We can only assimilate aspects of their culture complimentary of ours.

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Every great civilization understands the power of storytelling. Hollywood does not merely produce films—it manufactures America’s mythology, refining its political narrative with every frame. Between 1911 and 2017, more than 800 feature films received support from the US Government’s Department of Defence (DoD). These included blockbuster franchises such as Iron Man, Transformers, and The Terminator. On television, over 1,100 titles received Pentagon backing – 900 of them since 2005, from Flight 93, Homeland, 24, NCIS, Ice Road Truckers to Army Wives. The Pentagon funds blockbusters that glorify its military might; the CIA collaborates on scripts that reinforce American exceptionalism. For over a century, the U.S. government has actively sponsored thousands of films and television shows to ensure that America is always the hero of its own story. Thus, Hollywood, despite its veneer of creative freedom, has long been a propagator of American ideals.

South Korea’s investment in K-dramas and K-pop was not accidental either; it was a deliberate strategy to export its culture and reinforce its national identity. China’s film industry is heavily regulated to ensure that its narratives align with its national ethos.

Nigeria must reclaim its creative space. Our filmmakers must tell stories of resilience, not just ruin. Our writers must craft narratives that inspire national pride, not just despair. Our musicians must sing of hope, not just hedonism.

Of course, different aspects of foreign governance cultures are worthy of emulation but only after we sieve and winnow them to extract their preferred aspects amenable to our sociocultural institutions. We must always remember that the Libyans, Afghans to mention a few, wildly embraced a dandy dream of ‘American-NATO-styled freedom, but instead, got trapped in a sinister nightmare. To date, they are paying dearly for it.

Nigeria’s creative economy stands at an inflection point. With projections estimating a leap from $5 billion in 2022 to $25 billion by 2025, there is an undeniable hunger for indigenous storytelling. Yet, economic prosperity must not overshadow ideological direction. What stories will we tell? What culture will we export? Will our arts heal a fractured nation, or will they deepen her wounds?

There is an urgent need for strategic investment in arts and literature. Grants and fellowships must be established, not merely to fund artists but to cultivate a sense of purpose in their creations. Our films must not only entertain but edify. Our literature must not only critique but reconstruct. Our music must not only excite but enlighten.

The government must partner with creatives, not as silent spectators but as active collaborators in shaping a national narrative that inspires rather than disillusions. The American government funds Hollywood. The Chinese government invests in its cultural exports. The Nigerian government must do the same for Nollywood, for literature, for music, and for theatre.

A nation’s heart beats in its stories. A country without a thriving literary and artistic identity is a body without a soul. Nigeria must reclaim her creative consciousness, not as an afterthought but as a deliberate policy of national development. Our filmmakers must move beyond the monotonous tropes of gender wars and vendetta-laden plots. Our novelists must cease writing solely for Western pity. Our reality shows must no longer be the custodians of our values.

It’s about time the government partnered with the arts sector to reinvent the Nigerian story while channelling humane governance and patriotism. It is time to make art the bedrock of our nation-building. For in the imagination of the artist, the poet, the filmmaker, and the musician thrives the history and future of Nigeria. A future yet to be written, yet to be sung, yet to be seen. But a future, nonetheless, that belongs to us to create.

Shall we script a new national narrative? One that does not lament Nigeria but reimagines her. One that does not beg for Western approval but commands global reverence.

It’s about time we refined the maladies that make the Nigerian dream the fantasy of thieves, slatterns, and blinkered murderers.

February 13, 2025
Post-colonial culture in Nigeria

The vast majority of Nigerians after the amalgamation in 1914 continued to live their lives as before without noticeable change traceable to the imposition of colonial rule. The most noticeable outcome of amalgamation was the gradual extension of the Beit-el mal (native treasuries) first introduced to the North by Sir Fredrick Lugard to the rest of the country beginning in Yorubaland and Benin. The attempt to extend this to the acephalous Igbo societies by creating ‘warrant’ chiefs where there were no traditional rulers met with failure. The economic implication of this system was the levying of taxes in the names of native rulers who were now made to enjoy political and economic power out of tune with pre-colonial tradition and culture. Resistance to this imposition did not succeed in the face of superior physical force in the hands of the colonial administration. Rebellion and revolts were shot down by the use of soldiers and Nigerians were cowed and made to face the responsibilities imposed by modern mode of governance which involved payment of taxes as a passage of citizenships rite.

The colonial phase of Nigerian history witnessed rapid economic changes, building of railways, roads and ports and even aerodromes. Gradually our people were sucked into the western economic, political and social vortex. With this came increasing contact between our people and the outside world. Nigerian soldiers fought in two world wars, first between 1914 and 1918 in theatres in Togo, the Cameroons and East Africa. Some naval ratings were even sent all the way to Palestine. The Second World War saw more extensive use of our soldiers in the Ethiopian campaigns against the Italians and in Burma against the Japanese.

The involvement of our troops in these global cataclysms had serious political consequences. The weakening of the British in a changed world hastened the process of decolonization. This process was hastened by the rise of African nationalism and the emergence of political parties each of which in different ways fought for the political emancipation of our country. The growing political awareness led to cultural nationalism and the cry to “boycott all boycottables” that is to say Africans should go back to their cultural roots by jettisoning imported names and taking on native names. This was particularly the case among the descendants of Nigerian repatriates from Sierra Leone resident in Lagos. They cast away their European and Hebrew names thus David Brown Vincent took an African names of Mojola Agbebi, Edmund Macaulay became Kitoyi Ajasa, Joseph Pythagoras Haastrup became Ademuyiwa Haastrup, Jacob Henry Samuel became Adegboyega Edun. Their examples were later to resonate with Azikiwe and Awolowo when they dropped their biblical names of Benjamin and Jeremiah respectively.

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The wearing of African clothes became fashionable. Lugard would in his grave have approved this development unlike what he condemned in 1914 when he described educated natives as the “trousered Negros of the coast dressed in bond street attire who send their laundry abroad every other week for dry cleaning”. In this changed cultural preference, the cultural gap between Southerners and Northerners in Nigeria began to close. Northerners never abandoned their babanriga for western suits and in most cases stuck to their languages especially the Hausa language rather than taking to English. This was to be their undoing in a world in which English was the lingua franca. This cultural recrudescence also led to greater interest in the study of Nigerian languages literature and history. The vanguard in this regard was provided by the University of Ibadan which by the eve of independence in 1960 began to develop new curricula for students in liberal arts and the social-sciences as well as adapting the physical and biomedical sciences for the African environment. The so-called Africanisation gathered pace in the civil service, the church and the judiciary and it was only a matter of time before Africans began to occupy the commanding heights of the economy and the politics of Nigeria and this had its cultural dimension in African pride and the assertion of what was called the “African personality”.

The post-colonial cultural development

With independence in Nigeria came a rising tide of expectations. People wanted increased prices for their primary produce like cocoa, groundnuts, palm kernel and palm oil as well as cotton, rubber, hides and skins on which post-independence Nigerian economy depended. The various governments of Nigeria tried to meet the expectation of the people but they were not always successful. With the decline in producer price of farm produce, there was increasing migration of the youth to swell the urban conurbation of Lagos, Ibadan, Kano, Kaduna, Jos, Maiduguri, Benin, Aba and Port Harcourt. The cities therefore became melting pots of cultures. The various governments particularly the one in the western part of the country spent vast sums of money from accumulated funds of the marketing boards on social welfare schemes such as education and health and urban planning and renewal.

The cities became more attractive to the youth who left the dreary existence of the villages for the cities in what has been appropriately described as rural-urban migration phenomenon. With too many people in the cities the infrastructure could not cope and there began a gradual and slippery slope to a situation of urban decay and dilapidation. Crime increased and there was a corrosion of values everywhere. Money became the most desirable object without consideration of how it was acquired. Bribery graft, fraud and corruption alien to our culture have become the order of the day.

This phenomenon was accentuated and exacerbated by the incursion of the military into governance. Force was seen as a veritable instrument of success. There has been growing culture of aggression in Nigeria and a noticeable breakdown of the culture of respect for elders and others. Some have ascribed this decline to exploding population which has led to increased competition for resources and jobs particularly among the people.

Nigerian fraudulent practices have even gone international with advance fee fraud and drug and human trafficking being increasingly, associated with Nigerians. Surprisingly or perhaps because of the prevailing hardship, the religion of Islam and Christianity have witnessed revival. The orthodox aspect or traditions of these religions are increasingly challenged by sometimes extremist or even millenarian tendencies sometimes leading to a clash of votaries of these religious. Sometimes the battle-line as in the North of Nigeria is between the traditional Islamic religion and groups preaching a Shiite form of Islam in a largely Sunni milieu. Among the Christian orthodox traditions such as the Catholics and Protestants have seen huge erosion of membership who now troop to the so-called Pentecostal churches.

Founding of churches have become big business and many of the churches have gone beyond what orthodox Catholic and Protestants missions used to do in terms of establishment of schools and hospitals. Some now have housing estates where the ordinary lives of the people are rigidly controlled. Pentecostalism shares much in common with Islam in the sense that it is not just a religion but a way of life. This has radically affected the culture of Christians, particularly as it affects marriages, child naming and burials. The absence of government has also been replaced by the role Pentecostal churches play in the lives of Nigerians. Some now provide educational facilities from kindergarten to universities. This is also being emulated rather slowly by Muslims in a struggle for the souls of the people.

While all this is going on, there is also the effect of globalization on Nigerian culture. Our economy is open to the rest of the world and with this openness come the importation of all kinds of things namely wine, food, films, educational materials and other things promoting particularly western culture. It is not unheard of nowadays to hear calls for gay rights that would have been met with the worst kind of reaction in the past. The modes of dressing of the youth even the kind of English spoken are pitifully American. The dot.com generations have also exploited computers to perpetrate fraud internationally. Nigerians like other people in the globalised world are not immune to the spread of pornography and even paedophilia and other kinds of sexual perversion unheard of in times past.

Happy people, poor country

Nigerians are credited to be one of the happiest people on earth. Whether this is deserved will always remain a moot question. The fact however remains that Nigerians generally speaking are “happy-go-lucky” people. This probably applies more to Southern Nigerians who celebrate virtually every important landmark in life, particularly child birth, birthdays, marriages, graduation, promotions and eventually death.

Culture is dynamic and a living culture must necessarily welcome accretions from other cultures. Before the coming of colonialism Nigerian cultural plurality was also not static. There were contacts among the people brought together in the Nigerian state. What is obvious is that the spatial distribution of the various ethnic groups has been bridged by modern means of communication and transportation and by an increasingly centralized state. The result of this is a developing national culture. Nigerians usually stand out among Africans as aggressive, confident and clever people. There are of course negative traits which can be attributed to Nigerians and which are traceable to the Nigerian environment. The post-colonial state with its emphasis on individualism and capitalism has also thrown up the desire to be successful by all means this is a feeling that is antithetical to the pre-colonial culture of communalism and everybody being everybody’s keeper; a feeling which has been amply demonstrated in the saying that it takes a village to train a child. This is no longer the case. This has been replaced by one being the architect of one’s destiny and God for us all and the devil takes the behind.

February 13, 2025
Is El-Rufai the North?

Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, the self-styled accidental public servant, is at it again. Sounding off and drawing attention to himself, as usual. What ails El-Rufai? What is biting him really? El-Rufai is good at blabbing, flapping and flailing, all at the same time. He seems to have lost bearings after missing out on being made a minister in the present administration.

Both in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where he once held sway as minister, and Kaduna, his home state, where he was a two-term governor from 2015 – 2023, El-Rufai has turned himself into a laughing stock of sorts, the way he is carrying on. Under the guise of speaking ‘truth to power’, that is what his likes always say after their quibbling, he sees nothing good in what President Bola Tinubu, and Governor Uba Sani, his (El-Rufai’s) successor, are doing.

Hardly a day passes without El-Rufai taking potshots at both men. He is hyperactive in the traditional and social media, as he has joined forces with other disgruntled politicians to pick, especially on the President. His hitherto political enemies are now his friends. Those people were not only his political foes, they were also not economically and socially compatible. El-Rufai now finds comfort in their bosom. Not to worry, at the right time, they will be put asunder by what brought them together.

The time is drawing close. And El-Rufai is stepping up his campaign of calumny against Tinubu, pretending to be speaking as a friend. With a friend like him, the President does not need an enemy. His latest outburst was not altruistic. It was, as usual, self-serving. He assumed to be the voice of the North as he thundered over the President’s chances in the 2027 election. The North, he claimed, would ditch the President as the region did to Goodluck Jonathan in 2015 because of “his (Jonathan’s) attitude and that of people around him to the zone”.

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In other words, he was saying that for Tinubu to get a second term, he must surround himself with more northerners, give them what is commonly referred to as ‘fat and juicy’ appointments and open up the treasury for them, if need be, so as to appease this northern deity created by him, which cannot be defied. The train has since left El-Rufai behind. If he did not know, he should know now. He is no longer a factor in the nation’s politics. These days, he is just being tolerated, all because of what he was in the past.

El-Rufai no longer has a place in the political future of this country. So, to threaten the President with the loss of the North’s vote in 2027 is mere talk. Grammarians call it gibberish. I will not do that because El-Rufai, as Mark Antony referred to those who killed Julius Caesar, the major character in William Shakespeare’s tragic play of the same title, is an ‘honourable man’. The North knows its own and its own know the North. El-Rufai cannot now pretend to be what he is not to the region that produced great men like Sardauna Ahmadu Bello and Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa.

When those men spoke, the North listened. Who will listen to El-Rufai? Come to think of it, how many soldiers does he have to warrant him to make such a sweeping statement for the North. Lest he forgets, he is no longer a governor nor a minister with favours to dispense. People are no longer at his beck and call. He should stop living in the past. It is not of his making that a Southerner is the President today. It will also not be of his making that a Southerner will remain President in 2027.

The Southern Presidency is an idea whose time did not just come today. It came years ago and El-Rufai was wise enough to join the bandwagon then. All the best, if he wants to jump ship now. I concede that he played a leading role in rallying the All Progressives Congress (APC) governors from the North to support the project. That was then when he, as governor, was on the ground in Kaduna. It is because he is no longer on the ground that he seems not to know the things that the President is doing for the state.

El-Rufai is seeking a return to political reckoning with his recent activities. He speaks glowingly of APC at public forums, but deep down he knows that he is insincere. His statement titled: South West, Tinubu’s supporters playing with fire – Part 1, released on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday was a dead giveaway of his intentions about Tinubu and their party. Is he still in APC? Time will tell. Playing with words, he wrote:

“I have read and heard the arrogant posturing and braggadocio by some people who I refer to as political rabble-rousers… May I remind some persons that, more than the performance or lack thereof, of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, it was his attitude, and that of people around him, towards the North that ultimately brought him down…” Can you hear that? El-Rufai’s plan to set the North against Tinubu is dead on arrival.

He cannot incite the North and its people against Tinubu at a time that the President is doing all he can for the region. May we remind El-Rufai that he is not the Oracle of the North that speaks and the people will follow. He can only speak for himself and not the region which has had it good under the Tinubu Presidency. God sparing our lives, 2027 is just two years away. It is Tinubu’s achievements and not the bile spewed by a disgruntled politician that will determine his return to office.

Like every other eligible voter, El-Rufai has only one vote. He should cast it for whoever he likes. I bet him, he will be shocked by the outcome of the 2027 Presidential Poll, notwithstanding his statement inciting the North against Tinubu ahead of the election. The second part cannot be more incendiary than the first. The public awaits that installment.

February 13, 2025