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Tag: Femi Orebe

  • More on Trump declaring Nigeria ‘Country of Particular Concern’

    More on Trump declaring Nigeria ‘Country of Particular Concern’

    As I ended this column last Sunday, I write again: “the President owes it a duty to peace – loving Nigerians, to first rein in these enemies within, no matter their status or how untouchable they consider themselves”.

    This has become of considerable importance now that he has to dispel the unverified, trending video of a Northern Lady, who claimed she refused an appointment, early in his presidency because he said he cannot fight sponsors of terrorism in the North as doing so would eventuate in his being killed.

    My instant reaction to that balderdash was that this would certainly not be the doughty Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu I have known for well over two decades.

    Today I go further into what I described as the predisposing factors for the mercurial and egocentric U.S President Donald Trump declaring Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern whereas in truth, both Christians and Muslims are being Killed in Nigeria’s orgy of unrelenting bloodletting in the North of the country where, by far, too many Christian communities had been deliberately targeted for annihilation and expulsion from their ancestral lands.

    To do this, as is fast becoming my wont, I re- publish below, an article that was first published here in 2021 titled:

    Insecurity In Nigeria Can Become History If The Buhari Government Is Sincere In Fighting It

    Happy reading.

    The chicken has, indeed, come home to roost. I have always known that the predominantly, mono – thought process underpinning the Buhari administration, majorly a result of his North- centric appointments into critical areas of government, was bound, sooner or later, to impact Nigeria negatively. The evidence is all over the place:  that the monopoly a  particular culture – one that believes that an elder cannot / should not, be controverted on any issue, was going to have its consequences. This is the same culture that made the North an arid zone for newspapering for a very long time in the region. Other than the New Nigerian, Newspapers die off as soon as they were established because there were simply too many cultural taboos.

    This situation worsened by the coming to power, of the awe- inspiring persona of President Muhammadu Buhari. All over Nigeria, at least  until he became president and began to show a seemingly unquenchable love of the North over the others, he was massively loved and respected.

    Indeed, more than being respected, he was lionised as a highly principled military General who, unlike many of his compeers, was not tainted with corruption.

    When the highly respected Tai Solarin came up with the allegation of some  stolen oil money, Nigerians so disbelieved it had anything to do with Buhari until Pa Solarin confessed that it was a mere molue (public transport) gossip.

    Such was General Buhari’s incandescent honesty and widespread respect then. Indeed, both when Boko Haram named him one of its representatives at negotiations with the federal  governmenr and  when he led a Miyetti Allah delegation to the Oyo state governor, Lam Adesina, to protest on behalf of Fulani herdsmen,  most Nigerians believed  that it was  those groups – Boko Haram and Miyetti Allah – which wanted  to profit from his huge profile; a profile that was fast approaching that of a god, nationwide.

    Unfortunately, these past six years have so reduced this halo to only within his government circle where happenings in the country suggest that people closest to him are too respectful of him, if not overwhelmed by his persona, to offer him any good advice.

    Nothing affirms the truism of the diminution of how the president was held, pre office, more than bandits going to    his home state of Katsina to kidnap school children who would not be freed from the kidnappers’ embrace until two weeks later, and after hundreds of millions of naira must have been paid in ransom.

    And to resolve the problem, President Buhari must have assembled an entirely Northern group, probably all Muslims, military and civilian.

    Even if he has been magnanimous enough to involve  his entire security council, the group would have been more than 80 per cent Northern – that same group that not only think alike  but are culturally forbidden to oppose their elders.

    According to the Report of  The Chinua Achebe Foundation Research Project on Fulani Herdsmen, “Most Nigerian Fulanis are no longer migratory herdsmen. They are either Emirs, Sultans, heads of parastatals, oil barons, Imams, Christian Pastors, Governors, Federal Reps and Senators. However, they all maintain their cultural ownership of cattle. These wealthy Nigerians increase their wealth astronomically through cattle rearing by using their not well off brothers, impoorted from outside Nigeria, to rear these cattle. Instead of investing in ranches or buying of grasses from the South, they chose the cheaper alternative of having their kinsmen, imported from outside the country, arm them with AK 47’s, and order them to take these cattles from the north to the south seasonally. For these people, the entire Nigerian space is their “grass kingdom”.These cattle, in turn, destroy farms on their path, rendering farmers economically bankrupt to further enrich the wealthy Fulani “remote herders”.

    All these, under the Buhari administration, and probably now, under President Tinubu, with no security agent – military or police – bold enough to question them.

    What the above shows is that non – Fulani Nigerians are wrongly accusing poor Fulani herders of all the criminalities they commit whereas the various cattle owners mentioned above are the real troublers of Nigeria, the reason the President simply has no interest in solving  the  massive insecurity problem caused by these people.

    This is why they attack in hundreds on motor cycles, kill in scores but with a single one of these terrorists, never arrested nor tried.

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    Indeed, in the one case tried, the victim, who barely escaped before he eliminated the Fulani herdsman terrorist, was sentenced to death in a case that went up to the Supreme court.

    I was not surprised when I heard Human rights lawyer, Femi Falana (SAN), say that security agencies were informed of the killings in Igangan, Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, over a week before the attack but that nothing was done by the Nigerian security.

    I was not surprised, thanks to the same research of the Chinua Achebe Foundation which took the team to the

    “Ama Hausa and Garki” camps in both Enugu and Abia States where they  interviewed neighbors from the local communities living within and around the Hausa communities in both states. They affirmed that  both the Northerners and the local community were very open and volunteered valuable information to their team.

    Below is how the report captured a typical Fulani herdsmen attack:

    “Fulani Herdsmen Attack”:.

    We learned from the surrounding communities and from some of the Hausa elders about what constitutes a Fulani herdsmen attack. According to information we received, when there is a disagreement between host communities, or between herdsmen and farmers, the Fulani herdsmen who accompany the cattle will locate the nearest Fulani settlement and if there is none, they will locate the nearest Garki or Ama Hausa. When they arrive, they will narrate their story. The Fulani (Nigerian middlemen) cattle managers will notify their top Fulani Herdsmen which in this case, include governors and other top Fulani top officers who own the cattle. 

    A decision will be made about whether there should be an attack or not on the said village or host community. If an attack is sanctioned, then modalities will be mapped out and a date will be chosen for the attack. Most times, Fulani herdsmen in the military and police are notified and everyone sends a representative. Neighboring settlements sends out representatives and arms cache are opened and arms are distributed to the participants. The major participants are the 20 to 40 Fulani herdsmen who reside in the Garkis and Ama Hausas. These are the Fulani warriors whose job is to kill.

    During an attack, every Fulani person in the area knows there will be an attack and all will contribute to make sure it goes on successfully. Fulanis in the higher levels of the military will ensure all commands under them stand down, and the top Fulani police officers will do the same. The road is then clear for the Fulani herdsmen to carry out their attacks.,

    Based on the findings from which they understood that the attacks are never carried out by the herdsmen we see escorting cattle on the roads and bushes, but are well coordinated and  most times sanctioned by very influential Northerners,  nearly  all of  them, herd owners.

    The Foundation proposed the following solution:

    “Many of those who interacted with us suggested solutions that are very interesting. Most of the northern Hausas and the local communities suggested a ban on grazing in the affected states. A total ban would be the only way to solve this problem. Some argued that with the Fulanis’ nature of encroaching on other people’s land and territories, any attempt to give them land would aggravate the problem and not solve it.

    Most villagers from Abia State suggested that these cattle be penned in the north while government releases money for people in the South to cut grasses, process the grass, and send to the north. This is the practice all over the world. They indicated that any attempt to take their lands and give to the Fulani would definitely result to a civil war.

    We agree, the solution is very simple; ban grazing, establish ranches for the cattle in the north, pay the southerners to harvest grass and send to the north. With this, everyone would be pleased with the outcome. This solution is expected to generate 1 million jobs in the South and about 500,000 jobs in the North. Also Fulani herdsmen terror will be totally eliminated”.

    The correlation between this 2021 article and President Trump’s threat of an attack on Nigerian killers, not Nigerians, is that nothing has changed between then and now, whether they were protecting their herd or killing and running Christians away from their ancestral homes.

    Otherwise the likes of Sheik Gumi, who is in and out of these killers’ lairs would long have been run out of town, and our prisons would, by now, be crawling with concicted terrorists as well as their sponsors, at least those ones criminally  protected from trial by President Buhari and his attorney – General after they had been convicted and sent to Nigeria by the UAE.

    The lesson of all these is that to solve the menace of insecurity and  avoid constant external embarrassment, the Nigeran government must put its house in order.

  • Northern Nigeria: Untameable and prospect of Nigeria achieving trillion dollar economy

    Northern Nigeria: Untameable and prospect of Nigeria achieving trillion dollar economy

    Northern Nigeria matters, but not just because of the reasons many Northern Nigerians think it matters. The region matters beyond arguments about land mass and controversial population statistics, but mainly because it is a foundational partner in the establishment of Nigeria as one country through the amalgamation of the Northern and Southern Protectorates in 1914.

    There is a big problem in the North today, and that problem also affects the overall pace of economic, social and political progress of Nigeria as a whole.

    We need to agree on what exactly that problem is because we can’t overcome an obstacle if we don’t understand clearly what it is, or if we know, but pretend not to know, or if we mischaracterise the problem and thus confuse ourselves  and the whole picture of poverty” – Professor Kingsley Moghalu, former Deputy Governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, in a ramifying, no holds- barred address he   delivered  at the Mallam Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital Conference Hall, Kano, June 2019.

    Titled:”Northern Nigeria’s Prosperity: Imperative of Social, Economic Transformation”,

     Moghalu held in the address that if Nigeria,with its 200M plus population, (as against India’s 1.5 Billion) is the poverty capital of the world, then Northern Nigeria is the poverty capital of Nigeria.

    He went on to situate the Nigerian poverty index as follows:

    “Northern Nigeria is the poverty capital of Nigeria, which makes the region the poverty capital of the world’s poverty capital. Comparative regional poverty rates in Nigeria, he went on  are: North-West: 80.9%, North-East: 76.8%, North-Central: 45.7%, giving a northern poverty average of 67.8%. Compare this with the southern regions: South-West: 19.3%, South-South: 25.2%, South-East: 27.4%, with a southern average of 24%. Northern Nigeria is nearly three times poorer than Southern Nigeria”.

    This parlous state of affairs has been further worsened by a multiplicity of problems. Among them: very poor education with over 10Million out of school children and an all- encompassing state of insecurity which, for more than a decade, has made lives short and bruttish for Nigerians living in those parts.

    Our task here then is to examine how all these will impact on the Tinubu government’s ambition to turn Nigeria into a one trillion Naira economy.

    As my good friend, and former Secretary of the Arewa Consultative Front (ACF), the erudite elderstatesman, Tony Sani, used to say, Nigeria is like a big river with all the other parts as mere tributaries – he often puts it more elegantly – so whatever touches one part touches the other.

    I say that to acknowledge the fact that the North does not have a monopoly of Nigeria’s developmental challenges.

    There fore, the prospect of Nigeria achieving a trillion dollar economy in the short run, seems like a distant dream, a mirage, given the myriad challenges plaguing the country. 

    Insecurity and unrestrained child-bearing in the  North, for instance, have far-reaching consequences that will continue to threaten the country’s economic stability and development.

    The region has been ravaged by insecurity for over a decade, with Boko Haram  being a major contributor to the crisis.

    The group’s activities have led to the displacement of millions of people, destruction of infrastructure, and loss of lives. This has  had a devastating impact on the region’s, ipso facto, Nigerian economy, with many businesses shutting down and investors reluctant to invest in the region.

    Unfortunately, insecurity there is not limited to Boko Haram’s insurgency. Banditry, kidnapping, and armed herdsmen have become common occurrences, further exacerbating the security situation. Government’s inability to definitively deal with this problem has led to widespread fear and mistrust making it almost impossible to achieve economic development.

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    All these have negatively impacted government’s sustained efforts at improving the general well- being of the citizenry.

    Unrestrained child-bearing is another existential challenge confronting the North. The region has one of the highest population growth rates in the world, with women in rural areas giving birth to an average of 5.6 children, compared to 3.9 children in urban areas.

    This rapid population growth puts a strain on the country’s resources, especially: healthcare, education, and infrastructural development.

    This state of affairs is attributed to various factors; among them, poverty, lack of access to family planning  as well as cultural norms, topmost of which is religion.

    This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of out of school children, with young girls of school age being forced into early marriage and motherhood.

    Insecurity and lack of family planning have led to many schools  being closed down with the pupils being forced to consequently  drop out of school.

    This is further accentuated by poverty and lack of access to educational resources. These, in turn, resort in limited economic opportunities, increased poverty, and a perpetuation of the cycle of violence, to break which, education is a sine qua non.

    For these reasons, and especially to break the cycle of poverty and insecurity, both government and the other stakeholders must wake up and prioritise education in the region.

    Worse is that all these negativities have combined to upend economic activity in the country.

    One area very badly affected is agriculture – a  source of livelihood for the greater majority of Nigerians. This has very negatively impacted food security in the entire country with prices of foodstuffs, where available at all, becoming unduly astronomical.

    Indeed, farmers are routinely being killed or kidnapped either on their way to the farm or right there on their farms. Benue, Plateau and Borno states have suffered the most in this respect.

    Like it or not, Nigeria is obliged to find a solution to all these, predominantly,  Northern conundrum, if it is to survive, economically, at all, not to talk of achieving a trillion dollar economy.

    The problems require a multifaceted approach that should include reforms in the country’s security architecture, ditto education, as well as instituting deliberate economic reforms that will encourage small and medium enterprises, thousands of which can be created in the North particularly in agro- processing and animal husbandry.  Government must frontally confront, and defeat, illegal mining in the region, and elsewhere else in the country given how foreigners involved have worsened our internal security, using helicopters to drop, food, arms and munitions to terrorists on ground.

    For this reason too, government, at all levels, must prioritise security in the region.

    This should include  adequate funding as well as increasing the use of technology as a means of not only combating insecurity, but seriously implementing policies that will address its root causes  as well as the sympathy these evil elements seem to enjoy from some people in the region either for ethnic or religious reasons.

    Investing in education is equally crucial, even critical, to enhance human capital development.

    Finally, government, at all levels, must endeavour to provide access to credit, training, and other resources that can help entrepreneurs and small business owners in the region.

    Concluding, though the whole idea of Nigeria achieving a trillion dollar economy presently looks like a mirage,  it is absolutely achievable, given the seriousness with which  the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government has approached the country’s economic development – efforts which have since  been warmly commended by both the IMF, the World Bank as well as some other global financial agencies.

    To confirm that the President’s ambition of a trillion dollar economy is not a pipe dream, he informed the entire citizenry as follows during his 2025 National day broadcast:”Our administration has redirected the economy towards a more inclusive path, channelling money to fund education, health care, national security, agriculture, and political economy and infrastructure such as roads, power, broadband, and  social investment programmes.”

    Speaking further he highlighted the fact that Nigeria’s economy is showing signs of strong recovery by  recording a GDP growth of 4.23 percent in the second quarter of 2025, the fastest in four years, and higher than the 3.4 percent projected by the IMF.

    He added that inflation fell to 20.12 percent in August 2025, its lowest in three years.

    The country, he said, “has achieved 12 remarkable economic milestones in the last two years through sound fiscal and monetary policies. Among these, she recorded a “record-breaking increase in non-oil revenue, achieving 2025 targets by August with over 20 trillion”. “In September 2025 alone, he continued, we raised 3.65 trillion. That is 411 percent higher than the amount raised in May 2023.”

     “We have restored physical health, our debt service to revenue ratio has been significantly reduced from 97 percent to below 50 percent. We have beat down the infamous ways and means advances that threaten our economic stability and triggerred inflation”, said the President.

    Northern Nigeria’s current challenges, properly diagnosided, interrogated and seriously handled, can be the very  linchpin to achieving the ambition of a trillion dollar economy. The North is that endowed.

  • To God be the glory: I am 80

    To God be the glory: I am 80

    To God be the glory, great things He hath done,

    so loved He the world that He gave us His Son,

    who yielded His life an atonement for sin,

    and opened the life-gate that all may go in.

    Refrain:

    Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

    let the earth hear His voice!

    Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,

    let the people rejoice!

    O come to the Father through Jesus the Son,

    and give Him the glory, great things He hath done.

    By His grace, come Wednesday, 24 September, 2025 I shall be 80 years old on terra firma.

    It can only be God’s grace,.anywhere in the world, to live to that age but in the particular case of Nigeria, it calls for celebration.

    I was born on that day in the beautiful town called Are – Ekiti, in what was then in the Ekiti Central Division of the state.

    In his Autobiography, ‘Remember Whose Son Thou Art’, published in 2005, the incomparable Architect,  Chief Isaac Fola Alade, OFR, made it clear that to be born in those parts, about the time I was, and to live into one’s 60’s, is to know that you truly owe God.

    So please, dear reader, join me on this glorious occasion in thanking and heaping praises upon praises on God Almighty.

    I actually  have a lot more to thank God for.  Among these is the fact that through all viccititudes of life, He has kept me and my entire family safe. Also, this epochal date, that is, my 80th, coincides with what I can describe as the crowning glory of my 20 year-long sojourn as a columnist with The Nation on Sunday, and it’s predecessor newspaper, the COMET (2years only).

    I speak here of my book, the 619-page ‘simply a citizen journalist’

    There hardly could have been anything worthier for me, these past 20 years, than  being a columnist with a national newspaper of such great repute at a time of absolutelutely monumental socio- political developments in our country.

    Being a columnist, especially on the Nation on Sunday  has  afforded me the opportunity to learn from, as well as, rob shoulders with the incredibly brilliant writers within The paper’s commentariat which, without a doubt, parades some of the country’s very best.

    The book, mostly a compilation of selected articles in the column, and much more, will be unveiled during the birthday celebrations with the Lead Presenter being none other than my friend, and co- GREAT – IFE Alum, the Baba oba of ifewara, Chief Dele Fajemirokun.

    In addition to discussing, analysing and periscoping issues within the Nigerian polity in the past 20 years (2006 -2025) I took time out in ‘Simply a Citizen Journalist’ to celebrate some eminent Nigerians who I deem to have positively impacted our country through their respective life works, and so deserved to be publicly celebrated.

    Among them are public servants, administrators, scholars as well as politicians, industrialists and Philantropists.

    I personally feel obliged, and honour bound, to etch their illustrious lives’ achievements in history if only to serve as examples to others.

    This piece, if space permits, will give a list of these distinguished Nigerians directly after the article.

    Rather than bore you with my life history on this August occasion, or waste your time making you read an article about Nigeria’s perennial Presidential candidate who, since the bonfire in Nepal has been going about shouting ‘revolution, revolution’, in Nigeria, (forgetting he could be one of those to be consumed for dealing rapaciously with Nigeria) let me titillate  you with an article on somebody ever so deserving.

    As honour must go to one deserving, that individual is no other than the current President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, in an article I wrote on  March 12, 2012  on his 60th birthday 13 years ago, when the forever calculating tactician had probably never mentioned his ambition to wear the ultimate Nigerian diadem to anybody besides Oluremi, his jewel of inestimable value, to quote Awo.

    The article is truly representative of the many I wrote on some other  deserving Nigerians.

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    Happy reading.

    Ashiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu: the contemporary non Pareil at 60

    Without a doubt, history is delineated in epochs and, critical to this compartmentalisation is the individual. I must quickly admit that in Philosophy there is the raging controversy as to which of holism or individualism is superior.

    My view, without a scintilla of doubt, supports the latter because it is the individual  that shapes events and what is history if not a constellation of events?

    The Avatar, Chief Obafemi  Awolowo, already has his name cast in gold in Nigerian history but more so in the  history of the Yoruba.  Equally, without a doubt, is  the truism that Tinubu’s place in Yoruba and Nigerian history is irreplaceably written on the positive side. As I wrote recently on the public presentation of the DAWN document, we owe our place in contemporary Nigerian political history to none other than the man I am setting out to celebrate in this piece.

    Standing on opposite sides of contemporary Yoruba history today, are two strong-willed personalities, namely: former Nigerian President, General Olusegun Obasanjo and Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Jagaban Borgu.

    Without a doubt, some there are who swear by General Obasanjo’s name in Yoruba land but they are largely individuals who profited from his illicit acts; products of impunity, like election rigging and outright cronyism. These are acts that have been severally confirmed at the court of Appeal and for which reason the court has poignantly declared that some individuals, though sat in state houses are, legally unknown to law or to the Nigerian constitution) as governors of their states.

    In sharp contradistinction is Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu who steadfastly led  the charge, not only against poll rigging but, in a single-minded manner, against a  ludicrous and thoroughly meaningless mainstreaming which left Yoruba land nearly completely decapitated. 

    While our road infrastructure has totally deteriorated, Education, where Chief Awolowo gave us a head start, not only in Nigeria, but internationally, has collapsed, and reached rock bottom.  Nothing attests more to this fact than the fact that one of the first actions of the current governors in the Southwest geo-political zone was to chart a way forward for resuscitating this vital organ of development by setting up Education Committees whose recommendations were subsequently taken to an Education Summit to make concrete recommendations for government action.

    As a member of Agbajo Yoruba Agbaye, under the sterling leadership of one of Yoruba’s very best, namely,  Lt. General Alani Akinrinade, I served as a member of a rapid response team, headed by another distinguished son of Oduduwa, Prof Jide

    Osuntokun, to react to our shame and disappointment that while, under the leadership of  General Obasanjo, water projects, in billions of naira, were monthly being awarded to Northern Nigeria, with Alhaji Muktar Shagari as Water Resources Minister, nothing was coming to the South-West even though our people were panting for drinkable water as well as for irrigation purposes since agriculture belongs, anachronistically, under federal might.

    While these serial anachronisms continued, Tinubu,, through deft political engineering and incredible networking which continue to rob him of sound sleep as he works literally 25 hours daily, has been able to put together throughout the region, Ondo state inclusive, a team of people-loving governors whose credo is service to the people.

    While politics in the ACN surely differs from that of Ondo’s Labour Party and nothing will gladden us more than to add that state to the ACN family, nobody will dispute the fact that there is a world of difference between what governor Mimiko is doing today and that of his PDP predecessor.

    I state this fact to celebrate Ashiwaju who spared nothing to see that the stolen mandate in that state was restored.

    I personally believe that the governor can still pause, think and give honour to whom honour is due for his victory, i.e. Ashiwaju Bola Tinubu.

    That Lagos state has become a world brand today says a lot for Ashiwaju’s perspicacity; his building blocks and the seamless manner in which his thorough-bred successor, Raji Fashola gelled, and built upon the foundations he laid.

    I laugh heartily when I see ignorance on display: when I hear that he wants to annex not only Oyo, Ogun, Ekiti, Ondo but also Edo to Lagos State and that this underpins his unstinting support for democracy.

    My perpetual question to such people then is to where he wants to annex Ghana, Sierra-Leone or even nearby Benin where he had been equally untiring in helping cement, and expand the frontiers of democracy by collaborating, and sparing no  resources to ensure that credible individuals emerge leaders to help re-define the African politician who is seen, the world over, as nothing but corrupt.

    Ashiwaju remains a role model, whose door is always open just as his heart is, to all those who are heavy laden.

    You have in this one-man battalion, a ready army to fight political infidels who believe they can use the paraphernalia of federal  power and money with which to buy, not only the judiciary but even electoral officials as well as its usually high-handed security personnel to defeat the peoples’ aspirations.

    What has Tinubu not been made to suffer as we recently saw in the Code of Conduct Bureau’s attempt to undermine him.

    Only this past week, Governor Raji Fashola, SAN, wrote of Asiwaju: “Let me say generally about his public image that I do not remember one public contest where he has lost the war.

    I speak of many battle fronts; from Oyo, to Borgu, Ife, Ibadan, Lagos and Anambra to mention but a few. Of course, he bears many battle scars and these attest to his tactical ability to surrender battles in order to win wars”.

    What more can one say?

    To Asiwaju and a few other gallant leaders like General Akinrinade go the credit for the roaring success NADECO was, again sparing neither his time nor resources or can we forget that to the ‘Baffday Boy’ goes e – introduction of forensic science as a veritable tool in humbling poll robbers, no matter how entrenched in power they may be. Without a Bola Ahmed Tinubu, there would never have been an Adrian Forty in the annals of Nigerian electoral history. And how were we to have known how palm kernel became the choice tool of incorrigible riggers?

    And Adrian Forty, God rest his soul, didn’t come cheap!

    In concluding this brief article into the place of Asiwaju in our contemporary political history we must thank God for giving him his precious jewel, his wife, friend and companion of many decades who has seen as much deprivation and humbug as the husband. An Amazon of no mean repute, who today ably represents not only Lagos State but Nigerian women at the Upper Chamber. Senator Remi Tinubu must have, countless times, been the shoulder on which Ashiwaju must have leaned in those agonising days of man’s inhumanity to man. She has been the loyal overseer and controller of the home front and today, Lagos state can be proud to say it has two for the price of one because, like Hillary Clinton, the U.S Secretary of state to his affable Bill, Senator Tinubu must be bouncing a whole lot of ideas off Asiwaju just so that

    Nigeria can be better than what the rapacious mainstreamers have made of it.

    To Asiwaju, here is saying: Happy Birthday, Leader in a million; Long May you live in blossoming health.

  • Ode to Femi Orebe on his 80th birthday

    Ode to Femi Orebe on his 80th birthday

    • By Olumuyiwa Runsewe

    “O ku ku pe, Oku ku pe e e                                

    Iwa re re pe bi eniyan ba le se o o

     O ku ku pe” . Gospel – Singer Ojo Ade

    Seven years ago, Femi Orebe devoted his entire column in The Nation on Sunday to celebrating me on my 70th birthday.  He paid me so much glowing tribute I lost my appetite for  two days.because he reminded me of my life’s journey, from secondary school at Loyola College, Ibadan, through my sojourn at the University of Ibadan up to my Postgraduate years at the University of Lagos. He did not stop there; he went on to remind me of my many triumphs, especially in business, and the many challenges I have had to cope with; and survived, only through the mercy of God.

    The  sobering, though beautiful article, can only be likened  to standing in front of a huge mirror that x-rayed me, and completely brought out the real me.

    Come September 24th – a mere three days from now, my great and loyal friend, Femi Orebe, will be 80 years old on terra firma. It is, therefore,  ‘Payback’ time, for as the saying goes, “one good turn deserves another”. I believe I honestly owe him that.

    I first met Femi, if my memory serves me right, in June 1968 at the famous Cocoa House, Ibadan, where the United States Information  Service Library was located.

    I had, before then, always admired his good looks, ebony black  and extremely charismatic personality from a distance just as his  silky complexion  always readily exposed his immaculate white dentition.

    On top of all these, he was always very amiable, warm and ready to embrace whoever he met as he made friendship look  so easy.

    As soon as somebody I cannot now remember his name introduced me to him as Muyiwa Runsewe from Loyola College, he embraced me and gave me a nickname:  ‘MUUYISCO’, he belted out. He has not called me another name since. And am talking here of nearly sixty(60) years.

    It was when I got to the University of Ibadan in October 1969 that my fellow Great Mellanbites, led by Elusanmi Eludoyin (Groove) and other friends gave me a  sweeter version when they started calling me ‘SIR MUYEE’.

    Let me quickly add here, that I was one of those who crafted the pet name ‘Groove’ for the Lagos boy( Eludoyin) who simply enjoys having fun  despite  his unimpeachable seriousness at his studies. The pet  name has gone with him all over the world.

    I digress.

    I had many friends at the University of Ife, Ile – Ife, and often visited them whenever I had the time.

    With Femi  there was never a dull moment.  Before  long Femi’s ‘MUYISCO’ became my middle name amongst my friends at Ife.

    Having been groomed, and prepared for academic success by the famous Christ School, Ado-Ekiti, his brilliance at the University of Ile-Ife was predictable enough. What surprised everybody, however, was how a confirmed,  and certified, campus socialite like Femi  could shine ever so brightly academically, even when it was obvious he devoted more time to socials and campus politics than reading. It, therefore, came as no surprise when he graduated on top of his class with a B. A (Hons) History, 2nd Class(UPPER) Division, just missing First class by the whiskers but  winning the Faculty of Arts Prize for best overall performance, in June, 1971.

    He had three options upon graduating.  Either to  go into academics as a Graduate Assistant, be  an Administrative Assistant or join any of those multi-national companies in the country .Fate intervened when the University of Ife Vice -Chancellor, the immaculate,

     world renowned scholar and University Administrator,

    Prof H A Oluwasanmi, who was then recruiting high flying graduates of the University into  Administration insisted, at an interview, that he should resume in his office the following Monday.

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    A gold fish, they say, has no hiding place. Femi’s brilliance and enormous capacity for hard work soon got him spotted by the University of Ibadan whose  Registrar, the immensely suave Mr S  J Okudu, having been directed by the University Council to headhunt an official to drive its forthcoming, humongous 25th Foundation Anniversary came, at the instance of Femi’s teacher, the highly prodigious Dr Segun Osoba, and the late Mr Sesan Dipeolu, the University of Ife Librarian all the way to Ife to poach him.

    Barely 18 months, and few months after the Ibadan 25th Foundation Anniversary, Femi was heading to the new University College Ilorin where the Chairman of the Ceremonials Committee under whom Femi worked, the inimitable scholar, Prof Ladipo Akinkugbe had recently been appointed Principal,  insisted he must be on his foundation staff at Ilorin, this time as a Senior Assistant Registrar from his Assistant Registrar position.

     His career soon began to open up and before long, he was again hijacked, this time into the private sector where he also made his mark.

    The many contacts he had made within the university system and society at large, coupled with his disposition to life – a free bird – made his arrival in Lagos a very painless one.

    For the past 20 years, beginning with Comet, Femi has been a columnist with The Nation on Sunday.

    An attestation to that is his 619- page book: ‘SIMPLY A CITIZEN JOURNALIST’ , now listed on AMAZON with the Link:

    https://a.co/d/dXnfY77

    It will be unveiled during his 80th Birthday anniversary with Chief Dele Fajemirokun, his fellow GREAT IFE Alumnus, as the Lead Presenter.      

    What can we celebrate in Femi Orebe’s 80 years on Planet Earth?

    Without a scintilla of doubt, Femi has proved that simplicity, humility, integrity, friendliness, warmth and what Yorubas call ‘OMOLUWABI’ virtues, are vital ingredients for a worthy and successful life.

    One aspect of his life that I admire so much is his family life. On 2nd October 1971, he took as his life partner, his pretty, Ife – born Atinuke and together, to the glory of God, 54 years on, they are blessed with amazing children and grandchildren.

    He has never, for one day, stopped loving and  appreciating his loving and devoted wife.Two years ago he sent me a video recording from the famous Brighton   seaside holiday in the United Kingdom where they went to celebrate a family reunion with their children and grandchildren resident in the U. S and U.K.

    In addition to all  these virtues is Femi’s  unwavering devotion and loyalty to any cause or personality that he believes in. 

    If you look at his  column in the Nation on Sunday since 2006, you will see a writer defiantly committed to his principles and beliefs. A great and committed admirer of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, he  still criticises him if occasions so demand. He shares this attribute with the great essayist of the same stable,  Professor Adebayo Willilams who I often refer to as a ‘great great grandson’ of William Shakespeare”.

    Femi is a devoted Christian and worships at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Anglican Church Cathedral, Oba Akinjobi, Ikeja, Lagos, as well as his home Church, St Andrew’s Anglican Church, Are – Ekiti.. 

    Yes,  indeed, Evangelist Ojo Ade was  right in his poetic composition above: “Iwa rere pe” “Bi eniyan ba  le se”.

    It is IWA rere that has sustained and promoted Femi  through life, and assured for him, a future of God’s blessings and peace.

    My dear friend, Femi, I have never regretted knowing and relating with you.

    You are not a fair whether friend.

    Come rain, come shine you are always as constant as The Northern Star.

    Your loyalty to friendship is legendary. 

    My love and regards for you will never fade or dim. As you step into the future on this your 80th, loneliness shall never be your portion. Amen.

    Peace, plenty and fulfilment, will be your constant companions into the future. Above all, sickness that often affects the elderly will run away from you, Amen.

    My darling wife, and  ‘Shelter from the Troubled Winds of Life’, ALAKE, sends you greetings from OBODO OYINBO.

    She has asked me to thank you for your unwavering steadfastness over the past 57 years.

    Happy birthday my friend. Many happy returns. 

    “MUYISCO”

  • 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.

  • Some blow back (rejoinders) to my recent articles

    Hoping your President fails is the same thing as hoping your country fails. And it’s not patriotism. Patriotism is supporting your Commander- in-Chief even if you do not agree with him on everything” – Barack Obama, 44th U.S. President.

    “Amid all these came from the North last week a regional threat to the president by traditional and religious leaders. They said their people were hungry and restive and that they could no longer control them. Every sentence they uttered sounded like a threat of Armageddon. Their concern would have carried weight if the shouters had done so when their Muhammadu Buhari was in power and was messing up everyone, everything, everywhere. But they maintained complicit quietude and passivity when their evil reigned. Because of their past of unholy silence, their present angst could not resonate with the street in the South. I saw and heard people mocking these Northern leaders and their groans.

    They lost it” – Dr Lasisi Olagunju in ‘Our President’s Love Affair With The IMF’.

    I have severally written on these pages that  we owe ourselves an obligation to  always tell ourselves the truth if Nigeria is to ever exit its benumbing conundrum.

    As a result of that I wrote as follows  in ‘The Unabating Kidnapping in The North: Price We Are Paying For Long Years Of Feudalism’:”Knowing how much insecurity can imperil its economic programmes, especially its drive for foreign investors, the Federal government must now

    put in place, appropriate measures, to nip this terrible situation in the bud. The starting point will, however, be to seek the support of both the Northern elite and that of its traditional authority both of which have demonstrated unbelievable equanimity in the face of massive insecurity in that part of the country. It is  time Northern leaders are roused from their lethargy”.

    I followed that up this past week with the following:”Time and again, the North has shown that its interests are not exactly coterminous with that of Nigeria. On many occasions  it has treated with disdain, matters that would have  redounded to our mutual interest whilst  holding, tenaciously, to things aimed at achieving short term regional advantage.

    A good example is the fate which the Obasanjo political conference suffered as a result of  the North’s fastidious opposition to the demands of  Niger-Deltans, which requests are now being feverishly delivered  via the Amnesty programme, after it became obvious that oil money was no longer as guaranteed as previously assumed”.

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    I concluded with this reference to the threat by a Northern Emir who, ordinarily, should have been counted among those seeking a solution to Nigeria’s problems:”It doesn’t get more annoying than when a Northern leader, who didn’t breathe a word throughout the  Buhari years,  now tells us “that Northerners will soon revolt; we can’t pacify them again”.

    What blackmail!

    I got many reactions to the articles but suffice it to include only two here.

    On the statement by the Sultan to the effect that “the economic hardships have left citizens feeling agitated, angry, and desperate for change” and the other monarch who asserted, authoritatively, that Northern youths will soon revolt, a commentator  wrote:

    “The statements by members of the Northern royalty concerning northern youths and their seething anger is revealing. It shows the level of disconnect and delusions of grandeur under which their Eminences and members of their class operate. It shows also how far a section of this country would go to bully and intimidate others in order to sustain their privileged and entitlement mentality. But let’s keep those issues for another day.

    For now, kindly permit me to reply to His Eminence, the Sultan, as follows:

    1. The greatest problem facing the north is indiscriminate child bearing. This is 2024, not 1824. No part of the world engages in endless breeding of humans anymore because uncontrolled population growth breeds poverty and destitution. Desertification and ignorance up North are issues that need serious and committed attention. Not threats.

    2. The North receives more allocations than the South. The North   has more states and local governments just so it can collect the lion share of everything. The question is –  what have they done with those resources to make life bearable for Northerners – both youths and adults?

    The youth anger should focus on the Northern governors (past and present), NASS members (past and present) and their royal collaborators. They should be asked to give account of their stewardship.

    3. The good Sultan did not remember the suffering of Northern youths when Buhari handed Nigeria over to a gang of avaricious  predators. The rape and desecration which Nigeria endured under Buhari’s watch is unparalleled in Nigerian history. For the eight years it lasted, no one  heard the Sultan issuing  apocalyptic warnings and threats.

    4. The Sultan was disingenuously silent when kidnappers and bandits were being  cuddled and pampered,  being made to feel that they can get away with any atrocity.

    People were denied access to their farms or killed outrightly in the process. So it is a no brainer that there will be hunger as a result.

    5. Or what about the ethnic cleansing, and land grabs, that took place in Niger, Kaduna, Benue, Plateau and in many other states?

    Isn’t it true  that millions of Nigerians are presently living in IDP camps because their ancestral lands were arbitrarily expropriated by a ‘master’ race?

     6. The Sultan should be talking about issues like these which have combined to bring Nigeria to its knees. He should not be threatening anyone with the anger of  Northern youths as anger and violence do not have a particular ethnic or religious monopoly.

    7. After all, when that anger finally explodes, I cannot see the Sultan and members of his feudal oligarchy, both political and ethno-religious, escaping the fallouts. The Sultan and company have benefitted from a system designed to downgrade the majority and place them in perpetual servitude. He should not pretend that he is a defender of the talakawas. Something tells me that the angry youths in the north know their real enemies.

    8. Also the Sultan will agree that the Nigeria Buhari inherited in 2015 is a far cry from the Nigeria he handed over in 2023.  He left behind a broken and bleeding nation. 

    They damaged Nigeria and no one should play holier than thou. All of them are guilty and must be held supremely responsible for whatever follows”.

    And this: “Daddy, I wish you a blessed Sunday sir.

    I don’t want to join issues on this for now. Our major problem is the congregation of saboteurs, old foes who predicted Nigerian collapse much earlier than now and the electoral losers and their sponsors who command large reserves of resources to sponsor a disintegration in a continent where such has since become a hobby for some.

    The major strategy that you elders and associates should convey to Tinubu is that Benevolent Dictatorship Is The Key To All Successful Democracies.

    If he is not assertive on the identified saboteurs in his administration and on the political landscape, if he does not allow the security agencies to shake these people who are not even disguising, then the Nation may implode.

    Nigeria is not under any threat of incompatible geo – political structure.

    Singapore and other Asian Tigers did not become economic  powers by adopting ceremonial approaches towards economic and political criminals.

    The President must be firm.

    It is only an orderly Nigeria that can be restructured. Enough resources are being pumped to the states already and if only he would read the riot act to governors, local economies will bring forth comfort,  and reduce tension at the grassroots. If  he  does not assert himself, and force regulatory agencies to enforce price control, there will be a melt down.

    There are no components of dollars in tomatoes, vegetables,  gas etc beyond the penchant of Nigerians to exploit every situation to make life unbearable for  others.

    As you can see, the academic arguments of geo – political restructuring can come up later.

    Please keep the comments coming.