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  • Top 10 Nigerian inspiring actresses

    Top 10 Nigerian inspiring actresses

    The Nigerian film industry has prominently emerged on the global stage, gaining recognition for its compelling narratives and diverse talent pool. Among its most significant assets are the Nigerian actresses who have demonstrated extraordinary skill and versatility in their performances.

     Many Nollywood actresses not only play pivotal roles in shaping the industry but also amplify the voices of African women through their characters. Their performances delve deep into societal issues, providing insights and sparking conversations on a global scale. As ambassadors of Nollywood, these Nigerian actresses continue to raise the profile of Nigerian storytelling, propelling the industry to new heights. Here are top ten inspiring actresses ;

    1. Funke Akindele :

    Funke Akindele

    Funke Akindele, popularly known as “Jenifa” is a lawyer and award winning filmmaker, actress, director, and producer. Akindele starred in the sitcom I Need to Know from 1998 to 2002, and in 2009, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her role in Jenifa, which brought her into fame. Funke reprised the role in a 2015 television series adaption titled Jenifa’s Diary, for which she was named the ‘Best Actress in a Comedy’ at the 2016 and 2017 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards. Funke Akindele won the same award in 2020 and 2022, making it her fifth win for the ‘Best Actress in a Comedy’ category. Akindele is the most nominated actress/filmmaker at the AMVCA and currently owns six wins which makes her the actress with most wins. Her movie A Tribe Called Judah is currently the highest-grossing movie of all time in Nigeria (breaking the record of her movie ‘Battle on Buka Street’), and fastest to hit N1billion in the box office.

    2. Toyin Abraham :

     Toyin Abraham Ajeyemi, born has Olutoyin Aimakhu; was born 5 September 1980 is a Nigerian actress and filmmaker.

     Abraham started acting in 2003 when Nigerian actress Bukky Wright came to Ibadan to shoot a movie. Abraham has made, directed, and starred in several Nigerian films including Alani Baba Labake, Ijakumo: The Born Again Stripper and Ebimi ni. During the 2013 Best of Nollywood Awards, Abraham was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in a Yoruba film titled Ebimi ni, alongside Joke Muyiwa, who was nominated for Best Lead Actress in a Yoruba film titled Ayitale. Abraham also starred in the movie, Black Val. Martini Animashaun, the CEO of Tinimash Entertainment, created and managed her reality show titled, Keeping Up With Toyin Aimakhu.

     In 2020, Abraham was made the ambassador for Revolution Plus Properties, a Lagos-based property outfit. Toyin also owns Toyin Abraham Productions.

    3. Mercy Aigbe :

     Mercy Aigbe was born 1 January 1978. She is a Nigerian actress, director, fashionista and businesswoman. She is best known for her Yoruba movies.

     Mercy Aigbe kicked off her acting career by starring in some soap operas, including the popular TV drama series “Papa Ajasco. Professionally, Mercy joined the Nollywood industry fully in 2006 and acted in the movie that brought her into the limelight ‘Ara,’ a movie produced by Remi Olupo in Ibadan, Oyo State. She founded “Mercy Aigbe Gentry School of Drama” in 2016.

    In November 2014, Mercy Aigbe was made the brand ambassador for Elephant Gold Rice. Mercy Aigbe signed a one-year deal to be the brand ambassador for Prestige Cosmetic in June 2015. In July 2016, Mercy signed an endorsement deal with Edalaf Brother Limited, an IT solution company. She was made an ambassador for a fitness company called “Shape you,” the company that produces Slimming Coffee in October 2016. Mercy Aigbe, in March 2017, was made the brand ambassador for BK hair. In September 2018, She was made the brand ambassador for “Naija Taxi Services”, a company that deals with transportation of people. Mercy Aigbe alongside Bose Alao and Biodun Okeowo penned an endorsement deal with a Cosmetic giant “Mary Make”.

    4. Mercy Johnson :

    Mercy Johnson Okojie was born 28 August 1984 . She is a actress, film director and film producer. She went to a Rivers State Secondary School for her secondary education in addition to the Nigerian Navy Secondary School in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria.

    Right after her secondary education, she auditioned for a role in The Maid and subsequently acted in other movies such as Hustlers, Baby Oku in America, War in the Palace. In 2009, she won an award for Best Supporting Actress at the 2009 African Movie Award ceremony for her performance in the movie “Live to Remember”, and Best Actress award at the 2013 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards for her role in the comedy movie Dumebi the Dirty Girl. In December 2011, she was listed as Google’s most searched Nigerian celebrity, a position she also held in 2012. She is the Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Yahaya Bello on entertainment, arts and culture. The post took effect on 1 April 2017.

     Mercy Johnson was once banned from acting for being too expensive on 3 November 2013, the movie marketers of Nollywood threatened to prohibit her from the industry due to her high demands. She and co-Nollywood stars such as Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, Richard Mofe Damijo, Emeka Ike, Ramsey Nouah, Nkem Owoh, Stella Damasus and Jim Iyke were prohibited from acting, for reportedly demanding outrageous pay raise per movie. However, the ban was lifted by marketers/producers on 9 March 2014, following an apology from the actress. She made her debut as a film producer with The Legend of Inikpi.

    5. Bukky Wright : 

     Oluwabukola Sekinat Ajoke Wright , was born 31 March 1967. She is professionally known as Bukky Wright. Bukky Wright is an award-winning actress, businesswoman, and politician. Her business ventures include owning B Collections, a clothing line and B Wright beauty spa. In 2014, she contested under the Social Democratic Party (SDP) ticket to be a representative at the Ogun State House of Assembly .

    Bukky was born to a Christian father and a Muslim mother in Abeokuta. She attended the University of Lagos, and earned a bachelor’s degree in economics.

      She ventured into acting in 1996 and has appeared in numerous Nollywood movies. The actress has won multiple awards in the Nigerian film industry, including the 2011 Best Nollywood Actress of the Year award. 

    Besides acting, she is a writer and executive producer. She is the chief executive officer of Wright Media & Associates. Bukky has a significant fan following on social media, especially on Instagram, where she is a multiple brand ambassador. 

     Bukky Wright has been in the Nigerian film industry since 1996 and has been featured in numerous films, making her a veteran actress. She is also an entrepreneur and owns a couple of businesses. The mother of two is married and reportedly resides in the United States with her husband.

    6. Faitha Balogun :

     Faithia Williams Balogun formerly Faith Williams, was born 5 February 1969. She is a actress, filmmaker, producer and director.

     Faithia became an actress by chance. Faithia’s uncle, Alhaji Fatai Teniola, asked her to stand in for an actress that failed to show up in one of the productions of their movie. Williams played her first role in the film title “Ta lo pa chief”. She has starred, produced, and directed several Nigerian films over the years. In 2008, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award for the Most Outstanding Actress Indigenous and her movie Iranse Aje won the best indigenous film of the year. In April 2014, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award, having emerged as best actress of the year along with Odunlade Adekola who emerged as best actor of the year. She also won the Best Indigenous Language award for the work done in the film “Iya Alalake” at the 2015 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.

    7. Genevieve Nnaji : 

    Genevieve Nnaji was born on 3 May 1979. She is a actress, producer, and director. She won the Africa Movie Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role in 2005, making her the first actor to win the award. In 2011, she was honoured as a Member of the Order of the Federal Republic by the Nigerian government for her contributions to Nollywood. Her directorial debut movie, Lionheart, is the first Netflix film from Nigeria and the first Nigerian submission for the Oscars. The movie was disqualified for having most of its dialogue in English. After having spent decades in the movie industry, she was profiled alongside some celebrities and business executives in 2020 in two new books by publisher and Editor in Chief of Yes International! magazine, Azuh Arinze.

    Nnaji started her acting career as a child actor in the then-popular television soap opera Ripples at the age of 8. In 1998, at the age of 19, she was introduced into the growing Nigerian film industry with the movie Most Wanted. Her subsequent movies include Last Party, Mark of the Beast and Ijele. In 2010, she starred in the award-winning film Ijé: The Journey. She has starred in over 200 Nollywood movies.

    In 2004, Nnaji signed a recording contract with EKB Records; a Ghanaian record label, and released her debut album One Logologo Line. It was a mix of R&B, Hip-Hop and Urban music. In 2004, Genevieve Nnaji was with the most votes after contending with other celebrities for the search for the face of Lux in 2004.

    In 2005, she won the Africa Movie Academy Award (AMAA) for Best Actress in a Leading Role, becoming the first actress to win the award.

    In 2009, Nnaji was one of the best-paid female actor in Nollywood. Due to her contributions to the Nigerian movie industry, she became the first actor to be awarded Best Actress at the 2001 City People’s Awards, the award ceremony that previously had only recognized politicians and business conglomerates. She was also the first actor to be awarded as Best Actress by the Censors Board of Nigeria in 2003. In 2009, she was referred to as the Julia Roberts of Africa by Oprah Winfrey.

     In November 2015, Nnaji produced her first movie called Road to Yesterday, later winning Best Movie Overall -West Africa at the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards.

    On 7 September 2018, her directorial debut Lionheart was acquired by online streaming service Netflix, making it the first Netflix original film from Nigeria. The movie had its world premiere at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival, alongside Farming, the Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s autobiographical directorial debut where she starred in alongside Kate Beckinsale, Damson Idris, and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.

      Genevieve Nnaji is also a women’s activist. She advocates for Nigerian girls to be able to have a say in who they choose to marry. She is against early marriages for the girl child. She advocates against the abuse of women in society. Further, Genevieve Nnaji is a strong feminist. She states her type of feminism is the woman who has the right to make her own choices and do whatever she feels like.

    8. Ini Edo :

     Iniobong Edo Ekim was born 23 April 1982. She is an actress from Akwa Ibom State. Ini Edo began her film career in 2000, and has featured in more than 200 movies since her debut. In 2013, Ini Edo was a judge for the Miss Black Africa UK Pageant and De9jaSpirit Talent Hunt. In 2014, Miss Ini Edo was appointed by the United Nations as a United Nations Habitat Youth Envoy.

    Her acting career started in 2000 with her debut in Thick Madam.  Ini Edo was discovered by a producer at the audition she attended. Her breakthrough came in 2004 when she acted in World Apart. She has appeared in over 100 films. She earned a “Best Lead Actress” nomination at the 11th Africa Movie Academy Awards for her performance in the movie “While You Slept”.

     Ini Edo, however, in 2017, made it clear that only hardwork, delight and dedication can get one to the top in the Nollywood industry as there are many distractions. But she encouraged that with determination, one would get there.

    In 2021, she debuted a luxury fashion and cosmetic brand called Secrets Of April, which offers High Fashion Apparel, beauty products and accessories for unique expressions, rich and famous.

    She represents the National Democratic Institute (NDI), an NGO that works to improve the efficacy of democratic institutions, as an ambassador.

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    In 2023, Ini Edo produced ShantyTown, a 2023 Nigerian crime thriller released to Netflix on 20 January 2023.

    Ini Edo is among the Judges at De9jaspirit Talent Hunt she has so far anchored the first, second and third seasons.

    9. Iyabo Ojo :

     Alice Iyabo Ojo was born 21 December 1977. She is a prominent film actress, director, and producer popularly known for her contributions in the Nollywood film industry. She has featured in over 150 films and has produced more than 14 of her own.

     Having been involved in a drama group at secondary school, Iyabo Ojo commenced her acting career in 1998. She registered with the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) with the help of Bimbo Akintola and was also able to network to other people 

    Ojo has scripted and featured in several Nigerian films. Her first role was in 1998’s Satanic, an English-language film. In 2002, she made her Yoruba-language debut with Baba Darijinwon. In January 2015, her film Silence, which features Joseph Benjamin Alex Usifo, Fathia Balogun, and Doris Simeon, premiered at the Silverbird Cinemas, Ikeja, in Lagos.

      In 2004, Ojo started producing her own films. Her first production was Bolutife, after which she made Bofeboko, Ololufe, Esan and Okunkun Biribiri. She also divorced her husband before her fame started.

    10. Bimbo Ademoye :

    Bimbo Ademoye born 4 February 1991, won Best Actress in a Comedy/TV series at the 2023 Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards for her role in the film Selina.

    In an interview with The Daily Independent newspaper, Bimbo Ademoye said that her acting career began in 2014 when she was cast in the short film Where Talent Lies. The film received accolades from the Africa International Film Festival. She describes Uduak Isong as her mentor, who assisted her in getting into the industry.[8][9] In 2015, Ademoye was cast in her first feature film Its About Your Husband, which was also produced by Isong.

    In a 2018 compilation by Premium Times newspaper, she was listed as one of five actors who were predicted to have a successful career before the end of the year. In April 2018, she co-featured with Stella Damasus in Gone, which was directed by Daniel Ademinokan. Ademoye described working with Damasus as a motivating moment in her career.

    She was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy/TV series at the Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards in 2018, for her role in the film Backup Wife (2017).

    At the 2018 City People Movie Awards, she was nominated for Revelation of the Year, Best New Actress and Best Upcoming Actress. Bimbo’s role in Backup Wife also earned her a nomination for Best Lead Role at the 2018 Nigeria Entertainment Awards. She has also received two individual nominations at the 2018 Best of Nollywood Awards for her role in Personal Assistant, winning the award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role and getting a nomination for Best Kiss in a Movie. Ademoye has been described as a celebrity style icon by several media outlets.

  • Restoring the Nigerian dream at 64

    Restoring the Nigerian dream at 64

    At sixty-four, Nigeria stands like an ageless Baobab, gnarled by the elements, but rooted in resilience. Beneath its broad canopy, government, the people, and social institutions tangle in a snarl of afflictions.

    The country hums with a paradoxical mix of pride and despair, buckling under hardship and the crushing weight of untapped promise. Amid the melee of pain and survival, the Nigerian family, once a bulwark of hope and resilience, currently reels from the storms of disintegration, inflation, and the bittersweet draft of ‘Renewed Hope.’

    Inflation’s feral wind, untamed by the removal of the fuel subsidy and the floatation of the naira, has eroded the stability that once defined the middle class. What was once the hallmark of the Nigerian Dream—education, hard work, homeownership—has become a fading ideal in a nation where even the middle class is vanishing like mist before the sun.

    As austerity become the new normal, and ingenuity, the currency of survival, fathers double their hustle, taking on blue collar and menial jobs from dusk through dawn, transforming themselves into jugglers of uncertainty. Mothers—silent matriarchs—become alchemists, conjuring meals out of thin air, making a feast from famine. And the children, bright-eyed and once hopeful, now watch with muted anxiety as the Nigerian Dream slowly erodes into a feverish scramble to “Japa”—flee—abroad, to lands where they believe fortunes wait like ripe fruit ready to be plucked.

    The Nigerian Dream, once a collective vision of prosperity, unity, and achievement, has splintered. What remains is a contest of survival, a zero-sum game where victory means finding a way out, and failure means staying behind to suffer.

    Amid the chaos, millions of disgruntled youths find themselves pitted against a political class grossly insensitive to their plight. It hardly matters if a great number among them personify the same ills depicted by the ruling class they despise – all that matters is their entitlement to grief and rage.

    As President Bola Tinubu embarks on a radical re-engineering of the economy and social institutions via his gospel of renewed hope, it becomes increasingly difficult to counsel patriotism or faith in his vision. How can he preach patience and love for a country that has thus far reduced millions of youths to mere statistics of deprivation?

    To these youths, the admonition to “be patient” resonates as a cruel joke. Patriotism, once a shared language of citizenship, has fractured into two vastly different dialects: one spoken by the privileged few who navigate the corridors of power with ease, and another by the masses who endure the daily indignities of poverty, joblessness, and insecurity.

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    Patriotism is indeed a hard sell to those confined to the fringes of a society, where the ruling class and their children flaunt their wealth and privileges on social media. It’s no surprise that the masses, feeling abandoned, would prefer to see Nigeria break and burn, rather than watch it evolve into a paradise that excludes them.

    To the latter, Tinubu’s gospel of “Renewed Hope” feels hollow when their daily reality is characterised by soaring food prices and hardships that outstrip their means. The government’s plea for patience and understanding falls on ears tuned to the dirge of unfulfilled promises.

    And yet, in the corridors of power, there is a dissonance, a belief that the suffering masses can be appeased with empty words. How can they be? The man who cannot afford to eat today will not be consoled by promises of a feast tomorrow.

    The perception that Nigeria is only for the elite—those with connections to cabals, and powerful friends—has become entrenched. So, when President Tinubu’s apologists proclaim that he is doing so much that goes unappreciated, the millions who bear the brunt of economic hardships have no patience for such an excuse. They will not listen to appeals for understanding and stoic acceptance of hardships while the ruling class enjoys obscene privileges and spoils from the commonwealth.

    The removal of the fuel subsidy was expected to stabilise the economy, to provide the funds needed to rebuild a crumbling nation. Since the subsidy was lifted, the states have seen a significant increase in their monthly revenue from the Federation Account Allocations Committee (FAAC). Bauchi’s, for instance, rose by 51.5%, and Nasarawa’s by 185.3%, yet nothing has changed. In Enugu, Anambra, Bauchi, Delta, among others, the masses have yet to enjoy any corresponding benefits even as they see efforts to ameliorate their pains get sabotaged by state governors, civil servants, and their cronies.

    Many governors have refused to pay salaries, backlogs of arrears and pensions to retirees. Where are the new roads, the improved hospitals, the schools that could lift a generation out of ignorance? Instead, the governors divert their increased allocations to purchase mansions abroad and secure their children’s future in foreign lands far from the misery they preside over.

    This widening chasm between the FAAC’s soaring allocations and the stagnation of progress at the state level is a bitter pill to swallow. If the ruling class persists down this path, the seeds of discontent they sow will eventually bear bitter fruit. If the masses resort to anarchy, there will be no country left to loot.

    But while the ruling class has much to answer for, the citizenry, especially the more literate and insightful among us, must display greater tact and caution. Journalists and activists, in particular, must desist from inciting the populace and inflaming the polity with partisan views and fabrications. They must understand that the dubious demagogues pulling their strings—those who lost at the 2023 elections—have second and third addresses abroad. If Nigeria implodes, they will flee, leaving us to bear the brunt of the chaos they helped incite.

    Nigeria must avoid the fate of nations afflicted by the Arab Spring, where the promise of revolution gave way to brutal dictatorships. The ruling class must take more proactive steps to humanely engage with the people. He must counsel his political class to make grand gestures of sacrifice in identification with the people’s plight while enforcing accountability at all levels of governance.

    Nigeria will be salvaged only if we recognise the truth of our collective complicity. We must unmask and shun the pseudo-events that clutter our consciousness and replace them with genuine narratives of progress and renewal. We must redefine success, not as the accumulation of wealth or status but as the collective advancement of the Nigerian people.

    It’s about time we espoused a new vision—a centrally articulated and nationally acceptable model of the Nigerian Dream that transcends the narrow bounds of self-interest. This dream must be anchored in patriotism, resilience, and the pursuit of the common good. We must reclaim our educational system, rebuild our institutions, and ensure that the opportunities for success are not the exclusive preserve of the few but the rightful inheritance of all.

    President Tinubu’s Gospel of Renewed Hope, while imperfect, is a necessary awakening. It forces us to confront the harsh realities we have long denied. Tinubu’s policies—though painful in the short term—are designed to lay the groundwork for a more sustainable future. The removal of the fuel subsidy and the floatation of the naira may have worsened inflation in the immediate term, but they are essential steps toward stabilising the economy and creating a more equitable distribution of resources. But the government cannot do it alone. The Nigerian family must rise to the challenge. We must restore the values that once defined us—hard work, integrity, and community—and reject the toxic individualism that has come to dominate our culture.

  • Abdullahi and Nigerian literary pantheon

    Abdullahi and Nigerian literary pantheon

    BOOK REVIEW

    Title: Denja Abdullahi: New Perspectives

    Author: Ezekiel Fajenyo

    Pagination: 700

    Publishers: Orpheus Literary Foundation

    Reviewer: Dr Haruna  Penni

    Perhaps, the dramatis personae himself puts it more succinctly when he described Ezekiel Fajenyo’s review of his works as ‘a compendium of critical annotations of my literary offerings from the first book in 2001 to the latest which came out in 2019,while also examining my critical thoughts and  praxis in the arts and culture sector.’

    This intellectual incursion into Denja’s literary praxis from Fajenyo’s  New Perspectives, could not have come at a more opportune time than now that he  is indeed winding and transiting from  all his administrative positions into a renewed perspective. He is going back to research; teaching and community service after his cessation from both the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and the National Council for Arts and Culture (NCAC) were he held forth as the Jagaban of the arts for decades and FGN Director of Performing Arts.

    This dedicated work by Fajenyo on Denja’s oeuvre therefore gives us a refreshing and dynamic insight into his creative impulse while at the same time celebrating the rich tapestry of his imagination, Truly, poetry as Denja’s first love has the unique ability to capture the creative spirit of the human mind and its condition, while softening his existential dilemma through ideas from within as observed by UNESCO.

    Canonising Denja to the literary pantheon, Emeritus Professor Femi Osofisan noted that otherwise, Denja needs no introduction in the world of Nigerian literature but his fame  rested more on his activities within the Association of Nigerian Authors. He then pointed-out that because ‘not much have been written before now about the real essence of Denja’s contribution as a creative writer or as a thinker in the field. His status and achievements as a literary craftsman have been somewhat dimmed by his activism and not subjected to sufficient serious critical assessment. That is why we must welcome Ezekiel Fajenyo’s Denja Abdullahi: New Perspectives.’

    The work captures all the books written by Denja Abdullahi (excluding the latest love poetry titled LoveSongs in a Pandemic during his 55th birthday cum literary soiree held on 24th August 2024 at Adam Pages Bookstore, Abuja. Fajenyo added as well his presentations at conferences, seminars, workshop, in newspapers and magazines and contributions in anthologies. All of them number over 350 interviews, features, literature, arts and culture talks.

    Some of the works, Fajenyo covered  in his critical analytical reviews includes Mairogo: A Buffoon’s Poetic Journey Around Northern Nigeria(2001) Abuja Nunyi: This is Abuja(2008) The Talking Drum(2008), A Thousand Years of Thirst(2011) Hajj Poems (2014) Others are The Road to Bauchi and Other Poems(2019), Death and the King’s Grey Hair(2016) Truce with the Devil(2014) and  Fringe Benefits(2014).

    No doubt, Denja’s ascension despite coming from a state polytechnic teacher tucked in faraway Birnin Kebbi in the 90s attest to his unwavering commitment and  profound determination to create a niche in the field of poetry, play, ANA leadership, and NCAC directorate. It is a further testament to the strength of his indomitable soul as he had succeeded in navigating the murky water to conquer all the various man-made and natural challenges placed on his path to stardom.

    As it is, we are three of a kind. There is a rather interesting poetic rendezvous between us – the author, protagonist and the reviewer. Fajenyo introduced me to ANA in 1994 during an arts personally programme with the Newsline Newspaper of Niger State, while I registered Denja into FCT ANA in 1998 when he assumed duty  in the NCAC Hqrs in Abuja, though his ANA activism started when he founded a chapter of ANA in Birnin-Kebbi in the mid 90s. Fajenyo and I both hailed and domiciled in NRC quarters Minna, while Denja and Fajenyo are both Second Class Upper, English Degree B.A. certificates holders from prestigious Nigerian universities after their secondary school studies in Ilorin.

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    Denja also happens to have taught in my alma mater – the former Polytechnic of Sokoto State Birnin-Kebbi decades after I have finished my higher school studies there. And Fajenyo is my brother in a way as we are both family friends back in Minna especially now that he is away in Lagos. I feel am responsible for his family’s placement. As for Denja, I goaded him in the 2001 ANA National Election Convention in Port Harcourt, into ANA leadership, after B.M. Dzukogi turned down my overture to him saying he was bidding his time, He too is a family friend in Minna.

    No doubt, all reviewers of this Denja’s collection unanimously agreed that Fajenyo paid the utmost concentration on Denja’s Magnus Opus from the first book, Mairogo which earned him Honuorable mention in the ANA/Cadbury Poetry Prize in the year 2001. This was followed by the play Death and The King’s Grey Hair which had been performed in several theatres and universities across the country and was a finalist of the Nigeria Prize for Literature in 2018. It is worthy that this writer was the first person to review and publish on Mairogo in the Ibrahim scheme edited literary pages, Writestuff, of the New Nigerian Newspaper of those days

    I quite agree that nothing can stop anyone from writing except self-doubt and indiscipline as everyone has an innate creative sparks, and creativity is ninety percent perspiration. Fortunately, this is not a quality that is wanting in Ezekiel Babatunde Fajenyo as his only impediment is the pressure of time. It is the fear of that interval that drives Fajenyo to stretch himself day and night to write in very great details on subjects after his heart. No wonder, this literary excursion on Denja Abdullahi flows from his admiration for the dramatis personae’s writings.

    Actually, it may not have been easy for both of them as the duo are English literature graduates and authors. I can imagine the efforts and time it took the celebrant to put in his own updates to this work. They were both Institute of Authors (IOA) recipients of the 2022 World Poetry Award for promoting the genre as a means of communication across borders and cultural barriers.

    Fajenyo’s work on Denja compliments the 2021 published festschrift in honour of Denja edited by Ezechi Onyerionwu et al titled Of Foot-Soldiers and Hybrid Visions in which this reviewer also featured.The festschrift written by over 65 persons contrast sharply from Fajenyo’s work in the sense that Fajenyo’s single-handedly concentrated and covered all the books published by Denja which traverses periods, genres, locations and characters. These include Denja’s foray into poetry, play writing, festivals curation, speech-making and conference paper presentations as well as fiction which were all written in his 32 years career in Government and NGO services.

    Also writing the Foreword, Prof Joe Akawu Ushie of the University of Uyo stated that, Denja Abdullahi: New Perspectives is a welcome addition to the further elucidation of the “mystique of Denja Abdullahi.” This he did by positioning Denja as an accomplished creative person, poet, playwright and as one of the writers that define the third generation of Nigerian writing, which he did due to his overarching and somewhat larger-than-life image as a literary activist. He further lauded  the  Author’s overriding objective of throwing sustained critical light on the works of authors like Denja Abdullahi towards canonising and establishing their places within the context of a flourishing literary tradition.

    Giving a bottom line of Fajenyo’s excursion on Denja’s oeuvre, the eleven chapters are devoted to a close analysis of each of Denja’s texts, unpacking the poetry collections for their thematic exploration and literary style, and examining the plays in the areas of characterisation, technique and mood. Thus, as a result of this magnifying glass approach by Ezekiel Fajenyo, the texts are made simple and accessible to the readers and the writer’s ideological stand and unique literary style are cleaned of all ambiguities.

    Ezekiel Fajenyo in the book presents Denja Abdullahi as a model for other members of the third generation of poets and playwright. Even his co-authored, recently released e-novel, Luckdown: Eros, Cupid and Other Things In The Time Of The Coronavirus Pandemic, which has recently transmuted into Lovesongs in a Pandemic is gainsomely experimental and far reaching in the aesthetic marriage of fiction and poetry. It is hoped that more critical attention will be paid to the many significant works being untiringly produced by members of the third generation of writers.  Denja Abdullahi has indeed blaze the trail to make all of us very proud.

    Displaying his gratefulness Ezekiel Fajenyo acknowledged the full support of the protagonist personae in supporting the project in view of his total loyalty to its fruitful execution as well as his partners such as Paul Liam, Yabagi Abubakar Akota, Sunday Inubiwon, Ezekiel Agbadagri and Benjamin Olugbenga, Professor Samuel Atechi, Patrick Iwelunmoh; and to Mike Ekunno for the editorial work on the manuscript. He also lauded this reviewer for being the first to expose him to Denja’s writings.

    He dedicated the work to Professors Femi Osofisan, Niyi Osundare, ‘Lanrele Bamidele, Mabel Evwierhoma and Dr Wale Okediran for the touch of grace. Professors Dapo Adelugba, Samuel Asein, Harry Garuba, Kayode Anifowose, Dr Stella Oyedepo, Chief Wale Ogunyemi, Chief Uche Ezechukwu, Mr and Mrs Ransom Akale, Usman Idris Gwarjiko, Simeon Oguntominiyi, Jide Fashikun, and Sunday Abraham Peters,r Mohammed Kele, Mohammed Sani Yusuf and Abdullahi Ismaila.

    In the blurb Prof Osofisan congratulated Ezekiel Fajenyo for this exciting pioneering work, while Prof GMT Emezue of Carnegie Corporations of New York believed that the work capture the ethos of contemporary Nigerian society through the evocative lens of Mallam Denja Abdullahi. As critic Ezekiel Fajenyo rightly observes, the unbridled pathos that underlies most of Denja’s thematic thrusts is foregrounded in the emotive images as well as stylistic maneuvers that he deploys towards the treatment of all his subject matters.

    In my assessment in the blurb, I pointed out that  the book is also an attempt to deconstruct the works of a former president of the Association of Nigerian Authors, who has been the most celebrated and misunderstood but had at the same time enjoyed a robust regime of literary excellence in the authors’ body, while Dr. Olatunbosun Taofeek, says “ From the creatus of one of the best in the third generation of Nigerian writers comes a compendium of aesthetics and literary exigency on Denja Abdullahi’s odyssey spanning across decades.”

    Ezekiel Fajenyo is an award-winning, Lagos-based Nigerian poet, novelist, literary critic, journalist, editor, essayist and short story writer. He has, over the years, performed also as a media consultant and public affairs analyst. His published works include novels, textbooks, biographies, critical works an poetry and stories in anthologies. These includes Night of the Godmothers (1990), The Bandaged Candles (1991), The Writings of Abubakar Gimba (1994), Golden Footprints of a Mandarin (Co-authored, 2002), Abubakar Gimba: Perspectives On His Writings and Philosophy (Co-authored, 2008), Rasheed Gbadamosi: The Man and His works (2009), A Critical Study of Dzukogi’s Writings (2010The Writings of May Ifeoma Nwoye: A Critical Literary Analysis (2019)

    Dr Haruna  Penni, FIPA, FIMC, fANA is the founding father of FCT ANA. He is on 08034299585, hassanpenni@gmail.com

  • Nigerian returnees: How we were consigned to jail in China without fair trial

    Nigerian returnees: How we were consigned to jail in China without fair trial

    • Recall near-death experiences, battles with mental illness

    Chinese prisons are fast turning into Nigerian communities as the number of inmates from the West African country increases on a daily basis. Many of the inmates are battling mental illness resulting from hard labour, torture and other dehumanising issues. Ex-inmates alleged that Nigerians get harsh sentences because the nation’s envoys stay aloof when other diplomats intervene in their citizens’ situations. INNOCENT DURU reports

    Papirose, a Nigerian businessman, travelled to China in January 2013 with high hopes. As a businessman, his choice of China was deliberate. The Asian country is reputed as the largest manufacturer and exporter of goods globally.

    With the foregoing in mind, Papirose was upbeat that in a short time he would become an importer of finished goods from China in Nigeria. But his high hope did not endure before it was dashed.

    According to him, trouble began with a directive from the Chinese government that foreign traders in the country must acquire certain business papers, which he said were not easy to obtain.

    Consequently, he said, he quit business and went to work in a club as a hypeman. The hyping job required him to work on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, and he said it was okay because it helped him to pay rent and settle other bills.

    As a hype man who was good at what he was doing, Papirose said he always had many people visiting his house.

    “One day,” he said, “security operatives came to my house alleging that there was a call made from there. I asked if there was any phone with such calls from me and they said there was none, but they found that a lot of people were coming to my house.

     “I told them that yes, people always came to my house and that I just celebrated my birthday.

    “After everything, they saw that there was no evidence they could use against me. Unfortunately, they took me to a police station from where they took me to the detention centre.”

    Papirose said at the detention centre, the Chinese authorities asked him to plead yempha, yempha; “that is to plead guilty so that they would give me  lesser sentence. But I insisted on knowing what I did wrong.

    “I asked whether they found any evidence on me and why I should plead guilty.”

    Miffed by his audacity, the security operatives yelled at him, saying “you Africans, what are you doing in Guangzhou here? You are only here in Guangzhou selling drugs and doing fraud.

    “I said do you have any evidence against me?”

    Papirose forgot, however, that China is not Nigeria as he later found that the police in China are like gods. “If they talk to you, you don’t have to reply. They will tell you this is China and there is no why for anything they do.”

    Papirose said looking for a way to nail him, the policemen brought out a Chinese girl they had arrested and asked the girl if she knew him. 

    “The Chinese girl said she didn’t. They found that the person that committed the fraud was in Ghana and not in Nigeria. I was in China and hadn’t left China for a long time, so why are you holding me?

     “They said once an African defrauds a Chinese, fellow Africans have to suffer for it. I was like what is going on? That an African has to suffer for a crime committed by another African?

     “They also brought a Cameroonian they had arrested and the boy also said he didn’t know me.

    “They frustrated the Cameroonian and caused him depression. The boy eventually died.”

    “Whenever an African died, they would tell me, you cannot say yemfa yemfa? See, your brother has already died and you cannot say yemfa yemfa. 

    “I was detained at the centre for almost five years. I went to court twice.

    “Also at the court, I did not know that it was impossible to challenge a prosecutor.”

    Papirose’s journey to prison in China was one of the numerous cases of Nigerian citizens who ended their search for greener pastures in jail. Onowu Chukwuemeka, an ex-inmate who spent 15 years in Dongguan Foreign Prison, said more than 5,000 Nigerian inmates are enduring unimaginable suffering and injustice in the Asian country.

    The figure provided by Onowu is, however, lower than the data published by Patriotic Citizens Initiatives (PCI), a civil society group, which indicated that as many as 8,000 Nigerians are incarcerated in Chinese prisons.

    Following the large number of the citizens in the various prisons, Nigerian languages are said to have become very common in the prisons such that one could easily mistake the area for a Nigerian community.

    One of the ex-inmates told our correspondent that some prison officials have become very familiar with names of Nigerian states and communities such that when a new convict comes, they would ask if he is from  X, Y or Z state.

    Brown, another Nigerian businessman travelled to China in 2015 for business purposes. But within two years of his stay in the country, he got arrested and had his dreams shattered. 

    Narrating what led him to prison, Brown said: “I met a friend there and he started living with me. I didn’t know that he was having prohibited items with him. When they caught him, they arrested both of us because he was living with me. I was convicted and sent to prison.”

    There in prison “I filed for an appeal to no avail. As a foreigner, I stayed in prison for two years and six months without contacting my family. They restricted us from getting access to anybody that can reach our families.

     “My family could not get any information about my whereabouts until I reached out to somebody in China who helped to contact them. Some people even exploited my family members, promising to find me.

     “It was a very sad experience. I came back home with nothing. I lost everything.”

    It was also a journey full of woes for Mike who had gone to China in 2009 with a view to expanding his business like the others previously mentioned.

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     “I was arrested when I visited one of my friends’ apartments,” he said as he began to narrate his journey into jail. 

    “After their only investigation, they said they found something in the apartment and that because I was a close friend to the owner of the apartment, I would certainly be part of the deal.

     “I was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

     “Many people especially Nigerians are going down over there because of the prison conditions. The way they torture people there is something else.

     “They will not beat you, but they will give you psychological torture.

     “By the time they are done, the inmate would not be able to speak coherently anymore.

     “You will discover that a very close person to you is not normal anymore.”

    Suspects made to sign documents written in Chinese

    Reliving his ordeal while undergoing trial, Papirose said: “In the court, they would give you a government lawyer, who is actually a prosecutor.  They will have three lawyers that will come and visit you. The first two lawyers will visit you and tell you when you’re going to be in court.

     “When you get to the court, it is another lawyer that will come. And these three lawyers will be writing different things. And when they write it in Chinese, they want you to sign.”

    Papirose’s trial experience wasn’t too different from that of Mike who got his sentence details from his Chinese lawyer even before going to court.

    His words: “They gave me a Chinese lawyer. First they asked if I had a lawyer. I said I didn’t have money to get one. Then they gave me a lawyer.

    “When the lawyer came to meet me at the detention centre, all he did was to ask me what happened.  After that, he said he would go through my file.

    “Thereafter, he said that my sentence was going to be seven years at six month but that we should wait and see what would happen,”

    Continuing, Mike said: “When they took me to court, the judge said the evidence was not clear.  Then they went back to bring some of the security men in the apartment that I visited.

    “They came and bore false witness that they found something where they arrested me. I asked them for evidence but they said if there was no evidence, they could use the witnesses’ account against me. It was on account of the witnesses that they sentenced me.

    “Our people are really going through hell in the prisons over there because nobody cares about them. I can tell you that throughout my seven years in the prison, I only met our consulate once.”

    Ex-inmates share hard experiences 

    Papirose told The Nation that all he experienced in the prison was forced labour. 

    He said:  “What America is saying about China is the fact. The people are engaged in forced labour.

     “Some Chinese people told me that their business growth comes from their prisons. They have more than 30 million prisoners delivering free service for them. So you cannot compete with them.

    “Nationals of about five African countries are working for them free of charge,” he said. 

    Asked about what the inmates produce in prison, he said: “There’s nothing we were not producing in prison. The completion of every production process is done in the secret room with only Chinese people present.

    “Because of the situation, people were dying. These people have no mercy.

    “In their prisons you have to work. They are going to give you points to meet. If you don’t do up to 2700 or 2800 points, you’re not going to make calls to your family, and there’s a limit to things you can buy. So they have to depress you for that, so that you can be working hard.

    “They have major prisons, but most of foreign prisons are in Dong Wan. But foreigners don’t  go to Shenzhen prison, because that is where Huawei  produces everything.

    “They gave me only 550 quai, which is not up to $100, after my jail term.”

    He added that the Chinese don’t respect laws but only follow tradition. “There’s nothing like law. It’s a communist state,” he said.

    Also reliving his experience, Brown described the processes in the prison, the humiliation, the frustration and the propaganda they faced as foreigners as harrowing.

    “To start with, we were being forced to work on all the products. About 60% of products being manufactured in China are being made by the prisoners under duress.

    “We were forced to work nine hours non-stop from Monday to Saturday. Sometimes they made us work on Sundays for some hours.

    “Yes, there was serious torture in the prison. When they force you to work beyond your capacity and you make them to see why you wouldn’t be able to do that, they will start deducting your points, restricting you from making calls, and you will not get commutation.  Commutation is reduction of sentence.”

    Providing details about the targets given to inmates, Brown said: “Every month they will give you a target. If you finish your target for the month, they will give you 100 points which will qualify you to make calls for the month. Each day, you have to make about 480 points for the first grade.

    “In a month, they will add it together and compile it to give you citations of 100 points. So, if you fail to meet the target, your point is deducted. That means that for that month, you would not make any call. Everything you are supposed to get for that month will be cancelled.

    “If for any reasons you go against their order, they will take you into confinement with chains. Sometimes they shock inmates with electric and spray them with tear gas. Inmates don’t usually die in the process of torture, but many lose their senses subsequently.

    “I know about 10 to 15 Nigerians now in a state of not knowing anything again out of frustration and torture. Sometimes the prison officials would come and tell us openly that the westerners enslaved the blacks for many years and nobody made a comment. Now is their turn to enslave us.”

    On his part, Mike said: “We worked like machines every day. They will give you food but you know what prisoners’ food look like. They won’t deny you food but they will give you other punishments if you are not meeting the targets.

    “If you have stayed in prison for six months and failed to meet target, they erase all the points you had scored and make you start afresh.”

    Mike also spoke about how the Chinese authorities shield the hard labour going on in the prisons from diplomats.

    He said: “When they built a new prison and wanted diplomats from other countries to come and visit, the Chinese took all the work inside the factory and instructed inmates not to show that they were engaged in any work.

    “They did that because there were complaints that they were using prisoners for forced labour. They denied it and wanted to use the organised visit to prove that.

    “When the diplomats left, they told inmates to face their work and threatened that if we didn’t face our work, they were going to face us.”

    Nigerian consulate accused of compromise

    The ex-inmates accused the Nigerian envoy in China of staying aloof whenever the citizens have challenges.

    Papirose said: The Nigerian consulate there is very timid. Ethiopia cares a lot for their people and that is why their jail terms are very low.

    “If a Nigerian has a case, they will give him 12 years, but they will give an Ethiopian three years for the same offence because they know their consulate is always there for their people.”

    Also speaking on the Nigerian consulate’s nonchalant attitude to the predicaments of the citizens, Brown said: “When I was in detention, a diplomat visited me just once. I narrated my ordeal to him, especially about my passport.

    “That was on December 28, 2018. But until 2024 that I left, I got no response from him. I spent about six years without hearing from my consulate. That gives the Chinese government upper hand to maltreat Nigerians.”

     Home at last

    Even though he returned home empty handed after serving his jail term, Mike is excited that he didn’t die in confinement. “My own happiness was when my feet touched the ground at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos. I said God, this is me again in this country.  I’m not going anywhere again even if I’m going to make millions, because of what I saw in China. No, no, no, no, no, no.

     “Some people would tell you let me go, if I die, I die. But it is more than that, because when I was over there, if they had told me something like that happens, I would not believe it. It was when I experienced it that I said is this how this country (China) is?  I learnt a lot of things about life there.

    Save over 5,000 Nigerians dying in Chinese prison, ex-inmate pleads

    A former inmate, Mr. Onowu Chukwuemeka, who spent 15 years in Chinese prison, painted a grim picture of the daily horrors faced by the prisoners.

    He revealed that the majority of Nigerians incarcerated there were wrongfully accused, with their court-appointed attorneys often compromised and working for the Chinese government.

    According to him, the inmates are forced to work gruelling hours for various manufacturing companies, with promise of reduced sentences if they meet their targets. This, he said, is a cruel lie, as even those who work themselves to the bone are not granted any leniency.

    “Inmates who fail to meet their quotas are subjected to merciless beatings, starvation and solitary confinement. The working conditions are deplorable, with no safety equipment provided.

    “Many inmates have died from inhaling toxic fumes, melted plastics and other hazardous materials while assembling products like phone chargers, headphones and lamps.

    “The meagre food they (prisoners) receive, consisting of half-cooked rice and vegetables, is barely enough to sustain them.”

    Onowu noted that the Nigerian Ambassador’s visits to the prison and his attempts to address some of the horrifying issues during the administration of President

    Goodluck Jonathan was the only spark of hope that had been seen by these hapless Nigerians.

    “Even that effort eventually failed due to the change in government, leading to the cessation of visits from the Nigerian embassy.

    “Under the Muhammadu Buhari administration, in spite of the outrage from the prison and human rights organisations, neither the Nigerian Ambassador in China nor his emissary made any effort to visit the prison again for the eight years of that administration.

    “All the proposed negotiations with the Chinese government by the Jonathan government were apparently abandoned under the new government.

    “The inmates now live in constant fear with the threat of solitary confinement silencing those who dare to speak out.

    “The Dongguan Foreign Prison has become a nightmarish labour camp where Nigerians are exploited, abused and denied their basic human rights.” 

    Efforts to reach the prison authorities were impossible as they made all communications in their access portal in the Chinese language.

    Against the foregoing, Onowu appealed to the federal government to, as a matter of urgency, intervene to secure the release of the innocent and put an end to the rampant egregious violations of human dignity going on in Dongguan Foreign Prison, China.

    Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Nigeria, Gui Jing and his Nigerian counterpart in Foreign Affairs Ministry, Amb Abu-Obe Eche, were yet to respond to our enquiries as at the time of filing this report.

  • Islam in the Eyes of Nigerian Media

    Islam in the Eyes of Nigerian Media

    Preamble

    In response to a particular question coming incessantly to this column from every conceivable angle in Nigeria, yours sincerely decided to recall an article published in this column in 2007 which answers the recurring question.

    The enquirers wanted to know why Muslims and their activities are not as vivid in Nigerian media as those of their Christian counterparts. The article that served as an answer to that question goes thus:

    “Information is power. It can make or mar. An informer must be informed. He must know what information to disseminate. He must know, not only when and where to disseminate such information but also how to do it. These are the attributes that can qualify journalists as professionals in their calling.

    Journalism as a profession is not about news gathering and news reporting alone. It is also about dissemination of genuine information, transmission of valuable education and even presentation of meaningful entertainment. That is why a journalist is perceived as a professional who knows or should know something about everything in existence.  To be a thorough professional, a journalist must be knowledgeable in various fields of discipline no matter how little. For instance, a journalist cannot report space exploration without some scientific knowledge of astronomy. He cannot report war without some knowledge of weaponry and the geography of war areas as well as the social history of the involved warring groups or nations. Also, no journalist can report a religious festival without knowing some jargons of the religion in question.

    And, of course, in the process of filing his reports, a journalist must be conscious of the technical reportorial sequence to be followed. This is generally known in the profession as ‘five W’s and H’. The coded cliché here is interpreted as follows: “Who (does) What? Where? When? Why? And How?” Without practical knowledge of that sequence, a journalist cannot claim to be a professional in the practice of that noble profession.

    Thus, from whatever angle journalism is viewed, knowledge remains the main axis around which journalists’ activities rotate. In a nutshell, no charlatan can claim an enclave in that noble profession without the required knowledge.

    Prophetic Foresight

    Prophet Muhammad (SAW) had foreseen the effect and implications of positive or negative information dissemination before he implored Muslims to seek knowledge in what became one of his divinely guided prophetic saying (Hadith). This is how he put it: “Seek knowledge even if you will have to travel to as far a place as China”. He made that divinely guided statement at a time when China was known to be the farthest place from Arabia.

    Essence of Knowledge

    Nothing in the life of man is comparable to knowledge. As a matter of fact, life is worthwhile only if it is based on knowledge.

    That was why the revelation of the Qur’an started on the premise of knowledge n 610 CE. The very first chapter of that Sacred Book commenced thus: “Read in the name of your Lord who created; He created man from clots of congealed blood. Read! Your Lord is the Most Bountiful One, who taught by the pen, He taught man what he (man) did not know…”.  And, to further emphasize this, the Prophet said that “knowledge is a missing substance and advised Muslims to search for it wherever they could find it”. He did not restrict such knowledge to religion. Without knowledge, there can be no right information.

    Origin of Journalism

    Contrary to the falsehood documented and disseminated by the Western world that journalism started in Germany in the 15th century, it was the Muslims who actually started journalism in Arabia about 1500 years ago. Though they did not call it journalism, it was they who started what we now call journalism through the process they followed in documenting Hadith (the prophetic tradition and rightly guided statements of Prophet Muhammad).

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    In order to prevent false documentation of any fabricated statements in the name of the Prophet, some Muslim researchers took up the task of ascertaining what the Prophet actually said or did as against what some prominence-seekers were trying to attribute to him after his demise. It was a thorough investigative job voluntarily done by certain individuals to retain the authenticity of Islam. Foremost among such great researchers were  Ibn Abbas, Ibn Mas’ud, Anas Bn Malik, Al-Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Daud, At-Tirmidhi, An-Nisai, IbnMajah and a host of others.

    For the purpose of authenticity, these great scholars introduced what they called ‘Chain of Narration’ (Isnad). Through that Chain, they endeavoured to trace the source of every Hadith quoted and credited to Prophet Muhammad (SAW). Such narrations were graded as: Sahih (indisputably genuine); Hasanun Sahihun (perfectly authentic); Hasanun (genuine); Dai‘f; Munqatiu’ (broken); Gharib (strange) Mawdu‘ (fabricated) and so forth. Thus, from the final documentation through this process, Hadith was transmitted from generation to generation just as we transmit news stories today in professional journalism.

    Without the great efforts of the above mentioned researchers, the world would have been flooded today with all sorts of fabricated expressions falsely credited to the Prophet. And such fabrications would have thrown the Muslim Ummah into total confusion even as Islam itself would have been shrouded in doubt.

    Prophetic Recognition of Information

    The very first Minister appointed by Prophet Muhammad (SAW) as Head of State was that of information.

    The black man called Bilal, who was charged with informing Muslims of the time of Salat by making ‘Adhan’, was the appointed Minister of Information. That shows how important information is to Islam. 

    However, when journalism as we know it today was introduced to Nigeria in the 19th century, it was through the perception and mentality of the Christian colonial masters. Although the earliest Nigerian journalists were quick to realize the power of the Press which they used to fight for Nigerian independence, they nevertheless inherited the Christian colonial traditions which are still causing disharmony in our society today. One of such traditions is religious perception. For instance, an average Nigerian journalist does not see anything positive in Islam as a religion because he/she is blatantly ignorant of its tenets. This is not to say that journalists cannot understand Islam if given the opportunity, but the colonial orientation they inherited is such that they must not see anything good in the religion called Islam. And to ensure the effectiveness of that obnoxious indoctrination, most of Nigerian journalists who are based in the Southern part of the country were enlisted on the pay roll of various Churches. And for this reason they had to follow the dictates of those Churches by imitating the Western reportorial orientation which must paint Islam and its adherents in black colour and portray that divine religion as a hub of trouble.

    Facts in Retrospect

    For well over a century after the introduction of journalism to Nigeria, the word ISLAM and MUSLIMS were reported in Nigerian media, like in European media, as Mohammedanism and Mohammedans respectively. It took the few Muslim scholars and journalists in Europe at that time to counter that obnoxiousness which was deliberately hung on the neck of Islam before it was changed. Even as of today, and against the ethics of their profession, most Nigerian journalists take pleasure in writing or pronouncing word ‘MOSLEM’ rather than ‘MUSLIM’ knowing fully well that the earlier is derogatory to Islam and abhorrent to Muslims.

    Editorialisation

    In news reporting and even editorials of many newspapers, some journalists have ridiculously embarrassed themselves, their media outfits as well as their Muslim readers by confusing EidulAdha with Eidul-Fitr during Muslim festivals out of deliberate refusal to want to know anything about Islam. On the other hand, no Muslim journalist will ever confuse Christmas with Easter or make reference to Jesus Christ or even Christianity in a derogatory manner. It is rather shameful and ridiculous that most Southern Nigerian journalists behave as if they enjoy special immunity in freedom of expression even as they arrogantly bask in the euphoria of a non-existing monopoly of religious hysteria.

    Another instance is the seeming malicious manner in which some Southern Nigerian journalists do report the outbreak of events and occurrences in the country particularly at very sensitive times thereby compounding any problem at hand. It has virtually become a tradition particularly in the Southern axis of   Nigerian media to describe youths who engage in any disturbing activities in the north as ‘FANATICS’ or ‘FUNDAMENTALISTS’ or ‘ZEALOTS’ even before the details of whatever happened become known. And in other parts of the country, such restive youths are merely reported as militants or bandits. The implication here is that any disturbance in the Muslim dominated areas of the north must automatically cloaked in garb of Islamic religion which is criminally perceived as the breeder of fanaticism. And when the trend of such restiveness is seen as tortuous to Islamic and Muslim images, the Christo-journalists of Southern Nigeria turn their back by refusing to report the incident.

    These and other religiously insensitive reporting can be potentially dangerous for the corporate existence of this volatile country. We had witnessed crises precipitated by such insensitivity in the remote and recent past. But the big question is: why are Nigerian Muslims apathetic to media engagements?

    Muslims in Nigerian Media

    Muslims in the media generally must have good knowledge of Christianity and the culture of its adherents just as Christian journalist must know the dos and don’ts of Islam and the Muslims. Arabic is not a language meant for the Muslims alone. There are Christian Arabs who speak no language other than Arabic. And, there is no record anywhere to show that Prophet Isa (Jesus) ever spoke English which is the main language of the Bible in Nigeria today. Both Islam and Christianity came to meet us here in Nigeria. Why must we use them to destroy ourselves on the pages of newspapers or on radio and television stations?

    One of the responsibilities of the media is to ventilate a peaceful atmosphere for harmonious co-existence of the people. Thus, any educated and civilized professional journalist in Nigeria must not shirk such a fundamental responsibility at this age of internet. For the sake of our collective survival, no combative or provocative journalism should be extended to religious sphere. 

    Jihad against Corruption

    From time immemorial, man has learned through experience that it is better to prevent a disease than to cure it. One old disease which still remains young in contemporary time, despite its age, and keeps growing on the palm of man is corruption. This monstrous human ailment is like an implacable virus constantly threatening to metamorphose into full blown cancer as it eats deeply into the fabrics of its victims. Once it is allowed to so grow, its cure becomes impossible. And, coping with it in that circumstance, is like chasing a mirage.

    Corruption is a much more deadly disease than what can be fought with hand in glove. As the mother of all crimes, corruption will be better prevented from growing than to be fought after growing. Incidentally, the societal disease called corruption is not limited to embezzlement and theft of public funds. No abuse or betrayal of public privilege bears any name other than corruption. And the subjective practice of journalism in Nigeria is one of such diseases. That is why the tentacle of the corruption-fighting organs like EFCC and ICPC should be expanded and strengthened. So far, EFCC and ICPC can be called offices without authority. And this is casting a shadow on the acclaimed genuine intention of the government to fight corruption in Nigeria. The first boss of EFCC, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was able to put up some bravado while in office because of unlimited financial resources made available to him by the then President Obasanjo for whatever agenda. When Mallam Ribadu left office, the bravado left with him and the scorching EFCC became a subject of unwarranted scrutiny.

    On the other hand, the first Chairman of ICPC, Justice Mustapha Akanbi, had to quit office when he observed that the intention of the initiators of that institution was at variance with the mode of operation put in place. And in that situation it would take a miracle to function as effectively as expected by the well-meaning section of the public. His successor, Justice Emanuel Ayoola, had to ensure that some amendment was made to the act that established ICPC before he could make up his mind to accept the job of its Chairman. The summary here is that if we must seriously fight corruption, we must seriously fund the agencies set up to face the task. Corruption is not about money alone. Neither is it limited to public office holders. Fighting the monster should therefore be a matter of national orientation which should be taught in schools. Corruption is as incurable as cancer. Concentrating on merely arresting public office holders who stole public funds alone is like scratching the skin of the monster on the surface.

    The seriousness of the government in fighting corruption will be better acknowledged in the area of prevention than that of cure. And that requires not only adequate funding but also sincere mobilization which must be done with all hands on deck now and not later. And the role of Nigerian journalists in this is unlimitedly vital.           

  • ‘Our goal is for every Nigerian to access adequate healthcare’

    ‘Our goal is for every Nigerian to access adequate healthcare’

    Chairman, Nigerian Health Commissioners’ Forum and Ekiti State Commissioner for Health, Oyebanji Filani, in this interview with Dele Anofi, speaks on the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), the Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and the Federal Government’s commitment towards solving the myriads of health challenges facing the country.

    The Federal Government has deployed some funds from the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) to States to kick-start its Health Sector Renewal Rejuvenation agenda; would this not end up like several others before it, where the nation had nothing to show for it?

    The BHCPF is meant for primarily two things. One, it goes directly from the federal to the states and from states to the facility through the state primary health care development agency. At the facility level, facilities utilise that resource for operational expenses. So essentially, the facility needs to go and get commodities from the drug management agency warehouse. They can use part of that money to do it. If they need to do an immunisation campaign, they can use part of that money to do it. If they need to repair maybe a broken bulb, they can use part of that money to do it. So essentially, that money goes directly from the Central Bank of Nigeria account of the Federal government to the CBN account of the State and from State CBN accounts to Primary Health care facility accounts. So it’s a very separate mechanism, from a public financial management perspective, very separate accountability lines for how the funds are deployed. That’s on the one hand. The second part of the Fund also goes from the CBN account of the Federal to the CBN account of the State or goes through the State health insurance agencies. And the State health insurance agencies then use the money to pay for services of Nigerians living in different states.

    In my state for instance, we have about 35,000 people covered under the BHCPF, who can access a wide variety of primary health care services and to some extent some secondary care services, already paid for. And this is what obtains across the entire country as well. I must say that the funds disbursed recently are not the first tranche. The first tranche, about N25billion, was disbursed to states in January 2024. At the outset, maybe about 16 or 17 states because everybody needed to set up accounts, but now all states are in. Only one primary health care facility per ward qualifies, even though a state could have up to 600, 700 facilities and up to three or four per ward. Now, with the Minister’s current push to expand geographical access, which is what we’re pushing for, is to ensure that more facilities are now covered. So we’re moving away from a little under 10,000 facilities, which equates to one PHC per ward, to about 17,000 facilities across the country.

    You mean the disbursements are getting to their right destinations across the states?

    At the facility level, of course; let’s not forget that these are facilities whose primary responsibility is to deliver services. We also have to continue to find ways to support them to ensure that some of the administrative requirements for how the retirement of these funds are done are properly done. That’s the process in which we are in. So, there’s a lot of good that has happened with the BHCPF. But I’m cautiously optimistic about the next phase, because we’re now moving to BHCPF 2.0, where facilities will get more money to be able to deliver more services; and that’s not only at the local government level, but also at the state level. Because that’s something that commissioners are very interested in, that we can adequately track. And that there is a performance management that allows us to monitor and evaluate the use of these resources.

    The Federal Government is very upbeat about Universal Health Coverage; do you think we are on the right course?

    The UHC is an aspiration, a goal that we aspire to. By definition, it means that everybody has access to all the care that they need, and that the care is of the right quality, without them losing their financial dignity. In Ekiti State where I come from as an example, we have achieved what I consider to be UHC of a set of services, primary care services, because everybody in Ekiti State, 3.6 million people in Ekiti State, have access to a suite of explicit, defined primary care services. And a number of states are also moving in that direction. It will take a while, because the more services you add to the bundle of the package, the more expensive it gets, and the government has to be able to mobilise the resources for that. So for instance, if your current suite of services includes malaria, family planning, antenatal, delivery, under-five childhood illnesses, which typically forms about 75% of disease burden in Nigeria, to add things like non-communicable diseases will require significant amount of more resources, and the government has to be able to mobilise that. You mobilise that area through government public funding, or you’re finding ways within the formal sector to be able to mobilise some levies or taxes, right? So there’s a resource mobilisation conversation that needs to be had to enable us to get everybody to have all access. That’s one more point. There is a conversation on how, if you mobilise all of those resources, pull it together to achieve the necessary allocation efficiencies to get it going? And then how do you purchase the services? So, things still depend on the bundle of the UHC on the table. If the bundle is the basic health care provision, with the additional resources that are being mobilised, with lesser conditions around the ability for enrollment, there’s a high possibility that we can meet that target if we are all committed to the process. And I think His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu, has shown significant commitment to health. I remember in December, I was at an event where he said health is back on the front burner. He’s putting a significant amount of resources to support health. I’ve seen a lot of States as well who are doing similar things. In my state, for instance, my governor has committed a significant amount of resources to ensure that we can improve health outcomes. Some of those resources include not just expanding the health care workforce, we now pay the same amounts that the Federal Government pays for clinical health workers in our state. We’re committing more to recruiting more health workers. We’re committing to improving our drug management agency to be able to get the right commodities and ensure that those commodities are in the facility. We’re providing significant resources to improving infrastructure and equipment availability in our facilities. So there’s a lot of resources going into that space, and the coastal states are also doing similar things. What we all, together, states and federal, now need to do is to coalesce all of this, to focus on ensuring that everybody is able to get access to good quality care.

    How effective do you think the recent Presidential Executive Order on drugs and pharmaceuticals would be on drugs and medical devices importation, manufacturing and cost in Nigeria?

    Again I must give kudos to the President because, one, it means that those commodities can come in at a far cheaper rate than they used to. And that those rates are then translated to how the manufacturing agencies in Nigeria are able to deploy their resources. But then the cost savings are passed on to Nigerians like you and I, because if a drug used to cost, say, N100, given that the cost price of that drug was based on the APIs, and those APIs were taxed in any case by about 10-15%, then all of that comes down. So we’re going to see, hopefully in the coming months, maybe early next year, some reduction in the medical inflation in Nigeria. So in that regard, I think His Excellency has done an extraordinary job.

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    Secondly is the work that the Bank of Industry (BOI) is doing, ensuring that we can create a resource pool and availability of funding that the pharmaceutical manufacturing agencies can tap into at a much lower rate than what would be obtainable within the banks at the moment. That ensures that they can use that for their operational expansion or for some of their working capital. Closely related to that is some of the work that the Presidential Advisory on Private Sector Initiative, Dr. Mukhtar, is also doing. So there’s quite a bit that we’re doing in that regard. On the question about whether we want to curb importation of medicines? I think to the extent that we completely eradicate fake drugs coming into the country, absolutely, yes, we should do that. It’s the right thing to do, and we must commend NAFDAC so far for taking that direction. However, we don’t want to set ourselves up by saying that drugs of good quality should not come into the country because it has negative implications for even the pricing of drugs or the availability of key drugs that we may not be able to manufacture in Nigeria. An example is vaccines. If you say we shouldn’t bring in any pharmaceuticals, then it means that almost 95% of the vaccines that we use in the country will never come into the country. So we need to be mindful of that. The same goes for what we consider orphan drugs. So, drugs for, say, things like cancer, for example, we don’t necessarily produce them in Nigeria. So we do not want to put a ban on the importation of drugs. We just want to encourage that as much as possible, insofar as it meets the NAFDAC criteria and that they are made with the highest ethical standards and pharmaceutical standards in the world.

    Do you think we are doing enough within the private sector and the public sector to curb medical tourism?

    If you look over the last 5-10 years, you would see that there is a shift in healthcare service delivery, particularly within the private sector in Nigeria. We’ve seen a number of facilities spring up. In Ekiti State where I’m from, Afe Babalola University Teaching Hospital, arguably one of the biggest health facilities in Nigeria, is comparable to some of the best hospitals you see anywhere in the world.

     In Lagos, we have a number of private tertiary health facilities. Yes, you could argue that they speak to high-end elite, but the reality is that they are able to provide the sort of care that you probably get outside of the country. In that regard, I think the private sector will go where the money is. Even though health is social, they must have done their analysis and recognised that there is some opportunity to make some sense. That is ongoing and I think it’s important. The other thing that I think is important is if you look at dental care across the country, this is no longer anecdotal, but a lot of people come in from outside of the country, from the U.S. and the U.K. to come to Nigeria to get their teeth done.

    The reason for that is that it’s far cheaper and the quality is about the same. Where you pay $4,000 or $6,000 or $7,000 for a procedure in the U.S., people get a similar procedure here for a fraction. There are green shoots of reverse medical tourism, but that doesn’t mean that there’s still no medical tourism going out. People go for different things. People go to seek care either because they have a personal doctor outside of the country, as an example. I think that as we continue to build the system, because it’s indeed an ecosystem, as we continue to create an enabling environment for private businesses to thrive, we’ll have more of the affable and multi-specialist hospitals. We’ll have more of the state-of-the-art facilities of this world who then come into the country. We’ll have more of the dedicated cancer centers or cardiology centers or renal centers who are able to offer comparable treatment to what you see outside of the country.

    To some the medical workers migration from Nigeria otherwise known as the japa syndrome look like a death knell for the country’s health system, do you agree?

    Essentially, people move for different reasons. People move for economic reasons, some move for family reasons; we’ve seen a lot more of that in Nigeria for multiple, myriad reasons. But also, as a responsible government, at the Federal, but also importantly at the State, we’ve taken stock of this. I give an example as the Chairperson of the Commissioners Forum, last year, we had to commission an assessment of human resources for health in the country. And off the back of that assessment, every state is taking the right step to ensure that we can mitigate this challenge. During the National Council on Health, the Commissioners Forum sponsored one member to focus on human resources for health, which led us to recognise one of the key issues- that we needed to expand the production of health products within the country. Our sponsor was approved alongside other members that the Coordinating Minister had put in place. And between last year and this year, almost every school, whether it’s the health institutions for medicines, for pharmacy, for nursing; all the health technology institutions have seen their intakes doubled. So that means that in the coming years, we’ll have many more health professionals who are being produced. But production is one thing, it’s also important that when they are produced, we are able to absorb them accordingly.

    The Federal government already makes a certain level of payments in terms of wages but the Federal government can’t absorb everybody. That’s why the states are striving to ensure that we are also able to provide a more enabling financial environment for health workers, recognising the fiscal space and which institutions will reach the work. In my state, as an example, His Excellency, Mr. Oyebanji, has done a phenomenal job ensuring that we are able to match what the federal pays, and that allows us to not only attract, but also retain health workers that will continue to drive the state’s health agenda direction. And I’m aware that a number of my colleagues are also going through that direction. However, after producing and ensuring that they are better motivated in terms of the professional environment in which they work, the infrastructure to enable them to perform has to be available and up to date. The system must be conducive for work and that’s something that we, as governments, should also account for. And I don’t think that there is any state in Nigeria that you go to today that you’ll not see where my colleagues are ensuring that we have many more facilities with the right set of equipment, infrastructure and enabling systems to allow things to thrive. The goal is that all of these translate to improved, increased utilisation that translates to better health outcomes because that’s the essence of it. And in terms of the work that we are doing as a country, we can always improve. That’s the way it works but I think we’ve seen an uncommon commitment from His Excellency, the President, to ensuring that we move in the right direction for health. Just last week, they set up the advanced strategy for a new $3 trillion stabilisation plan. And within that, over 10% of the 350 million is a huge signal to how he recognises the role of health in productivity, and from productivity to economic development. Beyond that, he has a good team in place in the Coordinating Minister and the Minister of State, Professor Ali Pate and Dr. Tunji Alausa, who are helping to drive and shape the narrative at the federal level. But it’s something we always say, there are no federal individuals. We all live in the states, right? And that’s why the role of the Commissioners continues to remain important; we, as colleagues, must be able to hold one another, accountable for results, and that we have a mechanism for peer learning that allows us to see the best of one another and to see how well we can continue to thrive. The goal for us is not one or two states doing well. The goal is to ensure that six plus one do well; because if that six plus one do well, then everybody in Nigeria has better access to quality care and they can go about their duties as individuals who are contributing to the society in a meaningful way.

  • Nigerian flees mob attack over bisexuality

    Nigerian flees mob attack over bisexuality

    A 44-year-old Nigerian now based in Canada, Olasunkanmi Lawal, has shared his harrowing experience of escaping death due to his bisexuality.

    Lawal left Nigeria in May, after surviving a violent attack by a mob in his community at No. 2 Osewa Street, off Ijoka Road, Akure, Ondo State.

    In a telephone interview with The Nation, Lawal recounted: “Trouble started for me in my last year of secondary school when I had sex with someone of the same gender. This continued until December 24, 2013, when my partner passed away. It was difficult to find a new partner until February 13, 2023.”

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    Lawal described his attempt to lead a dual life, marrying his wife on November 15, 2014, while keeping his bisexuality a secret.

    “My wife discovered my secret on December 26, 2023, when she caught me with my partner. She alerted the neighbours, and I was mobbed. I managed to escape through the fence,” he said.

    Following the incident, Lawal’s life turned chaotic. “I became a vagabond until a doctor friend offered me shelter. My wife moved in with my family after our house was burnt down. She later forgave me,” he said.

  • International police law enforcement body appoints Nigerian as Africa director

    International police law enforcement body appoints Nigerian as Africa director

    The International Police Chaplain Sustainable Development and Law Enforcement, Inc. USA (IPCSL) has appointed a Nigerian, Col. Blessing Akinlosotu, as Africa director.

    By the appointment, Akinlosotu will manage the affairs of IPCSL in all 55 African countries, following his promotion as Africa Director and Commander-in-Chief.

    A statement by Akinlosotu’s Media Special Assistant on Media, Mr. Emmanuel Daudu, indicated this.

    Quoting the letter appointing Akinlosotu as director, the statement affirmed: “Your overall role is to lead and manage the African branch under the authority of the High Council in compliance with our Statutes and Internal Regulations.

     “And in harmonisation with the international conventions to which we have adhered.

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    “Your specific tasks will be listed in your Diplomatic Accreditation Certificate that will be awarded to you at the investiture ceremony in November 2024 and will be the subject of an official mission order.”

    The statement further quoted the letter as saying: “Akinlosotu has represented his country in promoting peaceful relations negotiations … and has proven to be an effective communicator and negotiator, navigating complex issues, and finding common grounds among different parties.

    “Your appointment as (makes you the) official representative of our organisation as the Regional Coordination of Africa under the function of Regional Coordinator of Africa for three years with the rank of Chaplain Colonel/ Commander Africa for IPCSL.”

    Akinlosotu’s appointment letter dated July 27, was signed by Dr. Tardieu Ridore President, Chaplain General in Chief, High Council of Admin. Florida, USA; Amb. Dr. Wilkenson Cesar, Vice President/Chaplain General, High Council of Admin. Florida, USA; and Dr. Wesly Milard, Public Relations/Chap Lt.-Gen., High Council of Admin., IPCSL, Florida.

    .

  • UAE lifts visa ban on Nigerian passport holders

    UAE lifts visa ban on Nigerian passport holders

    The lingering visa disagreement between Nigeria and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was finally put to rest on Monday as an agreement was reached to resume issuance of visas to Nigerian passport holders.

    Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, disclosed this yesterday shortly after the 8th Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting of 2024.

    The UAE imposed a blanket visa ban on Nigerians in October 2022 while Emirates Airlines suspended flight operations to Nigeria in November of the same year.

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    ““Today, an agreement has been reached on that and effective from today 15th July, Nigerian passport holders are able to obtain to go to the United Arab Emirates.

    “Details of that will be provided to you latter today when we put out a statement. But I can tell you that the agreement has been reached and effective from today, Nigerian passport holders intending to travel to the UAE are able to do so”, the minister said.

  • ‘Tinubu, only Nigerian president sincere, courageous to tackle country’s problems’

    ‘Tinubu, only Nigerian president sincere, courageous to tackle country’s problems’

    President Bola Tinubu has been praised for his sincerity, courage, and forthrightness in handling the affairs of the country.

      According to a statement by the National Coordinator No Alternative to Tinubu-Shettima 2023, Vincent G. Uba, he commended Tinubu’s courage in his first year “to roll out difficult and painful policies to salvage a very sick country like Nigeria, without minding the hues and cries of the citizens.

     According to Uba, without minding the pains that will be undergone by the citizenry, President Tinubu decided to administer short term painful and excruciating measures that will eventually lead to long term recovery of the country. “Other presidents, for the fear of being seen as bad, had painted a picture of nicety and avoided taking bold and painful steps that would better the lots of the country in years to come.

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     “They would rather wait until after their first term in office, for the fear of losing elections, adopt a painted sepulcher approach in handling the affairs of the country. But this President, Bola Tinubu would not want to continue with the postponement of the evil days, so he swiftly took the bull by the horns and began to deal with the problems head-on.”


    He said with that singular decision, no one would be in doubt that the President has the interest of the country at heart, adding, “That is how you know the President who has come to salvage the nation.”

     He enjoined Nigerians to understand that President Tinubu is not happy seeing and watching the citizens suffer. But it would be irresponsible of him to see Nigeria go under without doing anything about it.

     “He means well for Nigeria, and so Nigerians should be patient with him. Let us understand that in time to come, things will get better. The painful curative measures or policies of this administration are temporary ones that will eventually lead to prosperity and national growth.

     “The President took the bull by the horns and removed the oil subsidy, which if not removed, would have seen Nigeria impoverished the most.

     “The foreign exchange rates unification is another national economic haemorrhage that he boldly tackled, not minding the immediate and short-term pains associated with it.”