The Rivers Professional Women League has dismissed claims by Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), that they disrespected President Bola Tinubu and his wife, Oluremi Tinubu, during an empowerment programme held in Port Harcourt.

The league accused Wike of attempting to “spin the narrative” surrounding the incident, where some women walked out of the Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) event sponsored by the first lady in partnership with the office of the senior special adviser to the president on sustainable development goals.

Wike, in a statement by his aide, Lere Olayinka, had alleged that the protest was orchestrated by Siminalayi Fubara, the suspended Rivers state governor, to embarrass the president and his wife.

But the league, in a statement signed by Nimi Fiberesima, its president; Jennifer Boms Wolugbom, the secretary; and Tambari Menete, director of publicity; said the minister’s claims were “false and misleading”.

“It is apparent that Rivers women did not and cannot walk out on the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu or disrespect her husband, President Bola Tinubu. Such a narrative is the imaginative spinning of Chief Nyesom Wike to blackmail Rivers people as always,” the statement reads.

“It is therefore unfounded and preposterous for Chief Nyesom Wike to suddenly conclude as always to say the least that Rivers Women embarrassed the First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, and by extension Mr. President.“

The group explained that they had been informed that the first lady would be represented by Fatima Abbas Tajudeen, wife of the speaker of the house of representatives, but were instead received by Theresa Ibas, wife of the state’s sole administrator.

This change, according to the group, triggered discontent among some attendees.

“Undoubtedly, Rivers women respect and love Mr. President, his leadership and his wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu and support her visionary empowerment programme, Renewed Hope Initiative,” the statement added.

“But the challenge is that often, Chief Nyesom Wike tends to be more Catholic than the Pope. He feels he is the only Nigerian that loves and supports the President most, and almost believes that the President’s breath depends on him.”

The group also cited a similar protest during an event in Delta state attended by the first lady, noting that it did not attract the same political undertone.

They accused Wike of spending more time stirring tensions in Rivers than focusing on his role as FCT minister.

[TheCable]

I see how my unwavering support for your cry for justice has sent your adversaries into a frenzy—resorting to desperate, laughable falsehoods.

Rest assured, Dr. Abiola Akiyode-Afolabi, the distinguished women of FIDA, and I will continue to stand with you wholeheartedly. Our commitment to justice is unshaken, and we will not relent until justice is served.

We simply despise injustice and the abuse of power. Period.

No sensible and decent person who knows my incorruptible track record is deceived by the ridiculous fabrications being peddled by your traducers.

They know—without a doubt—that no amount of money, not even all the wealth in every central bank in the world, can buy my convictions, voice, and stance on any matter I choose to support.

So, worry not, Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan.

You will continue to have my unwavering, sacrificial support in your resolute fight against a brigade of irresponsible politicians, led by the Senate President, Godswill Obot Akpabio.

The world sees how they have captured our public institutions for their selfish benefit—corruptly abusing their positions to silence, intimidate, and endanger you. But they will fail.

Do not be discouraged by this latest onslaught.

We will continue to stand with you—demanding a fair hearing and an independent investigation into your petition against Senator Akpabio for sexual harassment.

The Senate President cannot dodge the inevitable forever.

To my fellow honorable citizens, we all know that sacrifice is foreign to most of Nigeria’s so-called political “leaders” (or should I say ruiners?). They cannot fathom the concept of service because money and their belly are their gods.

In contrast to their corruption and greed, I—like many of you—will continue, eternally, to live a purpose-driven life of sacrifice in the unrelenting fight for a decent and just Nigeria, where leaders are held accountable for good governance.

Every decent, reasonable Nigerian knows that my unshakable values, convictions, voice, and stance on public interest issues cannot be tarnished—no matter how hard they try.

Ignore their lies. Dismiss, with contempt, their desperate theatrics—a feeble attempt to divert attention from the sexual harassment petition against Senate President Akpabio by the distinguished Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. Demand justice for her, because “injustice to one is injustice to all.”

Madam Senator, as you so powerfully declared:

“This injustice shall not be sustained.”

We—along with every truly honorable and reasonable Nigerian—stand with you. Unwavering. Freely. All the way.

So, fight on until justice is served!

Today is yet another World Press Freedom Day 2025. The organic theme for this year is ‘Time to put AI on the social agenda’. On this World Press Freedom Day 2025, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global voice for journalists, is calling for Artificial Intelligence (AI) to be at the top of the agenda in the social dialogue between journalists’ unions and media. Meanwhile, in line with UNESCO’s theme for this year, ‘Reporting in the Brave New World – The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Press Freedom’, the IFJ urges journalists, unions, and media organisations to engage in collective action to ensure that AI serves the ethical creation of news, protects press freedom, and sustains jobs.

In its recommendations on the use of Artificial Intelligence adopted in June 2024, the IFJ highlighted that “AI cannot replace human journalists, and its output must not be considered ‘journalism’, save where it has been subject to appropriate human oversight and checking.”

Fact-checking and critical thinking are at the core of journalism: AI cannot do them independently. The IFJ warns in particular against bias, stereotypes and factual errors that can contribute to misleading audiences. The federation points that journalists are essential for these tasks. The rise of AI-fuelled online disinformation is another threat, requiring a response in the form of journalists’ scrutiny. Deep fakes are particularly challenging, reminds the IFJ. “Deep fakes are a direct attack on democracy and on people’s fundamental right to reliable and independent information,” says Anthony Bellanger, IFJ General Secretary. “Journalists are on the front lines of this drift, and their verification work is becoming increasingly important although complex.”

The IFJ is urging trade unions and media to address the issue of Artificial Intelligence, as part of their social dialogue. AI is reshaping newsrooms, automating routine tasks, assisting with data analysis, and even generating content. And here is the thing, this technology has the potential to improve efficiency and save journalists from doing mundane tasks such as data collection. But the IFJ is concerned that little has been done in the social dialogue to ensure the ethical use of AI in newsrooms, e.g. directly addressing clauses on transparency.

The Federation is particularly concerned that AI could ultimately replace editorial decisions, which are currently made by professional staff in newsrooms.

Besides, the Federation has specific concerns about the use of journalistic works to feed AI. This often automatic process can lead to journalists not being compensated for their articles, unless a specific agreement has already been made with the relevant media organisations. As we are just learning the ropes in this country, licensing agreements between news organisations and AI companies should ensure that journalists are fairly compensated for their contributions and allow journalists to opt out if they refuse their works being used in this way. There have been reports that professional bodies have initiated discussion points on this business dynamics of journalism.

This is quite important as we reflect on the themes this year: Unions and media should also ensure that journalists, including freelancers, receive proper AI literacy training. They should also help journalists make this work transition. That is the only way empowerment and compensation can accrue to practitioners in this age of the giants and disrupters.

“It is high time for everyone in the sector to jointly reflect on how journalism can adapt to the evolving landscape of AI, while safeguarding its ethical standards and the core values of press freedom,” says Bellanger. “The future of journalism is one where human oversight, transparency and accountability remain at the centre of AI usage. We must ensure that technology serves to enhance the work of journalists, not undermine it.”

The IFJ calls on all stakeholders – journalists, unions, media organisations and policymakers – to work collaboratively in developing AI guidelines that prioritise the rights and wellbeing of journalists. This goal should include setting clear boundaries for AI’s role in newsrooms, fostering transparency in AI processes, ensuring that journalists get compensated and can opt out of their work being used by AI, and protecting editorial independence. The Federation also highlights the importance of collective bargaining, to guarantee that journalists’ voices are heard as these technologies become more integrated into the media landscape.

Before we drew attention to concerns about threat to press freedom at home, it is fitting to note that leaders in global context don’t always walk their talk on freedom of the press. None of tem as I noted before, likes robust journalism. That is what Ms Marina Walker Guevara, Executive Editor Pulitzer Centre noted yesterday in her reflection on this year’s WPFD: Her words:

“Even for a president who insults journalists routinely over normal coverage of his administration, the latest tirade by Argentine President Javier Milei was shocking in its menace. It comes at a moment when officials from Washington to New Delhi are also inciting hatred of the free press. I am from Argentina, and I am a citizen of the United States. For the first time in 22 years living in the U.S., press freedom is under siege in both places I call home. In my book, this was not supposed to happen in the U.S., the country of the First Amendment, the Freedom of Information Act, Watergate, and the Pentagon Papers. Yet here we are, witnessing the Associated Press semi-banned from the White House; corporate media settling frivolous lawsuits by President Trump to protect their other businesses; storied journalists exiting storied programs such as 60 Minutes over a loss of editorial independence.  
It’s tempting to feel we have little to celebrate on World Press Freedom Day. Still, as challenges rise, the Pulitzer Center’s partner journalists and outlets are doubling down on rigor, independence, and creativity. The more they are threatened, the busier they get. Their stories spark dialogue and change, and they make powerful people uncomfortable.  Recently, OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, subtly discouraged his followers from reading Karen Hao’s much-anticipated book on Open AI, Empire of AI. Hao, who has pioneered the field of investigations on AI’s impacts, is the lead designer of the Pulitzer Center’s AI Spotlight Series, a state-of-the-art training program that supports journalists reporting on AI systems, companies, and economics.. . 

Reporting by another Pulitzer Center partner, Sofia Schurig of Brazil’s Núcleo, recently prompted Brazil’s consumer protection officials to request an inquiry into Meta, the social media giant that owns Instagram and Facebook. Schurig and her colleagues found 14 Instagram accounts featuring child sexual exploitation content generated by artificial intelligence; after the journalists contacted the company, Meta removed the accounts. Our mission at the Pulitzer Center is to make stories like these possible, and to develop compelling ways to connect audiences with journalism through art, education, civic dialogue, and more. 

We are convinced that amid our democracies’ struggles—and in spite of them—independent journalists will do their most consequential work”. 
Even as we are concerned about the AI bogey, we are nursing fresh concerns about press freedom in Nigeria, which easily the most significant civil society organisation, at the moment, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) are addressing today through a colloquium and a press conference. Journalists and civil society activists and leaders have been invited to grace at Radisson Hotel, GRA, Ikeja, Lagos. The gathering will be on the main concern: “Unchecked Injustice: How Authorities Are Weaponising the Cybercrime Act to Stifle Peaceful Dissent and Media Freedom in Nigeria.”  According to SERAP and the Guild of Editors, the jointly event will bring together media executives, civil society organisations, human rights activists and other stakeholders. 

The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) as a professional group of editors and media executives is to promote and defend the rights and interests of editors in Nigeria. The Guild’s mission is to foster excellence in editing and journalism, and to promote a free and independent press. Its objectives include, promoting and defending the rights and interests of editors in Nigeria.

SERAP is a non-profit, nonpartisan, legal and advocacy organisation devoted to promoting transparency, accountability and respect for socio-economic rights in Nigeria. SERAP received the Wole Soyinka Anti-Corruption Defender Award in 2014, and was nominated for the UN Civil Society Award and Ford Foundation’s Jubilee Transparency Award. SERAP was also nominated for the 2024 Columbia Global Freedom of Expression Prizes. SERAP is a member of the UNCAC Coalition, a global anti-corruption network of over 350 civil society organizations (CSOs) in over 100 countries, which is committed to promoting the ratification, implementation and monitoring of the UN Convention against Corruption.

The press conference will focus on assessing the state of human rights and press freedom in Nigeria focusing on the curious weaponisation of the Cybercrime Act to stifle peaceful dissent and media freedom both offline and online, while making recommendations to the Nigerian authorities to address and end the growing crackdown on human rights, media freedom and civic space in the country. In the middle of December 2024, the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) was resourceful and conflict sensitive, in this regard as it inaugurated a five-man committee to examine and review various anti-media laws in the nation’s statutes. This development came after the Guild expressed concern about the negative impact of the “plethora of obnoxious and anti-media laws” on practitioners and the country. 

According to the Editors’ Guild, the committee is on a peace mission and so would work with the office of Minister of Information and National Orientation, the National Assembly, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, and other stakeholders to amend the laws or repeal them outright.

The committee members include a pro-media rights activist and NGE member, Richard Akinnola; a lawyer/former Editor of Punch Newspaper, Gbemiga Ogunleye; former Editor-in-Chief/Managing Director of The Guardian, Martins Oloja; Deputy Editor-in-Chief/Chairman of the Editorial Board of Daily Trust, Idris Hamza, and the General Secretary of the NGE, Dr. Iyobosa Uwugiaren.

The Guild’s executive council noted that that its decision to set up the strategic committee was informed by the “chilling effects” of the legislations on the nation’s democracy and press freedom. Today’s colloquium and press conference is a reinforcement of that decision to use a stakeholder consultation to defuse tension between the state and the media.

In a December 2023 interaction with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) officials, President Bola Tinubu declared that his administration would always respect media freedoms and divergent views. But there are bills at the federal legislature, which seek to give more teeth to the existing laws that the law enforcement agencies have been exploiting to arrest and detain journalists. This is a day to show some concerns about whether the # Project 2027 hitmen would indeed guarantee press freedom after free speeches and robust and public interest disclosures. That is why on this World Press Freedom Day, we appeal to citizens and all lovers of freedom to support “fearless journalism and protect the right to speak the truth.”

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has fired back at Meta Platforms Inc, warning the tech giant that its threat to exit Nigeria does not erase its legal responsibilities or liabilities under the Nigerian law.

Meta earlier today said it “may be forced to effectively shut down the Facebook and Instagram services in Nigeria in order to mitigate the risk of enforcement measures.”

Meta’s warning came after it lost a legal bid last week to overturn a ₦220 million fine imposed by the FCCPC for violations of data protection and consumer rights laws.

Reacting to this, FCCPC, in a statement on Saturday, described Meta’s threat as “a calculated” move aimed at “inducing negative public reaction and potentially pressuring the FCCPC to reconsider its decision.”

FCCPC noted that Meta threatening to leave Nigeria does not absolve Meta of liabilities for the outcome of a judicial process.

The Commission added that it found that Meta Parties engaged in multiple and repeated infringements of the FCCPA (2018) and the NDPR.

“These infringements included denying Nigerians the right to control their personal data, transferring and sharing Nigerian user data without authorisation, discriminating against Nigerian users compared to users in other jurisdictions and abusing their dominant market position by forcing unfair privacy policies,” FCCPC added.

“Interestingly, Meta had been fined for similar breaches in Texas ($1.5b) and only recently was asked to pay $1.3 Billion for violating E.U. Data Privacy Rules. Elsewhere in India, South Korea, France and Australia, Meta had faced varying penalties for similar breaches. But Meta never resorted to the blackmail of threatening to exit those countries. They obeyed.”

[Guardian]

Nigerian politicians fascinate me with their sheer inventiveness. Don’t write off any politician who still has breath in him. His dying embers can still trigger a conflagration. It was in that context that I decided to take another look at the recent threats by some politicians of Northern extraction to block President Tinubu from having a second term in 2027.

On May 29, 2025, the Tinubu administration will be two years old – just two years, and some people are already bewailing the turn-by-turn tradition in our unwritten constitution which makes us rotate the presidency between the North and the South. Tinubu’s Northern predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, was president for eight years.

The reason some of us can’t join Nigeria’s political jujitsu is because it is a very deadly sport with indeterminate rules. As soon as one begins to celebrate our seeming cohesiveness and encouraging handshakes across the four cardinal points of the River Niger, gbam! A massive shock jolts you back to reality reminding you that our middle name is atavism.

North As Kingmaker

“Tinubu could not have been president without the support of the North”, said Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, until recently the special adviser on political affairs to the president in the Office of the Vice President, who has now resumed his role as the voice of the Northern Elders’ Forum (NEF). He argues that President Tinubu should not seek a second term, apparently because he thinks that Tinubu’s performance in the first two years has been sub-par.

Baba-Ahmed’s missionary journey round the major media outlets was closely followed by a release by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) declaring that the North will only support candidates in the 2027 general elections who are committed to protecting and promoting the region’s interests.
“Northern Nigeria will remain faithful not to particular politicians or political parties but to those who care about our regional interests and are willing to promote and protect them”, said the chairman of the forum’s Board of Trustees (BoT) who is also a former Minister of Power and Steel, Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu. Predictably, Baba-Ahmed is also a member of the ACF.

Flexing his region’s political muscles. Dalhatu declared, “The North has 19 out of the 36 states, and we also have the FCT as a veritable component. We have a majority in the Senate, the House of Representatives, the National Economic Council, and the Council of State. The North occupies close to 75 percent of Nigeria’s land area and about 60 percent of the population.
He went on to issue what many people in the southern parts have since described as an open threat: “In the next six months, the North will decide where it stands. If the rest of the country wants to join us, fine. If not, we will go our own way. One thing is clear: nobody can become president of Nigeria without northern support.”

Arrogance

Nothing activates the bubbly Nigerian passion like football and politics. The verdict of many commentators of southern origin was that from the outbursts of both the Northern Elders’ Forum and the Arewa Consultative Forum, the ‘North’ has not yet purged itself of what southern leaders regard as its traditional arrogance. They wonder if Tinubu’s predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, could have been president without the votes of the South, particularly the Southwest.

No part of Nigeria has an overwhelming majority over the others, meaning that in the same vein, no Northerner can become president without southern votes. So, why divide the people based on the region of origin instead of addressing pertinent socio-political issues such as the economy, spate of insecurity, political restructuring etc.

“Enìkan kì í jé àwádé”, is a popular Yoruba proverb, which could be translated as, “One individual can’t announce his presence by saying, ‘We have come’. I doubt if Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed and his co-travellers have ever heard this.

We all know how diverse Northern Nigeria is. We know, too, the various forces at play in that part of Nigeria. While we continue to pray that God intervenes in the mayhem going on between adherents of different religions and ethnic nationalities in addition to the sheer criminality raging there, it is too presumptuous of any individual, no matter how many times he has enjoyed government appointments, to claim to speak for the entire North.

Agreeing with the above point, the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, has declared that the NEF does not speak for the entire North, describing the body as a political burden to the region.
Toeing Matawale’s line, another body, the Progressive Northern Elements, in a statement signed by its Chairman, Alhaji Ibrahim Mohammed Modibbo, said it was too early for the Northern Elders Forum to start finding faults in a President they supported to win an election.

“The Northern Elders Forum should know that an average northerner is wiser now and can’t be cajoled to fight any southerner in power as President. Our position is clear, we believe in any government or leader that will make the North and every other region better. Nothing less.”

Lamido’s Crystal Ball

If anyone can plot how to unseat a political personage, given the dancing chess board that Nigerian politics has become, that person would be Alhaji Sule Lamido, former Governor of Jigawa State and founding member of the PDP. If wishes were horses, Lamido would want his party, PDP, to be in power; but being a realist he warns that the task of unseating Tinubu is not for opportunist rabble-rousers.
In Lamido’s view, “It is going to be difficult with Tinubu, with his hold on the country, on the economy, and his audacity to say this is where I stand …. Tinubu is very daring; he is his own creation. He is a self-made man, right from Chicago, what he went through on the streets. Look at how he was able to fight the Alliance for Democracy and Afenifere and then Obasanjo.”

The former governor added: “At the APC convention, Buhari was against him but he defeated Buhari. What are you talking about? Don’t underestimate a man like that… There is no Nigerian like Tinubu who has been there on his own. Every established political arrangement, every institution, he demolished them. Now that he is in charge, he is not going to be easy to deal with.”

Many enlightened people wish that the meetings of the Northern Elders’ Forum and the Arewa Consultative Forum were actually meant to address the almajiri problem in the North, youth unemployment, re-calibration of parasitic local government structures, the national economy, illegal mining, insecurity in the North and other problems militating against the people.
I bet you, many of the itinerant campaigners are just one appointment away from disembarking from the protest train and retreating quietly to savour the perks of their new office. It will do them no harm to take Lamido’s advice.

Peter Obi/El-Rufai Ticket

On the flip side of the coin, the former governor also warned President Tinubu not to push people to the wall:

“You see, the domestic cat fed on small chickens, but one day, the mother of the chickens stood up to the cat. Tinubu is that cat.”

The word in town is that the Mother Hen has arranged a Peter Obi/El-Rufai presidential ticket to ‘de-cat’ Tinubu in 2027. There are interesting days ahead!

The question is, do the desperate politicians threatening to turn day to night have the discipline, resources, moral suasion, vision, and virtual death-wish to live up to their grandiloquence?

A week after resumption for the third term, rainstorm at the weekend destroyed the hostels of the Federal Government College (FGC) in Ikot Ekpene local government area of Akwa Ibom State.
It also affected other critical structures in the school.

Although no life was lost, LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that the heavy downpour on Friday evening, accompanied by a strong windstorm, affected several buildings in the expansive school.
The worst affected were the perimeter fence bordering the girls’ hostel, Basic Science Laboratory, classroom blocks for JSS1, 2 and SS2, administrative buildings and the vice principals’ offices.
Other facilities destroyed by the rainstorm included the school e-Library where set of computers were damaged, solar panel water pump, water storage tanks at different locations in the college and the generator house where a tree collapsed on the roof and damaged the entire power house.
In a viral video in Uyo, female students were seen crying and running helplessly, seeking refuge.

According to an administrative officer who declined to be named, most of the affected students have been crammed into another hostel not seriously affected by the natural disaster.

Meanwhile, the incident has compelled the school management to postpone further resumptions for the boarding students who were expected to return on Saturday, May 3, and Sunday, May 4, 2025, especially those in JSS1, 2; SS1 and 2 classes so that the facilities could be fixed by the federal government before the students return.

Consequently, the chairman of the Parents/Teachers’ Association (PTA), Dr J.J Etim, has appealed to parents to hold back their children and wards yet to return to the college “till further notice.”

[Leadership]

IS there morality in politics? Or, should there be morality in politics? Governors of Akwa-Ibom and Delta States, Umo Eno, Sheriff Oborevwori and ex-governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, are of the opinion that there isn’t. Or, there shouldn’t be. They made this known last week in epistles that should be fittingly entitled, “An ode to betrayal and betrayers”. Like blabbering kid thieves caught stealing from a pot of soup, Eno and Okowa waffled pitifully, in a manner that beggars belief, on why they abandoned/abandoning the PDP, a faithful political kin, which threw them up from obscurity to prominence and redoubtable wealth.

When the discourse is about betrayal and betrayers, my people walk a profound path. They recourse to an allegory which carves an imperishable place of pride for a faithful animal, the pigeon, Ẹyẹlé. With this, they paint the distastefulness and horrid colour of betrayal. In the ode to this evergreen bird, they hold aloft her fidelity to an unwritten bond of friendship. So, my people say, the Ẹyẹlé, which daily eats and drinks from the House Owner in time of plenty, will not break that bond even when the House Owner faces life’s existential travails. Unlike the Ẹyẹlé, Eno, Oborevwori and Okowa would seem to have chosen political harlotry for which Nigerian politics/politicians are known and are so audacious enough to flaunt it in the people’s face.  

Political Iscariotism has become a punishing phenomenon in Nigerian politics. On a national television last week, former PDP presidential running mate, Okowa sought all manner of ways to legitimize why a pigeon should abandon the House Owner in his autumn, hi moment of decline. Asked what he found in the pot of soup that made him cup his hand suggestively, Okowa said the move was in the best interest of Delta State.

In the same way, Pastor Umo Eno, governor of a state whose successive governments have repeatedly mouthed their wedge to PDP as “the state’s religion”, found ideology as the 30 shekels to collect for betraying the PDP and his people. He found a troubling anecdote to tell about a traveler and two airlines for a reinforcement of his blabbering thesis. At a Town Hall meeting held for the Ukanafun Federal Constituency last Tuesday, speaking in Ibiobio, Eno put his duplicity in perspective. He then came across as seeing politics as indistinguishable from prostitution. Apparently seeing the need to reify his betrayal, Eno thereafter appeared on a radio programme where he attempted to demonize ideology in Nigerian politics.

The bible, which Eno reads, is very profound in telling the story of betrayers and betrayal. Bible scholars say in that holy book have 50 verses about betrayal. It runs from the story of the patron-saint of betrayal, Judas Iscariot, Delilah and the Philistines, David’s betrayal of Saul, the Absalom story and repeated pronouncements like “Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise up against parents…” If the bible were to be re-written today, with Eno’s betrayal in mind, his unkind cut of betrayal of a party that brought him from obscurity to limelight would make the 51st story of betrayal.

Whether in literature, politics or everyday life, betrayal provides no variation. But politicians, trying to be clever by half, say that in politics, unlike literature or our everyday relations, betrayal isn’t an anomaly but the water with which they bathe. To escape from the damnation awaiting betrayals, they make a distinction between betrayal and what is called “political compromise.”

However, while political Iscariotism of the kind of Umo, Oborevwori and Okowa is selfish, self-serving and greed-propelled, the ones of pre-independence Nigeria were ideological. The second case of decamping happened in 1951 between Nnamdi Azikiwe’s NCNC and the AG.

Another very epochal case of decamping happened during the First Republic when Chief Ladoke Akintola, and his rump of party faithful moved over to form the United Progressive Party, (UPP) which later formed an alliance with the NCNC to become the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP).

In the short-lived Second Republic of 1979 to 1983, a gale of political defections also occurred. The most epochal of them was the shifting of alliance from the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN)to the ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) by Ondo State Deputy Governor, Chief Akin Omobioriowo with allies like Olaiya Fagbamigbe. The other was that of Alhaji Abubakar Rimi, governor of Kano State. Rimi fell out with his political mentor, Mallam Aminu Kano in May 1983 and decamped from the PRP, under whose banner he became governor, to the Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) to contest the 1983 elections. As an underscore of the political morality obtainable at this time, Rimi resigned his position as Kano State governor since he was leaving the party under whose banner he vied for the governorship ticket and was subsequently replaced by his deputy, Abdu Dawakin Tofa.

But, progressively, the colour of virtuous politicking in Nigeria waned, leading to shameless harlotry as a political credo. Okowa, Oberevwori and Eno’s epistles on leaving their political parties were hollow, feckless and irritating. Even among sex workers who change partners at the dictate of their thirst for cash, there is honour.

Yes, today, the PDP, like the anecdote of Ẹyẹlé and the House Owner, is facing its most harrowing political time ever, due to mismanagement, greed and power recklessness. Like mortal man who never learns, the APC is embroiled in same hubris, relishing its own self-proclaimed power immortality. Virtually all the PDP Ẹyẹlé, who supped and dined with it at a time of plenty, have abandoned the House. One of them, a tempestuous and vile character, was even made the Sheriff of Abuja as his own 30 shekels of Silver payoff, in exchange for agreeing to be the undertaker and pallbearer of the party.

The dearth of ideology in Nigerian politics is reputed to be the culprit of the political vagrancy that is worn shamelessly by politicians on their lapels. As divorcees consistently blame individual spouses for their marital fatality, Eno and Okowa hold ideology responsible for their harlotry. However, central to the existence of political parties is the place of political ideology. 

You may disparage PDP as I do; you may not even be able to stand the cantankerous Labour Party as I cannot. The truth, however, is that, if Nigerian opposition parties do not get their acts together, we may be doomed to stagnation. We then will have more Enos, Oborevworis and Okowas whose politics is indistinguishable from prostituting, who invariable give the APC and its Leviathan opportunity to fertilize the ground for the building of a cult of personality. It is the first step towards a totalitarian state.

For our every-last-Saturday-of-the-month “Diaspora Dialogues” podcast on April 26 on the topic “Kyari Out, Ojulari In: Politics and Corruption in NNPC,” my colleagues—Dr. Osmund Agbo in Houston, Texas, and Professor Moses Ochonu in Nashville, Tennessee—and I invited revered oil industry expert Mr. Dan Kunle as our guest.

He helped us (and the thousands of people who watched our show) to navigate the complex contours of the politics, operational uniqueness, financial indiscretions, and enduring transparency deficit of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC).

But during the show, we noticed an unusually disproportionate, seemingly synchronized, and obviously induced volume of comments both in Zoom and on my Facebook page (where the podcast was livestreamed) extolling Kyari’s virtues, hyping his putative managerial acumen, and celebrating his supposedly magisterial strategic successes as NNPC’s Group Chief Executive Officer.

If the well-choreographed cascade of comments merely stopped at the unnaturally cloying veneration of Kyari, we would simply have laughed and said some people were earning their keep. But they went beyond that. They also poured scorn, coarse invective, and toxic rhetorical venom on Mr. Dan Kunle, a calm, conciliatory, compulsively polite, mild-mannered, and even-tempered gentleman’s gentleman.

After the show, I told my colleagues that our promo probably attracted the attention of Mele Kyari (or his minders) who sent hordes of well-oiled social media trolls to invade us and try to influence our show’s tenor and flow with tendentious questions and comments.

They agreed that I might be on to something because since our show began in 2024, we never had an experience quite like what we witnessed on April 26. But it was still at the level of suspicion, well-justified suspicion.

My hunch was confirmed when, a day after our show, an evidently paid but intensely malicious and mendacious, not to mention substance-free, “news story” appeared in many major Nigerian newspapers besmirching Dan Kunle’s reputation, misrepresenting what he said during our show, and amplifying the intentionally propagandistic comments that members of the Kyari troll factory left on my Facebook page.

“Mele Kyari: Nigerians Slam Dan Kunle Over Call for Private Takeover of Oil Sector,” reads a headline from the Vanguard.  The headline in the Independent is similar: “Nigerians Berate Analyst Dan Kunle Over Call for Private Takeover of Oil Sector.” Blueprint Newspaper’s headline is a slight variation of the same theme: “Kunle: Nigerians Berate Analyst Over Call for Private Takeover of Oil Sector.”

Several other well-known and not-too-well-known news sites published the story. The content is exactly the same, from the lead to the last paragraph. Only the headlines are modified marginally.

Some news sites, rather scandalously, used their reporters’ bylines for what is clearly native advertising (as we call paid content that mimics the forms, presentation, and frozen stylistic choices of news stories)—malicious, unethical native advertising, I might add.

Although I earn a living studying, researching, teaching, and writing about issues like this, I confess that this nadir of journalistic depravity and dark, social-media-enabled mind management is a new frontier even for me.

I am aware that data boyhood, that is, the mobilization of conscienceless, unprincipled, and cash-strapped social media denizens with internet data—and a stipend—to venerate politicians (and other image-conscious public figures) and smear their critics on social media is now a growing, well-oiled industry in Nigeria.

I was, after all, a victim of the paid and pointed projectiles of minions of the Buhari Media Center during Muhammadu Buhari’s eight years in office.

But I didn’t know that there is now a symbiotic synchrony between data boys on social media and crafty, if inept, PR experts who deploy the half-cooked bunkum of data boys as raw materials to manufacture sponsored news stories in legitimate news outlets, which the data boys them amplify again on social media in a dance of idiocy sanctified by falsehood.

That is spin doctoring taken to a new level. It is disappointingly unethical perception mercenariness. It’s scorn-worthy narrative illusionism. And the news media that participate in this giant scam, this enterprise of fact twisting and professional gaslighting, should be ashamed of themselves.

How can any professionally competent, self-respecting news editor approve the publication of a piece of sponsored wish-wash by an outside group as “news” and even go so far as to attach a reporter’s byline to that?  That is journalistic self-annihilation. I am certain that this isn’t the first time that has happened.

We disagreed with several things Mr. Kunle said during the show (such as his defense of subsidy removal or even his occasional over-the-top commendation of President Bola Tinubu) but he did provide much-needed education on the issues and possibilities of the oil sector during the show.

He laid bare, with remarkable clarity, impressive empirical fidelity, and granular specifics, the grand deception of revived refineries. Kyari’s people hired a private jet, according to credible media reports, to convey paid-for journalists to the site of the “blending” refinery to tour the so-called rehabilitated refinery in a sophisticated propaganda charade designed to deceive the nation.

Mr. Kunle pointed out that the price of the rehabilitation of refineries went up from $400 million during Goodluck Jonathan’s time to $1.5 billion a couple of years later during Buhari’s time and has now probably climbed to above $2 billion because of run-on costs. This is a national heist of historical proportions.

He made other scandalous revelations, such as the fact that our oil production, despite claims of opening up new fields, has dipped to about 1.6-7 million barrels a day, and that Kyari and his boys were not serious about reforming NNPC or even doing the groundwork necessary for taking NNPC public through an IPO.

But the story that was packaged by Kyari’s boys and fraudulently published as a recap of the show is neither faithful to the issues discussed in the show nor to even the sponsored criticisms of Mr. Kunle by the Kyari data boys on our show.

The headline accuses Kunle of advocating monopoly in the oil and gas sector and of encouraging the sale of refineries to private investors. He articulated no such positions. Clearly, the aim of the story, especially the lead, is to associate Kunle with those two positions, which get Nigerians emotionally worked up and to which the propagandists know Nigerians are opposed.

Sale of national patrimonies like our refineries to private individuals is a legitimate ground for angst. So is the advocacy for anti-competitive practices in the oil and gas industry. Kyari’s spin doctors manufactured those lies against Mr. Kunle in hopes that no one will bother to verify their accuracy—and in the service of destroying the credibility of the well-made case he articulated against Kyari’s profligacy and opacity, which Mr. Kunle was careful to say was not limited to Kyari.

The coordinated smear campaign against Dan Kunle exposes two things: Mele Kyari’s vulnerability to rigorous scrutiny and the frighteningly deteriorated state of journalistic ethics and public discourse in Nigeria. The symbiotic collusion between so-called data boys, spin doctors, and ostensibly respectable media organizations points to an emerging culture of misinformation and perception manipulation that threatens democratic accountability and informed citizen engagement.

When journalism descends into the depths of paid propaganda, the casualty is not just the reputation of individuals unfairly maligned; it is the very heart of democratic society itself. Nigerians must remain vigilant and discerning and refuse to be swayed by the cynical manipulations of those who would substitute truth with lies, substance with sensationalism, and critical debate with orchestrated smear campaigns.

THROUGH its ancient mythology, Yoruba had a counterpoise of the western Frankenstein monster. It’s a negatively phenomenal child called Àjàntálá. In folklore and as a cultural signifier, the Àjàntálá was a misbegotten child, a product of his father’s disobedience to the un-science of, though life-shaping, ancient epistemology and practices. Àjàntálá’s hunter father had disobeyed widely held myth that when hunters’ wives were pregnant, they should cease hunting. The belief was that, if they shot a cantankerous game, it may, in anger, displace the foetus inside their wives and become a perilous child. This was the process that birthed Àjàntálá.

In the Amos Tutuola version of Àjàntálá’s story (Àjàntálá, the noxious child: 1986), the baby spent 23 years inside his mother’s womb. A few days before he was born, as his mother walked the bush path, the child began a conversation with her, even cavalierly suggesting its name at birth.

At his naming ceremony, the 8-day-old child disrupted the proceedings, gluttonously consuming every food in sight and causing huge pains to his parents and all his naming ceremony attendees. As he grew, Àjàntálá manifested malevolent streaks, whipping his parents at intervals and beating to stupor a Babalawo, who was engaged to provide spiritual succour to his raving-mad Satanic theatrics. When his mother, tired of his wiles and the social stigma he caused the family, decided to trickily dump him in the forest, Àjàntálá encountered and became a family of the Goat, Ram and Lion and the discord he caused among them was phenomenal.

Two misbegotten children in the bible, Hophni and Phinehas, also manifested streaks that resembled Àjàntálá’s. They were the two sons of the high priest at the sanctuary of Shiloh in Jerusalem called Eli. The Bible described these children as “good-for-nothing” priests because they were not only corrupt and immoral, they brought their revered father huge shame. They did this through their abuse of priestly positions. The two went round wherever there were sacrifices to Yahweh and demanded excessive portions of the sacrifices. They were also renowned for sexual perversion and misconduct which brought dishonour to their father’s priestly office. At the apogee of their irresponsibility, these two Àjàntálás not only, by so doing, ended their lives in a tragic fall but were the ones who brought Elli’s priestly line to its doom.

Perhaps drawing its muse from these three disreputable children, a 1980s Ifá Olókun  Television drama series created a character called Omolokun. Omolokun’s notoriety rivaled Àjàntálá, as well as Hophni and Phineas’. A product of undue haste for childbirth by a barren couple, Omolokun’s parents were eventually handed a child by a deity. This child then acted in every way like Àjàntálá, demanding every impossible thing under the earth, including “Odidi eni”—a human being. His thirst for the imponderables eventually led to his and his parents’ deaths.

My musical idol, Ayinla Omowura, late Yoruba Apala musician, while pillorying his truant first son, Akeem, also dwelled on the theme of Àjàntálá. He warned that an Ajantala child who lives a life of borderless splendour, misbehaviour and societal nuisance would soon lose all when “his mother goes fetching water and his father, to the farm,” a metaphor for an unscheduled forever-trip. Ayinla was soon to be killed after this Nostradamus prophecy.

Son of the Nigerian president, Seyi Tinubu, must be a pain to his father and to responsible parenting. In Nigeria’s history, I am not aware of any president’s child who has threatened public peace, public decency and the public space as Seyi. His name has come out in every socially distasteful national issue. You will recollect that this same young man was one who, but for his father’s peremptory scold, would probably have been attending Executive Council meetings with ministers. Seyi has no fog about precis in behaviour, so much that he outperforms himself in irresponsible behaviour. He is reputed to have nominated ministers and behaves in socially anomalous manner that baffles. Perhaps, the children of Muhammadu Buhari, who went watching the Durbar in presidential aircraft and shooting photographs with our national craft; the son of Sani Abacha, who commuted in Nigeria’s presidential aircraft like one taking peremptory trips in a Molue, can outperform Seyi in national irresponsibility. He causes so much stir with his long convoys of glittering automobiles and is chaperoned to occasions by Nigerian security apparatuses.

The latest about him is the allegation by the NANS President that Seyi ordered him tortured, beaten and his nude pictures taken for his voyeuristic pleasure. Though Seyi has denounced this, why would the president’s son always be associated with such shameful actions?  In the APC, the youth wing is literally comatose with Seyi being alleged to have taken over the works of its executive. If President Tinubu is not embarrassed by the activities of his son, parents all over the world are. Seyi acts like a product of irresponsible parenting and upbringing. The Yoruba say if one’s yam farm posts bountiful harvest, a wise man would cover the heaps from prying eyes. Apart from the raw power to browbeat and be kowtowed to, illicit funds and majesty associated with being the president’s son, what does Seyi have up his medulla oblonganta? From the little I hear from him, it is absolutely empty. As Seyi paints Nigeria in crimson as this, its reverberating effects bounce back on his father. Don’t Yoruba say it is the overripe orange that invites throwing of stones at its mother tree?

By the way, on Tuesday, May 6, Ayinla Omowura would be marking the 45th anniversary of his murder in a barroom feud. Famous podcaster and broadcaster, Edmund Obilo, held me to an almost 3-hour interview as I discussed the life and times of this bohemian musician. Please, watch out for the podcast. 

IN a week when the remains of Pa Samuel Ayodele Adebanjo, the indefatigable Afenifere leader, who stood firmly with his commitments to nationhood till he breathed his last was being laid to rest, it is not just befitting, but heartwarming that his compatriots in the push for a new Nigeria, decided to launch yet another effort at recovering the tottering nation. For years, Chief Ayo Adebanjo had remained one of the most standard voices for restructuring, federalism and good governance in Nigeria. He got anointed as the leader of Afenifere at a time when it was quite tricky to lead such a socio-political organisation. In time of politics, opinions are usually divided along interests. It is a different ball game compared to what you had during military rule, when the citizens largely see the military as irritants that the polity must get rid of.

But Pa Adebanjo retained the focus of the Afenifere and its allies including the Southern Middle Belt Forum (SMBF) and the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF) all through his time. He maintained a ubiquitous presence in the media with a message that remained as constant as the Northern Star-Nigeria must be restructured, and it must go the way of true federalism! He was in search of the good life for his people till God called him home and the soundbites that have echoed from the different programmes held in his memory have all attested to the fact that his well-lived life had bequeathed a legacy worth celebrating by his biological children, as well as the myriads of his political offsprings scattered across the land.

Thus, seeing the leader of The Patriots,  former Secretary General of Commonwealth,  Chief Emeka Anyaoku, launch yet another effort aimed at taking Nigeria to a democratic promised land last week was not just commendable, but a firm attestation of one of the evergreen sayings of American theologian, writer, and editor, James Freeman Clarke, who stated: “A politician thinks of the next election; a stateman of the next generation. A politician looks for the success of his party; a statesman for that of his country. The statesman wishes to steer, while the politician is satisfied to drift.”

Chief Anyaoku, as reported by the Nigerian Tribune a week ago is leading The Patriots to convene a national political summit, refusing to allow the nation to drift in their presence. The aim of the summit according to them is to fashion a workable constitution for the Federal Republic of Nigeria. The summit, which is coming under the umbrella of The Patriots in conjunction with the Wale Okunniy-led National Political Summit Group (NPSG) made good its promise when the convening committee was inaugurated by Chief Anyaoku last Thursday. The broad-based committee showcases the unrelenting determination of the revered diplomat, Chief Anyaoku, 92, and his compatriots, many of whom are older than Nigeria as a nation, to help the country away from the path of damnation called feeding-bottle federalism it has toed all these years.

On Thursday, when Chief Anyaoku inaugurated former governors, Chief Gbenga Daniel (Ogun State), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto State), former Minister of Information, Labaran Maku; publisher, African Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, publishers of the Tribune titles, Ambassador (Dr) Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu, among other eminent Nigerians as convening committee members for the national summit, the stage was set for another experiment at fashioning a new Nigeria, one which, not a few patriotic citizens would pray to see the light of the day. Chief Anyaoku left no one in doubt that the summit planned to hold between May 28 and 29 would get Nigeria a solid proposal that can address the plurality of the Nigerian system better. “The 1999 Constitution, however, amended, cannot serve Nigeria well,” he said, as he called for the country’s return to a truly federal constitution, which he said would be reminiscent of Nigeria’s early independence years (1960-1966), when federalism flourished. According to him, that period gave the country effective governance, regional progress and national cohesion.

“The widespread insecurity, economic underperformance, mass youth unemployment and declining international standing can only be remedied by a constitution that reflects the country’s diversity. Such a document must imbue citizens with a strong sense of belonging and patriotism,” he added.

It is also noteworthy, realizing that all members of the convening committee of the summit are speaking with the same measure of enthusiasm exhibited by Chief Anyaoku. Former governor of Sokoto State, who also served as Speaker of the 7th House of Representatives, Senator Tambuwal, pledged his commitment to the committee’s mission while emphasising the urgency of the assignment at hand, which he said would enhance the country’s future stability. The former governor of Ogun State, Senator Daniel, also spoke in the same vein, when he added that the summit needed to thoroughly re-examine the 1999 Constitution. He said that the nation needed to commit to reforms that would deepen democracy, ensure judicial independence and promote accountability. Publisher of the African

Newspapers of Nigeria (ANN) Plc, Dr Awolowo Dosunmu, equally told the gathering that constitutional structures are key to national growth because they enable the success of visionary regional leaders in the past. She believed that a new framework that could similarly empower future generations of Nigerians has become imperative. She gave insights into what inspired her admiration for federalism, thus: “I probably inherited my passion for a federal constitution from a man who advocated for it all his life, my father [Chief Obafemi Awolowo]. I will do everything within my power to see this through. I come to this assignment from the angle that, fundamental to the issues and challenges of Nigeria, is the constitution. I also come to this assignment from the angle of advocacy for federal constitution. It is also instructive that this meeting is taking place around the famous place where Chief Rotimi Williams held sway all his life. He was a member of that crack team that did wonders in the West.”

While words coming from the statesmen seem heartwarming, it is, however, disheartening that neither the political system nor the 18 registered political parties could think of taking such fundamental steps before now.  Out of the 48 months assigned by the constitution as a term of office of the democratically elected office holders, President Bola Tinubu is about completing the first half at the end of this month. It should come as a surprise that none of the political parties, not even the main opposition party, has paid attention to the need for critical changes in the constitutional procedures.

When I had an interview with the national chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Alhaji Shehu Gabam, on this issue weeks ago, simply said that his party had submitted its proposals to the National Assembly. We don’t need to repeat that the lawmakers have kept the said proposal in the cooler. Not many of the other existing parties have taken any noticeable steps in such direction. What this goes to show is that many of the current political players are just politicians. Statesmen are rare to come by. In the words of James Clarke as quoted above, politicians think only about the next election. When a child stumbles, he looks ahead, but when an elder stumbles, he looks back, is a popular saying among the Yoruba.  Why are our politicians not looking back to see where rain started beating the vulture?

There was so much noise about alleged rigging and electoral malpractices during the 2023 general elections. Some critics even said that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had to announce the presidential elections in the dead of the night. There were talks about system glitz which affected electronic collation of the presidential election results. There was also the hype around the votes of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), whether a candidate must win the FCT to be validly elected and there were issues of the massive BVAS failure in many locations but once the Supreme Court dropped its ruling on the election, everywhere became quiet. Instead of the National Assembly leading serious efforts aimed at perfecting the Electoral Act in such a way that would guarantee less human input, not much is being heard about that. Incidentally, INEC will, in a matter of weeks, announce its electoral calendar for 2027, setting the nation on the march. 

Though the politicians are really idling away. They are busy oiling the machines ahead of 2027. The ruling APC is busy gathering its arsenal, while many leaders of the main opposition PDP appear to be helping the APC perfect its expected victory. Only a few in the opposition parties are trying to pick the pieces. Whatever they are doing, nothing is focused on addressing the key issue of leadership recruitment process and how we can minimize the sort of situation that led to a professor being jailed for vote manipulation. No stakeholder is talking about how to adopt an electronic system that would ensure the votes count and reduce the ugly trend of vote buying and the like.

As much as the younger elements in the political field are not giving a thought to the nation’s democratic goodness, we must give huge credits to the initiative by Chief Anyaoku and the statesmen, who have chosen to concern themselves with the task of addressing what has been described as democratic paradox, a situation where democracy promises so much but delivers so little. By restarting that effort in the week Pa Ayo Adebanjo is being laid to rest is just a befitting farewell for the man who fought for life more abundant for all till he joined his ancestors on February 14, 2025.