Senate President Godswill Akpabio has asked the newly-confirmed chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr Ola Olukoyede, not to use him as an example in the anti-corruption fight.

He made the statement on Wednesday while confirming him.

Akpabio’s comment, which threw the entire House into laughter, came during the screening of Olukoyede by members of the Senate.

Olukoyede, while making a presentation on investigating a graft case, cited the senate president but suddenly stopped after noticing the mood of the members.

“If we are investigating the Senate President for example…” Olukoyede said, but failed to complete his statement due to the mood of the lawmakers.

Reacting, Akpabio said, “I’m very glad that the nominee wants to use the Senate President as an example. But Mr nominee, leave the Senate President for now; look at this direction (pointing at the seats of opposition lawmakers).”

Subsequently, Olukoyede made his presentation without calling names. He said, “If you are fighting corruption, you become the enemy of everybody.”

Recall that the drama may not be unconnected to the fact that Akpabio is having a case of misappropriation of about N108.1 billion before the EFCC.

There were reports in April 2021 that the former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs was detained over alleged attempts to bribe the agency’s former boss, Abdulrasheed Bawa, with a sum of $350,000.

Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, attributes the current socioeconomic challenges afflicting the nation to the poor leadership decisions made by the country’s leaders.

Obaseki, speaking with journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital, highlighted that, in his capacity as an investment banker, he had foreseen the hardships currently faced by Nigerians due to unfavorable economic decisions made by the country’s leaders. He had sounded the alarm about the need for corrective measures, but unfortunately, his warnings were disregarded.

As a governor, Obaseki acknowledges the tough and challenging times that Nigerians are enduring. He encourages Nigerians to remain resilient and not lose hope.

The governor said, “I know as a Governor that we are all going through suffering in the land. I understand how the economy works and saw this ahead of time.

“I have been shouting since I became Governor that the way we are going and the kind of decision many of us politicians were making will bring about hardship.”

He further noted, “Nigeria was never like this before. God in his mercy endowed Nigeria like no other country in the World.

“How many countries in Africa have 100 million people not to talk about 200 million? God designed us as the biggest market in Africa. God gave us all and the problem we are facing as a nation is the one created by us, particularly our leaders.”

“If you are a leader and you are not ready to sacrifice yourself, then you are not ready for leadership.

“Leadership is not how much you can get for yourself. Nigerians are suffering today due to bad leadership. Nigeria is rich in terms of resources and has no business with poverty and suffering. We can grow and produce all we need to consume in Nigeria, so why are we not doing it?” he asked.

Ali Ndume, the Chief Whip of the Senate, has provided an explanation for his departure from the Senate chamber after Senate President Godswill Akpabio ruled him out of order on Tuesday.

The incident occurred when Ndume invoked a point of order to raise concerns about “procedural errors” within the chamber. Akpabio, however, refused to allow him to complete his speech, stating that the section quoted by Senator Ndume did not match the content of Order 54, which he cited.

Consequently, Akpabio ruled Ndume out of order, leading to the Senator’s departure from the chamber.

In an interview with BBC Hausa, Ndume clarified the situation, explaining that it all began when Senator Kawu Sumaila proposed an urgent motion regarding the closure of the border between Nigeria and Niger.

Initially, there was a debate on whether the motion was genuinely urgent. However, the President of the Senate allowed Senator Sumaila to finish his statement. Following the motion presentation, it was agreed that, given its security implications, the discussion should be postponed.

Ndume indicated that he intended to convey the importance of the motion to the Senate at this point. However, Senate President Akpabio denied him the opportunity to speak.

Ndume stated, “I would like to clarify that the motion, although impactful, falls outside the jurisdiction of the Nigerian Senate. The border closure was not initiated by the President of Nigeria but during his tenure as President of ECOWAS. Thus, he has the authority to advocate on our behalf. To address this matter, it is imperative to involve our nation’s President, but I was not afforded the opportunity to convey this message.”

Furthermore, Ndume mentioned that the situation coincided with the prayer time, prompting his departure from the chamber. He conveyed his intention to pray to his deputy before leaving, but his colleagues and the media subsequently misconstrued his departure.

In related news, Senator Elisha Abbo, who the Appeal Court recently ousted, has publicly apologized to Akpabio for previously accusing him of orchestrating his removal from the Senate. Abbo initially claimed that Akpabio targeted him due to his opposition to Akpabio’s bid for Senate President. However, he later retracted his statements, acknowledging that Akpabio was not involved in his Senate exit.

To clarify the ongoing discussions surrounding the partial demolition of the National Mosque in Abuja, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Nyesom Wike has taken a firm stance, ensuring that his administration’s intentions are accurately understood.

The Minister directed the Executive Secretary of the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Engr Shehu Ahmed Hadi, to comprehensively explain the government’s position regarding the planned demolition and compensation plan within 24 hours. This decision comes from concerns raised by the National Mosque Management Committee, which seeks compensation for land affected by road expansion.

At a meeting with members of the Abuja National Mosque Management Committee, chaired by Etsu Nupe, Alhaji Yahaya Abubakar, Minister Wike dispelled allegations that his administration was pursuing policies detrimental to any specific religion. He emphasized his respect for the Sultan of Sokoto, who also presides over the National Mosque, underscoring his commitment to supporting such a significant religious institution.

Minister Wike explained, “Anything that has to do with the National Mosque, of which he is the president; I will always give it support. No government will not support the management of the national monument. We must ensure that worship centers are well taken care of.”

Wike further cautioned against exploiting religious sentiments for political gain, stating that religious bias did not drive his government’s decisions. He urged against using religion as a divisive tool and emphasized his commitment to the welfare of all FCT residents and Nigerians.

“We are not targeting any religious group or ethnicity; we are doing what we can for the good of all FCT residents and Nigerians at large,” Wike reiterated. He added, “Don’t allow politicians who do not have the capacity to face me in any way to use religion as a weapon against me.”

In a show of support for religious unity and peaceful coexistence, Minister Wike pledged that the FCTA would continue to provide assistance for maintaining both the National Mosque and the National Ecumenical Centre, acknowledging their significance as national monuments.

Etsu Nupe, while expressing gratitude for the meeting, urged the Minister to support the maintenance project of the mosque, which had faced delays. He also requested more time to develop plots allocated to the National Mosque Management Committee by the FCTA.

The Minister’s commitment to addressing concerns and fostering unity among religious communities sends a positive message regarding the government’s intentions. It aims to ensure that the National Mosque and other religious institutions are well-preserved for the benefit of all citizens.

The President of the 10th Senate, Godswill Akpabio on Wednesday met with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Abuja.

Akpabio speaking at the end of the meeting with the President emphasised the unity and maturity of the Nigerian Senate, even amidst disagreements.

The Senate President while addressing State House correspondents after the closed-door meeting with President Tinubu said, “In the parliament, sometimes you disagree to agree. But we will never get to the point of throwing chairs. The Senate is too mature, full of matured people.”

Akpabio’s visit to the Aso Rock Villa comes hours after the lawmaker representing Borno South senatorial district, Ali Ndume, stormed out of the chamber.

The crisis started in the Senate after the commencement of the day’s session on Tuesday when Ndume raised a point of order to draw Akpabio’s attention to alleged procedural errors he committed.

Ndume had referenced a motion on the need for re-opening the Nigeria-Niger border, which was moved by the Senator representing Kano South senatorial district, Sumaila Kawu which Akpabio allowed to be debated without first having the official title of the motion read as the normal procedure.

Ndume, standing on Order 51 of the Senate Standing Rules, requested that the Senate President allow for the correction of any error made or observed during plenary.

Akpabio, while Ndume was still speaking, swiftly ruled him out of order, saying it could not be revisited since he had ruled on issues raised.

Ndume during the argument picked up his documents and a few other belongings and stormed out of the Senate chamber.

His action, unexpected, led the Senate to dissolve into a closed-door session.

The Senate President after the meeting with Tinubu, however, dismissed any crisis in the legislature.

He stated, “We are all working in one accord. There is no problem at all. Even if some people disagree with some of the happenings in the Senate, it is only the majority decision that is going to prevail.”

Akpabio further explained that any arising disagreements are swiftly handled in closed sessions, ensuring unity and solidarity are maintained.

The Senate President, while highlighting the Senate’s commitment to the nation’s interests, said, “We are politicians, no permanent hatred but permanent interest. That interest is the interest of the nation.”

He emphasised the Senate’s role in supporting the President and his administration through legislation and oversight functions, all aimed at moving the country forward.

In his meeting with President Tinubu, Akpabio said he discussed the upcoming 10th Assembly retreat taking place in Akwa Ibom State.

He sought the President’s support for representation at the retreat, which was granted.

Akpabio added, “I came to inform the President of the first 10th Assembly retreat which is taking place tomorrow in Akwa Ibom State.

“We are moving the Senate all the way to Akwa Ibom for the next four days.

“Thereafter, I will be travelling personally to Angola to attend the internal parliamentary union, so before he sees me, it will probably take another nine days. So, I needed to inform him.”

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Dele Momodu has opened up on the reason he refused to support former president, Muhammadu Buhari in 2015.

According to Momodu, he refused to support the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 because he saw bad signals that Buhari was leading the country to Golgotha.

Momodu stated this while replying a netizen who said he supported the PDP flag bearer, Atiku Abubakar because he wants to remain in the opposition.

The netizen had written, “That’s a confirmation that @DeleMomodu knows that @atiku is not winning the election and because he wants to remain in the opposition, he supported the loser.”

Reacting, Momodu said the X user logic is warped. He insisted that he would only support a government that is sympathetic to the plight of the Nigerian people.

According to him, “Warped logic. I will support a government that appears very reasonable and sympathetic to the citizens of Nigeria. I could have supported APC in 2015 but saw the bad signals early that BUHARI was leading us to Golgotha… APC is already astray less than six months now.”

The compromised international community and the rest of humanity must hold Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his US and European allies responsible for both the October 7 brutal murder of about 1,400 Israeli soldiers, innocent women and children by Hamas terrorists and Israel’s retaliatory indiscriminate bombing of caged people of Gaza resulting so far in the death of over 3,000 Palestinian civilians including women and children.

Netanyahu claims the Jews owned the land of Israel because they occupied it 3,500 years ago before the Arabs he described as colonialists exiled them from the land in the 7th century. That was just an attempt at revisionism. Jews, through Sarah and Arabs through Hagar were siblings. Abraham, their patriarch came from Ur in present day Iraq in search of a land he was told was flowing with milk and honey. His children, including Joshua waged vicious wars before securing a land which turned out to be a desert, with a ring of deep craters, hills and valleys of death.

But Israel’s story is the story of migration in all societies. However, unlike other societies including America, Canada and Australia taken over by new invaders, Israel as admitted by Netanyahu had the support of Christian Zionist sympathisers and of course powerful European nations to take their land back.

In 1947, the UN voted for Palestine to be split into separate Jewish and Arab states with Jerusalem becoming an international city. While Israel embraced the plan, it was rejected by the Arabs. With the help of powerful European nations trying to atone for centuries of savagery against the Jewish people in both central and eastern Europe, Israel overpowered the Arab and had by 1967 occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank, Gaza and Sinai peninsula while Palestinian refugees lived in Gaza and West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The status quo has remained the same ever since. 

With the Norway Oslo Peace Process, Israel and Palestinians after years of bloodletting recognized the quest for self-actualization by both as legitimate and therefore recognized the right of each other for statehood. Not long after, Benjamin Netanyahu then opposition leader called the Oslo accord “a mortal threat to Israel”.

With Netanyahu’s electoral upset in 1996, Israelis accelerated building of Jewish settlement in the occupied territories while frustrated Hamas organized suicide bombers to kill people in Israel. The Oslo deal eventually collapsed. Netanyahu, the longest serving Israeli leader perhaps after Moses has done everything ever since to prolong the nightmare of the Israelis and Palestinians.

Netanyahu’s strategy is the exploitation of the innermost fears of the Jewish people – the survival of their hard won state and preservation of their religion and cultural values. Desperate to retain power after some electoral setbacks in recent years, he formed an alliance with the ultra-right that has always opposed the two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

The result was continued expansion of settlements in the Palestinian occupied West Bank. This was to lead to endless clashes between about 700,000 new Israeli residents and aggrieved Palestinians dispossessed of their homes and land. Netanyahu’s periodic police raid left over 300 Palestinians dead with as many in Israeli prisons. The immediate cause of current hostility according to Hamas was the storming of Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam by Israeli police who took away some worshippers.

Netanyahu celebrates Moses’ law of “an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth” despite Ghandi’s warning that such will make the world go blind. He forgets the essence of Moses law for the rebellious Jews with hardened mind was to prevent disproportionate vengeance since one cannot find peace by hating and getting your own back but by forgiveness and grace.

While Golda Meir, 4th Israel’s Prime Minister believed violence was not the answer to violence and lamented that while “Israel can forgive the Arabs for killing Israeli children, they cannot forgive them for forcing Israelis to kill Arab children”,  Netanyahu celebrates violence believing Israel was invincible especially after its acquisition of nuclear power with the support of America and Europe who stood against similar quest by other nations in the Middle East including Iraq, Libya and Iran.

Golda Meir confessed “while it is true Israel won all their wars, Israel paid for them”. For her, a leader who does not reflect deeply before sending soldiers to kill is not worth to be a leader, because “there is no difference between the person who kills and the person who send him to kill, if anything the latter is worse”.

But for Netanyahu who last week mobilized 350,000 Israeli youths that have known nothing but violence and intense hatred in the last 30 years, his strategy has always been an appeal to their sense of patriotism before sending them on a mission to bomb not just Hamas terrorists but  women and children that constitute two third of caged Gaza residents.

Netanyahu understands that Israel is haunted by the spectre of the Holocaust. As Golda Meir puts it: “Israel itself is the strongest guarantee against another Holocaust. Israel was not created to disappear. Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave”.

Netanyahu was seen last week lionizing some of the mobilized Israeli youths he was sending to Gaza on a suicide mission, which the Oslo accord he killed would have prevented.

As for the US and Western Europe, history has shown they love neither both Palestinians, Israelis, Africans nor anyone but themselves. Their avowed solid support for Israel has largely been driven by guilty conscience. Precisely because of centuries of humiliation and persecution of Jews across Europe, they lack the morale courage to promote cause of justice as Israel, out of a sense of misplaced aggression and fear of another Holocaust, continues to visit sins of Europe on their caged Palestinian cousins in the occupied territories.

It is on record that because Europeans envied the Jews because of their economic success during the middle ages. Jews were denied citizenship, of their rights and barred from holding posts in government and the military by European rulers. In both central and eastern Europe, they were treated as second class citizens confined to the ghettos.

The 1096 crusaders terror and massacre were directed at the Jews. In the 12th century, Jews were falsely accused of sacrificing of Christian children at Passover to obtain blood for unleavened bread. 

The resentment and religious prejudices that followed their economic and cultural successes led to their forced eviction from several European countries including France (1112), England (1290), Germany (1350s), Portugal (1496), Provence (1512), and the Papal States (1569). Those who refused to convert from Judaism to Christianity faced persecution during the 1492 Spanish Inquisition.

For 27 years, Netanyahu has played politics of fear to remain in power. Europe’s centuries of anti-Semitic campaign led to six million Jews being incinerated during the Holocaust.

 It is therefore time for Jews and Arabs that have more that binds them together start loving each other.  On the negative side, I have searched without finding a difference between Hamas terrorist who slaughtered women and children and Jews who bombed women and children put inside a cage called Gaza from where there is no escape.

On the positive side, they should remember that Abraham was the father of both Ishmael and Isaac; that Moses, the father of Hebrew religion was married to Zipporah, a Midianite Arab woman (Exodus  verse 21) and that Ruth  who became the grandmother of King David was a Midianite from  Moab, today’s Jordan ( Ruth 1.1.)

Arabs and Jews are one and the same. They should stop killing their own children. As Golda Meir predicted: “There will be peace between Israelis and Arabs when they start loving their children more than they hate us”.

President Bola Tinubu has approved the commencement of academic activities at six out of the 14 new universities established during President Muhammadu Buhari’s government.

Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, disclosed this on Wednesday after a closed-door meeting with President Ahmed Tinubu at the State House in Abuja.

He said the government has decided to stagger their implementation with a focus on six of the Institutions in agriculture, education and medicine.

“We’re starting with about six, two each of agriculture, colleges of education and medicine,” he said.

He added that the President’s decision stems from the fact that the take-off of the universities require funding, adding that it will not be prudent to start up all the institutions at once.

“ Honestly there are very many, probably about a dozen of them, if not more than a dozen or 14. That’s the number and you know tertiary institutions are highly capital intensive, they need a lot of money, especially at that takeoff stage, for infrastructure, staff recruitment and all other needs.

“So by the time you want to start off about 12, 14 institutions at once, it is a very heavy burden on the finances of the government. So, that’s why,” he said.

He said the government did not step down the approval of the remaining institutions because most of them are specialized institutions; colleges of education, agriculture, medicine are institutions that will support some of the mandates and priority areas of the government.

“We will have a need for trained teachers which colleges of education will provide and the same thing with agriculture.

“So, that’s why the government has not stepped down that approval. Instead, the president in his wisdom said we stagger their implementation on the grounds of funds, essentially,” he said.

The minister stated the Tinubu administration plans to be conservative about the pace of development of tertiary institutions and explained that its priority is on institutions that provide skills that enable its graduates to stand on their own.

He also revealed that President Tinubu has given the go-ahead to complete the abandoned multi billion-naira National Library Complex in Abuja as an important educational institution for the nation.

The minister noted that all relevant stakeholders including the government, the consultants and the contractors involved will work together to review the project to determine what is left to be done and the cost.

The Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has dismissed two of its personnel and sanctioned 35 others for alleged misconduct and acts inimical to their calls of duty.

Its Public Relations Officer (PRO) Umar Abubakar said the personnel’s behaviour constituted a threat to the security of the organisation.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja, the NCoS spokesman explained that the dismissal was part of efforts to ensure discipline of its personnel and entrench international correctional best practices.

[Nation]

Last Friday, the Federal Capital Territory Commissioner of Police, Haruna Garba, while intimating newsmen about the epidemic of “stolen manhoods” in the nation’s capital and adjoining towns, noted that about 62 cases have been reported since September 21. Of this figure, Garuba said 51 were false. The “suspects” who raised the alarm have been charged to court for “giving false information and inciting public disturbance.” I am genuinely curious about two things: first, the eleven cases remaining and, second, how the police ascertained those lying.

A ready answer would be that those men were checked by competent medical personnel and found “intact.” If they were truly lying, what would they have gained from inciting the public and subjecting some poor innocent victim(s) to potential mob justice? That is a question I am sincerely invested in getting answered. What if these men’s claims, though not factual, also carried no intent to deceive? What if they claimed their penises were stolen because they were struck by a psychosomatic condition?

There are two sets of responses I have seen to this phenomenon of missing penises. On one side are the believers, people who take every instance of alleged occult or supernatural occurrence at face value. Every story about money ritual, spirits and ghosts, shape-shifters, demonic agents, is to be believed and defended as a manifestation of “African Science.” These are the ones who boast that Babalawos in villages without potable water or electricity can suspend natural realities. To challenge their thinking is to give yourself away as an inauthentic African suffering bouts of colomentality and cannot acknowledge that Africans have indigenous ways of knowing that which supersedes modern science.

The other set is the sceptics who dismiss these stories outright as impossible. Sometimes, they would superciliously berate the primitivity of African minds that will not let go of stupid village tales and embrace the logicality of “science.” It seems to me that the police fall into this second category. The series of warnings they have issued about “false alarms” suggest they are taking the rationalist position. But what if the sceptics’ position is just as unfounded as that of the believers?

What we call the “stolen manhood” phenomenon is neither new nor even “African.” Penis panics have been recorded in various forms of literature for centuries. Now diagnosed as “Koro,” the condition describes a state of anxiety where a man believes his penis is shrinking, retracting, or disappearing altogether and that he would consequently die. While medical studies have their own term, the society where it happens has always found some abstract or material factor to blame. In Central Europe in the 15th and 16th centuries, it was attributed to witches. In Singapore in 1967, they blamed the phenomenon on pork poisoning. The price of pork fell drastically, and the hysteria only died down after public officials campaigned that the cases of disappearing penises were a psychological issue. In China in the 1980s, they blamed theirs on the “fox spirits” migrating from place to place. Those spirits were believed to possess beautiful women, and some were consequently killed. The men in the communities it happened were so consumed with fear of losing their penises that they walked around with various contraptions attached to keep them from disappearing.

In Africa, cases have been recorded in Nigeria, Ghana, Benin, Congo Republic, Central African Republic, and Cameroon. Across time and space, the various documented cases have a certain consistency that suggests that the bodies of those men truly experienced something that their minds translated into being robbed of their genitals. Medical literature says that the retraction these men felt could be reversed in hours or even days. So, if someone is taken to the hospital after they have raised the alarm and their penises are found to be functional, it does not mean they lied initially.

In a place like Nigeria where belief in the occult is rife, such accusations are not to be taken lightly. In public places where the alarm is raised, there is always an ignorant bloodthirsty mob waiting to unleash violence. In 2001, at least 12 cases of lynching over stolen penises in the South-West were reported. Between Nollywood and religious houses, people have been so fed an idea of evil that they imagine that some forms of evil can be destroyed for good.

These people only need to hear a man accuse another of stealing his penis, and they would transmute into beasts to launch judgment. Such alarms—and the violence that inevitably follows—are almost always a male affair. While there are a few documented cases of women who have claimed their breasts were missing, Koro is more popularly documented in men. That peculiarity partly has to do with the male anatomy where the penis is an offshoot and partly with social construction of manhood.

Anthropologists have found that the phenomenon of stolen penises correlates with economic stress and social anxiety that keep men from evolving through demarcated social stages. The penis is a biological and physical symbol of what we designate as the becoming of a man: physical and emotional maturity, procreation, and even economic independence. It is the one thing that separates men from women, and that is why the male fears of feminisation—of not being man enough—revolve around that part of their body.

The anxieties of not measuring up to social standards of manhood define men throughout their lives. There is a joke that men will swallow just about any potion that promises to increase their virility. It is funny because it is true. There is a reason urban centres in Nigeria are replete with all kinds of concoctions brewed by “native doctors” promising to make a sex machine out of insecure men.

Today’s Nigeria has enough stress to rob a man of manhood. That is why looking inside the men’s underpants to determine whether they still have their penis or not produced such an inadequate result. If 51 out of 62 cases examined turned out to be “false alarms,” the police should be curious if their meter for adjudging these issues is not falsely calibrated.

Nigeria faces a protracted economic crisis and social upheaval that trigger angst in people every day. Whenever you thought things could not get worse, it does just that. There is no sense of social progress, and many Nigerians are justifiably angry, desperate, and frustrated. Walk on the streets these days, and you practically feel the tension exuding from people and making them restless.

Now and then, a person launches into an outburst about being robbed of the very biological instrument they need to assert their personhood and a crowd of men for whom the cultural neurosis resonates jump out of their idling spaces to enact an extreme violence they hope would assuage their deficiencies and reassure them they can still do the things men are supposed to do—be a defender. What that momentary feeling of rage gives them is a feeling of control. In that one moment, they presume they have identified a source of the evil robbing them of vital life sources. Destroying it is cathartic.

While I understand why the police cannot afford to brook “superstition,” I also think they should be open to understanding cultural psychology. Those men—I do not know how many of the 62—raised the alarm because they had a physiological disorder fed by sociological conditions. Treating them as liars does nothing to educate a society that believes a penis can be stolen, and the supposed thief can be apprehended and punished. At best, the police are merely reactive. It would be more productive if they embarked on public education to preempt manifestations of Koro in public places and the violence that typically follows.