Inter Miami was inches away from a victory without Lionel Messi on Sunday.

David Ruiz’s right-footed shot in the 97th minute hit the top of the crossbar and bounced downward and away from the net in what could have been a goal that likely would have given Inter Miami the win and some much-needed help in the MLS playoff race.

Instead, Inter Miami’s postseason hopes remain fluid and uncertain – just like Messi’s playing status.

A header by Inter Miami’s Tomás Avilés tied the match three minutes into stoppage time, New York City FC’s Santiago Rodriguez scored in the 77th minute, and Inter Miami finished with a 1-1 draw on Saturday night at DRV PNK Stadium.

Messi sat pensively, wearing a pink shirt and a gold watch, behind the Inter Miami bench while missing his third straight game for the club, and fourth overall in September.

A lingering injury, the details murky and undisclosed, has kept Messi out of action and he’s considered day to day. Inter Miami’s next match is Wednesday night against Chicago Fire FC at Soldier Field.

Inter Miami coach Tata Martino tried to dismiss a social media report stating Messi might have a hamstring tear, and that his MLS season could be over.

Martino, via translator, said time will tell “if what I say is right, or what the report says is right.”

“He feels better and better,” Martino said of Messi.

Inter Miami has begun to receive criticism for Messi’s layoff, understandably so with fans paying for expensive game tickets, travel arrangements, and merchandise during this recent stretch.

[Leadership]

Napoli’s social media executive, Alessio Fortino, has stepped down from his role amid the ongoing saga over the club’s trolling of Nigerian football star Victor Osimhen, on TikTok.

Osimhen, the club and Serie A’s leading scorer with 26 goals last season as Napoli won their first Scudetto in 33 years, was mocked in a TikTok video last week for missing a penalty in their 0-0 draw with Bologna.

The offensive video drew the ire of football fans across the world and led to Osimhen removing all Napoli-related posts from his Instagram account and his agent Roberto Calenda threatening legal action.

The Nigerian government also waded into the matter, saying it would reach out to the government of Italy, Napoli and Osimhen over the issue.

There were two videos, the first one showing the 24-year-old Super Eagles striker appealing for a penalty, with sped-up, child-like audio captioned ‘Gimme penalty please’ before showing him firing the spot-kick wide.

A second video from the club’s account compared Osimhen to a ‘coconut’ — widely viewed as a racial slur.
Although Osimhen has played in two matches since then and scored in both, and Napoli have claimed they meant no harm, Fortino has apparently paid with his job for the ill-advised action.

In a post via Instagram, Fortino said: “Today, after 805 days, my professional adventure with SSC Naples ends. For many this job would be comparable to a dream, for me it was simple daily reality: a reality built on commitment and fueled by the constant desire to learn and play.

“I cannot help but express my deepest gratitude to all the colleagues, collaborators, partners and supporters I’ve met along this long journey for making this experience so special.

“Leaving the company with a baggage of great memories and an excitement for the new adventures that lie ahead. Thanks again for everything and see you soon! Alessio.”

According to Italian outlet Il Corriere dello Sport, Osimhen is believed to have received a private apology from Napoli directors on Wednesday for the club’s behavior on social media.

[DailyTrust]

BUA Cement PLC on Sunday announced the reduction of the price of its cement product to N3,500 per bag starting from Monday, October 2, 2023.

It said the price reduction was in line with its commitment to spur development in the “building materials and infrastructural sectors”.

The company announced the price reduction in a statement posted on its X (formerly Twitter) page.

This development is coming weeks after the company’s chairman, Abdul Samad Rabiu, after meeting with President Bola Tinubu, promised to review the price of the product.

The statement read in part, “We refer to our previous pronouncements regarding our intent to reduce cement prices upon the completion of our new lines at the end of the year, in order to spur development in the building materials and infrastructure sectors.

“As per the commitment made to reduce prices and following a periodic review of our operations for efficiency, the management of BUA Cement Plc wishes to announce and inform our esteemed customers, stakeholders, and the public that effective October 2, 2023, we have decided to bring the price reduction forward. As a result, BUA Cement would now be sold at an ex-factory* price of 3,500 Naira per bag so that Nigerians can begin to enjoy the benefits of the price reduction before the completion of our plants.

“Upon completion of the ongoing construction of our new plants, which would increase our production volumes to 17million metric tonnes per annum, BUA Cement PLC intends to review these prices further in line with our earlier pronouncements by the first quarter of 2024.”

[Punch]

On behalf of the people of Niger Delta and other concerned participant of the Nigerian project, this communique is written with a sense of urgency and responsibility. The current sociopolitical trajectory of the country has accentuated the already serious concerns regarding the future of the country, and we believe that swift and decisive action is imperative to stem the political and economic bludgeoning threatening to destroy the social fabric of Nigeria beyond repair. 

The issues at hand are complex and multifaceted, encompassing matters such as governance, decentralization of power and equitable representation, security and social justice, resource management and economic stability, judicial independence and effective separation of powers. It is evident that our existing constitutional framework no longer adequately addresses the challenges facing the country, and all political malfeasance is largely due, if not all together as a result of this illegitimate constitution. 

The Nigerian people deserve a government that is responsive, accountable, transparent and is willing to adhere to this social contract. 

In light of these, we hereby demand the immediate convening of a constitutional conference. The proposed Constitutional Conference would serve as a platform for representatives from all the ethnicities, religions, socio-economic backgrounds, political leaders, legal experts, civil society representatives, our traditional leaders, technocrats, women, youths and citizens from all walks of life. Its primary purpose should be to critically examine our current constitution, identify its shortcomings, and propose necessary amendments as a means to advance the deteriorating social cohesion and consolidate political reforms which would capture the aspirations, values and inalienable rights of Nigerians. 

We firmly believe that a constitutional conference will provide a platform for constructive dialogue and consensus-building necessary to address the multifaceted challenges facing our nation. We implore you, our esteemed leaders, to heed this call for action and initiate the process of convening such a conference without delay. 

Arsenal eased to a 4-0 victory in the sun away at Bournemouth as Mikel Arteta’s side remain unbeaten and oozed class throughout.

Bukayo Saka headed home and Martin Odegaard made it 2-0 from the penalty spot in the first half, then Kai Havertz also converted a spot kick and Ben White scored late on as the Gunners won at a canter and it could have been seven or eight in their favor.

Arteta’s Arsenal have now picked up 17 points from a possible 21 to start the season as they’ve won five of their seven games.ARSENAL eased to a 4-0 victory in the sun away at Bournemouth as Mikel Arteta’s side remain unbeaten and oozed class throughout.

Bukayo Saka headed home and Martin Odegaard made it 2-0 from the penalty spot in the first half, then Kai Havertz also converted a spot kick and Ben White scored late on as the Gunners won at a canter and it could have been seven or eight in their favor.

Arteta’s Arsenal have now picked up 17 points from a possible 21 to start the season as they’ve won five of their seven games.

[Nation]

For decades, Nigerians would dance on the streets to loud music on October 1, waving the country’s flag in pride to celebrate its independence from the United Kingdom. On the 63rd anniversary of that moment, the country’s streets are bereft of the usual celebratory atmosphere.

In Abuja, the capital, there were often banquets and concerts, sometimes backed by the government. But this time, as in recent years, the streets are quiet save for the flow of traffic as churchgoers throng Sunday masses. Over the speakers, some clerics can be heard soliciting divine intervention to rescue Nigeria from the pits.

For Olive Chiemerie, a 23-year-old bookstore manager resident in Ikeja, Lagos, it is pointless to celebrate. She was born just as Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999 and used to participate in commemorative activities at school but has become disillusioned in adulthood.

“Becoming an adult in Nigeria under Buhari’s government makes it feel like I have been robbed of my entire future and I can’t do anything but to look on hopelessly as the country falls into disrepair,” Chiemerie told Al Jazeera.

Many youths share similar sentiments.

Africa’s largest economy has long been in free fall since the Muhammadu Buhari administration, as youth unemployment, inflation, and debt are at an all-time high and continue to climb. More than 60 percent of the country lives in what the United Nations calls “multidimensional poverty”.

Electricity is still abysmally poor; the national grid has collapsed multiple times this year and uninterrupted power remains a myth. Buhari’s successor Bola Tinubu came to office in a disputed election marred by allegations of vote-buying, voter intimidation, and collusion with institutions of state, by the opposition.

Early reforms, like the removal of a fuel subsidy and devaluation of the naira, were implemented by Tinubu immediately after he took office in May. They were hailed by industry watchers as a welcome development, but people say they have brought them untold hardship.

Tinubu has scaled back some of the reforms but nevertheless doubled down on the need to carry out agonising reforms.

“Reform may be painful, but it is what greatness and the future require,” he said in his Independence Day speech. “We now carry the costs of reaching a future Nigeria where the abundance and fruits of the nation are fairly shared among all, not hoarded by a select and greedy few.”

‘Moving backwards’

When the Union Jack, the British flag, was lowered down and replaced by Nigeria’s green-white-green one, Augustine Okofu was a 14-year-old schoolboy in Osisa in what is today’s Delta state. A rally went on in his town for three days and he joined in the merriment.

Okofu went on to be such a believer in Nigeria that when war broke out in July 1967, he fought for federal troops against the secessionist nation of Biafra.

He remembers rallying with the people of his township for days. But now, the day does not hold much meaning to him.

“We were very happy thinking that Nigeria will be better in the future. But instead of things to keep getting better, it is getting darker. The people who think they are wise are finding the ways and manner to change everything,” said Okofu, now 77.

These feelings of disenchantment from the different demographies that Chiemerie and Okofu belong to, stem from the belief that the country should be far more developed, according to Mark Amaza, spokesperson for Yiaga Africa, an Abuja-based civil society.

“If one of the promises of independence back in 1960 was for us to chart our own course, that hasn’t panned out as much as we expected. People can’t see what excites them about independence if we are still grappling with so many issues and moving backwards,” he said.

And while patriotic joy has been on the decline in recent years, experts say things have deteriorated this year. Beyond the state of the economy, lingering ethnic tensions exacerbated by political differences during the last election cycle have contributed to the muted commemorations, they say.

Experts say Nigerians have usually bonded together in times of economic boom and that translated to periods of peak patriotism when the independence anniversary resonated with Nigerians.

Joachim MacEbong, a senior governance analyst at Lagos-based Stears Intelligence, points to three periods in particular – the period after independence in 1960 till the civil war began in 1967; the 1970s when there was a boom in crude oil revenues as the commodity displaced agriculture as Nigeria’s top export; and the first stretch of the post-military era from 1999 to 2007.

“There was a lot of optimism in the country and a lot of people were coming back to the country from the diaspora looking at Nigeria as a place of opportunity,” he said. “But every other time after that, we have had that decline in optimism.”

Eroding affection

That decline is particularly heightened this year, especially among the youths whose purchasing power has rapidly decreased during their lifetime.

In the 1980s, the naira was at par with the dollar. Today, $1 is approximately 1,000 naira.

A frustrated Chiemerie has now started plotting to Japa — a Yoruba word that means to escape — as emigration abroad is colloquially called.

“Every morning I wake up, I am despondent,” she told Al Jazeera. “I feel like my life is stuck in a place and I don’t care what I have to do to get the money to get out of here … why should it be the African dream to escape Africa with as much national resources as we have?”

Sentiments like Chiemerie’s should be a challenge to government across all levels, according to Amaza. But most officials behave like the proverbial ostrich with the head in the sand, hiding themselves and denying the obvious, he told Al Jazeera.

MacEbong agrees, saying the only way to improve is for the government to begin working for the majority as opposed to just a select few, to promote inclusiveness.

“If the government continues to cater to the whims of just a few people, that is not independence, that is just really trading one side of the shackle from colonialism to people who look like us. If the government works, people will be able to celebrate Independence Day the way they should,” he said.

In Lagos, Chiemerie has decided to spend the day visiting her aunt after church service.

“I will go on as if nothing is happening in the country,” she said. “If anyone thinks I am disloyal, Nigeria does not care about me so I won’t go out of my way to celebrate.”

[Aljazeera]

NIGERIA’S sports industry stakeholders have provided insights into why the country lost its bid to hold the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).

Two North African countries, Algeria and Morocco, including Zambia, vied to host the tournament against a joint bid from Nigeria and Benin.

But Morocco eventually won the bid.

The North African side will host Africa’s flagship event for the second time, 35 years after the country hosted the competition in 1988.

Meanwhile, the rights for the 2027 edition were handed to a co-bid from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

The joint East African bid returns the tournament to the region for the first time since 1976.

They beat Botswana, Egypt and Senegal in a vote of the CAF executive committee.

Stakeholders’ reactions to Nigeria’s failed bid

A sports administrator, Peter Iweze, recalled how he and ex-international Segun Odegbami sought a joint bid for the country with South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup, saying they started the bid early.

He described Nigeria’s bid for the 2025 AFCON as impromptu, adding that early preparation would have conferred some advantages on the nation over its peers.

“We are not ready to do anything like that. Is that our priority? You don’t bid for events like that; you start early. When we bid for the World Cup for the West African joint bid, Odegbami and I went to the whole of West Africa. We took time for the World Cup in 2010; we started in 2002,” he said.

According to him, Nigeria is suffering from an economic downturn, and its failure to secure the hosting rights would help salvage its economy.

“So it is good savings for us. Right now, Nigerians are suffering. They don’t want unnecessary expenditure of funds. I am not surprised that we lost,” he said.

Also, a veteran sports journalist, Maxwell Kumoye, explained that hosting AFCON tournaments demands quality sporting infrastructures like good stadiums, airports and hotels.

He argued that the country could not boast of these.

“At the moment, look at the state of our facilities. What facilities were they putting forward to host AFCON besides UYO, Abuja, Stephen Keshi and Samuel Ogbemudia Stadiums?

“The stadiums in Lagos are nothing to write home about. They are not ready for major international events like AFCON. Yes, we may have hotels and airports, but our sporting facilities are below the mark,” he said.

He faulted the country’s bid, saying it was dead on arrival.

“We were thoroughly disgraced in the sense that we hurriedly put up that bid and indicated that it was dead on arrival from the start to the end.

“What did we do right? Certainly, we did not do anything right. Perhaps the board felt, ‘let’s put this together to tell the world we are doing something.’ For me, that bid had no substance. What was in that bid was that we were seeking the help of the Benin Republic to bid for our AFCON.

“Those doing this were not doing it for the country’s sake. They were doing it for their own to be relevant in the international scene that Nigeria is putting up a bid,” he added.

[ICIR]

Akin Akingbesote was my roommate at Q107 Eni-Njoku Hall, University of Lagos. Akin was in 200 level studying Mass Communication while I was in 100 level studying English. Given the large number of Igbo and Yoruba students on campus then, the general lingo was dominated by code-switching straddling pidgin English, Yoruba, Igbo and other forms of slang. My knowledge of Yoruba was poor, Akin’s knowledge of Igbo was abysmal. So, we struck a deal to teach each other our mother tongue at least, to retain a faint knowledge of all linguistic strategies and slang on campus. Akin, a good-natured guy from Ondo State, suggested that the best method would be for us to come up with expressions in the opposite language and bring it to the table while the other person interpreted and analysed them. I agreed. Every day, I came with different Yoruba expressions and Akin interpreted them. He also came with different Igbo expressions and I interpreted them. Both of us sometimes played pranks and were mischievous with the interpretations. However, we managed the situation and it was fun.

One day, I returned to campus from town and asked Akin to explain the meaning of lo toju eru e! I had seen the expression boldly written inside a bus. He explained that it means keep your load safe. Also, I asked him to explain the meaning of owo da! He said it means where is your money? I disagreed with Akin’s interpretation of owo da! I argued that the bus conductors were wrong to use Owo da as where is your money? I told Akin that owo da could mean where is the money which I thought was arrogant and rude. I further argued that Owo da sounded like a thief demanding money from a helpless victim. Pay your transport fare in Yoruba should mean something else, more peaceful and respectful, something like san owo re. Akin laughed at me and said, “When they ask you owo da, don’t give them your money and see what will happen to you”. I told him that in Igbo, pay your money could be translated as kwuo ugwo gi, or nye m ego gi. Although kedu ego gi could be interpreted as pay your money, it didn’t quite capture the accurate linguistic potential of the expression.

One day, I returned to the room and asked Akin, “what is the meaning of gbajue”? He looked at me intently, smiled and asked, “Why do you want to know the meaning of gbajue, abi you don join them”? His response did not make meaning to me. “Akin, please tell me the meaning of gbajue”, I insisted. Well, it means 419, he laughed as he explained. I noticed that Akin was not serious with the gbajue lecture, so I decided to contact a course mate the next day, concluding that to get the best answer, I would approach an Igbo student who also spoke Yoruba fluently, as well as any Yoruba person. So I went to George Nkwocha, the ever-smiling, peacefully disposed guy in my class. Georgie, as we called him, gave me different meanings of gbajue depending on the context. At last, I concluded that gbajue means deception, dubiety, and all forms of criminal tendencies that are meant to mislead, confuse, and lead astray. End of story. Armed with my knowledge of gbajue, I moved on. No one would bamboozle me with the word again.

Having learned and understood the meaning of gbajue in school, I was therefore irked when Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka used it in faraway South Africa as a metaphor to describe the activities of Africa’s most avant-garde political group, Labour Party under the aegis of Obidient movement. According to Soyinka, the Labour Party employed gbajue tactics to befuddle Nigerians, claiming that they won the last presidential elections. The accomplished man of letters avowed that he “can categorically state that Labour Party did not win the election, they came third, not even second”. Let me quickly admit that I am not fit to untie Soyinka’s shoe lace. He is a great man revered and respected across the world. I teach Soyinka’s texts every year. But I am not one of his disciples. I subscribe to Femi Osofisan’s Brecht, Marxist, dialectical leaning more than Soyinka’s ritual cleansing, tragic world view illustrated through his appropriation of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and the subterranean agent of self-examination. Soyinka is entitled to his explication of gbajue, although many people think he erred. Many people think he is gradually losing that invincible, iconoclastic portrait of his by consistently aligning with bourgeois, upper-class echelon against the masses. Many people also think that he is gradually eroding all the virtues and principles he stood and fought for as a young man. His “the man dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny” has morphed into an ideology with which he is appraised and found wanting because he continues to maintain grave silence in the face of tyranny pro max. Like Soyinka, let me also exercise my intellectual prerogative by offering a personal, surgical dismembering of gbajue, at least within Nigeria’s evanescing, socio-political environment.

Gbajue means to insidiously submit fake academic credentials to the electoral body, serve eight years in an executive capacity and recruit foot soldiers to drum support for you. It is the indoctrination of school children who grow up knowing and answering that someone was this and that, a position attained through deception and beguiling posturing for gain. Gbajue also includes benefitting from the commonwealth having attained a glorious political position riding at the back of fraudulent academic and genealogical claims. All the wealth amassed in that process, all the people who benefitted from that deception are indebted to the gbajue phenomenon and must be made to pay restitution.

Gbajue means when the electoral umpire promises to follow a particular pattern in an election and even goes ahead to publish these regulations in national dailies and the internet. Then, suddenly, like real gbajue-seared beings, make a complete turnaround and abandon the patterns and devices already scheduled for the elections. Then the electoral umpire reverts to its invidious, treacherous, double-dealing methods to conclude the election. The real gbajue element is when the people trooped out in millions based on the promises and assurance of the electoral umpire but only to be deceived, cheated, and abused.

Gbajue means when, during an election, the security apparatus in the country assures people to come out and vote, guaranteeing them ultimate protection and safety. Then, when the people came out, a particular ethnic group is harmed, maimed and dehumanized yet, the same security apparatus connives and looks away from these incidents even with incontrovertible video evidence. Gbajue is when some disoriented people make open threats towards an ethnic group and go on to carry out these threats while the government lapses into hypnotic paralysis only to use media outlets, radio, tv and newspaper to release sterile, hackneyed statements, “we are on top of the situation”.

Gbajue means when in a particular state in the South-South of the country, elections were openly rigged and electoral officers glaringly harassed and threatened by the governor. Yet security personnels looked away and the results were finally admitted by the national electoral body, blurred results. Gbajue is when the electoral umpire, while people of good conscience slept, announced the results of the presidential elections in the wee hours of the night. It is when a group of people representing the judiciary set aside loads of electoral malpractice evidence, chide and rebuke election petitioners as if the judiciary is an arm of the electoral body. Yet, gbajue is surely involved when Abuja is ingeniously stripped of its status as the federal capital territory but does not have a governor as a state, therefore, 25% votes there is inconsequential. Gbajue is big.

Gbajue is when a new government announces the removal of fuel subsidy upon assumption of office without any corresponding, well-thought-out plans to mitigate the excruciating effects of such a knee-jerk decision. Petrol now sells for N620. Pure horror. Gbajue is when a new government titillates the populace with a spurious student loan scheme which lacks any fundamental base and, therefore, crashes as soon as it is announced. Gbajue could be more. It is when a government inaugurates a falsehood industry primarily to hoodwink the people daily with unsubstantiated, misleading tales – UAE lifts visa ban on Nigeria, Mr President is the first to ring the NASDAQ bell, Mr President is the only African leader Biden accepted to meet after UNGA. Gbajue could also mean distributing five billion naira to the states for palliatives when the people received disgraceful, next-to-nothing food items, when, unexpectedly 1$ exchanges for 1,000 naira. Gbajue could be more.

The gbajue culture is maintained and desperately sustained by a coterie of desperate felons whose motives are glaringly tied to gain and the protection of the same. Thus, Nigeria is caught in a whirlwind of different gbajue metaphor. The result of the growth of gbajue in the land is the international embarrassment the country is currently facing regarding the inconsistent academic records of the number one chief executive officer in the land. But gbajue’s comeuppance could be summarized in these words by former US president Abraham Lincoln “you can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time”. I hope the majestic Kongi agrees with my definitions of gbajue.

Akì í mú ìbọn tetere. One does not hold a gun carelessly. (Always be careful in handling dangerous matters.)

What about the hope

What about the promise you made to the poor

How you gwan joke

How you gwan vote

What about the hike in the

And the levy now the man he can’t cope

Now the man smoke

To hide away from all the pain

So he no drown from a boat

Or hang from a rope

How you gwan choke a man down and then tell him say

Let the poor breathe

You hold a man down and tell ’em say

Let the poor breath

Big man control all the money

And you can’t even let the poor feed

You hold a man down and tell him say

Let the poor breathe, breathe.

Some people say we get the kinds of leader we deserving

The type of fools who like to rule instead of serving

But what I know is a good leader is a servant

The type who feel the pain of people who are hurting

Who are hurting.

I am certain

One day the youth will find a way to do the purging

And take Babylon system with their burden

Baba this no be prayer

This is just a warning

Day by day three things I pray

Baba give me conscience to talk sense

No be nonsense and call am content

And Baba let my whole generation get sense

What about the hope

What about the promise you made to the poor

How you wan joke

How you wan vote

What about the hike in the

And the levy now the man he can’t cope

Now the man smoke

To hide away from all the pain

So he no drown from a boat

Or hang from a rope

How you gwan choke a man down and then tell him say

Let the poor breathe

You hold a man down and tell ’em say

Let the poor breath

Big man represent the poor man

But you don’t even know what the poor need

You hold a man down and tell him say

Let the poor breathe, breathe.

E be like say dem take all our sense

And money put am inside kolo

Use division, tribe religion, lead us we dey follow

Knack our heads together now we be like we on colos

On colos, on colos, on colos

Now we on colos

But the solution  dey our hand cos na we matter

E for better make love unite us than to scatter

So all of my people Weymouths think say japa na the answer

No worry go but when we call you, you must answer

You must show cause day by day three things I pray

Baba give me joy

Baba give me long life and soft life

And all the people wey dey use corruption to cut life

Baba you know nah, Baba you know

Cobhams Asuquo

As we mark our 63rd independence anniversary, all is not well with our beloved nation Nigeria. This in itself is no news, given the fact that the phrase “all is not well” has become a popular refrain in recent years.

Can all be well then, sometime in the future; is it possible that as a nation, Nigeria, can still find character and strength to hold her head up, remains a million naira question.

For a nation that has completely lost its sense of rage, the norm has become abnormal, the abnormal, so normal, and a way of life. What holds sway are deviant attitudes supported by an elite leadership well disconnected from a docile populace.

At 63 years old, ASUU may soon go on strike, education is on the decline, the system gradually collapsing, and yet no rage. We try to find the character through phrases such as transformation, 1 million-point agenda, re-engineering, redemption, Changi Dole, renewed hope, and all such catchwords, good people, great nation, but the truth is that silently the underdevelopment of our nation continues in almost all spheres.

We are 63 years old, and we are not outraged at how we have suddenly become a nation that produces god of men rather than men of God, pastors with several aircraft, while the congregation is hoodwinked with prosperity classes, Islamic scholars turned Talibans debating the text of the koran weekly but barely following the teachings of the Prophet Mohammed PBUH.

I went to a public school, Archbishop Aggrey Memorial Secondary School, it was situated in a Lagos suburb called Mushin, I was taught the English Language in Yoruba, for it to sink in, and properly understood. There was a semblance of character then; because it was part of the much-touted good days…it was not old. Then it was a burden to spend 50 kobo. One naira had value, we were able to breathe!

We studied Islamic Religious Knowledge and Christian Religious Knowledge as they were both called irrespective of your faith. On Fridays, the morning assembly included the Juma’at service led by Mr. Salami, everyone participated, and we had character. There was breath irrespective of one’s faith!

We have not lost our rage. It simply left… The economy is near the doldrums in Europe, and other parts of the world, but Nigeria with the potential to do what China is doing or translate into some African Alsatian if we cannot become tigers is suffocating under a forex crisis, with the Naira unable to breathe. We removed subsidies to please them, they keep their own as safety nets for their citizens. Pharaohs, Nebuchadnezzars, and Goliaths masquerading everywhere.

We have been constantly and consistently marking our independence on the lowkey for the last decade, this year we are even begging labor unions to let the government breathe and the unions are asking the government to allow the people to breathe; the people do not trust labor, and the chess game goes on, and the only reason the poor man has not committed suicide is because he cannot even afford the rope.

There is no outrage that a governor appoints 1,070 political aides, among them hundreds of special assistants and dozens of senior special assistants whose salaries and other perks would cost the state several millions.

At 63, we are still serving dinner with the perennial guests; corruption, nepotism, abandoned projects, lack of infrastructure, bloated government, insecurity, and lack of decisive will in governance. We battle to renegotiate our collective existence as a nation, and confidence in government is divided. It is either the government has no commitment and has the ability, or its ability is never matched with commitment.

With all these, there is no outrage, we go ahead like all is well, feeding on our false resilience. Hoping against hope, we keep holding the gun of nationhood carelessly.

The Yorubas say ‘Ohun méjì ló yẹ Ẹ̀ṣọ́: Ẹ̀ṣọ́ jà, ó lé ogun; Ẹ̀ṣọ́ jà ó kú sógun’, meaning that only two things are proper for a warrior: the warrior goes to war and drives the enemy off; the warrior goes to war and dies in battle. Would there be a Nigeria, in the next 63 years, and what would it look like, what do we want as Nigerians, how do we want it, and when do we want it, let us breathe so that—Nigeria may win

In what was dubbed the first Undisputed versus Undisputed world championship fight in the modern four-belt era, Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez beat Jermel Charlo on points to defend his undisputed super-middleweight title Saturday night.

Alvarez used constant pressure to cut off the ring toward a seventh-round knockdown and dominant unanimous decision over Jermell Charlo to successfully retain his undisputed super middleweight crown.

Canelo, 33, secured a unanimous 119-108, 118-109 and 118-109 win over the American to defend his WBO, WBC, WBA and IBF belts at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.

“I’m the best. Who’s better? Nobody can beat this Canelo,” he said.

Charlo was undisputed light-middleweight champion until he was stripped of his WBO belt when the fight started.

He suffered only the second knockdown and second defeat of his 38-fight career after stepping up in weight.

“I worked all the fight to go in the body,” said Canelo, who dropped Charlo with an overhand right.

“Then I changed the punch and that’s what happened. We worked for that.

“We know he’s a great fighter. He knows how to move in the ring and we worked that in the gym for three months.

“Three months in the mountains without my family, without everything.

“But I still love boxing. Boxing made me the person I am today. Boxing is my life,” Charlo stated.

[Leadership]