The World Bank has urged the Nigerian government to increase its investment in nutrition programs, highlighting the potential for substantial economic returns.

According to the global financial institution, “every dollar spent on nutrition could yield up to $23 in returns, underscoring the critical importance of addressing malnutrition, particularly among vulnerable populations.”

This appeal comes amid alarming rates of child stunting and maternal anemia in Nigeria, which pose serious challenges to the nation’s health and economic development.

The World Bank’s Investment Framework for Nutrition highlights that globally, “Investing in nutrition is not just about health; it’s about economic growth.”

In Nigeria, where 11 million children suffer from stunting and over 50% of pregnant women are anemic, these returns could be even higher, with potential gains of up to $23 for each dollar invested.

Nigeria’s stunting and anemia crisis 

In Nigeria, child stunting and maternal anemia remain severe challenges. UNICEF reports that over 11 million Nigerian children under five are stunted, which is roughly 35% of the child population. Stunting affects cognitive development, physical growth, and future productivity.

Maternal anemia is equally alarming, with over 50% of pregnant women affected. This condition heightens the risk of premature births, low birth weight, and maternal death, further straining Nigeria’s healthcare system.

Scaling up nutrition 

Nigeria stands to benefit substantially from global nutrition investments, especially under the new Investment Framework for Nutrition 2024. The framework estimates that an additional $13 billion annually will be required globally to tackle undernutrition over the next decade, with Sub-Saharan Africa—where Nigeria plays a critical role—needing $34 billion alone to meet its nutrition targets.

For Nigeria, the World Bank emphasizes that the solution lies in scaling up affordable interventions, such as improving maternal and child healthcare, fortifying staple foods, and promoting breastfeeding. For Nigeria, the cost of these interventions—around $17 per child and $13 per pregnant woman per year—is a relatively small price to pay for the long-term gains in productivity and health.

Economic and social impact for Nigeria 

Beyond health, investing in nutrition in Nigeria could yield substantial economic benefits. Underproductive children become underproductive adults, so improving childhood nutrition will enhance labor market productivity. Reducing maternal anemia will improve maternal and infant health, cut healthcare costs, and strengthen families.

Every dollar invested in nutrition could generate a return of $23, contributing to Nigeria’s broader economic and social development goals. These investments would also support Nigeria’s commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2), which aim to end hunger and improve food security and nutrition.

Financing and policy innovations 

To fund these interventions, Nigeria must adopt innovative approaches, including repurposing agricultural subsidies for healthier diets, increasing taxes on unhealthy foods like sugar-sweetened beverages, and utilizing climate funds to address food insecurity.

Additionally, Nigeria can leverage social bonds and private sector partnerships to support its nutrition programs.

Stronger regulations on food fortification, improved healthcare services, and public awareness campaigns promoting dietary diversity would further bolster these efforts. Promoting exclusive breastfeeding and fortifying staple foods such as rice and maize with essential nutrients will be crucial for combating malnutrition.

What You Should Know  

• As the 2025 Nutrition for Growth Summit approaches, Nigeria has an opportunity to significantly enhance its nutrition strategy.
• Scaling up efforts to address child stunting and maternal anemia will improve health outcomes, enhance economic productivity, and reduce the long-term costs of malnutrition in the country.
• With the World Bank’s backing, Nigeria could significantly improve its health outcomes, enhance its labor productivity, and contribute to its broader economic development.

[Nairametrics]

Controversial celebrity crossdresser, Idris Okuneye, widely known as Bobrisky, has been reportedly arrested by operatives of Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) at the Seme border while attempting to flee Nigeria to the neighbouring Benin Republic.

This was disclosed by social media activist, Martin Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan (VDM), via an Instagram post on Monday. According to VDM, Bobrisky was apprehended by Nigerian immigration officers while trying to escape amidst an ongoing investigation by the House of Representatives over bribery allegations against officials of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) involving the crossdresser.

In the video by VDM, he displayed a message he had received, stating, “Bobrisky was arrested this morning at Seme border post on his way to escape to Benin Republic. He sent someone to help him sign his international passport, and he hid in his car. The Nigerian immigration service is currently holding him.”

VDM has since called on both Bobrisky and the Nigerian Immigration Service to address the rumours and clarify the situation.

The crossdresser’s alleged arrest came amid his scheduled appearance before a legislative panel at the House of Representatives.

LEADERSHIP recalls that Bobrisky had previously been invited in connection to leaked audio recordings in which he allegedly admitted to bribing his way out of prison with the assistance of a powerful “Godfather” and having a money laundering case against him dropped by EFCC.

Despite the gravity of the allegations, Bobrisky was yet to respond to the claims of his arrest or the ongoing investigation.

Officials of Lagos State Government have arrested a birthday celebrant, musician and vendor for allegedly obstructing traffic and creating environmental nuisance.

The suspects were arrested on Saturday for blocking Raymond Njoku Road in Ikoyi during a birthday celebration.

The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Tokunbo Wahab, disclosed this on Monday in a post on his X handle.

The suspects are: Omolara Ajetumobi, Event Planner; Ogundare Olubunmi, Celebrant; Ayodele Busuyi, Musician; Owoeye Adedayo, Sound Engineer and Akinola Akinkunmi, who is the vendor.

Wahab said the suspects would be tried in court in accordance with the laws of the State.

“The Lagos State Government reiterates that no one is above the law and will not be permitted to disregard State regulations,” he posted.

[DailyTrust]

Since President Bola Tinubu’s October 1 Independence Speech, where he announced to the world that he was ready to organize a youth conference to address the many concerns of young people in Nigeria, not many have come to terms with such a move.

While some people have dismissed it as another round of political jamboree to waste the country’s lean resources, others have concluded that it was yet another smart move to win the youths’ support base ahead of the 2027 presidential election.

In other words, the president was only concerned about how to win his reelection in 2027 and not about the welfare and well-being of the youth as he claimed in the speech.

But, whatever the rationales are, the point is that the president wants to have a parley with the youths, and it would last for 30 days.

It is also given that he wants to find solutions to the challenges and difficulties currently facing the youths; at least that was clearly stated in his speech.

It is equally instructive to note that reactions have been trailing the announcement.

DAILY POST recalls that on Tuesday, October 1, during President Tinubu’s Independence Day Anniversary Speech, he announced his decision to organize a 30-day national youth conference to address the diverse challenges and opportunities confronting young people who constitute more than 60 percent of the country’s population.

The president noted that the aim of the youth confab was to provoke meaningful dialogue and ensure that the voices of the youths were heard in shaping the policies that impact their lives, which according to him, would be a pathway to a brighter future.

However, among the many voices that have kicked against the move is that of a group known as Voters Rights Association of Nigeria (VRAN).

The group has described President Tinubu’s proposed 30-day national youths’ conference as a national jamboree to siphon, embezzle, and squander the proceeds of the fuel subsidy fund.

According to the group’s president, Jezie Ekejiuba, also a human rights lawyer, the proposed youth conference is a national jamboree to provide another opportunity to the inept and corrupt political office holders of the current administration to siphon, embezzle, and squander billions of naira so far saved from the harsh petrol subsidy removal policy of the Tinubu administration.

Ekejiuba is of the opinion that the planned selection, appointment, or election of the delegates for the proposed youth conference would be for the same children or relatives of the current political office holders, and certainly not the children or relatives of the generality of the suffering Nigerian masses or youths.

He further argued that the president does not need such a conference to understand the challenges facing the youths in Nigeria, insisting that several protests, particularly the recent #EndBadGovernance protest, were all clear messages of what the young people are passing through in Nigeria today.

He said: “VRAN wishes to inform President Tinubu that his government does not need the so-called 30-day youth confab to be in the know of the challenges and opportunities confronting our young people.

“The #EndBadGovernance protests nationwide earlier this year were a sad reminder of the problems of not only the Nigerian youths, but also the problems of the Nigerian people as a whole, because the protests clearly threw open the challenges, including but not limited to the insecurity crisis occasioned by Boko Haram, banditry, kidnapping, high costs of food, electricity bills, transport services, prohibitive costs of education, health services, and high rate of unemployment, among others, which were caused by the sudden removal of petrol subsidy in the country by the present administration.

“VRAN contends that all that the Nigerian youths deserve now are actions and not rhetoric or voices echoing from the proposed youth conference because, as the saying goes, actions speak louder than words.

“We wish to remind the Tinubu administration that even during the military administration of Gen. Yakubu Gowon when this type of current economic crisis confronted Nigerians, Gowon, with a human face and sympathy, pitied the hungry and suffering Nigerian masses then by introducing a social security programme called the Udoji Awards to alleviate the pangs of the harsh economic policy as being witnessed currently in Nigeria.

“VRAN, hereby, calls on President Tinubu in like manner and with human face and sympathy for the hungry and suffering Nigerian masses to introduce a social security programme that will benefit the generality of the Nigerian populace by the Federal Government of Nigeria undertaking to pay the Dangote Refinery half of the cost price of a litre of every Dangote fuel product to give Nigerians a new lease of life.”

Expressing his views on the development, President of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Pogu Bitrus, disagreed that the proposed 30-day conference would create a forum for the president and the youths to brainstorm and come up with solutions to some of the issues bedeviling the youths in Nigeria. Rather, he emphasized that it would amount to nothing.

He noted that Nigeria has had several conferences, including the 2014 confab organized by former President Goodluck Jonathan, the report of which spelled out solutions to the youths’ problems in Nigeria, insisting that the president should just go ahead and implement the report of that conference if he actually wanted to address the youths’ challenges in Nigeria.

“We have had national conferences in the past. The last one was the 2014 confab, which gave us a blueprint on the way forward on how to achieve a better Nigeria for all Nigerians.

“Things have been addressed across the board, including even things that have to do with the youths. Rather than creating another bureaucracy for political reasons, I think the government needs to look at the 2014 confab report as it affects our youths and other areas to ensure that constitutional amendments get to a level where a lot of the problems that Nigerians are facing can be addressed,” he said.

He is also of the opinion that the youth conference, as is being proposed by President Tinubu, is a political jamboree, whose only objective is to curry the favour and support of the youth for the president’s reelection bid in 2027.

“As far as I am concerned, the proposed 30-day youth conference is a political jamboree. Mr. President is just trying to appeal to the youths for political support. Otherwise, things pertaining to the youths have been clearly spelled out in the 2014 confab report.

“Let those things be implemented so that we can have a better Nigeria where our youths can be tutored to take over from the older generation, so that there will be some mentoring along the line.

“But to just go and have another conference with the youths, to me, is a political gimmick to gain support and have a support base from the youths for the government rather than improving governance in Nigeria,” he submitted.

But, the president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerim Shettima, has a different opinion. He described Mr. President’s proposal as a good idea. He noted that the youth should be seen to be engaged.

“They need to believe that there is hope around them. You need to make them believe in themselves, but that can only happen when you understand them and know what is bothering them. So, I think the government has done well. I commend the president for initiating the idea,” he said.

However, he equally expressed fears that it could end up like other dialogues in the past without any concrete plan to implement its recommendations.

“My fear is, let the dialogue not be one of those engagements where, after everything, papers will be put on the ground and that will be the end of it. There must be a follow-up to implement whatever the resolution of the dialogue will be, and I hope it works,” he stressed.

Dismissing the fear that it could be a ploy to garner support for Tinubu’s 2027 reelection bid and that the 2014 confab report contained every challenge facing the young people and solutions to such problems, he said: “I think this will be different because it will only be centered on the youths.

“The 2014 confab report was all-inclusive; everything was there, but this one will be about the youths alone because they are the direct victims of some of the problems we are facing today. So, I think they are two different things.”

Also, in his contribution, a lawyer and public affairs commentator, Ikechukwu Onodi, did not believe that anything good would come from the youth conference.

He described it as a diversionary and settlement tactic which the current All Progressives Congress (APC) government has employed over time.

He noted that its only objective is to keep the masses busy and push their attention away from the main issue, which is looting and bad governance—a development he said had brought untold economic hardship in the land.

He said: “The idea of a 30-day youth conference is a diversionary and settlement strategy of the governments over time. The main idea is to give people something to talk about while the looting and misgovernance continue.”

He also agreed with those who hold the opinion that the conference is meant to pave the way for massive youth support for President Tinubu’s reelection in 2027.

“It’s also one of the strategies towards bribing the youths for possible acceptance in 2027. You will recall that the APC was a hard sell to the youths during the 2023 general elections, and to avoid a repeat of the 2023 experience with the youth, this is one of the plans,” he submitted.

The judicial career of Francis Chukwuma Abosi was supposed to last only seven years. In the event, he did 12 and may well have reached 20 years if events had not intervened. In his 12th year as a judge in April 2020, while serving as the acting president of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo state in south-east Nigeria, the National Judicial Council (NJC) mercifully ended it all.

When he attended the Nigerian Law School, as all Nigerian lawyers must, Francis Abosi deposed that he was born in November 1950. On his appointment as a judge in 2008, therefore, Francis Abosi was 58. At the time, the retirement age of all judges was 65. This meant he would have been due to retire in 2015. 

In 2008 also, a judge could only retire on their terminal salary as pension if they had served for at least 15 years. In the case of Francis Abosi, he well knew that based on his date of birth, he was eight years short of what he needed to be eligible to retire on his terminal salary as his judicial pension.

The answer to this problem was rather straightforward – Francis Abosi edited his birth year from 1950 to 1958. This act added eight years to the seven that he would have served, bringing his notional judicial tenure to 15 years, at which point he would have been entitled to his terminal salary as his judicial pension.

What Francis Abosi could not do, however, was alter the filings he had done prior to becoming a judge, especially those he made upon matriculation as an undergraduate and also on admission to the Nigerian Law School. Upon being appointed to act as the president of the Customary Court of Appeal, they caught up with him. In April 2020, the NJC found him guilty of  “the falsification of his date of birth from 1950 to 1958. Findings showed that he was supposed to have retired in November 2015 when he clocked the mandatory retirement age of Sixty-five (65) years.”

Francis Abosi’s feat of genealogical management had far-reaching consequences. He became president of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo state nearly three years after he should have retired. That means he took someone else’s job unlawfully. It could have been worse. Had the NJC not stopped him, Francis Abosi would have been in the position in 2023 when the age of retirement changed from 65 to 70, meaning that he would have been on the job until 2028 when biologically he would have been 78. That would have given him 15 years of judicial service beyond his due retirement age.

Abosi was not alone in the business of injudicious emendation. One of his peers in the 2008 cohort of appointments to the judiciary in Imo state was Theresa Eberechukwu Chikeka. A graduate of the University of Maiduguri, Theresa Chikeka became a lawyer in 1982 and did her National Youth Service Corps at the Borno state ministry of justice, which employed her thereafter as state counsel. There she worked for the first ten years of her professional career before transferring her service to Imo state in 1993. 

Up to this point, Theresa Chikeka’s records indicate that she was born on October 27, 1956. With this date of birth, she would have attained retirement at 65 in 2021, two years short of the 15 years of service which would have entitled her to retire on her terminal judicial salary. Borrowing a leaf from Francis Abosi’s book of elastic genealogy, it seems, Theresa Chikeka also adapted her age sometime in 2006, changing her birth year from 1956 to 1958 and making her eligible to retire in October 2023 instead of 2021. 

Indeed, according to records in the possession of the Imo State Judicial Service Commission which has looked into the issue, the affidavit deposed to Theresa Chikeka’s mother in support of her new birth year claimed that she was born in 1958, without providing the day or month on which she was extruded from the womb.

On 28 June 2022, the Imo State House of Assembly (IMSHA) confirmed Theresa Chikeka as chief judge. This was more than eight months after she should have retired as a judge. In other words, the house of assembly confirmed as chief judge a person who was – as a matter of law – not a judge on the date that they did so. 

In 2023, when the age of retirement of judges of the high court was increased to 70 from 65, Theresa Chikeka received another five years of judicial life as chief judge when in fact she should have been in retirement two years earlier in 2021.

These facts are not seriously in dispute. 

On 14 June 2024, one Comrade Ndubuisi Onyemaechi, on behalf of a group called the Civil Society Engagement Platform (CSEP), filed a petition with the Imo state house of assembly in Owerri alleging that the chief judge had unlawfully edited her age. This allegation goes to the heart of Rule 1(3) of the Judicial Code of Conduct in Nigeria which stipulates that “a judicial officer should respect and comply with the laws of the land and should conduct himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary”.

The IMSHA referred this to its judiciary committee, which began investigations the following month. They invited Theresa Chikeka to attend but she declined. In a letter to the house dated 12 July 2024, she claimed that “the provisions of the guidelines of my office…. do not permit me to appear before any Investigation Panel (sic) other than a panel set up by the National Judicial Council”.

On 17 July, the judiciary committee reported to the IMSHA in plenum which voted through a resolution calling for the removal of Theresa Chikeka as chief judge for falsifying her age. Moments after this vote, on the same day, the chief judge served the house with an ex-parte order of the federal high court in Owerri restraining the house from taking the vote that it had already concluded.

Matters have since then relocated to the NJC which now has cognisance of the allegations against Theresa Chikeka. Having previously told the IMSHA that she cannot answer to any panel except one constituted by the NJC, Theresa Chikeka now tells the NJC that she cannot answer to their panel because of an interim order of the federal high court, which has lapsed. On this artifice, she presently claims to function in an office for which she was ineligible to begin with.

In the last week, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, voiced concerns about the credibility of the judicial branch that she leads, appearing rather incredulously to suggest that it is a function of how many judgments and rulings judges produce. 

The CJN must realise that no one will take her seriously if she continues to prove unwilling and unable to act swiftly to get rid of the person who now desecrates the office first occupied in 1976 by Akunne Chukwudifu Oputa.

The least anyone can ask of those who hold leadership positions in the judiciary is that they are fit in law to serve as judges. Theresa Chikeka is not. She ceased to be a judge in October 2021. Allowing her to hang on as chief judge of Imo state today is egregiously unlawful. The NJC owes Francis Abosi an apology and a recall if Madam CJN continues to prove unwilling and unable to get rid of Theresa Chikeka.

 Let her go! 

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

In justice’s halls, your voice resounds bright,

A beacon of hope, casting forth gentle light.
With wisdom profound and courage unchained,
You lead with integrity, your spirit unfeigned.

From the roots of our land, you’ve soared to the sky,
A guardian of truth, ever noble and spry.
With each choice you make, new pathways you weave,
A champion of progress, in whom we believe.

Today, we gather, our hearts filled with grace,
As Afe Babalola University bestows this honorary embrace.
A Doctor of Law, for your battles so grand,
For justice and honor, you steadfastly stand.

Your journey inspires the daring and bold, it mentors me,
From University of Jos our common pedigree, your story unfolds.
To Aare Afe Babalola’s Emmanuel Chambers, a colossus you grew,
In your shadow, I learned also, your vision imbued.

A testament to dreams that are bravely retold,
With each step you take, a new future unfolds.
Guiding us forth with your visionary hand,
You empower the hearts of this beautiful land.

May this honor remind you, as you light the way,
That your legacy flourishes in all that you say.
For in every word spoken, and each life you touch,
You’ve woven a future that matters so much.

So here’s to you, Prince, the Doctor of Law, on this glorious day,
May your passion and purpose forever hold sway.
As you rise ever higher, may your spirit be free,
In the annals of justice, your name shall always be.

Dated the 21st Day of October, 2024

-Dt Olukayode Ajulo OON, SAN
Attorney General of Ondo State

“The reason we talk today is the reason we counseled yesterday against replacing destroyers with predators. We said last year do not vote for election, vote for structure. Let us break down this house and rebuild it so that we can all be safe. “It is very difficult, indeed almost impossible, to maintain liberty in a republic that has become corrupt or to establish it there anew” (Machiavelli). We ignored structure and everyone gave their electoral waist beads to their own child. Votes were reduced to abject ornaments for voluptuous behinds. Machiavelli wrote again, “people are often misled to desire their own ruin.”

“All music comes from Africa,” African pop singer, Angélique Kidjo, told an interviewer in 2023. Kidjo’s dad is Fon; her mum is Yoruba. Kidjo waxed lyrical. She said she came from a culture “where you spend 10 minutes saying good morning, how is your father? How is your grandmother?” In every story, every conversation, there is at least a song. And that includes Kidjo’s ten-minute greetings. I feel her. As a Yoruba, I am expected to make anything sing. The unpleasant, if sung the right way, will be good music. That is why we are advised to laugh at any occurrence the severity of which sobbing and weeping cannot redeem. And, so, in spite of everything, the time to sing, dance and laugh is now.

At 4.50 pm on 29 May, 2023, a lady of influence tweeted: “You either accept Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR and Kashim Shettima GCON as your president & vice president respectively or join the wailers for the next 4 years, at least, or 8 years. And if you ask me, wailing for 8 years will be emotionally exhausting. If a new Nigeria is your concern, you’ll pray to God to guide our leaders right irrespective of the party you belong in.”

That was a few hours after Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu became president and pronounced “subsidy gone.”

Fast forward to 10:30 am on 9 September, 2024. The X influencer tweeted: “I am fully committed to campaigning for and supporting any better candidate who can defeat this government in 2027, regardless of their party. For me, removing PBAT is a personal mission and a priority. In shaa Allah.”

Our lady has clearly violated the 4-years-or-8-years timeline she gave us just one short year ago. What has changed that has soured the romance?

In case you are scouring the ocean beds in search of what crime the president committed which has cost him the love of this prime supporter, a window opened at 11:23am on 15 October, 2024. The lady tweeted: “Are we really just going to sit back and accept that spending 100,000 Naira a week on fuel is now the norm? That’s 400,000 Naira a month. How many of us can actually afford this? And meanwhile, electricity costs have shot up by nearly 400%. Are we okay with being drained financially just to survive, or are we ready to question why we’re being squeezed like this?”

The last time I checked, the above tweet had attracted almost 800,000 views. Many who replied to the lady’s tweets abused her. They shouldn’t have. When Saul came back from Damascus and became Paul, how was he received? I commend this lady for her forthrightness. At least, unlike others, she didn’t subscribe to John Milton’s fallen character in ‘Paradise Lost’ who loses and shouts: “…farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear” but goes ahead to yell “Farewell remorse: all good to me is lost; Evil be thou my good.” To that Miltonic character, repentance and remorse are too high a price to pay for whatever sin he had committed. The lady here is one of millions with blisters of buyer’s remorse under their skirts. But she came out to yell and bail out of the abusive love. I commend her. Out of the eight million who voted in this government, there must now be at least seven million sipping the ale of regret quietly in public but cursing King Macbeth privately under their creaky beds. Evil should stop being their good. Because of tomorrow, their buyer’s remorse should stop pressing the mute button.

In 1994, Angélique Kidjo released ‘Agolo’ an album that contains the song: ‘Orio rio/ Ola djou monké n’lo/ Ola djou monké/ Ola djou monké n’lo’. What is she saying? The wordings are obviously in her Quidah, Benin Republic Yoruba. The Oyo-Yoruba in me has no difficulty in situating the root of the lyrics in one of her mum’s folksongs, ‘Ori Ori o Olajumoke nlo…’ There is a story behind that song. And this is where I am going. The folksong rose to meet me when I read the tweets I started this piece with.

The ‘Olajumoke’ song is a lyricised Yoruba folk story about the consequences of rash choices. It says that if you are going to choose a husband or wife, open your eyes, the inner and the outer. The dude you are dying to have may be an empty tin (agolo/pangolo), an àgbá òfìfo (empty barrel).

The story goes that Olajumoke was the most beautiful girl in the village and she knew it. Suitors came after suitors. None was handsome enough to match the taste of the fussy, finicky damsel.

One bright sunny day, a very handsome young man sauntered into the marketplace. The dude is a complete stranger, the type the clairvoyant would see and describe as a beautiful snake. The enchanting young man’s out-of-this-world elegance charmed Olajumoke. The strangeness of his person and his suspicious entry did not alarm Olajumoke. They instead combined to disarm her. She melted and commenced a session of comely stalking, and followed the love of her life up and down the market.

The sun was going down; buying and selling was over. Bobo Handsome commenced his exit from the market but noticed this beautiful girl following him. He asked why. Olajumoke broke all rules and protocols of village romance. She toasted the unknown man of uncommon allure. “Let us be husband and wife.” The strange man was forthright. He couldn’t marry her. “I am Orí (head), a complete stranger here. My place is beyond the Blue Sea (Odò Aró) and even far after the Red Sea (Odò Èjè). You can see that we cannot be husband and wife.”

Because love is blind, Olajumoke would have none of what the stranger was saying. Remember Angélique’s line:

“Ifé ayé ilé /Igbadoun foun ayé (Love in this world is strong/ It is pleasure for the world)”.

The lady of beauty insisted she would follow the strange man to wherever on earth. Then Orí, the young man, lunged into a burst of songs. “Leave me/ If you don’t turn back, we will get to the Sea of indigo/ If you don’t leave, we will reach the Sea of blood…”

The lady of our story did not heed the warnings, neither did she contemplate a change of resolve. She must marry this man of means and colour. That was how she followed a complete stranger on a journey of love. It was a long trek across daylight and moonlight. Then, they reached and crossed the Blue Sea. Soon, they reached and crossed the Red Sea. Then, things moved very fast for the lovey-dovey girl. It turned out that everything that gave the man elegance was borrowed. He started dropping the parts one by one where he got them. He started with his arms, and then his legs. The spirits that loaned them to him got back their properties. Then the torso, the flesh, the hairs and the nails. Every minute part was a borrowed item and the lender got back their properties. Orí is no longer what we call head. What he is is one ugly, scary skull. Now, beautiful girl knew she was in deep trouble. She is married to a Skull – deathly and deadly. She no do again. She told Orí but the ex-handsome man said it was too late; their romance was till death do them part.

Skull did what captors do with their victims. To ensure his ‘wife’ did not escape, Orí decided to ‘bell’ her with waist beads. Each time beautiful Olajumoke attempted to run away, the beads alerted the husband, jingling: “Ori Ori o Olajumoke nlo (Skull, Skull, Olajumoke is running away).” How did this girl get back her freedom? Did she ever get a reprieve? Well, the conclusions are as varied as the storytellers and where they belong.

How Olajumoke chose her husband is the way we choose our leaders. The signs are always there that the masquerade we are costuming will most certainly snatch the singlet we have as our only garment. Like Mr. Skull, they do not hide who they are. The parts that make up their bodies of intelligence are unreal; they are borrowed. The only parts that are truly theirs are the fingers – for counting billions.

“Omo eni kò sè’dí bèbèrè” was the battle cry of Tinubu’s campaigners in Yorubaland last year. Everything was reduced to beads (ìlèkè) and bottoms (ìdí). Any Yoruba person who campaigned against the child of the house was a bastard. We asked the past why it invented (ìlèkè ìdí) (waist beads) for girls only. The past told us it was for reasons of beauty – rounded hips, slim waists, etc. We asked what else? We are told the beads also tell which girl is chaste and which is not – or likely to be not. The loose loosen their waists; they walk and roll the beads pushing the world into libidinous wars. Where such is seen, waywardness robs such girls of parental adornments. That was why some of us insisted in 2023 that not all omo and their big bottoms deserved the land’s ìlèkè. But they said our mouths smelt bad. What did we know?

The reason we talk today is the reason we counseled yesterday against replacing destroyers with predators. We said last year do not vote for election, vote for structure. Let us break down this house and rebuild it so that we can all be safe. “It is very difficult, indeed almost impossible, to maintain liberty in a republic that has become corrupt or to establish it there anew” (Machiavelli). We ignored structure and everyone gave their electoral waist beads to their own child. Votes were reduced to abject ornaments for voluptuous behinds. Machiavelli wrote again, “people are often misled to desire their own ruin.”

When Sani Abacha took over the government in 1993, people clapped for the kingmaker who had made himself king. They said he was a wrong-righter. When by 1994 it became clear Abacha was determined to sit still on the June 12 election and the mandate it conferred, MKO Abiola went philosophical: Ìlèkè tó sò’dí òpòló ni ejò gbé wò yí o (a string of beads is found to be too large for Toad’s waist, Snake now goes for it). It is the same today. Check toad, check snake, measure their waists, solve the riddle.

Some regime backers, last week, told the newspaper columnist to stop his criticisms of the president and his bumbling presidency. “Provide solutions,” the persons yelled in forwarded messages. Well, the columnist did not campaign last year to be beaded with power. The columnist’s duty is to tell the king that he is naked. If the naked, his clothiers and courtiers do not know the solution to the nakedness, then, what else is there to say other than sing in musician Lagbaja’s voice: “Mo sorri fun gbogbo yin l’okookan.”

I am not done with Angélique Kidjo and the interview in which she spoke the words I quoted earlier. It is in the 29 June, 2023 edition of The Telegraph of the U.K. In her words is a warning to the ‘victorious’ to know how very slippery the mountaintop is. The powerful who think they stand firm and therefore could betray the ground that holds their ladder should hear out Angélique: “I didn’t get here because I decided to be number one. I got here because people decided to listen to me. The people who put you up here, well, they can always pull you down.” Wisdom. But ‘they’ won’t listen. Their ears are like Ori’s body parts – borrowed – and collected back by the lenders.

The Defence Headquarters (DHQ) wishes to clarify that it has not announced the appointment of any senior officer as the acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS), contrary to speculation by certain media outlets. For the record, no such appointment exists within the Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN).

The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Taoreed Lagbaja, is currently on a well-deserved rest as part of his 2024 annual leave. The AFN is professionally managed and all the Service Chiefs are performing their duties as stipulated in the Constitutionof the FGN. Major General Abdulsalam Bagudu Ibrahim, the Chief of Policy and Plans, is providing routine briefs to the COAS in accordance with standard military procedures.

The DHQ urges individuals spreading unfounded rumours to desist from doing so immediately. The COAS is hale and hearty and will soon resume normal duties at the end of his leave.  

Media organizations are advised to verify information with the appropriate authorities before releasing fake news to the public. The CDS had only spoken with the COAS a few minutes ago.

Additionally, those advocating for a military takeover, as seen in a viral video, should be aware that such actions are treasonable under the Constitution.

The AFN is steadfastly committed to the preservation and advancement of our democracy and are loyal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's administration. The military remains focused on achieving its statutory responsibilities of protecting the nation's integrity. 

The relative peace being enjoyed today is a direct result of the President's support for the military and the dedication of the AFN leadership. 

To this end, the AFN and relevant security agencies have been mandated to take necessary action against any individual or group advocating for unconstitutional changes in the country. The CDS appreciates Nigerians for their support and prayers. Victory is assured.

Signed

TUKUR GUSAU  

Brigadier General  

Director Defence Information