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![[OPINION] How best to immortalise Ayo Adebanjo - Ikechukwu Amaechi](/media/k2/items/cache/b19c7ba9ac25d2d3ee2c91151ea64db4_L.jpg)
Nigerians have been falling over themselves eulogising two of the country’s elder statesmen who died in the last one week. It is as if there is a national essay competition to determine who will pen the most moving panegyric. Citizens have been regaled with heartfelt tributes that share memories, stories and achievements of Chiefs Ayo Adebanjo and Edwin Clark.
To be sure, Adebanjo and Clark – two of a kind – were all that have been said about them, and even more. They were greatness, grace and patriotism personified. And their departure at such a critical time has created a gaping void because their big shoes will be difficult to fill.
But despite their incredible achievements, both men went to their graves with huge regrets at what Nigeria had become. As Chief Adebanjo told me on the eve of his 95th birthday: “I am still in the trenches because the country is not what I fought for.” What he and fellow compatriots fought for was a country that will work for all. That remains an illusion. If anything, the prospect of Nigeria becoming a country where equity, fairness and justice prevail is still far-fetched.
Both men were blessed with longevity. In a country where life expectancy hovers in the 50s, it takes the grace of God to become a nonagenarian. Born on April 10, 1928, Chief Adebanjo died on Friday, February 14, 2025, less than two months from his 97th birthday. Pa Clark, who also died at 97 was only eleven months older, having been born on May 25, 1927.
In the course of my journalistic odyssey, I encountered both men but I will talk about Pa Ayo Adebanjo here, while I leave the story of Chief Edwin Kiagbodo Clark, a man who saved my life in 1997, for another day.
Chief Adebanjo who was born barely six years after the Clifford Constitution and the first legislative elections in Nigeria, lived through the finest and ugliest moments of Nigeria’s history – the constitutional conferences, struggle for independence, party politics leading to independence, the civil war, military rule, return to democracy, the struggle for the protection of democracy, and the bigger struggle of ensuring the development of Nigeria. He joined the struggle early in 1943 as a Zikist, but in 1951, he became a member of the youth wing of the Action Group, and a mentee, political disciple of Chief Obafemi Awolowo. That became the defining moment of his life.
As a young journalist at the Independent Communications Network Limited, ICNL – publishers of TheNews/TEMPO magazine, AM News and PM News – in 1996, I could not but appreciate the significance of the Western House building on 8-10 Broad Street, Lagos. TheNews was embedded in the pro-democracy struggle and Western House was the de facto headquarters of the foremost pan-Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, and the National Democratic Coalition, NADECO.
Many of the chieftains of these two groups that were engaged in a mortal battle with the military junta of Sani Abacha, most of them lawyers, had their offices in that complex. It became a natural destination for journalists seeking for news. Chief Ayo Adebanjo’s office was on the third floor. When you start from there and climb up to the offices of Senator Kofoworola Bucknor-Akerele – a lawyer, who also acquired a diploma in journalism in 1962 and worked as a journalist for the BBC and VON Magazine, before becoming a deputy governor in Lagos State, and Chief Ganiyu Olawale Dawodu, popularly known as G.O.D. – your day would have been made.
In those days, I developed a strong liking for Adebanjo because he was an interviewer’s delight, shooting from the hip. I remember doing a story in the TEMPO tabloid titled, ‘June 12: The Saints and Villains’. He was one of the ‘saints’. Once when I went to his office, he gave me a ride back to Ogba.
When I left TheNews magazine for The Diet newspaper in 1997, I never met Chief Adebanjo again until February 9, 2022 when I sat down, once again, with the now 93-year-old man in his Lagos home for a two-hour interview. Of course, at 93, a lot had changed physically: he was slower, one step at a time; hard of hearing, but still had a razor-sharp mind. There was a whiff of frustration and he spoke about death in a way he didn’t even in those days of thunder and trepidation.
Chief Adebanjo insisted that Nigeria was at a crossroads and needed restructuring urgently. He dismissed the 1999 Constitution as a big fraud that is at the root of all the country’s woes. “Talk about any problem you can think of in this country today and you will find out that it has to do with this Constitution,” he intoned gravely.
Unless the Constitution was changed and the country restructured first, the 2023 election would be “an exercise in futility,” he said.
“Tell me that Ayo Adebanjo is talking nonsense, it does not concern me. When it will happen, I may have gone but you will be around and you will remember that I said it… I am pitying your generation because I am done. At 94, what I am expecting now is my funeral dirge. Baba rele! That is the song they sing for an old man they are going to bury.”
But when I sat down again with him one year after on February 13, 2023, a few days before the February 25, 2023 presidential election, Chief Adebanjo had slightly moderated his position.
Apparently, he was taken in by the dubious promises of the INEC chairman, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu. “I am hopeful,” he said. “So far, so good. I am hopeful because of the electoral law. If they keep to it, implement it and execute it, the elections will be free, fair and credible.”
A credible election will bequeath the country with a Peter Obi presidency, he told me. And when that happens: “The first thing that Obi will do when he gets into office is to call all the ethnic groups together and agree on a Constitution. Any other thing to the contrary, there will be chaos. I have said it before and I am repeating it without any element of doubt in my mind. If for any reason, the election is scuttled or manipulated, and Obi doesn’t win, I say emphatically, that is the end of Nigeria. If we don’t enthrone fairness, equity and justice which the Obi presidency will represent, all our problems will continue.”
When I asked him if he was being harassed by the Nigerian state because of his very strong views, he smiled: “They know that I am ready for them. Most governments in this country imprisoned me. I am a jailbird. I was involved in the Awolowo treasonable felony trial. Abacha imprisoned and detained me. You remember they arrested me, they said we killed Abiola’s wife. And when we were holding a reception for Ambassador Walter Carrington in my house, they came there and broke the place… I think they have given up on me. They must be telling themselves, that old man, he will soon go.”
Besides, Adebanjo said if someone like him cannot talk about Nigeria, who else will? “I have every reason to be grateful to God. My leader – Awolowo – was only 78 years when he died. Ajasin who followed him was only 88, Adesanya who followed him was 88. My friend and colleague, Olanihun Ajayi, was 92. I will be 95 years in April 2023. Why should I not thank God? It is only the funeral dirge that I am waiting for now. If I die now and my children say, oh, the devil has done his worst, will you not laugh at them? So, anybody who is trying to attack or kill me is just wasting his time.”
Chief Adebanjo said if Nigerians failed to vote right on February 25, 2023, when the result would come, he would be enjoying himself in the grave. Those immortal words were uttered exactly two years to the day he died.
Since his death, Nigerians have been talking about how best to immortalise him. There are suggestions that national monuments be named after him. That will be great because he deserves every honour. But for a man who never aspired to any public office – elected or appointed – changing the name of ‘River Niger’ to ‘River Ayo Adebanjo’ or even ‘Aso Rock’ to ‘Ayo Adebanjo Villa’ is immaterial. The most enduring way to immortalise him is to enthrone equity, fairness and justice by restructuring Nigeria in a way that the country works for all. That is what he lived, fought and died for. That is what will make him happy wherever he is now.
![[OPINION] Lessons from life and politics of Adebanjo - Jide Oluwajuyitan](/media/k2/items/cache/15e1f1c8e8b1252433cb196a1164d99c_L.jpg)
Chief Ayo Adebanjo, progressive politician, elder statesman, patriot, and unarguably, a foremost nationalist regarded by many as voice of reason but no doubt a controversial politician died at 96 last Saturday. Adebanjo, who started as a Zikist in the years Dr Azikiwe ‘elezikify’ Nigerian press before embracing Awoism in 1951 ended as an enthusiast of Peter Obi, an equally gifted master of political intrigue and propaganda, lived a fulfilled life.
He was one of the last surviving nationalists. Although he might have not won all his battle for a more inclusive, fair, just and equitable Nigeria society, I am sure he will rest well realising he has been succeeded by his some of his equally talented sons including our current president who understands that the Afenifere philosophy is not about Yoruba irredentism but about how Nigeria can fulfil her destiny, by returning to the ‘path to Nigeria Progress’ never taken.
Awoism with its Afenifere-slogan (wanting the best for others as one wants for self) is an ideology propounded by Awolowo and his colleagues including Pa Adebanjo Chief Anthony Enahoro, Chief Bola Ige Chief Abraham Adesanya Sir Olaniwun Ajayi, Bishop Gbonigi, Reuben Fasoranti, Chief Alfred Rewane, etc. It celebrates public goods which find expression in free education, health, rural development welfarism and prosperity for all. Awoism, also celebrates values of federalism, regional autonomy and self-determination.
The transformation of Western Region in the First Republic to one of the most educated part of Africa within 10 years was the reason for thinking that foisting it on the rest of the country would transform the nation especially the marginalised and exploited minorities in the north and the east. Sadly, they fought and defended it for over 50 years with only scars of war from Nigerian state to show for their pains.
With the conspiracy of dominant hegemonic power and dominant Igbo ethnic group during the 1958 independence constitutional debate, the coalition of the two after independence, and the destruction of Action Group and its leaders by the coalition partners shortly after independence, the minorities that saw hope for freedom in Awoism, decided it was in their best interest to find accommodation with their overlords.
The east and the north were opposed to federalism. The former wanted a unitary system where citizens of their landlocked country would be free to thrive in other people’s land, and the latter, the feudal leaders of the north didn’t want their sense of entitlement to power in Nigeria questioned.
The collapse of the First Republic and the civil war meant diminishing relevance of Awoism. The outcome of the 1979, 83, 93, and 99 elections saw the minorities massively voting for dominant ethnic groups in their respective geo-political zones. The military backers of the unitarists and confederalists only brought more confrontation between them and Awoist ideologues misrepresented as arrogant Yoruba trying to impose their culture on the rest of the country.
This misrepresentation was widely promoted by Igbo and their northern hegemonic ruling class counterparts to delegitimize MKO Abiola’s unprecedented landslide 1993 electoral victory leading to the annulment of the most credible election in the nation’s history, the justification for imposition of the contraption called Interim National government, and the unilateral imposition of Obasanjo as Yoruba candidate who, without support of his Yoruba base, literarily climbed the palm tree from the top by winning the election.
Of course, Obasanjo known for his vindictiveness ensured the Yoruba leading lights of Awoism were humiliated after the 2003 election when all the five governors of AD progressive states were overrun by PDP with exception of Lagos’ Tinubu.
Although Pa Ayo Adebanjo is on record for thanking Tinubu for liberating Yoruba from Obasanjo, he didn’t still believe Tinubu had done enough to earn the highly coveted position of Yoruba political leader. He therefore didn’t believe even with Tinubu’s achievement, there was a need for a change of strategy. Pa Ayo Adebanjo could not stand being told he was wrong when his children proved they could on their own win vote in Yoruba land after abandoning the carcass of his AD. For him, it only got worse when his children settled for Afenifere Renewal Group.
Pa Adebanjo forgot he was dealing with a highly discriminatory voters who Awo, the sage said would not vote for you because you are Yoruba if you have no agenda that will impact positively on his life. In 2015, he crossed the red line no Yoruba leader had ever done by decreeing Yoruba must not vote for Buhari but Atiku. His directive was of course ignored.
Although he correctly predicted that Buhari would betray Tinubu, but he underestimated Tinubu’s capacity for political intrigue that often put his political opponents in disarray, ahead of his political foes. Baba moved from blunder to blunder advising Yoruba who could make an informed choice between Obi candidacy with his uninspiring legacy in Anambra, his prostituting with PDP from where he crossed over to Labour Party to harvest undeserved 94-to 95% of Igbo votes and Tinubu and his legacies in Lagos, his silent persecution under Buhari government he helped to install and his betrayal by southwest governors he mentored and brought to national attention. Tinubu who managed to win four of the Yoruba sates was not expected to do more than that among his highly discriminatory Yoruba voters.
For the 2023 election, the Hausa Fulani hegemonic ruling class and their ever-willing Igbo brides were ready to forget their differences to fight Awoism, the perceived common threat.
The Igbo threat in the event that the presidential ticket of PDP, a party they faithfully served for 21 years was not ceded to the southeast, found expression in Igbo voting massively for Peter Obi, one of their own while call for justice and fairness counted for very little among the hegemonic power in the north who believe that democracy is about group interest and therefore had no problem rallying round Atiku Abubakar.
Pa Ayo Adebanjo along with Obasanjo joined forces with Igbo leaders and the Obidients in an effort to delegitimize Tinubu’s hard-earned victory by unpatriotically attacking the integrity of INEC and the Supreme Court, two institutions critical to survival of democracy in any society. They in addition openly called for military take-over. Atiku and his supporters headed for America in search of evidence to show Tinubu did not have a degree.
Unfortunately, Pa Adebanjo forgot his Yoruba people never had leaders they could not handle. If such leaders became too powerful and could not be controlled, they would adopt the help of the talking drum while such leaders danced until they discover they dance alone albeit naked.
Yoruba’s recent history is replete with examples. There was not too long ago Ogun Oba koso, the powerful and tyrannical Alaafin of Oyo who committed suicide when he discovered he was dancing naked. We had SLA Akintola, a foremost Yoruba irredentists, a terror to the colonial masters and their preferred northern hegemonic power. Yoruba culture detests biting the finger that once fed you. Following his legal removal from office, he was accused of seeking the help of northern hegemonic feudal lords to upstage Awolowo, his principal. He literarily committed suicide when he took up arms against trained soldiers during January 1966 military coup.
There was also Uncle Bola Ige, loved by the young and the old for being an unrepentant Yoruba irredentist whose major weapon against Yoruba detractors was his caustic tongue. His decision to spite his fellow Yoruba cult of elders to take up national appointment under Obasanjo against the warning of their late leader, Obafemi Awolowo attracted the anger of his fellow elders. He was believed to have been murdered by the state following his attempt to retrace his way back to fold.
Our consolation is that Pa Adebanjo, who like his leader believed that you can only be a good Nigerian if you were first a good representative of your people, will today be comparing note with his leader in the great beyond, a task he anxiously looked up to while with us here.
I have no doubt Awo would be pleased to let him know that he is pleased that Awoism has been repackaged by someone not on the succession line, in a new language now more pleasing to the ears of those who only yesterday complained Awoism jarred their ear lobes.
Awoism, beyond service and search for an egalitarian society, is true federalism, regional autonomy, fairness and distributive justice, virtues without which any nation can progress,
And lastly, Yoruba leadership often comes from behind and seldom from the aristocratic class. Awo the sage himself never had money to attend primary or secondary school at a time his age mates were securing six A1s from Government College, Ibadan Kings College Lagos and proceeding to London to study law. Tinubu is haunted by his poor background and derided by those who could not find his name in Government College Ibadan.
![[OPINION] Money ritual as a gap in knowledge - Abimbola Adelakun](/media/k2/items/cache/f58e2ebda4287de1656790a902146b31_M.jpg)
The recent arrest of an Ilorin-based cleric, Abdulrahman Bello, who allegedly murdered and dismembered Ms Yetunde Lawal, a final-year student at Kwara State College of Education, in the same town has seen us doing the same things we do virtually every time the situation arises. We point accusing fingers at religion and certain sectarian beliefs, culture, society, and one another while wheeling out the squeaky machines of ethical reforms in the bid to charge ourselves to good behaviour. Religious and traditional rulers have been making routine calls for moral reforms.
According to reports, Ilorin Emir Alhaji Ibrahim Sulu-Gambari not only condemned the killing but specifically directed Islamic leaders to ensure their sermons are more pointedly focused on moral values, ethics of hard work, and respect for humanity. Indeed, such moral charges are urgent in a society where the life of a whole human—if one goes by the amount of money Bello allegedly sold the young woman’s dismembered body parts—is far cheaper than that of goats and cows.
The fantastical imagination that money can be procured out of the air rules our society with a force that propels men to do some really terrible things. That is why one cannot entirely rule out the possibility that Bello was into the so-called money rituals even though he—like most who have been arrested for the same crime—looks seriously impoverished. Every single person who has been arrested due to their claims of possessing power to make money through supernatural means always looks like they would faint if they ever saw a million naira (just naira o!) in cash laid out at their feet.
When these things happen, we never get to know anything about the apprehended killer beyond labelling them as misguided youths looking for money. There is a serious shortage of knowledge about these individuals and their circumstances that leads us to assume that this is always what they say it is. But what if these guys are bipolar and have a history of delinquent behaviour or anti-social character? For instance, if it is true that Bello has a collection of women’s property stored in his bedroom as a trophy, that might be a pointer to the nature of his psychopathy. We might be dealing with an extreme case of misogyny, a man killing a woman (or women) just to feel like a man.
In Nigeria, once we diagnose “money ritual” as the standard explanatory paradigm for a type of homicide, all judgment on what else might be at play gets suspended. We turn to ourselves and begin to preach about our materialism and how we ought to shun the path of quick wealth, sermons that will find no feet to stand on the complex grounds of Nigerian reality. How do you sincerely preach the virtues of hard work to people who have seen industry systematically diminished by the socio-political and socio-economic processes? Even our religious and traditional leaders who make the call embody the same phenomenon of wealth without work. They are also the ones who legitimise the crooked people who have managed it to build wealth.
The truth is, you do not need to “work” in the traditional sense of being productive before you can be wealthy and celebrated in present-day Nigeria. You only need to be connected to a grid of individuals whose social network allows them to access the political power that allocates resources. Nigeria is that one place where you can sleep poor and wake up stupendously rich, and that is only because you managed to get into bed with the right person. Since such magical transformation is not seen to be produced by anything tangible other than mere social connections, it acquires a spiritual character.
The yawning gap in the reality of the route it takes to become wealthy is what the likes of Bello exploit by claiming they too have the power to connect others to the source of such wealth. Since you have a moneyed class who do not produce, pretenders of various hues also claim the expertise of the charms of creating something out of nothing. That is why our society is currently swarming with snake oil merchants, charlatans, crass illiterate and self-commissioned prophets, and simonist preachers, all of them promising to help us access magical prosperity.
In all the various calls for moral reforms, nobody seems to be asking professionally trained experts in the academy and elsewhere to divine the nature of the problem we are dealing with so we can accurately direct our moral reform efforts. What if the individuals amid the various instances of the killings for so-called money rituals are just people with varying levels of mental health issues? What if much of what we call “money rituals” are just psychopathic manifestations that very much interact with our larger cultural psychology?
From the reports, it seemed self-evident that this is another case of money ritual. But certainty can also be the enemy of truth. Is there a method to the killing that suggests that there are other psychological factors at play? This is not me asking to be perversely entertained with the lurid details of a homicide, but accounting for the underlying psychology of the alleged killer.
There have been different instances of women killings that were chalked down to ritual murder. At a time, women’s corpses would be found in hotel rooms where they had been killed by a supposed paramour who lured them into those places. Knowing how our morally pretentious society reacts to the news of a woman visiting places like a hotel, some of those murders merely became avenues for sermonising to women about their virtues and the companies they ought to keep. But what if some of those killers are merely hiding behind the popular narrative of ritual murder to perpetrate other sick fantasies? We should not foreclose the possibility that some of these people are sick men who found an outlet for their proclivities through spiritual work.
In Western societies, where serial killings also take place, and where they do not have terms like “money ritual” in their vocabulary to explain seemingly senseless killings, they are more prone to exploring such delinquency more objectively. Fans of crime documentaries will readily testify to the methodical ways they approach those killings to find the killer and understand their underlying motivations. For us, it is always just “money rituals”, as if society and its people cannot also be more complicated. Part of the problem is that the police do not report a forensic investigation into these crimes. Virtually everything we get to know comes from gossipy uninformed media networks more interested in catering to sensationalism than offering clarity. But what if, in our bid to provide a moral explanation for the murders and advocate for ethical reforms, we are lumping different things into the big basket called “money ritual”?
Let me make it clear that asking for some clarity into the nature of the malady that disturbs these killers is not a call for their exoneration. The point is not to give them an alibi that allows them to walk free but to arm the observing society to speak of these things beyond the standard (and superstitious) explanations.
A correct understanding of the substance of psychopathy will go a long way in addressing how, in diagnosing money rituals, we use official means to propagate what might be objectively untrue. The trouble with making money rituals the standard explanatory paradigm is that it becomes a self-reproducing truth. There are people out there who will think there might be some truth to the whole affair and indulge in it too. They will, of course, never make any money but will take lives testing the bunkum!
![[OPINION] As Babangida Re-echoes the Past… - Olusegun Adeniyi](/media/k2/items/cache/54e5925621802ba877447b990663a057_M.jpg)
Today in Abuja, ‘A Journey of Service: An Autobiography’, by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, will be publicly presented. With the book coming 32 years after Babangida ‘stepped aside’ in August 1993, it means that more than 70 percent of Nigerians were not witnesses to the events in the narratives, given our young demographics. Like everything Babangida, as I wrote last August, after the publishers sent me a digital copy (planned pages) of the book while requesting for a blurb, “opinions are bound to be divided about his (Babangida’s) interpretations of some epochal events which discerning readers could argue leave more questions than answers.”
Divided into five parts and 13 chapters, the foreword by General Yakubu Gowon highlights why Babangida’s book is important. “Given the monumental and historical changes that General Babangida presided over, it is only natural that many Nigerians of different generations would be eager to learn first-hand the motivations…and the reasons behind these far-reaching decisions, and events, some of which shook the nation to its very foundation,” Gowon wrote. But the question remains: Will readers be satisfied with the explanations provided by Babangida for some of these ‘far-reaching decisions’? Perhaps the more pertinent question is: Why is Babangida publishing his memoirs now after admittedly rebuffing earlier entreaties from friends, associates and family members to ‘tell his story’? He provides an answer in the prologue. “We live in a country where primarily uninformed commentators are often the final judges of events (that) they know nothing about,” Babangida wrote. “But because I had the honour to lead a chapter in our national journey, my brief encounter with authority and responsibility may interest those with fair minds.”
The account of Babangida’s early years is quite fascinating as he weaves post-colonial political developments with historical and cultural events that shaped his growing up in what is now Niger State. He also explained why he had to change his surname from Badamosi to Babangida in January 1964 because almost everyone he encountered assumed him to be a Yoruba man! But none more revealing is the account of his life at Bida Provincial Secondary School where his classmates included Abdulsalami Abubakar, Sani Bello, Mohammed Mamman Magoro, Garba Duba, Sani Sami, Mohammed Gado Nasko and Mamman Jiya Vatsa—men who, like him, later joined the military and, at different times, held critical positions in Nigeria.
Interestingly, last Tuesday marked the 49th anniversary of the assassination of General Murtala Muhammed in the coup led by Lt Colonel Sukar Bukar Dimka. Drafted by General T.Y. Danjuma to foil Dimka’s coup, Babangida provides revealing insights on the conversation with Dimka, a friend and one of the groomsmen at his wedding (to the late Maryam) in 1969. Not only was Babangida listed among those to be killed that day but was in fact one of the reasons for the coup. Dimka reportedly told Babangida that he was a most hated military officer for being too favoured by their superiors, especially Danjuma. “How could you be a member of the Supreme Military Council?”, Babangida recounted Dimka asking him in those tense moments inside Radio Nigeria premises in Ikoyi, Lagos. But beyond the narrative of the coup, how it was foiled and the subsequent trial of culprits, Babangida also shared insights on how Danjuma (whom most officers preferred) insisted that Obasanjo, rather than him (Danjuma), should be Head of State in the meeting held to replace the assassinated Muhammed.
As an officer during the coup that toppled the First Republic, the countercoup that brought in General Gowon, the civil war that followed and the subsequent coups in which he was a direct participant, Babangida’s accounts of that era are quite profound. For instance, it was Danjuma who proposed the elevation of the late Shehu Musa Yar’Adua from the rank of Lt Colonel to Brigadier General (later, Major General) to become the Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, apparently for ethno-religious balancing in the country. This speaks to the character of Danjuma who chose to be the number three man in Nigeria when he could easily have been number one. Meanwhile, six months earlier, following the overthrow of Gowon, when senior officers canvassed that Muhammed should head a collegiate leadership of himself, Obasanjo and Danjuma, he (Muhammed) rejected the idea at a meeting Babangida said lasted several hours, insisting that as Head of State, he (Muhammed) would not share power with anyone.
Expectedly, Babangida’s book details his rise to power in 1985 as a military president and the reform programmes initiated while in office. But the most consequential chapters are ‘The Challenges of Leadership’ and ‘Transition to Civil Rule and the June 12 Saga’. The issues addressed in the first (chapter ten) include the death of Dele Giwa, a personal friend with whom he spoke often on phone and met a few times; the Gideon Orkar coup that tried to divide the country; the OIC Palaver; the 1989 SAP (Structural Adjustment Programme) riots, the Nigeria Airforce C-130 plane crash involving 151 mid-career military officers and what he described as “a deep personal sense of betrayal”—the coup involving his friend, Mamman Vatsa whose execution he sanctioned.
Readers should find out his take on Dele Giwa’s assassination and other issues but on Vatsa, Babangida painted a picture of close friendship that started from childhood and how at some point in their lives they both shared a room. “We would reach out for whatever shirt was available, irrespective of whose it was, and just wear it and head out! We were that close,” Babangida wrote while explaining how he found out later that Vatsa was always jealous of his achievements. He also explained the encounters he had with Vatsa when there were rumours about the plot and the mediatory roles played by others before the coup unravelled. “Being intermediate and senior officers, they were fully aware of the consequences of planning a coup and failing,” Babangida wrote to explain why Vatsa had to die by firing squad. “That is one of the most elementary lessons every military officer knows by heart.”
Perhaps the account most Nigerians have been waiting for is that on June 12 and Babangida renders it in chapter 12. The central character in the narrative is General Sani Abacha. In fact, according to Babangida, Abacha annulled the June 12 (1993) presidential election! I leave readers to find out the details and reach their own conclusions.
From cover to cover, each page of Babangida’s memoir promised more and more insight into the military and the Nigerian state. He also highlights some of his foreign interventions, including initiating ECOMOG which helped to end the war in Liberia and Sierra Leone. And he sheds light on several domestic issues regarding his administration—convincingly in some, not so in others. He also lays the boot into a number of key players of that era, in a few cases, with innuendoes. But in a way, Babangida also knows that in the eyes of most Nigerians of a certain generation, his stewardship will forever be defined by ‘June 12’ on which he expressed regrets. “If I have to do it all over again,” he wrote, “I’d do it differently.” Sadly, in statecraft, rarely do leaders get a second chance to make a first impression.
Meanwhile, I wrote four books on that elastic transition to civil rule programme which ended with the death of Abacha. The first, ‘Fortress on Quicksand’ was on the futile efforts by 23 presidential aspirants in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and National Republican Convention (NRC) before they were all disqualified and banned from contesting elections. The second, ‘POLITRICKS: National Assembly under Military Dictatorship’, detailed the intrigues of having a civilian legislature with Babangida as a military president. The third, ‘Abiola’s Travails’ was published to mark his (Abiola’s) 60th birthday at a period he was in detention. ‘The Last 100 Days of Abacha’ completed the series. I have combined (and edited) them into one book that will be released in June this year.
Writing a memoir—especially by those who have held leadership positions at the highest political levels—involves walking back through countless challenges and tough decisions. With his memoir, Babangida has shown proof of a retirement spent reflecting on a nation that gave him everything; and to which he gave his best, notwithstanding the ironies of history. Regardless of how some readers may perceive Babangida, his ‘Journey of Service’ provides historical context to some of the issues that dogged the administration he led. His recollections may not provide all the answers, and there are aspects many will dispute, but at least he has reopened the conversation about a troubled and troublesome era in Nigerian history.
Adebanjo’s Glorious Exit
I have had the privilege of close interactions with Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo for more than three decades and as I wrote in my tribute to him when he marked his 90th birthday in April 2018, he is a man of unbending conviction who neither sits on the fence nor tiptoes around issues. On Nigeria, he is a passionate advocate for restructuring the country along the federal arrangement we had in the First Republic before the military interruption. Last Saturday, we had our usual conversation in which I argued, as I always did, that as defective as the current structure may be, with good governance and a leadership that appreciates and properly manages our diversity, we can still attain peace and prosperity. But for the first time, and Adebanjo must have noticed, my argument lacked conviction so when he sounded off with his usual refrain, “Ọwọ́ yín ló dẹ̀ kù sí. Àwa ti se ti wá” (It’s now in the hands of your generation. Mine has done its best.) I had a troubling time processing our conversation thereafter…
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The foregoing is excerpted from my presentation at the annual conference of the Nigeria Union of Journalist (NUJ) Lagos Chapter where I was guest speaker on 20th October 2021. But in the weeks following that presentation, the late Adebanjo kept calling that he needed to see me. So, on 8th March 2022, I heeded that invitation by going to Lagos and returning to Abuja immediately after our session that lasted about three hours. Quite naturally, our discussion centred on the past, present and future of Nigeria. Although we kept exchanging calls until a few months ago, that happened to be the last time I saw the old man until I heard about his death last Friday. Adebanjo deserves a proper tribute from me and I will do that at the appropriate time. But for now, I join in extending my commiseration to his family. As I told his son, Segun Adebanjo, (a friend from our campus days at Ife in the late eighties) last Friday on phone, “Ẹ̀yìn bàbá ti dára.” May God comfort the family he left behind.
Between ARCON and Business Owners
Following my recent column, ‘Creating a Ganu-Si Economy’, which dwelt on how most government agencies serve as impediments to entrepreneurship, some supporters of the Advertising Regulatory Commission of Nigeria (ARCON) have written several articles in ‘response’. Although none has been sent to me, perhaps because ARCON is relying on third parties, I read them. And they all miss the point. By arguing that my friend who owns a restaurant attracted the hefty fine of N1 milion on two occasions because she circumvented the law that required payment of N15,000 fee and submission of the ‘promo’ for ARCON vetting, they make their case even worse.
In the ‘2024 Budget of Professional Bodies/Councils of Agencies Removed from the FGN Funding’, released by the Budget Office of the Federation, ARCON is number one on the list. While it projected a gross revenue of N1,096,166,050, the agency proposed a total expenditure of N3,716,582,290. With that humongous deficit of N2,620,416,240 between revenue and expenditure, one can only sympathise with ARCON for its increasing desperation. The agency has the second highest expenditure and the highest deficit of the 26 professional bodies on the list. While other professional bodies generate their revenues mainly through membership dues and align expenditure with their revenues, ARCON has had to resort to levying a tax, which it calls vetting fees, on whatever it defines as advertisement or exposure on any platform, including on the social media pages of individuals and small businesses, just to rake in money.
The fact that each message/post deemed as an advert by ARCON will attract a vetting fee says it all: this is more about revenue than about vetting. It is equally insightful that the punishment for not submitting even social media posts for clearance is 50 times the vetting fee. Equally interesting is that ARCON can threaten to arraign ‘defaulters’ before its own tribunal, which can impose fines and even jail terms. ARCON and its defenders are clearly not perturbed by the implication of such threats and taxes for big and small businesses operating in our tough environment.
The Chairman of the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele, summed up my position last Thursday at the inaugural Economic Roundtable/2025 macroeconomic outlook event of rating firm Agusto & Co., held in Lagos. For the benefit of ARCON and its defenders, here is what Oyedele said: “Nigeria’s tax system is unconducive for growth. We are trying to grow, but we’re struggling, and the tax system is holding us down. It has plenty of taxes and taxing agencies everywhere you turn. It doesn’t matter whether you’re small or big, whether you are formal or informal; we tax anything and everything that moves. If it keeps moving, we tax it even again. We tax it even more. We’re speaking to small business owners, and one woman said something to me that I will not forget. She said that it feels like the Nigerian system and the government are feasting on businesses. And I challenge anyone who wants to do a social experiment. Just do a banner; anything that comes to mind will be tailoring. Just write it and place it by the road. Find a plastic chair, sit back about two meters away, and watch what will happen within two days. I promise you, at least five agencies will show up, from business premises to advert levy to permit. You have not even found one customer. One of my hopes and dreams for this country is that in my lifetime, you put up that banner and you receive calls from different government agencies, one asking you whether you know about credit facilities for your sector. ‘We have this capacity development for people doing your business. Would you be interested? Do you need any access to this and that?’ Let’s support ourselves to prosper…”
Those are not my words; they are the words of Oyedele who is one of the leading authorities on such matters today. And it could not have been an accident that he cited ‘advert levy’ as one of the examples of the ways government agencies make life difficult for owners of small businesses in Nigeria.
To demonstrate that ARCON has mutated into a revenue-generating agency, below are the vetting rates advertised by the agency effective 1 January 2024. It was segmented into seven categories. Under ‘Career Matters’, Exam Registration Fee will attract N10,000; Examination Late Registration Fee, N20,000; Examination Subject Fee, N15,000; Exemption Fee, N15,000; EMR, N350,000; EMR (Non-Nigerian), N1,000,000; Accreditation Fee (Higher Institution), N1,000,000. For ‘Annual Practice Fee’, Associate Member will pay, N20,000; Full Member, N30,000; Fellowship Member, N50,000 and Membership Certificate Re-Issuance, N50,000. For ‘Corporate License’, Application will attract N100,000; Fee for three years, N450,000; Consultancy, N225,000; Inspection Fee (Lagos), N200,000; Accelerated Inspection Fee (Lagos), N300,000; Inspection Fee (Outside Lagos), N300,000; Accelerated Inspection Fee (Outside Lagos), N500,000; Corporate License Re-Issuance, N100,000.
But it is clear that ARCON targets businesses to fund the bulk of its hefty budget, since advertising professionals are not that many and since it secured legislative backing to vet and tax anything featured anywhere that it describes as advertisement. For ‘Advertisement Vetting (Traditional Media)’, Regular—Brands, Political, Cause, Ideation will attract payment of N35,000. Meanwhile for Accelerated, 4 Hours, N600,000; 8 hours, N400,000 and 16 hours, N250,000. For ‘Advertisement Vetting (Online Platform)’, Regular—Brands, Political, Cause, Ideation goes for N20,000 while for Accelerated, 4 hours attracts N250,000, 8 hours, N150,000 and 16 hours, N100,000. For the ‘Vetting (SME Category)’, Regular (Brands, Political, Cause, Ideation) goes for N20,000; 8 Working Hours, N150,000; and 16 Working Hours Acceleration, N100,000. Membership of NASME certification by SMEDAN is also required. For ‘Special Category’, the rate is N1,000,000 each for Lottery, Lotto, Game; Betting, Gambling, Wager and Promotion, Raffles, Draws, with the last two subject to a 16 hours vetting window. Meanwhile, Variation (Foreign Talent) will attract N2,500,000 while Variation (Foreign Production) goes for N3,000,000.
With these steep rates, which are per advert, it is very clear that revenue generation has now become the main objective of ARCON. Regulation is just a convenient cover. By the way, I have no problem with the need for regulation in certain critical and sensitive areas of national life. But I have problems with the sweeping powers granted to an organisation like ARCON, and the danger their operations pose to entrepreneurship, economic growth and even constitutionally-guaranteed free speech in Nigeria.
![[OPINION] How To Make INEC Truly Independent - SKC Ogbonnia](/media/k2/items/cache/9ad496b58115012e6bd65035043fb1b9_M.jpg)
It is a common knowledge that the root cause of Nigeria’s problem is lack of good leadership. Yet, the leaders appear to make no serious efforts towards concrete solutions. Instead, they make the leadership process so deceitful, dishonest, and deadly. To that end, politics is abandoned to a small clique of the corrupt class. The most shameless in the Nigeria’s leadership process is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
As the name suggests, the INEC was envisioned as an independent organization in line with item F,14(2c) of the Third Schedule of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (as amended). This section states unequivocally that any of its members must “be nonpartisan and a person of unquestionable integrity.” The Constitution also vests the appointment of principal INEC officials with the president of the country. Unfortunately, most of the appointees have been neither nonpartisan nor independent.
An alarming flashback is the case of Lorretta Onochie, who was once nominated as a National Commissioner for the INEC. To begin with, she was at the time a rabid promoter of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, and equally the Senior Special Assistant on Social Media to President Muhammadu Buhari. Even worse, Onochie was a virally controversial figure, an extremist rabble-rouser, who used to clown around the country parading offensive, partisan fallacies as federal decrees.
The objective motive behind Onochie’s nomination, therefore, was to wreak havoc and stoke controversies within the INEC at the expense of the opposing parties.
Despite Onochie’s shaming reputation and uproar within the civil society, Buhari still damned the consequences and continued to push her case. The saving grace was that the Senate yielded to public outcry and managed to find a hole to nail her nomination. The Upper House explained that questionable integrity notwithstanding, her nomination violated the Federal Character Principle. There was already a serving National Electoral Commissioner from her home state of Delta State, Barr. Mary Agbamuche-Mbu.
But the partisan intrigue within the INEC did not start nor end with Muhammadu Buhari and the ruling APC. Former presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan, and the Peoples’ Democratic Party were no different. Not surprisingly, President Bola Tinubu is already trending in a similar direction.
Such open partisan and dictatorial grip of the INEC has been a major reason Nigerian elections cannot be mentioned in the same breath with the term “free and fair.” That is a major reason potential good leaders but who have no connection to the corrupt class always shy away from politics. However, instead of placing the blame squarely where it belongs, the INEC Chairman is typically the scapegoat.
For instance, as the country geared for the 2011 election, the debate centered on Maurice Iwu, a renowned Professor of Pharmacognosy, who served as the INEC boss in the controversial elections of 2007. To many Nigerians, Mr. Iwu was the problem, and the problem was Mr. Iwu.
It was generally believed that a mere change in leadership of the INEC was the sole panacea for a free and fair election in the country. Accordingly, President Goodluck Jonathan appointed a new chairman in Professor Attahiru Jega, another astute intellectual, a move widely hailed. Yet, after the 2011 general elections, despite the fact that its conduct showed significant improvement, the opposition groups claimed that the ruling party colluded with the INEC to falsify electoral results.
In the words of Muhammadu Buhari, who was the main opposition candidate in the 2011 elections, the magnitude of malpractices “eclipsed all the other elections in the depth and scope of forgery and rigging. Initially, there were high hopes that after 2003 and 2007 a semblance of electoral propriety would be witnessed. The new chairman of INEC, Professor Jega, was touted as competent and a man of integrity. He has proved neither.”
Upon gaining power in 2015, President Buhari quickly ousted Jega and brought in an equally distinguished professor, Mahmud Yakubu, who would go on to oversee the 2019 and 2023 elections. But the situation only seemed to worsen.
In rejecting the results of the 2019 presidential elections, Atiku Abubakar, the runner-up candidate, remarked as follows: “the electoral fraud perpetrated by the Buhari administration this past Saturday cannot produce a government of the people for the simple reason that it does not reflect the will of the Nigerian people.”
In his reaction after the 2023 presidential election, Mr. Peter Obi of Labour Party, who came third in the polls, stated that the 2023 exercise “will probably go down as one of the most controversial elections ever conducted in Nigeria. The good and hardworking people of Nigeria have again been robbed by the institutions and leaders whom we trusted.”
A salient factor that has not received adequate attention in the contextual analysis of INEC is that, besides its chairman, the other principal officers who represent the electoral body from the national to the ward levels are typically the sympathizers or card-carrying members of the ruling party. To that end, even where the INEC was able to produce a semblance of a free and fair election, the opposition usually hides behind the partisan shade of the commission to occasion a flood of conspiracies to wash away the credibility of the election. This distrust only goes to undermine the sanctity of the elections, deepen the depth of the disrepute commonly associated with the country’s democracy; and consequently, drive good people away from participation.
To improve the system, Nigeria should explore a multi-party electoral commission. A multi-party structure, with members nominated by the different political parties, will strengthen the needed checks and balances within the commission itself. This approach should extend to the recruitment of electoral officers from the national down to the ward levels and polling booths. A multi-party structure can restore confidence and ensure trust throughout the width and breadth of the commission.
This proposal is not entirely new. It parallels the position of the main opposition party in the 2007 election, the All Nigeria’s Peoples Party (ANPP), where Emmanuel Eneukwu, its National Publicity Secretary at the time, and who is currently the Deputy National Chairman (South) of the ruling APC, canvassed for a review of the electoral laws to include members of the different political parties in the leadership of National Election Commission.
The multi-party electoral model is the core of the American system, which remains a paragon of democracy. Members to both the federal and state election commissions are drawn from the country’s two major political parties. The apparent political equipoise profoundly promotes internal checks and balances within the system. Thus, even if where a questionable character is nominated to an electoral commission in any of the states, the opposition party would reject or counter such nomination accordingly.
The partisan balance within the U.S. electoral system, more than any other factor, accounts for the widely celebrated vitality of the American institutions. It also accounts for why and how President Donald Trump could not succeed in his asinine scheme to compel some state electoral bodies, including those controlled by his party, to overturn the 2020 U.S. presidential election in his favour.
Perhaps Nigeria has explored various strategies over the years to checkmate partisan maneuvers within the INEC. The electoral body has recruited members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) and university professors to assist in recent exercises. There were equally past efforts, for example, the 2008 Electoral Reform Committee (ERC), which proposed, among other things, that a neutral body, particularly the National Judicial Council, should appoint all the INEC officials, including its chairman. The ERC also called for the members of INEC to include representatives of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) and the News Media, etc.
The idea of a neutral electoral body is superficially attractive. But recruiting people from a cadre of pliant Nigerian institutions and expecting them to be impartial is no different from perceiving a stench as an aroma. Not surprisingly, the university recruits are always accused of partiality or being wholly subservient to the parties in power either at the states or the federal level.
Constituting INEC with officials who have clear party identification offers best compromise. Unlike other institutions, the political party has the potential to provoke steadfast allegiance from the people—far more than tribe, religion, and even more than blood relationships, especially in Nigeria, where prebendal politics dictates the content and character of socio-economic wellbeing. True independence or neutrality of INEC is more attainable in an environment where two or more independent parties can checkmate each other from acting contrary to the stated objectives.
This proposal is no rocket science. But it is clear the problem with INEC is willful. In my conversation with then Senate President, Ken Nnamani, in 2005, he regrated that most Nigerian leaders know what to do to improve the system but choose to do otherwise. They becloud themselves with an assumption that “no party wants to kill itself”, he said. In other words, improving the system would engender true competition and chances of defeat. But I leave us with this admonition from a former U.S. president, John F. Kennedy “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.”
SKC Ogbonnia, a former APC Presidential Aspirant, writes from Ugbo, Enugu State, Nigeria.
![[OPINION] China DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Model Shocks the AI World - Sonny Iroche](/media/k2/items/cache/5f9d90187fa40e553c28df21241d6544_M.jpg)
After completing my Senior Academic Fellowship at the African Studies Centre at the University of Oxford in 2023, I decided to pursue a one-year postgraduate program in Artificial Intelligence for Business at the Saïd Business School of the University of Oxford. This decision has significantly intensified my interest in AI, prompting me to author several articles on the subject.
In my piece titled "The Race for AI Supremacy," published in Thisday newspapers on May 2, 2024, I noted, “AI has emerged as a transformative force in the modern world, revolutionizing industries and reshaping economies. In the rapidly evolving AI landscape, leading nations such as the USA, China, the UK, India, the EU, and Israel have made substantial advancements in AI development. Consequently, the regulation of AI has become essential to ensure its responsible and ethical application...”.
The launch of ChatGPT by OpenAI in November 2022 positioned the USA as a clear frontrunner in the AI arena, especially alongside the major chip manufacturer, Nvidia. The foremost AI companies are primarily based in the USA. However, this status quo seems poised for a shift beginning in January 2025, when the AI community was taken by surprise with the introduction of DeepSeek, an obscure and hitherto unknown Chinese firm, and its R1 model, an Open Source platform. On the debut of DeepSeek R1 model, Nvidia lost about $500billion of its stock valuation, while the NYSE lost over 17% of its share value, ever one-day loss in the history of the Stock Market.
In the February 1st-7th 2025 edition of The Economist, it was reported that: “….DeepSeek’s origins lie in an effort to improve High-Flyer’s algorithms. In 2019 the firm invested 200million Yuan to set up a separate unit to develop its own deep-learning platform, called “High-Flyer 1”. The fund poured 1billion Yuan into the effort in 2021 in order to launch a second iteration armed with 10,000 of Nvidia’s A100 graphics- processing units. This made High-Flyer an outlier: at the time just four other firms in China held such large arsenals of powerful chips, all of which were tech giants such as Alibaba. DeepSeek was made a standalone company in 2023.
It delivered its first jolt to the market in May last year, when it released an ultra cheap chatbot based on its V2 model”.
“…DeepSeek’s new R1 model, which has shocked the West, suggests it is making progress. The company says it cost less than $6 million to train a tiny fraction of comparable models from firms such as OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT. Sam Altman, OpenAI’s boss, has called R1 “impressive”. There is also speculation that DeepSeek has trained its models by studying the results of American ones, a process known as “distillation”. OpenAI has said it has evidence that point to DeepSeek distilling its models, in violation of its terms of service”.
Such claims have been dismissed by some AI analysts, as a case of sour grapes.
I will not join that school of thoughts of those who quickly dismiss the accusations of OpenAI, neither would I lend credence to the accusations, I will rather opine that if OpenAI has any substantial evidence or proof to that effect, it should seek redress in a court of competent jurisdiction.
Now a number of non-AI people may be wondering what distillation is all about.
Let me try to explain what it is in as simplest of terms that one could.
Distillation is a powerful technique in AI design and development that allows practitioners to leverage the strengths of large models while creating more efficient alternatives. By understanding and effectively implementing the distillation process, developers can build models that maintain high accuracy while being suitable for real-world applications where computational and financial resources are a concern.
Distillation in AI design and development can be likened to a process where a smaller, more efficient model (often called a "student" model) is trained to replicate the performance of a larger, more complex model (known as the "teacher" model). This technique is especially useful in scenarios where deploying large models is impractical due to resource constraints, such as memory, computation power, or latency requirements.
Below is a detailed description of the distillation process and its various aspects:
• Understanding the Models
- Teacher Model: This is typically a large, high-capacity model (like a deep neural network) that has been trained on a specific task and achieves high performance metrics. It captures complex patterns and relationships in the data.
- Student Model: This is a smaller, more efficient model that aims to approximate the performance of the teacher model while being less resource-intensive. The student model can be a smaller neural network or a different architecture altogether.
• Data Preparation
- Dataset Selection: The dataset used for distillation should ideally be the same or similar to the one used to train the teacher model. This ensures that the student model learns from the same data distribution.
- Input Processing: Data preprocessing steps (normalization, augmentation, etc.) are applied to the input data to maintain consistency between the teacher and student models.
• Output Generation from the Teacher Model
- Soft Targets: Instead of using the hard labels (e.g., class labels) from the original dataset for training the student, the outputs (predictions) of the teacher model are used. These outputs often include probabilities for each class, which provide more nuanced information about the data distribution.
- Logits Extraction: The logits (raw output scores before applying softmax) from the teacher model can be used to generate soft targets, which provide richer information about class relationships and can help the student model generalize better.
• Training the Student Model
- Loss Function: The training process typically involves a modified loss function. A common approach is to use a combination of two losses:
- Distillation Loss: This measures how closely the student model's output matches the teacher model's soft targets. It often uses Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence or cross-entropy loss.
- Hard Target Loss: This measures how well the student model predicts the true labels from the dataset. This is typically a standard cross-entropy loss.
- Temperature Scaling: A temperature parameter is used during the softmax computation of the teacher model's outputs. Higher temperatures soften the probability distribution, allowing the student model to learn from the relative differences between classes rather than absolute probabilities.
- Training Procedure: The student model is trained using the combined loss function, iteratively updating its weights to minimize this loss. The training process may involve techniques such as backpropagation and gradient descent.
• Evaluation and Fine-tuning
- Performance Evaluation: After training, the student model is evaluated on a validation dataset to assess its performance. Key metrics might include accuracy, precision, recall, and F1 score.
- Hyperparameter Tuning: Based on evaluation results, hyperparameters (like learning rate, batch size, etc.) can be adjusted to improve the student's performance.
- Fine-Tuning: In some cases, additional fine-tuning of the student model may be performed to further enhance its performance on specific tasks or datasets.
• Deployment
- Model Compression: The trained student model is often more compact and faster to execute than the teacher model, making it suitable for deployment in environments with limited resources, such as mobile devices or edge computing.
- Inference Optimization: Techniques like quantization and pruning can be applied to further optimize the student model for inference, reducing memory footprint and increasing speed.
• Monitoring and Iteration
- Real-World Performance Monitoring: Once deployed, the performance of the student model should be monitored in real-world applications. Any drift in data distribution or performance can necessitate re-training or further distillation.
- Iterative Improvement: The distillation process can be iteratively refined by using feedback from real-world performance, adjusting the architecture of the student model, or retraining with updated datasets.
Having briefly highlighted the AI supremacy race between the USA and China, it will be interesting to focus attention on AI development in Africa by looking the state of the subject matter in the context of Africa.
The State of AI Preparedness and Development in Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
The potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform economies and countries is immense, yet many African nations, particularly the leading economies on the continent such as Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, and Rwanda, face significant challenges in their preparedness and adaptation of AI. The extreme lack of resources, infrastructural deficits, unreliable data, and inadequate computational power severely hinder the development and adoption of AI technologies on the continent. Let me delve into some of these challenges, highlights the current state of AI capabilities in these countries, and suggests how African nations can leverage their limited pool of trained professionals to drive an AI revolution. A few of the African countries, Egypt, Morocco, and Algeria may be better equipped than the others for an AI revolution, but their inputs in world AI technologies have been negligible, to say the least.
Theses are some of the Challenges to AI Development in Africa.
First; Lack of Resources:
Many African countries struggle with limited financial resources that can be allocated to AI research and development. This lack of funding affects various levels of AI initiatives, from academic research to the establishment of startups focused on AI solutions. Governments often prioritize immediate socio-economic challenges—such as healthcare, education, and infrastructure—over long-term investments in technology. As a result, AI initiatives often lack the necessary financial backing to thrive.
Secondly, Inadequate Infrastructure:
The infrastructural deficit in many African countries poses a significant barrier to AI development. Reliable electricity, high-speed internet, and modern computing facilities are prerequisites for AI research and deployment. Unfortunately, many regions still experience frequent power outages and have limited access to the internet, which hampers the ability to conduct data-intensive AI research or run complex algorithms effectively. Without a robust infrastructure, the potential for leveraging AI to address local challenges is severely diminished.
Thirdly; Data Reliability and Availability:
High-quality, reliable data is the lifeblood of AI systems. However, many African countries suffer from a lack of comprehensive data collection mechanisms, resulting in poor data quality and availability. Government databases may be underdeveloped, and private sector data collection may not be standardized or systematically managed. This lack of reliable data significantly hampers the training of AI models, which require vast amounts of high-quality data to function effectively.
Fourthly; Limited Compute Power:
AI development relies heavily on advanced computational power, often provided through powerful GPUs and cloud computing resources. Many African countries lack access to these essential technologies, limiting their ability to develop sophisticated AI algorithms and conduct meaningful research. The high costs associated with acquiring cutting-edge computing infrastructure further exacerbate these challenges, making it difficult for local researchers and startups to compete on a global scale.
Fifthly; Insufficient Support for AI Research:
The absence of a supportive ecosystem for AI research—comprising funding, mentorship, and collaboration opportunities—hinders the growth of AI capabilities. Research institutions often lack the necessary frameworks to attract and retain talent, resulting in brain drain as trained professionals migrate to countries with better opportunities. This issue is particularly pronounced in leading economies like Nigeria and South Africa, where despite having a pool of talent, the environment for research and innovation can be stifling.
How can Africa scale its AI involvement?
Leveraging Trained Professionals
Despite these challenges, Africa has a unique opportunity to capitalize on its growing number of citizens who have been trained in reputable AI research institutions and universities worldwide, such as the University of Oxford, MIT, Imperial College, Cambridge, and the University of Toronto, just to name a few. These individuals possess the skills and knowledge necessary to drive the continent's AI initiatives forward. Here are ways to leverage this talent pool:
Encouraging Return Migration:
African governments can create attractive conditions for trained professionals to return and contribute to local AI ecosystems. This could involve offering competitive salaries, research grants, and tax incentives for those who establish AI startups or collaborate with local universities and research institutes.
Building Academic Partnerships:
Collaboration between local universities and top-tier institutions abroad can facilitate knowledge transfer and create research opportunities. Programs that allow for exchange visits, joint research projects, and workshops can enhance the skill sets of local researchers and elevate the quality of AI research conducted in Africa.
Establishing AI Incubators and Hubs:
Creating innovation hubs and incubators that specifically focus on AI can foster collaboration among researchers, startups, and government agencies. These hubs can provide the necessary resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities to accelerate AI development and support the commercialization of innovative solutions.
Government Support and Policy Frameworks:
The governments of leading economies like Nigeria, South Africa, Morocco, Algeria, Kenya, and Ivory Coast must develop comprehensive policies that prioritize AI development. This includes investing in research funding, establishing regulatory frameworks that encourage innovation, and creating public-private partnerships to facilitate AI projects.
Focusing on Local Challenges:
By directing AI research towards solving local challenges—such as healthcare delivery, agriculture, security, banking & financial services, and urban planning—African nations can ensure that AI technologies are relevant and beneficial to their populations. This localized approach can also attract funding and support from international organizations and investors interested in impactful projects.
The state of AI preparedness in many African countries, particularly among the leading economies in the region is characterized by significant challenges stemming from inadequate resources, infrastructure deficits, unreliable data, and limited computational power. However, by leveraging the skills of trained professionals and fostering an environment conducive to AI research and development, these nations can position themselves at the forefront of the AI revolution. With strategic investments, supportive policies, and a focus on local challenges, Africa can harness AI to drive economic growth, enhance public services, and improve the quality of life for millions. The potential is vast, but realizing it will require concerted efforts and collaboration between governments, academia, and the private sector.
Sonny Iroche is a Senior Academic Fellow, African Studies Centre 2022-2023 and Post Graduate AI for Business Saïd Business School. University of Oxford. UK
[OPINION] Unlike Kate Henshaw, Some Nigerian Celebrities Mistake Controversy For Achievement - Isaac Asabor
Admin![[OPINION] Unlike Kate Henshaw, Some Nigerian Celebrities Mistake Controversy For Achievement - Isaac Asabor](/media/k2/items/cache/698bd3b2c653b463ffac2cdb190eb146_S.jpg)
In the contemporary Nigerian entertainment industry, an unsettling trend has emerged: the glorification of controversy as a means of remaining relevant. Some celebrities, either ignorantly or deliberately, believe that being constantly embroiled in controversy equates to success. This misguided ideology is fueled by the unquenchable thirst for public attention, social media engagement, and brand endorsement deals. However, the reality is that controversy, when not carefully managed, often leads to a damaging reputation, career stagnation, and, in some cases, irreparable downfall.
Given the allure of controversy, it is little wonder that the Nigerian entertainment industry is replete with celebrities who thrive on controversy. From musicians to actors, influencers, and reality TV stars, many have mastered the art of staying in the headlines through scandalous actions and statements. The rise of social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok has further enabled this trend, allowing celebrities to instantly engage millions with provocative content.
Some celebrities see controversy as a surefire way to remain relevant, especially in an industry where public attention is fleeting. They stir public emotions by engaging in online feuds, making outrageous statements, or displaying socially unacceptable behavior. The resultant buzz generates clicks, shares, and comments, creating the illusion of fame and influence. In reality, this notoriety often comes at a great cost.
Unfortunately, there is a price of controversial fame, and which is damagingly costly. While controversy might bring temporary fame, it seldom leads to lasting success. In Nigeria, we have seen celebrities who were once household names fade into obscurity due to their inability to transition from scandal-driven popularity to substance-driven success. A case in point is some musicians who gained fame through provocative lyrics and gimmicks but struggled to maintain relevance when public interest shifted.
Brands and corporate organizations, which play a crucial role in the financial sustenance of celebrities, are cautious about associating with individuals who thrive on controversy. While some may leverage scandalous moments for short-term marketing, they often distance themselves when the public backlash becomes intense. The result is that these celebrities, despite their online fame, struggle to secure long-term deals and endorsements.
At the core of this issue is ignorance. Many of these celebrities do not understand that being relevant in entertainment goes beyond social media outrage. They lack the awareness that true success comes from talent, consistency, and personal brand management. A musician who invests in controversy rather than refining their artistry will soon be overtaken by those who focus on their craft. An actor who engages in endless social media drama rather than improving their skills will be left behind when the industry evolves.
Unfortunately, some of these celebrities do not realize the negative impact of their actions until it is too late. Many fail to build a solid legacy and eventually find themselves sidelined when public sentiment turns against them. Some even resort to desperate measures, such as fake scandals and publicity stunts, just to remain in the limelight.
Looking at the issue from the perspective of the role of social media and the press, it is germane to opine that social media has played a significant role in fostering this culture of controversy. With the increasing demand for content and entertainment, many blogs and media outlets thrive on sensational stories. This has created an ecosystem where celebrities feel pressured to stay relevant by any means necessary.
Moreover, the rise of clickbait journalism has further worsened the situation. Many online platforms prioritize engagement over credibility, publishing stories that sensationalize controversies involving celebrities. This cycle of controversy and media exploitation fuels the perception that remaining in the public eye, regardless of the circumstances, is a sign of success.
Rather than relying on controversy, Nigerian celebrities should focus on building lasting careers rooted in talent, discipline, and strategic brand management. There are numerous examples of Nigerian entertainers who have remained relevant for decades without resorting to controversy. These individuals have consistently delivered quality work, maintained professionalism, and cultivated strong relationships within the industry.
A prime example is Kate Henshaw, an actress who has remained relevant in Nollywood not through controversy but through talent, hard work, and professionalism. Kate Henshaw has built an enviable career by focusing on her craft, making strategic career moves, and maintaining a scandal-free public image. Her ability to reinvent herself over the years and stay at the top of her game without indulging in unnecessary drama is a testament to the fact that talent and integrity are the true determinants of success.
Similarly, Nigerian comedians such as Basketmouth and Ali Baba have stayed relevant without unnecessary drama. Their ability to evolve, create meaningful content, and maintain professionalism has ensured their continued success in an industry where many have come and gone.
It is imperative to educate upcoming entertainers on the dangers of building a career on controversy. Entertainment academies, mentorship programs, and industry stakeholders must emphasize the importance of personal branding, ethics, and professionalism. Young talents should understand that while controversy may offer temporary fame, it is not a sustainable strategy for success.
Furthermore, the media has a responsibility to promote stories that celebrate talent, innovation, and hard work rather than solely focusing on controversies. By shifting the narrative, the industry can encourage celebrities to prioritize substance over scandal.
While controversy may provide short-term attention, it is not an achievement. The ignorance of some Nigerian celebrities in mistaking controversy for success is a dangerous trend that must be addressed. True success in the entertainment industry is built on talent, consistency, and professionalism. Until celebrities begin to prioritize these values over cheap publicity, the industry will continue to witness a cycle of fleeting fame and regretful downfalls.
The time has come for Nigerian celebrities to rise above controversy and embrace meaningful engagement with their audience. In the end, history remembers those who leave a legacy of impact, not those who merely trended for the wrong reasons. Kate Henshaw remains a shining example of a celebrity who has built a lasting and respectable career through dedication, talent, and integrity, proving that real success transcends the fleeting nature of controversy.
[OPINION] Shame To Death: Ayo Adebanjo And Edwin Clarke’s Words On The Marble Will Never Be Silenced - Isaac Asabor
Admin![[OPINION] Shame To Death: Ayo Adebanjo And Edwin Clarke’s Words On The Marble Will Never Be Silenced - Isaac Asabor](/media/k2/items/cache/3ab29334119ad7f1a8108d39fdb87515_S.jpg)
Death may have stolen the mortal presence of Ayo Adebanjo and Edwin Clarke, but it has failed woefully to silence their voices. These two towering figures, who dedicated their lives to speaking truth to power, left behind words that remain inscribed on the marble of Nigeria’s conscience. Their unwavering advocacy for justice, equity, and good governance continues to resonate, serving as a moral compass in a nation riddled with corruption, ethnic strife, and leadership failure. With their departure, a gaping void has been created in sincere and fearless advocacy, leaving Nigeria bereft of two of its most courageous voices.
The demise of these legendary nationalists is not just a loss to their families or political affiliates; it is a grievous wound inflicted upon the very soul of Nigeria. For decades, Adebanjo and Clarke stood firm, unyielding in their quest for a better Nigeria. Their words, bold and piercing, unsettled the corrupt and comforted the oppressed. In a country where sycophancy has become a thriving industry and many so-called activists have succumbed to the seductive embrace of power, these two men remained unbought and unbowed. Their advocacy was neither for self-enrichment nor for the fleeting applause of the public but for the collective good of all Nigerians.
To start with, the indelible mark of Ayo Adebanjo would always be remembered by posterity. Pa Adebanjo, a staunch Awoist, was a man of impeccable integrity. Throughout his political career and his time as a leader of Afenifere, the Yoruba socio-political group, he consistently stood on the side of justice. He was unapologetic in his criticism of bad governance, regardless of who was in power. His fearless denunciation of the misrule of successive governments was legendary. From the military era to the civilian dispensation, Adebanjo never wavered in calling out injustices, be it electoral fraud, economic mismanagement, or constitutional imbalance.
He advocated for true federalism, knowing that the lopsided structure of Nigeria was a recipe for perpetual discontent. He often argued that without restructuring, Nigeria would continue to grope in darkness, hamstrung by an over-centralized system that stifles progress and breeds marginalization. Unlike many of his contemporaries who compromised their principles for political expediency, Adebanjo remained steadfast, rejecting any form of inducement that could silence his voice.
With his passing, the Nigerian political landscape has lost a moral conscience. His absence is already being felt as the Lagos House of Assembly (LAHA) grapples with a leadership crisis that lacks direction, accountability, and sincerity. Who will now speak with his level of courage, experience, and moral authority? Ayo Adebanjo’s death is not just an end; it is a painful punctuation in Nigeria’s history of fearless advocacy.
Regarding Edwin Clarke, he was unarguably the Voice of the Niger Delta and Nigeria’s Conscience. If Adebanjo was the voice of the Yoruba, Edwin Clarke was the indomitable lion of the Niger Delta. A man whose life was devoted to the pursuit of justice for his people, Clarke embodied the struggle for resource control, equity, and fairness. He was a formidable critic of successive governments that exploited the Niger Delta while leaving its people in abject poverty.
For decades, Clarke raised his voice against the environmental degradation, economic deprivation, and political marginalization of the Niger Delta. He did not hesitate to confront presidents, governors, and international oil companies over their injustices. His advocacy led to several policy changes, including increased derivation funds and the creation of interventionist agencies, even though corruption later crippled many of these initiatives.
Clarke was also a nationalist in every sense of the word. While fighting for his region, he never lost sight of the broader Nigerian question. He championed the cause of true federalism, national unity, and good governance. His pen and voice never ceased to challenge impunity, corruption, and the lack of accountability among Nigeria’s leaders. His words were powerful, reverberating across ethnic and political divides, forcing the powerful to listen, even when they pretended not to.
His death has created a vacuum that is difficult to fill. The Niger Delta, and indeed Nigeria, has lost a fearless advocate, a man who could speak truth to power without fear of retribution. In an era where many voices of opposition have been co-opted, silenced, or drowned in the sea of compromise, Clarke’s unwavering stance was a beacon of hope. Without him, who will confront the exploitation of the Niger Delta? Who will remind the government of its failures in governance, resource management, and national unity?
Without a doubt, their absence since the last few days can best be described to be a tragedy. Their exit is a tragedy not just because of their mortality, but because of the widening gap in sincere advocacy they have left behind. Their passing has exposed a disturbing reality: the absence of a new generation of leaders willing to speak truth to power without fear or personal gain.
In today’s Nigeria, many self-acclaimed activists and social commentators have compromised their integrity. Some have been silenced with political appointments, others have been bought over with financial inducements, and many have been cowed by threats and intimidation. The result is a society where sycophants and opportunists dominate public discourse while genuine voices of reason are increasingly scarce.
Yet, their words remain. They may be gone, but their voices are immortal. Their speeches, interviews, and writings continue to serve as a reminder of what true advocacy looks like. Their legacies remain a template for future generations who dare to challenge power and demand accountability.
Despite their exit from the world stage, death should be ashamed because their voices speak still. Death, you have failed! You may have taken their bodies, but you have not silenced their words. Shame on you, for the words of Ayo Adebanjo and Edwin Clarke remain on the marble of Nigeria’s history, eternally speaking truth to power. Every time a leader acts against the interest of the people, their voices will rise in condemnation. Every time injustice rears its ugly head, their words will echo as a rebuke. Every time Nigeria drifts into the abyss of misrule, their legacy will serve as a reminder that some men dared to stand, speak, and fight.
The challenge now falls upon us, the living, to pick up the mantle they have left behind. We must not allow their voices to fade into oblivion. The struggle for a better Nigeria is far from over, and the battle for justice, equity, and good governance must continue. If we let fear or personal comfort silence us, we betray not only their memory but also the future of Nigeria.
As we mourn the passing of these two titans, let us not just eulogize them in words but in action. Let us embody the principles they stood for. Let us reject injustice, corruption, and the tyranny of bad leadership. Let us demand accountability and refuse to be cowed into submission.
For as long as Nigeria remains, the words of Ayo Adebanjo and Edwin Clarke will remain etched in history, speaking truth to power. And to death, we say: shame on you!
![[OPINION] Azu at 60: The art of giving the self - Louis Odion](/media/k2/items/cache/d893009fa096b7fddc374ff09ff3291c_S.jpg)
Professionally, tomes have been written or said about his significant contributions to Nigerian letters, as a consistent public intellectual of more than three decades standing. For this particular purpose, I choose to bear testimony of a slightly different dimension of the Azu enigma: a deep commitment to family values. His professional accomplishments are arguably matched by the equal success in building an adorable home, with his kids turning out excellently well.
In conversation around African culture, the art of giving is often characterised as binary. The material and the immaterial. Whereas the former consists of gifting, say, gold and silver; the latter involves the intimacy of donating, say, time.
Without denying the value of a material gift, there can, of course, be no disputing the nobility in devoting time to the pursuit of the interests of others. For, in the materialist world, we are classified either as billionaire, millionaire, simply comfortable or poor. Which means that our ability to give is contingent upon what providence has endowed us with.
But while the size of our wealth may vary individually, time is definitely a leveller of all. So, it can be seen that to give of one’s time — a resource universally fixed for everyone — is to truly give more indeed.
This is how I choose to define the essence of Azubuike Ishiekwene, a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Journalism had introduced us more than three decades ago in Lagos; first, as acquaintances, and, despite a wide age gap, we became buddies, then brothers, and collaborators. I count him among that special tribe instinctively wired and eager to volunteer of their allotted daily 24 hours often in the service of those not in the position to give anything in return.
It is often said that the factor of woman or money is the bane of friendship between two males. But for more than a quarter of a century that Azu and I became what the Yoruba classify as “kori kosun” (intimate friends), we have never quarrelled for one day. Which is a reflection of his temperance and tolerance.
I, therefore, count myself among the countless beneficiaries of his generosity of spirit, which is quite ecumenical in texture. You only need to hint Azu of a difficulty — whether professional or personal — and, in the next moment, he has everything already worked out clinically, like an oracle in terms of solution options.
Indeed, his spare frame belies an immense capacity for hard work and laser focus. Not until a dire medical warning came a few years ago did Azu, for instance, finally agree to accept a major lifestyle change: muting his phone after 10 p.m. Over the years, he had become addicted to an editor’s hazardous routine – working for 24 hours.
But regardless, with the furious force of a soldier ant, Azu still juggles a lot of things at once: business manager, columnist, writer, reporter, speaker, mentor, etc. The amazing thing is the adroitness he brings to bear on each of these responsibilities.
Even at that, he yet has this uncanny way of inserting himself into other people’s world and inheriting their battles or yokes, so to speak.
That same spirit undoubtedly led him into countless volunteer organisations like the Open Fees NGO, which is committed to putting underprivileged children through school. One of its beneficiaries happens to be Azu’s own former gateman, now in medical school. When we started National Life newspapers in 2008, I drew immeasurably from Azu’s hands-on experience as Controller at THE PUNCH.
It was in the course of similarly pushing the boundaries of “community service” that he, for instance, had met his “missing rib” in the 80s. Then, Azu was roving around the idyllic campus of UNILAG, following the proverbial “October Rush,” when he bumped onto a needy JAMBITE trying to sort out her registration. Characteristically, the “Good Samaritan” took over her burden. Thereafter, one thing led to another, and he and Rume became an item on the Akoka campus.
The rest is now history.
That same spirit undoubtedly led him into countless volunteer organisations like the Open Fees NGO, which is committed to putting underprivileged children through school. One of its beneficiaries happens to be Azu’s own former gateman, now in medical school. When we started National Life newspapers in 2008, I drew immeasurably from Azu’s hands-on experience as Controller at THE PUNCH. And for the years that I served as Information Commissioner in Edo State and had to cope with the choking pressure of office, he was my backroom booster, who would help deliver excellent papers rapidly, at no cost. I also did not have to worry much about any backstabbers in the often-treacherous media space. Azu had my back fully covered.
Maybe that has to do with his growing up in the rough and tumble of what used to be Lagos’ most iconic ghetto in the ‘70s and ‘80s — Ajegunle, where the sense of community was strong and loyalty was a religion. No wonder, one of Azu’s favourite songs is Akon’s folksy “Ghetto.”
Professionally, tomes have been written or said about his significant contributions to Nigerian letters, as a consistent public intellectual of more than three decades standing. For this particular purpose, I choose to bear testimony of a slightly different dimension of the Azu enigma: a deep commitment to family values. His professional accomplishments are arguably matched by the equal success in building an adorable home, with his kids turning out excellently well.
Suffice to add that as our friendship deepened over the years, so did our individual families become integrated. Before my own kids left home for university, “Big Mummy” (Rume) made it a point of duty to host them on weekends, from time to time, at their Magodo, Lagos, home.
By mid-2000s, frustration with ASUU’s prolonged strike eventually pushed the Ishiekwenes into pulling their first daughter, Ashioma, from University of Lagos (UNILAG) and enrolling her in a top university in the US, putting them under financial pressure. I should know. Azu and I have been involved in a lot of collaborations — both intellectual and entrepreneurial — yielding some money. Since I hadn’t started paying “serious school fees” as my kids were still in primary school in the 2000s, I invested mostly in properties. Azu’s share of whatever we made went almost entirely offshore into school fees and upkeep allowances in hard currencies. In fact, I used to tease him then as being Nigeria’s unacknowledged best authority on the black market, in terms of ascertaining the prevailing exchange rate of either the US dollar or British pound to the naira.
Happily, Ashioma earned both her first and second degrees in flying colour in Chemical Engineering. The second child, Meke, the chubbier version of the dad, studied Law in the UK, while Nkechi earned her PhD from New York university in 2024.
Before Ewan, Ese and Joshua too departed home for the university, the transition rite was never complete without a pep talk from Uncle Azu. Often mixing humour with a certain patriarchal sagacity, Azu would first praise them for excelling in their WAEC examinations and then admonish them to, when weary or tempted, always remember our sacrifices as parents and, above all, forever uphold the family’s good name, which we laboured hard to build.
From time to time, Azu never forgets to wire them money in continued expression of a shared commitment and affection. So much that his courier in the US inadvertently almost fell into bankruptcy on one occasion. The guy had mistakenly added an extra “0” to the dollar figure he sent my first son. Almost immediately, the poor guy dialled Ese’s number frantically, to no avail. Soon, I was contacted to quickly alert the boy not to assume that he had hit a jackpot.
While exchanging banters on the sidelines of the occasion that fateful day, the often-magisterial Chief Anenih chose to first blanch Azu literally, by giving him a condescending look from head to toe, before remarking with sardonic humour: “You already look so lean. By the time you people at PUNCH cough out damages to me at the court, I wonder if you’d have any flesh remaining on your bones.”
Curiously, after repeated dialling, I too could not reach Ese.
Which kind wahala be dis?!
Suspense.
It was not until after what seemed like an eternity that Azu eventually called back to announce that Ese had refunded the excess. The momentary “digital disappearance” was because Ese’s phone battery had gone flat.
God forbid thing!
That said, let it also be noted that Azu’s trademark smile however hides one thing: an immense capacity for mischief. Such that when victims of his caustic pen finally meet him in flesh, they are often left wondering if there is any pound of flesh to be exacted from him. I recall vividly a rather hilarious encounter we had with Chief Tony Anenih (of blessed memory) over two decades ago at a social event. The putative “Mr Fix It” of PDP had prior slammed a multi-billion naira libel suit on THE PUNCH over an unflattering news story. To worsen matters, all that while Azu never stopped peppering the PDP supremo in his column in SATURDAY PUNCH.
While exchanging banters on the sidelines of the occasion that fateful day, the often-magisterial Chief Anenih chose to first blanch Azu literally, by giving him a condescending look from head to toe, before remarking with sardonic humour: “You already look so lean. By the time you people at PUNCH cough out damages to me at the court, I wonder if you’d have any flesh remaining on your bones.”
We all laughed deliriously.
With Azu, it is always “yabis” unlimited, with him giving as much as he takes. In fact, he has a unique gift to make others laugh at his expense. A classic example is the recall, several years ago, of his experience during a trip to Thailand. On hearing Azu bemoan having severe body aches after a tortuous flight from Africa to Asia, his empathetic host (a fellow Nigerian) had recommended that he went for a body massage. Pronto, Azu jumped into a pair of jeans, T-shirt and sneakers, and headed for the parlour down the street.
Not until he was ushered into a dimly-lit room and a barely clothed damsel sashayed in, did Azu become conscious of the actual implication of a full body massage “with a happy ending.”
Of course, Thailand is notorious for sex tourism, which is insidiously executed through the ubiquity of “innocuous” massage parlours.
As a “Pastor”, Azu quickly did a cross sign for divine fortification against temptation on a foreign soil. Then, the young lady, scared of the prospect of losing revenue and a certain backlash from her Madam, broke down in tears.
Not to worry, Azu agreed to pay for services not rendered as a compromise that fateful night in Bangkok.
I laughed when he narrated this story to me, unwilling to be drawn into a debate as to my own possible response in the same circumstance.
Happy 60th birthday! Azu.
Louis Odion is a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors
![[OPINION] Bloodbath in Osun and the Lagos political tremor - Jide Ojo](/media/k2/items/cache/469ec771915c3ade5fe1ae6a1c5bafd2_S.jpg)
February 17, 2025, will go down in the annals of Lagos and Osun states as epochal and Black Monday. There was a political tremor in the Lagos State House of Assembly as operatives of the Directorate of State Security reportedly invaded the Assembly Complex locking out staff and sealing up the offices of the speaker, deputy speaker and acting clerk; in the State of Osun, there was a free-for-all in many premises of the 30 local government areas of the state over the attempt by the sacked LGA chairmen and councillors elected under the All Progressives Congress to resume back to office citing a purported Appeal Court judgement. In the ensuing fracas in Osun, at least six people were murdered and scores of others wounded with property worth millions of naira destroyed.
Starting with the Osun bloodshed, the remote cause of the political crisis was the October 15, 2022, local government election conducted by the then-outgoing governor of the state, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola said to be the nephew of President Bola Tinubu. Recall that he had lost the July 16, 2022 reelection bid to the Peoples Democratic Party candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke. The 2022 LG election conducted by the Osun State Independent Electoral Commission was said not to comply with the provision of the state electoral law. It was, therefore, challenged in court by some opposition political parties among whom was the PDP in Osun. It was reported that two High Courts had sacked the LGA chairmen and councillors. Governor Adeleke, thereafter, appointed caretaker committees to manage the affairs of the councils pending when another election takes place.
Osun State Independent Electoral Commission has fixed this weekend, Saturday, February 22, 2025, as the date for the new local government election. News reports said APC members bought forms, conducted primaries and are preparing for this Saturday’s election. Suddenly, there is said to be a purported Court of Appeal judgement in Akure reinstating the sacked APC chairmen and councillors. This has been debunked by the governor and the PDP. In fact, last Sunday, February 16, 2025, Governor Ademola Adeleke addressed a press conference where he asked President Tinubu to call his nephew, and incumbent Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Oyetola, to order.
At a press briefing on Sunday, Adeleke alleged, “The bone of contention is the brazen effrontery to return to office council chairmen sacked by a subsisting court judgment using a different court decision, which has no consequential order.” He stated further, “Let me make it clear that the said council Chairmen were sacked before I was sworn in as governor of Osun State, contrary to the lies being peddled that the chairmen and councillors were sacked by my Executive Order. For emphasis, l want to state that I had nothing to do with the sacking of the chairmen and councillors produced by the Osun 2022 local government polls. The chairmen and councillors were sacked by two different judgments of the Federal High Court Osogbo. I call on Mr President to instruct the National Security Adviser and the Attorney General of the Federation to personally verify the fact that the Court of Appeal judgement did not reinstate the sacked local government chairmen and councillors,” he said.
So that was the background to the Osun State political crisis that was witnessed last Monday. A newspaper on Monday reported, “No fewer than six persons reportedly lost their lives on Monday as the dispute over the status of former local government chairmen of Osun State turned bloody. At least, two persons were feared killed in Iragbiji, Boripe Local Government Areas of Osun State, while several others were wounded in other LGs in the state following the resumption of officials elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress in the October 15, 2022 LG elections in the state at the council secretariats. Also, in Ikire, Irewole LGA, the APC council chairman, Remi Abass, was shot dead by suspected political thugs. In Ilesa, a former Commissioner for Works under Governor Gboyega Oyetola, Engineer Remi Omowaye, narrowly escaped being killed as his vehicle was riddled with bullets while his office was set ablaze.”
Will this Saturday’s election go on as scheduled? Doubtful. Why are the political gladiators in Osun fighting over the control of the local government areas? It is simply because of the 2026 governorship election in Osun State and the 2027 general elections. Both APC and PDP want to plant their loyalists into the councils ahead of these two elections. They will be the foot soldiers for the parties during the forthcoming elections. It is already an open secret that former Governor Oyetola with the backing of his uncle, the incumbent President will likely have a rematch of 2022 next year with the incumbent governor of the state. Both of them will be seeking reelection for their second and final term in office. This will be their third term of locking horns in an electoral contest. The first was in 2018 when Oyetola won through a controversial supplementary election. The second time was in July 2022 when Adeleke won. So, it is a matter of ego, grit and political sagacity. Governor Adeleke is from an illustrious Adeleke dynasty in Ede while Oyetola, who was a former Chief of Staff to Rauf Aregbesola as a governor, will be counting on the backing of President Tinubu who is rumoured to have family ties in Iragbiji, Osun State.
As for the Lagos House of Assembly political brouhaha, it has a long history as the former Speaker of Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, has several times been alleged to have abused his office and engaged in gross misconduct. Political gladiators in Lagos said that he had fallen out of favour with the powerful non-state actor group called the Governance Advisory Council. He was reported to have been rude to Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and disrespected the GAC, especially during the presentation of the 2025 budget presentation exercise on Thursday, November 21, 2024. Obasa was said to have kept the governor waiting for four hours and the GAC members for five hours without apology. He purportedly made a snide remark at the governor during the budget presentation exercise. Grapevine sources claimed that several reconciliatory meetings had been held in the past and that President Tinubu even facilitated another one during his Christmas/New Year vacation in Lagos last December. Not a few also believed that he was nursing political ambition to be governor in 2027.
Obasa is not a featherweight in politics. He is indeed a heavyweight having been holding political offices since 1999. He was first elected councillor in Agege Local Government and in 2003 became a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly. He has won election into the assembly a record six times. He has also been speaker of the Lagos Assembly since 2015. Despite his political clout, he could not ward off his removal, which took place on Monday, January 13, 2025. His sack, which he is now contesting in court, has purportedly caused division in the once-united Governance Advisory Council. President Tinubu was reported not to be in support of his removal while there have been a lot of behind-the-scenes moves to get the newly elected speaker Mojisola Meranda to resign either for Obasa to be reinstated and allowed to resign or for someone from Lagos West Senatorial District to replace him. Meranda and the governor are said to be from the same senatorial district.
The challenge is that the new Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mosjisola Meranda is an indigene and a member of a royal family in Lagos while Obasa and indeed all the former governors of Lagos are said not to be originally from Lagos but are settlers. In addition, women groups are resisting any attempt to remove Meranda as she is the first female speaker of the Lagos House of Assembly. That is why the action of DSS last Monday is said to be overreach and may have been influenced by external forces wanting to get Meranda out of her exalted seat, at all costs. Time will tell how all these political imbroglios will eventually pan out but I sue for peace in Osun and Lagos States.
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![[OPINION] Northern elite versus President Tinubu - Lekan Sote](/media/k2/items/cache/b98e88e9e94386a48d44c77a924b42c8_XS.jpg)
Some members of Northern Nigeria’s political establishment are fond of stamping their feet and threatening to withdraw (voting) support to Southern Nigerian presidents who do not kowtow to their (sometimes unfair) demands.
They nearly succeeded in using the National Economic Council, made up of the vice president, governors of the 36 states and the Central Bank of Nigeria, to railroad President Bola Tinubu into dropping the new tax bills.
They are now using the approaching 2027 presidential election to blackmail him. Presidential aide, Tunde Rahman, notes, “President Tinubu has barely spent two years in office, yet political opponents (are)… in a desperate move to grab power in 2007.”
He identified opposition politicians, enemies within the All Progressives Congress and erstwhile APC stalwarts as the culprits. Though he excluded the Northern Nigerian political establishment, he made the deft observation that “power rotation between the North and South over two terms, may work against the opposition”.
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, Dr Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, now ensconced within the Tinubu Presidency, was notable in threatening that the political North could vote for another Northern Nigerian to succeed former President Muhammadu Buhari. Politics, he averred, was, after all, a game of numbers.
The other member of the tag team, Prof. Usman Yusuf, is currently facing probable storm-in-a-tea-cup corruption charges, years after former President Muhammadu Buhari placed him on a forced administrative leave from the Nigeria Health Insurance Scheme.
And his legal prosecution is looking like a political persecution. While the Northern Elders’ Forum declared his arrest as politically motivated, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi, his acquaintance of 49 years, warns President Tinubu against sycophants who may want to destroy his goodwill (in Northern Nigeria?)
But the law must run its course for Prof Yusuf, who childishly splayed in the media a photograph of himself and Sheikh Gumi, at a rural Oyo North town, maybe as a cheeky game-baiting of Yoruba nation agitator, Sunday “Igboho” Adeyemo, who confronted a Fulani that he thought was a threat to the Yoruba.
The myth of Northern voting supremacy is probably accentuated by the decision of Northern APC governors who defied President Buhari and insisted that presidential power should return to Southern Nigeria, a fulfilment of an agreement embedded in the Constitution of the opposition People’s Democratic Party.
Of course, the massive vote that President Tinubu received in Northern Nigeria gives the impression of the North honouring that gentleman’s agreement. It is commendable that the Northern governors and the electorate voted accordingly.
It confers a great economic advantage on Northern Nigeria: The number of unemployed Northern youths (who are also running away from insurgency and banditry) in Southern Nigeria shows why even Northern Nigerian plebians bought into the project of a Southern Nigerian president.
If they had voted otherwise, they (and their Sahel cousins, mostly in the ECOWAS breakaway Alliance of Sahelian States) may be going through tough and expensive visa procedures to cross the border to come and drive “keke NAPEP” or serve as night guards with free accommodation in Southern Nigeria.
Northern Nigeria could have retained the presidency using Section 135(5) of Nigeria’s Constitution, which says, “In default of a candidate duly elected under subsection (4) of this section, the Independent National Electoral Commission shall… arrange for another election… and a candidate at such election shall be… duly elected to the office of President if he has a majority of the votes cast at the election.”
But if they had taken advantage of that provision, with its simple majority, which does not require winning one-quarter of votes in at least two-thirds of the states in Nigeria, as provided in Section 135(4), the “Northern President” may by now be ruling Nigeria north of River Niger only!
Southern Nigeria, whose governors declared in 2022 that the next President should come from Southern Nigeria, may have aligned with separatist tendencies within their domains, and Nigeria may have been balkanised. God forbids!
The days of Northern Nigeria annulling an election, or disregarding gentleman’s agreements, to deny other regions of the presidency of Nigeria have gone past its sell-by date. No region of Nigeria will accept that disrespect anymore.
Northern Nigerian military boys took advantage of the blunder of Head of State Major General JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi (helped by his Igbo law professor compatriot) who abrogated the 1954 Constitutional Conference resolution for a federal system with strong regional governments for Nigeria.
Former Kaduna State Governor Nasir el Rufai, who appeared to have led the Northern APC Governors to insist that Bola Tinubu, and not Senate President Lawan, should be APC’s presidential candidate may not have been in love with Tinubu.
But he knew realpolitik, the politics of reality, common sense and expediency. He and his cohort knew that a presidential candidate from Northern Nigeria could have meant game over. The separatist Indigenous People of Biafra and Yoruba nation agitators were watching with hawk-like concentration.
If the hunch by Aminu Jaji, representing Kaura Namoda/Birnin Magaji Federal Constituency of Zamfara State in the National Assembly, is correct, namely, that “el Rufai is more focused in 2027”, maybe neither el Rufai nor the Northern Nigerian political establishment is a long-distance political runner.
And el Rufai, Arewa Consultative Forum, the Northern political establishment and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who seem determined to upset the regional presidential pact, must accept responsibility if Southern Nigeria responds in kind.
To rework a pregnant phrase from the Yoruba of Southwest Nigeria, if a branch snapped, the bird would fly away. The Northern Nigerian vote for Tinubu is probably the glue that is helping to achieve former Head of State General Yakubu Gowon’s dream of keeping Nigeria one.
The Chairman of the APC and former Governor of Kano State, Dr Umar Ganduje, has pinched his Northern Nigerian compatriots in the back, to warn them of the probable consequences of failing to return President Tinubu (or at least another Southern Nigerian) to Aso Rock in 2027.
Ganduje said: “Our President, who has come from the south, is going, Insha Allah, for the second term in 2027. And after that, it will be the turn of the northern part of the country.” But the Arewa Consultative Forum insists that the North cannot wait till 2031 for the presidency.
Though their argument that the North cannot be compelled to re-elect Tinubu in 2027 is spot on, they must, however, realise that if the next President is not Tinubu, it had better be another Southern Nigerian. To borrow a phrase from former American President Barack Obama, “Elections have consequences.” Another pregnant, and realistic, phrase from the streets says, “This country belongs to all of us.”
When Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of Britain, she once vehemently declared that the idea of Britain losing the Falkland Islands to Argentina was “unthinkable!” One could also assert that the idea that the presidency is going back to the North in 2027 is unthinkable.
But the North should stop this unnecessary “shakara” posturing and remember that they started this “me-too” attitude, which they have used as an equal opportunity platform to (sometimes) gain (undue) advantage over their Southern compatriots.
But then, maybe Nigerians should agree with Dr Usman Bugaje of ACF, who is wondering (albeit without passion) why Nigerians should be arguing over the region of presidential candidates instead of their competencies.
![[OPINION] A case for Amotekun in Kogi west - Tunde Olusunle](/media/k2/items/cache/8245166313bd694ff3ef066f00b5f79d_XS.jpg)
It had festered for long. The wanton trespass, the emboldened criminality, the mindless murders, the reckless disruption of the rhythm of day-to-day activities of several communities in Nigeria’s South West. Formal and informal intelligence, fingered voyaging Fulani herdsmen as prime perpetrators of the crimson regime upon the Yoruba hemisphere. The pastoralists herded their cattle from the nation’s north, down south. They fed and fattened their livestock on farmlands owned by landowners, with unbelievable impunity. Aboriginal dissenters to such roughshod rides through their sweat-grown farms, were often sent to early graves. Luckier escapees, most times left with scars to last a lifetime. To confirm that they were on a mission to destroy, maim and murder, they moved around with deadly machetes and sophisticated weapons, beyond regular arms admissible for self protection, as they rampaged through the zone.
Beyond farmlands in the recesses of the Yoruba country, kidnappers, armed robbers and killers took over and terrorised roads and expressways in the South West, with uncommon boldness. They routinely caused gridlocks on roads like the all-important Sagamu-Ore-Benin highway, in the discharge of their criminal ventures. They would move from vehicle to vehicle dispossessing commuters of their belongings and shooting at random, killing the hapless. They abducted travellers and would subsequently request for ransoms from the families of their victims. At other times, they just murdered their victims like they did to Olufunke Olakunrin, daughter of the respected Yoruba leader, Reuben Fasoranti, on the same road under reference, in June 2019. Fortuitously, her killers were found, prosecuted and sentenced to death three years later.
Governors of the South West states, unanimously afflicted by this scourge, agreed in January 2020, to establish in their various states, a security outfit to be known as Amotekun. A Yoruba word, Amotekun means “cheetah.” The animal is a member of the global “big cat” family in the animal kingdom, which are apex predators. Creatures in this bracket which include lions, tigers, leopards, jaguars, are famous for stealth, speed and precision in preying on their targets. All six states in the region: Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti, signed up for this initiative, which was driven from the very top by the governors of each state. The South West states are famous for their historical collaboration on issues of the socioeconomic wellbeing of their states and people. The Amotekun concept is emplaced as a homegrown complement to the endeavours of existing intelligence and security organisations, in securing lives and property. It is not a rival, but a partner with preexisting agencies in the intelligence and security ecosystem. This typically consists of the military, the police, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC) and the Department of State Services, (DSS).
Across the six South West states, Amotekun is charged primarily to protect persons, property and carry out emergency response services. The Corps systematically gathers, documents, evaluates and analyses data and information to convert to actionable intelligence for tactical, operational and strategic goals. It shares intelligence about crime in progress; suspicious activities, criminal suspects and other criminal activities. Amotekun collaborates with similar security agencies including but not limited to Lagos, Ogun, Oyo, Osun, Ondo and Ekiti states in deterring kidnapping, terrorism, disruption of livelihood, criminal damage to property, cultism, highway robbery and other criminal activities. It ensures that all persons travelling along highways, major roads, remote areas, hinterlands and forests are free to engage in their normal activities without fear or hindrance. Amotekun also assists the police in carrying out any other lawful activity aimed at maintaining law and order within their areas of jurisdiction. The operational ambit of the Corps could indeed be broader.
Since the enthronement of Amotekun in the six core Yoruba states five years ago, the organisation has complement the enterprise of statutory security outfits in notable measure. It has foiled robberies, disrupted kidnappings, stemmed open-ended trespass and destruction of farms by marauding herdsmen, and rescued potential victims and casualties of criminal schemes. As recently as Sunday February 15, 2025, Amotekun foiled a robbery on the notorious Sagamu- Odogbolu- Ijebu Ode, on the Lagos-Sagamu-Ore-Benin expressway. One of the suspects was neutralised, while a second one was arrested during a gun duel. The suspect arrested led Amotekun operatives to the hideout of the gang, where another suspect who had earlier fled during the gun duel, took refuge. Just last week, February 10, 2025, the Ondo State Command of the Corps rescued five victims of a kidnapping episode on the ever recurring Benin- Owo road. Such is the serially documented efficacy of Amotekun in its various theatres of operation.
Worthy of note is the fact that the topmost echelons of Amotekun leadership across the South West, are very senior retired military and police officers, not below the ranks of retired Brigadier-General or Assistant Inspector General of Police, (AIG). The Oyo State outfit for instance is headed by Brigadier-General Kunle Togun, while the Ogun State formation is led by Brigadier-General Alade Adedigba. The Chairman of the Osun State variant is AIG Wale Abbas, while Brigadier-General Olu Adewa leads the Ekiti State Amotekun command. This underscores the seriousness with which the outfit is organised and deployed. Our reservoir of ex-servicemen in our communities, local hunters, vigilantes and youths can constitute the core of the operatives.
Recent criminal incidents in the the Okun country in Kogi State and Kogi West senatorial district at large, compels a proposition for the establishment of an Amotekun detachment in the zone. Like its kith and kin in core Western Nigeria, Okunland has been the butt of several violations by a broad canvas of criminals. Daredevil armed robbers have invaded Okun communities, targeting banks and murdering regular folk. Kidnappers perennially lay siege on lonely stretches of the dilapidated road networks in Okunland, killing innocents and taking hostages in kidnap- for- ransom incidents. On May 2, 2021, Solomon Adegbayo a Commissioner in the Kogi State Pensions Board was killed in the same incident in which the Chairman of Yagba West local government area at the time, Pius Kolawole, was kidnapped.
Last December, Alaba Ope, the Councillor representing Odo-Ape Ward in Kabba-Bunu local government area, and eight others, were kidnapped in a midnight operation by brigands. An Abuja-bound commuter bus from Lagos, carrying 18 passengers, was also in December 2024, intercepted around Obajana in Okunland and all the occupants abducted. The kidnappers placed a N100 million ransom on their victims. Should we mention the travails of subsistence farmers in Okunland and Kogi West who in several instances have literally been barred from their farmlands in their homelands by scurrilous criminal elements masquerading as herders? This has been the collective experience of the genetically peace-loving people of Kogi West District.
The people of the geopolitical span under interrogation, have not exactly thrown up their hands in despair in their worrying circumstances. Hunters and vigilantes despite their constrained training and arming, are usually on the front foot combing the forests and thickets. Following attacks on three commercial banks located in Egbe and Odo-Ere in Yagba West just before Christmas in 2021, for instance, Okun hunters and vigilantes entered the forests and indeed arrested a few of the culprits who missed their ways after the dastardly operation. Indeed, early June 2024, Okun vigilantes and hunters joined the army, police, DSS and NSCDC, in raiding the camps of kidnappers in the forest of Yagba West, in an operation which lasted for several days. Yagba West shares boundaries with Kwara, Niger and Ekiti states which makes it specifically vulnerable to criminal incursions.
Several other communities and councils in Kogi West, share abutments with neighbouring states which makes them vulnerable. Disturbed by the unabating recurrence of multifaceted criminality in Okunland which dominates six of the seven local government areas in Kogi West, Sunday Karimi, the Senator representing the District, singularly undertook the construction of a Forward Operating Base, (FOB) in Egbe, last year. The fully furnished mini-barracks which is capable of hosting two units of military personnel, was commissioned last October. It has since been taken over and operationalised by the Nigerian Army. To underscore his concurrence with Karimi’s bold initiative, the Member Representing Yagba federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Leke Joseph Abejide, participated at the inauguration and handing over event.
Given the dynamism of crime and criminality, containment and mitigation strategies must also of necessity be proactive. As an essential component of the global Yoruba country, as a people and senatorial district which share boundaries with two geopolitical subscribers to the Amotekun concept, notably Ondo and Ekiti states, there is no better time to adapt the prototype in Kogi West and in Okunland. The template may be available on the internet or can be obtained from one of the present six participating states. While it is true that whole states, and not sections or parts of states are subscribers to the philosophy elsewhere, there must be a way to adapt the template for Kogi West. As a people, we know where our shoes presently pinch us.
At the recent maiden annual lecture of the National Institute for Security Studies, (NISS), the Director-General of the Department of State Services, (DSS), Oluwatosin Ajayi, noted that “communities should be empowered to serve as the first line of defence in tackling criminality.” According to him, they must lead the way “before the intervention of the police, the military and other security agencies.” Ajayi noted that “some level of armament must be allowed at the level of communities, so they can serve as the first layer of defence.” He cited examples from Tafawa Balewa and Bogoro communities in Bauchi State where he previously served, as places where the antics of marauders were successfully repelled. He indeed alluded to his community back home in Ogun State as one which he is guiding to stand up for itself in the face of adversity. This gifts us a perfect window to explore, for the setting up of a Kogi West/Okunland Amotekun Corps.
The people of Kogi West trust their Senator, Sunday Karimi, to pick up the gauntlet and rally his colleagues, namely Leke Abejide, Idris Salman and Danladi Suleiman Aguye, representing Yagba, Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu and Lokoja/Kotonkarfe, respectively, to articulate this proposal. Representatives of state constituencies in Kogi West in the Kogi State House of Assembly, (KGHA), and Chairmen of local government areas in the district, must of necessity be an integral part of this concept. Very happily, the federal government now directly credits the accounts of local government authorities with their dues which allows room for targeted fiscal flexibility. Budgets have to be drawn up to accommodate the needs and remuneration of Amotekun operatives. Elsewhere, they are properly kitted with uniforms, footwears and bulletproof vests. They are well armed and enabled with ample quantities of ammunition, and are duly remunerated and provided with serviceable patrol and operational vehicles. They undergo drills to keep in shape and ready. Let’s imagine just how better improved the security situation in Kogi West will be if 100 Amotekun corps members are added to the existing security capacity of each LGA. This comes to a total of 700 additional crime fighters in the zone. Criminals will definitely have a rethink before daring their potential Waterloo.
Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA), is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja
![[OPINION] Oke-Ite the evil pot and battle for the soul of Anambra - Law Mefor](/media/k2/items/cache/7900ecd20a43066cbd8a7548a018d579_XS.jpg)
A battle for Anambra’s soul has been sparked by the new Anambra State Homeland Security Law 2025, which declares certain categories of practitioners as persona non grata. The most prevalent of these are evil native doctors, fake native doctors, and other fakes, such as false prophets who deceive the gullible populace, especially the younger generation.
Some claim that traditional religion and practices have been banned in the state by the new law, which establishes the legal and operational frameworks for the battle to reclaim the Anambra social order. This assertion, which is made out of ignorance or malice, is completely untrue. By purging traditional worship of quacks and other evil practitioners who are robbing the state of its youth, the new law and its implementation aim to sanitise, not to ban.
According to reports, the evil pot called Oke-ite and its affiliated sorcery potions, including Uduakomili, Ibobo, and Awale, are the inspiration for the get-rich-quick mentality that is today wreaking havoc throughout Igboland. There is also Odeshi (bulletproof amulets), which these evil native doctors prepare for kidnappers and armed robbers that give them Dutch (foolish) courage. One thing unites them: wealth without work. In previous generations, the topic of money rituals—known locally as “Ogwu-ego”—was often brought up. In the Igbo motherland, the nouveau riche is currently obsessed with the Oke-ite syndrome. According to some of the guys who know the evil pot, Oke-ite, the clay pot is made with bitter herbs and leaves, dog meat, human body parts, bats, various evil birds, the spiritual Ogilisi tree, and more.
We also hear that the parts of persons who perished in deadly incidents are said to contribute to the Oke-ite charm’s effectiveness. Another aspect is that the charm needs to be made from the body parts of women who are virgins or have not given birth. This explains why we see here and there that vital parts are harvested from the victims of ritual killings.
I don’t care about these accusations, but it’s enough to emphasise that everything about Oke-ite is evil and negative destructive energy, which alters destinies and is upending Igbo core values. The Igbo values of diligence and hard work are entirely at odds with Oke-ite and all other associated money-making rituals and potions, especially when it comes to Ndi Anambra, who have achieved success and a stellar reputation through hard work.
No reasonable mind can justify Oke-ite’s anti-Igbo culture and traditions. In the good old days, Igbo republicanism dictated that a trueborn son must never, ever bring home soiled money, as this would severely damage the family name.
In the realm of trading, the Igbo people established the “Igba-boi” system of working for a master for a considerable amount of time before being allowed to engage in trading themselves. Cutting corners is not an option. The Igbo people’s “Igba-boi” business culture has been hailed as the world’s example of business incubators by institutions like Harvard University in the United States. Igba-boi business incubation places pride in diligence in learning the business over many years rather than the fly-by-night for getting rich overnight without mastering any trade or craft.
In the past, Igbo parents would not accept any expensive gifts from their children that could not be justified as legitimately earned. It therefore defies logic that a university student who does no work at all will gift his parents an expensive car that even businessmen with years of experience cannot buy, and such parents joyfully collect it. This is a direct parental endorsement of the life of crime their children live.
In addition to receiving such unwholesome gifts from their unemployed and schooling children, some parents nowadays have even gone so far as to pay for their children’s attendance at Yahoo training schools. In the Yahoo business, you hear beguiled parents claim that their kids are simply taking money from the white people who once pillaged our land.
Tragically, the fundamental Igbo values of diligence, morality, honesty, and fear of God have been attacked by such evil and negative destructive activities.
East of the Niger, the central tenet of the youth is steeped in the worship of money. Their role models are now extravagant spenders who don’t appear to have any legitimate sources of income. To obtain the questionable fortune, anything goes. The criminal industry includes human sacrifice, robberies, advance fee fraud, kidnapping for ransom, fetish activities, and witchcraft. They reportedly have a tight friendship with mortuary attendants and maternity homes, where they gather various items allegedly used to make Oke-ite and its higher form, including Awele, Ibobo, and Uduakomili. That is the extent of the depravity of the Igbo society today, where idolatry and sorcery are making startling comebacks.
The Anambra State Homeland Security Law 2025, which guarantees that no evil activity can thrive anymore, is therefore a child of necessity. The purpose of the law, again, is not to prevent traditional healers from practising their profession or traditional worshippers from enjoying their religious freedom. It is to prevent the evildoers, like Oke-ite criminals, from infiltrating their ranks, meaning the law aims to sanitise rather than outlaw.
It would be up to anyone who believes in Oke-ite’s strength and effectiveness to explain to the civilised world why such a barbaric and satanic activity should be permitted to rule the land.
Yes, the fight is for the soul of Anambra. It is well known that Igbo people are among the most diligent and hard-working people in the world. Jokes about Igbo millionaires who only wear one calico suit because they are so focused on earning their money through ethical commerce have been the topic of comedians!
The new Igbo youth, who can barely explain how he made the money, also enjoys police and army protection in their convoys while corrupting the social order! In some way, the law has been taken over by the outlaws, who are altering the fundamental Igbo principles to fit their fantasies!
Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR of Anambra State, needs the support of all to promote the Udo-Ga-Achi Operation to restore Ndi Anambra’s reputation of working for wealth, integrity, and fear of God. To eradicate the Oke-ite threat, the Anambra-structured security network—Agunechemba and Operation Udo Ga-Achi—are the appropriate options and have come to stay. The battle against Oke-ite and its allied crime enablers is a struggle for Anambra’s soul, which cannot be lost.
Law Mefor, PhD, is the commissioner for information, Anambra state. He can be contacted via drlawmefor@gmail.com; and on X @Law_Mefor.
![[OPINION] True, True, Wetin 2Baba Do Annie Nor Good! - Isaac Asabor](/media/k2/items/cache/3507313addb8c7cca62424d3e5c62ccd_XS.jpg)
If you ever want to take the pulse of public opinion on trending issues in Nigeria, a commercial bus ride is your best bet. Conversations, often loud, unfiltered, and passionate, serve as a microcosm of how everyday Nigerians feel. My recent journey from Mowe, Ogun State, to Berger, Lagos, on Friday, February 14, 2025, was no exception. The hot topic of discussion? The widely publicized divorce of Nigerian music legend 2Baba (Innocent Idibia) and his actress wife, Annie Idibia, and his subsequent decision to pitch his matrimonial tent with Natasha Osawaru, a lawmaker and granddaughter of the business mogul, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion.
The discussion in the bus was as heated as the Lagos sun, but one voice consistently swallowed all others, that of a middle-aged woman who passionately, and rather loudly, kept repeating: “True, True, Wetin 2Baba Do Annie Nor Good!” She screamed it over and over, drowning out counterarguments and reinforcing her stance with emotional fervor. Initially, her voice seemed like noise, but as she pressed on with her points, it became clear that she was making valid arguments.
Without a doubt, the woman’s indignation was not misplaced. This is as 2Baba and Annie’s love story had been one of resilience, forgiveness, and emotional investment, at least from Annie’s end. She had stood by him through thick and thin, from his days as an up-and-coming artiste to his rise to African music royalty. Annie endured public humiliation when 2Baba fathered children with other women, yet she forgave and married him, holding firm to the love they shared. For this, many Nigerians saw her as the embodiment of perseverance in marriage.
One of the strongest points the woman in the bus made was about loyalty. “How you go stand by man all these years, fight all battles, only for him to leave you for another woman? Where dem dey do that kind thing?” she asked, her voice rising in indignation. Her frustration echoed a broader sentiment among Nigerian women who believe that marriage should be built on unwavering commitment, especially from men who have benefited from their partner’s sacrifices.
As much as there were dissenting opinions, a good number of passengers sided with the woman. A young man sitting beside me, perhaps in his late 20s, nodded in agreement and added, “Omo, I no go lie, Annie try. E nor easy to forgive person wey give other women belle make you come still marry am. TwoBaba supposed to respect the kind woman wey fit do for am, and now e come abandon am later.” His statement resonated with many in the bus, especially the women.
Another passenger, a woman in her early 40s, chimed in, “E pain me well, well! No be say Annie nor fine, no be say she nor support 2Baba. Which kind example 2Baba wan set for young men wey dey look up to am? E dey encourage dem make dem nor value the women wey suffer follow dem.”
A middle-aged man in a blue shirt, who initially seemed uninterested in the discussion, finally spoke up: “To be honest, I no too dey put mouth for celebrity matter, but wetin this woman talk make sense. No be say make marriage no get wahala, but na to respect the one wey don dey there since. 2Baba no try at all.” This comment sparked a round of nods and murmurs of agreement from fellow passengers.
One of the reasons why this saga has captured public interest is because of the emotional investment Nigerians have in Annie and 2Baba’s relationship. We all watched their wedding in 2012, a grand affair that symbolized hope that love could triumph over past mistakes. Annie had forgiven 2Baba for his indiscretions, and many believed that theirs would be a love story for the ages. But alas, love stories do not always follow the fairy tale script.
For Annie, the public humiliation must be unbearable. Unlike regular people, celebrities have their personal lives dissected under the public eye. Her pain is now a national discussion, a trend on social media, and the subject of heated debates in Lagos traffic. Many women sympathize with her because they see a reflection of their own struggles in her. The betrayal stings deeper when it happens in full view of the world.
Beyond the celebrity drama, this situation underscores the importance of faithfulness in marriage. Loyalty and commitment are the bedrock of any successful marriage, and both partners must strive to honor their vows. The Bible is clear on the sanctity of marriage: “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:6). This verse serves as a reminder that marriage is a sacred covenant that should not be broken carelessly.
Another passage that reinforces faithfulness is Hebrews 13:4: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.” This verse warns against infidelity, emphasizing that breaking marital vows has consequences both morally and spiritually.
Faithfulness in marriage is not just about avoiding physical infidelity but also about being emotionally and mentally committed to one’s spouse. It requires communication, mutual respect, and a willingness to overcome challenges together. 2Baba’s decision to leave Annie for another woman sets a dangerous precedent, one that suggests that loyalty and sacrifices in marriage can be disregarded.
While 2Baba’s decision is his personal choice, its impact extends beyond his immediate family. As a public figure, he influences many young people who look up to him. His actions send a message, one that could reinforce the belief that women’s sacrifices in relationships are dispensable. If love, loyalty, and perseverance are not enough to keep a man, what then is the guarantee of stability in relationships?
Without a doubt, the bus ride from Mowe to Berger was long, but the discussion made it seem shorter. The passionate woman’s voice, though loud and sometimes overwhelming, was not baseless. Her arguments were rooted in logic, empathy, and a keen understanding of human relationships. 2Baba’s decision to end his marriage with Annie and remarry Natasha Osawaru has sparked an emotional reaction across Nigeria, and rightly so. While some may argue that love fades and people move on, there is also the moral responsibility to respect and honor those who stood by us in our most vulnerable moments.
As the bus approached Berger, the woman let out one final exclamation: “True, True, Wetin 2Baba Do Annie Nor Good!” By then, most of us, even those who initially disagreed with her, had to admit, she had a point. This story serves as a lesson that faithfulness in marriage is not just a social expectation but a moral and spiritual duty, one that both men and women should uphold.