Latest News
OTHERS' VIEWS
[OPINION] Ambassadorial Appointments Should Be Based on Competence, Not Political Loyalty - Isaac Asabor
Admin![[OPINION] Ambassadorial Appointments Should Be Based on Competence, Not Political Loyalty - Isaac Asabor](/media/k2/items/cache/904867afbbbf835efc59c3675aeba311_L.jpg)
In the ever-evolving landscape of global diplomacy, the role of ambassadors is both critical and multifaceted. They represent their countries, foster alliances, and serve as intermediaries in negotiations that could shape the course of history. Ambassadors are more than emissaries; they are strategists, negotiators, and cultural envoys. For a nation like Nigeria, with its immense potential and complex challenges, the selection of ambassadors carries significant implications for its global standing. Yet, the practice of appointing ambassadors based on partisan politics rather than competence and experience poses a significant risk to the nation’s interests.
The appointment of ambassadors as a function of political patronage is not unique to Nigeria, but its consequences are particularly pronounced in countries where the stakes are high. Nigeria’s vibrant economy, cultural richness, and regional influence in Africa demand a diplomatic corps that is not only knowledgeable but also deeply invested in advancing the nation’s strategic goals. However, the trend of prioritizing political loyalty over expertise has often resulted in the appointment of individuals who may lack the requisite skills for effective diplomacy.
Ambassadors are the face and voice of a nation on the international stage. They are tasked with representing their country’s interests in foreign nations and multilateral organisations. Their responsibilities range from negotiating trade agreements to advocating for their country’s positions on global issues. This pivotal role requires a unique blend of skills, including cultural intelligence, negotiation prowess, and a deep understanding of international relations.
In Nigeria’s case, the importance of ambassadors cannot be overstated. As Africa’s most populous country and largest economy, Nigeria wields considerable influence. Its ambassadors must be equipped to leverage this influence to secure favorable trade deals, attract foreign investment, and build strategic partnerships. They must also work to enhance Nigeria’s image, counter negative stereotypes, and address misconceptions about the country.
Ambassadors also play a key role in regional stability. Nigeria is often referred to as the “giant of Africa,” a status that comes with responsibilities. Nigerian ambassadors must be proactive in promoting peace and security across the continent, particularly in regions plagued by conflict. They must engage in diplomatic efforts to resolve disputes, support democratic governance, and advocate for regional integration.
When ambassadorial appointments are dictated by partisan politics, the focus shifts from merit to loyalty. This practice undermines the effectiveness of the nation’s diplomatic efforts. Individuals appointed based on political affiliations may lack the necessary experience or qualifications to navigate the complexities of international relations. Their inability to effectively represent Nigeria’s interests can result in missed opportunities and, in some cases, diplomatic blunders.
For instance, an inexperienced ambassador may struggle to engage with key stakeholders or fail to grasp the nuances of their host country’s political and cultural landscape. This can hinder their ability to build meaningful relationships, negotiate effectively, or advocate for Nigeria’s interests. In the long run, such shortcomings can erode Nigeria’s standing in the international community.
Moreover, partisan appointments often create an atmosphere of inconsistency in Nigeria’s foreign policy. When ambassadors are replaced with each change in administration, the nation’s diplomatic agenda risks becoming fragmented. Continuity is essential in diplomacy, and frequent changes in personnel can disrupt ongoing initiatives and weaken Nigeria’s credibility.
Experience in diplomacy is not a luxury; it is a necessity. Seasoned diplomats bring a wealth of knowledge, established networks, and a proven track record of success. They are better equipped to anticipate challenges, seize opportunities, and navigate the intricacies of international relations.
An experienced ambassador understands the importance of building trust and credibility with host nations. They are skilled in the art of negotiation, capable of securing favorable outcomes for their country while maintaining positive relationships. Their expertise allows them to handle sensitive issues with finesse, avoiding potential conflicts and fostering mutual understanding.
In addition to their professional skills, experienced ambassadors possess a deep cultural sensitivity that enables them to connect with people from diverse backgrounds. This quality is particularly important for Nigeria, a country with a rich and diverse cultural heritage. An ambassador who appreciates and promotes Nigeria’s cultural wealth can enhance the nation’s image and strengthen its soft power.
Ambassadors are not just political and economic emissaries; they are also cultural ambassadors. They play a crucial role in promoting their country’s culture, values, and traditions. Cultural diplomacy is a powerful tool for building bridges between nations and fostering mutual respect and understanding.
For Nigeria, cultural diplomacy holds immense potential. The nation’s vibrant music, literature, fashion, and cuisine have captured the world’s attention. Ambassadors who can effectively showcase Nigeria’s cultural richness can help attract tourism, foster cultural exchange, and enhance the nation’s global reputation. This requires individuals who are not only passionate about their country’s culture but also skilled in presenting it in a way that resonates with diverse audiences.
To safeguard Nigeria’s interests and maximize the potential of its diplomatic efforts, it is essential to prioritize merit and experience in ambassadorial appointments. A merit-based system would ensure that ambassadors are selected based on their qualifications, expertise, and track record, rather than their political affiliations.
This system could involve a rigorous vetting process, including evaluations of candidates’ knowledge of international relations, negotiation skills, and cultural intelligence. It could also include training programs to equip ambassadors with the tools they need to succeed in their roles. By investing in the development of its diplomatic corps, Nigeria can build a team of ambassadors who are not only capable but also committed to advancing the nation’s strategic goals.
Furthermore, Nigeria should strive for consistency in its foreign policy. This requires a long-term vision that transcends political cycles. Ambassadors should be given the time and support they need to implement their initiatives and achieve meaningful results. By reducing the frequency of changes in personnel, Nigeria can enhance continuity and credibility in its diplomatic efforts.
The appointment of ambassadors is a critical decision that has far-reaching implications for a nation’s diplomatic success. For Nigeria, a country with immense potential and significant challenges, it is imperative to prioritize experience and expertise in ambassadorial appointments. By doing so, Nigeria can ensure that its ambassadors are equipped to represent the nation effectively, build meaningful relationships, and advance its strategic interests.
Partisan politics has no place in diplomacy. The stakes are too high, and the consequences of incompetence are too great. By embracing a merit-based approach to ambassadorial appointments, Nigeria can strengthen its diplomatic corps, enhance its global standing, and unlock the full potential of its international engagements. Diplomacy is an art and a science, and it demands the best minds and the most capable hands. For Nigeria, the path to a brighter future begins with putting diplomacy above politics.
At this juncture, it is expedient to clarify that inspiration to express this view was prompted by a recent news which has it that the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs has urged the public to ignore a rumored list of ambassadorial nominees circulating on social media, labeling it as untrue and deceptive.
In a recent statement, the Ministry’s Acting Spokesperson, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, emphasized that the authority to appoint ambassadors lies solely with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The statement further clarified that no formal nominations have been made so far.
“Please disregard the commotion about the ambassadorial list,” the statement read. “Rest assured, once finalized, the President will forward the list of nominees to the National Assembly for screening and confirmation.”
The ministry reassured citizens that once an official list is ready, the public would be informed through proper channels.
This clarification comes amidst growing interest in Nigeria’s diplomatic representation, particularly following the recall of all ambassadors in September 2023.
![[OPINION] Olunloyo: Goodnight, Voltaire - Festus Adedayo](/media/k2/items/cache/459f082f73db60735b580f1dc9e161b3_L.jpg)
At his ancient ‘imperial’ home in Molete, Ibadan last Thursday, I wrote in the condolence register: “He was a man, like French philosopher, Voltaire, who had trapped inside a single skull the brains of generations”.
When I met Victor Omololu Sowemimo Olunloyo (VOS) for the first time in 1995, the facade of scales that decorated my eyes about him began to drop. If you followed the 1983 Nigerian elections, especially in the old Oyo State, you couldn’t like VOS. Gradually, on meeting him visiting the newsroom of the Nigerian Tribune, all negative typecasts of him began to thaw and flow away like a huge ice in the sun. By the time he died last week Sunday, with 30 years in between for me to learn and unlearn all the political profiling he was festooned with, I am left with the impression of a maverick, humanist and a Voltaire, the pseudonym of François-Marie Arouet.
Unlike many members of the political class of his time, Olunloyo was a humanist par excellence and who, like Voltaire, had wit sewn to his soul. He was a man high up there who was very much at home with the low. He engaged ordinary reporters like us and never bothered to go in to see our editors. If, like Voltaire did in February 1778 when his presumed death was afoot, Olunloyo had same opportunity to write his own epithet, his would be similar to this French philosopher of the Enlightenment who wrote, “I die adoring God, loving my friends, not hating my enemies, and detesting superstition.” Though Olunloyo was a mathematician and a scientist, he however didn’t, like Ludwig Wittgenstein, abhor metaphysics.
When I visited him in 2022 at the University College Hospital, (UCH) in the company of another mentee of his, Lasisi Olagunju, amid rumours that he had passed, it was difficult not to believe that his time of departure had not come. Heavily intubated with an oxygen ‘noose’ across his nose, upon sighting me, his wit was at its octane. “Iwo boy onikokuko yi ti de” (You this satanic writer has come”, he said, wearing his trademark mask of a smile that was native to only him.
Last Sunday when the news of his demise exploded like a bomb, downcast, I saw it as confirmation of my 30-year-old fear. Whenever Olunloyo died, I voiced out several times in the last three decades, humanity would be witnessing the gutting of a modern-ancient library. I asked everyone in sight how we could download him all that was inside his brain before death came calling. My wish couldn’t fructify. Whether as an interviewee or guest at his Molete home, you would scoop tomes of knowledge from history, philosophy, music, science, engineering, mathematics to religion and associated disciplines; knowledge which you may never encounter in books.
I remember him once narrating to me how Bode Thomas died, the hospital he was taken to and how he eventually succumbed to the death that killed him after a strange person visited him.
So, on Thursday, his gardener of over two decades told us that a few days before his death, Olunloyo told him to go clean up the library – and he did. But the connoisseur of knowledge never got near that house of books by the time death came. When I heard and reflected on this, it dawned on me that the totality of VOS’s life was wrapped around books. Tears in his misty eyes, Salisu, a native of Kano, did not know the time he stuttered, “Daddy ya tefi!” To Olunloyo, humanity knows no tribe, and was borderless in his consideration. Samson, his driver of over three decades, also doubled as his librarian. Many times, when VOS, sitting in his library, asked him to go pick a book from a particular section of the shelf and the driver told him it was not there, Olunloyo, who knew the geography of virtually all his books and the particular shelves where they were, told Samson he must have rearranged it.
Olagunju told me another story which encapsulated his lifelong bonding with books. His walks were circumscribed by the wheelchair on which he was bound, one day in January this year when he went to Molete to meet Olunloyo, he was shocked to see him on the second floor of the building where his library is situated. How did he get there? Intuitively conscious, he told Olagunju he could see from his eyes that he was not happy seeing him being carried up and down the stairs. Olunloyo then muttered, “Agba niyen” – that is old age for you.
He had a stroke in 2022 and was presumed dead. He came back from coma to joke about that electrifying moment. We were there in Molete with him; Olagunju, myself and Dupe Olubanjo. “What did you see when you ‘died’?” Olagunju asked him. He cast a look at the journalist and said: “Nothing. I saw nothing.”
The last time I saw Olunloyo was towards the end of last year, at his Molete home. Frail, totally grizzled and sitting on a wheelchair, his voice rang like a nightingale’s and his intellect razor sharp. It was a confirmation that though the body had become complicit in the ploy to whittle him, what lay inside of him was stronger than that ploy. His wit was undiminished with his brilliance intact.
VOO was a humanist to the core. Inside the condolence register opened for him in Molete was the testament of a woman who, in 1994, as a reporter with the Tribune newspaper, lost her child at birth. Olunloyo heard of it and looked for her and paid her family a visit. When the woman eventually had another baby, VOO drove down to Tribune to celebrate with her. He then narrated the chilling story of a relation of his who had a similar experience but never had a child again. Olunloyo gave the lady journalist a sum that was more than what she earned as salary.
Still on our Thursday condolence visit to his Molete home. It was heartwarming seeing the peace and amity of Olunloyo’s large family, a total disconnect from the madness rustled up by one of theirs on the social media. We met Gbenga, Funke and Olunloyo’s eldest child, extremely gracious and cool Auntie Yemi who proudly announced herself to us as 001. We met these well-read, well-bred and well-turnout children of our dead old friend who came home from across the world to celebrate the enviable memory of their dad. We met them in very high spirits. They were manifestly happy that they were bequeathed a legacy of purity, humanity and loving fatherhood. It was a delight that their bond could not be defined nor impeached by the obvious alien typecast of their father by some daughter whose presence of mind is on its usual flight.
Goodnight, our own Voltaire.
![[OPINION] Tell Your Papa as spirit of Rwanda’s Simon Bikindi - Festus Adedayo](/media/k2/items/cache/5e0b4fccc06676e5fb9a74a25115de2f_M.jpg)
In July, 2006, John Street, Emeritus Professor in the School of Politics, Philosophy, Language and Communication Studies at the United States’ University of East Anglia, received a call from Wilfred Ngunjiri Nderitu, Chairman of the Kenyan International Commission of Jurists (ICJ). Nderitu wanted Street to be an expert witness in a trial before the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR). Simon Bikindi, a Rwandan musician, accused of inciting genocide via his songs during the 1994 Hutu-Tutsi war, was on trial. Bikindi, a Hutu from Gisenyi, same region where assassinated Rwandan president, Juvenal Habyarimana, whose airplane was downed shortly before the genocide, was prominent in Rwanda in the 1980s and 1990s. By the time of the genocide, Bikindi had a renown of composing and singing popular music songs, a mixture of rap and folk songs. He was described as having “elliptical lyrics and catchy tunes” and sang them in English, French and native Kinyarwanda. Bikindi was alleged to have sang songs played on Radio Television Libre des Mille Collines which incited genocide. He was also alleged to have associated with the extremist Hutu paramilitary militia Interahamwe which butchered Tutsis in their thousands.
At the end of the prolonged trial, though convicted, Bikindi could not be indicted on account of his songs with the title, “Nanga Abahutu,” – “I hate these Hutus”. Thus, on charge of “conspiracy to commit genocide,” having “composed, sang, recorded or distributed musical works extolling Hutu solidarity and accusing Tutsis of enslaving Hutus,” he was acquitted. He was however convicted for complicity to commit genocide, the court having confirmed that, prior to the genocide, Bikindi “consulted President Habyarimana” and, “during the 100 days of genocide from 7 April to 14 July 1994, Bikindi participated personally in the killings, both in Kigali and Gisenyi prefecture, and helped to recruit and organize Interahamwe militias.” While sentencing Bikindi to 15 years imprisonment in December 2008, though proved beyond reasonable doubt that he participated in the killings, the court dismissed the charge that his songs had an inciting character. Corroborating this, Professor John Street, as well as the court, held that the charge of an inciting song was problematic “because of the troubling possibility of an artist being arbitrarily prosecuted for his work, art being open to a variety of interpretations.”
In his Music and politics, (2012) Prof Street says the divide between music and politics is very thin. Though this was not its first, the recent ban slammed by the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) on Eedris Abdulkareem’s newly released song, ‘Seyi, Tell Your Papa’ has roused Nigerians to look out through the window to see the unholy dalliance between the Nigerian state and a defunct USSR organisation similar to the NBC called Gosteleradio. In a letter to all radio stations in Nigeria, the NBC banned airing of the song on all Nigerian airwaves, according to it, for violation of the tenets of its regulatory code.
When a protest song like Abdulkareem’s is censored by political power, or criminalized as was done in the Bikindi song’s trial, it reveals the paranoia of states and political regimes. Music does not just provide power of political expression, says Street, music is that expression. Unlike the hen and egg causal mystery, it is bad governance, governmental deception and authoritarianism that give birth to protest songs and not vice versa. It reminds me of three traditional chiefs, the Jagùnnà, Àró and the Odofin. When flies bit the Jagùnnà, the two other chiefs pretended they did not hear but when the time comes and the Jagùnnà began to barbecue the flies, both Àró and Ọ̀dọ̀fin cry blue murder. So, why are Villa’s Àró and Ọ̀dọ̀fin scared now when the people’s plights find expression in the lyrics of their bards?
The issues Abdulkareem dwelt on in that song litter the Nigerian street. He sang:“Seyi, how far? I swear your papa, no try—there are too many empty promises. On behalf of Nigerians, take our message to him. Kidnappers dey kill Nigerians. Try to travel by road without your security makes you feel the pains of fellow Nigerians. You dey fly private jets, insecurity no be your problem”. The song centres on mis-governance, hopelessness, deception, despair, failure and tyrannical power. Abdulkareem merely implored Tinubu’s spoilt brat child, Seyi, who he berated for embarking on an infantile combing of Nigerian northern states in gleaming automobiles, to dispatch his message to his father. It is a bold and courageous deployment of music as a tool and weapon of political commentary By the way, I am curious at why Seyi’s crowd-sourcing is centered in the north and not the south? Was it because he needed the Rankadede genuflection which he can get in the north but can never have in the south where such groveling before father and son is an anathema?
This takes me to Uganda. In Africa’s world of the 1970s, awash with military despotism, Uganda stood out. The famous unwritten cliche about Africa was, “look towards Uganda.” It was a country of hyperbole, metaphor, symbolism and oxymoron. In Uganda, you had the grotesque, the weird and the outright bizarre rolled into a single ball. It was a theatre of the surreal. Like the mountainous size of its despot, Idi Amin Dada, Uganda was huge on the laughable. For instance, to demonstrate his male power dominance, Dada sent love letters to Queen Elizabeth II of England, asking for her hand in marriage so that he could become the King of Scotland. He indeed conferred himself with the title, “Conqueror of the British Empire”. To demonstrate this, he physically rode his elephantine weight on the backs of British workers in Kampala. At the peak of his squabble with Tanzanian leader, Julius Nyerere, Amin sent a love letter telegram to Nyerere. In it, he described the man famously known as Walimu as such a good and sultry fellow, so much that if was a woman, he would give serious consideration to marrying him, regardless of his grizzled head.
Nigeria is today wearing the shoes of Idi Amin Dada’s Uganda. All manner of the laughable and grotesque ooze out from Nigeria’s imperial palace. The global tariff war, borne out of Donald Trump’s implacable narcissism, is raging like a typhoon. The world is scampering to escape the wrath of its Achilles’ hill, a man labeled reincarnate of Adolf Hitler, whose own Aryan race – superior specimen of mankind – slogan is, Make America Great Again. Country leaders are dousing tensions, physically addressing their citizens and assuring them of home-grown ways out of the projected global economic tribulation. Ours is trapped in the beautiful city of Paris, hiding behind a finger of a claim that he is on “working visit”. But, why is Paris the beautiful bride of African leaders’ excitement? Decades ago, Mobutu Desire-Sese Seko, the Congolese tyrant, also made Paris his nesting comfort, spending Congo’s national patrimony on extravagant shopping trips in Paris and flying supersonic Concorde aircraft. Someday when we calculate Nigeria’s wealth squandered on this Paris hospice fancy, it may rival Mobutu’s.
When you look at the Abdulkareem song ban in its totality, you will realize that a tragic paradox is slowly building today in Nigeria. It is an electoral route to authoritarianism which comes through an off-the-cuff rise of institutions that make themselves the “Aj’itọ Ọba” of imperial power. In old Oyo empire, with a system of infallibility and God-ordained status of the monarch, the Aj’itọ Ọba confirmed the All-mightiness and deity attribution of the king. He is entrusted with the role of licking the king’s spittle. He cleaned the monarch’s mess and dared not exhibit any form of revulsion to it. Today, what a smart despot does is to make state institutions lend themselves as executioners of democracy. This reminds me of Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt’s submission in their How democracies die that those who assassinate democracy use its very institutions to gradually, subtly and even legally, kill it.
Freedom of expression, of course, with its caveats, is a major kernel of democracy. When autocrats set out on a path of strangulating democracy, the first thing they do is to muffle free speech. During the rules of Amins, Sani Abachas, Francisco Macìas Nguemas, et al, their terror against freedom of expression was overt. Now, with the world being a global village, institutional tyrannies have been on the upswing. They are buoyed by Italian philosopher, Antonio Gramsci’s theory of cultural hegemony which teaches tyrants that, in the bid to put a leash on voices of dissents, cultural institutions and ideas, rather than just raw brute and force, hold the key. Institutions are gradually replacing the Aj’itọ Ọba, becoming the new lickspittle of imperial power.
As the ‘mass’ in the mass media is being gradually corroded over the decades, chief among its reasons being economic meltdown, the radio and the social media have conveniently become the media outlets with the ‘mass’ of the 21st century. Their audiences are spontaneous, massive and equal the audience of newspaper press of the 20th and early 21sr centuries. It is why the attention of modern totalitarian governments is focused on them. They find them easy objects to tweak in the service of personal rule. The NBC, the regulatory body for broadcasting in Nigeria, has become a formidable lickspittle of presidential power. From the days of Muhammadu Buhari, the NBC has helped gag free speech. It capitalizes on its role as an industry regulator, entrusted with the business of regulating and controlling the levers of broadcasting industry in Nigeria to do this.
NBC was patterned after the “Gosteleradio”. An abbreviation for the Russian “State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of the Soviet Union” which was in existence from 1931, until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, Joseph Stalin used it to stave off dissent against his infernal rule. The NBC has acted same way. Gosteleradio was the primary state body responsible for overseeing all television and radio broadcasting in the Soviet Union. A powerful organization which exerted significant control over all broadcasts within the defunct USSR, Gosteleradio served as the central authority for decision-making related to broadcasting content, forcefully maintaining a stranglehold on broadcast content’s alignment with the state’s ideology and political goals.
Thus, like the Gosteleradio, Nigerian broadcasters narrate their agonizing ordeals under the NBC as akin to Third Reich’s. NBC is an Omnipotent power with millions of ears like a sieve (ab’etilukara bi ajere). Like a Gestapo, it snouts round for infractions. Aware of the power of financial emasculation to broadcast stations, every word spoken against presidential power on radio is tantamount to treason. Fines, like gags on the mouths of captives in the trans-Atlantic slave trade era, are slammed on stations which dare broadcast criticisms of imperial power.
It is not as if the folks at the NBC are not equally recipients of the mis-governance that has become ten a dime in the polity. It is not that their lives have not witnessed phenomenal regression since 2023. NBC’s readiness to lend itself as platform for criminalization of free speech is a pattern noticeable at the outset of authoritarianism. Some weeks ago, the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) did same when it forced a youth corps member to apologize for voicing her frustration with the Nigerian economy.
The folks at the NBC are not unaware that banning Abdulkareem’s song will increase its listening audience. Like the Aj’itọ Ọba, the name of the game is grovelling by an authoritarian power inclined towards stomping on dissent. Banning of songs by artists by dictatorial governments has never worked. It makes it available to a wider spectrum of inquisitive audience whose minds cohere with the message in the banned songs.
As it is happening today with Abdulkareem’s song, in June 1976, as response to victimization by Jamaican police of smokers of cannabis and as a political push for its legalization due to its medical use, Jamaican reggae musician, Peter Tosh, released his debut studio album named Legalize It. He even predicted in an interview in 1978 that “Herb will become like cigarettes”. The Jamaican government immediately banned the album from being aired on radio or television. After its release in 1976 in America, the album appeared on the Billboard 200 album chart for two weeks and peaked at No 199. Twenty three years after, it was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America, having sold more than one million copies. It was also included in the 2005 book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
For a government that wants the people to continually say Rankadede to those who purvey hunger and despondency, we need more of Eedris Abdulkareem. The letters of the acquittal of Simon Bikindi (not his actual involvement in the Rwandan genocide) show that protest music is not criminal. It is soothing to the souls of suffering people.
![[OPINION] Where will Trump’s tariffs war lead our world? - Bolanle Bolawole](/media/k2/items/cache/65fdf3b5f0c3bc7e66abf757b42e56be_M.jpg)
UNDOUBTEDLY, the United States’ President Donald Trump does not appear to be a man of peace. He does not even care to be seen as such. Trump is cast in the mould of someone who loves a fight and is always in the mood to engage in one. Where there is no fight, he instigates one. Where there is no single opponent in sight, he manufactures many. His tariffs threaten to up-end the world economy; the signals are already there but rather than back down, he forges ahead with more of the same. This, then, is the proverbial coconut leaf; the more you boil it, the harder it gets. The world groans but Trump gloats! Assailed on all fronts by foes and allies alike, all reeling from the negative effects of his tariffs war, Trump struts rather than let off steam. This, then, is the proverbial palm frond that rejoices in the midst of thorns; the proverbial “awodi” that waxes strong, diving in and out of raging fires while the victims bemoan their losses. Orderliness, law and order, and due process do not seem to recommend themselves to Trump. Nigeria’s Ojuelegba, where the iconic Afrobeat king, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, says confusion breaks bones, for sure will delight the United States’ number one citizen.
Trump is an enigma. He makes history even as he stands in the way of history being made. He is the only American president to have had no previous political or military service before his election as president. These two critical indices usually determine success or failure in US presidential elections but Trump skipped them both. He then went on to beat Hilary Clinton, wife of former President Bill Clinton and the woman many had thought would make history as the United States’ first woman president. Trump lost the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election by a whopping 2.87 million votes but won the electoral college with a commanding 304 votes against Hillary’s 227. He thus became the fifth US president that lost the popular vote but won the electoral college; after John Quincy Adams (1824), Rutherford B. Hayes (1876), Benjamin Harrison (1888), and George W. Bush (2000).
When Trump lost his bid for re-election in 2020, he was not the first US president to have been so denied but he was the first to seek to bring the roof down on the head of everyone and trump democracy in the world’s largest and longest-running modern democracy. His refusal to accept the outcome of the election, concede defeat, and move on was the first of its kind in the history of the United States. How his armed supporters stormed the hallowed chambers of Congress to try to forcibly prevent the process of bringing the election to conclusion and announce the next president has gone down in history as one of its kind in the history of the United States. But for the refusal of Vice-president Mike Pence to buy into the plot, Trump might have succeeded in his bid to trump democracy in the United States.
Trump alleged that the 2020 presidential election was rigged in favour of his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. His failure to prove the allegation beyond all reasonable doubt apart, it was not the first time American elections had been tainted with allegations of rigging. To the outside world, the US is the bastion and beacon of democracy but in reality it also has had its frailties and faults and elections there have not always been seen to be free and fair. A recent example is the Al Gore vs George Bush election of 2000 but in none of the cases has anyone gone to Trump’s extent to subvert the democratic process, bringing the US and its democracy to ridicule and disrepute as well as lowering the country in the estimation of the international community.
Four years after losing re-election, Trump entered the presidential race again. While many had thought his party members, the Republicans, would be ashamed of his antecedents and distance themselves from him, they handed him the party presidential ticket again; this time, in style! The party primaries were a virtual “no contest” between Trump and his half-hearted challengers and it took no time before he dusted all of them and coasted home to victory. Even at that, no one gave Trump the chance of a come-back, what with the tons of sundry allegations of corruption and moral deficiency hauled at him at every turn! He spent more time in court answering to one allegation after another than he spent on the hustings. Close allies and associates, former staff and friends broke ranks and testified against him in court; he was found guilty and convicted by courts of competent jurisdiction. Yet, Trump, undeterred, forged ahead! His, then, was the proverbial case of the vulture that feeds fat on accursed commodities and luxuriates in the midst of adversity.
Trump made another history when he forced the sitting president and candidate of the Democratic Party, Joe Biden, to “step aside”, Babangida style, in the middle of the 2024 US presidential election. Enter Kamala Harris! At first the sitting US vice-president (to Biden) was the rave of the moment and led consistently at the opinion polls for weeks; especially so after she resoundingly defeated Trump in the televised debate both of them had. Gradually, however, Trump clawed his way back, one Lie Muhammed lies after another, until he ran neck-to-neck with Harris as Americans went to the polls. When the results were announced, it was to the chagrin of those who had wished for Harris to become the United States’ first woman president!
Trump won both the electoral college and the popular vote. For the second time, he made history as the candidate that twice denied Americans the opportunity to produce a woman president. I am not sure that record will be easy for anyone to break. Governing the US has also been made very easy for Trump with his party controlling the majority in Congress. Few presidents before him had been so blessed.
Trump’s ways are unorthodox – in both his internal and external policies. Complaints and protests trail him everywhere. Staunch allies and traditional friends have turned foes and opponents. Mercurial and controversial Trump is the talk-of-town everywhere. Oh, his theatrics! If you squirm at his (mis)treatment of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, consider the bitter pills he shoved down the throat of traditional ally, Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu! Not just what he does but the way he does them! The louder the outcry, the more he tightens the screws!
Since Trump will not relent, those at the receiving end of his tariffs war are also slamming their own tariffs on the US. Trump, rather than give up or moderate, responds with higher tariffs. In this all-out war, no one is spared. Even little Davids like Nigeria, not spared by Trump, have thrown their own feeble punches at the Goliath of our time! Where will this spat lead our world?
The existing international order which came into existence at the end of the Second World War in 1945 has become obsolete and anachronistic. It can no longer carry the weight, as it were, of our world as presently constituted and configured. International relations or relations between state- and non-state actors alike are a function of power relations. What these power relations were in 1945 are not what they are today. Some states have dropped on the pecking order while others have climbed up the ladder. This must be reflected in a new world order that will put everyone in their rightful places. What, for instance, qualifies Britain or France as permanent members of the UN Security Council that does not qualify Germany and India?
The two levers of power in international world order are military and economic. Both resided in the United States and its Western allies in the aftermath of the 2nd World War. As the victorious powers, they presided over the fashioning of a new world order, making sure they cast it in their own image. The Soviet Union and China that played a limited role in the defeat of Adolf Hitler were allowed into the sitting room but not the inner room of the new power house. The US became the metropolitan power and Western Europe its satellites. Together, both dished out orders to the rest of the world. A restraining factor, however, has been the veto power wielded by both the Soviet Union (now Russia) and China in the UN Security Council.
Our world is changing rapidly! It is not what it used to be 80 years ago. Power relations amongst states have undergone drastic and dramatic transformation. The US is no longer the sole nuclear power nation. We can count countries with nuclear capabilities to include the other four members of the UN Security Council, in addition to India and Pakistan. There are “rogue” nations like Israel, Iran and South Africa and others possessing the nuke or the (near)capability to join the elite club at short notice.
From time immemorial power relations have never been static; rather, they have been dynamic. Economic relations have also seen the rise and fall of nations. The nations that controlled the commerce of the world during the tenure of the League of Nations (1918 – 1939) are not the same that did in post-1945. The end of that war confirmed the US as the new powerhouse of the world. Western Europe that hitherto colonised the world, the US itself inclusive, declined in both military and economic power, took the back seat and played second fiddle to the US, becoming its most glorified cheerleaders!
But nothing lasts forever! History teaches that nations get to their apogee, stay there for a while, and then begin to decline. That is one. Another is that other nations make improvements, catch up and overtake the leaders. The struggle to word off competition and perpetually remain on top versus the determination to catch up and upturn the apple cart is what is unfolding before our very eyes between the United States on the one hand and the rest of the world on the other. What is amazing to many is that the US, fighting tooth and nail to maintain its hegemony, has made no distinction between age-old allies and foes alike. The reason is simple: Trump sees those allies and their feeding bottle mentality as the major cause of the decline that the US has suffered. The resources the US has poured into protecting and providing for them could have better been investing in developing the US itself.
Trump wants to call in such investments. He wants to cut and run on international engagements that drain the US of resources needed for investment at home. The US wants to prioritize looking after its own interests now and reduce, if not totally eliminate, its self-imposed obligations of policeman of the world or the defender of so-called democratic values worldwide. It is an “America first” policy aimed at Making America Great Again! MAGA! To achieve this, Trump also wants to throw spanners in the works for the countries threatening to do the catching-up with the US, especially China, if not to completely stop them in their tracts but to at least slow them down while the US extricates itself from its self-imposed quagmire and forges ahead again.
The rot in the US system runs deep. The inherent contradictions in its capitalist system. Decades of complacency and arrogance. Pig-headed policies that gifted its competitors the weapons they now masterfully deploy. It is debatable whether Trump is going about the fight the right way or whether he can stop or delay the meteoric rise of China and India, and, to some extent, Russia, as they position themselves individually and collectively to challenge for the leadership position of the world. Whatever is the case, a new world order beckons! Whether it will be achieved peacefully or after another war remains to be seen.
LAST WORD: It is instructive that in the face of Trump’s raging and rampaging tariffs war, the World Trade Organisation (WTO) has been missing in action! Headed by a Nigerian, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (she bagged a second term of office recently), Google says the WTO “is primarily responsible for administering global trade rules, providing a forum for trade negotiations, settling trade disputes, and supporting developing countries in benefitting from the global trading system”. “Market forces” and “free trade”, the well-advertised fulcrum of the capitalist system often wielded to extort and exploit developing countries, have also taken the back seat! Capitalism is a scam!
![[OPINION] Rivers: What Chinwoke Mbadinuju told me - Lanre Adewole](/media/k2/items/cache/01d8bd06618891507b328bddc399f929_M.jpg)
DON’T worry, I am not hallucinating or addled. I know one-term, one-time Anambra governor, now-late Chinwoke Mbadinuju isn’t alive to witness the running Bola Tinubu Show in Rivers State, verisimilar to the wildly-popular “Family Feud” show being hosted across continents by coloured American humourist and TV personality, Steve Harvey, only that the moustached one isn’t violently-biased in his role as the man in-between.
Mbadinuju died April 11, 2023 at 77, going into Nigeria’s political record book of the running republic as one of the first two sitting governors of the 1999 Class, to be vanquished by enraged godfathers, just like the suspended {sounds like a school boy thing} Rivers’ governor, Siminalayi Fubara. The other governor of the Class that was outclassed by his then-godfather was Borno’s Mala Kachalla. He was run out of now-defunct APP by his then-godfather Modu Ali Sherif and porting to then-South West dominated AD could not save him from becoming a one-termer. Yes, there were other losers of that time; from Gombe’s Abubakar Hashidu to five AD governors of Oyo, Osun, Ogun, Ekiti and Ondo. Olusegun Obasanjo as president of that era was running riot with assumed limitless presidential powers, knocking off constitutional guardrails planted by the framers of democratic ethos as a pushback against full-blown dictatorship. One of those who railed endlessly against Obasanjo;s perceived fascism of that time was then-governor of Lagos, a certain Bola Tinubu who was variously and widely robed as the face of the resistance of that era. Today, the then-celebrated walking bulwark against dictatorship is now president and wait for this; he is now cuddling with demented affection, the desecrating playbook of the one he brutally roasted as a fascist in agbada; the former chicken farmer who today owns a Uni!
Let’s return to Mbadinuju. After he lost to the crude mercantilist politics of his original godfather, controversial billionaire Emeka Offor and the inherited megalomaniac youthful godfather, Chris Uba, he retreated to a private life while the Obasanjo tsunami was blowing across states with targeted elected governors kissing the dust. About a year after Obasanjo had gone back to private life, a griping Mbadinuju granted a colleague and I a very choleric interview, spewing so much anger and divulging some much about alleged events and issues of the time of his travails between 1999 and 2003, uncladding Olusegun Obasanjo not only as a dictator but an encourager of impunity, ascribing the most odious and governance oddities to the president of his time in office. He said in the peace meetings called by OBJ to mediate the crisis between him and Offor and later Uba, the then-president was just barking out orders, mandating him to kowtow to all the fraudulent, illegal and unconstitutional demands of his godfathers. He said other unprintable things. My colleague and I were just exchanging glances as he made these seemingly-outlandish claims on the record. At a point, it was as if we were being treated to a Papa Ajasco Super Story where Boy Alinco is just framing sweet nonsense to win the heart of Miss ‘Pepisco’ Pepeye, considering that he actually asked for the interview because he felt Gbenga Aruleba of AIT was always dragging him on his morning show and wanted to spill more about how Obasanjo was aiding and abetting impunity in Anambra of that era. After the session which dragged into hours, my colleague who is now a federal spokesperson and I were celebrating a blockbuster of an interview. I was barely settling in our Area 3 office when calls began coming in. The former governor grew cold feet. He must have either dialogued with some confidants and shared some of his brutal assessment of Obasanjo as a human being, an elder, an administration, an arbiter and a leader, coming into the conclusion that the kind of Ebora Owu should never pass through the Aso Rock office again, or maybe with himself in a calmer state and reasoned his peace was not worth the ire of Obasanjo’s very predictable fightback, considering his boys in then-Umaru Yar’Adua’s administration and the former governor decided to capitulate even before the war would start.
One touching excuse he gave was “you know Obasanjo {he had this funny way of pronouncing the former president’s name} is a vindictive person and even out of power, he wont stop pursuing me if this interview is out the way I granted it”. He could not be persuaded that Aremu would do him no jack. The initial agreement was to scrub the Obasanjo part which would leave almost nothing new in the interview. Later all parties agreed to terminate the entire stuff and our blockbuster went out of the window.
Mbadinuju’s saga and his godfathers receiving presidential backings against him, didn’t meet with much public sympathy as it was mainly viewed as then-ruling PDP’s family affair even after the re-election ticket he allegedly won, was forced off his hand, but God decided to use his successor’s {Chris Ngige} torment in the hands of the same alleged oppressors, especially Obasanjo, to expose their maniacal ways and the buccaneer deployment of federal might by the administration, with the global outrage that trailed the reported abduction of then-governor by the Uba “terror” gang, masquerading as political power group in the state. Ngige’s tormentors had to self-implicate for rigging, of course without consequences {only hapless professors are jailed for it}, just to rid the government house of Ngige at the election petition tribunal, paving the way for a certain Peter Obi of then-APGA as governor. That Obi is the wave-making populist of today.
Power shenanigans like the one going on between Rivers and Aso Rock aren’t novel in Nigerian politics since the return of civil rule. The ‘martial” law {that is only what can give him power to sack elected representatives of the people} proclaimed in the state by Tinubu, the epauleted nestor of democracy in Nigeria, isn’t also likely to be the last of the territory capture he would attempt to sail smoothly in his re-election and repay loyalty of his “boys” like Nyesom Wike. Yoruba always warn that crayfish thieves don’t stop at one, because of the sweetness. In Kunle Afolayan’s epic movie; October 1, the diviner, played by Yemi Elebuibon warned that the killer of maidens in the town, who turned out to be the heir apparent, would still kill more {yio tun pa eniyan si} because he was using the killings as a psycho-treatment for the trauma arising from his molestation by a priest in a monastery. Despite the sound education the prince got while with the cassocked abuser, his mind was anything but sound. He returned to the village with a certificate, Queen’s English and a mind scrambled almost into permanent insanity.
I was told by someone very close to power that the Rivers’ crisis was bleeding the national economy badly due to the oil pipeline attacks {obviously orchestrated acts for leverage by whoever did it} and that the president consulted widely before doing something similar to what Yoon Suk Yeol attempted as South Korean president that got him half-way fired from office. He is now awaiting the Constitutional Court to determine his fate after the parliament dominated by his party, impeached him in a bipartisan move to nip in the bud what they saw as creeping tsarism.
Of course, such an outcome would be a miracle in Nigeria, where baba’ocracy {politics of worship} has been firmly planted. Even the undoubtedly most decent {by persona assessment} of the men who have ruled Nigeria since 1999, Goodluck Jonathan, was still accused of strongmanism. I doubt if the judiciary will save Fubara and the president would likely extend the martial law in the state because I don’t see a winning Wike going into a ceasefire without demanding all the aces, except if a courageous judge steps up to proclaim the martial law, for what it obviously is, a coup.
The politics of second term will always leave the country frayed and it was a great disservice done the country by the national assembly of David Mark when Jonathan’s push for a six-year single term, was derailed because North saw it as a tenure elongation agenda. Fubara, Wike, Aso Rock et al are just symptoms of the disoriented democracy Nigeria is practising. Even if courts restore Fubara and shame Wike and his Villa fada, the unrestrained use of presidential power won’t abate with a new person in office, until the faulty framework is reworked. The Nigerian presidency is already too powerful. Shaving off its unsightliness is the first step toward sanity in the polity. Imagine Tinubu swearing in the sole administrator by himself! What a people we are!
![[OPINION] AWOISM: Ideology, legacy, and contemporary relevance - Segun Gbadegesin](/media/k2/items/cache/a5d972478faa288dcfb80cd983d314ee_M.jpg)
The sage, Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo, has remained a major influence in the political economy of Africa. As a founding father of Nigeria, Chief Awolowo, with other nationalists, fought tenaciously for the country’s independence from colonial rule and relentlessly toiled afterwards to excogitate ideas that would promote nationhood. Even several decades after his death, his profound thoughts on governance and/or political administration, especially how Nigeria and other developing nations of the world should be administered to engender socio-political and economic harmony as well as prosperity for their people (which he meticulously documented in his books) have become famous and copiously quoted by political stakeholders. Awoism encapsulates the political and socio-economic philosophy of the sage.
But what is Awoism? At a lecture organised by Think Yoruba First, a group of young Nigerians committed to the promotion of the ideals of Chief Obafemi Awolowo, on April 5, 2025, to mark the 116th posthumous birthday of the avatar, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Professor Segun Gbadegesin, who was the guest lecturer, offered profound insights into Awoism, its true meaning and what it encapsulates.
Between Philosophy and Ideology
In their writings, politicians typically try to justify specific structures. An ideology is a belief system constructed for the justification of a particular social, economic, and political order.
A common example of political ideology is liberalism or conservatism.
Philosophy, on the other hand, is the pursuit, as well as the outcome, of critical inquiry into the nature of reality, including material, economic, moral, and political realities.
The philosopher is also self-consciously critical, constantly revising the assumptions behind his or her position to reach the truth.
Philosophy v. Ideology
From the foregoing, it is not too difficult to see how the two—ideology and philosophy—can intersect.
A critical inquiry—philosophy—can be the basis of an ideology—a belief system. John Stuart Mill’s liberalism is based on his critical inquiry into the nature of freedom and human nature, and he is better known as a philosopher than an ideologue.
If we read carefully all of Chief Awolowo’s writings, from Path to Nigerian Freedom to People’s Republic both of which form the foundation of his philosophy of governance, we would discover that his later writings build on the philosophical foundation of these texts.
For AWO, therefore, philosophy grounds ideology and ideology is built on the foundation of philosophy.
Three Existential Questions facing Nationalists Struggling for National Independence
01: How do we carve a national identity out of a motley crowd? This is the question of political structure and constitutional arrangements.
02: How do we equip everyone with the necessary skills to make them useful members of society? This is the question of education and human development.
03: How do we organize the social means of production for the benefit of all? This is the question of political economy, production, and equitable distribution of resources.
Progressivism in Politics
Progressives in politics subscribe to and invest heavily in the progressive agenda.
The progressive agenda makes the people the centerpiece of its policies and programs and conforms to their aspirations.
It is not tradition, or culture, or the nation as an abstract entity that looms large in a progressive agenda. Every such abstraction that is identified is spelled out and cashed out in terms that make sense to the welfare of the people.
The Action Group and Progressive Politics
The people of Western Region embraced the agenda of the Action Group government in 1952 when Chief Obafemi Awolowo became the Leader of Government Business because it was crystal clear to them that the agenda of the government was theirs and it spoke to their needs and interests.
The progressive agenda championed by Chief Awolowo and the Action Group was Welfare Liberalism, encapsulated in the slogan, “Freedom for all, life more abundant.”
To fix it in the psyche of the people, it was translated into Yoruba as AFENIFERE.
AWOISM as a Philosophy of Governance
Here is the logical reasoning of Chief Obafemi Awolowo on the three existential issues.
It is this reasoning that is at the core of Awoism as a philosophy of governance.
ON POLITICAL STRUCTURE AND CONSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
There is a scientific and objective formula that determines the best political and constitutional arrangement for different states or nations.
The best political and constitutional arrangement for a multi-ethnic and multi-linguistic state is a true federal system.
Therefore, Nigeria requires a true federal system.
On education
Human beings are the sole dynamic agents of development.
Education is fundamentally important for human beings as individuals, family, and society.
Despite its importance, the majority of citizens are too poor to finance their own education or the education of their children.
Therefore, The state has an obligation to provide free education for all citizens.
On the economy
The welfare of citizens is the most fundamental concern of the government.
The economy is the most fundamental social-political arrangement that impacts the welfare of citizens.
A good economic outcome requires adequate planning.
Therefore, A progressive government must have a sound economic plan including diversification of the resources of the nation.
On Politics and Political Arrangements
Awo’s Articles of faith on representative democracy:
Competitive elections
Separation of powers
Rule of law
Ideological direction:
Welfare of the people as ultimate purpose
Therefore,
Freedom for All, Life More Abundant.
Action Group and its Pace-setting Achievements
Voting by symbols in 1953
Use of steel boxes and security-printed ballot papers in 1956
Motion for the creation of a state from the region
Election of leader of opposition as Deputy Speaker of the Western House of Assembly
Restriction of membership of Tenders Board to officials rather than politicians
Establishment of agricultural settlements
Introduction and payment of minimum wage
Establishment of first industrial estate and housing estate
First television service in Africa
Olympic size stadium
Award of 200 scholarships to Nigerian students
Free universal primary education
Free health services for children up to the age of 18
On Political Structure
Two principles of territorial divisions are available for the consideration of political leaders:
Individualism which would divide territories into political nations based on individual interests.
Ethnicism or nationalism which would divide territories according to ethnic affiliations.
Each has its own challenges:
The first is problematic because individual interests are too unstable to serve as the basis of political boundaries.
The second is problematic because there is no pure homogenous ethnic group in contemporary times, especially after imperialist contraptions.
Federalism as Solution
Solution: A political structure that respects the right of each culture or nationality to a public sphere that it can call its own.
This is what is referred to as cultural democracy. Its political expression is true federalism.
This is what Chief Obafemi Awolowo had in mind when he suggested the principle of federalism as the most viable basis for the governance of a multi-ethnic state such as Nigeria.
This is based on his four principles of constitution-making
Four Principles of Constitution-Making
If a country is uni-lingual and uni-national, the constitution must be Unitary.
If a country is uni-lingual or bi-lingual or multi-lingual, and also consists of communities, which, though belonging to the same nation, have, over a period of years, developed some important cultural divergences as well as autonomous geographical separateness; the constitution must be Federal, and the constituent states must be organized on the dual basis of language and geographical separateness.
If a country is bi-lingual or multi-lingual, the constitution must be Federal, and the constituent states must be organized on a linguistic basis.
Any experiment with a Unitary constitution in a bi-lingual or multi-lingual or multi-national country must fail, in the long run.
Between Unitarism and Federalism
For the unitarist, a nation must be known and related to as a united and indivisible entity.
To be such, no room must be given to any centrifugal tendencies.
On its part, federalism respects the component units in a multi-national or multi-ethnic union.
For the unitarist, the many nationalities must be melted into one.
The Absurdity of the Melting Pot Analogy
An ethnic nationality is not a pot and cannot be melted like a wax.
Language is not a bar of butter that can be melted by heat.
The failure of melting pot ideas and practices reflects the absurdity of their assumptions.
We should stop pretending that we can forget our heritage and remain ourselves.
We should each embrace them and bring out their virtues to bear on the future that we covet.
AWO on Education
AWO’s defense of the right to education (PNG, 164-172) is based on a philosophy of family relations between the paterfamilias and materfamilias and the children.
We bring children into the world.
That act comes with a heavy dose of responsibility which was not lost on our ancestors even without the benefit of formal education themselves.
They knew well that they had to train their children so they could assume their role as grownups.
Contemporary parents have the same instinctive urge to educate their children.
AWO’s Arguments for Free Education
Ontological Argument:
A human being is a living soul which must be nurtured through sound education so that the man/woman retains that quality of being above other animals. Since many cannot do this by themselves, the duty falls on the state.
Ideological Argument:
The Nigerian state, to which citizens have voluntarily submitted, has a duty to educate children from the various ethnic backgrounds.
Political-Economic Argument:
Rapid political economic development of Nigeria by Nigerians for Nigerians requires the full development and full employment of all Nigerians. To be fully developed is to be fully educated and this is the responsibility of the state.
Moral Argument:
The state is an institution with objectives to, among others, protect citizens and promote their welfare and guarantee the exercise of their rights. It is immoral and unethical for the state to discharge its responsibilities to a small section of “haves” while a vast majority of “have-nots” are neglected.
AWO on The Economy
In Path to Nigerian Greatness, Chief Awolowo identified the characteristics of an underdeveloped economy deriving from three kinds of underdevelopment.
Underdevelopment of the mind, arising from ignorance, illiteracy, deficiency in technology and in technical and managerial know-how.
Underdevelopment of the body, arising from disease, bad and inadequate food, bad water, bad housing, meagre clothing, and filthy environment;
Underdevelopment of agriculture, and excessive and widespread underdevelopment of the rural population arising from underdevelopment of the mind and body, and from lack of savings and capital formation. (PNG, p.154)
An Economic Argument for the “Full Development of Man”
All men have innate talents or ability and must be given equal opportunity to develop.
When all talents have been developed fully, each must be given equal opportunity to contribute to socio-economic development: (why? Because the share of the total development for each person depends on his contribution)
The society (not just individuals) suffers when all talents in society are not fully developed.
Therefore, the solution to the problem of our country’s economic underdevelopment lies in the “full development and full employment of every Nigerian-man or woman, child or adolescent.” (emphasis in original): “no economic revolution has ever succeeded or will ever succeed, whether green or otherwise, which does not give the prime of place to the full development of man.” p.155
Philosophical Reasoning Followed by Action
The reasoning leads to the four cardinal programs of UPN, namely:
Free education at all levels
Integrated rural development
Free health care
Full employment
From the foregoing, it follows that the “full development and full employment of every Nigerian citizen” should be the primary national objective of the nation because:
A GOOD NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICY AND PROGRAM IS INDISPENSABLE TO A GOOD NATIONAL ECONOMIC ADVANCEMENT.
Political Action Follows Philosophical Reasoning
In the economic sphere of development, Awolowo’s government promoted the growth of secondary industries pari passu with agricultural development as a means of realizing the goal of a “never-ceasing expansion in the economy and wealth of the Region” which he believed that government must ensure.
To that end of a “never-ceasing expansion in the economy and wealth of the Region”, the government facilitated the growth of private enterprise, removed infrastructural obstacles, and provided basic services including the development of industrial estates.
In addition, government established agencies that participated in industries—Western Nigeria Development Corporation (WNDC) and Western Nigeria Finance Corporation (WNFC). The latter was designed to make loans available to entrepreneurs from the Region.
AWO’s Recommendation to the Federal Government
In April 1960, Chief Awolowo recommended to the new Federal Government, the paths to economic development which the Western Region had taken:
First, ascertain the problems which required a solution.
Second, formulate the principles which were to guide the government in solving those problems.
Third, work out the concrete plans and programs to resolve the problems.
Ascertaining and resolving the Problems
The problems facing the country were identified as
the paradox of wealth and poverty living side by side in the country,
miserable rural conditions,
rural-urban migration, and
urban unemployment.
The principles identified for resolving the problems were:
government must find means to promote the maximum exploitation of natural resources,
accelerate the development of manpower and
ensure the equitable distribution of the resultant wealth.
Agriculture and Education as Bedrocks of Economic Policy
The concrete plans and programs for resolving the problems focused on the development of agriculture and allied industries
the promotion of education and health as pillars of economic development.
Meeting the Challenges of Agriculture
The challenges:
Inefficient methods of cultivation and production made the productivity of the farmers abysmally low and discouraging.
The inadequacy of resources made it impossible for him to improve his methods.
The solution:
Education of and financial assistance for farmers
Promotion of wealth for farmers
To promote the growth of wealth for farmers,
extension services were created.
extension workers were trained to intensify research into new varieties of seedlings.
Training was given to farmers on the prevention of diseases that affected cocoa production.
Western Region Finance Corporation started a loan scheme to help farmers with the purchase of pest-control measures.
subsidies were given to farmers through the Marketing Board to purchase chemicals to combat pests and diseases.
These services provided invaluable help on all aspects of the cultivation of cocoa and oil palm, leading to a boom in agricultural wealth.
Cooperative Farm Settlements
To train young graduates of modern school in the “science and technique of modern farming”, the government of Western Region established
13 Cooperative Farm Settlements and
3 Farm Institutes
The idea was to enable the trainees to acquire their own plot and stand on their own as productive members of society.
A philosophy of self-determination
AWOISM is a philosophy of self-determination and self-sufficiency.
When the government of Western Region determined that it was in its interest to pursue its economic policies by rejecting funds from the Federal Government, it did not hesitate to do so.
Thus, when the Federal Government suggested the termination of the 1955/60 regional plans, Western Region refused because the region was “already self-governing”, and while the North had received £3 3/4million and the East £2 3/4million as allocations from the Federal Government, the West had received only £1/2 million.
Therefore, the West opted to pursue its own Five-Year Plan, “Western Regional Development Plan 1960/65” because, as Chief Awolowo put it, “we had enough funds of our own to execute our plans.”
A Legacy of Deep Thinking, Hard Work, and Fearless Action
“I have never regarded myself as having a monopoly of wisdom. The trouble is that when most people in life and in the position of leadership and rulership are spending whole days and nights carousing in clubs or in the company of men of shady character and women of easy virtue, I, like a few others, am always at my post working hard at the country’s problems and trying to find solutions for them. With them the slogan always is; Drinking and Dancing Till Day Break; but with those of my breed, it is: Hard Work Till Midnight or the Early Hours of the Morning. Now, when out of the inflated emptiness of their minds they speak, they are naturally superficial. Only the deep can call to the deep. When, on the other hand, others of my ilk speak out of the fullness of their minds, what they say more often than not command attention and sometimes appeals to the majority of the people. This is the difference.”
Professor Gbadegesin presented this paper on April 5, 2025 at a lecture organised by Think Yoruba First to mark the 116th posthumous birthday of Chief Obafemi Awolowo.
![[OPINION] Before Our Obituary - Wole Olaoye](/media/k2/items/cache/9afb598278f662fb9129300b22fa5918_S.jpg)
Hopefully, we shall not die; we shall live to proclaim the glory of the Lord. But the god of warfare is always on the side of the superior weapon. He who strikes first carries the day. Ask any Ogun worshipper, the god of iron always sides with the faster swordsman. Ask Boko Haram, Ansarul, ISWAP, ISIS, Lakurawa,
Bandit, Unknown Herdsman, Unknown Gunmen, Kidnap kingpins and other messengers of the grim reaper. They would tell you that war is totally different from dambe, the local form of martial arts.
In my younger days, it used to be said that a war foretold shouldn’t take the life of the lame. That was because he would have had all the time to get out of the way or seek assistance to take care of himself. It was scandalous in those days of innocence to expect people to remain sitting ducks waiting to be plucked down by the rifles of raging bands of savages.
Enough Is Enough!
Any politician who continues to preach forbearance to people in the eye of the genocidal storm depredating the country is welcome to go ahead and print his own obituary. He should leave the people to find creative ways of enforcing their right to life. We have gone past platitudes or political correctness now. It is either we do nothing and die, or rise up against the beasts of terror in defence of our lives and heritage.
The other day, Governor Zulum of Borno State cried for help as Boko Haram continued to reverse earlier gains made by the Nigerian military in decimating the ranks of the terror group. Zulum is not a frivolous man.
“While my administration has been very supportive of the military and other security agencies in the fight against Boko Haram, it is disheartening to note the recent attacks and dislodgement of military formations in Wajirko, Sabon Gari in Damboa, Wulgo in Gamboru Ngala, and Izge in Gwoza, along with the killing of innocent civilians and security agents. This calls for serious concern and signals a setback”, he declared.
At the same time, Plateau State was burning. The state government admitted that bandits were in control of 64 indigenous communities in the state. A body count revealed that 58 defenceless people had fallen to the unprovoked attack of the savages.
The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) joined in the nationwide outcry against the killings. “The killing spree on the Plateau must be stopped immediately, and peace must return to the state. In the future, ACF calls on the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) to declare a state of security emergency in vulnerable and banditry-prone communities and to initiate effective early warning and early response strategies that incorporate the participation of community members,” said the ACF.
It added that, “The FG should intensify efforts in actionable intelligence gathering, processing and deployment by all relevant security agencies to establish the immediate and remote causes of the latest skirmishes. Investigate, identify, arrest and prosecute perpetrators and enablers of the attacks; fully compensate families for the lives lost and extend relief to those injured.”
Action Required
I’m sorry, many of the statements made by obviously well-meaning but fairly well insulated personalities and groups were too predictable and would do nothing to swing the pendulum of victory to the side of the defenceless people. If we continue in the same tepid way we have been handling these marauders, all we will have on our hands are loads of corpses, additional thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, and a guarantee of asymmetric war from generation to generation between the tribes of the victims and those of the aggressors.
Having written at least 10 articles in the last five years on the matter, I have no intention of boring my readers with a rehash of the details of my well-spelt-out position on how to stem the tide of lawlessness and rein in non-state dispensers of violent death all over the country. But the general principle remains relevant – every security is local!
Our National Assembly members are cowering in Abuja where they are shielded by state-funded security apparatuses instead of promptly passing laws empowering states to establish state police formations and forest guards equipped with adequate armaments commensurate with the level of dangers they will be confronting.
It is intellectually lazy to simply dismiss the idea of state policing with a wave of the hand. Any desperate politician, whether at the federal or state levels, can be inclined to attempt misusing the proposed security formations, so, what’s all the noise about governors hijacking the state police for their own ends.
State policing is not a new idea at all. During the First Republic, apart from the federal police, we had the regional police and local government police in the South. Up North, there was the Native Authority Police. And who says we can’t afford state policing when we can afford unaudited hundreds of billions in opaque security votes in the 36 states and the FCT?
We are in an emergency situation. While putting together the various state formations and training the personnel, we can quickly mop up the forests, hilltops and mountain ranges currently under the control of the terrorists by contracting private military companies (PMCs) to ‘fumigate’ the identified areas taken over by the terrorists and take out their henchmen.
Jonathan’s Initiative
President Jonathan did a similar thing rather quietly before the 2015 elections could be held in the Northeast. He brought in military contractors who fought alongside our armed forces to send Boko Haram packing. If we had seen through that massive exercise, Boko Haram would probably have become history by now. But, as always, continuity is our problem.
The Buhari government cancelled the contract of the South African firm, Executive Outcomes, and the surviving terrorists gladly returned to fill the abandoned spaces.
The foreign soldiers who were part of that exercise came with their own arsenal. They had high praises for Nigerian soldiers, saying they were a professional outfit needing adequate armaments, logistics and political backing. They operated under the overall command of our military chiefs. So, why not, if not?
The rump of the terror herds have found a new sport in the southern states – shooting defenceless motorists and commuters on inter-state highways in the macabre game of kidnapping for ransom. In that department, they have levelled the playing field, kidnapping kings and plebeians, princes and serfs, bloodless civilians and full-blooded generals. We are all sitting ducks.
Need For Arms
Nigerians should now be encouraged to acquire the basic personal light arms for self-defence while the government implements the broader suggestions that require statutory approvals and budget accruals. We ought to have implemented, long ago, the suggestions made by state governors, especially Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of blessed memory, of providing adequate arms and ammunition for the fledgling local security outfits like Amotekun.
Thanks to the social media which never forgets, Akeredolu’s voice still rings out clearly today: “Ondo State government under the doctrine of necessity has decided to fulfil its legal, constitutional and moral duty to the citizens of the state, by acquiring arms to protect them.
“This is more so, given that the bandits have unchecked access to sophisticated weapons. The state government cannot look on while its citizens are being terrorised and murdered with impunity. We will defend our people!”
![[OPINION] Tinubu and the Federal Character Question - Simon Kolawole](/media/k2/items/cache/8cd36a4476f918755f0e4ec77f757eda_S.jpg)
Anytime people complain to my hearing about the lopsided high-level appointments made so far by President Bola Tinubu, I am tempted to gloat and proclaim: “Told you so!” I have never hidden my bias for the reflection of federal character, or equity, in appointments, employments and projects. My simple argument for decades has been that in a multi-ethnic society, every section must be given a sense of belonging, no matter who is in power. The truth is that in ethnically plural developing countries, marginalisation — or fear of domination — is a major root of rancour. This often fuels resentment and hostility. It inevitably slows down national integration and worsens political discord.
I have been told to shut up many times by those who oppose my position on political inclusion. They argue that we should focus on only “merit” if we want Nigeria to develop. However, I still maintain that the political atmosphere has to be conducive. We need to build national consensus and sense of ownership. Every part of the country must believe that they have a stake in the Nigerian project, not that they are just a part of the furniture. For as long as we keep playing cat and mouse with basic principles that are vital to the unity of a diverse nation such as Nigeria, the disharmony will continue to be a distraction. It will keep hurting and haunting us. We will never be able focus on our goals.
Those who make the “merit” argument often assume that it is the opposite of “equity”. The federal character principle actually means “merit plus equity”, not “merit minus equity”. There are minimum requirements, no matter where you come from. If this is being abused, that is a separate problem to be addressed in another way. Some people also assume that only their part of the country has merit. They think it is only when you appoint their kin into positions that you have used merit. If you appoint anyone else, it is “federal character”. If that is the case, why should anybody complain about imbalance in Tinubu’s appointments? Are we saying his appointees lack merit or competence?
There are so many prejudices we inherited from older Nigerians who lived in the colonial and independence eras — many of whom we generously call “statesmen”. They are so stuck in 1960 that they cannot see what has changed in 64 years. True, there was a time in this country when all the university graduates were southerners. That was when it was easy to deride northerners as “uneducated”. But we are now in 2025 and I make bold to assert that there is no part of Nigeria today that has not produced thousands of graduates, many of them educated at the best schools home and abroad. You would be shocked to learn that all states now have unemployed graduates!
Inherited prejudice will continue to blind us to the fact that every part of Nigeria has produced a fair share of university graduates, PhDs and professors. Every section of Nigeria now has a decent collection of professionals and experts who have distinguished themselves in various fields — law, medicine, finance, the arts, etc — locally and internationally. One part of the country may be more endowed than the other in some fields or areas, but that is a different argument. My point here is that we first have to discard this inherited prejudice from ethnic supremacists that they are the only ones who have merit when it comes to appointments. This mindset is definitely not based on facts.
More so, we need to be cautious about this “merit” argument. As I have told many of the proponents, is it only at federal level that we need merit in government? Is your state being ruled by “merit”? Are the appointees in your state the best professionals and politicians you can boast of? Which state in Nigeria of today can confidently claim to have significantly tackled basic development issues such as sanitation, roads, potable water, basic education, healthcare and gender equity as a result of their famous “merit”? It appears our merit argument only applies at the federal level. When it comes to our states and councils, we conveniently shut down our brains. It is called hypocrisy.
If we want to be consistent with the “merit only” argument, then we should stop complaining that Tinubu is running a government that is essentially “Yoruba Nayson” (credit: Sunday Igboho). All we need to do is look at the résumés of the appointees: schools attended, degrees amassed, work experience, career attainments… they tick all those boxes. Let us stop complaining and start singing: “All of Tinubu’s appointments are on merit/Give our president some credit.” We should not be looking at the state of origin, ethnicity and religion of appointees. Haven’t we been told these things should never matter, that we should only talk about education, work history and positions held?
But if we want to step down from the Utopian world and pay attention to the ground realities in a diverse society that has been struggling too hard to become a nation, we will be forced to agree that balancing is a vital ingredient in nation-building. I have said it several times: I do not want to go to a federal ministry or department and everybody is speaking the same language and I am told everybody was employed on merit. Come off it! There is no part of Nigeria that does not have qualified candidates. All councils, states, zones, regions and religions have competent people. This is 2025, not 1960. Let us wake up and smell the coffee: no part of Nigeria has monopoly of merit!
Meanwhile, it appears some people only complain when the boot is on the other foot. I didn’t hear many northerners complain when President Muhammadu Buhari was making appointments that seemed heavily in favour of the north, notably in his early years. Maybe they were enjoying it. Now that Tinubu is replicating the template, they are grumbling — although I must immediately confess he has taken it to an unimaginable extent. Some prominent Yoruba commentators who complained about Buhari’s appointments have suddenly developed sore throat and gone quiet under Tinubu. This inconsistency bothers me. Let us use the same yardstick for every president, no matter what.
I must at this point admit that even the federal character principle is subject to different interpretations. The appointment of Mr Bayo Ojulari as the CEO of the NNPC Ltd is a case in point. Ojulari’s identity is peculiar: he is ethnically Yoruba, like Tinubu, but he is from Kwara state, which is in the north. Tinubu is from the south-west. So how should Ojulari be classified in the federal character matrix? Will core northerners list his appointment under the column for the north or the one for Yoruba? Will south-westerners classify him as a northerner? Depending on the point you want to canvass, you can choose to identify him as a Yoruba, or as a northerner, or as a Muslim.
President Olusegun Obasanjo faced a similar situation when he assumed office in 1999. Because he rode on the back of northern power brokers to win his election, he had a gentleman’s agreement with them to cede certain positions to the region. Of the four service chiefs, he agreed to appoint three from the north. He picked Gen Victor Malu from Benue as army chief and went to Kogi to pick Air Marshall Isaac Alfa as air chief and Admiral Ibrahim Ogohi as defence chief. Malu was a Tiv while both Alfa and Ogohi were Igalas. Many core northerners were riled. While some grumbled in their bedrooms, the late Wada Nas openly kicked against it, accusing Obasanjo of marginalising the north.
Obasanjo himself played the game when he did not want the late Chief Sunday Bolorunduro Awoniyi, from Kogi state, to be the PDP chairman. Awoniyi was a strong character whom, honestly, not many Nigerian presidents would want as party chairman because he was not one to be shouting “yes, sir” night and day. Even though the position was zoned to the north-central where Awoniyi hailed from, Obasanjo’s foot soldiers went round whispering that it was not good for a Yoruba to be president and another Yoruba to be party chairman. It was politics, I agree, but this is the kind of nitpicking that come with the make-up of Nigeria. People deploy the identity argument that suits them per time.
Regardless, the principles of federal character and equity are obviously part of our DNA. National associations — such as the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) and the Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) — not only share exco offices to various geo-political zones to reflect the national make-up, they also rotate positions between the north and the south. There is no law requiring them to do this but it is just common sense for a national body in a diverse country struggling to remain one. That is why I always back the rotation of presidential power between the north and the south, even though that is not the ultimate formula for development.
In sum, while I do not pretend to know the solutions to Nigeria’s complicated problems, I am certain that Nigerians want a country where they will have a sense of belonging, where they will not feel sidelined, where they will not be marginalised, where they are treated with equity and justice. For the optics of politics, the distribution of federal appointments and projects — especially the top-level ones — must be done along the lines of common sense and balancing. I repeat: there is merit and competence in every part of Nigeria. I repeat: lopsidedness fuels resentment and further divides a country already locked in mutual suspicion. It is not too late in the day for Tinubu to change course.
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…
ORONTO: 10 YEARS ON
I remember, as always, my friend, brother, mentor and benefactor, Mr Oronto Natei Douglas (OND), who died on April 9, 2015. Last Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of his passing. I first met OND in 1996 through my pal, Doifie Buokoribo, who introduced me to the Environmental Rights Action (ERA) to help them design and print their newsletters, pamphlets, magazines and books. OND was the deputy director of ERA at the time. He was a genuine Niger Delta activist. As aide to President Goodluck Jonathan, Oronto described himself as an “activist in government”. His passion for democracy and development was amazing. He was a great soul and a loyal friend. Unforgettable.
ABBA KYARI: 5 YEARS ON
It will be five years on April 17 that Mallam Abba Kyari lost his life to complications from COVID-19. My last conversation with then-President Muhammadu Buhari’s chief of staff haunts me till this day. He told me he was on his way to Lagos for treatment because his cough was getting worse. We never got to talk again, but I kept getting progress reports that he was recovering well at a Lagos hospital. Sadly, he had what doctors call “co-morbidities” (other existing ailments) which were worsened by the COVID infection. He eventually lost the battle for his life. I was so pained. He was one of the most knowledgeable, passionate and loyal but well vilified Nigerian public servants I ever knew. Patriot.
TRAIN PAIN
It is difficult to celebrate some successes in Nigeria because there is always a fly in the ointment. The improvement in rail transportation is supposed to be a source of joy after all the billions we’ve spent but there is often a spanner in the wheel. The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has suspended operations on the Warri-Itakpe corridor because of a “major technical disruption”. The train broke down mid-journey, in the middle of a desert in a state where kidnappers are always on the prowl. We were told it would take 72 hours to repair the fault. This is not good at all. We hear these stories all the time. Something is definitely wrong somewhere but we keep patching things up. Troubling.
NO COMMENT
Something is happening in Rivers state that should worry every Nigerian who still cares about our democracy. An emergency administrator whose primary duty is to stabilise the state may be working on a different script, dismantling existing structures and building his own. While we were still watching the pro-Wike lawmakers partying in London, the administrator appointed his own caretakers for the councils. What we have is no longer an interim administration but a full-blown government. This looks to be more than a six-month arrangement. Anyway, all that President Tinubu needs to extend the emergency rule is the National Assembly. Is it not by voice vote? Hahahaha.
![[OPINION] Are We Bound to This Violence? - Chidi Amuta](/media/k2/items/cache/cfb4914651de3f639d9755bb7de5b719_S.jpg)
For the better part of the last decade and half, Nigeria’s national security status has come to be measured by human casualties. Hardly any day passes without the news headlines featuring stories of gory mass murders and senseless killings. When such news breaks, the question is usually about the scale. How many died? If it is about one or two dead, people move on. Attention and feelings only begin to be incensed when the number of dead is in scores. As a society, our collective humanity has become so inured to the loss of human lives on an industrial scale that we are literally now an insensitive society.
In the last week or so, we have had the Uromi killings of over 18 alleged hunters by local vigilantes. The versions are varied. One says a lorry load of men armed with Dane guns was intercepted by local vigilantes in Uromi, an area of Edo state that has been constantly assaulted by armed ‘strangers’. The armed men who happen to come from the northern parts of our country were killed by the vigilantes. In that single incident, so many aspects of our corporate existence as a national community were abused: citizens’ right to move around freely in their country, the responsibility of locals to guard their safety, the ultimate responsibility of law enforcement to determine who bears arms and for what etc. etc.
In the same week, the familiar inter ethnic and inter communal clashes in Plateau state led to the loss of many lives. All hell was let loose in the state in a now familiar virtual state of emergency in which inter communal communications and interactions in the affected areas have become impossible. Again, religion, livelihood interests and socio cultural troubles were raked up. The Plateau state governor has lamented his loss of security control of many parts of the state to bandits and random armed gangs who have literally outgunned the security forces. Almost simultaneously, similar skirmishes have been reported in nearby Benue state with an attendant loss of yet to be determined number of lives.
In the same week, Governor Zulu of Boron state has cried out about the resurgence of Boko Haram induced violence in many parts of the state. According to him, a new wave of the Sahelian jihadist violence has erupted and is rapidly retaking many parts of the state. Beside these major theatres of violent eruptions, sporadic killings and violence have been reported in places like Zamfara, Enugu and Ebonyi states. These are only recent incidents in a spiral of insecurity and violence that has become a permanent feature of our national scene. Literally, we sleep and wake in a virtual pool of the blood of our innocent compatriots who live in the susceptible areas.
For the past over a decade, every annual national budget has seen spending on defense and security rise astronomically. The pattern of defense spending looks more and more like that of a nation in an openly declared war. Orders of fixed wing combat aircraft, helicopter gunships, missiles, armoured personal carriers and drones have since become part of the annual ritual of our defense and security budgeting. Nothing in our budgeting or defense orders suggests a nation at peace with itself.
Correspondingly, insecurity has come to occupy a permanent place in the rhetoric of our politicians and political actors. Every presidential candidate and virtually every other governorship aspirant has come to include the eradication of insecurity as a priority item in their manifestoes and agenda. There is in fact, a pervasive psychological state in the nation that seems to have come to accept insecurity as a permanent part of our reality. We are a frightened nation. People are afraid of each other. People are afraid to travel along the highways, rail roads or urban alleys. A mood of fear has been added to the prevailing atmosphere of poverty, hunger and economic desperation in the land.
Because our land is among the top five most dangerous places in the world, the military has since become part and parcel of our internal security profile. In virtually all the states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory, joint patrols of the police and all arms of the military have been joined by Civil Defense, Department of State Security personnel and even local hunters armed with charms and amulets in a daily round –the- clock chase after bandits, jihadists, kidnappers, abductors and sundry “unknown gunmen” in urban and rural parts of the country. Squads of combat joint patrol troops in pickup vans have become a common sight on our roads and streets.
Beyond animated physical chases of bad people by security agents, there seem to be little effort to intelligently interrogate the real causes and patterns of our insecurity. Yes indeed, there is a fancy office of a National Security Adviser (NSA) with a full compliment of the paraphernalia of high power. But it is routinely defied by armed non- state actors who terrorize the populace consistently.
In a nation that has weaponized faith as an instrument of national existence, religious zealots have found it attractive to arm their devotees with assault rifles, Improvised Explosive Devices and suicide vests to advance toxic versions of their faiths. In a nation where the government used to maintain a monopoly of ultimate violence and coercion, the availability of the instruments of violence to all and sundry at a market price has demystified the state. Uniforms have become common outfits made by tailors which should not frighten people. People are no longer afraid of the guns or uniforms of the state.
Non state actors have been emboldened to challenge the state and sometimes even outgun the state. The democratization of the technologies of violence, disruption and destruction through the internet and other dark channels have made the task of the state as possessor of the instruments of ultimate violence more herculean.
Add to this the recent rise of micro nationalism in different parts of the world and the popularization of the ideas of self determination of minorities as part of the rhetoric of international political language. Weapons of war and their random deployment by all manner of militias and separatist non- state forces have become part of the language of international political interaction. A new dictum of sovereign assertion has emerged: “We shoot, therefore we are.”
Most dangerously, in parts of the developing world, politicians have come to be agents of insecurity because insecurity itself has also become a tool in the quest for political ascendancy and apex power. Investment in non- state violent expressions has become attractive to politicians and professional trouble makers. It is common knowledge in Nigerian politics that in successive years, politicians have been known to import military uniforms, assault rifles, light arms and tear gas grenades to threaten and frighten and intimidate their opponents.
Thus overwhelmed by rival coercive forces, the state has buckled and weakened under the pressure of violent intimidation. In the process, merchants of trouble and blood have forced the state to cede them space in an illicit power sharing arrangement. Bandit leaders have signed MOUs with elected governors literally ceding parts of the territories of states to bandits and terrorists. Farmlands have been known to be ceded to bandit squads as concessioned territories for revenue collection. Farmers have to pay bandits to plant, weed and harvest their crops.
In the process of this parade of illegitimacy, our society has created and tacitly come to recognize new categories of errant citizens and outlaws. We have seen the emergence of new types and archetypes of the anti social hero- Unknown Gun men, Gun Men, Bandits, Cultists, Yahoo Boys, Kidnappers etc. These categories literally wear their badges with swagger and a certain degree of ‘pride’. It is worse when each of these illicit undertakings yields troves of cash in returns. A society that has come to enthrone the worship of money is prepared to do obeisance before these new deities of money and power.
On the social and cultural canvas, an insensitivity to blood and human suffering has come to characterize our new collective psychology.
Capturing people like animals, maiming them with pleasure and dismembering them no longer frightens people. New forms of trade have emerged. Trade in human parts for money rituals, human sacrifice to facilitate success in cybercrime ventures, the use of rape to test male prowess and access to supernatural powers is now a vogue in some parts. A new generation of Nigerian youth sent to universities to partake in the wonders of modernity in science and technology are ending up as ritualists, rapists, voodoo priests, campus cultists and all the direct opposites of the aims of modern higher education. A society suffused in religious superstition and all manner of prehistoric beliefs rolls out the red carpet for the new heroes who are then rewarded with lavish accolades, traditional titles and honours.
In a society where literally everything is a form of organized crime, even the fight against violence and insecurity has itself become a form of organized crime. Security has become an industry in itself. Security personnel collude and collaborate with kidnappers, abductors and bandits to facilitate their operations in return for a commission. Field commanders have been known to trade in intelligence that endangers their men in return for cash.
Sometimes, commanders sit on the allowances of their subordinates. Racketeering in defense and security budgets are not strange to generals who aspire to retire as billionaire real estate moguls and big business people. All this fits snuggly into a socio economic ecosystem in which corruption has since become the other name of public service and state assignments.
Even our cash hungry banking system has informally recognized kidnapping ransom as a source of cash deposits. Ransoms are paid into known bank accounts and hardly any kidnapper- related arrests have been effected through information provided by the banks.
For the police, combating violence and insecurity has become more than the business of maintaining law and order. It is not even crime fighting in its classic meaning.
For the military, the nation is neither at war nor at peace. It is in a state of “no man’s land”, a never land where everything goes and all is fair in a war neither declared nor absent. This is a new abnormal.
Yet we cannot accept that this nation is chained to a permanent cycle of violence and insecurity. But in order to restore the sanity of our polity and the values of our society, we need to tackle our insecurity differently. Chasing after squads of bandits with squads of armed soldiers in pickup vans will yield nothing. Deploying drones manned by illiterate soldiers will only lead to more collateral casualties. Bombing villagers in their natural habitats does not recognize the humanity of the defenseless. Killing innocent villagers with sophisticated American fighter jets will harden the hearts of the people against an uncaring state. A headcount of casualties of such reckless bombings in the name of ‘anti insurgency’ is a violation of human rights. Indiscriminately branding innocent casualties as “dead terrorists and bandits “ is an insult on innocent Nigerian villagers simply for the crime that they cannot defend their identity and rights in the English language.
Let us be fair to some chapters of the Nigerian state in the past. Serious concern about insecurity has been part of state thinking for decades. The most systematic was under the Babangida military regime. Towards the end of its tenure, the idea of a National Guard was being implemented. The recognition was that the Nigerian state was not a fully settled idea. There were too many grey zones and areas of unresolved nationalism. Neither the police nor the military was equipped to deal with these unsettled areas. The police was considered too tepid and civil while the military was designed for a more aggressive engagement with outright external enemies. There was a need for an intermediate force to manage the unresolved areas of our nationalism such as the farmer-settler issues in the Middle Belt, the unresolved animosities of the Biafran secession, the seething anger of the porous oil and gas rich Niger Delta and the highly exposed Sahelian northern fringes bordering North Africa. These were the residual tasks of the National Guard.
In subsequent years, the idea of the National Guard was dropped even before it was ever tried in the field. Later civilian dispensations thought of Community Policing but lacked the political will to fully articulate or implement it. Recently, the idea of a State Police structure was considered. No one knows what has become of that idea which is fraught with political and conceptual booby traps.
While the dithering continues, violent insecurity has spread to previously unlikely places like the Federal Capital Territory of Abuja, now the setting for abductions, kidnappings and senseless killings of people even in their very homes.
There is no escaping a serious intelligent conversation about violence and insecurity in our land. Fancy military hardware and fiery political rhetoric cannot replace the power of serious thought to restore our humanity as a nation. The abiding question now is: when shall we be serious enough to remove insecurity from our political agenda by ending it permanently in our reality?
![[OPINION] Power, Privilege and Governance – Obi Aguocha](/media/k2/items/cache/f1b0d23563be1c6fc482d0c8427b5322_S.jpg)
In every society, power, privilege, and governance form the tripod upon which leadership is exercised and societal progress or decline is determined. These three elements are deeply interconnected.
Power confers the ability to influence decisions, Privilege often determines access to power, and Governance dictates how power is applied for the common good.
In Nigeria and other developing democracies, the conversation around these concepts is especially crucial, as the abuse or mismanagement of any of them can have far-reaching implications for justice, development, and social equity.
Power, in itself, is neutral. It is neither good nor bad until it is exercised. The quality of leadership, therefore, is not determined merely by the possession of power, but by how it is used. Those who wield public office are entrusted with the mandate of the people, and such power must be exercised with wisdom, humility, and accountability. It is not for personal aggrandizement, neither is it a tool for oppression.
True power in governance lies in service, serving the people with integrity, making decisions that benefit the masses, and defending the voiceless.
Privilege, on the other hand, is often the gateway to power. It includes social status, access to education, wealth, political networks, or even ethnic and religious affiliations that give certain individuals an advantage in the political arena.
While privilege in itself is not evil, the danger arises when it becomes an exclusive gatekeeper, preventing competent, visionary, and patriotic individuals from ascending to leadership. When privilege replaces meritocracy, the result is a governance structure that is disconnected from the people and unresponsive to their needs.
Governance is the ultimate expression of how power and privilege are managed.
Good governance promotes transparency, equity, justice, and inclusive development. It is rooted in constitutionalism, the rule of law, and democratic accountability.
In Nigeria’s context, our democracy can only thrive when leaders see governance not as a means to enrich themselves but as a sacred trust to build a better society. Governance must be people-centered, participatory, and guided by clear moral values that place the welfare of citizens above all else.
As a legislator, I am continually reminded that our constituents do not just elect us to occupy positions; they expect us to act, to speak up, to legislate in their interest, and to defend their rights.
Governance begins with responsiveness, listening to the needs of the people, understanding their struggles, and translating those concerns into concrete policies and programs. The dignity of leadership lies not in titles or ceremonies but in the impact we make in the lives of ordinary people.
It is also important to dismantle the dangerous entitlement mentality that often accompanies political privilege. Leadership is not a birthright, nor is it the domain of a few elite families or regions.
Every citizen, regardless of their background, must have an equal opportunity to participate in governance. We must actively work to create a system where leadership is earned through competence, vision, and character, not simply inherited or purchased through wealth and connections.
In conclusion, our collective progress as a nation hinges on how we manage power, privilege, and governance.
Let us use power to serve, use privilege to open doors for others, and embrace governance as a moral responsibility, not a transactional enterprise. Only then can we build a Nigeria where leadership uplifts the people, institutions are strong, and the future is secured for generations to come.
I remain committed to these ideals as your representative, working tirelessly to ensure that governance becomes a force for transformation and hope.
Hon Obi Aguocha is the member representing Ikwuano/Umuahia North and South.
More...
[OPINION] Anambra Keeps Rising As Governor Soludo Wins Vanguard Newspapers 2024 'Good Governance Award' - Christian Aburime
Admin![[OPINION] Anambra Keeps Rising As Governor Soludo Wins Vanguard Newspapers 2024 'Good Governance Award' - Christian Aburime](/media/k2/items/cache/caaa71fd914cbf879178b63b33841609_XS.jpg)
In a resplendent, glitzy and well-attended ceremony at the Convention Centre of the upscale Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, on Friday April 11, 2025, the Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, added another merited accolade to his growing list of honours, clinching the ‘Vanguard Good Governance Award 2024’, presented by Vanguard Newspapers.
The event, which celebrated Nigeria’s most impactful leaders, served not only as a recognition of excellence but also as a reaffirmation of Governor Soludo’s transformational three-year tenure in Anambra, a tenure that has redefined governance as a vehicle for pragmatic solutions and inclusive growth.
Indeed, it was a night of shine and substance. Celebrating outstanding achievements, as affirmed in the brief welcome remarks by Editor Eze Anaba, the Vanguard Awards brought together Nigeria’s political, business, royal and cultural elite.
Mr. Atedo Peterside, Chairman of the occasion, captured the mood succinctly: “The gathering is awesome, a convergence of those rewriting Nigeria’s story.” Truly, the evening was as much about legacy as it was about laurels.
While successful businessmen, education investors, and billionaires, Dr. Adedeji Adeleke took home the Personality of the Year award, the spotlight equally beamed on exceptional governors like Soludo, whose policies have turned subnational governance into a laboratory of innovation in their respective states.
For Governor Soludo, the Vanguard honour arrives just months after being named SUN Newspaper’s Governor of the Year 2024, and this dual media recognition now underscores his unique blend of technocratic rigour and pragmatic leadership.
In Soludo’s Anambra, it has been a story of from Promise to Progress. Since assuming office in March 2022, Governor Soludo, a former Central Bank Governor and economist, has pursued what he terms a “people’s agenda” with relentless focus.
His administration’s pillars, anchored on security, education, healthcare, infrastructure, urban renewal, economic diversification and more, have become more than slogans. The multidimensional impact, often achieved amidst fiscal constraints, reflect Governor Soludo’s philosophy that development is not about grand announcements; it is about granular execution. It is also about doing more with less and without borrowing!
In his remarks, Vanguard Editor Eze Anaba emphasized that the awards were not merely for popularity but for verifiable impact. For Governor Soludo, this rings true and through. Yet, three years on, his results speak louder than rhetoric. The impact is verifiable.
No wonder, the SUN and Vanguard awards, both decided by rigorous verifications of development projects prioritising data over dazzle, validate the Soludo approach. One can say that Governor Soludo treats governance like a serious business: iterative, agile, and user-centric. Anambra is his MVP, and it is scaling fast.
Yet, while the awards celebrate past and ongoing achievements, Governor Soludo’s eyes remain fixed on the future. Challenges will always exist, but his administration’s methodical pace suggests confidence rather than complacency.
As the governor would have remarked after receiving the award, every honour is a debt owed to the people and the good work in Anambra has just begun. Now with his recent ratification as APGA candidate for a second term and overwhelming nonpartisan endorsements for Anambra’s November 2025 election, Governor Soludo is poised to turn Anambra into a blueprint for Nigeria’s subnational revival.
While Nigeria keeps contending with its own national questions, Governor Soludo’s story, of a professor-turned-politician delivering functional solutions and measurable progress, may well become a case study in award-winning leadership. For now, Anambra’s renaissance continues, one solution at a time.
![[OPINION] What are World Events Saying Today? - Okey Ikechukwu](/media/k2/items/cache/43cebf6cab032ad0de987cb02fd7c80e_XS.jpg)
Disorder, confusion and despondency! These three words capture the basic prevailing air across the land. Not just here in Nigeria, but all over the world. Nations, big and small organizations, advocacy groups, communities and individuals are all busy trying to solve one problem or the other. Many are looking forward to solutions of various types. But they do not really know what the problems are, or might be; for which they are seeking solutions. They may just finish celebrating one solution before they realize that the solution they just celebrated has not addressed the original problem, or that it has created new ones.
Sad, is it not?
No one can recognize the solution to a problem when he does not know, or understand, the nature of the problem itself. That is part of the issue on the table all over the world today. The climate, the cosmic environment, the political space, the regulatory environment for businesses, the moral landscape, our spirituality, the religiosity of a morally bankrupt world, the gender crisis, the decay of values are all in the line of fire. Why? Yes, why? Just why is it that everyone, and everything, seems to be going bonkers on the double?
Bedlam on steroids, and going strong!
Consider the apparently mundane matter of some of the most important decisions of President Donald Trump of the US. His most far-reaching decisions seem to have been taken without recourse to the very institutions set up to uphold what the American Dream is presumed to represent. Trump signed some 220 Executive Orders during his first term, between January 2017 and January 2021. In 2025 alone, in this his Second Coming, he is recorded to have signed 112 Executive Orders, from EO 14147 through EO 14528.
And he did all that without consulting with, or obtaining clearance and approval from, those elected by the people to speak for them in the matter of what they want the president to do, or not do.
And, lest we forget, Trump is the head of a democratic nation. His country is also the much-vaunted global defender of democracy, inclusivity, human rights and world peace through an attitude of mutual accommodation. He is clearly serious with the Providential business of dismantling the pretensions that have held up a world that can best be described as a living fraud. It has served true humanity in the breach.
Recall that an unusual interplanetary alignment occurred shortly before and around the time Trump was sworn in. It was at about that time that a Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, Uranus, and Mercury “lined up” in the Elliptic, in a way that they had not done for a long time now. First there was the alignment of Mars, Jupiter, Uranus, Neptune, Venus, and Saturn one of January 21, before the Main Event of January 25. Then came the one of February 28, before the morning alignment of Neptune, Mercury, Saturn and Venus this month. And the August 11 morning alignment of Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Uranus, Neptune and Saturn is yet to come.
If both scientific and quasi scientific circles are saying that “The alignment of several planets is believed to amplify the energies of these planets, prompting changes, introspection, opportunity, and transformation across the globe and across all zodiac signs”, it may well follow that this year has quite a few things up its sleeves. A look at history shows that interplanetary alignments have been associated with major energy shifts that impact political, social and environmental changes upheavals that impact nature and create global changes.
Because our world is part of a universe and comic environment that has long since been scientifically confirmed to be a network of interconnected radiations, no one can say for sure what the effects of the alignments of heavenly bodies and their magnetic fields might be. When we consider that astrologers have always considered interplanetary alignments to be moments of amplified energy in our cosmic environment, when we also consider that significant interplanetary alignments had coincided in the past with some major global or cultural shifts, scientific breakthroughs and artistic renaissances, then we must also consider the thought that we may be standing amidst heralds of change we do not know enough about.
The disorder, confusion and despondency in our world today is accentuated by the fact that we now have more wars, with others threatening to break out. Natural disasters are tumbling in on all sides. One hundred and ninety-one areas of tornado damage were recorded between March 14 and 16 in the US. That was less than a month ago. Within the same period 115 twisters were confirmed in Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Other forms of natural and manmade disaster are being distributed all round the world. Economic pressures, environmental and climatic changes, distress of nations, strange and incurable diseases are all on rampage today.
The 2025 US wildfires had more than passing impact on Los Angeles, where it led to significant loss of life and property. The fires came, swept its initial areas of impact and then keep spreading rapidly and unpredictably. California, Riverside, San Bernardino, and Ventura all had sad stories to tell from the fires. So did Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico.
So, attempt to put some thoughts on the table regarding where it all this may be leading up to. The first is the fact that our world of Volatile possibilities, Uncertain realities, Confusing demands and expectations and Ambiguous values (VUCA) has come with new developments that portend dangers for all. It is a world that is rapidly altering expectations, rules and the way so many things are done; and in which many will find themselves at a disadvantage in one way or the other
Another possible fact is that national economies will suffer and so will larger sections of the global population. We have all been living with many unquestioned assumptions about our lives and about international affairs for far too long. As the US is becoming more protectionist and almost trying to shut off the world, the counter measures other nations are being forced to take will become major triggers for new economic events that would affect us all.
The third fact is that the world, and all of us, are being forced to do a re-valuation of values, a reassessment of hitherto accepted paradigms and a recalibration of expectations. Moving in leaps and bounds from the rule-governed global village of only a few months ago to a world where all hitherto accepted norms are being revised without the usual consultations is something no one bargained for.
The other fact is that ours is now a New World order that is forcing a fundamentally pretentious world with well-dressed predatory nations to remove its gloves and boldly bare hitherto concealed teeth. Arbitrariness will very likely be on the upswing. Free trade will suffer, if the trend being orchestrated by Trump continues – and it is likely to. So, welcome to a more deadly period of blind protectionist tendencies and say goodbye to free markets, open skies for aviation watchers, and dangerous national insularity…
Another fact to consider is the possibility that questions must be raised about the world’s multilateral trading system, which had been hitherto projected as resting on clear rules, mandatory concessions and criteria that all countries welcomed because it had something for everyone. The stabilizing and custodian roles we all once attributed to the World Trade Organization (WTO), complete with its unquestioned template and platform, can no longer be vouched for.
That system certainly did not favour developing countries in more ways than one. It only helped maintain an illusion that Trump is now resolutely unmasking, dismantling and inviting us to dismiss.
Had there been any really honest attempt to reform the system over time, we probably won’t be where we are today. But with Donal Trump as the official demolition man, we are living with the irony today of having the US doing its best to destroy a system it did its everything to bring about and sustain. It would seem that rather than reform the system it is now being destroyed, and for good. Which is hardly surprising.
Let us calmly admit that everything false is collapsing on all fronts. We cannot say that the US approach to international relations, international trade and global politics under Trump will lead to a more peaceful, more prosperous and more stable world. The ongoing retaliatory tariff impositions and counter impositions from various countries, in reaction to Trump’s rampaging moves, will only fuel the comprehensive jettisoning of the presumably hallowed WTO template, paradigms and framework.
Thus, matters are not only likely to get worse, but also get out of hand. And the reason is simple: The limited actions of the most dominant actors in the global economic space will ignite reactions that would lead to the total abandonment of all the false trappings we have all lived with for so long in international relations. As more countries adopt and deploy the same approach as the US, trading and transacting on their own terms, it would be absolute bedlam across board. But can they all see it coming?
Can Africa impose retaliatory tariffs on anyone? I think not. Can Africa escape the effects of the looming trade war? Again, I think not. As faith in international investments wavers, totters and probably falls dramatically, there will be greater uncertainly in international economics and economic relations. Unpredictability will blossom. The result would be a new world order wherein global economic growth will be slow and international trade will boil down to tariff wars and piracy.
Probably no other continent would be worse hit than Africa, largely because of the continents import dependence. To speculate on a possible magical transformation of African economies, in response to the ongoing global drama, is to prance off on a reprehensible exercise in self delusion. As we enter an era where all global institutions that once guaranteed the Rules of Engagement are on all fours, no one can say how the current situation will unfold in the coming months or years. But we must be clear-eyed about the dangers that are building up in the world.
In sum, all international Standard Operating Procedures are on retreat. There is a greater leaning towards selfish considerations by nations. What can we hold unto, or strengthen? Can Africa present a common, or fighting front, of any sort? Just asking. Prepare for the worst, I’d say! But what is the worst, really? Hunger, poverty, balance of trade issues? None of the above, I dare say. It can only get worse if you take time to think about is.
It is about a world on a tail spin, for a new era to be born. The problems are more spiritual than material, as we wonder what world events are saying today.
![[OPINION] Uromi Killings: Time To End The Reign Of Guns In Our Communities - Isaac Asabor](/media/k2/items/cache/4a50d16e49c757942c0d04f84fd4901f_XS.jpg)
The blood of 16 Nigerians, reportedly hunters, spilled on the soil of Uromi in Edo State is yet another grim reminder of the violent times we live in. Their deaths, gruesome and senseless, have sparked waves of emotions across the country. Condolences have poured in, anger has surged, and outrage has been expressed from various quarters. Yet, beneath the emotive outbursts lies a dangerously ignored truth, the unchecked proliferation and parading of guns in our communities by both herdsmen and hunters alike is a ticking time bomb. And that bomb has just exploded in Uromi.
It is one thing to mourn the dead, which is appropriate. It is another to prevent future deaths, which is urgent. While the Uromi massacre has received the headlines it deserves, what may not have received equal attention is the frightening normalization of civilians wielding firearms across Southern Nigeria under the pretense of hunting, self-defense, or in the case of herders, “protecting their livestock.” This trend, if left unchecked, will only breed more mass graves, more sorrow, and an erosion of the very meaning of community safety.
Let us not mince words, no one outside the security forces should be allowed to openly carry weapons in a supposedly civil society. Whether you call yourself a hunter, vigilante, or herdsman, the law must not turn a blind eye. The forested parts of the South have become unofficial battlegrounds, not only for farmers and herders but between different groups armed to the teeth with locally fabricated and imported weapons, and even to a large extent posing as threats to travelers who usually stop by to ease themselves. The result? Deaths like those in Uromi.
The Uromi killings should compel us to ask harder questions. “Why is it so easy for individuals in rural communities to possess high-grade firearms?” “Why is the state either unwilling or unable to enforce existing firearms laws?” And why has the government; both at the state and federal levels, continued to respond to these incidents with mere condolence messages which are mostly political rhetoric meant to boost their electoral values rather than action?
In many communities, hunting has gone from a traditional and cultural activity to a pretext for militarization. While hunters used to carry dane guns and bows, today, many are armed with automatic rifles. Similarly, many herdsmen, once known only for their walking sticks and herding tools, now brandish AK-47s as they move across communities. This escalation is no longer anecdotal; it is visual, real, and present.
The consequences are dire. Whenever conflict breaks out, be it over grazing routes, farmland, or community disagreements, these weapons come out, and blood is spilled. The killings in Uromi are only the latest example of what has become a disturbing pattern across Nigeria.
Government silence in the face of repeated arms display by non-state actors is not just cowardice; it is complicity. You cannot claim to be upholding law and order when those outside the law are more armed than those tasked with enforcing it. Criminalizing gun possession without a license is already in the Nigerian Firearms Act, but enforcement is selective, inconsistent, and at best, ineffective.
If the Nigerian government can spend billions chasing “illegal refineries” in the Niger Delta or demolishing “illegal structures” in Lagos, why can it not commit itself to flushing out illegal weapons from civilian hands, especially in rural communities? Why is there no coordinated national disarmament campaign targeted at these groups masquerading as protectors but functioning as threats?
The Uromi tragedy should now serve as a turning point. We cannot afford to move on from it without drawing a line in the sand. The government must immediately commence a review of the presence and use of firearms by hunters and herders, with a clear intention to disarm and punish. It is no longer enough to say, “We are investigating.” We need laws that bite and enforcement that works.
One of the arguments often advanced by those defending hunters’ right to bear arms is cultural. “It is our tradition,” they say. That may be true. But in this modern context, cultural sentiment must never undermine public security. Traditions must evolve with time, especially when they threaten lives and properties. The role of hunters can be preserved without arming them with lethal weapons. Communities can deploy hunters for surveillance, bush tracking, or community watch functions, but arming them like militias turns them into another problem instead of a solution.
In the same vein, herdsmen cannot continue to use the excuse of self-defense to justify carrying firearms. Their livestock cannot be more valuable than human lives. If herding requires weapons for protection, then it is high time the government regulated the herding business just like any other security-sensitive occupation. This might include requiring registration, approval for arms use, and GPS-tracked movement. Anything less is dangerous leniency.
Let’s be honest. The reason the issue has persisted this long is because of a lack of political will. Many politicians fear that clamping down on armed herders or hunters will lose them rural votes or inflame ethnic tensions. That is an irresponsible excuse. Security cannot be sacrificed on the altar of political correctness. Whether the gun is carried by a Fulani herdsman or an Esan hunter, the law must be applied with equal firmness.
The state government, especially in Edo, must show leadership by launching a full-scale investigation not just into the killings but into how many weapons are currently circulating in rural areas under the guise of hunting. Governor Obaseki and security agencies must move beyond press releases. Community leaders must be summoned, hunter associations regulated, and herders monitored.
To move forward, Nigeria needs a national disarmament framework, not just for the Niger Delta or Boko Haram insurgents, but for all unauthorized individuals in possession of firearms. This should include, Community Amnesty Windows, which allows voluntary submission of illegal weapons with a short grace period.
Also, from the perspective of registration and licensing review, government overhaul the current system to ensure only vetted persons can access hunting or farming defense licenses.
Another is mobile weapon search task forces which entails deploying mobile security units to periodically search forests and rural areas.
In a similar vein is technology deployment, which requires use of drones and surveillance to monitor known hotspots.
Also of importance is community sensitization, which allows the engagement of traditional rulers and community heads to discourage arms possession.
The time to act is now. We cannot afford another Uromi. The longer we delay, the more we normalize this madness, and the more deaths we will have to mourn. Guns in the hands of civilians, whatever their profession or excuse, are a menace. Until the government rises to the challenge, these senseless killings will continue to punctuate our national life like a recurring nightmare.
Let Uromi be the last straw. Not just for sympathy. But for systemic, sweeping, and urgent action. The souls of those 16 men demand justice, not just in courtrooms, but in policies that prevent such bloodshed from ever happening again.
[OPINION] Leave Natasha Alone: The Palm Kernel Is Jumping, Don’t Blind Yourself - Isaac Asabor
Admin![[OPINION] Leave Natasha Alone: The Palm Kernel Is Jumping, Don’t Blind Yourself - Isaac Asabor](/media/k2/items/cache/1bcd300e3a0df89a5bf939344975b705_XS.jpg)
In the rich proverbial wisdom of the African people, there is a saying: “If you keep hitting a palm kernel that is jumping and flying, you’ll eventually be blinded.” This proverb is not just a quaint cultural expression; it is a warning, a mirror to reflect on the dangers of relentless pursuit, especially when that pursuit becomes counterproductive and even self-destructive.
It is in the context of this ancestral wisdom that we must examine the growing and unrelenting attacks on Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan. These attacks have become a political ritual of bitterness, hate, and desperation. It is time to call it for what it is: a vendetta wrapped in hypocrisy and seasoned with envy. It is time her traducers took a break, because this palm kernel is flying, and the more they keep swinging, the more likely they are to end up punching themselves in the face.
Let’s begin with a blunt question: “Who exactly is afraid of Natasha, and why does she remain a lightning rod of controversy and attack?”
Natasha is not a typical politician. She is a disruptor in a male-dominated system designed to suppress women of ambition. A lawyer, social entrepreneur, humanitarian, and now a senator, Natasha has consistently shown that she is not afraid to step on the toes of established interests. But her greatest crime, in the eyes of her haters, is that she has refused to play by their rules. She has refused to keep quiet. She has refused to kneel to godfathers. She has refused to back down. And that, in a warped society where obedience to oppressive power structures is mistaken for humility, is enough to make you a target.
Her traducers, mostly partisan politicians who are opposed to her political triumphs, have turned her political journey into a battlefield. Every move she makes is met with cynicism. Every achievement is questioned. Every initiative is discredited. But the question remains: “Why are they so obsessed with her?”
Let’s not sugarcoat it: Nigeria’s political climate is openly hostile to women who dare to challenge the norm. The political structure is wired to intimidate, frustrate, and ultimately silence women who exhibit independence and strength. And when these tactics fail, the system resorts to a more dangerous method: character assassination.
We have seen this play out again and again. The late Dora Akunyili was constantly maligned. Oby Ezekwesili was labeled a loudmouth. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was accused of everything under the sun. Even Aisha Yesufu, a private citizen and activist, is not spared. And now, Natasha is the newest name on the hit list.
It seems the Nigerian establishment cannot stand a woman who thinks for herself, speaks without fear, and moves without permission. She must be torn down. She must be dragged through the mud. She must be made to suffer for daring to shine.
Let us talk about hypocrisy. Many of the people attacking Natasha have never contributed anything meaningful to their communities. They are the same politicians who hide during crises, loot during opportunities, and speak only when there is a brown envelope involved.
They say she is too outspoken, yet celebrate men who spew nonsense every other week. They say she is controversial, yet worship male politicians who have mastered the art of chaos and confusion. They say she is not a saint, yet defend known criminals because they share party affiliations.
This double standard is sickening. It reeks of desperation. And more than anything else, it exposes the true motives of her attackers: fear, envy, and panic.
Make no mistake, what Natasha is facing is not politics as usual. It is a targeted campaign of vendetta orchestrated by those who cannot bear the thought of her influence expanding. This is not opposition based on principle or ideology. It is a witch-hunt dressed in political clothing.
Some of her enemies are politicians who feel humiliated by her victories. Others are power brokers who fear she is too independent to control. Some are just bitter individuals who cannot stand to see a woman rise. But all of them are unified by one thing: they underestimated her. And now that she has proven her strength, they are scrambling to destroy her before she becomes unstoppable.
But as the African proverb warns, their desperation is blinding them. The more they strike, the more their own image suffers. The people are watching. The public is listening. The voters are taking notes.
Let us be clear: Natasha is not perfect. No one is. She is not above critique. But criticism must be constructive, fair, and based on facts, not lies, gossip, and coordinated attacks.
She is a human being. She has made mistakes. She has taken risks. But unlike most of her critics, she has done something meaningful with her life. She has fought for her community. She has built businesses. She has empowered women. She has spoken truth to power. She has refused to be anyone’s puppet.
What have her critics done? Apart from hiding behind keyboards, issuing anonymous threats, and amplifying fake news, what exactly have they achieved?
We must get to a point in this country where we learn to differentiate between genuine accountability and bitter envy. We cannot build a better Nigeria by tearing down our best and brightest.
Here’s the good news: the masses are not as gullible as the haters believe. People see what is going on. They may not all shout on social media, but they are quietly observing. They know who is real and who is fake. They know who is fighting for them and who is fighting for their own pockets.
Natasha’s connection with ordinary people is not manufactured. It is real. It is earned. And it is growing. Her victory at the polls was not a fluke, it was a message. The people are tired of recycled leaders. They are tired of empty promises. They are tired of being insulted.
What they want now are leaders who are bold, sincere, and visionary. Natasha fits that bill. And no amount of character assassination will change that.
To her traducers, let this be a final word of caution: “If you keep hitting a palm kernel that is jumping and flying, you will eventually be blinded.” That is not just folklore, it is prophecy. It is the voice of ancestral wisdom reminding you that your actions have consequences.
There is still time to retreat, to refocus your energies on meaningful issues, to stop the bitterness and do better. Because if you continue down this path of hate and sabotage, you may find that you have destroyed your own credibility while Natasha continues to rise.
Nigeria needs all hands on deck. We cannot afford to keep fighting shadows while the nation burns. Let Natasha be. Leave her alone. Let her work. Let her serve. And if you must criticize her, do so with facts, not venom.
Nigeria is at a critical juncture. We need leaders who are bold, innovative, and resilient. Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan embodies these qualities. She is not perfect, but she is trying. She is serving. And she is leading.
Instead of wasting energy trying to tear her down, let us channel that energy into fixing our broken systems. Let us amplify the voices doing the work. Let us support women in leadership instead of vilifying them.
Enough is enough. Let the palm kernel fly. And if you cannot catch it, at least do not blind yourself trying.
Leave Natasha alone. The future is watching.