Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State has announced that credible intelligence indicates that mercenaries and thugs have been hired from outside the state, disguised as protesters, to damage valuable infrastructure.

The governor emphasized that the people of Rivers have decided not to participate in the nationwide 10-day protest scheduled to start on August 1.

He shared this information while addressing representatives from Civil Society Organisations, the National Association of Nigerian Students, ethnic and youth groups in Rivers State, and the Port Harcourt Motor Spare Parts Dealers Union, Ikoku Branch, among others, at the Banquet Hall of Government House in Port Harcourt on Wednesday.

A statement from Nelson Chukwudi, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, was sent to news outlets detailing the situation.

Governor Fubara asserted that recent public and covert actions by self-proclaimed adversaries suggest that Rivers State faces threats from those determined to destabilize it.

“You are already aware of the political situation of our State where people are looking for every avenue to destabilize this state. We don’t need to give them that opportunity to carry out that act.

“And that is the reason why I, representing the government, and the service commanders, have always been in touch with you all, pleading that we should shelve this protest. And even if you have to do it, we should do it in a way and manner that it will not get out of control,” Governor Fubara said.

The governor mentioned that he possesses information unavailable to others, stating, “I am aware of the people who are being hired to come into this state to cause mayhem. If anything happens here, we are going to be the greatest losers. Our property will be destroyed. Our economy will be destroyed. And when they finish, they will go back to their states.”

He referenced the situation in Kenya, suggesting that it could take two decades to repair the damage caused by similar unrest.

“In Rivers State, we are not that financially buoyant to now start retrogressing where we have already passed. Instead of maintaining and increasing what we have, we will be thinking of rebuilding, if destroyed. Let us not allow it to happen,” he cautioned.

While acknowledging the economic challenges facing Nigerians, Governor Fubara assured that the Federal Government, led by President Bola Tinubu, is implementing effective measures to alleviate the current hardships and secure a better future for citizens.

He urged activists to carefully consider the motives behind the proposed protest and avoid supporting it merely to appease those dissatisfied with the current system.

[NaijaNews]

The Lagos State Police Command, on Wednesday, confirmed that three domestic staff have been arrested in connection with the murder of the daughter of Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia of the Federal High Court in Lagos.

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Benjamin Hundeyin, who made the revelation to journalists, said that the arrest of the three suspects was initiated in line with a directive from the State’s Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade, to investigate the death thoroughly.

SP Hundeyin further disclosed that the arrested three domestic staff members have been handed over to the State Criminal Investigation Department, which has since taken over the investigation.

The deceased, Aribemchukwu, was reportedly killed in her Parkview Estate residence in the highbrow Ikoyi area of the state on Wednesday morning.

A family source who craved anonymity because of the current state of the family, said she was killed on Tuesday night, and her body was discovered Wednesday morning outside the gate of her residence.

“It would appear that new household staff might have been responsible and tried to stage as if she was outside when it happened.

“There are signs of an attempt to clean up blood inside the house and in the compound. This was indeed the handiwork, and we observed that they were newly employed less than a month, and she was alone in the house with them.

“Newly employed domestic staff, who had been with the family for less than a month, are suspected to have staged the scene to make it appear that Aribemchukwu was outside the house when the incident occurred. Evidence suggests an attempt to clean up blood inside the house and within the compound, pointing to a different narrative,” the source narrated.

Aribemchukwu’s father, Soboma Ajumogobia, is the younger brother of Odein Ajumogobia, SAN, a former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and later one-time Minister of Foreign Affairs.

The latest data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) shows that the currency in circulation (CIC) reached a year-high of N4.05 trillion in June 2024, up by 56% from N2.6 trillion in the same month of the previous year.

The CIC comprises the currency outside the banking system and the vault cash of banks.

This increase in currency circulation could have both positive and negative impacts on the economy. On the positive side, higher cash circulation might indicate increased economic activities and consumer spending. However, it also raises concerns about inflationary pressures, as more cash in the economy can lead to higher prices for goods and services.

For the first time in Nigeria’s history, the currency in circulation has surpassed N4 trillion, according to data from the CBN.

The month-on-month (MoM) growth rate was 2%, from N3.65 trillion recorded in May 2024.

The data  further indicated that  94% of currency in circulation is outside the banking system, as cash outside banks hit a new high of N3.79 trillion. The currency outside banks has more than quadrupled over the past year. 

[Dailytrust]

A High Court of the Federal Capital Territory has restricted participants in the August 1 hunger protest against the federal government to the MKO Abiola stadium, also known as the National Stadium.

Justice Sylvanus Oriji issued the order on Wednesday in Abuja while delivering a ruling in an ex-parte application brought before him by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory.

In the ex parte application argued by Chief Ogwu James Onoja, the FCT Minister had applied for an order of interim injunction restraining the five leaders of the protesting groups from gathering or parading themselves along any roadway, streets, offices and public premises within the FCT between August 1 and 10, or any other day thereafter, pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

He also applied for another order of interim injunction mandating the security agencies to prevent the protesting leaders from gathering or parading themselves along any roadway, office or public premises within the FCT between August 1 and 10, pending the hearing of his motion on notice.

The minister, who said that the federal government was not averse to the protest, claimed that intelligence and security reports reaching him indicated that some elements within the leadership of the protesters intend to capitalise on the planned protest to cause havoc and irreparable damage to public facilities and block roadways to prevent movement of persons and vehicles and disturb public peace.

He claimed that when he contacted the security agencies to ensure that the planned protest did not degenerate into criminality and disturbance of public peace and order, he was told that they are not well equipped to manage any crisis that may arise from the planned protest at short notice; hence, they advised him that prevention is better than cure.

The minister tendered an exhibit from the “Take it Back Movement, FCT”, signed by one Damilare Adenola, in which they threatened to invade the Presidential Villa and also threatened to pull down the outer wires facing the Aso Rock villa during the protest

Besides, they demanded that the FCT provide them with light as well as toilets during the duration of the protest.

In his ruling, Justice Oriji, who recognised the rights of the protesters to embark on the protest, restricted them to the stadium because of the genuine fears expressed by the minister.

“In the light of the above, the court considers it appropriate and expedient to grant an order under the omnibus or general prayer to ensure that the rights of the protesters are guaranteed and that the protest does not negatively or adversely affect the rights of other citizens to move about and to ensure that properties and other public facilities are not destroyed,” the judge held.

He therefore ordered the 1st to 5th respondents to “use the Moshood Abiola Stadium” only for the protest.

Meanwhile, the court ordered the service of processes in the suit as well as the confinement order on the respondents by placing the same in the newspapers.

Defendants in the suit are Omoyele Sowore, Damilare Adenola, Adama Ukpabi, Tosin Harsogba, persons unknown, Inspector General IG of Police, Commissioner of Police, Director General of the State Security Service, Director General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Chief of Army Staff, Chief of Air Staff, and Chief of Naval Staff as 1st to 12th respondents.

The President Bola Tinubu administration has implemented positive economic reforms which led to improvement in some key economic areas.

An infographic posted on X by Special Assistant to President Tinubu on Social Media, Dada Olusegun highlighted six parameters that have seen positive changes under President Tinubu.

Here are six positive economic reforms under President Tinubu’s administration:

1. Foreign reserves:

Nigeria’s external reserves increased to $35.77 billion from $33.09 Billion at the end of 2023, data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on the country’s external reserves movement has revealed.

The figure released on Thursday signifies a $2.68 billion increase in the country’s external reserves in the past six months.

The data revealed that the country’s foreign reserve crossed the $35.05bn on July 8 to the $35.77 mark on Thursday.

2. Minimum Wage:

President Bola Tinubu on Thursday, July 18, approved N70,000 as the new minimum wage for Nigerian workers.

A significant increase from the 30,000 amount accepted by the federal government, led to the enactment of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 in March 2019.

3. Debt to Revenue Ratio:

The Nigerian government recorded significant strides in its fiscal management, with a dramatic decline in debt service and a surge in non-oil revenue.

The minister of finance, Wale Edun, disclosed these positive developments during an assessment of the economy’s first-half performance.

According to the minister, the debt service ratio has plummeted from a staggering 97% in June 2023 to a more manageable 68% in 2024.

4. Oil production:

The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) has said the country dominates crude oil production in Africa with an output of 1.61mbpd as of July 23, 2024, boasting proven reserves of 37.50 billion barrels and a production capacity of approximately 2.19 million barrels per day (mbpd).

The Commission’s Chief Executive, Engr. Gbenga Komolafe made this known at the House of Representatives Special Committee Two Day Public/Investigative Hearing on Oil Theft/Losses.

5. Forex backlog:

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on March 20, 2024, cleared the $7 billion foreign exchange (FX) backlog inherited by Governor Yemi Cardoso.

CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso said that it decided to settle the $7.5 billion forex backlog owed, to build investor confidence in the domestic economy and build lasting credibility for the country.

6. Ways and Means:

Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun noted that the government is not relying on ways and means of borrowing, which can be inflationary, and has paid back the previous N7.3 trillion obligation within a year of President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

Speaking at the newly introduced quarterly media briefing yesterday in Abuja, Edun highlighted that the economy grew faster in the first quarter of 2024 compared to 2023.

According to him, economic activity in the first quarter of 2024 was not only faster than the first quarter of 2023, but it was also the second fastest first-quarter growth in the last six years.

[TheNation]

The omission of Favour Ofili from the Women’s 100m event of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris has smeared Nigeria’s campaign, with the Athletics Federation of Nigeria and Nigeria Olympic Committee trading blames, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

In Wednesday’s release, AFN Technical Director, Samuel Onikeku, expressed shock at Ofili’s exclusion, stating, “We registered Ofili for the 100m, 200m, and the 4x100m relay. We don’t know how her name got missing in the 100m. This is our stand as a federation.”

Ofili took to her social media page to announce her omission on Tuesday, expressing her anger by writing, “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 metres at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for 4 years to earn this opportunity.

“For what… to not be entered and compete at the Olympic Games because the responsible organisation failed to enter me? ‘ Please remember, in the last Olympic Games I was not able to compete because AFN, NADC, and NOC failed to release funds for athletes to be tested, which made 14 Nigerian athletes that qualified to not compete.

“Now this. If those responsible are not held accountable for taking this opportunity from me, neither organisation can ever be trusted in the future!‘ Next one is the 200 metres; I hope I’m entered.”

In a statement on Wednesday, the Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, expressed his dismay at the ugly development and promised to hold those responsible accountable.

“As Minister of Sports, I will not tolerate this utter recklessness. It is highly inexcusable, and there will be thorough sanctions after investigations into where and from whom this gross negligence originated,” he said.

A popular caterer and Chief Executive of Country Kitchen, in Akure, Ondo State, Mrs. Olakunbi Adene, has reportedly been hacked to death by some unknown assailants, five days after celebrating her 54th birthday.

Source told Vanguard that the victim was killed at her residence, Oda Road, in Akure metropolis.

Her lifeless body was discovered on her bed by her neighbours, who later informed the caretaker of the house.

A family source, who spoke with newsmen, said: “The mother of two was hale and hearty with no sign of illness few days before she was sent to her early grave by her killers. Her lifeless body was found in a pool of blood on her bed with no trace of her killers.

“It was just five days ago that she marked her 54th birthday, she entertained many visitors in her residence and served assorted wine and drinks to her guests.”

Speaking with newsmen, the deceased’s husband, Dele Adene said the news of his wife’s demise came to him as a rude shock.

Adene said: “I was told that my wife’s corpse was found on her bed in a pool of blood, which showed she was hacked to death.

“I cannot believe that no arrest has been made up till the moment of talking to you. I feel suspects should have been arrested.

“Her phone should be tracked and I don’t know how dwellers in the building did not know such thing happened in a house with four flats apartment.”

Also, the deceased’s daughter, Tejumade, said it was the caretaker of the house where her mother lived, that called to inform her that she was found dead in a pool of blood.

Meanwhile, the remains of the deceased had been deposited at the mortuary in Akure.

Contacted, the state police imagemaker, Funmi Odunlami confirmed the killing, saying: “I am aware of the incident and an investigation is currently ongoing.”

 [Vanguard]

The police command in Lagos says it has deactivated an improvised explosive device (IED) from exploding in the Ikeja area of the state on Wednesday.

Benjamin Hundeyin, the police spokesperson in Lagos, said the IED, which was contained inside a bag, was dropped by the roadside near the federal operations unit (FOU), Zone A of the Nigeria Customs along Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way in Ikeja.

Hundeyin said an officer on patrol identified the man who dropped the package, adding that the suspect came down from an unregistered Toyota Corolla vehicle.

He said the command’s anti-bomb squad immediately came to the scene to implode the IED before it went off.

“The officer sighted a young man who alighted from the car and carefully dropped a bag by the side of the FOU Zone A fence. The young man returned to his car and zoomed off,” the police spokesperson said.

“Based on the report, a team of EOD-CBRN experts from the base quickly mobilised to the scene to identify the object.

“On arrival, it was confirmed that truly the item is IED. Subsequently, the area was cordoned off, and the IED was rendered safe and thereafter detonated accordingly.

“Meanwhile, the residual of the IED was collected for further analysis and investigation.”

[TheCable]

From initially expressing unease about the protests billed to start today, the government changed its stance to advocating “peaceful protests.” It was a smart move. If they had refused people the chance to protest outrightly, they would have fuelled the rage driving them. By asking them to exercise their rights, albeit peacefully, they took the bite out of the whole affair. Almost everyone with a previously radical stance is now chorusing “peaceful protests.”  Do not be surprised if, despite all the noise about a coming tornado, we end up with a slight gust of wind.

Violent protests are not necessarily the answer; in our present situation, it would in fact be unhelpful. It will direct issues from people’s registration of their suffering with an indifferent government to discussions of the incidence of attacks. That will present the perfect distraction for an administration that perennially seeks excuses to justify irresponsibility. From my reading of their attitudes so far, I suspect that as much as they claim to be afraid of violence, they in fact need it to change the narrative from their administrative failings and make themselves out to be unjustified victims of a maniacal public. Former information minister Lai Mohammed played that to advantage after the EndSARS protests in 2020. I hope no one, no matter how much they are goaded, falls into that trap.  Look at Bola Tinubu saying that he finds it hard to forget the buses burnt during the EndSARS protest. Imagine! He has no memory of those who died, but he remembers the buses. That is telling of his mind and character.

Coming soon after the Kenyan protests and all the havoc that attended them, governments everywhere should truly be afraid. Given how much the culture of protest feeds off another elsewhere, another country might take up the refrain anywhere, anytime. The dust had barely settled in Kenya when Bangladeshi youths started theirs. Currently, the death toll stands at 200 plus. It is quite understandable why the Tinubu government has overreacted to the mention of protests. They know how many calamities they have imposed on the country in such a short time. Nigerians saw hell under Muhammadu Buhari’s government for eight years, but all the hardships of those years have been quickly outweighed by just one year under Tinubu’s government. Even God in all his rage did not send the 10 plagues in a day!

There are economic situations caused by the global downturn and which hardly anyone could have helped; there are also situations consequent of mismanagement and lackadaisical attitude; Tinubu’s government combines both. Yes, the post-COVID economy and the wars have had negative impacts on most countries’ economies, but the case of Nigeria is such that we are also dealing with an incompetent and corrupt government. Administrative decisions are about what ends up in their pockets; God help the masses! So far, they have inflicted different measures of pain. Even worse, they lack fellow feelings for the poor victims of all their poorly conceived and badly executed policies.

Despite my not supporting violence, I am still wary of well-meaning people joining paid contractors to chorus “peaceful protests.” When the people against whom you want to take a stand tell you that you can protest, but only if you do it peacefully, what they are saying is “make it very easy for me to ignore you.” Because, what good will peaceful protests really do in a political context where leaders only respond to the force of power? Now they are all over the place shouting “peaceful protests” as if peace was ever their love language. All these months, they have either ignored or even gaslit people’s groans. Now that things have come to a head, they want “peaceful protests.” If you truly believed in peace, why did you wait so long before responding to the restless cries of a people that you have systematically diminished?

With the way they have been throwing accusations at political opponents as the ones sponsoring the protests, you can tell that they are already preparing a grand narrative of political persecution that they will use to turn the protest in their own favour. Think about it, why else would Bayo Onanuga and the rest of the Tinubu “scream team” be blaming their political opponents for sponsoring the protests if not because they are readying the grounds for plausible deniability of their own responsibility in the anger that bubbled up and eventually spilled onto the streets? To delegitimise the protests, they are also alleging spurious issues (hardly of any immediate concern to anyone) as reasons people are mobilising. What they succeed in proving with all that spin is their detachment from the realities of the people they supposedly administer.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio—whom no one has ever accused of deep thinking anyway—preferred to believe that the protests are being sponsored by “election losers.” Vice President Kashim Shettima even called those planning to protest “idiots.” While no reasonable person expects better from someone like Shettima who complements his bad mouth with a bad memory and an equally bad faith, his language is still shameful. When the government views you as an “idiot”, it means they do not think of you as human enough to consider giving their policies a human face.

You wonder, do those so quick to deflect issues on their political opponents even have the capacity to understand the public sensibility and reflect on it adequately? Other than protecting their self-interests, what else have they got? They do not care about peace. They have never had peace in mind for anyone but themselves. For them, Kenya is merely a spectre to be weaponised and threaten us. Their aides now tell us to be careful, otherwise we will all end up as losers if mass violence breaks out. But at what point did flesh and blood reveal that to you? The fear of losing everything is for those who have things to lose and does not mean much to people impoverished by your policies.

When Tinubu proclaimed “subsidy is gone” without making adequate plans for how people would fare, did it occur to all these geniuses now writing facile nonsense that they were pushing people to the wall? There is virtually no area where people are not feeling the mad squeeze. What other options are they left with than to fight back with protests? Now that they realise they cannot stop the protest, they issue a set of prescriptions, “do not block the road,” “do not inconvenience anyone,” “do not do this or that.” So, what exactly is left if the protests are non-disruptive? People might as well not bother.

In any case, the Tinubu boys should perhaps not have bothered with all the drama. I do not believe it is a pre-scheduled protest like this they should worry about; it is the spontaneous ones that might erupt if things continue this way that should keep them awake at night. The Storming of the Bastille and the Arab Spring did not set a date, neither did the Romanian Revolution that drowned Nicholas Ceausescu. They all appeared unthinkable to the political establishment until they happened.

That is why all those aides crawling out of their WhatsApp group to dish us lessons about Kenya have it all wrong. This is not the protest you should fear. For all we know, it will be anticlimactic. The over-preparation and over-reaction are likely to dissuade people from participating. Nevertheless, they will do well to remember the Negro spiritual that formed the title of James Baldwin’s classic and take this as a sign of what looms on the horizon if they persist in their incompetence and indifference: God gave Noah rainbow sign; no more water, the fire next time!

In October 2019, I was in Prague, Czech Republic, at the invitation of ‘Forum 2000’ to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1989 ‘Velvet Revolution’ which brought to power then Czechoslovakia’s famous playwright and political dissident, the late Vaclav Havel. ‘Forum 2000’ was founded in 1996 by Havel (who died in December 2011), in collaboration with Japanese philanthropist, Yohei Sasakawa, and the late Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and Holocaust survivor, Professor Elie Wiesel. So as scholars reflect on the 1989 ‘Autumn of Nations’—mass protests in several Eastern European, Asian and Latin American countries—an enduring lesson should be that there are no predictable outcomes to fires that start from the streets. I will come back to that shortly. 

We wake up in Nigeria today to the fear of a planned 10-day protest. With #EndBadGovernance in Nigeria as hashtag, and driven mostly by people on social media, the aim of the protests, according to the organisers, is to draw attention to the hunger and general economic hardship that most Nigerians now grapple with. As of June, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), food inflation had hit at an all-time high of 40.87 percent while prices of necessities are now beyond the reach of the average Nigerian. Anger on the streets is therefore understandable. But the fear that protests could be infiltrated or hijacked by hoodlums to loot and cause mayhem is also real.

I attended a Christian programme last week where the presiding cleric asked us to pray for Nigeria – routine in many religious gatherings these days. The pastor prefaced his call with a litany of the skyrocketing prices of essential commodities and the hardship being faced by most Nigerians. Despite all these, he added, “I do not believe that street protest offers any practical solution to our problems,” as he led us to pray for God to avert the protests. But with his prayer session over, one young man in the row behind me muttered, “The prayer is too late. Nothing can stop the protests.” He was audible enough for many of us to turn in his direction. “So, if you don’t believe God can change the situation, why were you praying so fervently?”, the lady beside him asked.

And in a most provocative statement, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, yesterday mocked organisers of the protest. “All of us feel the impact of what is happening now. But we are aware it will be for a short while. MD, I want to thank you for what you said,” Akpabio stated while addressing the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) delegates from Rivers State led by the commission’s Managing Director. “You said we are not interested in regime change; let us own this government. Those who want to protest can protest but let us be there eating.”

Unfortunately, the reality of Nigeria is that we don’t even know when this rain started to beat us. I am sure many readers have come across the trending letter of one of the foremost educationists in our country and founder of Mayflower Secondary School, Ikenne, Ogun State, the late Dr Tai Solarin. Written on 30th November 1983 to parents and titled ‘Feeding our 2,300 children’, Solarin lamented the skyrocketing prices of foodstuffs in the country. And that was 41 years ago. “We are frightened by the rate foodstuffs are rising madly in prices. There was an evening when we had no palm oil at all to prepare supper and a man in Sagamu offered us a drum for ₦700.00. Of course we did not buy it. At the same time, we have bought other items of food for about twice what we paid for them three months ago,” Solarin had stated in the letter which was an appeal to parents of students in his school. “I have travelled to Oyo and 22 miles further north sampling yams, tomatoes, beans and pepper. For this term we have turned some of the members of school administration to food buyers to under-cut the prices offered by our regular purchasers. Brown beans now go for ₦200 a bag.”

Now to the core issue. In a democracy, and one especially patterned after that of the United States, protests and civil disobedience are part of the package. But the challenge of the moment is to ask whether there is political salvation from the streets, especially in the Nigeria of today. In the two incidences of 2003 and 2012 earlier cited, there was no violence. In fact, Oshiomhole led almost a dozen strikes against Obasanjo, some lasting days. If anything, it was Oshiomhole himself who got brutalised, teargassed and arrested during some of these protests but never at any point was there public looting. The same with the 2012 protests during which musicians played and drinks were served in Lagos. That, sadly, was also the way the EndSARS started in December 2020 before it descended into a national tragedy. And given that sordid experience, one can understand why the federal government is agitated by the idea of protests at a period when so many people are hungry and could easily take advantage.

Going back to the ‘Autumn of Nations’, it is indeed remarkable that the 1989 revolutions produced diverse outcomes in different countries. At the ‘Forum 2000’ conference in Prague five years ago, four sessions captured two of the most significant events of 1989: ‘Chinese Superpower and the Promise of Tien´anmen 1989’ and ‘Germany: 30 Years after the Fall of the Berlin Wall’. While the uprising in the then East Germany led to the fall of the Berlin Wall along with its communist regime, what followed was economic prosperity for the united Germany. But perhaps the most remarkable of those (1989) revolutions happened in the then Czechoslovakia.

All factors considered; I doubt!

Two Generations of Saxophonists

Come Saturday 17 August, Demilade Adepegba, 15, fondly called The BOLD One, will be showcasing his dexterity with the saxophone at the Annual Teens Career Conference of The Everlasting Arms Parish (TEAP) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) Abuja. With the special guest, former Cross River State Governor, Mr Donald Duke, also a saxophonist, it will be a combination of the young and the old. But that’s not the real story. Demilade’s parents discovered his love for music very early and on his 6th birthday, they presented him a saxophone. Meanwhile, the story of Duke, 64, who sees music as a life-long passion, is similar. “I started playing music at the age of three. My parents got me a piano and sat me down, then I had a music teacher. But after the piano, the first instrument I played was the flute. From the flute to the guitar, from the guitar I did a lot of vocals. Then I tried the saxophone,” Duke explained in an interview with Daily Trust on how he fell in love with the saxophone and his passion for music. “You see, when you play these instruments it’s your fingers that find the notes. But it transports you. Every other period, I’m guarded. But when I’m playing music, I’m just myself. I can play from now till the wee hours of the morning and I’m not tired because I enjoy doing it. And it’s only when you enjoy what you are doing that your passion comes out.”

Themed ‘The Power of Music’, I find the interconnectedness of the stories of our speakers this year interesting because the parental influence that fired the imaginations of both Duke and Damilade also nudged Darey Art Alade, 42 and Mrs Bukola Bekes, 43, in the same direction. As son of the late Modupe Afolabi Jemi-Alade popularly known as Art Alade, a famous Nigerian television personality in the 70s, Darey learnt the craft from his father. As for Bekes, she was encouraged by her parents to join the church choir right from childhood and today, she is the Music Director at the RCCG, City of David, Lagos. These eminent personalities will be joined by the chief host, Pastor Evaristus Azodoh who will conclude the conference with the Father’s Blessings. Eligible participants should visit rccgteapteens.ng for online registration.

And since we are talking about music, I felt sad yesterday to learn about the death of the much-adored Onyeka Onwenu, the ‘elegant stallion’. May God comfort her family.