‘For the modern Yoruba intelligentsia, Ifa is the index of Yoruba wisdom and cultural excellence”-Robin Horton 

Epega classifies into three groups, those interested in Ifa. 1) Professionals (Ifa priests and diviners. 2) Ifa Devotees-Worshipers. 3) Philosophers-wisdom and knowledge seekers 

‘Founded on the beliefs of the earliest Yoruba, Ifa was systematised during the Oduduwa Era. It is regarded as the repository of Yoruba traditional body of knowledge embracing history, philosophy, medicine and folklore”, So says Jacob Olupona ( Professor of divinity at Havard University). Wande Abimbọla added, It is our own encyclopaedia which is held orally. It is a testimony to the fact that the human brain can retain a lot of information without having to write anything. It was no surprise to learn about the severity and the protracted nature of the training required to get certified as Ifa priest. It consists of a pre initiation training which takes anything between ten and twenty years and another five years of post initiation training. But without olodumare, from whom all else emanated, there would have been no Orunmila and Ifa.

Olodumare is the unique, omnipotent and omniscient creator. Directly ranking under him is the Trinity of Qrunmila-Obatala-Exu. ‘Below this trinity are the other Orixa representing natural forces or spiritual ideas. Some are wrathful like Ogun, Xọngo, Xopono, A won Iyami (witches) says Abosede Emmanuel. Obatala is said to be at the top of this trinity symbolising the Yoruba adage that a tripod ensures stability and order (adiro meta kii da obe nu). In order to acquire this philosophical stability ‘man is taught by Ifa to observe the ethical rectitude of Obatala, to allow for the unpredictable element in life, represented by Esu and to approach problems with the wisdom of Orunmila’. It is from Obatala that the Yoruba derived the role ideation and perception of themselves as urbane, mature, gentled-natured people. (Bolaji Idowu).

Ifa is a victim, first and foremost, of colonialism and its inherent requirement to delegitimize the precolonial history of Africa. Jean-Paul Sartre calls it ‘the sinister strategy of erasing native identities in which the aim is to supplant Indigenous culture with the colonisers own, leaving the population in a vacuum of identity’. It is a measure of the success of this delegitimization that it was with considerable reluctance that I ultimately decided to enter it as a fit and proper subject of public communication beyond the rarefied precincts of academe. 

Now let us proceed with the most contentious of the lot, Esu. Orunmila is his closest friend and confidante who is distinguished for his habit to routinely mock himself and his friend. In a broadside at his friend, he said those of you going to request Esu to bless you with a house, have you forgotten that Esu himself has no house and lives permanently on the streets?.

The original damage to the reputation and locus standi of Esu was inflicted by the mischaracterization of Bishop Samuel Ajayi Crowther in his mistranslation of the Bible to Yoruba language. In his relative ignorance and religious fervour, he wrongly equated the Biblical Satan with Esu.The tragedy of Crowther’s life was the racist refusal of the Anglican communion religious establishment to accept his elevation to the Bishopric. If Christianity was all virtue as he believes, he would not have suffered this rude awakening. 

That said, you have to understand the  context within which Crowther was operating. First, unless he was an initiate, his knowledge and understanding of  Esu was essentially limited. It is in the nature of those days that premium is placed on opacity and secrecy in contraposition to the universality of knowledge and information culture that we subsequently  inherited. Esu”is the neutral locus between good and evil as moral categories” and finds metaphorical analogy as ‘Inspector General of police who reports regularly to olodumare on the deeds of the divinities and men, everyone lives in dread of him lest he takes bad reports to Olodumare”.(Idowu). 

Èṣù láàlú does not have an English name just the way Ṣàngó, Ògún, Ọbàtálá, Ọ̀ṣun and others don’t have an English name. Èṣù is Èṣù! He is only a Messenger who delivers whatever messages he is sent,  be it positive or negative. Eṣù láàlú does not have all those bad features ascribed to the Biblical Satan. People should therefore stop judging Yorùbá Traditions, Customs, Beliefs and Spirituality as “Sinful”, in the Judeo-Christian  biblical sense. 

A subject-matter I bandy around a lot is the concept of autochthony. (Autochthony is the belief or claim that a group of people are indigenous to a particular land or region). So when we commend autochthony, we are saying that a state should derive from the indigenous society and that to the extent it does not, is the extent to which it will likely fail. For instance there was not a prior Nigerian society from which the Nigerian state originated and that it is the extent of this deviation that Nigeria has failed. On the other hand, a potential Yoruba state would have fulfilled the sociological requirement of autochthony because there is a prior indigenous Yoruba society from which it has evolved. It is in this respect that we talk of continuity and discontinuity. So there is state-society continuity in a potential Yoruba state which is lacking in the Nigerian state. To put it in the words of Chief Obafemi Awolowo “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression. There are no ‘Nigerians’ in the same sense as there are ‘English,’ ‘Welsh,’ or ‘French.’ The word ‘Nigerian’ is merely a distinctive appellation to distinguish those who live within the boundaries of Nigeria and those who do not”

It is with regard to the Nigerian state-society discontinuity that I theorised that there is a psycho-cultural disconnect between the governing mores of the indigenous societies comprising Nigeria (on one hand) and the British-begotten values of the colonial legacy baby- the Nigerian state (on another). In many respects, you can no more psychically separate a European from Christianity than separate a Yoruba from the Yoruba cosmological order.This notion taps from Carl Jung’s analytical concept of the collective unconscious and the subconscious retention and transfer of collective institutional memory. Alexander Roob describes the phenomenon as “accumulated wisdom of the past” “a rich world of images which has etched itself into the memory of modern man, despite the fact that it is not available in public collections”

Flowing from the above is, as deterrence, for the Yoruba, the consequences of breaching his oath of office is more effectively conveyed by Ogun, the implacable Yoruba god of restitution than the Bible and Koran. To quote a Nigerian correspondent “They say when (It is said that if) you want an African to tell the truth, make the African swear to an indigenous divinity—not to the Bible or the Quran”. Pastor Tunde Bakare recalls, ‘To bring conclusiveness to the allegation, they called an ailala priest, with esoteric insight into how to catch a thief. He recited some incantations over a cup of water and asked everyone to drink from it. “Anyone who drinks this water and has stolen the money will die from a gunshot wound ” he warned. They all drank…Years later, Bayo, my nephew, who had stolen the money,  had gotten married and was a successful auto repair technician. One day, while testing one of the vehicles he had repaired, assassins who had been sent after the owner of the car, shot at him, mistaking him for the owner. Unfortunately, Bayo died..”.

The bad and good news is that while Ifa has travelled all over the world, Yoruba people, who are the real owners are ignorant about it because somebody brainwashed them.’There are white people who are now Babalawo and some of them have private jets from the practice.“ In New York, there are more than 2000 Babalawos and in Miami, there are more than 100,000. Some of them own banks and function in the legislative house. There are thousands of them in Cuba and other countries.”

The irony is that as African indigenous religion was steadily losing legitimacy and acceptance at home, a contrary trend ensued in the diaspora especially in South America where ‘African descendants in Brazil adopted the Yoruba religious culture (as Afro-Brazilian) and built an all embracing African identity around its universal character’. Could this be what Orunmila meant when he declared that ‘Ifa o le parun. Atelewo la ba ila, a o mo eniti o ko” (Ifa cannot lapse into extinction. The marks we bear on our palms, do we know how it got there?)

The trademark of Orunmila is a self-deprecating acknowledgement of his fallibility. We find a lot of this in his deference to Ori, the God of destiny. Here we go. “Ko si Orisha ti dani gbe lehin Ori eni ( no orisha can bless you without the concurrence and consent of your Ori). When his never-do-well, ward (Akapo) reported him to olodumare for not helping him to succeed in life. Orunmila explained to God that he had done all he could for Akapo but his Ori did not concur hence the futility of his intercession. On another occasion, he taunted “nigbati Ori n gbe ni, nibo ni orisha wa, e ba je ka fi orisha sile, ka bọ Ori eni ( when Ori was blessing you, where were the orishas, you had better forgo the orisha and worship your Ori). In their collective dread of Sango and self-mockery he said “orisha ti Sango o ba le mu, ere lo mo sa (whichever orisha that Sango cannot deal with, must be a good sprinter). Ipin ja ju oogun, ori je ju ewe lo (Ori supersedes any other spiritual intervention) Oogun lo ni ojo iponju, Ori loni ojo gbogbo (ifa may help alleviate momentary adversities, ori is the eternal guarantor of a fulfilled existence)

If the responsibility is accepted, the task is cut out for the Yoruba intelligentsia to take up the inevitable challenge of fostering the widening of the boundaries of ifa ownership through a programmatic iteration of its thematic and pedagogical emphasis on morality. Rationality demands that you need to understand precisely what is it you are running away from before taking to your heels otherwise you will ab initio be running blind. Let me now leave you with a prayer from Orunmila. Ihoho larin wa aiye, edumare ma je rin Ihoho pada sorun. Ekun lasun wa aiye, edumare ma je ki asunkun pada sorun. Inu eje la to waiye, edumare ma je ka to inu eje pada sorun (we were born naked, may we not return to heaven in nakedness. We were crying on arrival at earth, may we not return to heaven crying. We were delivered in blood, may it please edumare that we do not return in the midst of blood)

The attention of the Governor of Ekiti State, Mr Biodun Oyebanji has been drawn to a misleading report by Sahara Reporters on his trip to the United States. 

There would have been no need to respond to the misleading report, because the itinerary of the Governor was well publicized before he embarked on the trip. However, this response is being made for the sake of the reading public who might be hoodwinked by the highly misleading report. 

It is on record that the itinerary of the Governor was made public through a statement signed his Special Adviser on Media, Yinka Oyebode on May 5, 2024. 

The statement, which was circulated in both the traditional and social media, indicated that Governor Oyebanji would, during the trip, participate in the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit in Dallas and the nineteenth session of the United Nations Forum on Forests (UNFF19) in New- York. The statement also indicated that the Governor was scheduled to hold talks with critical stakeholders, business leaders and development partners in furtherance of the shared prosperity agenda of the administration, before returning to the country. 

Highlights of the Governor’s engagements in the US are regularly communicated to the people of the state through media reports. These include his panel presentations, engagements with business leaders and development partners as well as the signing of the multi billion naira 100,000 hectares cassava farm with CAVISTA Holdings. The engagements continue till his return date. 

In line with the transparency and accountability policy of the administration, all local and international engagements and trips of the Governor have always been made public. And this current one is not an exception. 

It is on record that the current US trip of the Governor is the first outside the Continent since assuming office on October 16, 2022. The first trip outside the country was a UNDP sponsored induction programme for Governors held in Kigali; followed by the Afrexim Meeting in Cairo, where the state got a very significant infrastructure support from the bank. 

We urge Sahara Reporters to always conduct proper checks before going to the press. A call to the media office of the Governor or a click on the internet would have provided the needed information on the trip as well as outlined activities and prevented the news organization from publishing an obviously misleading and mischievous report.

Signed 

Yinka Oyebode

Special Adviser (Media) to the Governor, Ekiti State.

My Saturday column was anchored on a viral soundbite from 2019 of Bola Tinubu saying, “If we reduce the purchasing power of the people, we can further slow down the economy. Let’s widen the tax net. Those who are not paying now, even if it is inclusive of Bola Tinubu, let the net get bigger and we take in more taxes, and that is what we must do in the country."

He did utter those words, but the context was intentionally distorted with intent to deceive. Ironically, it was a previously fervent Tinubu supporter who has now become one of his severest critics who called my attention on Saturday to the fact that the soundbite intentionally cut out the preceding and subsequent statements Tinubu made, which made it clear that he wasn’t asking for citizens’ purchasing power to be weakened and for the economy to be slowed down. 

On the contrary, he was actually advocating the opposite of that, which is ironic because he appears to be doing exactly what he counseled against—sort of like his contradictory attitudes on petrol subsidies when he wasn’t in government and when he is now in government.

Well, here’s the full quotation which political opponents who popularized the soundbite (and misled some of us) deliberately left out:

“The global economy faces a stiff headwind [due to] factors not [of] our making…. Consumer spending is slipping…. And this is where I will stop and appeal to Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the Vice President, and his team.

“Put a huge question mark on any increase on VAT, please. If we reduce the purchasing power of the people, we can further slow down the economy. 

“Let’s widen the tax net. Those who are not paying now, if it is inclusive of Bola Tinubu, let the net get bigger and we take in more taxes, and that is what we must do in the country, instead of additional layers of taxes. For now, I’ll stop there.”

He obviously didn’t have a great choice of words, but Tinubu was actually advising the Buhari administration not to increase VAT (as he is proposing to do now) because it will reduce the purchasing power of the people and slow down the economy.

In my column, I found it incredulous that he would say that. I wrote: “So, many people, including me, concluded that Tinubu merely slipped up. What he meant to say was inconsistent with what he actually said.”

Two things made the propagandistic soundbite believable. One, although Tinubu was addressing former Vice President Osinbajo, he used the first-person plural “we” even though he wasn’t officially in government (which may be justified because he saw himself as a part of the government—never mind that he distanced himself from it during the election).

Two, in the nearly one year he has been in power, his signature economic policies have done no more than reduce the people’s purchasing power, slow down the economy, and widen the tax net.

All said, I believe that at all times we must admit the truth even if it’s against us, embarrasses us, weakens our argument, or causes us to be hated or ridiculed. That's my personal philosophy.

The truth is that the viral 2019 soundbite that inspired my column is decontextualized and manipulated. I apologize for unknowingly validating it. 

Nonetheless, my analysis of the strangulating economic policies of the Tinubu administration, which he advised Buhari against, stands.

 I am glad that he has seen reason to reverse the cybersecurity tax, according to today's Punch. I hope other reversals of injurious economic policies will follow. All we want is a better deal for our people.

I was chatting with a friend last week, who, mid-speech, redirected our conversation to the situation in the Middle East. She wanted to know what the mood in the US was. Over 6,000 miles away in Nigeria from where she was calling, she didn’t quite trust the media accounts. Since I was visiting the US, she thought I might have a better reading of the pulse.

Her call coincided with the decision by Israeli President, Benjamin Netanyahu, to launch a ground offensive in Rafah, in spite of warnings about compounding the current humanitarian disaster in Gaza where over 32,000 Palestinians have been killed, not counting bodies still under the rubble.

No one is sure how many more dead would be counted before Netanyahu finds the last Hamas, but is there still a chance – just one chance – that the dog in this deadly hunt will hear the hunter’s restraining whistle? Is the US unable or unwilling or both unable and unwilling to call Netanyahu to stop?

Calling America

I told the caller that the honest answer was I don’t know. The mood on US campuses was clear. Students from Columbia to Yale and from Harvard to New York and University of Texas at Austin, pitched tents outside for days in running battles with the police to demand an end to the war. They wanted the Biden administration to call Netanyahu to order. 

There were counter-protests, alright, but the overwhelming majority of students across US college campuses made their voices loud and clear: Israel had gone too far in avenging October 7. 

That was the mood on the campuses. 

It wasn’t very different on the streets, too. You could say that is to be expected. Two of three cab drivers I used were persons with Arab roots who wore their grief on their sleeves. 

They were not all Hamas sympathisers; just ordinary folks who might still have remained in Palestine under better leadership, but in whose eyes the worst Palestine leaders now look like saints, thanks to Israel’s ruthless war in Gaza. But you don’t have to be Arab or Jew or Greek to ask, who can stop Netanyahu? You just have to be human to see that if two wrongs don’t make a right, a third only compounds it.

So, who does the US listen to and why does it matter in the war in Gaza? In politico-speak those who move the hand that moves the most powerful country in the world are called the “military-industrial complex.” 

Who’s the Complex?

This is how Meta AI defines it: “The military-industrial complex (MIC) refers to the interconnected network of relationships between the military, defense contractors, and the federal government. It involves the collaboration and cooperation between these entities to produce and profit from military weapons, equipment and services.

“The term was first used by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961, where he warned of the potential dangers of an unchecked alliance between the military, defence contractors and politicians.”

If there’s anyone who ought to know that a threesome involving the military, defence contractors and politicians can hardly end in any good, it was Eisenhower. He was on two of the three sides; and Dick Cheney who became Vice President decades later, was on the last two – defence contractor and politician. 

Eisenhower led two of the most consequential military campaigns in the Second World War, before he later became president.

This Complex is not large. In number terms, it would be a tiny fraction of the number of college students who besieged dozens of campuses last week, calling for an end to the war in Gaza. Statistics in 2009 suggested that it includes around 1,100 lobbyists who represent about 400 clients from the defence sector, mostly companies that make losses from peace.  

Size matters not

But you would be mistaken to judge its influence by its size. Although it accounted for about three percent of the US GDP two years ago, these folks famous mostly for their notorious exploits, with strong ties to the Jewish lobby, have been linked with nearly every bad thing from the overthrow and murder of radical Chilean president Salvadore Allende Gossens to the Vietnam War and from the Iran-Contra Affair to Gulf War I & II. 

As bad things go, the last one was the baddest. This Complex instigated the US invasion of Iraq in spite of all evidence to the contrary. It made up its own convenient evidence, bomb after bomb, as hundreds of lives were destroyed and centuries of civilisation in Mesopotamia was pillaged and ruined.

After the war, one of the last surviving White House peaceniks, Barack Obama, said, in a declassified document: “ISIS (Islamic State), is a direct outgrowth of Al Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion, which is an example of unintended consequences – which is why we should generally aim before we shoot.” Unfortunately, even Obama the Dove shot before aiming in Libya.

In the Middle East, the Complex has President Biden by the balls. That was what I told the caller from Nigeria. It doesn’t matter what the students are saying on college campuses or what the cab drivers think; the Complex has Biden by the balls. And what a hold they have on him and on anyone in the White House in an election year! The Complex has got Israel’s back. Biden is damned if he calls out Netanyahu. Damned if he doesn’t. 

Owners of America

That’s what I told the caller. The Igbo of Southeastern Nigeria have a profound way of saying it that is lacking in the English language: “Ana enwe obodo enwe!” A town is owned and the owners call the shots. It’s a hard thing to say, even harder, perhaps, to accept. Because the logic of accepting that the Complex owns America and has its ear, is to deny the agency of actors within the system who may hold different, even stridently opposing views.

But think of it this way: why would America, a beacon of the rule of law, conveniently hide under its non-signatory status to ICJ to allow Israel to continue bombarding Gaza in spite of warnings by the court and the UN of an impending humanitarian catastrophe? Why would Biden, who regretted voting for the War in Iraq, and who as President, has prioritised diplomacy, become so impotent over Gaza? It’s the Complex, folks! They’ve got him by the balls in an election year!

And Netanyahu knows this, as does large sections of the Western media largely controlled by vested interests in the Middle East conflict. Netanyahu knows that Israel’s invincibility is an American yarn. The students said that much in their placards and graffiti last week, but who’s listening? 

Certainly not Biden, who along with his British ally, Rishi Sunak, scrambled military assets to defend Israel on April 15, when Iran launched what might otherwise have been a devastating retaliatory attack on Israel? The yarn of Israel’s invincibility, largely overplayed in the Western media, continues to feed the war. For how long? How many more lives before enough is enough?

What price, peace?

On the whole, the world is in a far more peaceful place today than it was in the 20^th century when millions of people died from senseless, bloody conflicts over ego and territory. Yet, it has taken bloody hard work to bring us here, where prosperity is not only measured by the Complex’s profit from wars, but also by how many ordinary folks around the world have bread on their table and milk for their babies.

Now, it seems like from South Sudan to Yemen and from the meat grinder in Ukraine to Gaza, the world is adrift again, one war at a time, as America defies the voices of its own children.

Someone must stop, listen and act. If not Biden, then who?

After alleging his life and family were in danger, FirstNews editor, Segun Olatunji, walked out on his job and the messy situation of Nigeria’s state security agents going feral on him. Their actions were not out of character. When a situation embarrasses one of the country’s many self-important “big men,” violence is always their resort. In this case, the big man with a punctured ego is the president’s Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila. FirstNews had written an unflattering story bordering on corruption and abuse of office about him, a civic action that turned out to be a mistake on the part of journalists who took the fact of Nigeria’s democracy as self-evident. For now, one cannot definitively state whether the case peaked with the editor’s resignation.

Some military men were said to have arrested Olatunji from his Lagos home. According to Olatunji’s narration of accounts, they arrested his wife and used her as bait to get to him. They (officers of the Army, Air Force and Defence Intelligence Agency!) burst into his home, bundled him into a van parked outside his house, and whisked him away. They blindfolded him and transported him to Abuja in a military helicopter. They also detained and tortured him. When confronted, they at first denied their involvement in his arrest. It was thanks to a sustained media campaign that Olatunji was later released. It probably helped too that the FirstNews management also apologised to Gbajabiamila stating that their report contained “falsehoods and fabricated stories handed out to us as facts by a misleading source.” Trouble is, in situations like this, you never know what constitutes a genuine apology and what was obtained under duress.

Several commentators have already addressed the issue of the journalist’s abduction. What I am curious about is the role of Gbajabiamila in all of these. Is he satisfied with the outcome? Is this how he is going to be resolving issues going forward? Notably, he was silent all through the saga (or maybe I just never came across his statement on the issue). However, we are Nigerians enough to know that the state agents would not deploy that much resources to arrest a single journalist if they were not acting on “orders from above.” The fact that he was publicly silent does not absolve his fangs of this venom.

As you might know, Gbajabiamilia is a trained lawyer with many years of practice in the United States. Yes, his career was blighted by professional misconduct but he was still a practitioner. Back home in Nigeria, he cut his political teeth by working among the breed of activists/intellectuals whose perpetual claims on the public never surpass their glorious days of challenging military despots. It is consequential of how we (mis-)attribute our freedom from autocratic government to these people that someone like Gbajabiamila eventually rose to become the Speaker of the House of Representatives. In short, Gbajabiamila is a man whose professional career and political credentials have been defined by the law—the rule of law, advocacy against an unruly order, and the making of the law.

So, why would a man like that fight supposed libel/slander through means that repudiate the law? Why did he abjure the path of pursuing a civil case and instead opt for the very “Gestapo” military techniques that negate the ethos of Nigeria as a democratic society? I am genuinely curious if, at any time during Olatunji’s saga, Gbajabiamila was struck by the irony of a lawyer/lawmaker defending his supposed integrity using brute despotic tactics. Is this not another instance of Nigeria as the quintessential Orwellian animal farm?

There are many disasters in Nigeria today, and Olatunji’s abduction illustrates some of them: those who boast they fought for democracy were never fully convinced of democracy’s true potential; those presently vested with power do not believe in the country enough to let us attain our true potential. At every turn, and every opportunity they get, they subvert our chances of becoming the nation where “peace and justice shall reign.” As it turns out, even the man who has worked with the law all his life does not even believe in the law enough to let the law take its course. He could have gotten FirstNews to apologise if he had filed a civil case in the court, won, and the judge ordered a retraction. Instead, he took a shortcut. For a country where insecurity is perpetually rife, security agents sure wasted resources to make a spectacle of the vindictiveness of self-vindication.

When you read the FirstNews report that triggered the abduction, what you see is a case of losing a needle and invoking Sango to help retrieve it. Ultimately, the expenditure of summoning a wrathful God will outweigh the value of what was initially lost. Like millions of Nigerians, I never even heard of FirstNews until the arrest of their editor. I had to go dig up the story online, and there it was: a wishy-washy and gossipy report that lacked substance. If there was any truth to that account, it was buried deep down in the shallowness of that reporting.

You look at the article now gleefully republished on the internet and wonder, what is it about this tripe that triggered the autocratic instincts of a lawyer, lawmaker, former Speaker, and Chief of Staff to the President? It really does not take much for people with really small feathers to have them ruffled. Then you look at the whole situation again and it suddenly gets clearer why Nigeria is in a state of administrative mess: our leaders are not busy enough. Those who are tasked with carrying the elephant of national responsibilities on their heads are obsessed with using their toes to dig up crickets in the soil of Nigeria’s decaying media institutions.

Meanwhile, by descending on Olatunji so high-handedly, reasonable people are left wondering why anyone would move a muscle over something so forgettable. It had to have triggered something in a seared conscience. While we will never know the truth of what happened, the overreaction suggests that there must be a raging fire underneath the wispy smoke of FirstNews’ report.

Olatunji’s story is yet another lesson for Nigerians who accede when government officials advocate more social media regulation. Now you can see that when people like Gbajabiamila go around whipping up a moral panic around social media, claiming social media is a menace that must be regulated, what they are actually doing is putting themselves beyond incrimination when they take certain extrajudicial actions like abducting and torturing a journalist. What they are trying to achieve by disseminating such glaring nonsense is a situation where they can justify themselves when they express their own unregulated power. Do not be beguiled, the real menace to society is those unaccountable to no one and who will observe no limits in their expression of coercive force.

Nigeria is a place where virtually everyone with a modicum of power does not hesitate to rain down abuses by using state-invested power, and here is another frightening instance. What is far more annoying is how the same state security agents who cannot protect us against crime, terrorism, banditry, and all sorts somehow always have enough resources to salvage the ego of the big man who is apparently too soft-skinned to take public criticism. For Nigerian soldiers who make videos to complain they fight Boko Haram and bandits without sufficient resources to fly a non-violent “offender” in a military helicopter shows an abject lack of seriousness in their organisation. But that imprudence is the nature of our democracy. There are never enough resources to do any public good, but they somehow manage to privatise the little that exists to assuage the feelings of puny gods who want their feelings worshipped.

A teenager who went missing in 1998 was found alive over the weekend in the cellar of his alleged kidnapper’s home — just 300 feet from his family’s residence in Algeria.

Omar Bin Omran was rescued Sunday from the house of his longtime captor after he went missing on his way to vocational school some 26 years ago, according to Algerian media reports.

Omar, now 45 and with a beard, was saved from the basement below his neighbor’s hay-covered floor in some sort of sheep pen, a video showing the confused-looking detainee posted on social media shows

His alleged abductor, a 61-year-old man who lived alone, was taken into custody, according to the Djelfa Attorney General’s Office.

Investigators were reportedly tipped off by the victim’s family after the suspect’s brother suggested his sibling was involved in the kidnapping in a social media post while the pair were fighting over inheritance.

The National Gendarmerie then re-opened the investigation and searched the man’s home until they discovered a trapdoor hidden underneath hay on the floor.

They found Omar behind the door, the prosecutors said.

Omar was taken to a medical center for treatment — both physical and psychological, while the unnamed suspect will go to trial for the “heinous crime,” the attorney general’s office said.

The teen’s alleged abductor has also been accused of killing his dog — seen in photos with him the year he went missing, according to Algerian news reports.

The Abuja ‘Road to Schuman Forum,’ jointly organized by the EU Delegation in Abuja and Nigeria’s National Counter-Terrorism Centre (NCTC), Office of the National Security Advisor, was held in the Nigerian capital on Wednesday, 15^th May 2024 as part of efforts for the strengthening of regional partnerships.

Held under the title: Reducing vulnerabilities through partnerships, the Forum attended by diplomats accredited to Nigeria and ECOWAS, EU and ECOWAS Commission officials and independent experts, is a precursor conversation to the main ‘Schuman Forum on Security and Defence’ scheduled for 28-29 May 2024 in Brussels, Belgium.

The Abuja meeting was sub-themed: Conflict dynamics in West Africa; ECOWAS as a regional peace-building actor and stability provider; and strengthening regional partnerships.

In their opening remarks, Mr. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Nigeria’s National Security Adviser (NSA), Ambassador Samuela Isopi, the Head of the EU Delegation in Nigeria, the Nigerian  Minister of Defence, Hon Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, represented by Permanent Secretary, Dr Ibrahim Abubakar Kana, and Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security underscored the primacy of the EU-ECOWAS-Nigeria partnership in cross-cutting development issues, especially, in fighting the root causes of insecurity, counter-terrorism, violent extremism and drawbacks to economic prosperity in West Africa.

Maj-Gen Adamu Laka, of the NCTC, made a presentation on Nigeria’s peace and security situation, while Mr Ruben Alba Aguilera, of EU Delegation, spoke on the EU-Nigeria Security Partnership.

The presentation by Dr Pawoumothom Cyriaque Agnekethom, Director, Peacekeeping and Regional Security, ECOWAS Commission, was on ECOWAS security policies, while Mr Charles Andrew Stuart, Chief Advisor on Security for Africa, European Affairs Service, spoke on EU partnership with ECOWAS on peace and security.

The participants noted that despite progress in the area of peace, security, and defence, Nigeria still faces security threats of various forms, in different geographical areas.

EU officials reiterated the organization’s willingness to engage with Nigeria, to address the threats, through a coordinated approach.

Ms Miriam Uben Adah, of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, moderated the discussion on Effective partnerships in changing security dynamics, with the panellists discussing the challenges posed by terrorism and extremism, maritime security in the Gulf of Guinea and new emerging hybrid threats.

They also reflected on the reassessment of security policies and defence strategies and priorities for more effective partnerships. The panellists were Mr Hassan Yahaya Abdullahi - Director of Internal Security, ONSA, Commodore VB Gbaranwi, Deputy Director of Defence Affairs, ONSA, Mr Zakari Mijiyawa, Special Adviser to the NSA on Strategic Communications, a Representative of the Ministry of Defence, Ambassador Juan Sell Sanz, Spain and Commodore Usman Mainasara Bugaje, Deputy Director Strategy, Naval HQ,

Others were Mr Jean Francois Hasperue, from the Embassy of France, Mr Hervé Auffret, Head of Advisory Field Support, Geneva Centre for Security Sector Governance, and Ambassador Fatima Bala, from the Nigerian Working Group on Peace-building and Governance.

Mr Kabir Adamu, of the Beacon Security and Intelligence Limited, moderated the panel discussion on Rethinking regional security engagement, which featured panellists Dr Cyriaque Agnekethom, Ambassador Ibrahim Babani, Director of External Security (ONSA), Ambassador Pieter Leenknegt, from Belgium, Ambassador Kalilou Traoré, from Cote d’Ivoire, Dr Paul Andrew Gwaza, from the Institute of Peace and Conflict Resolution, and this writer.

The panel discussion centred on the unprecedented challenges faced by ECOWAS and the EU and the need to redefine the security architecture in the region.

It was noted that as key regional players, the EU and ECOWAS have a common interest in working together to overcome common challenges in the peace, security and defence areas and the need to redesign their security policies. The discussion also touched on the current Sahel situation, the erosion of democracy, and the epidemic of military coups in the region with four ECOWAS member States now under military dictatorships. Three of the four countries have served ECOWAS notice of withdrawal.

In their interventions, the participants agreed on the need to restore unity, cohesion and solidarity in ECOWAS and the reinvigoration of the mutually beneficial partnership cooperation between ECOWAS and the EU. They also stressed the need for a pro-African approach and ownership of the partnership programmes and projects such that the citizens will be positively impacted.

The outcome of the Abuja Forum will feed into the agenda of the ‘Schuman Forum on Security and Defence’ coming up end of this month in Brussels.

Ejime is an Author, Global Affairs Analyst, and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications

The 2023 Spokesperson of Labour Party presidential campaign council, Yunusa Tanko has shared his thoughts on the reason his principal, Peter Obi ate with Northerners during the Ramadan celebration.

Recall that Obi joined Muslims at the Central Mosque in Maraba-Nyanya in Abuja to participate in breaking the Ramadan fast.

Speaking on the incident during an interview on Arise TV, Tanko asserted that Obi is aware that he needs the north in the upcoming election and needs to make necessary alliance.

He explained that Obi is getting closer to the people so they would know who he is and he also would learn more about them.

He said, “You say we want to move away from politics of spaghetti and all of that but some critics will say that Peter Obi during Ramadan and even now was eating with Almajiris; and some of the boreholes we saw during the last election Obi had stronghold in the South and now he needs to make in-road in the North, so how much of this is politics and how much is governance because it’s easy to reduce this to governance but at the end of the day, Peter Obi knows he needs the North and he has to make the necessary alliances there, so how much of this is about governance?

“Getting closer to the people is not about politics. What I mean by getting closer to the people, is getting to know them and they also know him. It’s a different ball game entirely. When there was need for him to support them, he did support them. It’s the reason for the borehole, going to the Almajiri schools and all of that. Let me say this, just imagine, had it been that His Excellency didn’t do this or didn’t move from point A to point B, what will the people say? Now he is doing it and people are still talking. 

“He is doing it practically and even supporting practically. Is it when there is election that you expect him to go round? This is the best time to do it independently that even before the election, you will tell them, this is who I am. This is somebody who has been doing this humanitarian support even in Haiti, outside of this country. He has been doing it, it’s not his first time. People didn’t know that, he only brought it out to the public domain.”

[NaijaNews]

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said on Wednesday that it has granted 14 new International Money Transfer Operators (IMTOs) Approval-in-Principle (AIP) in new effort to to double foreign-currency remittance inflows through formal channels.

The initiative will help increase the sustained supply of foreign exchange in the official market by promoting greater competition and innovation amongst IMTOs to lower the cost of remittance transactions and boost financial inclusion.

CBN’s thinking is really that increasing formal remittance flows which is one of the major sources of foreign exchange, accounting for over 6% of GDP would help ease the historical volatility in Nigeria’s exchange rate caused by external factors, such as fluctuations in foreign investment and oil export proceeds.

“This will spur liquidity in Nigeria’s Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEX), augmenting price discovery to enable a market-driven fair value for the naira,” said Hakama Sidi Ali, CBN’s Acting Director of Corporate Communications, while announcing the new plan in a statement.

Olayemi Cardoso, CBN Governor had recently disclosed the apex bank’s target to double remittance flows into Nigeria within a year, which he firmly believed was possible.

“We are wasting no time driving progress to remove any bottlenecks hindering flows through formal channels permanently. We have a determined pathway and a sequenced approach to tackling all challenges ahead, working hand in hand with key stakeholders in the remittance industry,” he had stated.

IMTOs in Nigeria, are companies or organizations which the CBN has authorized to facilitate the transfer of foreign currency funds from individuals or entities residing abroad to recipients back in Nigeria.

In 2023, the CBN increased the number of IMTOs from 47 to 62.

The increase in the number of IMTOs is one of the primary actions initiated by the CBN’s remittance task force, overseen by Governor Cardoso as a collaborative unit which pulls together specialists to work closely with the private sector and market operators to facilitate the ease of doing business in the remittance ecosystem in Nigeria.

The task force was established as a direct result of an executive learning session with IMTOs during the 2024 World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings held in Washington DC, United States of America, in April.

The task force will meet regularly to implement strategy and monitor the impact of its measures on remittance inflows.

[BusinessDay]

The local equities market yesterday closed on a negative note as selloffs on Nigerian Exchange Group Plc and 29 others dragged the capitalisation lower by N74 billion.

The All Share Index (ASI) declined by 130.56 points, representing a decline of 0.13 per cent to close at 97,343.42 points. Accordingly, market capitalisation shed by N74 billion to close at N55.058 trillion.

The downturn was impacted by losses recorded in medium and large capitalised stocks, amongst which are; Nigerian Exchange Group, PZ Cussons Nigeria, UAC of Nigeria (UACN), Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA).

As measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 30 stocks lost relative to 13 gainers. Custodian Investment recorded the highest price gain of 9.63 per cent to close at N10.25, per share. International Energy Insurance followed with a gain of 9.29 per cent to close at N1.53, while Sovereign Trust Insurance rose by 7.89 per cent to close at 41 kobo, per share.

NPF Micro Finance Bank went up by 7.10 per cent to close at N1.96, while Champion Breweries appreciated by 6.11 per cent to close at N3.30, per share.

On the other hand, FTN Cocoa Processors and PZ Cussons Nigeria led the losers’ chart by 10 per cent each to close at N1.44 and N20.25 respectively, while Sterling Financial Holdings Company followed with a decline of 9.89 per cent to close at N4.01, per share.

The Initiates Plc (TIP) depreciated by 9.78 per cent to close at N2.03 and UACN declined by 9.76 per cent to close at N13.40, per share.

The total volume traded declined by 16.0 per cent to 355.554 million units, valued at N7.143 billion, and exchanged in 7,333 deals. Transactions in the shares of Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) topped the activity chart with 71.872 million shares valued at N3.038 billion. Custodian Investment followed with 65.466 million shares worth N785.263 million, while Access Holdings traded 24.167 million shares valued at N416.727 million.

Tantalizers traded 21.305 million shares valued at N22.414 million, while Prestige Assurance sold 17.536 million shares worth N8.955 million.

[Leadership]