Nobel laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka, has criticized President Bola Tinubu’s recent national broadcast for not addressing the violent crackdown by security forces on #EndBadGovernance protesters.

In a statement issued on Sunday after Tinubu’s address, Soyinka expressed concern over the president’s omission of this critical issue.

#EndBadGovernance protests continued for the fourth day, with citizens expressing dissatisfaction with worsening economic conditions and ineffective governance.

Soyinka stated, “I set my alarm clock for this morning to ensure that I did not miss President Bola Tinubu’s impatiently awaited address to the nation on the current unrest across the nation.

“His outline of government’s remedial action since inception, aimed at warding off just such an outbreak, will undoubtedly receive expert and sustained attention both for effectiveness and in content analysis. My primary concern, quite predictably, is the continuing deterioration of the state’s seizure of protest management, an area in which the presidential address fell conspicuously short.”

He argued that the government’s approach only encourages impunity among security forces and perpetuates a cycle of resentment and reprisals.

Soyinka highlighted the use of live ammunition as a response to peaceful protests as a critical issue, noting that even tear gas is often misused in such situations.

He remarked that hunger marches are a universal plea for help, signaling a breaking point that demands government attention.

The violent response to these protests, he warned, represents a regression even more severe than the deadly aftermath of the ENDSARS protests.

“Such short-changing of civic deserving, regrettably, goes to arm the security forces in the exercise of impunity and condemns the nation to a seemingly unbreakable cycle of resentment and reprisals.

“Live bullets as state response to civic protest – that becomes the core issue. Even tear gas remains questionable in most circumstances, certainly an abuse in situations of clearly peaceful protest. Hunger marches constitute a universal S.O.S, not peculiar to the Nigerian nation. They belong indeed in a class of their own, never mind the collateral claims emblazoned on posters.

“They serve as summons to governance that a breaking point has been reached and thus, a testing ground for governance awareness of public desperation. The tragic response to the ongoing hunger marches in parts of the nation, and for which notice was served, constitutes a retrogression that takes the nation even further back than the deadly culmination of the watershed ENDSARS protests.

“It evokes pre-independence – that is, colonial – acts of disdain, a passage that induced the late stage pioneer Hubert Ogunde’s folk opera BREAD AND BULLETS, earning that nationalist serial persecution and proscription by the colonial government.”

Soyinka noted that the “nation’s security agencies cannot pretend unawareness of alternative models for emulation, civilized advances in security intervention.”

He said, “Need we recall the nationwide 2022/23 editions of what is generally known as the YELLOW VEST movement in France? Perhaps it is time to make such scenarios compulsory viewing in policing curriculum. In all of the coverage that I watched, I did not catch one single instance of a gun leveled at protesters, much less fired at them even during direct physical confrontations.

“The serving of bullets where bread is pleaded is ominous retrogression, and we know what that eventually proves – a prelude to far more desperate upheavals, not excluding revolutions.

“The time is long overdue, surely, to abandon, permanently, the anachronistic resort to lethal means by the security agencies of governance. No nation is so under-developed, materially impoverished, or simply internally insecure as to lack the will to set an example. All it takes is to recall its own history, then exercise the will to commence a lasting transformation, inserting a break in the chain of lethal responses against civic society.

“Today’s marchers may wish to consider adopting the key songs of Hubert Ogunde’s BREAD AND BULLETS, if only to inculcate a sense of shame in the continuing failure to transcend the lure of colonial inheritance where we all were at the receiving end. One way or the other, this vicious cycle must be broken.”

A Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Dele Momodu has reacted to President Bola Tinubu’s speech on the EndBadGovernance protest.

Momodu stated that Tinubu failed to address the demands of the helpless Nigerians.

Speaking via his social media account, the Ovation publisher said he was stupefied by the broadcast.

He opined that it would be difficult for Tinubu to change his ways, considering that he has held Lagos with an iron grip in the last 25 years.

Momodu lamented that he has little hope that the president would grant concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians.

He insisted that most of Tinubu advisers are fanatical cronies who have failed to challenge his method of governance.

Momodu wrote, “Fellow Nigerians, good morning. After the long awaited speech of PRESIDENT BOLA TINUBU eventually came this morning, I’m sure most of you would be as stupefied as me. I must confess that I had little hope of Tinubu granting some concessions to the aggrieved Nigerians. As a man who has held iron grip on Lagos State in the last 25 years, it would be difficult for him to change a winning formula that has worked for him ever since. Also, what did we expect his advisers to be telling him when most of them have been his most fanatical cronies from Lagos who have learnt never to challenge the Master.

“So it was mere wishful thinking on the part of incurable optimists like me to think he was going to have mercy on hapless and seemingly helpless Nigerians. Just for academic purposes, let’s reel out what a sensitive leader, who craves the rightful position in posterity, would have done and said:

“1. In view of the unprecedented suffering being experienced by Nigerians, we have decided to cut the cost of governance drastically… Some Ministries will be scrapped and some Ministers, Permanent Secretaries and all redundant personnel would be eased out…No official cars would be procured anytime soon.

“2. The number of aircrafts on our Presidential fleet will be reduced to maximum two. I offer sincere apologies that we went ahead to invest in luxury items at this bad times. We shall place immediate embargo on subsequent purchases.

“3. Subsidy of petroleum products will be reviewed thoroughly to ascertain the genuine costs and true billing of the controversial payments. While we hope to achieve this in maximum of three months, we shall revert to old prices within this period in order to reduce the heavy burden on our people. We shall also escalate work on our existing refineries without which we shall be throwing away loads of resources. Nothing has stalled our refineries other than reckless corruption. This we are blocking immediately.

“4. Instead of tasking civil servants and politicians to handle students loans and vocational grants, we shall engage reputable accounting firms and banks to set up modalities for credits and activate the disbursements…- CHIEF DELE MOMODU”

A small group of #EndBadGovernance protesters assembled at Gani Fawehinmi Park on Sunday morning, singing solidarity songs shortly after President Bola Tinubu addressed the nation.

The demonstrators expressed dissatisfaction, stating that the President failed to address the core issues they raised, even though he mentioned efforts being made by his administration.

Police and other security personnel remained present at the park.

The police prevented the protesters from marching beyond the designated area at Gani Fawehinmi Park, Ojota.

The protesters complied peacefully and returned to the designated location.

As of this report, there were more police officers than protesters in the Ojota area of Lagos.

In a broadcast earlier on Sunday, Tinubu urged the youths to halt the #EndBadGovernance protests and engage in dialogue.

He reassured them that his administration is committed to good governance despite the socio-economic challenges facing Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation.

Tinubu stated that removing the fuel subsidy was a painful yet necessary decision for economic reforms.

Reinstating the petrol subsidy is one of the key demands of the young Nigerians who have been protesting since Thursday against the country’s economic hardships.

Among the protesters’ demands are the restoration of the fuel subsidy and changes to the foreign exchange regime. They also call for the government to address food shortages, unemployment, and excessive spending by those in power.

Other demands include reducing the President’s cabinet and overall government expenses, and immediate reforms of the electoral commission (INEC) and anti-corruption agency (EFCC), with renewed efforts to combat corrupt politicians.

Nigeria’s D’Tigress have made history by reaching the quarterfinals of the women’s basketball tournament at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

D’Tigress secured a decisive 79-70 win over Canada in their final group match at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille, France.

This victory marks Nigeria’s first appearance in the quarterfinal stage of the Olympic basketball competition.

Nigeria advanced through the group stage with five classification points, placing them at the top of the standings. France is set to play against Australia later in the day.

Led by coach Rena Wakama, the Nigerian team rebounded from a loss to France in their second game after securing a victory against Australia in their opening match.

The first quarter saw both Nigeria and Canada neck and neck, ending in an 18-18 tie.

Canada managed to pull ahead slightly in the second quarter, leading 41-37 by halftime.

However, the third quarter shifted in Nigeria’s favor, as they restricted Canada to only five points, taking control of the game.

D’Tigress sealed their historic win with a strong performance in the final quarter, achieving a remarkable 9-point victory over Canada.

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, has raised alarm over an upsurge in the number of doctored and upwardly adjusted age declarations on NIN slips being submitted by candidates.

The exam body expressed worry that the trend of underage candidates falsifying their age to gain admission into the university has become dangerous, inimical and unnecessary.

JAMB has now insisted that only candidates who will be at least sixteen years old at the time of admission will be considered eligible for admittance into the university.

A statement by the board’s spokesperson, Fabian Benjamin, said the directive came from the Chairman of the 2024 tertiary admission policy meeting and Minister of Education, Prof Tahir Mamman.

He said the extant 6-3-3-4 on education will be enforced only from the 2025 academic session.

The statement partly read, ”This position is informed by the discovery of widespread and unwholesome practice whereby some institutions collude with candidates to falsify vital details, such as backdated year of entry and subsequent age adjustments, to utilise certificates of genuine candidates with similar names to facilitate illegal admissions to enable participation of fake candidates in the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme.”

Former Senator representing Kaduna North Senatorial District, Shehu Sani, has said it’s time for northerners to look at themselves instead of blaming other regions.

Sani, who wrote on his verified Facebook page on Sunday, lamented that most public schools are free, yet our young ones still don’t want to go to school.

He said, “Many of us don’t want our spouses to work or use their skills or talents to earn a living or contribute to the family. When we die, we leave them as helpless widows at the mercy of a hostile society.

“Most young people don’t want to serve as apprentices in workshops or retail outlets because they lack the heart and patience to serve.

“Many parents in rural areas hand over their children to a religious teacher in the city, who depends on the children to beg or steal in order to feed himself and his family. For ethnic, religious, and sectional reasons, we have protected, defended, praised, and refused to hold accountable all our kinsmen who led the country at every wasted opportunity for five decades.

“The bandits and terrorists who kill and kidnap our people, deny our farmers access to their farms, and prevent our children from going to school are not from any foreign country or from the south; they come from our homes and families up north. We worship with them in the same mosque. We used to live together as one region in peace, brotherhood, and love, but then we divided and began to hate ourselves along religious lines.

“We don’t vote for people who will serve us; we vote for those who will provide us with spaghetti and grains. We concoct and spread all sorts of religiously inclined conspiracies to deny our children free health immunization against diseases, resulting in hundreds of thousands of blind, lame, crippled, and deaf children who grow up as victims of polio, glaucoma, or leprosy, begging in northern and southern cities. Many of our women and girls don’t have a business capital of 100k but own an iPhone worth N1.5m. They don’t have capital of 100k but can ‘struggle’ to meet up with a wedding asoebi of 500k.

“We deny most of our girls the right to go beyond secondary school due to negative perceptions about higher education. We don’t want our female children to wear uniforms. Whenever recruitment portals for the Army, Police, Customs, Immigration, and Civil Defence open, we don’t want our female wards to apply.

“When our children graduate from universities, especially public universities, most of the parents who attend to celebrate and appreciate their children are from the southern regions. Most of our industries and factories in Kano, Kaduna, and Jos have since closed down when our kinsmen were in power. Our farmers in rural areas are still farming with hoes throughout the period our kinsmen were in power. The groundnut and cotton pyramids disappeared long ago when our kinsmen were at the helm.

“All the spare parts, building materials, and pharmaceutical stores in the north are private businesses owned by people from other regions who were not backed, funded, or supported by any government. When our kinsmen were in power, we attributed our poverty and insecurity to God and to our sins; when our kinsmen are out of power, we attribute our sufferings to the King.

“The FCT is in the north. Can anyone explain why people from the region couldn’t dominate the private businesses in the FCT, Suleja, and Mararaba? Who should be blamed for this?

“God gave us the largest land mass, the largest number of people, most of the rivers, and resources and livestock, and gave us power for the most part of our history. Which of the favours of our Lord can we deny? The North; eighty percent of our problems are ourselves and not anyone ‘outside of ourselves.’”

Former Minister of Education, Obiageli Ezekwesili has criticised President Bola Tinubu’s Sunday address to Nigerians concerning the ongoing nationwide protests against bad governance in the country.

The ex-minister said the speech was terribly underwhelming to read.

Ezekwesili said Tinubu’s speech was a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and an outline of convincing evidence-based actions that his government will take to address bad governance in the country.

The government critic claimed the speech was written from a mindset focused on “getting back at Tinubu’s imaginary enemies.

DAILY POST reported that Tinubu addressed the nation on Sunday concerning the ongoing nationwide protests.

The President in his speech ruled out the return of fuel subsidy and asked organizers of the protest to withdraw from the street.

However, in a statement on her X handle on Sunday, the former Minister said it is unfortunate to see Nigerian public “Leaders” talk and behave like losers on matters of public governance.

She said: “@officialABAT , As one of millions of Nigerians who were at church when you delivered your late-in-coming Speech to Citizens on the #EndBadGovernancelnNigeria protests, let me loudly say it was terribly underwhelming to read.

‘Your Speech reads like a page from your party manifesto and terribly failed to connect to what our Citizens on the Streets are angry and protesting about.

‘Your speech is quite a monumental missed opportunity to placate citizens with sound answers and outline of convincing evidence-based actions that you and your @NigeriaGov will immediately take to address the priority #BadGovernance concerns.

“Your Speech was sadly again written out of a mindset that is focused on “getting back at our enemies”. Imaginary enemies at that! No true Leader has the luxury of having “enemies” among their Citizens. Not at all. A Public Leader becomes the Leader of ALL with a mind that does not think of any as their enemies.

“This is why it is ever unfortunate to see Nigerian public “Leaders” talk and behave like Losers on matters of public governance where they are expected to rally their ALL Citizens behind the common purpose of nation building.

“It is nauseating to observe this recurrent innate unwillingness of Nigerian public leaders to admit responsibility for the demands of the same public leadership that they kill and maim citizens to assume.

“@officialABAT, Citizens know when they are being badly governed and from what one can see, Nigerians have now realized that they must collectively speak up and take action otherwise their self-obsessed rulers (and not leaders) will not pay them any heed at all.

“As we remember and pray for families of all our citizens mauled down or maimed for demanding an End to Bad Governance, let me call on you @officialABAT to immediately instruct the IG @PoliceNG and his men to “STOP KILLING PEACEFUL PROTESTERS NOW!”

“Also fish out all law enforcement personnel that have killed and maimed citizens and ensure they are sanctioned as a deterrence to their colleagues.”

Political activist, Chris Nwaokobia has described the nationwide broadcast by President Bola Tinubu as flaccid and an uneventful dance around the issues that brought about the EndBadGovernance protests.

Nwaokobia also claimed the president’s speech only sought to validate the policies that traumatised the people and also to decree an end to the protests without addressing the issues.

In a statement made available to DAILY POST on Sunday, Nwaokobia alleged that President Tinubu’s speech did not make concrete promises, announce some far-reaching reforms or say a thing about cutting the cost of governance, cutting wastage, wanderlust and profligacy. 

DAILY POST reported that President Tinubu addressed the nation on Sunday where he revealed that he was aware of the pains of Nigerians and that he was speaking with a heavy heart.

The president addressed the nation after day 3 of the planned 10-day EndBadGovernance nationwide protest which started on Thursday, August 1.

Nwaokobia’s statement read, “Mr President’s speech this morning was a flaccid and uneventful dance around the issues that brought us to the nadir. He sought to validate the policies that traumatize the people. He sought to decree an end to the protests without addressing the issues.

“Without making concrete promises. Without announcing some far-reaching reforms. And without saying a thing about cutting the cost of governance, and cutting wastage, wanderlust and profligacy.”

Nwaokobia, who held that the speech was not the mind of the president, accused the writers of being utterly wicked, mischievous and treacherous.

“The person who wrote that speech may be utterly wicked, mischievous and treacherous because I do not believe that such is the mind of Mr. President. But what do I know?”

“Shame on the handlers of this Presidency. Shame on Mr President. Shame on the All Progressive Congress APC. Shame on all those who have direct access to Mr. President but cannot tell him the Truth. And shame to all those who undermine the extent to which an aggrieved people can go.

“Unfortunately, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appears to have been ensconced and removed from all those who can tell him the Truth.

“Mr President has continued on the same trajectory as his aides who believe that threats and orders can attend and assuage the anger in the land. Mr President is apparently far from the truth and away from reality.

“Clearly, Mr President is badly surrounded by sycophants and hypocrites, and so cannot apprehend the enormity of the anger in the land. I pity Mr. President.”

While accusing the President of not being sensitive to the demands of the protesters and speaking without listening, Nwakobia said he hoped the speech would be followed by proactive and profound reforms.

The Otun Olubadan of Ibadanland, High Chief Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja on Sunday changed his hard stance against his opposition to become a beaded crown monarch in Ibadanland.

Ladoja, a former Governor of Oyo State made the disclosure while featuring on ‘Agbami Oselu,’ a flagship radio programme on Fresh FM in Ibadan.

Ladoja is the next in the line of succession to the current Olubadan of Ibadanlan, Oba Akinloye Owolabi Olakulehin, Ige Olakulehin 1, who was officially installed as the 43rd Olubadan on Friday, July 12, 2024.

LEADERSHIP earlier reports that Ibadan has a unique and transparent traditional succession route to the Olubadan throne, which sees an individual – either from military or civilian line – from the lowest rung of the traditional ladder rise to the peak and ultimately becomes the Olubadan.

The throne of the Olubadan is traditionally swapped between the military and civilian lines, with the 89-year-old Oba Olakuleyin occupying the throne from the military line.

With the ascension of Oba Olakulehin, Ladoja is currently the most senior High Chief from the civilian line waiting in the wings.

However, a review to Section 4 of the 1957 Olubadan Chieftaincy Declaration in a gazette issued by the Oyo State Government and signed by Governor Seyi Makinde since 2023, mandated the candidate for the throne of Olubadan to be a bead-wearing king.

Section 4 of the new Gazette states that, “The person who may be proposed as candidate by the Line whose turn it is to fill a vacancy in the office of the Olubadan shall be the most Senior Beaded Crown Oba in that line.”

Speaking on Sunday, Ladoja said numerous Ibadan and non-Ibadan people had mounted pressures on him to consent to becoming a bead-wearing monarch to pave the way for his ascension to the throne when the time comes.

“By the grace of God, I will become Olubadan. God has been merciful to me. My blood pressure has been stable.

“Anyone God destined to become Olubadan will become Olubadan. There is not amount of obstacles that they may put on the road, if God says someone will become Olubadan, he will become Olubadan.

“I will do what Ibadan people want. Everything is being determined by God. We have had many people who became Balogun that did not become Olubadan, we have had many people who became Otun Olubadan but did not become Olubadan. Omiyale and Kuye died ten days apart.

“It is a tough decision but the voice of the people is the voice of God. That is what the people want,” Ladoja said in Yoruba.