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Nigeria’s INEC receives EU election observation mission (Photos)

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, has received a delegation from the European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM).

Nigeria’s INEC disclosed this today, Thursday, October 2, through the Commission’s X handle.

The EU delegation was led by Chief Observer Mr. Barry Andrews to the INEC’s headquarters in Abuja, Nigeria.

“The visit marks a follow-up assessment on the implementation of recommendations made after Nigeria’s 2023 general elections,” the post noted.

Photos:

Photos: INEC, X

Reflection on Nigeria at 65, By Olusegun Adeniyi

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Bode Dolu

When Nigeria marked its 60th independence anniversary five years ago, I recalled how 1960 was deemed ‘The Year of Africa’. Because 16 of the 17 countries that gained independence that year were from the continent. I then x-rayed the state of those other 15 African countries that secured their independence same year with Nigeria: Niger Republic, Central African Republic (CAR), Somalia, Togo, Republic of Upper Volta (now Burkina Faso), Cameroon, Republic of the Congo or Congo-Brazzaville, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), formerly known as Zaire, Cote D’Ivoire, Gabon, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal and Benin Republic.

In his national broadcast to mark our 65th independence anniversary yesterday, President Bola Tinubu reminded us of where Nigeria is coming from. “We fought a bitter and avoidable civil war, experienced military dictatorships, and lived through major political crises,” he said. Since almost all these other African countries have experienced a similar history of colonial subjugation, military incursions and security challenges, including insurgency and civil wars, etc., I made the point in 2020 that there are excuses to make for our failures.

However, I also contrasted the 16 African countries with the last of the nations in the ‘Class of 1960’—the only one outside the continent: The Republic of Cyprus, an Eastern Mediterranean Island country. Instructively, Cyprus and Nigeria share the same 1st October Independence Day, and the country also marked its 65th anniversary yesterday. Like Nigeria, Cyprus has faced wars, military coups and all manner of disruptions, instigated from within and without. But unlike Nigeria, Cyprus has done relatively well for itself. Today, the GDP per capita in Cyprus is projected to be $41,130 with a Purchasing Power Parity of $65,090 per capita, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) April 2025 World Economic Outlook data. Going by the same IMF data, the 2025 GDP per capita of Nigeria is a paltry $806.84! In almost all the indicators I have looked at, except for population growth—which speaks to our irresponsible procreation—Cyprus has fared far much better than Nigeria.

Of course, we can debate why and how Nigeria has fared so dismally despite enormous potential. But the real paradox is that while we may not be doing well as a country, many Nigerians are doing well as individuals. Both at home and in the Diaspora. The elephant in the room is leadership at practically all levels and in all spheres, but that is not even my point today. Despite being blessed with abundant human and material resources, we have failed to aggregate the parts into the collective whole, essentially because the accumulation of individual greed far outweighs the collective need. And we are still waiting on God’s help “to build a nation where no man is oppressed.”

As I once wrote on this page, nothing perhaps best illustrates the Nigerian condition than the embedded message in ‘The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas’ which is regarded as one of the best works of literature regarding ethics and society. Published in 1974 by Ursula K. Le Guin in her collection, ‘The Wind’s Twelve Quarters’, the short story is about a beautifully constructed utopian society called Omelas where the prosperity of the people came at the expense of one deprived child locked in a dingy small room. At the coming of age, every citizen of Omelas is confronted with the condition of the child and no matter how well the matter was explained to them, “these young spectators are always shocked and sickened at the sight. They feel disgust, which they had thought themselves superior to. They feel anger, outrage, impotence, despite all the explanations…Yet it is their tears and anger, the trying of their generosity and the acceptance of their helplessness, which are perhaps the true source of the splendour of their lives….”

A major theme in this story, popular in leadership courses, is morality and how different people within a given society react to situations around them. While the citizens of Omelas were quite aware of the child’s deplorable condition, they did nothing. Apparently because their happiness was dependent on his deprivation. Omelas is a good metaphor for Nigeria: To every dysfunction, there are beneficiaries. Unfortunately, that is the tragedy that has bedevilled our nation repeatedly over six and a half decades.

Even though Nigeria retains all the apparatus of a functioning state, it is obvious that the system has been rigged against most of the people. The real tragedy is that Nigerians have perfected the art of detaching themselves from the nation as a shared patrimony. In what has become a culture of self-flagellation, the standard refrain is: ‘Nigeria is a useless country’. In a nation where everybody is pointing fingers and no one accepts responsibility for our failings; it is difficult to engage one another in any meaningful conversation on the way forward.

For us to develop as a society, we must come to that special place where both the government and the people meet in an honest admission of shared responsibility for lost opportunities and the challenge of national retrieval. This convergence requires responsible leadership and patriotic citizenship. But if all we can do is to mouth the self-indicting and hypocritical prayer of ‘may Nigeria not happen to you’, we are not going to build a society that works for all citizens.

Therefore, at 65 years of nationhood, we should spare a thought for our country by stopping to blame ‘Nigeria’ for our self-inflicted woes.

Amala and Gbegiri to the Rescue

With me, Malaria has never been anything to take seriously. Once there is Aboniki balm (stronger than Rub), hot water and a bucket, I am good. For the uninitiated, here is the ‘prescription’: You mix the balm with hot water inside a bucket, and you cover your head with a duvet. The steam you inhale is more potent than Chloroquine. Well, that has always served me until the last bout with Malaria that refused to submit to the ‘Aboniki treatment’. Although I ended up going to the hospital for proper testing and took the prescribed drugs, I was unwell for almost a month. The worst aspect was that I lost my appetite for food. In the process of forcing myself to eat, I would send the driver out to buy whatever food that took my fancy. But it never worked. Until one day!

I called Malik at the Shehu Musa Yar’Adua Centre and asked him to buy for me ‘Amala’ from ‘Iya Oyo’ in Wuye. I didn’t have to tell Malik about ‘Ewedu’ and ‘Gbegiri’ plus plenty of ‘Ponmo’. He knew that already. To cut the story short, for the first time in almost a week, I enjoyed food! And from that moment for the next two weeks, it was ‘Amala’ from ‘Iya Oyo’ every day, until my appetite for food returned. Incidentally, before I fell ill, there was an exchange on X (formerly Twitter) on ‘Amala’. It started when someone posted: “The highly regarded ‘best amala in Lagos’ is tucked away in a tiny spot on an obscure street in Onipanu. My driver and I nearly got lost trying to find it. Got there and saw different types of cars parked in front of this tiny shop just to have some amala. Las las you can do great things from a small place.”

What followed were interesting insights into the various ‘amala joints’ in Lagos by people one would not ordinarily associate with ‘amala’. One guy with the moniker, ‘Your boy Armani’ wrote: “That small place contributes significantly to the aura of that Amala. It won’t be the same anywhere else.” To Hussein Doki Waka, “Entrepreneurs need to realise that the moment you try to modernise an amala joint, it automatically translates to a loss of taste.” Juwon Logistics wagered that ‘Momo Toyin in Onipanu’ and others must be exhibiting what he described as ‘attitude’ before adding, “The more the attitude, the sweeter the amala.”

I found the conversation very insightful, and it got me thinking during my illness, especially after the ‘amala’ from ‘Iya Oyo’ performed the magic on my appetite. What is remarkable about places like this ‘amala spot’ in Onipanu, according to Regina Alachi, a young mentee at the Centre with whom I had an interesting exchange on the issue, is that their refusal to scale is not a business limitation, it is their greatest strategic advantage. As she argued, the owner likely understands something that many entrepreneurs miss: exclusivity creates demand, and scarcity breed desire. I agree with Alachi, who leads the Social Justice and Equity Programme at the Yar’Adua Foundation. When the high and mighty of our society must navigate obscure streets and hunt for parking space for their vehicles just to eat ‘amala’, that experience also becomes part of the product. The inconvenience itself signals authenticity and quality in a way that a gleaming chain restaurant never could.

But it is also true that these ‘amala’ establishments often face what we can call the ‘generational authenticity trap.’ The magic usually lies in the founder’s hands, palate, and relationships. Unlike businesses that can be franchised, the ‘best amala’ in any town probably exists because of one person’s specific technique, ingredient sourcing, or even personality. Succession planning becomes nearly impossible because you cannot systematize intuition or replicate decades of relationship-building. The next generation either lacks the passion for the gruelling work, or they have bigger ambitions.

What is brilliant about this model of ‘amala’ restaurants is how it inverts traditional power structures. Instead of the business chasing customers, powerful people chase the product. Politicians, celebrities, and business moguls become supplicants, waiting in line like everyone else. This creates immense social currency while being “in the know” about such places becomes a mark of authenticity and local credibility. The owner likely doesn’t need to leverage this clientele for expansion because the clientele themselves becomes the marketing engine, and their patronage alone probably generates enough revenue from this single location.

At the end, the beauty is in the restraint, knowing that bigger isn’t always better, and that sometimes the most powerful business strategy is simply being irreplaceably good at one thing in one place. Now, can someone get me a plate of ‘Amala’ from ‘Iya Oyo’ in Wuye?

Credit: Olusegun Adeniyi

BBNaija star Mercy Eke acquires her 3rd home in Lagos (Video)

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) season 4 Reality TV show, known as ‘Pepper Dem’ winner, and a housemate in BBNaija All Stars season, Mercy Eke, has announced the purchase of her third home in Lagos.

The Imo state-born star shared the news on her Instagram page with the caption:

“NEW HOME 🏡🥳😘

This young girl from Imo state owning her 3rd home in Lagos! what a journey, what a blessing. 🙏❤️ Thank you Lord!

Birthday made extra special! 🥂”

See her post below:

View this post on Instagram

Atiku says he will step down if a younger aspirant wins ADC presidential ticket

Posted on October 2, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Atiku resigns from PDP - Businessday NG

Former Nigerian Vice President, Atiku Abubakar has said he will withdraw from the 2027 presidential race if a younger aspirant defeats him to clinch the African Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential ticket.

He stated this in an interview with BBC Hausa published on Wednesday, where he also noted that he would support and mentor such a candidate.

Atiku has been contesting for the presidency of Nigeria since 1993. He has been doing that under various political parties in about six occasions and has also been winning party primary in nearly all of them.

Atiku, however, said he could not confirm whether he would contest the presidency again.

“This is only the beginning. Our priority is to establish the party and gain a strong following,” Atiku said when asked if he would run.

“If I run for office, and a young man defeats me, I will accept that. The party we have joined now prioritises youth and women,” he added.

When asked if there were suspicions that he could abandon the ADC later, Atiku dismissed such insinuations.

“No, I’m not known for that,” he said, shaking his head. “If I say so, then I’ll go that way,” he added, gesturing with his hand that he was “a man of one Qibla.”

We think here that stepping down is not contesting the presidential primary at all. If Atiku has to contest and be defeated, that does not amount to stepping down, it is a defeat at the poll.

Why are Yoruba always the ‘problem’ of Nigeria?, By Bola Bolawole

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Bode Dolu

“And it came to pass, when Ahab saw Elijah, that Ahab said unto him, Art thou he that troubleth Israel? And he answered, I have not troubled Israel; but thou, and thy father’s house…” 1 Kings 18: 17 – 18).

There are occasions when a writer sets out to write one thing but ends up writing another. For me, this is one of such occasions! I have had many in the past, though! This time around, I set out to write on Kemi Badenoch’s differentiation between her being a Nigerian and her Yoruba ancestry. And the title I quickly scribbled down was “Which is higher: Ethnic identity or Nigerian nationality?”

The ruling All Progressives Congress chieftain and CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, started it all when she disclosed that the newly-elected UK Conservative Party leader, Mrs. Kemi Badenoch, snubbed her when she made efforts to congratulate and identify with her on the landmark achievement of being the first black person (and, ostensibly, Nigerian) to be so elected. The floodgate of reactions that followed was varied: Some scolded Abike while others lambasted Kemi.

In response, Badenoch justified her action, saying she was not ready to do Nigeria’s PR; meaning, she did not want Nigeria to piggyback on her to white-wash its stained linen of a “fantastically corrupt” country, as a former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, had described her right to the face of former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was too dumb-founded and subdued to fight back.

Nigeria, being a country of one scandal, one week, everyone thought the matter had died down – thanks to the Dele Farotimi versus Chief Afe Babalola tango – until the vice-president, Kashim Shettima, chose to stir the hornets’ nest again as he lambasted the British Leader of Opposition for “denigrating” her Nigerian identity, sarcastically advising her to renounce her Nigerian name, Kemi!

At that point, the tango became high profile! It also became more interesting! But it was a most unwise thing for Shettima to have done! The spat from the Nigerian side should have been left at the lower level of Abike Dabiri. Jumping into the fray diminishes the person and office of the country’s Number Two citizen. Did Shettima consider the dignity of his office? Again, the question of what level of training in diplomatic etiquette our leaders get comes to the fore.

One such diplomatic gaffe that has refused to go away but appears to have snowballed into the splintering of the ECOWAS (and the collateral damage of the Lukarawa terrorist threat in Nigeria itself), was the hasty and scantily-considered decision taken on the coup leaders of Niger Republic. Don’t we have seasoned professional diplomats any more? Or is it that our leaders don’t listen to robust and informed advice?

Badenoch’s response to Shettima was more dangerous and damaging than the one she offered Abike Dabiri. She minced no words as she emphasized her preference for her Yoruba ancestry, adding, to boot, that she had no affinity with what she described as a North whacked by Islamism and Boko Haram ideology!

Mrs. Badenoch’s full names are Olukemi Olufunto Badenoch (nee Adegoke). She bears no “English” name. She is proudly and unapologetically Yoruba. She has no “Nigerian name” to renounce, if I may add. There are no Nigerian names, anyway, but there are English, Arabic, Yoruba, Igbo, Efik, Ijaw, Tiv, Igala, Hausa, etc names. Are there even Nigerians in the real sense of the word? I doubt if there are! What we have are people pretending, aping and/or hoping to be one! But there are Fulani, Hausa, Tiv, Idoma, Igbo, Yoruba, Ijaw, etc. – all cohabiting in the space or geographical expression called Nigeria – so named by the British colonialists.

In Libya in 1989 on the ticket of Pascal Bafyau’s NLC for the Organization of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU) conference, we met the leader of the Benin Republic delegation who was delighted to hear that we were “Yoruba from Nigeria” Immediately, the language barrier between him and those of us who were Yoruba evaporated. Benin Republic, colonized by the French, speaks French while Nigeria, colonized by the British, speaks English. The moment he asked us if we understood “Anago”, which is what the Yoruba in the French-speaking West African countries call Yoruba, and we replied in the affirmative, we began to flow in the Yoruba language! He was Yoruba from Benin Republic while we were Yoruba from Nigeria.

All across the West Coast where there is a large population of Yoruba (Anago) people, that is how it is! In Europe as well, I met people who never stepped a foot into Nigeria but who described themselves as “Yoruba” from Cuba or Brazil or Jamaica. If you think Yoruba are the only “Nigerians” with this tribal mentality or ethnic consciousness, you are wrong! It spreads across! That was why Buhari as military Head of State voted for a fellow Fulani man from another country at an international forum while snubbing his own fellow Nigerian (of Igbo extraction, if I remember correctly) vying for the same position!

There is no Nigerian in the real sense of the word! The Nigerian nationality remains, at best, a wish; a desire or mere wishful thinking. Efforts, if any, to mesh the various ethnic groups that inhabit the space called Nigeria into a nation have so far ended in calamitous failure.

Taking a cue from Buhari – and why not? – it will be unrealistic of Shettima to expect the average Yoruba person, proud of his or her Yoruba ancestry, just like Olukemi Olutoyin Badenoch (nee Adegoke) is proud of hers, to file behind the VP in his snide remarks about this illustrious daughter of Yoruba land. Take note that she is our daughter! And we shall make our stand with her in our millions!

Now to the point that I originally set out to make! When they think they have got rid – or been rid – of one Yoruba gadfly or “irritant” or the other and that Nigeria can now heave a sigh of relief, another pops up and rears its “ugly” head! Why have the Yoruba been “the main issue (not only) in Nigerian politics” (to quote the military dictator, Gen. Ibrahim Babangida’s definition of Awo) but also the benchmark against whom every detractor and competitor measures their performance?

Herbert Macaulay, a Yoruba man, was the doyen of the nationalist struggle. Obafemi Awolowo was the poster boy of the First Republic. The most radical Nigerian woman in history was Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti. The name that struck most fear in friends and foes alike during the Nigerian Civil War (1967 – 70) was “Black Scorpion” Benjamin Adekunle. The most patriotic, most selfless, and most self-sacrificing Nigerian military officer ever was Francis Adekunle Fajuyi, who chose to die with his boss, the then Head of State, JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi. The first black Nobel Laureate (in Literature), Prof. Wole Soyinka, is Yoruba! Remember, he was detained for years by the government of Yakubu Gowon over his principled and selfless sympathy for the Igbo (Biafra) during the civil war!

Now, when we come to the theatre of the radicals and “hot-heads”, the Yoruba also lead, beginning, again, with the same Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, who led the Egba women to chase the Alake of Egbaland out of his palace. What of her son, the irrepressible Fela Anikulapo-Kuti? Or his younger brother, Beko? Alao Aka-Bashorun was the first radical NBA president. What of Tunji Braithwaite and Kanmi Ishola-Osobu who followed in his footsteps? We can mention Tai Solarin. What of the stormy petrel himself, Chief Gani Fawehinmi? We can mention a string of NADECO leaders who fought the military to a standstill – Adekunle Ajasin, Abraham Adesanya, among others! And with the death of Gani, enters Femi Falana!

The only free and fair elections accepted as such by everyone was won by MKO Abiola, a Yoruba man. When Fulani herdsmen ran riot all over the country, the only governor daring enough to look them and President Buhari straight in the face was Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State. Where angels feared to tread; what Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari ran away from is what Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu is tackling with uncommon courage and confidence.

Now, Dele Farotimi, the man who has volunteered that his head be used to crack the coconut of the malfeasance that we all know has enveloped the Nigerian state in its entirety, is Yoruba. The Yoruba stood up like one man and fought for the actualization of June 12. As if the raging Dele Farotimi tsunami was not enough, the Kemi Badenoch hurricane joined the fray!

What is in the DNA of the Yoruba that makes them selfless warriors for the common good, regardless of whose ox is gored and not minding the danger to self; making someone to ask: “Why are you people (the Yoruba) always the problem of Nigeria”? I can not claim to have the answer! Is it in the water that our ancestors drank and which has been passed on from generations unto generations? Or will the answer be found in ourQ “Omoluwabi” ethos? One thing is certain, though: Nigeria is not likely to enjoy respite until the troublers of the virtues and principles that the Yoruba hold dear cease their invidious activities!

I need help!

Are you wondering, what help? Yes, because it is very much unlike me. Sixty-eight-year-old Anthony Isidahomen suffers from a heart condition and needs to urgently undergo surgery. His entire family attended my parish before he relocated to the village. He functioned dutifully as an usher while his daughter till date is the Assistant Choir Leader. His wife was a dutiful motivator in the Good women group. This is very, very urgent. Kindly private chat me if you have a leading in this direction: 0803 251 0193, 0705 263 1058 (also WhatsApp).

Credit: Bola Bolawole

Afrobeats diva, Tems becomes first Nigerian female artist to sell over 10 million units in US

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Bode Dolu

I've never had a Boyfriend in my life - Tems

Afrobeats diva, Grammy-winning Nigerian singer, songwriter, and record producer, Temilade Openiyi, popularly known as Tems, has made history as the first female Nigerian artist to have a single sell over 10 million units in the United States.

The milestone was confirmed on Tuesday, September 30, 2025, by Chart Data on X (formerly Twitter), which announced that “WAIT FOR U”, her collaborative hit with Future and Drake, had officially surpassed the 10 million sales mark in the US.

The track, which also earned Tems a Grammy Award for Best Melodic Rap Performance, marks another major step in her global career.

She also became the first African female artist to reach one billion streams on Spotify, reinforcing her growing dominance in the international music scene.

Tems rose to global recognition in 2020 after featuring on Wizkid’s hit single “Essence”, which broke into the Billboard Hot 100 and earned multiple Grammy nominations. She began her career in 2018 with her debut single “Mr Rebel.”

Tinubu’s 65th Independence Day speech to Nigerians (Full text)

Posted on October 1, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Nigeria@64: Tinubu's Independence anniversary speech

Fellow Nigerians,

Today marks the 65th anniversary of our great nation’s Independence. As we reflect on the significance of this day and our journey of nationhood since October 1, 1960, when our founding fathers accepted the instruments of self-government from colonial rule, let us remember their sacrifice, devotion, and grand dream of a strong, prosperous, and united Nigeria that will lead Africa and be the beacon of light to the rest of the world.

Our founding heroes and heroines—Herbert Macaulay, Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello, Margaret Ekpo, Anthony Enahoro, Ladoke Akintola, Michael Okpara, Aminu Kano, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, and other nationalists—believed it was Nigeria’s manifest destiny to lead the entire black race as the largest black nation on earth.

For decades, the promise of our Independence has been tested by profound social, economic, and political challenges, and we have survived. While we may not have achieved all the lofty dreams of our forebearers, we have not strayed too far from them. In 65 years since our Independence, we have made tremendous progress in economic growth, social cohesion, and physical development. Our economy has experienced significant growth since 1960.

Although it is much easier for those whose vocation is to focus solely on what ought to be, we must recognise and celebrate our significant progress. Nigerians today have access to better education and healthcare than iin 1960. At Independence, Nigeria had 120 secondary schools with a student population of about 130,000. Available data indicate that, as of year 2024, there were more than 23,000 secondary schools in our country. At Independence, we had only the University of Ibadan and Yaba College of Technology as the two tertiary institutions in Nigeria. By the end of last year, there were 274 universities, 183 Polytechnics, and 236 Colleges of Education in Nigeria, comprising Federal, State, and private institutions. We have experienced a significant surge in growth across every sector of our national life since Independence – in healthcare, infrastructure, financial services, manufacturing, telecommunications, information technology, aviation and defence, among others.

Our country has experienced both the good and the bad times in its 65 years of nationhood, as is normal for every nation and its people. We fought a bitter and avoidable civil war, experienced military dictatorships, and lived through major political crises. In all these, we weathered every storm and overcame every challenge with courage, grit, and uncommon determination. While our system and ties that bind us are sometimes stretched by insidious forces opposed to our values and ways of life, we continue to strive to build a more perfect union where every Nigerian can find better accommodation and find purpose and fulfilment.

Fellow Compatriots, this is the third time I will address you on our independence anniversary since I assumed office as your President on May 29, 2023. In the last 28 months of my administration, like our founding fathers and leaders who came before me, I have committed myself irrevocably to the unfinished nation-building business.

Upon assuming office, our administration inherited a near-collapsed economy caused by decades of fiscal policy distortions and misalignment that had impaired real growth. As a new administration, we faced a simple choice: continue business as usual and watch our nation drift, or embark on a courageous, fundamental reform path. We chose the path of reform. We chose the path of tomorrow over the comfort of today. Less than three years later, the seeds of those difficult but necessary decisions are bearing fruit.

In resetting our country for sustainable growth, we ended the corrupt fuel subsidies and multiple foreign exchange rates that created massive incentives for a rentier economy, benefiting only a tiny minority. At the same time, the masses received little or nothing from our Commonwealth. Our administration has redirected the economy towards a more inclusive path, channelling money to fund education, healthcare, national security, agriculture, and critical economic infrastructure, such as roads, power, broadband, and social investment programmes. These initiatives will generally improve Nigerians’ quality of life. As a result of the tough decisions we made, the Federal and State governments, including Local Governments, now have more resources to take care of the people at the lower level of the ladder, to address our development challenges.

Fellow Nigerians, we are racing against time. We must build the roads we need, repair the ones that have become decrepit, and construct the schools our children will attend and the hospitals that will care for our people. We have to plan for the generations that will come after us. We do not have enough electricity to power our industries and homes today, or the resources to repair our deteriorating roads, build seaports, railroads, and international airports comparable to the best in the world, because we failed to make the necessary investments decades ago. Our administration is setting things right.

I am pleased to report that we have finally turned the corner. The worst is over, I say. Yesterday’s pains are giving way to relief. I salute your endurance, support, and understanding. I will continue to work for you and justify the confidence you reposed in me to steer the ship of our nation to a safe harbour.

Under our leadership, our economy is recovering fast, and the reforms we started over two years ago are delivering tangible results. The second quarter 2025 Gross Domestic Product grew by 4.23%—Nigeria’s fastest pace in four years—and outpaced the 3.4 per cent projected by the International Monetary Fund. Inflation declined to 20.12% in August 2025, the lowest level in three years. The administration is working diligently to boost agricultural production and ensure food security, reducing food costs.

In the last two years of our administration, we have achieved 12 remarkable economic milestones as a result of the implementation of our sound fiscal and monetary policies:

We have attained a record-breaking increase in non-oil revenue, achieving the 2025 target by August with over N20 trillion. In September 2025 alone, we raised N3.65 trillion, 411% higher than the amount raised in May 2023.

We have restored Fiscal Health: Our debt service-to-revenue ratio has been significantly reduced from 97% to below 50%. We have paid down the infamous “Ways and Means” advances that threatened our economic stability and triggered inflation. Following the removal of the corrupt petroleum subsidy, we have freed up trillions of Naira for targeted investment in the real economy and social programmes for the most vulnerable, as well as all tiers of government.

We have a stronger foreign Reserve position than three years ago. Our external reserves increased to $42.03 billion this September—the highest since 2019.

Our tax-to-GDP ratio has risen to 13.5 per cent from less than 10 per cent. The ratio is expected to increase further when the new tax law takes effect in January. The tax law is not about increasing the burden on existing taxpayers but about expanding the base to build the Nigeria we deserve and providing tax relief to low-income earners.

We are now a Net Exporter: Nigeria has recorded a trade surplus for five consecutive quarters. We are now selling more to the world than we are buying, a fundamental shift that strengthens our currency and creates jobs at home. Nigeria’s trade surplus increased by 44.3% in Q2 2025 to ₦7.46 trillion ($4.74 billion), the largest in about three years. Goods manufactured in Nigeria and exported jumped by 173%. Non-oil exports, as a component of our export trade, now represent 48 per cent, compared to oil exports, which account for 52 per cent. This signals that we are diversifying our economy and foreign exchange sources outside oil and gas.

Oil production rebounded to 1.68 million barrels per day from barely one million in May 2023. The increase occurred due to improved security, new investments, and better stakeholder management in the Niger Delta. Furthermore, the country has made notable advancements by refining PMS domestically for the first time in four decades. It has also established itself as the continent’s leading exporter of aviation fuel.

The Naira has stabilised from the turbulence and volatility witnessed in 2023 and 2024. The gap between the official rate and the unofficial market has reduced substantially, following FX reforms and fresh capital and remittance inflows. The multiple exchange rates, which fostered corruption and arbitrage, are now part of history. Additionally, our currency rate against the dollar is no longer determined by fluctuations in crude oil prices.

Under the social investment programme to support poor households and vulnerable Nigerians, N330 billion has been disbursed to eight million households, many of whom have received either one or two out of the three tranches of the N25,000 each.

Coal mining recovered dramatically from a 22% decline in Q1 to 57.5% growth in Q2, becoming one of Nigeria’s fastest-growing sectors. The solid mineral sector is now pivotal in our economy, encouraging value-added production of minerals extracted from our soil.

The administration is expanding transport infrastructure across the country, covering rail, roads, airports, and seaports. Rail and water transport grew by over 40% and 27%, respectively. The 284-kilometre Kano-Kastina-Maradi Standard Gauge rail project and the Kaduna-Kano rail line are nearing completion. Work is progressing well on the legacy Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway and Sokoto-Badagry Highway. The Federal Executive Council recently approved $3 billion to complete the Eastern Rail Project.

The world is taking notice of our efforts. Sovereign credit rating agencies have upgraded their outlook for Nigeria, recognising our improved economic fundamentals. Our stock market is experiencing an unprecedented boom, rising from an all-share index of 55,000 points in May 2003 to 142,000 points as of September 26, 2025.

At its last MPC meeting, the Central Bank slashed interest rates for the first time in five years, expressing confidence in our country’s macroeconomic stability.

SECURITY:

We are working diligently to enhance national security, ensuring our economy experiences improved growth and performance. The officers and men of our armed forces and other security agencies are working tirelessly and making significant sacrifices to keep us safe. They are winning the war against terrorism, banditry and other violent crimes. We see their victories in their blood and sweat to stamp out Boko Haram Terror in North-East, IPOB/ESN terror in South East and banditry and kidnapping. We must continue to celebrate their gallantry and salute their courage on behalf of a grateful nation. Peace has returned to hundreds of our liberated communities in North-West and North-East, and thousands of our people have returned safely to their homes.

YOUTH:

I have a message for our young people. You are the future and the greatest assets of this blessed country. You must continue to dream big, innovate, and conquer more territories in your various fields of science, technology, sports, and the art and creative sector. Our administration, through policies and funding, will continue to give you wings to fly sky-high. We created NELFUND to support students with loans for their educational pursuits. Approximately 510,000 students across 36 states and the FCT have benefited from this initiative, covering 228 higher institutions. As of September 10, the total loan disbursed was N99.5 billion, while the upkeep allowance stood at N44.7 billion.

Credicorp, another initiative of our administration, has granted 153,000 Nigerians N30 billion affordable loans for vehicles, solar energy, home upgrades, digital devices, and more.

YouthCred, which I promised last June, is a reality, with tens of thousands of NYSC members now active beneficiaries of consumer credit for resettlement.

Under our Renewed Hope Agenda, we promised to build a Nigeria where every young person, regardless of background, has an equitable opportunity to access a better future—thus, the Investment in Digital and Creative Enterprises (iDICE) programme. The Bank of Industry is driving the programme, in collaboration with the African Development Bank, the French Development Agency, and the Islamic Development Bank. This initiative is at the cusp of implementation. Over the last two years, we have collaborated with our partners to launch the programme, supporting our young builders and dreamers in the technology and creative sectors.

A MESSAGE OF HOPE

Fellow Nigerians, I have always candidly acknowledged that these reforms have come with some temporary pains. The biting effects of inflation and the rising cost of living remain a significant concern to our government. However, the alternative of allowing our country to descend into economic chaos or bankruptcy was not an option. Our macro-economic progress has proven that our sacrifices have not been in vain. Together, we are laying a new foundation cast in concrete, not on quicksand.

The accurate measure of our success will not be limited to economic statistics alone, but rather in the food on our families’ tables, the quality of education our children receive, the electricity in our homes, and the security in our communities. Let me assure you of our administration’s determination to ensure that the resources we have saved and the stability we have built are channelled into these critical areas. Today, the governors at the state level, and the local government autonomy are yielding more developments.

Therefore, on this 65th Anniversary of Our Independence, my message is hope and a call to action. The federal government will continue to do its part to fix the plumbing in our economy. Now, we must all turn on the taps of productivity, innovation, and enterprise, just like the Ministry of Interior has done with our travel passports, by quickening the processing. In this regard, I urge the sub-national entities to join us in nation-building. Let us be a nation of producers, not just consumers. Let us farm our land and build factories to process our produce. Let us patronise ‘Made-in-Nigeria’ goods. I say Nigeria first. Let us pay our taxes.

Finally, let all hands be on deck. Let us believe, once more, in the boundless potential of our great nation.

With Almighty God on our side, I can assure you that the dawn of a new, prosperous, self-reliant Nigeria is here.

Happy 65th Independence Anniversary, and may God continue to bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Amen.

The Third Coming Of Rashidi Ladoja, By Reuben Abati

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Bode Dolu

On September 26, 2025, Senator Rashidi Ladoja, precisely a day after his 81st birthday was crowned the 44th Olubadan of Ibadanland to succeed Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, the 43rd Olubadan who passed in July 2025. This may well be described as Senator Ladoja’s third momentous coming on the stage of Nigerian politics, and some may even say fourth, but I prefer the word third, given the circumstances of the Ladoja story in the public arena. Very few persons have had the luck of any achievement at all, making it remarkable that anyone would enjoy the privilege of continuous self-reinvention as Senator Ladoja. His first foray into public consciousness as a politician was as a Senator representing Oyo South in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria between 1992 -1993 on the platform of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). This was Nigeria’s short-lived Third Republic, the kangaroo quasi-democratic arrangement put in place by the administration of General Ibrahim Babangida, who became a self-styled President while wearing the military toga.

Nigeria’s Third Republic was an exercise in grand deception, bound to fail as it were, ending with the annulment of the June 12, 1993 Presidential election won by Bashorun MKO Abiola. Ladoja’s contemporaries in the Senate included Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu (from Lagos West, now Nigerian President), the colourful Senator Chuba Okadigbo from Anambra North, Ameh Ebute (Benue South), Iyorchia Ayu (Benue North West who served as Senate President), Ali Modu Sheriff (Borno Central) Liyel Imoke (Cross River Central), Anthony Adefuye (Lagos East), Jubril Martins Kuye (Ogun East) , Wande Abimbola (Oyo Central) and Kofoworola Bucknor Akerele (Lagos Central) – notably the only female Senator in that Senate. The Third Republic was aborted on November 17, 1993. The highlight of that period was the June 12 crisis, the exit of General Babangida on August 23, 1993, the emergence of an Interim National Government led by Chief Ernest Shonekan, and the General Sani Abacha coup of November 1993. The newly coronated Olubadan was part of that story, now told in varying details by both historians and revisionists after the fact.

In May 2003, Senator Ladoja returned to the limelight as the elected Governor of Oyo State, now on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). The high point of this return was how Ladoja eventually became the poster boy for the evil of Godfatherism in Nigerian politics. His Godfather was Chief Lamidi Ariyibi Adedibu, the stormy petrel of Ibadan politics, the one and only exponent of “Amala politics” who insisted that he deserved to be given 15% of the funds meant for local councils on a monthly basis, he having installed Ladoja as Governor. Ladoja refused. He did not have the support of his party either at the state or national level. Adedibu was such a formidable political figure he had the eyes and ears of Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who was President at the time. Obasanjo called him “the father of PDP”. He was also known as “the strongman of Ibadan politics”, and “Alaafin Molete.” On January 12, 2006, Ladoja was impeached by Oyo state legislators, and removed from office. This was the age of political Godfathers in Nigerian politics, and it is instructive that the Godfathers are still alive and kicking, even far more sophisticated today, as we have seen in the contemporary cases of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Lagos. A year before Ladoja’s removal, Diepreye Alamieyeseigha had been removed as Governor of Bayelsa state in December 2005, and after him, Ayo Fayose received the same treatment in Ekiti state in October 2006, Peter Obi in Anambra in November 2006, Joshua Dariye in Plateau, November 2006. Ladoja tested the limits of the law on the issue of impeachment. He went to court all the way to the Supreme Court of Nigeria to seek justice. In November 2006, his impeachment was declared null and void, and he was reinstated as Governor of Oyo State on December 12, 2006.

Ladoja may have beaten the Godfather to his game, but he never occupied the centre in Ibadan politics thereafter. He lost his bid for PDP nomination ahead of the 2007 gubernatorial election and over the years, he moved from one political party to the other: Accord Party (2010 – 2017), African Democratic Congress (2018) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) (2018), with a brief flirtation with the Action Congress (AC) in-between. In the course of his political journey, he was once arrested by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and remanded in prison.

On this third coming, Senator, Engineer Rashidi Adewolu Ladoja is the 44th Olubadan. He is a product of destiny and experience, and his latest achievement is probably what fate has brought to him, unlike the various battles he has had to fight in the past. The people of Ibadan run a Republican, structured system of ascension to the throne through hierarchy, seniority and promotion. It is a strict rotational, merit-based succession line on two tracks: the Balogun line and the Otun civil line, and any man can only become king after ascending the ladder of authority which is about 22 stages on the Otun line and 23 on the Balogun, military line. The state government tried to tamper with this with the Ibadanland Chieftaincy Declaration of 2017. The most senior chief on either of the two lines ascends the throne when it becomes vacant, an orderly system that shuts out any controversy or legal tussles as seen in other communities where succession to the throne is usually a struggle among ruling houses. Kabiyesi Ladoja is from the Otun (Egbe Agba) line. His successor will come from the Balogun line. Long may he reign.

The Ibadans run a transparent and accountable system: every Mogaji (that is family head) stays on the queue, every Ibadan son who becomes a family head is a potential Olubadan, and can only be eliminated by death. Thus, in the Ibadan system, the order and line of succession is predictable, to the extent that future Olubadans know themselves, if they are lucky to be preserved by destiny. Ibadan, originally “Eba Odan” was a community founded in the 18th century as a war camp, which grew to become a strategic political and military power in the Yoruba civil wars of the 19th century as reported elaborately in War and Peace in Yorubaland 1793 -1893 by Adeagbo Akinjogbin (ed.). The Ibadan army fought prominently in the Osogbo War (1840), in fact they are credited with having stopped the Fulani Jihad army seeking to dip the Koran in the Atlantic Ocean, thus saving Yorubaland. They were also on duty in the Ibadan-Ijaye War (1862), the Kiriji/Ekitiparapo war (1877- 1893), the Jalumi War (1878). The children of Lagelu, the acclaimed founder of Ibadan, descendants of Oluyole, were also strong military mercenaries who fought on the side of other communities that called on them for help. Ibadan indeed became a major political centre after the fall of the Oyo Empire. But the same Ibadan army would later become oppressive, expansive and territorial under Aare Latoosa and his agents called Ajeles and Baba Kekeres, leading to the 15-year Ekitiparapo revolt, but that is another story about how other Yoruba communities, forming a confederate army, saved themselves from Ibadan tyranny.

The people of Ibadan are still in a celebratory mood with the emergence of their 44th traditional ruler. It would be in bad taste to seize the occasion to remind them of the sordid aspects of their past history, as they look to the future, with the emergence of Senator Rashidi Ladoja as their king. He follows in the line of most modern kings that the Ibadans have had in recent times. Indeed, in general, even with a non-hereditary system in place, the preference in Ibadan as is the case elsewhere has been for educated traditional rulers who are prepared for the challenges of a modern dispensation. The late Oba Owolabi Olakulehin, the 43rd Olubadan was a graduate of the Yaba College of Technology. He retired as a Major in the Nigerian Army. He was also a politician – member of the House of Representatives (Ibadan South East) in 1992 and an entrepreneur. Before him, the 42ndOlubadan, Senator Lekan Balogun was a Ph.D holder, Senator of the Federal Republic (1999 – 2003), a former university teacher, author and educationist. The latest Olubadan is just as distinguished. He has a degree in Engineering. He is a polyglot. He has been in the private sector, politics, entrepreneurship and he has a strong network that will benefit his Ibadan people. He was honoured last week by a broad spectrum of Nigerians, not out of a sense of duty, but in recognition of his personal accomplishments, and in celebration of the junction that he has reached. Mr. Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra and Labour Party Presidential candidate, referred to him as “my dear elder brother”. Some people are losing sleep over that. I do not see their point. Obi and Ladoja were Governors about the same period, they are brothers in that sense. Besides, referring to an 81-year-old as a brother is not a crime, in some other circumstances, this writer would call a 100-year-old man a brother and it would be considered acceptable. Brothers are most worthy persons. It is a term of endearment, respect and honour. The brotherhood of man is about the highest level of engagement.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was at Mapo Hall to honour and celebrate King Ladoja. He was there as a friend, brother and as Nigerian President. Ladoja and Tinubu used to sit in Nigeria’s Senate at the same time. One is President today, the other is now “kinging” to borrow a Nigerian phrase. Beyond the niceties, Tinubu told the Ibadan crowd that “the economy has turned a corner… The economy has returned to a moment of growth and prosperity.” He can say that to the World Bank and the IMF, those hit-men groups, who seem to lap up everything Nigeria’s obedient government says or tells them. The reality is that the growth and prosperity that the President speaks about exists only in the imaginations of Aso Villa and the funny scripts of Nigeria’s economic managers. Nigerians are in pains. They are overburdened. The only people that are enjoying prosperity are the state Governors and the men in power who chase us off the roads with their siren-blaring convoys and their uniformed men who terrorise citizens, shooting and killing at will, while armed robbers, insurgents and terrorists run amok, killing the innocent, abbreviating dreams. Armed robbers just killed an innocent Arise News anchor in Katampe, Abuja. Very sad. PENGASSAN, the Union of Oil and Gas workers, is determined to sabotage the economy. They are shutting down energy supply to every Nigerian simply because they disagree with Dangote Refinery. President Tinubu cannot boast at this time about growth and prosperity. He must stand up and chest out and address the various ills that afflict us.

In Ibadan. Oba Ladoja says that he will be the king of everybody be they Muslims or Christians, king of all religions. He does not quite have an option in the matter. The rotational structure of Ibadanland’s monarchy simply means that at one time or the other, a Christian or a Muslim can become the Olubadan. “We are all governing Ibadan”, Ladoja said. “I’m just the co-ordinator. You people are the small Olubadan; I’m the big Olubadan… I’m Olubadan for all.” These are very humble, reassuring words. But the Olubadan should remember the words of his old adversary, President Olusegun Obasanjo who congratulated and advised him to separate tradition and politics. He should heed that advice.

The emergence on the throne across the country of an emerging generation of experienced, skillful, well-exposed traditional rulers should return us to the old debate about a role for traditional rulers in Nigeria’s constitutional arrangement. Nigeria’s modern traditional rulers are better educated, influential and experienced. Many of them are very young people who take to the throne because they want to secure family traditions. They represent a reserve army at the grassroots level that can be deployed more meaningfully. They are a store of valuable grassroots energy. In the First Republic, Nigeria had a House of Chiefs, a non-elective legislative chamber in the regions, analogous to the British House of Lords. The problem is that some of the traditional rulers got too involved in politics with serious, historical consequences – the Olowo of Owo, Olateru-Olagbegi, the Odemo of Isara, Samuel Akinsanya and the Ooni of Ife, Sir Adesoji Tadeniawo Aderemi. Notwithstanding, it is an idea that can be tried again to connect the local levels with the regions and the centres.

Credit: Reuben Abati

Nigerian extradited from Poland to US over multimillion dollar fraud

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Office of Public Affairs, U.S. Department of Justice

United States Department of Justice (DOJ) on Monday said that a 43-year-old Nigerian, Tochuwku Nnebocha, has been extradited from the Republic of Poland to face federal charges for operating a transnational criminal organisation that defrauded elderly Americans of millions of dollars.

The DOJ disclosed this in a statement issued and posted on its website on Monday.

Based on the DOJ’s statement, Nnebocha, who has been in custody in Poland since his arrest in April 2025, made his initial appearance in federal court in Miami, Florida, following his arrest by Polish authorities based on an indictment filed in the Southern District of Florida.

The court documents obtained by the DOJ stated that Nnebocha is charged with operating an inheritance fraud scheme spanning more than five years.

He and his accomplices allegedly sent personalised letters to elderly consumers in the US, falsely claiming that the recipients were entitled to multimillion-dollar inheritances from deceased relatives in Spain.

It was said that victims were instructed to pay delivery fees, taxes, or other payments to avoid questioning by government authorities before they could receive their supposed inheritance.

“Victims who sent money never received any of the purported inheritance funds.

“The payments were routed through a complex network of US-based former victims, who were manipulated into forwarding money to the defendants or their associates,” DOJ stated.

Nnebocha faces charges including conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, as well as mail and wire fraud. If convicted, he could face a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

Other defendants, Okezie Bonaventure Ogbata, extradited from Portugal, and Ehis Lawrence Akhimie, extradited from the United Kingdom, have previously pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 97 months in prison for their roles in the scheme.

Logo: US Department of Justice

Arise TV female anchor tragically killed in armed robbery incident

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Arise TV correspodent, Sommie

In a statement obtained from its X handle, the Arise News Channel has mourned the tragic loss of a young journalist, Somtochukwu Maduagwu, who died in the early hours of Monday, September 29, following a violent armed robbery at her residence in the Katampe area of Abuja.

The 29-year-old broadcaster, affectionately known as Sommie, was a respected news anchor, reporter, and producer who had become a familiar and trusted face to viewers across the country.

The statement read: “It is with heavy hearts that the management and staff of the ARISE News Channel announce the passing of our beloved colleague, News Anchor, Reporter, and Producer, Somtochukwu Christelle Maduagwu. Sommie tragically passed away in the early hours of Monday, September 29, 2025, following an armed robbery incident in her residence in the Katampe area of Abuja that is being investigated by the Nigeria Police.

“Sommie, 29, was not only a cherished member of the ARISE News family but also a vibrant voice that engaged and connected with our viewers.

“Beyond the airwaves, Sommie was a lawyer who was a professional and supportive colleague and a friend to many.

“We extend our deepest condolences to Sommie’s parents, siblings, extended family, friends, and loved ones at this difficult time. Sommie’s voice is now silent, but her spirit, passion, and legacy will endure as part of our collective memory. We remain in shock and call for a speedy investigation, apprehension, and prosecution of the culprits.”

Hobbes, Nigeria, and Sarkozy, By Lasisi Olagunju

Posted on September 30, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Balling with Bola Tinubu at 73, By Lasisi Olagunju

In the early 1940s, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the hugely popular Sardauna of Sokoto, found himself at a crossroads of politics and rivalry. After losing the contest for the Sultanate of Sokoto to his long-standing rival, Sir Abubakar III, he was appointed emirate councillor and superordinate district head of Gusau in Sokoto Province. The posting, however, came with what he would later describe in his autobiography as “not lacking dark undertones and hidden motives.”

The shadow over his new position darkened in 1943. One day in the afternoon, a friend arrived with a troubling warning: Bello’s enemies were plotting his fall.

The man said: “Look, a plot is being arranged against you, so that you will fall into an inescapable trap.”

“What sort of a plot?” Ahmadu Bello said he asked the friend. He went on to say that “people were being organised to lay complaints against me so that I would be involved in a court case. I replied, ‘Tawakkaltu Alal Haiyil Lazi Layamutu (I depend on the Soul that never dies).’ A week later, I heard some Fulani (herdsmen) were being told to say that they paid cattle tax to me which never went into the treasury.” He was also accused of accepting gifts. The allegations quickly became a weapon in the hands of his rival, the Sultan. “After necessary investigations by an instigated administrative officer who was specially sent for the purpose, I was summoned to appear before the Sultan’s Court. I was tried and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.” Bello recalled in his autobiography years later: “Knowing my own reputation and standards and the way the case was tried, I appealed to the Appeal Court. The learned Judge (Mr. Ames), with two Muslim jurists, allowed my appeal and I was therefore acquitted.”

He got back his freedom, but that experience signposted an example of what politics could throw at any of its practitioners, no matter the height of their standing. Bello’s experience was an early taste of the trials and political intrigues that would mark his rise to prominence in the years ahead. Read ‘My Life’, Sardauna’s autobiography. Read ‘Ahmadu Bello: Sardauna of Sokoto’ by John N. Paden, page 119. Read Chapter 2 of Steven Pierce’s ‘Moral Economies of Corruption.’

You saw what happened in France last week. Seventy-year-old Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison by a Paris court. There is a lot of fun in watching tragedies. Some courts are crazy. The man they jailed was the Commander-in-Chief of a superpower. He wielded veto powers at the United Nations and rubbed shoulders with the president of the Almighty United States. He did not kill, he did not rape. Even if he killed and raped, didn’t he have everlasting immunity from being treated like a common commoner? His crime was not even looting of his country’s treasury. His sin was criminal conspiracy in a scheme to secure campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. What kind of crime was that?

Reuters reported that “the presiding judge said there was no proof Sarkozy made such a deal with Gaddafi, nor that money that was sent from Libya reached Sarkozy’s campaign coffers, even if the timing was “compatible” and the paths the money went through were “very opaque”. But she (the judge) said Sarkozy was guilty of criminal conspiracy for having let close aides get in touch with people in Libya to try and obtain campaign financing.”

Why would the president of a first-world country be so broke as to go to North Africa for a bailout? The central bank of France is called the Banque de France (Bank of France). Don’t they print money there? Wasn’t Sarkozy the one who reappointed Christian Noyer as the governor of that bank? So, what happened that Noyer allowed his benefactor to be that exposed and hard pressed that he had to go beg Ghadafi, the ultimate sinner, for campaign funds? What is even bad in collecting money, even from Satan? What kind of law and judicial system did that to a benefactor of their country?

Sarkozy should have been a Nigerian. If he were a Nigerian, our courts would have scolded the prosecutor for being rude to the father of the nation. We would have told him sorry and compensated him with a comeback from retirement and a third term.

Nigeria can never be France. A country where people love life and fear death more than they fear hell is a doomed state. Nigeria is caught in that loop. We have long abandoned the fear of sin and hellfire. We mock morality, twist God’s words, and purchase prayers to sanctify our iniquities. Yet, while trampling on conscience, we go to great lengths to stay alive. We act with impunity, but move about with convoys of armed men so we may live to enjoy the spoils of our recklessness. We wreck healthcare at home and pile money into hospitals abroad against the day when sickness comes calling. We sin, we revel, and we rock the world. We move freely with sinful steeze without consequence, without judgment. Sarkozy should have been a Nigerian; he would have been saved the insult of that Paris trial and conviction.

I am not the originator of the contrast between fearing death and fearing hell. A man called Thomas Hobbes saw it centuries ago and wrote it down. Hobbes lived from 5 April 1588 to 4 December 1679. At his death, he was described as “greater in his foes than in his followers.” He is the same man who, in his social contract book ‘Leviathan’, famously declared that without law and order, life collapses into fear and violence; and, in his words, it becomes “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Times change, people change. Hobbes observed that in his own age the fear of hell outweighed the fear of violent death. Religion then carried such weight that eternal damnation was a stronger restraint on conduct than the threat of sword or sentence. Men trembled more at the thought of sinning against God’s commandment than at the prospect of breaking the law. Religion and politics worked hand in hand to uphold order.

But that was Hobbes’s time. Today, the opposite holds sway. And that inversion explains the brazenness of misbehaviour around us. When men cease to fear God, and hell (the consequence of sin), they also cease to fear what the Yoruba call Àtubòtán; they disdain legacy, and numb conscience. Their only terror is not afterlife; it is just death, and, maybe, poverty and loss of privilege. And so, to prolong their lives and cling to power, they kill, they silence critics, they loot without restraint. The loss of a soul is, to them, an abstraction; but the loss of office and privileges is real, immediate, unbearable.

I go back to Hobbes; he was right: fear shapes society. But when the wrong fear governs, politics mutates into predation, and the polity collapses into a jungle. Nigeria suffers that fate. We are ruled by men who worship power and fear coffins more than they fear God. Until that fear is reordered, until conscience returns as a brake on ambition, no constitution or law will be strong enough to restrain leaders who no longer believe that God is watching.

Back to Sarkozy, Western media described his fate as “a historic moment for modern France”, a nation where politicians, until last week, sinned while sneering at the idea of punishment. The media said Sarkozy, who served as president between 2007 and 2012, was known for his hard line on immigration and national identity, and for championing harsher punishments for offenders. He must now prepare to face the same fate. Judges ruled that within months he will report to prison, making him the first former French president in modern history ordered to serve time behind bars.

It was, as The Guardian of UK put it, “a spectacular downfall and a turning point” in France’s struggle to deal with graft and political impunity. Sarkozy sat in court flanked by his wife, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, and his three sons as judges delivered a sentence laced with a message: Thomas Fuller’s words of almost four hundred years ago, “Be ye never so high, the law is above you.”

France has shown that even the mighty can crumble under the weight of justice. Nigeria, by contrast, keeps teaching its politicians that what sin has is not consequence but reward. Until our courts can frighten the powerful as much as our cemeteries do, Hobbes’s warning will remain our reality: life in this jungle will stay poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

Credit: Lasisi Olagunju

Waiting for the Next INEC Chairperson, By Simon Kolawole

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Bode Dolu

How can election results become more credible and acceptable in Nigeria? If you ask five Nigerians, three will tell you an upright chief executive must be appointed for the Independent National Electoral Commission, better known as INEC. The pervasive opinion is that the most important factor in credible elections is the character of the person at the helm of affairs at INEC. That is probably why the country is waiting with bated breath for the successor to Prof Mahmood Yakubu, who is serving his last days as the chairman of the commission. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is expected to nominate the next INEC chair soon. The nominee will then undergo senate confirmation hearing.

Yakubu was first appointed for a five-year term by President Muhammadu Buhari in October 2015. He then created a world record with his re-appointment in 2020, becoming the first electoral boss to get a second term and, accordingly, the longest serving. Being electoral boss for 10 years is unheard of in Nigeria. There is now a big debate on where the next INEC chair should come from: north or south? Until Jega was appointed in 2010, no northerner had held the position. It had always been southerners. Jonathan broke the unwritten rule by going up north. Jega was succeeded by Yakubu, also a northerner. No wonder, where the next chairperson will come from is a big topic of debate.

Describing the INEC seat as one of the hottest in Nigeria should be officially classified as the “Understatement of the Year”. Nobody occupies that seat without getting a negative review — except from election winners. Those who lose typically demonise the chairman. Yakubu’s predecessor, Prof Attahiru Jega, was demonised by those who lost in 2011 and lionised by the same set of people in 2015 when they won. Those who lionised him in 2011 — after winning — ended up demonising him in 2015 after losing. That is the way we roll. An election is only free, fair and credible when you win. When you lose, it is the worst election in Nigeria’s history. Know that, know peace.

Back to the question: how can election results become more credible? There is no doubt that the leadership of the electoral commission is critical. While it is true that all electoral chiefs come under criticism over one misgiving or the other, some have definitely conducted themselves worse than the others. We have had chairmen who shamelessly interfered with the process and imposed candidates on parties. One told the media he could not allow a particular candidate “to be governor of my state”. We had one who declared a winner while collation of results was going on and mocked the opposition for objecting to it. He said they did not even print posters or campaign nationwide.

While the character of the INEC head is important, the competence is also vital. Without that, the commission will fail. The general election is conducted in 176,846 polling units across the 36 states of the federation and the FCT. In a country with severe infrastructure deficit, it requires competence to handle the logistical nightmare. It is an enormous job getting materials and personnel to 176,846 units across land and rivers, on good and bad roads, under clement and inclement weather, and under security challenges. While INEC is an organisation and a bureaucracy in itself, the chair is critical in shaping its conduct and culture — and building or maintaining its institutional capacity.

But there are things beyond the control of the chairman and the commission. Security, for one. The most powerful agents on the ground are the security personnel. If they are determined to prevent rigging, I am certain politicians and their agents will be contained. For instance, a presidential election is conducted at 176,846 polling units across 8,809 wards, 774 local government areas, 109 senatorial districts and 360 federal constituencies. People are stuffing ballot boxes, altering results or suppressing voting in Erin Ile, Odo Ere, Nguru, Fiditi, Somorika, Agba-asa and Okoroba. The INEC chairman is sitting in his office in Abuja. What really can he or she do to prevent the shenanigans?

More so, although the INEC chair is the returning officer (RO) for the presidential election, he is seated at the International Conference Centre, Abuja, waiting for the results from the ROs in the 36 states. The results are first read at the state level in front of TV cameras before the RO travels to Abuja to read them again, also in front of cameras. All the INEC chairman does is announce the tally. He cannot alter what has been announced at the state level and repeated in Abuja. It is only technical or procedural issues that he can raise at this point in the process. I have not witnessed any incident where the INEC chair changed the results already read out loud on national TV by the ROs.

My sense is that most of what is done to election results are at the collation centres. INEC uses mostly ad-hoc staff and youth corps members as field officers for elections. This is a major weak point in the chain. This is where politicians play what is called the “ground game”. They budget heavily to “settle” electoral officials (some of whom have been charged to court and convicted) and security personnel. It is well understood that candidates must “settle” this bunch in order to be taken seriously, especially in constituencies that are competitive. In one-way constituencies, it is difficult to rig elections in favour of weaker candidates. However, a strong candidate may massage the figures.

To combat malpractices, INEC has come up with a lot of innovations over the decades. Some of them are: dropping thumb-printed ballot papers into transparent boxes and in the open, numbering ballot papers and coding result sheets, counting votes in the open, using technology to prevent multiple registration, multiple voting and ballot stuffing, going through accreditation before voting, and so on. Yet, desperate politicians always find a way to short-circuit these hurdles. Indeed, the introduction of IReV, the result-viewing portal, by INEC in the 2023 elections was part of a reform to promote transparency, although it became the major reason the presidential election was discredited.

Why? The innovation failed on election day. The results of the federal legislative elections that were held at the same time were uploaded to IReV, but the presidential ones were not. Initially, INEC did not communicate well with Nigerians over what happened. People were left to guess and speculate. INEC eventually blamed the failure on a technical glitch and uploaded the results many days later. However, those who lost the election did not take kindly to it and alleged that the IReV was switched off on purpose to manipulate the outcome. I believe IReV was oversold by INEC and it came back to bite them. They marketed the innovation in a way that hinged the credibility of the elections on it.

Poignantly, it was through the same IReV that we were able to determine that indeed, the results in Rivers state were manipulated. An analysis by the BBC showed that the count for Tinubu/APC was inflated by over 106,000 votes, while the tally for Peter Obi/Labour Party was reduced by over 50,000. No one alleged that the INEC chairman was responsible. Interestingly, as well, if the figures posted on IReV were not altered, they would still have not been enough to make Obi the overall winner of the election. Besides, Rivers, and to some extent, Imo were the only states where IReV clearly proved that the results were altered. There were no proofs in the other 34 states and the FCT.

The IReV failure aside, I thought the 2023 general election was above average. Many governors lost their bids to be elected senators. That was very unusual (and encouraging). The APC, the ruling party with all the celebrated might of controlling state institutions, lost Kano, Katsina and Kaduna in the presidential election. The sitting president was from Katsina. Tinubu lost Lagos for the first time, either as a candidate or party leader. He also lost Osun state, even though he was expected to win. Effectively, he lost two of the six states in his home zone. Obi, seen as an outsider because of his “small” party, knocked out Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar in several states down south and up north.

It would, thus, be unhelpful not to acknowledge the progress we have made in the electoral process in the last three cycles. It is far from perfect but I think we are heading somewhere. Before the introduction of electronic registration for elections in 2015, the voting figures were insane. In 1999, 2003, 2007 and 2011, the valid votes were 29.8 million, 39 million, 35.4 million and 38.2 million respectively. The introduction of biometrics saw the figures plunge to 28.6 million in 2015, 27.3 million in 2019 and 24 million in 2023. I am not saying votes are still not being padded, but it is now more difficult and it seems we are getting closer to reality. I urge us not to discount this fact.

For election results to become more credible and acceptable in Nigeria, we surely need the right leadership at INEC. In addition, desperate politicians must repent. Likewise, voters must develop the temperament for democracy. It is awkward to keep promoting the notion that it is only when your candidate wins an election that it can be considered credible. I know it is an emotional thing, but voters have to become more rational and learn how accept defeat. All these ingredients are essential if we want to truly grow this democracy and promote credible elections. Yakubu has done his shift. Whoever succeeds him must build on the positives while providing more solutions for the negatives.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

UNCLE MOUFTAH, RIP

Three months ago, I sent Mallam Mouftah Baba-Ahmed what I called the “pivotal chapter” of my forthcoming book and asked him to help critique it. He called me later and said we needed to discuss it over lunch. He said I should see him anytime I was in Abuja. We communicated almost every day in one way or the other, but suddenly the WhatsApp chats stopped. I thought he was busy, only to be told he had fallen ill and we should remember him in our prayers. On September 17, he died, aged 63, in Saudi Arabia. It is so sudden and so sad. Baba-Ahmed, whom some of us called “Uncle Mufu”, was a warehouse of knowledge and a great bridge-builder. My condolences to the family. Shocking.

OGONI FOUR

Some activists may object to the posthumous conferment of national honours on the Ogoni Four, but I am of the opinion that President Bola Tinubu has just done the right thing. For those who may not know, Chiefs Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Theophilus Orage and Samuel Orage (the “Ogoni Four”), were murdered and burnt to ashes in 1994 after being tagged “vultures” for their views. This led to the controversial trial, conviction and execution of Ogoni Nine, including playwright Ken Saro-Wiwa. When Tinubu granted posthumous pardon and national honours to Ogoni Nine, I imagined how the families and sympathisers of Ogoni Four would feel. Everybody in Ogoniland needs to heal. Closure.

GUINEA BLOCKADE

Guineans have just approved a new constitution via a referendum to pave the way for the military ruler, Gen Mamady Doumbouya, to run for president. Doumbouya had promised not to transmute to a civilian president after ousting President Alpha Condé in a military coup in 2021. The constitution now allows him to run and he can serve two seven-year terms. That is 14 years. The electoral board said 90 percent of the voters approved the new constitution, although opposition parties said it was all a joke. Of course, Doumbouya will be elected by a landslide and after 14 years, he can amend the constitution to axe the term limit. Another referendum will approve it by 99 percent. Afrodemocracy.

NO COMMENT Dreams by some Nigerians to “japa” to Japan through the “Africa Hometown Initiative” have just been disrupted. The initiative was conceived by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to strengthen ties with Africa by fostering exchanges to bridge four municipalities in Japan with four countries: Nigeria, Ghana, Mozambique and Tanzania. As usual, Nigerian government officials shouted to the whole world that Japan had decided to create a special visa for Nigerians. In this age of anti-immigration sentiments championed by US President Donald Trump, the Japanese swiftly resisted. The initiative has now been cancelled. Can we sue Japan for disappointment? Hahahaha…

Credit: Simon Kolawole

4 FUOYE lecturers listed in world’s top 2% scientists for 2025 (Photos)

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Bode Dolu

List of FUOYE Courses For Admission (School and JAMB Officially Updated) - School Contents

Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), has recorded another milestone in academic excellence as four of its researchers have been listed among the world’s top 2 percent scientists for 2025, according to the latest global ranking released by Top Scientists Network (TopSciNet).

The annual ranking identifies scientists whose research impact, citations, and productivity place them in the top 2% globally within their respective fields. This year’s list highlights the growing influence of Nigerian scholars on the international research stage.

See the FUOYE honorees and their 2025 global ranks below:

Prof. Olayide Samuel Lawal – Rank 49,613 Profile: https://topscinet.com/scientist_profile/Lawal,%20Olayide%20Samuel/2002/?stype=single_year

Dr. Adeolu Adesoji Adediran – Rank 181,175 Profile: https://topscinet.com/scientist_profile/Adediran,%20Adeolu%20Adesoji/2015/?stype=single_year

Prof. Bukola Olalekan Bolaji – Rank 204,476 Profile: https://topscinet.com/scientist_profile/Bolaji,%20Bukola%20Olalekan/2008/?stype=single_year

Prof. Basiru Olaitan Ajiboye – Rank 357,325 Profile: https://topscinet.com/scientist_profile/Ajiboye,%20Basiru%20Olaitan/2014/?stype=single_year

The Ag. VC of the Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Prof. Olubunmi Shittu commended the scholars, noting that their recognition underscores the university’s commitment to impactful research and innovation. “Their achievements not only bring global visibility to our institution but also inspire young academics across Nigeria,” he said.

The TopSciNet list, updated annually, evaluates millions of researchers worldwide across all disciplines, factoring in citations, h-index, and other standardized metrics. FUOYE’s inclusion affirms the university’s rising profile as a hub for cutting-edge research in West Africa.

This recognition adds to FUOYE’s growing reputation for academic excellence and its mission to produce research that addresses national and global challenges.

See photos of the 4 FUOYE lecturers below:

Photos: FUOYE

I am alive strong and well ―Waka queen, Salawa Abeni dismisses death rumour

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Salewa Abeni denies d3ath rumour

Veteran female Nigerian singer, Salawa Abeni, has dismissed viral rumours and reports claiming she has passed away, assuring fans that she is alive and in perfect health.

In a video posted on Instagram, the Queen of Waka music sang a few lines and confidently declared that she is much alive and remains strong and well.

She thanked her fans, friends, and family at home and abroad for their concern, while urging everyone to ignore the false reports.

Salawa blamed the rumours on certain blogs chasing clout, calling the act disgraceful.

She said: “My family, friends, and fans home and abroad. Thank you so much for your love and concern. I am alive, hail, and hearty. Please disregard all the rumours. Some blogs will do the unthinkable just to trend. It is rather shameful. The Queen is fine and doing very well. May God bless you all”.

The music legend, who became the first Yoruba female artist to sell over a million copies of an album in the 1970s, reassured her supporters that she is doing fine and wished them blessings.

What if men have caused this?, By Chukwuneta Oby

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Chukwuneta Oby (@NetaOC) | Twitter

This was a lady’s recent message to me.

“Have you ever suffered a rejection that made you vow to chase money and not love?

I have!

I was 27 years old and happily earning a monthly salary of N40,000 as a university graduate when I met a man who had just returned from Canada.

He often voiced out why I didn’t have a car yet. And then, he would complain that young ladies in Nigeria can’t even get themselves a car and are always looking for a man to do everything for them.

He became even more condescending when he saw the line of body products I was using then. Maybe he didn’t know it, but he was unconsciously comparing me to his ex-wife, whom he boasted was using very expensive cosmetics and whose handbags were worth about a thousand euros each.

You could tell that the major issue he had with me was my inability to match his economic class. He reacted to a lot of things I did (according to the level of my exposure then) condescendingly.

He never bothered to ask how much I was earning or even how he could help upgrade my life to the standard he wanted.

I walked away from him, eventually.

Four years later, he started contacting me again, and I made him understand that I was no longer available, which was a lie. He thought I didn’t know that his second marriage had also crashed.

When we were in university, I had a course mate who swore he would never marry a woman that wasn’t making her own money. He often added, “Even if it’s prostitution she’s doing, I don’t care.”

A few years ago, I was relating with a man I thought I was going to marry. Just when I thought the relationship had crossed all hurdles and he was ready to come see my people, the question he asked me one day was, “Are you even driving a car now?”

Not for one day did this man ever find out how much I earned or whether it was enough to buy me a car.

I also remember the period when I reached out to an old friend for help. My salary had not been paid, and I was broke. Do you know his response?

“Stop doing this to yourself. You can’t be living from hand to mouth at your age.”

What age was I then? 29!

It was all these hurtful experiences that made me take two important decisions about my life:

My enthusiasm only goes into money matters. I will have nothing to do with a poor man.

I have a friend who is a politician. When I told him how I was struggling to buy a car (thinking he would chip in some support), this man told me to sit down and calculate how much the car would cost me, divide the cost by 5 or 10, and then find the number of men (for a relationship) who could fund the bill. Then, he added, “That’s how these small girls deal with us. And we know it.”

What I am saying to you is that our society hates small beginnings!

In most cases, people who are chasing money with “red eyes” have suffered one rejection or another at the hands of those they once loved unconditionally.

I don’t condemn ladies who say, “I will not have anything to do with a poor man.”

They are speaking from pain.

Men who complain that women are too materialistic should also accept responsibility for how they pushed us into locking our hearts and loving money instead.

From Oby…

The average woman starts out loving men unconditionally, until they “show her pepper.”

The biggest motivation for a young lady often comes when men look down on her because of her economic status. It propels her to upgrade and also to refuse to deal with men who are not bigger than her.

The condescending disposition towards small beginnings cuts across. Yet, the reality of life is such that most of those destined to do life with you are people you may need to uplift or build with.

I am convinced that any man who is condescending towards an economically struggling woman once lived off women. Nothing tugs at the heart of a real man like seeing a struggling woman. If he can, he will go out of his way to change her life for good. What he never does is ridicule her.

Ladies, regardless of your fate with men, please ensure that you can take care of yourself. Being a mature, single, and broke lady is worse than having no husband.

Credit: Chukwuneta Oby

Georgia confers honorary citizenship on Peter Obi (Photos)

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Georgia confers honorary citizenship on Peter Obi

State of Georgia in the United States has conferred honorary citizenship on former Anambra State governor and the 2023 Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate Peter Obi.

Obi shared the news in a post on his 𝕏 account following his participation in the Black Congressional Week events in Washington, DC.

He revealed that his day began with the Congressional Black Caucus Week Reception at the U.S. Senate Kennedy Caucus Room, hosted by Senators Jon Ossoff and Reverend Raphael Warnock. During the event, Senator Warnock invited him to speak on African democracy and development.

Obi also held a meeting with Georgia Power, the state’s largest independent power company, where he discussed energy generation and distribution with its CEO, Kim Clark.

“Second was an engagement hosted by Georgia Power, the largest independent power company in Georgia, which generates and distributes over 20,000 megawatts of electricity nationwide. My conversation with the company’s CEO, Ms Kim Clark, was deeply insightful,” he wrote.

Later, Obi attended the One Voice Africa event, a platform advocating for the dignity and rights of Black immigrants. At the forum, he encouraged participants to actively promote good governance across Africa, stressing that Africa’s potential is limitless when led by visionary and responsible leaders.

He described the conferment of honorary citizenship as the highlight of his day, stating: “Finally, the highlight of the day was the conferment of Honorary Citizenship of Georgia on me by the State of Georgia. For me, the day’s events were about learning, serving, and remaining committed to building a new Nigeria that is truly possible.”

More photos:

Georgia confers honorary citizenship on Peter Obi

Photos: LLB

US Black militant wanted by FBI dies in Cuba

Posted on September 28, 2025 by Bode Dolu

US Black militant wanted by FBI dies in Cuba

Cuba has announced the death of Assata Shakur, the American-born Black militant who lived as a fugitive for more than four decades after her dramatic escape from a U.S. prison.

Shakur, who was convicted of killing a New Jersey state trooper in the 1970s before fleeing to Cuba, died in Havana on September 25, 2025. She was 78 years old.

The Cuban foreign ministry confirmed her death in a brief statement published on its official website. “On September 25, 2025, the American citizen Joanne Deborah Byron, alias Assata Shakur, died in Havana, Cuba, due to health problems and her advanced age,” the statement read.

Born Joanne Deborah Byron, and also known as JoAnne Chesimard, Shakur was a prominent figure in the Black Liberation Army, a militant nationalist group that operated primarily in the United States during the 1970s. Her notoriety stemmed from a 1973 shootout during what began as a routine traffic stop on the New Jersey Turnpike. Authorities alleged that Shakur and two companions opened fire, killing state trooper Werner Foerster. She was arrested, tried, and in 1977 convicted of murder, receiving a life sentence.

Shakur, however, always maintained her innocence. She insisted that she never fired a weapon during the confrontation, claiming her hands were raised when the fatal shots rang out.

In 1979, just two years after her conviction, she pulled off one of the most famous prison escapes of the era. With outside help, she slipped out of a New Jersey correctional facility and disappeared. By 1984, U.S. authorities confirmed she had surfaced in Cuba, where she was granted asylum. The Cuban government consistently rejected American demands for her extradition, allowing her to live openly in Havana for decades.

Her presence in Cuba was a point of enduring tension between Washington and Havana. In 2013, the FBI escalated its pursuit by designating her a domestic terrorist and placing her on its list of Most Wanted Terrorists, the first woman ever to appear there. A $1 million bounty was placed on her capture.

Even into recent years, senior U.S. officials condemned Cuba’s refusal to hand her over. “The Cuban regime continues to provide safe haven for terrorists and criminals, including fugitives from the United States,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in May, in a post that featured photos of both Shakur and the slain officer. Rubio vowed that Washington would maintain its “unwavering commitment to holding the Cuban regime accountable.”

Cuba’s decision to harbor Shakur aligned with a broader historical pattern. The Caribbean nation had become a refuge for radical Black activists fleeing U.S. law enforcement in the 1960s and 1970s, including Black Panther Party leaders Huey Newton and Eldridge Cleaver. Shakur, who later became a symbol of resistance for some activists and a convicted cop-killer to others, remained one of the most high-profile American fugitives to live out her final years there.

(LIB. Photo: LIB)

Nepal bloodshed: Of Nigeria’s big masquerades and Gọntọ, By Festus Adedayo

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Columns

Nepal, the Himalayan nation of 30 million people, boiled like water on a lit cauldron last week. As my people say, behind the logic of christening a woman at birth as “one who died with her glory,” (Kumolu) is a plethora of reasons. The bloodshed reminds me of the theme of resistance in the song of Ibadan bard, TataloAlamu. In one of his tracks, Alamu sang that the big masquerade (eégún) who walks into a gathering without recognizing the smaller one (gòntò) deserves the retaliation of non-recognition he gets. The song goes thus: “Bí eégún ńlá bá wọlé t’ó l’óhun ò rí gòntò, gòntò náà ò r’éégún …”

Ibeji, British-Nigerian Afro-soul singer-songwriter, whose fifth studio album, Intermission, won the Best Alternative Album at the 2022 Headies Award, also explored this motif. The eegun and gọntọ to him symbolize victory of the oppressed in the hands of their oppressors. The same motif can be found in Bob Marley’s Small Axe track where he asked the oppressors, “the evil men,” not to boast at their Pyrrhic victory against the people. They are “playing smart (but) not being clever,” he declared, because they are “working in iniquity” to “achieve vanity”. If they ever thought they were “the big tree,” the mass of the people, sang Marley, are “the small axe” that are “sharpened to cut you down” and “ready to cut you down.”

If you didn’t hear Tatalo or Ibeji sing in Nepal last week, the youths heeded the signification of their songs. Gọntọ will sooner than later conquer the selfish and oppressive big masquerades who are the political leaders bent on suppressing their voices. Yes, the gọntọ in power today may ignore the welfare of the common man on the street, the agency to challenge the gọntọ is resistance. An unrest which began Monday got this landlocked country in South Asia tailspinning into unimaginable chaos.

What set off public anger was Nepalese authorities’ ban of 26 social media platforms. Nepal has a dysfunctional leadership similar in texture and form to Nigeria’s. Unemployment, heavily concentrated among younger adults of both countries, has resulted in thousands seeking existential bailouts outside their shores. In Nepal, young men and women, in tens of thousands, according to a New York Times report of last week, exodus out daily to the Persian Gulf, Malaysia and India. They swarm long-term contracts in oil-rich countries to work as seasonal migrant labourers. In Nigeria, young men and women swarm out to risk their lives. In the process, many die unsung in the Mediterranean Sea. Nepal government data reveals that over 741,000 youth japa-ed in 2024 to eke a living. The World Bank reports that a fifth of Nepalese people, aged between 15-24, are unemployed and the country has a GDP per capita of just $1,447. The statistics are almost a replay of the scary figures bedeviling Nigeria.

There is however a truth that tastes as bitter as Jogbo leaf in the mouth of Nigerian and Nepalese leaders. It is that their dysfunctional leadership challenges are borne out of failure to recognize that a trinity exists between the voter, (people) votes and the voted. This trinity is almost like the sacred pact between the drum, the drumstick and the drummer. Late Ibadan Awurebe music lord, EpoAkara, alluded to this trinity in one of the lines of his song when he sang that the drummer and the brass bell are woven together like a tapestry. “Oní’lù l’ó ni saworo…” he sang.

Taking this further in his 1999 epic movie, Saworoide, Tunde Kelani deployed a biting satire to convey how Nigerian rulers have consistently betrayed this sacred pact with the people. He chose the sacred Yoruba drum, Iya Ilu, to convey this. As a motif, he then used the ritual significance of the drum and the jangling brass bell decorating its neck. In the ancient town of Jogbo, (a very bitter leaf chosen as representative of the bitterness encountered by the people) this drum plays a central role in crowning kings. Kelani’s drum motif now stood as a mystical symbol, the people’s voice and a pact with kings (rulers) that they have the obligation of serving them. At the end, Kelani was able to explore themes of tradition, corruption, voice of the people and leadership failure in this highly rated film.

When the face of this sacred trinity between the people, the drum and the drumming stick is trodden upon with impunity, there will be disequilibrium. Rats will cease to chirp and birds won’t chirrup as they used to. Just as is the case today in Nigeria.

The Siamese of Nepal and Nigeria is not just in both countries’ humongous population rascality of 300 and 200 million people. Their leaders also share texture of irresponsibility. In its rebellion last week, it will however appear that the Gen Z of Nepal, unlike Nigeria’s, was pushed to the wall against leaders who have over the decades fixed their individual stomachs, rather than fixing the nation.

I agree that sometimes, leaders’ intention can be misjudged by the people. Leaders also sometimes suffer for their stiff-necked commitment to doing good. Former First Lady of the United States, Rosalynn Carter, had a fabled quote in this regard. Late Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State gleefully reproduced it to explain his leadership roadmap. Carter had posited that, while “a leader takes people where they want to go,” a great leader “takes (them) where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” This was the fate of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the 1954 federal elections.

Back to Awolowo. He became a casualty of the Carter admonition. As Premier, he brought before the Western Region parliament four policy frameworks which eventually became his political undoing. They were (1) agricultural development, which included rubber plantation (2) customary courts reforms (3) democratization of local councils and (4) free universal primary education and free health service. Though these policies later revolutionize the West, they cost Awolowo’s Action Group (AG) victory in the 1954 federal elections. The electoral loss made AG the only party in power to lose a parliamentary election supervised by it.

Because no meaningful agricultural revolution policy could be achieved without acquisition of lands, peeved, those whose lands were acquired for the policy voted against Awo in the election. The 1953 law enacted to replace old and illiterate customary court presidents, many of whom were chiefs, with educated ones, suffered backlash. Adelabu Adegoke for instance rode on this to form the Mabolaje/NCNC alliance, becoming the doyen of the common people in the process. Also, the AG’s new policy of democratizing local councils by stopping nomination and replacing it with election of members irked those steeped in the past. They in turn voted against the AG.

The most sweeping rebellion against Awo’s AG came with the free education and health policies. While Awolowo supported voluntary education, many leaders of the party voted for compulsory education. Many members of the farming population, afraid that the policy would deny their children and wards’ help on the farm, voted against AG in the 1954 election. Also, a capitation tax of 10 shillings to fund the policy imposed on every taxable adult boomeranged. Opposition elements went out to incite the people that the tax was meant to enable ministers build personal houses and buy cars. These all led to the AG’s loss in the 1954 election.

While it may be unpatriotic to call for a walk on the Nepalese violence road, the truth is that, Third World leaders are sworn to self-destruct unless a seismic shake recalibrates their brains. Yoruba, in affirming that likes should attract likes, say “ó jọ gáté, kòjọ gáté, ó f’ẹsè méjèèjì tiro”. They similarly render a call for similarity of treatment of felons in an illustration of a limping man who leapt out of the same closet where a limping masquerade just leapt into, costumed in the usual enormous, multi-colored regalia.

Like AG in 1953, the present FG must have persuaded itself that, by taking Nigerians down the murky alley of a rough road, it was going the route of Rosalynn Carter. The ousted clowns in Nepal must have similarly thought so. Regime clowns may cite AG’s 1954 public perception as justification. However, in barely two years, the rhythm changed for Action Group. While it launched these policies, especially the free education and health service in 1955, by 1956, the dividends began to trickle in for the people. The party then won that year’s regional election by 48 to 32 seats, as well as subsequent elections.

Conversely, in Nigeria today, what we get is impostor economics. Early in the month, the Nigerian president, at a Villa event, declared that he had met revenue target for 2025, ahead of schedule. The country would no longer rely on borrowing to fund its budget, he said. The exchange rate, he further said, had stabilized after initial turbulence and that the Naira had appreciated from over N1,900/$ to about N1,450/$.

Regime fawners went to town with these bogus statistics. Again, just as his lickspittle Senate President said last year that FG had dashed states N30 billion each, he and his commissars have engaged in a binge of demonizing Nigerian 36 states. The question people ask the fawners is, how have all those mantras of “revenue target”, “stable Naira” and “downward inflation” impacted on the common man? Have transport fares gone down? Are medications cheaper? Are Nigerians dying less from acute poverty? The “revenue target” was met as a result of squeezing the people to pay tax so, how much has he given back to the people in terms of social safety nets? Yet, the presidential economy is becoming elastic, the president’s second home is France and the I-don’t-care attitude of the leadership is worsening.

I am on a WhatsApp platform where there is intense musical-chair competition to fawn and capture the hearts of powers-that-be. Someone there asked why “state governments” are not pilloried for stagnation of development but the FG. He hoisted Prof Toyin Falola who constantly “bemoan(s)” Nigeria’s “dysfunctional federalism” and “the generous financial inducement of the media” as reasons why this FG-bashing view is gaining traction.

My reply to him was, “Doesn’t this sound awkward and I dare say, self-serving? To divert the proportion of blame and responsibility of Nigeria’s developmental stagnation from a central government that collects 52% of federal allocation and laying such at the feet of states – 36 of which share 32% of such national allocation – isn’t a watertight logic. The truth is, Nigeria’s federal government is big-for-nothing, wasteful, and needed to be pruned if we want development. It is why there is unbelievable squandering and theft at the Aso Rock Villa. Not heaping proportionally high blame on the FG as against states for Nigeria’s stagnation, seeking a whipping boy in states and scapegoating the media equal playing the ostrich. This is the usual singsong of Nigerian politicians.”

This generated reactions. What the revenue formula means is that, with 36 states collecting 32% of federal allocations, each state collects less than one per cent of this monthly allocation. While no one should defend state governments, many of whom are inept and wasteful, we should not lose track of the fact that the federal government has grown too unwieldy, receiving too much, superintending over too much, giving so little and is a bastion of corruption.

Recently, some ministers in this government were accused of owning properties that are far beyond their means. Like General Yakubu Gowon, perceived as timid in the face of corrupt elements in his government, mum has been the word from the Villa. In 1975, the scandal surrounding the importation of cements, nicknamed the Cement Armada, which was handled by officials of the defense ministry and the CBN under Gowon, was mind-boggling. Governor of Benue/Plateau State, Police Commissioner Joseph D. Gomwalk, was one of the accused. Gowon acquitted him.

The way out of the Nepal volcano that will surely sweep through Africa is for governments to prioritize the welfare of their people. Regime fawners and data boys can only worsen the fates of rulers. Once President Bola Tinubu, in his imperial power as the Eegun, does not serve miniature pounded yam to the gọntọ, the Nigerian masses, he can be assured that the fate of Nepal Prime Minister, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, commonly known as K. P. Sharma Oli, will be far from him.

Credit: Festus Adedayo

Naira is ninth weakest currency in Africa ―Forbes report

Posted on September 27, 2025 by Bode Dolu

Nigeria’s Naira has been ranked as the ninth weakest currency in Africa, according to a Forbes currency calculator report for September 2025, underscoring the lingering pressure on Nigeria’s economy despite recent signs of easing inflation.

Forbes currency calculator, which sources real-time foreign exchange market data via the Open Exchange Rates API, updates every five minutes to reflect live trading values.

The system captures the impact of demand and supply, market sentiment, and broader economic conditions on each nation’s currency performance.

As indicated by data, the São Tomé & Príncipe Dobra (22,282 per $1) topped the list of Africa’s weakest currencies, followed by the Sierra Leonean Leone (20,970), Guinean Franc (8,680), Ugandan Shilling (3,503), and Burundian Franc (2,968). Others on the list include the Congolese Franc (2,811), Tanzanian Shilling (2,465), Malawian Kwacha (1,737), the Nigerian Naira (₦1,490 per $1), and the Rwandan Franc (1,448).

Conversely, the Tunisian Dinar (2.90 per $1), Libyan Dinar (5.40), Moroccan Dirham (9.91), Ghanaian Cedi (12.31), and Botswanan Pula (14.15) were ranked as the five strongest currencies in Africa.

African continent currently has 54 recognised countries, according to the United Nations and geographic data sources.

Nigerian lady wants to set Guinness World Record by sleeping with 100 men in one day, GWR responds to her

Posted on September 26, 2025 by Bode Dolu

GWR: Mandy Kiss to have sex with 100 men in 24 hours - TheStar

Guinness World Records (GWR) has responded to Nigerian social media personality, content creator and influencer, Ayomiposi Oluwadahunsi, popularly known as Mandy Kiss’ attempt to set a record by sleeping with 100 men in one day.

Mandy, a Nigerian content creator also known as Queen of Olosho, had gone on Instagram to reveal that she will attempt to set the record on October 30.

Her post:

Guinness World Record reacts as Nigerian content creator reveals plans to set record by sleeping with 100 men in one day

But, as news of her plans went viral, Guinness World Record took to X to react.

“This is not a record we monitor,” the organisation wrote.

Guinness World Record reacts as Nigerian content creator reveals plans to set record by sleeping with 100 men in one day

Posts: Mandy Kiss, GWR, X

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