The Nigerian Navy has dismissed a serving officer, a Lieutenant, and sentenced him to three years in prison after he was found guilty of engaging in a sexual relationship with the wife of a fellow officer.

The punishment followed the conclusion of a Special Court Martial (SCM), which convicted the officer on four counts, including sexual relations with a service personnel’s wife, scandalous conduct, and deceiving a witness.

His dismissal and imprisonment officially took effect on November 23, 2024, but were formally executed on August 29, 2025, at the Nigerian Navy Institute of Technology (NNIT) Parade Ground in Sapele, Delta State.

Sources confirmed that the verdict was reached after a thorough legal review of the trial proceedings, ensuring that the accused officer was properly arraigned and that due process was strictly followed.

“The SCM, at the conclusion of its proceedings, found the dismissed officer guilty as charged, hence the sentence of three years’ imprisonment and dismissal from the Nigerian Navy,” a source disclosed.

The Navy Board upheld the decision, reaffirming the service’s zero tolerance for misconduct that undermines discipline and professionalism.

The case has become one of the most high-profile disciplinary actions in the Nigerian Navy in recent years, serving as a stern warning to officers against violations of military codes of conduct.

Renewed Hope Global, a pro-Tinubu group, has requested the president of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Mazi Afam Osigwe, to take immediate corrective action over what they described as the “shameful spectacle” at the association’s recent annual general conference in Enugu.

The group expressed dismay over what they termed “stage-managed antics” involving Seun Okinbaloye, a journalist, as well as “a parade of shoddy characters” who, according to them, “desecrated the platform with crass and unbecoming behaviour”.

Okinbaloye had asked the participants if their lives had improved under the Tinubu-led administration, to which the majority of them responded with a resounding “No.”

The pro-Tinubu group said the conduct brought the NBA, Nigeria’s oldest professional membership organisation, into public ridicule.

According to the group, “This descent into partisan theatrics and cheap sensationalism is unacceptable. Under your watch, the NBA must not be allowed to drift into the murky waters of partisanship or down the path of ignominy.”

They demanded a public apology from the NBA to its members and the Nigerian public, a review of conference protocols to prevent a repeat, and disciplinary action against those who “brought the association into disrepute.”

They warned that failure to act would be taken as tacit approval of the events and could “irreparably damage the credibility” of Osigwe’s administration.

Renewed Hope Global stressed that the NBA, with over 140,000 lawyers in 129 active branches across the country, is Africa’s most influential legal network and must safeguard its legacy.

Watch the video of NBA delegates insisting their hopes have not been renewed below.

Simon Ekpa, a pro-Biafra agitator, has been sentenced to six years in prison by a Päijät-Häme district court in Finland for terrorism offences.

In a ruling delivered on Monday, the court found Ekpa guilty of inciting terrorism and participating in the activities of a terrorist group.

According to Yle, a Finnish newspaper, the court said Ekpa had used his “significant social media following” to stoke tensions in Nigeria’s south-east region between August 2021 and November 2024.

In a unanimous ruling, the three-member panel of judges also stated that Ekpa was an influential member of a militant separatist movement whose goal was to actualise the carving out of a Biafra state from Nigeria.

The district court also noted that Ekpa had supplied certain groups with weapons, explosives, and ammunition “through his network of contacts in the region, and he was also found to have encouraged his followers on social media platform X to commit crimes in Nigeria”.

The court also convicted Ekpa of aggravated tax fraud and violating the provisions of the Attorneys Act.

BACKGROUND

Ekpa is a self-acclaimed disciple of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

After Kanu was extradited to Nigeria from Kenya in June 2021, Ekpa was appointed as the lead broadcaster of Radio Biafra.

Weeks later, IPOB announced Ekpa’s dismissal, citing his refusal to sign the rules of engagement of Radio Biafra.

The development strained the relationship between IPOB and Ekpa, with the Finland-based lawyer going on to form a splinter secessionist group.

The separatist used his social media platforms, especially X, to issue sit-at-home directives in the south-east geopolitical zone, while calling for attacks on security operatives.

On numerous occasions, IPOB distanced itself from the activities and directives of Ekpa.

In November 2024, Ekpa was arrested by law enforcement in Finland.

He was subsequently sent to prison by the district court for “spreading terrorist propaganda on social media”.

In March 2025, the federal government designated Ekpa a “terrorism financier”.

Abraka community in Ethiope-East Local Government Area of Delta State erupted in outrage on Saturday evening after soldiers chasing suspected internet fraudsters, popularly called yahoo boys, reportedly shot and killed a pregnant woman.

The incident sparked an immediate protest by indigenes, residents, and students, who stormed the streets in anger against the soldiers.

According to Daily Post, eyewitnesses informed journalists that troops of Operation Delta Sweep had attempted to stop a group of suspected fraudsters driving past a checkpoint.

When the men allegedly refused to stop and sped off, the soldiers gave chase, firing sporadically.

A stray bullet reportedly struck the pregnant woman, who died instantly before help could reach her.

Council Chairman Vows Justice

The Ethiope-East Local Government Chairman, Hon. Chief Augustine Ogedegbe, expressed outrage over the killing, promising that the council would ensure justice for the deceased.

In a statement on his official Facebook page, Ogedegbe described the death as both painful and avoidable.

“It is deeply concerning to see incidents like this, which diverge from the intended duties of combating crime and ensuring public safety. We will pursue this issue with the seriousness it deserves and ensure that justice is served,” he vowed.

He assured that steps were being taken to forestall similar tragedies in the future, adding that the role of security agencies must remain centred on protecting lives and property.

While condemning the conduct of the soldiers, Ogedegbe urged residents of Abraka to remain calm and law-abiding as the authorities engage security agencies for accountability.

He also extended condolences to the bereaved family: “Our heartfelt sympathy goes to the family of the deceased. We pray for strength and comfort during this difficult period.”

• Five farmers killed by Boko Haram in Borno

A boat mishap in Gummi Local Council of Zamfara State has claimed the lives of 15 villagers, while three others remain missing.

The incident occurred on Friday when residents of Danmaga, Tungar Maigunya, Nasarawar Kifi and neighbouring villages in Birnin Tudu ward attempted to cross the river with a single canoe while fleeing from advancing bandits.

An eyewitness, Malam Bashiru Gago Yan Kifi, told The Guardian that panic spread when news broke that the bandits were approaching the riverbank. He explained that the canoe, already filled to capacity, capsized after two women forced their way on board during the third trip out of fear of being left behind.

“Only one canoe serves the entire community, with a capacity of just 16 passengers. But in desperation, more people climbed on board. The boat overturned, and many drowned,” Yan Kifi said.

He added that villagers cross the river daily for farming and trade, often risking their lives due to the absence of safe transport and life jackets. “Rescue efforts recovered 12 bodies on Friday, while three more were found. Search operations are still ongoing for the remaining three missing persons. Victims included eight housewives, three babies, and four youths. They were buried on Friday night after funeral prayers led by Liman Yahaya.”

The village head of Nasarawar Kifi, Alhaji Muhammadu Chigari, confirmed the tragedy, describing it as a devastating blow to already traumatised communities. “We were observing Friday prayers when we heard about the accident. Our people worked tirelessly to rescue survivors, but sadly, many lives were lost,” he said.

Reacting, the spokesperson of Zamfara State Governor, Sulaiman Bala Idris, described the mishap as tragic and regrettable. He said Governor Dauda Lawal had directed the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and the Zamfara Emergency Management Agency (ZEMA) to provide relief materials, support rescue efforts, and commiserate with affected families and the Gummi emirate.

In a related development, a least five farmers were reported killed by Boko Haram insurgents on Saturday in Goshe, a community in the Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State.

Sources said the victims were working on their farms in the morning when the insurgents attacked them.

Junaid Jibrin, a legislative aide to the district’s senator, Muhammad Ndume, commented on the attacks in a Facebook post.

“A dark cloud has once again fallen on the Ngoshe community in Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State. By mid-morning on Saturday, while innocent farmers were simply tilling their land in search of daily sustenance, suspected Boko Haram insurgents descended upon them in cold blood, Five precious lives were cut short,” Mr Jibrin wrote.

“Ordinary people, whose only ‘fault’ was to step into their farms to feed their families and contribute to the community, were silenced forever. This is our story, such horrors visit us almost daily, especially upon our farmlands.

“May the Almighty forgive their shortcomings, grant them eternal rest, and shield us all from the hands of those who take innocent lives. Ameen,” Jibrin added.

However, the police spokesperson in Borno, Nanum Keneath, when contacted by this reporter, said they were yet to receive the information.

Reuben Kovangiya, a spokesperson of the Nigerian military’s Operation Hadin Kai fighting the insurgency, also said he could not confirm the attack.

Recent offensives by troops of Operation Hadin Kai had led to the killing of about 20 Insurgents.

Carried out between Saturday and Sunday, the operations hit terrorist hideouts in Tamsu Ngamdu, Dalakaleri, Gaza and Loskori Kura villages.

Nigeria’s Federal Government has dismissed the allegation made by a former governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, that it empowers bandits as a policy.

In a statement by the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) on Monday, it described the allegation as baseless, adding that the ONSA does not coordinate a policy of payments and incentives to bandits.

“In that interview, he alleged, falsely, that the ONSA coordinates a policy of payments and offers incentives to bandits. This claim is baseless.

“At no time has the ONSA, or any arm of government under this administration, engaged in ransom payments or inducements to criminals.

“On the contrary, we have consistently warned Nigerians against paying ransom. El-Rufai’s allegations are not only false but also contradict verifiable facts on the ground,” the statement signed by Zakari Mijinyawa for the Office of the National Security Adviser, partly read.

It explained that from inception, the government adopted a dual strategy — decisive kinetic operations and community engagements — aimed at addressing local grievances.

“The result is evident in areas such as Igabi, Birnin Gwari, Giwa, and other parts of Kaduna that once suffered untold terror in Kaduna state but are now experiencing relative peace.

“The efforts of our gallant military and security agencies in capturing or eliminating notorious bandits have been widely reported in the media. Recently, leaders of Ansaru, who previously established bases in Kaduna, were apprehended,” it stated.

The ONSA said it was unfair and insulting to the memories of our security personnel for El-Rufai to deny the sacrifices made by the military.

It added, “These successes came at a cost; some of our brave officers paid the supreme price. For a former governor of a state in the person of El-Rufai to deny these sacrifices on national television is both unfair and deeply insulting to the memories of our security personnel.

“We urge El-Rufai and all political actors to desist from dragging national security institutions into partisan battles.

“The fight against banditry is a collective struggle, not a platform for political point-scoring.”

The “kiss-the-bandits policy”

Speaking on Sunday Politics, a Channels Television programme, El-Rufai alleged that the Federal Government was deliberately empowering armed bandits through policies that provide them with monthly allowances and food supplies, asserting that the approach was a “kiss-the-bandits policy” driven by the Office of the National Security Adviser (NSA).

“What I will not do is to pay bandits, give them a monthly allowance, or send food to them in the name of non-kinetic. It’s nonsense; we’re empowering bandits,” the former governor said.

He argued that such measures only embolden the criminals and worsen insecurity. 

“You don’t empower your enemy; you don’t give him money to go and buy sophisticated weapons. That is why the insecurity problem has not gone away and will not go away as long as this policy continues,” El-Rufai added.

The former minister of the Federal Capital Territory maintained that negotiations and incentives for bandits were counterproductive. 

“My position has always been that the only repentant bandit is a dead one. Let’s kill them all. Let’s bomb them until they are reduced to nothing, and then the five per cent that still want to be rehabilitated can be rehabilitated,” he insisted.

El-Rufai further claimed that residents of northern states such as Katsina, Zamfara, and Kaduna are aware of the alleged government-backed appeasement. 

“They can deceive, they can cover up, they can do propaganda, but those that live in Katsina, those that live in Zamfara, those that live in Kaduna… they know what is happening,” he said.

Challenging the authorities, he added, “Let the governor or anyone come and deny. When the time comes, we will reveal everything.”

The Rule of Law and Accountability Advocacy Centre (RULAAC) has described Solomon Arase, the ex-Inspector General of Police (IGP) who passed on Sunday, 31 August 2025, as an ‘exceptional and exemplary cop’ while expressing deep shock over his sudden demise.

In a Statement signed by Okechukwu Nwanguma, RULAAC’s Executive Director, the group said the former IGP, who is also the immediate past Chairman of the Police Service Commission, operated in a system where the police institution was associated with impunity, corruption, and brutality, but stood out as a shining example of what policing in a democracy should be.

Dr. Arase was 69 years old.

According to Nwanguma, Nigeria had lost one of its finest Police officers who demonstrated through his action that the police could be a force for good, noting that Arase’s death was a loss to the police institution, human rights, and to all who believe in reform and accountability

The Rights Group said that, as IGP Arase prioritised intelligence-driven policing over brute force, emphasised smarter and evidence-based strategies in crime prevention and control.

“IGP was an exceptional and exemplary cop, a reformer, and a rare breed of officer who made a significant difference.

“He believed that policing should be about service, trust, and legitimacy, not intimidation. He demonstrated an uncommon commitment to police accountability and reform.

“His tenure reflected a clear focus on institutional improvements that went beyond personalities and were aimed at laying a foundation for lasting change.

“He understood the critical importance of community partnership, consistently advocating for trust-building between the police and citizens,” it said.

RULAAC said Arase set himself apart through his respect for human rights and proved that a police officer, even at the highest level, could serve with dignity and empathy without sacrificing discipline and professionalism.

The group stated that unlike other former IGPs who perceived rights groups as adversaries, Arase welcomed constructive dialogue and collaboration as a true partner in the quest for a better police force.

“As a civil society organisation working on police reform and accountability, we particularly recall with admiration how open and receptive Arase was to civil society engagement.

“At a time when recruitment was deeply compromised by corruption, nepotism, and political interference, Arase insisted on a transparent and merit-driven process. He stood firm and restored credibility to recruitment.

“RULAAC commiserates with his family, colleagues, and the entire nation.

“We urge the Federal Government and the Nigeria Police Force to honor his legacy by sustaining and deepening the reforms and values he stood for.”

On account of an allegation of blasphemy against Prophet Mohammed, a woman identified as Amaye was lynched and burnt to death by a mob in Niger State.

The incident occurred on Saturday evening in Kasuwan-Garba town, Mariga Local Government Area.

This is coming three years after Deborah Samuel Yakubu, a second-year Christian college student, was stoned to death by a mob of Muslim students in Sokoto, Nigeria, after being accused of blasphemy against Islam.

According to eyewitness accounts, the victim, a food vendor, was accused of making blasphemous remarks at her restaurant after a customer jokingly expressed interest in marrying her, citing the tradition of the Prophet.

Residents initially took her to the palace of the District Head of Kasuwan-Garba to avert mob action.

The District Head reportedly handed her over to security operatives for investigation.

However, the mob later overpowered the security agents and set her ablaze.

Chairman of Mariga LGA, Abbas Adamu Kasuwan-Garba, confirmed the incident, adding that normalcy had been restored in the area.

The Niger State Police Command also confirmed the killing.

Spokesman SP Wasiu Abiodun said the victim was burnt before security reinforcements arrived.

“Efforts are being made to ensure that arrests are effected, investigated and prosecuted,” Abiodun stated.

The Conclave

By Lasisi Olagunju

A race of giants. The Yoruba had been producing monumental men and women long before Nigeria became a country. Professor Adelola Adeloye’s ‘African Pioneers of Modern Medicine’ (1985) has a list of eleven Nigerians who qualified as medical doctors between the 19th century and 1901. Ten out of the eleven were Yoruba. Check out their names and the dates they qualified: William Davies (1858), Nathaniel King (1874), Obadiah Johnson (1884), John Randle (1888), Orisadipe Obasa (1891), Leigh-Sodipe (1892), Oguntola Sapara (1895), R. Akinwande Savage (1900), C. C. Adeniyi-Jones (1901) and W. Cole (1901). Those are the Yoruba ten.

Chief Obafemi Awolowo, in his autobiography, described the Yoruba as “a fastidious, critical and discerning people.” As trailblazers, their enviable record of being pioneers goes beyond medicine; it is in every field. Again, look at these lines distilled from A. G. Hopkins’ ‘A Report on The Yoruba, 1910′ published in 1969: Henry Carr, born in Lagos in 1863, was the son of a freed slave with Egba provenance; he got a B.A. in 1885 with honours in mathematics and the physical sciences and played pivotal roles in early Lagos’ political life. Obadiah Johnson was the son of a liberated slave from Oyo who was born in Sierra Leone in 1849, took a B.A. in 1879, went back to school in England, qualified as a doctor in 1884 and returned to Lagos in 1886 to play great roles in the history of medical practice in Nigeria and in the cultural history of the Yoruba.

Christopher Sapara-Williams, son of an Ijesha man with strong Egba connections, was born in Freetown in 1855. He was called to the English Bar in 1879 becoming the first Nigerian to become a lawyer. “He settled in Lagos in 1888, established a thriving legal practice, and became prominent in the political and social life of the town.” E. H. Oke was a senior official in the Legal Department of the Lagos government of the early 20th century. He authored ‘A Short History of the United Native African Church: Part 1, 1891 to 1903’ published in 1918. Adegboyega Edun (1860-1930) “was a Methodist minister and schoolmaster who became Principal of the Wesleyan Boys High School in Lagos from 1893 to 1902, when he was appointed Secretary to the Egba United Government. W. T. G. Lawson was the son of a (Yoruba) government interpreter in Sierra Leone. He qualified as a civil engineer and was Assistant Colonial Surveyor in Lagos from 1879 to 1886, when he retired from government service.” Of course, you and I know that Yoruba’s legacy of firsts was carried over into the 20th century; we are in the 21st and the facts are still here, notorious.

A people with this pedigree should normally be above petty squabbling. But that is not so with the Yoruba; they drop the elephant and go after crickets. You would want to ask what their problem is. My friend and Punch columnist, Abimbola Adelakun, told me yesterday that it was “the curse of enlightenment”; the afflicted knowing enough to paralyse themselves. They have the dubious blessing of what my teacher, Professor Adebayo Williams, recently described as a “squabbling and dissolute elite.” They routinely fight themselves over nothing.

On Monday, August 18, 2025, a needless statement was dispatched from Oyo to Ile Ife over a chieftaincy title given to an Ibadan man by the Ooni of Ife. Just as it happened in c1793 in Apomu market, the statement from Oyo has turned out the spark needed by those angling to rekindle the blaze that burnt the past.

The Yoruba are supposed to be the well-clothed moin moin, but they behave more like akara, naked and caked. They are daily exposed to the elements by their knack for division, friction and discord. They get bent and broken by what Vera Schwarcz calls the “accumulated weight of outworn habits.” It means very little that they are well-taught and knowledgeable with more than two centuries of advantage over their neighbours. They rarely collectively profit from their endowments. It is a curse.

I am an Oyo-Yoruba. I have watched in horror as some Yoruba persons, self-interested actors, use the opportunity to say what had always been unsaid, and should be unsaid. You would think this house is another Tower of Babel, or the very abode of Eris, the Greek goddess of strife and chaos. Nothing that binds the family together has been left unquestioned. Some have even extended the war to the Yoruba language and its dialects. They sweat to define what is standard and substandard; what is superior and what is inferior and the implications for the users.

For 100 years (1793 to 1893), the Yoruba fought the Yoruba, neighbour plundered neighbour, brother sold brother into slavery. It took a superior power from outside, the British, to impose peace on that race of discord. If Nigeria disintegrates today and each ethnic group goes its way, the Yoruba will most likely resume their internecine wars almost immediately. That is my conclusion after weeks of watching and monitoring reactions to the unfortunate simmering supremacy spat between people who claim to support the palace of the Ooni of Ife and that of the Alaafin of Oyo, and their tributaries.

What I have seen and heard in the last three weeks evokes unsettling echoes of the Yoruba civil wars of the late 18th and the 19th centuries when obas, princes and generals turned their energies inward and left the nation vulnerable to external forces. You hear and read some comments and gasp. Even where you thought you would meet wisdom, you got there and saw its opposite sitting regal, holding court. You would think the resolution of a supremacy war between the Alaafin of Oyo and the Ooni of Ife is the elixir that would cure today’s security-sick Yoruba, fix their terribly bad roads and feed their hungry. They excitably keep the ember of war glowing. Wisdom has not whispered to those doing the fanning that when brothers waste their strength and dissipate energies fighting each other, strangers seize the inheritance. It happened in the 19th century. Then, as now, the struggle was less about destiny and deliverance; it was more about pride and prejudice with devastating consequences for the collective.

The Yoruba energy and intellect fascinated the white man right from the first contact. Gary Lynn Comstock of the University of Chicago Divinity School, USA, wrote in ‘The Yoruba and Religious Change’ (1979) that “of all the societies in sub-Saharan Africa, the Yoruba of south-western Nigeria are one of the most extensively studied native group.” Toyin Falola and Ann Genova in ‘Yorùbá Identity and Power Politics’ (2006) call our attention to the fact that as far back as “1897, Samuel Johnson wrote in the preface to his pioneer work, ‘The History of the Yorubas,’ (that) educated natives of Yorùbá are well acquainted with the history of England and with that of Rome and Greece…”

They have all these, yet, they fight dirty in the mud like pigs. Their distant ancestors preached moderation even in ennobling pursuits. They told their young to “never stay too long on the farm like hopeless slaves (and) never stay too long at home like the miserably lazy.” But in matters of power and politics, they are extremists. Today as in the past, they fight civil wars and ignore the glaring reality of their present dire situation. More than it was 122 years ago, today’s Yoruba country is hemmed in by far graver existential challenges: economic, political, security, and a generational crisis of values. Yet, what excites their political and traditional elite is which antiquated throne is senior to, or more ‘imperial’ than others. Wisdom has not told the feuding race that to stoke embers of rivalry between two thrones that should embody unity and wisdom is to indulge in a needless diversion from the urgent work of survival and renewal.

Their fathers said “if we don’t forget the bickering of yesterday, we will have no playmate.” Yet, the Yoruba (groups) remain captive of their history of wars and bloody bickering. They worship the past and pour libations to exaggerated stories and histories. But we’ve been told that “all history is tendentious, and if it were not tendentious, nobody would write it. History is therefore never history, but history-for.” Hidemi Suganami, Professor of the Philosophy of International Relations, opens his ‘Stories of War Origins: A narrativist theory of the causes of war’ with that two-sentence quote. He credits the first sentence to R. G. Collingwood’s ‘The Idea of History’ (1994) and the second to C. Levi-Strauss’ ‘The Savage Mind (La Pensee sauvage)’, published in 1972. Both lines remind the reader of Robert Cox’s much-quoted statement: ‘Theory is always for someone and for some purpose.” And it leads me here to ask why the Yoruba people tell or write (or rewrite) their histories.

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The Yoruba forget nothing and remember everything. Professor Toyin Falola, in his ‘A Research Agenda on the Yoruba in the Nineteenth Century’ (1988) notes this fact. He writes that “the twentieth century inherited some of the unresolved issues of the nineteenth century, notably problems of intergroup conflicts; competition for power among individuals and lineages; redefinition of functions and criteria for chieftaincy titles, etc.” He adds that “communities with turbulent experiences have continued to remember these in their relations with others.” What we’ve seen since the latest Oyo vs Ife ‘war’ of words has its root in those “unresolved issues of the nineteenth century.”

H. G. Wells wrote ‘The War That Will End War’ (1914). The title of that book was immediately applied to the First World War as “the war to end all wars.” But the Second World War started eleven short years after the first. The Yoruba started a civil war in 1878 and for the next 16 years killed and maimed one another. They boasted that the 16-year-war was the war to end all wars. They were wrong. The war has not ended, it is still on in 2025; you have it being fought in inter-communal skirmishes; in sub-ethnic and obaship supremacy contests.

I read R. C. C. Law’s ‘Yorubaland and its History’ and the reviews therein of ‘Yoruba Warfare in the Nineteenth Century’ by J. F. Ade Ajayi and Robert Smith; ‘Owu in Yoruba History’ by Akin Mabogunje and J. D. Omer-Cooper; ‘Revolution and Power Politics in Yorubaland 1840-1893; Ibadan expansion and the rise of Ekitiparapo’ by S. A. Akintoye; ‘The Political Development of Yoruba Kingdoms in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries’ by Peter C. Lloyd; and ‘Yoruba Towns and Cities: an enquiry into the nature of urban social phenomena’ by Eva Krapf-Askari. R. C.C. Law reviewed those works and zeroed in on Akintoye’s submission that the successful revolt of the north-eastern Yoruba (the Ekiti, the Ijesa, and the Igbomina) against the rule of Ibadan in 1878-93 determined “that no one Yoruba state would (again) attain the position of primacy earlier enjoyed by Oyo.” The present pushing and shoving should be read as an attempt to assert or put a lie to that determination.

If you are implicated in this crisis that started three weeks ago, I urge that you calm down, reflect deeply and ask what benefits will accrue from this dog-eat-dog war of histories. In the present controversy as in all previous ones, I see manipulation and exploitation of history. I see attempts being “made to take political decisions which did not recognize the nineteenth-century changes.” I see history, particularly of the 19th century, being put to different uses by the disparate peoples and interests in Yorubaland. This insight is not mine; it belongs to Professor Falola who notes in the 1988 piece cited above, that “the ‘new Oyo empire’ of the twentieth century benefited from the achievements of the Old Oyo empire before the nineteenth century; (that) Ibadan suffered political decline because of the interpretation that it was a satellite of Oyo with rulers whose appointments were sanctioned by the Alaafin; (that) Ile-Ife ignored its military defeats and humiliation in the nineteenth century and quickly resorted to the Oduduwa myth to attain political prominence and (that) those who had no claim to previous glories, whether on the basis of pre-1800 power or myth, (have) adopted several other innovative strategies.

I am not done with the historian, Falola. He reminds us that in the last century, “traditions played a dominant role” in Yoruba politics, but often not in their purest sense. Rather, what different subgroups stressed were those aspects of history that could best serve their “sectarian and political advantages.” Thus, Ibadan, seeking legitimacy for the Olubadan title and later a crown, popularized the myth of Lagelu, an alleged Ife prince and founder of the city, even though, in Falola’s words, Ìbàdàn’s early settlers were “Oyo-Yoruba refugees.” Oyo itself, after relocating under Atiba to Ago Oja, downplayed the new order while clinging to the grandeur of the old. It still does. The Ijesa, for their part, highlighted their imperial past to assert superiority “over their neighbours (including Ife),” conveniently ignoring myths that would place them in a subordinate lineage to Ile-Ife. Ile-Ife, as stated earlier, “ignored its military defeats and humiliation in the nineteenth century and quickly resorted to the Oduduwa myth to attain political prominence.” Across Yorubaland, even communities of relatively recent origin have invented traditions to trace their roots to Oduduwa, all in a bid to “derive certain political advantages.” Falola’s conclusion is that such “deliberate distortions of history and traditions” were strategies of survival in the turbulent eras of the past.

If 2025 feels like 1825 in crises and controversies, it would mean that two hundred years of Yoruba education and civilisation are a waste. Unprofitable exertions and meaningless supremacy contests between revered thrones repeat a dangerous cycle. The Yoruba elite should reflect and ask themselves if fetishising history and myths is the solution to insecurity and poverty that wrack their people’s present and imperil their survival. The wise does not fight himself. Enough should be enough.

The views expressed by contributors are strictly personal and not of Law & Society Magazine.