A public event in Abuja ended up having a twist in its tale when the Minister of Women Affairs and Social Development, Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, publicly interrupted the programme.
At the event organised by Mela-Chiyoma PAT Limited, Mrs. Kennedy-Ohanenye accused the organisers of impersonation.
According to a viral video, Minister Kennedy-Ohanenye was seen addressing bewildered attendees and apparently referring to the event organisers, stating, “That makes it a fraud. So that’s why I’m standing here to explain this to everyone. She has been arrested. She should have reorganise herself, used her name to make the invitation, and used her name to do this, not to use the Federal Ministry of Women Affairs.”
The minister decisively halted the proceedings, declaring, “I can’t allow this program to continue. I’m sorry about it.”
She explained the necessity of involving law enforcement agents, “We had to involve the police because this is pure impersonation, and the president is not happy about it. I’m saying it, let the media cover it, we don’t care. You don’t take the ministry for granted, for what?”
LEADERSHIP was unable to independently verify what the event was all about and when it took place at press time on Thursday.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights Expresses Deep Concern over incidents of human rights abuses in the context of the response to mass protests in Nigeria Aug 08, 2024
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (the Commission), through its Country Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Honourable Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso and the Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa, Honourable Rémy Ngoy Lumbu, follows with deep concern the human rights issues arising in the context of the response to the protests being held in Nigeria.
The Commission has received numerous reports that on 2 August 2024 and subsequent days incidents of clashes and fatalities took place in the context of the response of security and law enforcement personnel of Nigeria to the protests taking place in the country under the theme #EndBadGovernance.
The Commission deplores the tragic loss of life of at least 13 individuals during demonstrations in the context of the response of security and law enforcement agencies. Such loss of life when attributed to the actions of security or law enforcement forces could amount to violation of Article 4 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (African Charter). The African Commission wishes to remind Nigerian authorities that the jurisprudence of the Commission on the use of force including in its General Comment on the Right to Life under Article 4 of the African Charter requires that law enforcement agencies do not resort to the use of excessive force.
The Commission further echoes the condemnation by the National Human Rights Commission of Nigerian of the violations to which journalists were subjected by the Nigerian Police at Eagle Square. Such treatment of journalists could amount to violations of Articles 5, 6 and 9 of the African Charter.
In light of these grave concerns, the Commission calls upon the Government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to take the following actions: Respect and ensure respect for the right to peaceful protest: The right to peaceful protest is enshrined under Article 11 of the African Charter. The Commission urges Nigeria to uphold and ensure respect for the right of Nigerians to engage in peaceful protests as part of the exercise of their freedom of assembly and association and adhere to the guidance issued by the National Human Rights Commission of Nigeria.
End actions by law enforcement agencies leading to loss of lives: Ensure that law enforcement agencies operate strictly within the confines of the law and the Constitution on the basis of the human and peoples’ rights standards the African Commission established for law enforcement agencies.
Independent Investigation and Accountability: Conduct thorough, independent and transparent investigations into the reported fatalities and the abuse of journalists and hold accountable those responsible for violations.
Engage in Dialogue and adopt corrective measures: Facilitate open and inclusive dialogue with protesters, civil society organizations and all concerned sectors of society to address the underlying causes of the protests and implement corrective measures agreed to during such dialogue.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights remains unwavering in its commitment to supporting the Federal Republic of Nigeria in upholding its human rights obligations and fostering a culture of respect for the rule of law, human rights, and constitutionalism.
Honourable Commissioner Solomon Ayele Dersso, PhD Country Rapporteur on Human Rights Situation in the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Honourable Rémy Ngoy Lumbu Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders and Focal Point on Reprisals in Africa
Nigerian women of different classes and creed gathered on Thursday at Alausa in Lagos to lend their voices against bad governance and hunger in the country.
Condemning the killing of innocent and defenseless Nigerians daring for protest the sorry state of the nation, the women led by the Convener of WOMANIFESTO a coalition of over 300 women groups and the Executive Director of Women Advocates Research and Documentation Center (WARDC), Abiola Akiode-Afolab maintained that the Nigerians need “Food Not Bullets / Dialogue not Death.”
A grieving widow, Esther Osaghae, has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of her husband, Fidelis Osaghae, at his workplace, ValChi Fast Foods and Bar, Angle 90 Branch, in Auchi, Edo State.
The woman, whose marriage was just a year old and still nursing a two-month-old baby, made the appeal in a letter.
Osaghae said she could not understand how her healthy husband, who left for work at about 2:30am, asking her to leave the door unlocked for him, suddenly died at his workplace.
According to her, something was fishy and she has refused to buy the story being sold by her husband’s boss, Valentine Oyemike, owner of ValChi Fast Foods, that Fidelis killed himself by drinking sniper at his workplace.
She further suspected that her husband must have been murdered after seeing dark patches and injuries on his body. She also noticed that his trouser was torn as if he was manhandled.
She opined that he appeared to have been tortured.
She said that drama occurred on July 28, 2024 and the matter was later moved to Auchi Police Station.
But rather than get justice, Osaghae alleged that the Divisional Police Officer in charge of Auchi Police Division tried to dissuade her from seeking an autopsy and then told her he suspected her and her sister of being behind the death of her husband.
She feels that the only person who could shed light on what happened to her husband, including explaining the strange marks on his body, was his boss, Oyemike, but the DPO dashed her hope, as he allegedly told her that Oyemike had also hinted that she and her sister, Omolara, were responsible for the death of Fidelis and that he believed him.
On August 6, 2024, Osaghae was again at the Police Station, but neither Oyemike nor anyone from his organisation was there.
This has become her lot since her husband died.
The Police at Auchi Division will invite them, but nobody from Fidelis’s office to represent the organisation.
She was disturbed that up to date, nobody had been arrested in connection with the questionable death of her husband.
Meanwhile, Esther maintained that she wanted to get to the root of the death of Fidelis.
Determined to get justice, Esther ran to Akin Fadeyi Foundation, a non-profit civil society organisation that leverages communication and technology to tackle corruption in Nigeria, social injustice, including cyberbullying, internet fraud, and other related areas while promoting integrity, transparency, and accountability in Nigeria.
AFF and Osaghae believe that if the IGP steps into the case, the truth will be unravelled, while justice will be achieved.
Our reporter reached out to Oyemike to find out from him what transpired on the fateful day that Fidelis died at his establishment, but he hung up the phone on the reporter, claiming it was a wrong number.
But Truecaller showed: “Oyemike Valentine.”
Our reporter further sent an SMS to Oyemike, but he also did not respond.
The Executive Director of AFF, Akin Fadeyi, said the body has worked with the Nigeria Police on numerous occasions, so he believed that the Police should be able to unravel the mystery behind the death of Fidelis.
Recalling the events before the death of her husband, Osaghae explained that Fidelis had been working with Oyemike for four years and before his death was a manager.
She explained that on July 28, Fidelis dashed home from his workplace, at about 2:30am, saying that he came to pick “something for his boss”.
She presumed it was money, stressing that her husband used to bring money belonging to the boss to the house and then would return it on the order of his boss.
It was an arrangement that both parties seemed to be comfortable with.
Osaghae said it was the usual practice for Fidelis to dash home from his office to pick “something” for his boss, then go back to the office.
She said that the same motorcycle that brought him to the house that fateful day waited and took him back to his workplace.
Before Fidelis left, however, he told her not to lock the door, so that he would not have to wake her when he returned home.
He also promised to call her via video, which was their usual practice, if something came up at his workplace and he would not be able to return.
She would later wake up at about 5am to discover that Fidelis was yet to come home.
She quickly called his line, but could not get him.
She then called his office, and a supervisor identified as Tracy picked up the call.
Crying broken heartedly, Osaghae said: “Tracy said that the situation was under control and hung up.
“I didn’t understand what she meant.
“I called endlessly, but this lady didn’t pick up.
“Later, at about 6am, a strange number called me, I picked up, and it was my husband’s boss, Valentine Oyemike, he said I should come to Favour Hospital, Afasho.
“I asked what happened to my husband, he said he was alright.
“My sister, Omolara, said that because I have a two-month-old baby, she would go in my place.
“She went there.
“The only thing I know is that when I would later go to that hospital, I was taken to the mortuary, and I saw Fidelis.
“I wondered what he was doing there, inside the mortuary, lying there.
“I need to know what happened to my husband.
“When I kept asking, his boss said that he killed himself by drinking sniper at the office.
“How’s that even possible?
“Our marriage is just a year old, and we have a two-month-old baby.
“He is not unhappy.
“I am not saying Valentine Oyemike killed my husband.
“I am saying that my husband died at his place of work and has marks on his body.
“I want to know the truth of how he died.”
Fadeyi described the case as “dicey and critical,” needing the involvement of the police high echelon rather than being left at the whims and caprices of the DPO of Auchi Division.
He said: “We want the IGP to give a marching order so that the mystery behind Fidelis’s death will be unravelled.
“We have called for the transfer of the case.
“The fact remains that a gentleman whose marriage is just a year old went to work at 1pm, dashed home at about 2:30am, saying his boss asked him to come and bring something for him, which is the norm, and then dashed out again, telling his wife not to lock the door, that he was coming back soon.
“The wife dozed off and when she woke up, it was at about 5am, she realised that her husband was not yet back, so she called his line, but he didn’t pick up.
“She then called his office, Tracy picked up and said that the situation was under control and hung up.
“Tracy refused to pick up subsequent calls from Fidelis’s wife.
“At about 6am, Mr. Valentine Oyemike called, and asked Esther to come to Favour Hospital, she asked why, and asked what happened to her husband, but no explanation was given to her.
“Her sister, Omolara, asked her to stay back because she was nursing a baby, while Omolara went to the hospital, saw Valentine and repeatedly asked for the whereabouts of Fidelis.
“Valentine took her to his car, where she saw the dead body of Fidelis.”
It would later be discovered that Oyemike brought Fidelis dead to the hospital and when Omolara examined the corpse, she noticed that there was a dark patch on his chest as if he was tortured.
“She also noticed bruises and that his trouser was torn.
“We understand that the hospital refused Oyemike to deposit Fidelis’s corpse.
“Someone removed Fidelis’s wedding ring.
“Oyemike said that Fidelis drank sniper, which means he killed himself, it’s clear he was tortured.
“We strongly believe that Fidelis was in the company of his boss until his death and the circumstances leading to his death are unclear.
“The Auchi Division DPO is in defence of Oyemike even without carrying out an investigation.
“The DPO advised Esther’s family to think properly of what they had written as statements, and that he was the only person the IGP would listen to in this case.
“Oyemike and Tracy are walking free, while the Police have made no arrest.
“Meanwhile, the family of the deceased are consistently invited to the police station.
“We understand Oyemike is an influential personality, having a hotel, restaurant and recreational centre in Auchi, so we called for the transfer of the case.
“We do not have confidence in the Auchi Police Station and its DPO.
“We are not accusing anyone; we just want the authorities to do their job and tell us how Fidelis died.
“We urge the IGP to handle this matter and bring it to a conclusion so that we can confidently get justice for Esther.”
Omolara said that the disposition of the DPO had been very disappointing.
She added: “The DPO said that he and Mr. Oyemike were suspecting Esther and I of killing Fidelis.
“The DPO was always speaking in defence of Mr. Oyemike, always stressing that Oyemike is a reputable man.
“Oyemike had not even come to pay a condolence visit to the family of his deceased employee, who supposedly died at his workplace while working for him!
“The DPO said that if we wanted to do the case, we would spend money, that autopsy alone was N600,000.
“He kept shutting me up whenever I wanted to speak.
“But we are not afraid of investigation.
“We want the case to be investigated.”
When our reporter contacted the Edo State Police Public Relations Officer, Joel Moses, in the morning hours of August 7, 2024, he said there was going to be a press statement concerning the issue.
However, some hours later, he responded thus: “The matter has been transferred to the State Criminal Investigations Department (SCID) for further investigation.
“The outcome will be made known as soon as the investigation is concluded.”
A Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the Lagos State Government to investigate the death of Pelumi Onifade, a 20-Year Old journalist with Gboah TV.
Onifade was arrested by the Police Task Force attached to the Lagos State Police Command during the #EndSARS protest in 2020, while covering the event.
He simply vanished and had not been seen, or heard from until his corpse was recently seen at the Ikorodu Mortuary.
This led to the call for a thorough investigation into his death.
The Media Rights Agenda, MRA, had taken up the case, filing a suit against the Police and the Lagos State Government demanding for an investigation into his death and circumstances surrounding how his body was found at Ikorodu Mortuary.
Hon. Justice Ayokunle Olayinka Faji’s verdict, mandating Lagos State Government to investigate the death of Onifade, includes an order for a coroner’s inquest to determine the cause of death as well as to identify and prosecute those responsible.
Idowu Adewale, MRA Communication Officer, in a statement on Tuesday, August 6, 2024, said the Group was bent on getting justice for the deceased.
Justice Faji acknowledged that while the Lagos State Attorney-General cannot conduct an inquest without a case file, section 74 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law of Lagos State empowers him to request it from the Commissioner of Police.
Although the Court dismissed five of MRA’s claims against the Police due to insufficient evidence, Justice Faji noted that the Attorney-General did not contest any facts in MRA’s affidavit but raised a legal issue instead. The Attorney-General’s counsel also committed to conducting an inquest during oral arguments.
The suit, filed on August 4, 2021, by Lagos-based lawyer, Charles Musa, sought declarations that Onifade’s shooting and subsequent arrest by Police agents violated his fundamental rights.
MRA also requested the court to direct the authorities to investigate the death transparently and independently, conduct a coroner’s inquest, and prosecute those found responsible.
Justice Faji highlighted that the Police did not respond to the suit, and there was no supporting documentation for claims about the mortuary.
He however, commended the Attorney-General’s office for its cooperation noting that the Attorney-General had a duty to conduct an inquest into Onifade’s death.
A recent study on Sexual and Gender Based Violence (SGBV) in Nigeria has revealed that cases of sexual harassment, rape, molestation, unprotected sexual activities, substance abuse and commercial sex remains a frequent occurrence in Nigerian tertiary Institutions.
The study conducted by a research team from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife also reveled that unsafe locations and “ungoverned spaces” within campuses due to poor illumination especially at night are largely scenes of such incidences of sexual assault in many tertiary institutions.
The team, comprising eight top academics, is led by a one-time Vice-Chancellor of Tai Solarin University of Education, Ijebu-Ode, Prof Oluyemisi Obilade as Principal Investigator, also included Prof. Olutoyin Mejiuni of the Adult Education and Life-long Learning Department, Obafemi Awolowo University as well as the Institution’s Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Research, Innovation and Development, Prof Akanni Akinyemi.
Other co-researchers are Dr Oluwatoyin Ilesanmi of Redeemers University, Ede, Dr Lanre Ikuteyijo of OAU’s Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Dr Bisola Adebayo of Lagos State University Teaching Hospital.
The others are Dr Oyeyemi Bukola Babalola and Mr Tope Aborisade, both of Department of Psychology at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife.
On Tuesday 6th August, 2024, a well attended dissemination/validation workshop held and was graced by the University’s Vice-Chancellor, Prof Adebayo Simeon Bamire, represented by his Deputy as well as the Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Amb. Gabriel Tanimu Aduda.
Other top government functionaries in attendance included the Osun State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Prof. Ademola Adeleke, representative of the State Commissioner of Ministry of Women Affairs, Ms Lola Adewale, Director, Gender, Ministry of Human Services and Social Development, Kaduna State, Mrs Lamin Usman.
Also in attendance were representatives from the National Universities Commission, Mrs Oge Okafor and Medical Directors from University of Abuja and Federal College of Education, Zuba.
Making her presentation, the Principal Investigator, Prof. Obilade disclosed that findings have revealed that many reported cases of sexual violence and abuse are more prevalent in campuses where students are predominantly residing off campuses.
According to her, the study was conducted in selected public and private universities, polytechnics and College of Education across four nigerian states, Osun, Enugu, Kaduna and FCT, Abuja.
More specifically, the institutions covered are OAU, Bowen University, Iwo, Kaduna Polytechnic, College of Education, Zuba, Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Kaduna State University, University of Abuja, College of Education, Ilesa and Enugu State University of Technology.
For methodology, Obilade said cross-sectional sequential mixed-method design was used involving both quantitative and qualitative techniques were used for data collection.
Speaking on further findings of the study, she said cases of violations of SGBV especially rape, sexual harassment and sexual exploitation of females were rampantly reported in many institutions and shockingly male students are vulnerable.
Among factors believed to be triggering the incidences of violations of SGBV are personal drivers which include poor academic performance, desire for better grades by students, financial limitations, alcohol and substance use.
The findings also revealed other structural and environmental drivers which are not personal to the individuals concerned.
Obilade said: “There are systemic issues with the Institutions concerned which are not within the individuals affected. This includes unsafe and ungoverned spaces.
“There are SGBV-enabling environment, for instance, the dark spots on campuses, inadequate security arrangements on/off campuses, poor illumination and poor security surveillance around campuses.
“Our findings revealed that female students are mostly raped in such dangerous and isolated areas.”
The findings also listed perpetrators of SGBV incidences in tertiary institutions to include, academic and administrative staff, students, family members, strangers and neighbours of students especially those residing off campuses.
Earlier in his speech at the workshop, Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Women Affairs, Amb. Gabriel Tanimu Aduda commended Obafemi Awolowo University and the Tertiary Education Trust Fund (Tetfund) through the National Research Fund Grant for putting together the timely initiative.
Represented by a Director in the Ministry, Mrs Udeme, the PS expressed hope that the research findings will undoubtedly help in policy formulation and strategy that will ensure a safe and conducive learning environment for our students especially the female students who are often victims of SGBV.
Aduda stressed: “I congratulate the Principal Investigator and her research team for their intellectual excellence that brought about the success of this research, I like to implore us to continue to hold one another accountable for addressing root causes of Sexual and Gender Based violence and ensure proper sanctions are meted out on perpetrators as stipulated by the law.”
A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, Deputy Director-General, Nigerian Law School and pioneer Head of Yenagoa Campus, Bayelsa State, Prof. Festus Emiri has expressed concern over the state the legal profession in Nigeria.
Weeks ago, a survey conducted and published by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, in collaboration with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, revealed that Nigeria’s public officials received N721billion cash bribes in 2023, with judges topping the list of the recipients. This has continued to generate reactions.
After the publication, Olu Fasan a Visiting Fellow in the International Relations Department of the London School of Economics (LSE),and a senior adviser on energy and climate change policy with the UK Government warned that, “This is not a trivial matter. Judges are next to God in terms of their powers: they can order the incarceration or execution of a person; they can decide who is a legislator or a governor; they can set a country in any direction.’
Continuing, he stated that: “Recently, the Supreme Court changed the Constitution in the local government autonomy case, and everybody said whatever the court says is final. Yet, last year, the respected senior lawyer, Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, a former president of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, told Channels TV: ‘I’ve lost confidence in what the courts have been doing lately,” adding that “facts and law no longer form the basis of Supreme Court decisions.’ But if facts and law don’t influence the decisions of judges, if, instead, bribery and political pressure determine their rulings, what is the future of a country suffused with such judges? It’s a dreadful future indeed! “
In a recent publication titled “Nigerian Bar Association – dead and buried”, the Duke of Shomolu said: “The judiciary has been made a mockery by the cascading collapse of values in the general society and also by the inherent indiscipline and collapse of ethical guidelines within their fold and this is why, today the NBA is but a caricature of its former self. Should we cry for them?”
Prof. Festus Emiri, SAN captures the situation this way: “Sad that the profession of law that should help society is itself in need of redemption in Nigeria.
“It is a shame that the judiciary has largely snowballed from being the “last” to the “lost” hope of the common man, subjecting itself to “deep-pocket” capture.
“There’s no doubt that some of our judges are honest and competent but like lawyers (and I dare say even law teachers inclusive) a bunch are morally deficient.
“When some of us read unnecessary long court opinion some spanning over hundreds of pages we simply conclude like the famous literary scholar George Orwell in “Shooting the Elephant” that “when there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms.”
“Who can blame Dick the Butcher in Henry VI call: the first thing we do, let’s kill all the lawyers.
“Sad and I hope our profession in Nigeria doesn’t suffer like the disgraced science of phrenology. Respected colleagues this is my one kobo contribution.”
We have a problem at our hands and a very serious one. Our collective complacency has climaxed to the dangerous situation we have now.
Yesterday, rival thugs attacked innocent people along Zoo Road, killing 4. They claimed they were on revenge on the mission because their gang leader from Sheka was killed on the 1st of August protests. There are reports all over Kano of thugs having free day molesting people, looting properties, and damaging others. The people of Kano have been living with this for years, but now it has reached a dangerous level.
Kano has been taken over by thugs, miscreants, drunkards, and weed smoking criminals. We are at their mercy. These dangerous Cutlass wielding thugs range from 11 years to 30 years. They are deadly, and they are in hundreds of thousands. They operate in districts and zones. They have different affiliations and modus of operation.
They represent a significant part of our youth’s population. They are school drop outs, migrants from neighbouring states and neighbouring countries, and of course wandering street beggars who have been waiting for opportunities to pounce on people. Don’t forget, these are the same people terrorising Kano residence, snatching phones, killing and maiming policemen.
I am afraid we are living on a keg powder, a time bomb that is worse than Maitasine. Before our own eyes, a monster is brewing, growing, and soon may consume all of us. These are children living within us, people we know and we used during elections, dumping them thereafter only to be recalled when the need arises. Before our own eyes, people from far and near and from across our borders troop into Kano, settle down among us without questions being asked.
I am afraid because there is no coordination between our Chief Security Officer and our security formation in Kano, leaving the governor to be apportioning blames and complaining. I am afraid because our traditional institutions are fragmented and divided and therefore could not call on people, and even if they do , people’s allegiances are based on the political party they belong to.
Kano is in total confusion and chaos, and in the absence of leadership, these thugs are assuming the roles of our leaders now. I am really afraid of the ugly incidents of the last 48 hours.
My prayers;
1.) President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, please resolve the political impasse in Kano. Call for true reconciliation among the royal fathers and resolve the Emirship matter. We need to know who our Emir is in Kano. We need unity among our traditional institutions. Summon all Kano elders and important stakeholders and use your position as father to all to unite Kano.
2). President Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu Kano State has a special place not only in Nigeria but in the entire Sahel. Kano’s economic and political position in Nigeria is well known to all of us. Kano is the melting pot of all tribes and people from all parts of the north and neighbouring Sahel countries. Kano should be given a special status, and I am pleading with the federal government to have a special intervention for Kano to look at this thuggery issue and our teeming jobless youths.
Kano’s problem should not be reduced to Ganduje versus Kwankwaso or APC vs. NNPP. Kano is more than that, and its importance in the stability of this country can not over be emphasized.
3). Governor of Kano State, please come out from your narrow political party affiliation. You are the governor of Kano State, not the governor of NNPP or Kwankwasiyya. Come out from your current position of weakness to a position of strength. Stop apportionment of blame, especially your wordings on the issue of security. You have a bigger problem with Yandaba and millions of jobless youths in Kano. Marshall put out a plan on how to deal with thuggery and miscreants in Kano. Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf, we have an existential threat in Kano. Kano doesn’t need an underpass and flyovers at the moment. We need to channel all our resources into building agriculture, vocational training centres, and skill acquisition centres for our teeming jobless youths not only for Kwankwasiyya youths. Elections are over, and it is time for governance. Have a deliberate plan for millions of jobless youths, not for only a few hundred people. We need maximum cooperation and harmonious working relationships with our security formation. They need your support more than any other time.
4). Our security formation, especially Nigeria Police Force, should work with our governor and respect him. He is the Chief Security Officer in the State. Undermining his authority is not helpful in this present situation. You have a bigger problem of containing the rampaging thugs and it is your primary duty to provide security for the lives and properties of Kano people.
5). Our communities, especially in metropolitan Kano, have to be vigilant. These miscreants are living among us. We know them, and they are our children. We have already abdicated from our parental responsibilities of mentoring our children. This is exactly what brought us into this quagmire. We must work and cooperate with security to fish out these criminals whether they are our biological children or neighbors. We must participate in a massive reorientation program involving CBOS, CSOs , local and state governments, and our ulamas and traditional leaders to reorient our people and deliberately and massively invest in the younger ones. It is already late but not too late. We must be very vigilant to know the strangers living among us and start asking genuine questions on why we are so porous and having a non challant attitude on our collective security.
We have been sleeping and so complacent for a long time. Something must be done, or we will all be very sorry. I am so afraid.
To say the least, I am shocked to hear the sudden death of Engr Fred Ogbeide, a secondary class mate. Just yesterday we were discussing the epidemic of sudden death in Nigeria. Onyeka Onwenu and co. are the public figures we know. But there are other unknown figures who have equally died
You see someone today seemingly bubbling in the best state of health but tomorrow he is gone, snatched away by the icy hands of death. What is happening to us? I can give you names of people who have fallen victims of sudden death. Last week I was in Enugu only to see a big Billboard announcing the funeral rites of a sudden death victim Arch Ferdinand Aguh. Feddi was a friend. I chat with him regularly on WhatsApp. So his sudden death is unbelievable
So, what’s happening? We must start going for regular medical checkups. We must take this life easy. Running helter skelter for what? It is not worth the trouble. Preserve your health. Get enough sleep. And go home once you express any symptom of tiredness
I am not a medical doctor. So don’t take me seriously. But is it not common sense? It is.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu should count himself lucky. What he feared most has happened to him. What his predecessors in office could not do, he has done effortlessly. What others before him, including him, had used in the past to deceive Nigerians, while campaigning, but would never do when they got to the office, God has made it happen for Tinubu, seamlessly! Nobody can use it for political sloganeering anymore. Nigeria is ‘restructured’ without anyone calling for a roundtable discussion. Nature abhors vacuum. The cosmic has taken care of our desires.
We can no longer live under the pretence of Nigeria being one. The August 1, 2024 ‘nationwide protest’ that is no protest, has taken care of that for us. I have never believed in the ‘protest’. I have never believed that it would achieve anything. But I have been proved wrong! The ‘protest’ has brought to the fore the uniqueness of the three regions that constitute Nigeria.
The North has remained monolithic with the outcome of the ‘protest’ over there. Those children of the North have demonstrated to us in practical forms what their forebears had hidden from us for ages. The North does not think like the rest of the nation. Hunger also has its different forms. We now know that when people are hungry over there in the North, anything becomes edible. Computers now taste like masara (maize). Furniture tastes like tuwo shinkafa delicacies. Concrete slabs and iron rods are jollof rice spices. One of the ‘protesters’ in Kano carried a placard with the inscription that the price of ‘weed’ (Indian Hemp) should be reduced. I agreed with him. Once one is dazed, hunger will no longer be felt! What afflicts the North is different from what afflicts the South. It is like a case of the affliction of the mother being different from that of her child. The child is crying for breast milk, the mother needs a plate of amala to be able to lactate very well!
Even in the preparation for the ‘protest’, the North had its own agenda. It became open to us all that what afflict them is the temporary loss of power to the South. So, the ‘protest’ provided an opportunity for the leaders of the North to relieve themselves of the bottled-up frustration. Their foot soldiers who invaded the Palace of the Sultan of Sokoto in the name of #EndBadGovernance ‘protest’ asked, openly, for the Military to take over. Their war cry was Sojaji muke so (Soldiers take over). For them over there, bad governance ends only when the Military takes over, and a General Halidu Maisari Maiduguru is announced as the Head of State! Shame! In Kano, they paraded the streets, flying Russian flags! Yes, the North has a message for us in the ‘protest’, to wit: we will rather go our own way than lose power to the South. My reading of the ‘protest’ over there, of course. Why those boys did not shout yancin kai (independence) or araba (secession), beats my imagination!
I have been wondering if any leader in the North who contributed to the warped reasoning of those completely untrainable children we saw in the various videos of the ‘protest’ has sat down to ruminate over the creatures the region has donated to the Federation. What goes on in their minds now, I mean the leaders over there, who for decades have held the poor children of the North down, depriving them of any vestige of education? Do they think, as I do, that the next round of ‘protest’ will come for them, the leaders? I can imagine (God forbid o), that in the name of a ‘protest’, I found myself in a library! The police and other state authorities would arrest me reading! I can’t imagine how I would be able to take my eyes off the collections in the library; of how many synopses of the books I quickly want to read. But not so with the ‘protesters’ of the North. The brooms, waste bins and window frames are of more value to them. Someone made them like that. We are all in trouble. So much for the ‘protesters’ across the Niger River! A Mas’ud Muhammad Yakubu, who claimed to be a “Youth Copper” in the Federal University, Dutse, and holds a B. Sc in Criminology and Security Studies, captures the whole event in his “I am afraid, we have a problem in Kano!” piece that has since gone viral!
Let us look at the ‘protest’ in the South-East. I say this with every sense of honesty: if there is anytime I wish I were of Igbo stock, it is now. During the preparation for the ‘protest’, I was apprehensive. I asked myself whether the Ndigbo would allow the thunder to strike them for the second time on the same spot. I was alarmed. The genocidal campaign against the Ndigbo over the ‘protest’ was palpable; very ominous! Who would talk to my kedu, odinma brothers; who would lend them brains? Lagos was waiting for them. The “Oro Court”, as my great senior and Students’ Union President at the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile-Ife, Akeem Adeola Soetan, is wont to call them, was waiting for the Ndigbo in Lagos.
Alas! The Ndigbo proved to be the wisest of all ‘protesters’ in all! Rather than hit the streets and be slaughtered like it happened in the 1966 pogrom in the North, the Ndigbo hit their homes. They borrowed the debased cliché of Senator Godswill Akpabio, our Senate President, who said that while those who wanted to protest could go ahead, he and other warped minds would be in their homes making merriment! The sons and daughters of Ndigbo did what those waiting in the wings for them did not expect. They stayed indoors, drinking and winning. One of them, a friend, even had the temerity to send me a video of him eating ugba and fish and washing it down with fresh juice. Ka bu ndu, (is this life?) was my response!
Even in their five states of Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo, there was peace. Rather than making themselves available for the security agents kitted with deadly arsenals to ‘curtail’ the ‘protest’ in the East, the Ndigbo locked up their shops and imposed on themselves “sit-at-home”! In frustration, and somewhere in Lagos, when the ‘waiting-in-the-wings’ state thugs stationed to “deal” with the Igbo boys and girls that would come out to protest, they mistook a Yoruba lady, one Olufunmilayo for an Igbo. I watched the video of the encounter, and I shook my head. Does hunger separate tribes? What if Olufunmilayo had turned out to be an Ibo lady? That is the question I have not been able to answer.
Granted, we have so many Ndigbo guys that are terribly bad. I have encountered a lot of them. But the Ndigbo are in good company as other tribes of the nation also have their own fair share of the bad and the ugly. We also equally have so many fantastic ones too that through them, you would wish to be an Ndigbo. Every tribe has such two categories. Even the North has so many other fellows that are more rational in thinking than many educated southerners. So, why should we prepare the slaughter slabs for an ethnic group over a ‘nationwide protest’ because our man is in power? What is the difference between the proponents of the “Ndigbo must go” campaign and the Kano boys who went to a library and looted brooms and dustbins leaving books intact?
We are talking of hunger that is ravaging the entire nation here. But even at that, there are still some people who don’t feel the pang like others. If a bag of rice goes for N100,000 today, and a bag of beans goes for N500,000, that Alaba International Market Igbo traders will buy them, while the ora esa (all right sir) streets urchins unleashed on the ‘protesters’ will still be on the streets begging! Now that the Ndigbo have shown that they can be ‘peaceful’ in the face of State provocation, who carries the shame? This, however, does not mean that the South-East is completely free from the malady that afflicts the entire country. But in this instance, the region has demonstrated that it could also do things differently from the ‘nzogbu nzogbu’ battle cry! That is a new lesson for us that the East thinks differently. But the greatest ‘restructuring’ from the South-East to the rest of us in this ‘protest’ is that should the country go aflame, the Ndigbo will watch from afar. I may be wrong!
Now, we come to the ‘sophisticated’ South-West, and to a great extent, the South-South. I wept for Yorubaland! The region proved to be the most unfortunate group in the ‘protest’,, which ensured that everything about the hunger in the land is as a result of the ‘hatred’ for Tinubu! I feel so ashamed each time I come across the state-sponsored narratives that have emanated from the South-West over this ‘protest’.
Again, the pro-government groups and individuals in the South-West have also shown that Nigeria is a superglued nation! For many of these ‘Hallelujah’ groups, it doesn’t matter if Tinubu performs in office or not as long as it is a Yoruba man that is there! They don’t care if or not their man would be leaving behind any legacy. These are the set of people (very many of them hungry and beggarly), who have taken the “Èmilókán” campaign to a level that no matter how fatuous a government policy is, as long it is Tinubu that initiated it, ‘all true sons and daughters of Yorubaland’ must embrace it! To them, with that kind of thinking faculty, the hunger in the land is because people lost elections. The inability of farmers to go to their farms because of farmers’/herders’ clashes can be traced to election losers. The floating of the Naira, poor economic policies of the government and the extravagance at all levels of government is all about 2027. Pity!
When you have a president surrounded by unfeeling aides, you cannot but have the type of address that President Tinubu delivered on Sunday to the “protesters” and their agitations, where the President said nothing! For me, I never expected anything from Aso Rock, and when I got nothing, I was least bothered! “There’s something I have to tell you: How to communicate difficult news in tough situations”, is authored by Charles Foster, a licensed psychotherapist. In closing, I have something to tell President Tinubu thus: Sir, there was no protest on August 1. You have nothing to fear. That is why your broadcast did not convey anything!
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