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Hope, hurt and the coming elections, By Suyi Ayodele

Alexander Pope (1688–1744), the 18th-century English poet and satirist, is known for his numerous famous quotes from his works. However, the one believed to be his most famous is the one referred to as Alexander’s ‘Ninth Beatitude.’ It was part of his October 6, 1727 letter to John Gay (1685-1732), a fellow Tory satirist and member of the Scriblerus Club.

In that famous correspondence, Alexander quipped: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” The poet, regarded as the second most quoted writer in English after Shakespeare, gave the advice while relating his numerous disappointments in America after leaving Zimbabwe for the so-called God’s Own country!

He wrote in the opening paragraph of the famous letter thus: “Yes, of all the emotions that I have experienced since my arrival in America, disappointment is the greatest…. I cannot help but repress a despondent sigh. So this is America? I feel so let down.”

Alexander, the best of the Augustan Literature, posited with the quote that man can achieve inner peace if he let go of rigid expectations, especially from fellow human beings. He encouraged men to reduce expectations drastically, face the realities of their situations, and appreciate life in its present form while not totally abandoning efforts to improve their conditions.

A 15-minute-28-second video of a 99-year-old British woman surfaced on the internet last week. It is one of the most heart-wrenching scenes I have ever come across. In the video, the nonagenarian, who lives in a care home, abandoned by all her three children, narrates how all she laboured for disappeared after her grown-up children coerced her into selling her home, and shared the proceeds among them.

Read Also: ‘Justice for Terrorists, Abandonment for Victims?’ Survivors accuse government of betrayal, as FG defends Boko Haram reintegration

One of the daughters who had promised to accommodate and cater for her for the rest of her life soon ejected her after barely eight months and sent her to a flat paid for by the old woman herself.   According to her, the same daughter, who lives just 20 minutes away from the care home, hardly visits.

The sons, too busy to visit, spend barely 30 minutes with her whenever they visit. The mother of three had hopes while raising the children. She had hoped that at her old age, they would be there to take care of her. That was why she spared nothing to train them, give them good education and cater to their needs, especially after their father’s death in 1998.

 At 99, the poor old woman, already at her departure lounge, had to put herself in a care home when her little reserve got exhausted! She cried at the beginning of the video, but for the duration of the video, she demonstrated high mental stability.

The thrust of her message is for parents to, while playing the good parent roles, also think about their own personal comfort at old age! The African worldview places a premium on the upbringing of the children with a hope of a better future when old age comes. But is that usually the case? Do children meet the expectations of their parents in old age? Should the Black man begin to think about his personal welfare at old age instead of breaking all his limbs for his children while he was still at his prime?

The video in discourse answers the questions. It is as didactic as it is tragic! Only God knows how many parents in their old ages are experiencing what the 99-year-old Briton is going through at the moment. We pray to reap the fruits of our labour. But what happens if the fruits refuse to fall for us to eat? God forbid, you say? No problem. The video in question says you should first forbid yourself!

Some say the video is AI-generated. They may be right. But whether it is AI-generated or a true-life story, the message in it resonates with all here who are 60 years and above, lonely and alone.

Reflecting on the video, I have been able to draw a similarity between the children of the old woman and our politicians. How many of our expectations have the political leaders been able to meet? Are Nigerians not in different ‘care homes’, abandoned by those we placed our destiny in their hands?

What do we get in terms of ‘constituency projects from our politicians? Are they not grinding machines, Okada or Keke, generators and other worthless items? In one South-South state, constituents got four yards of fabric from their senator- packaged as democratic dividends. The people clapped for him. In that same state, a senator has been sharing cutlasses, hoes and some seedlings of cocoa and cashew as empowerment! We appear to be doomed.

Up North is not better. A governor shared wheelbarrows and shovels to his people as empowerment! One federal legislator ‘commissioned’ an electric pole in a state in the North-Central, just as one gave out shoe-making kits to empower those who elected him. When we complain of insecurity, the Federal Government sends rice. When hundreds of people are killed by mindless felons, the government at the centre still sends bags of rice.

We often talk about the economic crunch occasioned by the voodoo economic policies of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. The response we get on each occasion is the 10-kg bags of rice as ‘palliative!’ Which aspect of the nation has been made better by this government? Our roads are in bad shape but the government is spending trillions of Naira on the Coastal highway and the Sokoto-Lagos highway, with the contracts awarded, without any public bid, to the friends and cronies of the President, or to companies where the President or his relations have appreciable interest!

Check our hospitals. They are all death centres. The common man cannot afford the ones that appear to be working because of the high cost. The National Institute of Health, in a recent document listed “Top Chronic & Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs)” to include: “Hypertension (High Blood Pressure), which affects roughly 1 in 4 Nigerians, acting as a ‘silent killer.’ Stroke (Cerebrovascular Disease): A primary driver of neurological disability, appearing at high rates even in young adults; Diabetes Mellitus: A major cause of chronic illness (approx. 13.9% prevalence in some studies); Chronic Kidney Disease: There is an alarmingly high incidence of this disease, particularly in Northeast Nigeria; Cancer: Common types include breast, cervical, and prostate cancers and Mental Health Disorders: Affects 20-30% of the population, with depression and anxiety heavily under-treated due to stigma.”

Pray, which of these listed ailments can any hospital in Nigeria handle successfully? My town’s man and mentor died at the University Teaching Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, a year ago. We had to transport his remains back to Oyo town for preservation pending his final funeral rites in Ekiti. Why? UCH had no electricity supply for months and the morgue system collapsed. That was the same hospital which had the privilege of treating the King of Saudi Arabia in the early 70s!

Yet we have leaders who promised us life more abundant – leaders who paid lip service to letting the poor breathe while they ended up smouldering life out of the majority and leaving the rest between life and death! Rather than give us what they promised, they abandon our hospitals and embark on health tourism to hospitals in the West! There was a time when the late President Muhammadu Buhari and the former Head of State, General Abudusalami Abubakar, were guests at the same hospital in faraway London, United Kingdom! What can be more shameful!

I checked how many times president Tinubu has visited France since he assumed office on May 29, 2023. The response I got is troubling. Cumulatively, Tinubu has visited France 11 times. In his three-year presidency, he has spent 89 days in France out of the 237 total days he has spent outside the shores of this country. Read the result in its raw form:

“President Tinubu has been outside Nigeria for 237 days since May 2023, about 24% of his total time in office so far. Since taking office in 2023, President Bola Tinubu has spent 237 days outside Nigeria, with France accounting for the largest share at 89 days; no other country comes close. The United Kingdom follows at 28 days, while the UAE, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia trail behind. This pattern points to a presidency that has placed strong emphasis on international engagement, particularly with Europe, and especially with France, which has emerged as his most frequent foreign base.”

How on earth will an ambulant President be able to pay attention to the promises he made to the people. How will he be able to appreciate the fact that in our teaching hospitals, the pain relievers are what patients are loaded with, when, at the slightest discomfort from headache, the President is off to France or London? The President is not the only guilty party here. Half of our state governors stay in Abuja while insecurity reigns supreme in their states!

I heard one of the President’s ‘friends’ argue the other time that former President Olusegun Obasanjo spent half of his first term globetrotting.  The question the fella failed to answer is: did the country record visible gains from Obasanjo’s numerous trips? If yes, can we say the same about Olabisi Ajala’s cousin who currently occupies Aso Rock Villa?!

If the Tinubu administration has nothing to show for the President’s numerous foreign trips, he should be encouraged to learn from the wisdom of the elders that Bí eégún Alaagba bá ròde tí ò bà r’ówó mú wá’lé, tí ò sí lérò léhìn; idán ò tó, òkìtì ò tó ni – if the chief masquerade comes home empty-handed and without the usual crowd, it means his magic was poor and its stunts inadequate.

Promises! Expectations! We are back in season again. Politicking has commenced and governance has taken its usual back seat. Our politicians are on the field now. One, a former senator and two-term governor of Cross River State, Professor Ben Ayade, wept bitterly the other week because the Presidency truncated his return to the senate. Here is a man who made no meaningful impact when he was in the saddle for eight years.

The Nollywood fine boy, Desmond Elliot, is running from pillar to post in his Surulere Federal Constituency 1, seeking for a fourth term in the Lagos State House of Assembly. All his people point out to as his ‘constituency project’ are two latrines at the Ojuelegba Bridge, in Lagos!

Ironically, the man acting as Elliot’s stumbling block is Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President. Gbajamibiala holds the view that Elliot is not the only competent person from his constituency. Yet, Gbajabiamila was in the House of Representatives for five consecutive terms representing the Surulere Federal Constituency and won his sixth term before he was appointed by Tinubu as CoS! What do they mean by the saying: “The pot calling the kettle black?”

We have lamented the pain inflicted upon us by this government in the last three years. The same set of swarms of locusts is out again asking for our mandate. They are out with a puny faction of our patrimony they appropriated to themselves. Someone sent a video of how our senators arrive at the National Assembly. It is grandiose in its crude form! Nobody would believe the luxury they display given that poverty walks in three-piece suits on our streets!

Now that the same caterpillars and cankerworms are back on the field, are Nigerians going to take the peanuts they are offering and vote for them? Or are the people wiser enough to say no and vote according to their conscience?

Penultimate week, a man parked his clean SUV on the Third Mainland Bridge and took a dive into the ocean! Thankfully, he was rescued. Almost that same time, another young man drove his SUV into the Ikpoba River in Benin City. We have countless cases like that of those who could not face the realities of the hard times we are in.

Businesses fail daily here. People’s finances nosedive because of the daily hyperinflation. Many hopes have been dashed because the leaders who promised 24-hour electricity have since detached Aso Rock Villa from the National Grid in a to-your-tent-oh-Israel manner that left many frustrated! Governors who promised security move about with well-armed escorts. Only the citizens are at the mercy of killer herdsmen, bandits and terrorists. But they are back for our votes.

Thanks to Alexander Pope and the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers of old who cautioned that men ought not to expect so that they would not be disappointed. If I were asked my best Ifa Corpus, I would easily choose Ogunda Meji. That is where Orunmila teaches that one should only hope on one’s destiny (Ori). The Odù Ifá, after asking all the other deities who among them can take man to the expected end, and they all fail, Orunmila turns to Ori (destiny) and pronounces it as the one who has the capacity to take a man to his expected end – Orí nìkan ló tó Alásàán báá r’òkun!

And this is my divination message to Nigerians as they are faced with the no-choice choices facing them in the new political dispensation. The people should take their destiny in their hands. They know those they had tested, trusted and hoped on in the past but who paid them back with failures. Nothing has changed and nothing will ever change.

So, let the people try something new; let them experiment with those who still bear a semblance of innocence. Above all, If I were to divine for Nigerians, again, I would simply ask them to recite the old lines of the ancient Babalawo, who after all efforts failed, asked Orunmila how he made it, and Agboniregun responds: Isé orí rán mi ni mò ún jé/Ònà tí Olúdùmarè là sílè ni mò ún tò (I answer the call of my destiny/I follow the path set before me by my maker).

Nigeria was once great before the locusts came. It can be great again if the people choose wisely and have less expectations. The words of Alexander Pope are still potent!

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

Tobenna Erojikwe v NBA:  Court of Appeal reserves judgment in explosive NBA election transparency battle

A high-stakes legal battle threatening to shake confidence in the Nigerian Bar Association’s electronic voting system was finally heard at the Court of Appeal in Abuja on Monday, as lawyers clashed over allegations that the association withheld critical election materials from a candidate challenging the transparency of its controversial 2024 presidential poll.

The appeal, filed by Tobenna Erojikwe, the first runner-up in the July 2024 NBA presidential election, is rapidly becoming one of the most consequential internal legal disputes the NBA has faced in years, raising uncomfortable questions about transparency, electronic voting integrity, institutional accountability, and whether Nigeria’s most influential legal body is willing to obey its own constitution.

After months of adjournments, procedural delays, and growing speculation within legal circles, the matter was finally argued on Monday before the Abuja Division of the Court of Appeal alongside a cross-appeal filed by the NBA itself.

“The Electronic Voting System Must Be Above Reproach”

Arguing before the appellate court, counsel to Erojikwe Okechukwu Umemuo, framed the dispute as far bigger than a personal grievance over election results.

He told the court the appeal was fundamentally about enforcing the NBA’s own constitutional obligations under the Second Schedule, Part II, Paragraph 8 of the NBA Constitution, which mandates the association to provide access to election-related materials, databases, and records in the interest of openness and transparency.

According to the appellant, the provision was deliberately designed to ensure confidence in the NBA’s electronic voting process and protect the legitimacy of leaders produced through digital elections.

“The electronic voting system of the NBA must be above reproach,” counsel argued, insisting that members of the legal profession deserve confidence in the integrity of the process used to elect their leadership.

Erojikwe is asking the appellate court to overturn the lower court ruling and compel the NBA and other respondents to release materials used in the conduct of the 2024 election audit.

NBA Pushes Back, Questions Appeal Jurisdiction

The NBA, however, urged the Court of Appeal to dismiss the case entirely.

Senior counsel representing the association, Abdul Ibrahim, SAN, argued that the NBA had already provided all relevant information requested by the appellant except for the personal data of voters, which it said raised legitimate privacy concerns.

Notably, however, counsel did not specify exactly which election materials had allegedly been released.

The NBA also pressed a cross-appeal asking the Court of Appeal to decline jurisdiction altogether,  a move some observers interpret as an aggressive attempt to shut down judicial scrutiny of the association’s internal electoral processes.

The third respondent, ElectionBuddy, was absent from proceedings.

Counsel to the appellant subsequently applied under Order 19 Rule 9(4) for ElectionBuddy’s brief to be deemed properly argued despite the absence. The court granted the application.

After hearing arguments from both sides, the appellate court reserved judgment to a later date yet to be communicated to the parties.

Missing Documents, Adjournments and Mounting Suspicion

The case has already become a flashpoint within Nigeria’s legal community after repeated adjournments and unusual procedural disruptions fuelled suspicions of deliberate delay tactics.

At an earlier hearing, NBA lawyers sought an adjournment, citing travel difficulties preventing their appearance in Abuja.

Counsel to Erojikwe, however, strongly opposed the request and urged the court to invoke Order 6 Rule 8(2) of the Court of Appeal Rules 2021, which allows matters to proceed where parties have already filed written addresses, even if counsel fail to appear.

The court rejected the adjournment application.

But just as proceedings appeared ready to continue, another controversy erupted when key documents, including portions of the respondents’  filings, were reportedly missing from the justices’ case files despite indications they had earlier been confirmed by registry officials.

The development abruptly stalled proceedings and intensified murmurs inside the legal community.

The Constitutional and Legal Battle

The dispute now sits at the intersection of constitutional governance, electoral transparency, and data privacy law.

At the trial court, the NBA successfully argued that releasing certain election materials could violate voter privacy protections.

The High Court of the Federal Capital Territory ruled that Erojikwe would need consent from lawyers who participated in the election before accessing some of the requested records.

Supporters of the appeal insist that interpretation dangerously weakens electoral accountability.

They argue that the lower court failed to properly consider exceptions contained in Nigeria’s data protection and public-interest legal framework, particularly where disclosure is necessary to test the integrity of an electoral process.

Some lawyers privately compare the ruling to requiring presidential candidates to obtain consent from every Nigerian voter before accessing election records from the Independent National Electoral Commission.

The NBA, however, maintains that the appellant failed to discharge the evidentiary burden required under Section 133 of the Evidence Act 2011 and relied heavily on the appellate authority in Oyovbiare v Omamurhomu to argue that no perversity had been shown in the lower court’s judgment.

A Bigger Crisis for the NBA?

What began as an election records dispute is now evolving into something potentially more damaging for the NBA: a credibility crisis.

The NBA has long positioned itself as one of Nigeria’s loudest institutional defenders of constitutionalism, transparency, electoral integrity, and rule of law.

Critics now argue the association itself is being tested by the very standards it routinely demands from governments and public institutions.

“If the process was transparent and credible, why resist an audit?” one Abuja-based lawyer familiar with the dispute asked privately after proceedings.

That question is increasingly resonating within sections of the legal profession ahead of another NBA election cycle expected in July.

For many lawyers, the case is no longer simply about who won or lost the 2024 election.

It is about whether the NBA’s electronic voting architecture can withstand independent scrutiny,  and whether the association is willing to submit itself to the same democratic accountability standards it demands from the Nigerian state.

The Court of Appeal’s eventual ruling could now have consequences far beyond Erojikwe himself.

It may determine how transparent future NBA elections become,  and whether confidence in the association’s internal democracy can be fully restored.

‘Justice for Terrorists, Abandonment for Victims?’ Survivors accuse government of betrayal, as FG defends Boko Haram reintegration

By Lillian Okenwa

A fierce national debate is erupting across Nigeria after the Federal Government moved to reintegrate 744 “repentant” Boko Haram members into society, a policy officials describe as a peacebuilding strategy but which critics increasingly condemn as a dangerous assault on justice, accountability, and the memory of terror victims.

Fuelling the controversy is Operation Safe Corridor, the Federal Government’s flagship deradicalisation and rehabilitation initiative designed for surrendered or “low-risk” insurgents linked to Boko Haram.

But as government officials defend the programme as internationally compliant and essential for ending insurgency, victims, legal analysts, civil society groups, and traumatized survivors are asking a far more explosive question:

If terrorists can be forgiven and reintegrated, why are thousands of ordinary Nigerians jailed for lesser crimes still rotting in prison?

“They Are Victims, Not Terrorists”

In a controversial interview, Brigadier General Yusuf Ali rejected the term “ex-terrorists,” insisting many of those passing through the programme were themselves victims of terrorism.

“Some were abducted. Others were forced into Boko Haram at gunpoint,” he said, arguing that once individuals surrender and are cleared by the Ministry of Justice, international humanitarian law requires humane treatment and rehabilitation rather than indefinite punishment.

Read Also: When the State Kneels Before the Gun, By Olusegun Adeniyi

According to Ali, many of the beneficiaries underwent psychosocial therapy, drug rehabilitation, religious reorientation, and vocational training before being released back into communities.

He claimed more than 3,000 individuals had already been reintegrated over the last decade without recorded incidents of recidivism.

The programme, he said, is monitored by international partners including the United Nations and European Union and is being studied by conflict-hit countries across Africa and Latin America.

But outside government circles, the backlash has been volcanic.

“Where Is the Justice?”

For many Nigerians, especially victims of Boko Haram’s atrocities, the government’s framing of former insurgents as “victims” has ignited outrage.

Thousands of survivors remain trapped in underfunded internally displaced persons camps across the North-East, struggling with trauma, hunger, stigma, and poverty more than a decade after Boko Haram’s insurgency devastated communities.

Read Also: The Shadow of Justice: Why Nigeria’s de-radicalisation programme is a breach of the social contract and the quiet construction of a parallel judicial system

Read Also: Terrorists don’t repent

Many watched in disbelief as former fighters appeared publicly in freshly pressed clothes, receiving rehabilitation support, vocational kits, and reintegration assistance.

To critics, the optics are devastating.

“Killers are being treated like prodigal sons while victims remain abandoned,” one rights advocate said.

The controversy has reopened deep moral and legal questions about whether Nigeria’s non-kinetic counterterrorism strategy is undermining justice itself.

The Law, Justice and the Godwin Josiah Principle

Legal experts point to a long-established principle in Nigerian jurisprudence: justice is not designed solely for the accused.

In the landmark Supreme Court case Godwin Josiah v The State, the apex court famously held that justice is “three-way traffic” — owed not only to the accused person, but also to victims and society at large.

The ruling established a foundational criminal law principle:

  • Justice to the victim;
  • Justice to society;
  • Justice to the accused.

Critics argue that Operation Safe Corridor risks collapsing that balance by prioritizing rehabilitation of insurgents while victims receive comparatively little support, compensation, or closure.

Under Nigeria’s Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, terrorism-related offences carry severe criminal penalties including life imprisonment.

Section 36 of the 1999 Constitution also guarantees equality before the law and due process.

For critics, the issue is not whether some individuals were coerced into joining Boko Haram,  but whether alleged participation in killings, kidnappings, or logistical support for terrorism can simply be washed away through administrative clearance and rehabilitation.

“If armed robbers, cultists, kidnappers, and murder convicts all claim they were victims of circumstance, will the government now rehabilitate everyone instead of prosecuting them?” one Abuja-based lawyer asked.

“That is the dangerous precedent many Nigerians fear.”

A Country Divided Over Mercy and Security

Government officials insist critics misunderstand the programme.

Ali argued that hardcore terrorists are prosecuted, convicted, and jailed, while only “low-risk” individuals cleared by the justice system enter the reintegration pipeline.

Under international humanitarian law, surrendered combatants are entitled to humane treatment, and deradicalisation programmes have increasingly become part of global counterinsurgency models.

Security officials also argue that encouraging defections weakens insurgent groups by reducing recruitment and shrinking operational manpower.

“The 744 individuals are no longer available to Boko Haram,” Ali said. “This is peacebuilding.”

Yet fear remains widespread in many communities expected to receive reintegrated individuals.

Some residents worry former insurgents may become informants, sleeper cells, or future recruits if monitoring systems fail.

Others argue that the secrecy surrounding identities and alleged crimes fuels distrust.

Civil society groups have demanded greater transparency from the Ministry of Justice regarding how individuals are screened, cleared, and categorized as “low-risk.”

Victims Say They Were Forgotten

Perhaps the most politically dangerous aspect of the controversy is the growing perception that Nigeria’s terrorism victims have become secondary in the government’s peace process.

Women who escaped Boko Haram captivity have repeatedly reported inadequate psychosocial care and weak reintegration support. Children orphaned by insurgency continue to face severe poverty.

Some communities destroyed during the conflict remain only partially rebuilt. Others are ether not rebuit or completely taken over by the aggressors.

Critics argue that while former insurgents receive structured rehabilitation programmes, survivors are often left to rely on overstretched humanitarian agencies. The contrast has fueled a growing moral backlash against the programme nationwide.

“Can You Forgive Terrorism While Jailing Petty Criminals?”

The debate is also exposing wider frustrations with Nigeria’s criminal justice system.

Across social media and legal circles, many Nigerians are questioning why alleged terror-linked individuals can access rehabilitation pathways while thousands accused of lesser offences languish in overcrowded prisons awaiting trial.

“If terrorism — the gravest crime against humanity — can be forgiven, then what moral justification exists for locking away petty thieves, fraud suspects, or minor offenders for years?” critics ask.

Supporters of Operation Safe Corridor reject that comparison, insisting terrorism deradicalisation is a specialized national security strategy rather than a substitute for criminal justice.

But politically and emotionally, the distinction is becoming harder to defend.

The Bigger Question Facing Nigeria

The reintegration controversy now cuts to the heart of Nigeria’s battle against insurgency:

Can a nation traumatized by mass killings, bombings, kidnappings, and displacement truly achieve peace without accountability?

Or does endless punishment risk prolonging conflict by discouraging defections and reconciliation?

For now, Nigeria appears trapped between two competing imperatives — the pursuit of peace and the demand for justice.

And for thousands of victims still carrying the scars of Boko Haram’s violence, that debate is no longer theoretical. It is painfully personal.

‘Side chicks’ and sexual excesses destroying families, Says Egbemode as Achudume blasts marital hypocrisy

A heated but thought-provoking conversation on the rising menace of “side chicks,” infidelity and collapsing marriages took centre stage at the 43rd edition of Boiling Point Arena discourse, as veteran journalist, Mrs. Funke Egbemode and fiery preacher, Apostle Lawrence Achudume, offered contrasting perspectives that ignited intense reactions among listeners.

The discourse, which examined the widening marital crisis in society, drew massive participation online and across multiple radio stations, while the Olowu of Owu Kingdom.

Oba Prof. Saka Matemilola, delivered brief keynote opening and closing remarks urging Nigerians to restore discipline, morality and family values.

But the defining moment of the discourse came when Funke Egbemode bluntly traced the growing “side chicks syndrome” to what she described as the greed, unchecked lust and insatiable appetite of many married men.

According to her, women labelled as “side chicks” often become convenient scapegoats while society deliberately overlooks the men who create and sustain the culture.

“Men want variety. Many are not satisfied with one woman. That is the bitter truth,” Egbemode declared during the session, arguing that numerous marital crises stem from male irresponsibility and emotional indiscipline rather than failures from women alone.

She maintained that some married men deliberately court younger women for ego, pleasure and social validation, despite having stable homes and supportive wives.

The veteran columnist further argued that social media glamour, materialism and the desperation for status have worsened the situation, making extramarital affairs appear fashionable among some elites.

Egbemode’s comments immediately stirred reactions when Apostle Lawrence Achudume responded from a different ideological and spiritual angle, suggesting that many of today’s secret affairs and “side chick” entanglements could have been avoided if some men embraced openness instead of hypocrisy.

In a remark that generated mixed reactions among participants, the cleric observed that traditional African society historically accommodated polygamous marriages openly, unlike today’s widespread culture of secrecy, deception and emotional manipulation.

Achudume argued that while he was not promoting promiscuity, hidden relationships and adulterous lifestyles have caused more emotional destruction than transparent family arrangements.

The cleric, who is the General Overseer of Victory Life Bible Church International, lamented what he described as the moral contradictions of men who publicly profess fidelity while secretly maintaining multiple relationships outside marriage.

He, however, stressed that regardless of societal changes, discipline, honesty and fear of God remain central to sustaining healthy homes.

He warned that unchecked sexual immorality, pride and lack of communication are rapidly destroying marriages and exposing children to emotional trauma.

The sharp contrast between Egbemode’s position blaming male excesses and Achudume’s reference to polygamous structures created one of the most engaging moments of the discourse, with callers and online participants sharply divided over the controversial subject.

While some participants aligned with Egbemode’s argument that men largely fuel the “side chick” phenomenon, others agreed with Achudume that societal hypocrisy has worsened infidelity and dishonesty in modern marriages.

In his intervention, Oba Prof. Saka Matemilola cautioned that regardless of differing opinions, the stability of the family institution must remain paramount.

The monarch urged couples to embrace sincerity, patience and mutual respect, warning that the increasing collapse of marriages poses serious consequences for society and future generations.

The latest edition of Boiling Point Arena once again lived up to its reputation for confronting sensitive societal issues head-on, leaving audiences with difficult but necessary conversations on morality, fidelity and the changing realities of marriage in contemporary Nigeria.

From Recreation to Healthcare: CSOs, others demand EFCC, ICPC probe over Abuja land deals, Jabi Lake and hospital land takeover

A coalition of Nigeria’s most prominent civic organizations has launched a blistering attack on Federal Capital Territory Minister Nyesom Wike, demanding immediate investigations by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP), and the National Assembly over what they describe as a troubling pattern of opaque land reallocations, environmental risks, and disregard for transparency laws in Abuja.

In a strongly worded public statement signed by 14 civil society organizations, including BudgIT Foundation, Media Rights Agenda, and Accountability Lab Nigeria, the groups accused the FCT Administration of converting public assets into private interests without due process or public disclosure.

The crux of the controversy is Jabi Lake Park, a major recreational and environmental landmark in Abuja that has served residents for nearly two decades and the alleged conversion of a public health facility into a private estate in Wuye District, Abuja

The Jabi Lake Controversy

According to the coalition, the FCT Administration allegedly signed a February 2026 Memorandum of Understanding with Suburban Broadband Limited and Akida Hills Limited for the redevelopment of Jabi Lake Park, alongside the issuance of Certificates of Occupancy tied to the project.

The groups questioned why a telecommunications company and another firm with “no verifiable track record” in tourism or waterfront development were selected for control of one of Abuja’s most visible public spaces.

“No evidence of a competitive tender, public concession framework, or environmental consultation has been disclosed,” the statement said, adding that residents and activists were denied access to key public records linked to the project.

The controversy has already sparked the viral #SaveJabiPark campaign, with protesters warning that the development threatens Abuja’s master plan, environmental balance, and one of the capital’s last remaining open-access green spaces.

The CSOs argued that while Abuja’s physical transformation under Wike has been visible, transparency surrounding contracts and land allocations has remained hidden from public scrutiny.

“Cities like London are not defined only by roads and bridges,” the statement noted in a sharp rebuke of comparisons between Abuja and the British capital. “They are defined by transparent procurement, accountable systems, and protected public spaces.”

‘A Lawyer Who Demands Accountability Must Obey the Law’

The statement also accused Wike — a senior lawyer and former governor of Rivers State — of repeatedly failing to comply with Nigeria’s Freedom of Information Act.

The coalition alleged that multiple FOI requests sent to the FCT Administration remain unanswered despite the legal seven-day response requirement under Nigerian law.

“A press conference can be delayed. A legal obligation cannot,” the groups declared.

The accusation strikes at one of Wike’s most carefully cultivated political identities: A tough-talking enforcer who publicly demands discipline and accountability from rivals while projecting himself as a results-driven administrator.

But critics now argue that the same standards are not being applied within his own office.

Hospital Land ‘Converted’ Into Luxury Estate

Another explosive allegation involves Plot 546 in Wuye District — a 3.171-hectare parcel originally designated in Abuja’s master plan for a public hospital.

According to activist lawyer Barrister A.A. Askira and public affairs analyst Yushau A. Shuaib, the land has allegedly been reassigned to Full Moon Estate Developers Ltd for private residential development.

The site sits opposite Wuye Ultra Modern Market and beside a public secondary school and police station,  a strategic location long reserved for public healthcare infrastructure.

Shuaib described the alleged conversion as “wickedly wicked,” warning that Abuja residents are witnessing a dangerous erosion of public assets.

“Today it is a hospital. Tomorrow it could be a school, a police post, or a fire station,” he wrote.

The controversy touches a deeper nerve in Abuja, where residents have increasingly complained about shrinking green areas, disappearing waterways, and the rapid privatization of public land.

Urban planning groups have warned that unchecked construction on drainage corridors and green zones could worsen flooding and environmental instability in the capital city.

Questions Over Land Allocations to INEC Officials

Perhaps the most politically sensitive allegation involves reported land allocations to officials of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

The coalition referenced media reports claiming that land and financial benefits were extended to certain electoral officials while Nigeria moves toward the pivotal 2027 elections.

“If officials responsible for conducting elections have received benefits from a sitting minister whose political future may depend on those elections, the public deserves full transparency,” the statement warned.

The groups stopped short of making direct criminal allegations but insisted that the claims meet the threshold for independent anti-corruption review.

Calls for EFCC, ICPC, National Assembly Action

The coalition is now demanding:

  • Full publication of all approvals, MoUs, environmental assessments, and Certificates of Occupancy tied to Jabi Lake developments;
  • Disclosure of how Suburban Broadband Limited and Akida Hills Limited were selected;
  • Immediate compliance with all outstanding FOI requests;
  • Publication of agreements tied to the review of Abuja’s 1979 Master Plan;
  • A public account of land allocations made to public officials and agencies since August 2023;
  • An independent environmental audit of Abuja’s rivers, waterways, and green areas.

The groups also urged the National Assembly to immediately begin oversight hearings into FCT land administration, procurement processes, and budget implementation under Wike’s leadership.

Builder or Demolisher?

The mounting backlash reflects the paradox surrounding Wike’s tenure as FCT minister.

To supporters, he is the most aggressive infrastructure driver Abuja has seen in years,  reviving abandoned projects, constructing roads at breakneck speed, and reshaping the capital’s physical landscape.

To critics, however, the pace of development has come with an alarming concentration of power, weak transparency, and growing fears that Abuja’s master plan is being rewritten behind closed doors.

For now, the political storm around Jabi Lake, Wuye Hospital land, and alleged secret allocations may become one of the most serious tests yet of Wike’s controversial grip on the nation’s capital.

Police say mother gave infant whisky before child was found unresponsive

A Wisconsin couple, Kevin McCall and Christina Davis, was arrested and charged with two counts of chronic neglect of a child after a 1-year-old child was found dead in her crib “covered in urine and feces”

Christina Davis allegedly gave her 1-year-old daughter Fireball whiskey to help her “pass out” before later returning from work to find the infant dead in her crib.

After responding to reports of a “pulseless nonbreathing child” on Feb. 22, police officers and firefighters arrived at the residence of Kevin McCall, 20, and Christina Davis, 23, to find the couple standing on the front porch with the 1-year-old victim, according to criminal complaints obtained by WISN and Law & Crime. 

While the young child was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead shortly after, Davis’ 6-year-old daughter from a previous relationship allegedly told the police that she often had to help care for the younger child when the adults were away. 

The complaint alleges that Davis told police that she and McCall woke up around 9:30 a.m. and made sure the children were asleep before they both left the house to get Popeyes, per Law & Crime. After the couple returned with the food, Davis went to work while McCall allegedly stayed home with the kids. 

When she returned home around 2 p.m., Davis allegedly said that she saw her 6-year-old child standing in the corner as punishment for stealing the TV remote. McCall also told police that he “whooped” the girl.

After seeing that McCall was busy fixing a video game controller, Davis told police she went to the other room to find her 1-year-old “stiff” with her eyes rolling backward, after which she told McCall to call 911.

McCall allegedly claimed that he and Davis had left the children home alone “at least 25 times in the past six to seven months,” WISN reported, citing the criminal complaint. On this occasion, however, he was home but admitted to “never” feeding or changing the baby’s diaper while Davis was at work. 

Fireball Cinnamon Whisky
Fireball Cinnamon Whisky.Gregory Rec/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty

In addition to finding the infant “covered in urine and feces,” investigators described the home as having a “strong odor” and being “unkempt,” per the outlet. 

When speaking to detectives, the 6-year-old girl allegedly claimed that McCall and Davis often asked her to babysit the younger child before showing them a bottle of “medicine” they would use to make the baby “pass out”: a 50 mL bottle of Fireball whiskey. 

“I don’t think it is medicine,” she reportedly told detectives, per Law & Crime.

While denying that she ever gave the baby alcohol, Davis told police that what her daughter told investigators “was a lie” and that she only ever gave the toddler “cold and flu medication.” She also allegedly claimed that she depended on her 6-year-old to help around the house because McCall “does not provide any assistance.”

In the complaint, the medical examiner stated that they did not find any signs of “trauma, illness, or infection” that pointed to a clear cause of death. 

McCall and Davis were both arrested and charged with two counts of chronic neglect of a child. They are being held at the Milwaukee County Jail on $10,000 bond, per jail records seen by PEOPLE.

“At this time, evidence has not been presented to a trier of fact; therefore, the defendant is presumed innocent,” McCall’s attorney Russell Jones says in a statement to PEOPLE. “That presumption remains unless a trier of facts finds otherwise, beyond a reasonable doubt. Therefore, I encourage all concerned to wait until the evidence is presented before passing judgment. “

PEOPLE reached out to Davis’ attorney for comment.

Source: https://people.com/mother-allegedly-gave-infant-fireball-to-make-her-pass-out-later-found-baby-dead-11971000?utm_term=All%20Push%20Subscribers&utm_medium=browser&utm_source=people.com&utm_content=20260509&utm_campaign=130637576

Awolowo: Legacies and prophecies, By Lasisi Olagunju

An old firm of architects with a rich history of project design and delivery sent a letter to the Sierra Leonean government on September 15, 1960. In that letter, the firm listed some of the projects it was handling in Nigeria. The multi-storey building called Cocoa House in Ibadan was on that list.

But the story of Cocoa House began long before that letter was written. The 26-storey structure did not emerge as an idle elephant on Ibadan’s skyline. It was Obafemi Awolowo’s answer to the need for a total-package commercial edifice.

The architects described it as a multipurpose venture “aimed at providing office space as well as leisure facilities through a nightclub, swimming pool and cinema complex.”

That perhaps explains why the skyscraper came with a roof garden and has in its shadows, what the Transnational Architecture Group describes as “a circular building clad in mosaic, topped with a dome,” complete with “a splayed cantilevered entrance leading to a swimming pool with beautiful concrete diving boards and viewing gallery.”

For a government that had worked hard at providing free education for all, putting affordable healthcare and food security as priorities, with “life more abundant” as its central mantra, a space for work and leisure was simply the icing on the cake, the crown on a kingdom of values.

There were many more edifical monuments in brick and policy from that government. But because time kills witnesses to history, counter-historians are, today, on the prowl, poisoning public memory with insidious distortions. To what end, we can only speculate.

Late American sociologist and professor, C. Wright Mills, describes “the present as history and the future as responsibility.” Because revisionists continue to undermine the past, poison the present, and threaten the future with deliberate inversions of truth, I put a date to what I started with and insert dates into what comes next.

The Nigerian government established a commission in April 1959 to project the country’s tertiary education requirements for the following 20 years. At the head of that commission was a British botanist and educator, Sir Eric Ashby. The commission did its work and submitted its report. But the report ignored the educational aspirations of the Western Region.

Professor J. F. Ade Ajayi wrote in 1975 that the majority report of the Ashby Commission recommended that the jointly owned University College, Ibadan, was sufficient to serve the educational needs of the Western Region while other regions could have brand-new universities. The commission, Ajayi said, failed to grasp the urgency with which the West viewed universities as instruments of regional development.

The response of the Western Region under Chief Obafemi Awolowo was swift. The West immediately assembled its own team to work on its own university. The result was the establishment of the University of Ife, today known as Obafemi Awolowo University. Significantly, the solid policy foundation for that university had already been firmly laid before Awolowo left office as Premier of the Western Region on December 12, 1959.

Read Also: 2027: Nigeria’s political dynasties tighten grip as power becomes a family inheritance

Read Also: The Trinity of State Decay (III): The architecture of resurrection

The story of the University of Ife best explains Awolowo’s philosophy of education and development. Education, to Awolowo, was central to human and societal progress. He valued it, mobilised his people around it and funded it robustly throughout his years as Premier. Western Nigeria still preens like a peacock today because, at its foundation, it had a leadership that understood the meaning of knowledge and the place of education in the making of a valuable future. Those who lacked that grace are today a problem to everyone. As philosopher Alfred North Whitehead warned: “In the conditions of modern life, the rule is absolute: the race which does not value trained intelligence is doomed.”

A remembrance service holds every May 9 in honour of Awolowo and in celebration of his good deeds. This year’s washeld last Saturday with the Bishop of Remo and Archbishop of the Lagos Ecclesiastical Province of the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), the Most Reverend Michael Olusina Fape, saying in fewer words, and in a more elegant way, what I have struggled to say above: remembrance in all cultures comes either as honour or infamy. “Nobody will want Judas to come again. Only the righteous are remembered fondly for their deeds.”

“There’s something special about Chief Obafemi Awolowo, ”the bishop continued. “He was a man of faith who believed in God wholeheartedly, and this reflected in his leadership, which impacted positively on the people. His name has continued to re-echo in all spheres of human endeavour — education, agriculture, health and many others.”

Preaching on the theme, “What Will You Be Remembered For?” the cleric, with a heavy heart, expressed disappointment with politicians who parade themselves as progressives and disciples of Awolowo without reflecting his values in governance. According to him, many who wear the progressive label today are, in reality, retrogressive because they make life harder for the people they govern.

‘Progressive,’ like ‘democracy,’ has become a debased and abused word in Nigeria — loudly proclaimed, but rarely reflected in governance or in the condition of the people. I recommend

‘The So-Called Progressive Movement: Its Real Nature, Causesand Significance’ by Charles M. Hollingsworth to anyone watch- ing today’s powers loudly parade themselves as progressives.

Hollingsworth argued that the progressive movement was not always truly progressive in the historical sense, but often quite the opposite. Nor was it genuinely democratic or constitutional in spirit; rather, it was essentially a class movement aimed at the arbitrary control of other classes.

The heart of progressivism is selfless service; otherwise, the badge becomes a mask for masquerades plundering the sacred grove. No one becomes good suddenly. Goodness is rooted either in nature, in nurturing, or in both – upbringing and legacy.

As we remember Awolowo almost four decades after his transition, we should look at the tree from which came the beneficial fruit.

Writing under the pen name, John West, in the Daily Service of March 8, 1959, Alhaji Lateef Jakande gave remarkable insight into the making of the man called Awolowo:

“To understand Obafemi Awolowo, one must know his father. For he is a chip of the old block if anybody ever was.

Those who knew him say David Shopolu Awolowo was one of the first Christian converts in Ikenne. He was converted in 1896. His industry was proverbial: he was honest, truthful, hated hypocrisy and never minced his words. A successful farmer and sawyer, Awolowo was also a capable organiser and was the president of about five thrift societies.

“David was not a politician. But his own father was; the latter having acquired a taste for public life from his grandfather. David’s father was head of the Iwarefa, the Executive Council of the Oshugbos, who were the rulers of the town in those days. And in this office, he left a record of strict impartiality and firmness in the administration of justice. His own grandfather was also an astute politician. He was the Oluwo of Ikenne, next in rank to the Alakenne and head of the Oshugbos — and wielded great power and influence in the public life of his day.

“And so we have all the ingredients that go to make up the Awolowo we know. It is given to few to combine so well all the sterling qualities of his noble ancestors.”

That heritage produced a leader who understood both the psychology of colonial domination and the tragedy of post-colonial failure. In ‘Path to Nigerian Freedom’, published in 1947, Awolowo wrote with painful foresight: “Given a choice from among white officials, chiefs, and educated Nigerians as the principal rulers of the country, the illiterate man, today, would exercise his preference for the three in the order in which they are named. He is convinced, and has good reason to be, that he can always get better treatment from the white man than he could hope to get from the chiefs and the educated elements.”

How hauntingly relevant does that sound today? Across the country, 66 years after independence, swelling numbers of disappointed Nigerians now openly romanticise colonial order — not because colonialism was good, but because post-colonial leadership has failed to justify independence in the eyes of ordinary citizens. Some even sadly ask Donald Trump to come and rescue them from Nigeria, the way Moses rescued the Israelites from Egypt.

George Grant (1918–1988) did a reading of Socrates and concluded that the price of goodness is the heavy burden borne by those who choose to stand for truth and morality in societies ruled by injustice. To be good in a bad world, Grant argued, often demands sacrifice, suffering and, sometimes, personal ruin.

Awolowo did well and, because he did well in a perverse world, he had to endure severe emotional torture and physical restriction. He was falsely accused; witnesses were called against him before a commission of inquiry, yet he was denied the opportunity to cross-examine them. He suffered, but survived it all.

Where did he get the strength?

John West’s 1959 piece provides a window into that defining trait of Awolowo. According to him, Chief Awolowo had been taught by his father “the Shakespearean injunction to beware of entering into a fight but once in, never to disengage himself from it until he has beaten his opponent or he himself has been worsted in the encounter.” John West added that anyone who had Awolowo as an opponent knew “to his cost that that lesson was not taught in vain.”

In one moment of deep emotional reflection, William Shakespeare wrote in Julius Caesar that, “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Yet, in the case of Awolowo, the reverse is very true. Thirty-nine years after his transition, the good he did continues to define standards of leadership, governance and public morality in Nigeria.

Perhaps that is the ultimate meaning of legacy. It is someone’s deep thought that long after power fades, after wealth disappears and after noise quietens, what survives is character, vision, and sacrifice. Awolowo understood this truth early. That is why, decades after his passing, Nigeria still invokes his name whenever leadership fails, whenever governance loses direction and whenever the people search for standards against which to measure those who govern them today.

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

2027: Nigeria’s political dynasties tighten grip as power becomes a family inheritance

By Johnson Agu

As millions of Nigerians struggle with rising food prices, insecurity and the daily grind of survival, another battle is quietly unfolding behind the scenes: the grooming of political heirs. Across party lines and regions, the children and relatives of Nigeria’s political heavyweights are steadily positioning themselves for power, raising troubling questions about dynasty politics, access, and whether democracy is gradually becoming a family business.

While ordinary Nigerians battle worsening economic hardship, rising insecurity and bitter political divisions, another reality is quietly taking shape behind the scenes of the country’s political establishment: the rise of political heirs.

Across Nigeria’s major political families, sons, daughters and close relatives of influential political figures are steadily emerging into positions of power ahead of the 2027 elections, reinforcing growing concerns that political leadership in Africa’s largest democracy is increasingly becoming hereditary.

A viral political chart circulating online titled “2027 Elections: The Rise of Political Heirs” captures what many Nigerians say has long been happening quietly within the nation’s political structure. The document highlights a growing list of second-generation politicians linked to some of the country’s most powerful political figures.

Among those listed are Yusuf Muhammadu Buhari, son of former President Muhammadu Buhari; Bello Mohammed El-Rufai, son of former Kaduna governor Nasir El-Rufai; Idris Abiola-Ajimobi, son of late Oyo governor Abiola Ajimobi; and others connected to political heavyweights such as Atiku Abubakar, Adams Oshiomhole, Sule Lamido and Abdullahi Ganduje.

For many observers, the development reflects a deeper structural problem within Nigerian politics where access to power, influence, party structures and public visibility often remains concentrated within a small political elite.

The irony, critics argue, is striking.

While supporters of rival political parties engage in fierce online battles and sometimes violent confrontations on behalf of politicians, many of the political actors themselves appear united by a shared objective: preserving influence within their families and political networks.

On the streets, however, the realities facing ordinary Nigerians continue to deteriorate.

Inflation remains crushing. Food prices continue to soar. Youth unemployment remains alarming. Insecurity persists across several regions, with kidnappings, killings and displacement becoming almost routine in many communities.

Yet even amid growing public frustration, Nigeria’s political establishment appears focused on succession planning.

Analysts say the emergence of political heirs is not entirely new. Political families have existed for decades in Nigeria, much like in other democracies. What appears different now, however, is the increasing visibility and normalization of dynastic politics at a time when public trust in governance is already severely strained.

Critics warn that such trends risk deepening public cynicism about democracy itself.

For many young Nigerians struggling to survive in a harsh economy, the message can appear painfully clear: while millions fight for opportunities, access to political power often remains reserved for those born into influential families.

Supporters of the politicians involved argue differently. They insist that children of politicians should not be denied participation in politics simply because of their family backgrounds, noting that many are educated, experienced and politically active in their own right.

But opponents argue that the issue is larger than individual competence. They say the concentration of power within political bloodlines raises difficult questions about merit, inclusion, internal democracy and equal access to leadership opportunities.

The optics are particularly sensitive at a time when many Nigerians increasingly feel excluded from governance and abandoned by the political class.

For critics, the rise of political heirs reflects a widening disconnect between Nigeria’s rulers and the realities confronting ordinary citizens.

As access to the basic necessities of life becomes increasingly difficult, and frustration spreads across the country, many fear that the 2027 elections may further expose a political system increasingly dominated not by ideology or public service, but by entrenched networks determined to retain power across generations.

And while the masses argue passionately over party loyalty, ethnicity and political personalities, Nigeria’s elite families appear to be preparing quietly for the next transfer of power, not necessarily from one party to another, but from one generation of political insiders to the next.

Celebrating a journalist, Abiodun Adeniyi as vice chancellor, By Martins Oloja

The Chairman of the Board of Trustees (BoT) and Founder of Baze University, Datti Baba-Ahmed, this week approved the appointment of a new Vice-Chancellor and Registrar for the University following a rigorous and competitive selection process. Accordingly, Professor Abiodun Adeniyi, has been appointed as Vice-Chancellor of Baze University, Abuja with effect from 6 May 2026. Adeniyi, a distinguished scholar of communication and media epistemology, steps into the role after serving as Registrar of the University.

Professor Adeniyi may not be popular with young people and even scholars. He is a product of The Guardian ‘School of Journalism’ we fondly call Rutam House that has produced so many great journalists and technocrats. I would like to let people know that President Tinubu’s big media man, Bayo Onanuga was at The Guardian. Lest we forget, one of our best, Dapo Olorunyomi of Premium Times also passed through Rutam House. Even political giants such as Governorship hopeful in Ogun State, Senator Solomon Olamilekan, Adeola Yayi and former Governor of Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Fayemi were associates at the Rutam House. Former Corps Marshall and CEO of FRSC and former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka also passed through the solid Rutam House. Not many too even in the media would recall that the current Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of The Sun, Onuoha Ukeh began serious journalism from The Guardian. Do people know too that the Great Kabiru Yusuf, Publisher and Chairman of Daily Trust and Trust Tv, was part of the pioneer associates of The Guardian on Sunday.

That is where it all began for the prolific political journalist, Abiodun Adeniyi that we are celebrating today.

No one among those who worked with Professor Adeniyi including yours sincerely, would be surprised by the grace that propelled him to this academic height. He wrote great stories for the great newspaper, The Guardian and under a very brilliant Political Editor, the late Akpo Esajere who was always waiting for his copies from the Abuja Bureau. It is a time to celebrate Adeniyi, really.

One of the early accolades landed on the newspaper’s registered Alumni Association’s platform, ”When The Flagship Led”, formed by the notables who built the brand equity in the first ten years (1983-1993). The Platform has been registered with the CAC. The first remarkable message from the legendary Kingsley Osadolor, former Editor, The Guardian on Sunday and former Deputy MD/Editor-in-Chief, was quite significant. His words:

‘Congratulations, Prof. Abiodun Adeniyi, on your elevation to the position of Vice-Chancellor of Baze University, one of the country’s leading private universities. Prof. Adeniyi now joins an enviable list of media practitioners who transitioned into academia and climbed the stairs to reach the pinnacle of university governance. They include Prof Femi Onabanjo (Lead City University), Prof Dayo Alao (Adeleke University), Prof Abubakar Rasheed (ex- New Nigerian, ex-VC, Bayero University, ex-Executive Secretary NUC), Prof Nosa Owens-Ibie (Caleb University), Prof Umaru Pate (Federal University, Kashere), and Prof. Jide Oluwajuyitan (ex-Guardian). So, our erudite yet remarkably humble Prof Adeniyi is in league with Prof Oluwajuyitan as Rutamites who have become VCs.

“As Editor of The Guardian of Sunday in the 1990s, Adeniyi was one of my trusted and reliable sources of editorial contributions. On the 30th Anniversary of June 12 in 2023, I ensured he was one of our resource persons when we had a series of NTA’s “Good Morning Nigeria” editions devoted to that electoral landmark. I recalled the reports he filed 30 years earlier, and along with Tonnie Iredia, who was at the Election Management body at the time, the insights were memorable.

Since the 1990s, Adeniyi and I struck a friendship that has endured, and I have been immensely proud of his ascendancy in academia. Prof, congratulations once more. As we always say, we shall speak.
Best wishes,
Kingsley.

Professor Adeniyi’s story should be used by education authorities here to deconstruct how to take advantage of professionals and technocrats to rebuild our broken walls especially in education. There should be a recourse to the much needed integration of ‘town and gown’ in the tertiary education sector. Adeniyi’s rise and rise should not be seen as a flash in the pan. It is only a private university where bureaucracy is somewhat efficient that could have detected his talent and experience before migrating to the academia.

We are blessed here but politicians who specialise in recruiting a cabinet of mediocrities into the highest levels of governance systems won’t understand the value of merit-based administration. That is the message from Dr. Yusuf Datti Baba-Ahmed the Founder of Baze University who placed merit above other considerations and our fault lines. Let’s celebrate the essential Adeniyi.

Abiodun Adeniyi is a Professor of Communication and Media Epistemology at Baze University, Abuja, where he continues to provide exemplary administrative leadership alongside a sustained commitment to scholarship and teaching. Notably, he is the first academic in Nigeria to hold the position of Registrar while retaining full professorial standing, a distinction that reflects both his intellectual stature and the deep institutional confidence reposed in him. His contributions to academia, journalism, and public discourse have earned national recognition, including commendation by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who described him as a distinguished scholar, accomplished media intellectual, and committed nation builder whose work continues to enrich national development.

Before this appointment, he had served as Dean of the School of Postgraduate Studies, having previously held the positions of Deputy Dean, University Orator, and for several years, Head of the Department of Mass Communication, roles through which he made significant contributions to the development of the University’s academic structure and postgraduate culture.

A scholar of international repute, Professor Adeniyi is a British Chevening Scholar and holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) and a Master of Arts degree in International Communications from the University of Leeds, alongside a Bachelor of Science degree in Sociology (Second Class Upper Division) from Ahmadu Bello University and a Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism from the Nigeria’s International Institute of Journalism. His academic formation reflects intellectual rigour, global exposure, and a longstanding dedication to the advancement of communication scholarship and democratic values through responsible media engagement and thought leadership.

Professor Adeniyi’s academic and professional career reflects a rare synthesis of theory and practice. Before transitioning fully into academia, he had a distinguished career in journalism, rising through the ranks from reporter to desk editor. He covered politics and national affairs with notable depth and insight at The Guardian, Nigeria. This professional grounding continues to inform his scholarship, particularly in journalism studies, political communication, media ethics, and critical discourse analysis.

In the academia, he has taught and mentored students across a range of institutions in Nigeria and internationally, including the American University of Nigeria and the University of Leeds, his alma mater. He has also served, and continues to serve, as Visiting or Adjunct Professor at institutions such as Kogi State University, the University of Abuja; the National Open University of Nigeria, and Miva Open University. In these roles, he has made substantial contributions to teaching, postgraduate supervision, curriculum development, and the mentorship of younger scholars and professionals. In addition, he has served extensively as an external assessor for promotions to the professorial cadre and as an examiner of numerous doctoral theses, further underscoring his standing within the academic community.

Professor Adeniyi is widely acknowledged as a pioneering voice in Diasporic Communication, as well as the first Professor of Mass Communication produced by Baze University. His research spans international and transnational communication, migration and diaspora studies, development communication, strategic communication, global media communication, and cultural studies.

Besides, he is respected as a prolific scholar with an extensive body of publications, including books, edited volumes, journal articles, and policy-oriented research. Among his notable works are the co-edited volume Media and the National Security Question: Communicating (In)security in Nigeria, West Africa and the Sahel (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025); and single-authored works such as Diasporic Communication in the Digital Age (2022) and New Hidden Narratives of African Migration: Exploring Media and the Contestation of Place (Palgrave Macmillan, 2026).

He is also completing a forthcoming book on Roots and Networks: Memory, Migration and Digital Belonging in Africa. His scholarship is both theoretically grounded and policy relevant, reflecting a deep engagement with contemporary societal challenges and a sustained effort to shape critical conversations around governance, media, migration, and society in Nigeria and beyond.

Beyond academia, Professor Adeniyi has made substantial contributions to public policy, governance, and development communication. He has also been Deputy Chairman of the National Values Charter Committee, a strategic national initiative on reorientation and civic renewal.

His consultancy footprint is extensive, having served as Communications Consultant to major international development organisations, including the World Bank Economic Reform and Governance Project, the UK Department for International Development, the European Union, and the International Organisation for Migration. He has designed and implemented communication strategies for key national institutions, including the National Bureau of Statistics and the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, while contributing to high-level policy and institutional reform initiatives across governance and public sector management.

As an engaging public intellectual, Professor Adeniyi is a regular media analyst on national and international broadcast platforms, and a sought-after speaker, moderator, and facilitator at high-level conferences, policy dialogues, and executive training programmes across Nigeria and beyond. His interventions consistently bridge the gap between academia, policy, and practice.

Within the scholarly community, he has contributed significantly to knowledge production and dissemination as Editor in Chief and Associate Editor of reputable academic journals, while also playing a pivotal role in securing accreditation and developing postgraduate programmes in Mass Communication.

Professor Adeniyi has, in the course of his sustained research in media, migration, and diaspora studies, delivered scholarly lectures and undertaken fieldwork across several African countries. In recent years, his academic engagements have taken him to key intellectual and policy hubs, including Johannesburg and Cape Town in South Africa; Accra; Nairobi; Kigali; Banjul; and Freetown, experiences that continue to enrich the empirical depth and continental relevance of his work.

His contributions have been recognised through several honours and distinctions, including his election as a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Communication and Development, alongside other recognitions reflecting excellence in scholarship, institutional service, and professional practice.

His contributions to academia, journalism, and public discourse have earned national recognition. On the occasion of his last birthday, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu congratulated Professor Adeniyi and described him as “a distinguished scholar, accomplished media intellectual, and committed nation builder whose contributions to academia, journalism, and public discourse have continued to enrich national development.” The President further commended his longstanding dedication to intellectual excellence, institutional service, and the advancement of democratic values through responsible media engagement and thought leadership, while also acknowledging his role in mentoring younger scholars and shaping critical national conversations around governance, media, and society in Nigeria.

At the heart of Professor Adeniyi’s career is a deep commitment to intellectual inquiry, institutional development, and societal advancement. His work embodies the ideals of scholarship in service of society, rigorous, relevant, transformative, and deeply invested in national development and civic renewal.

I would like to celebrate this very cultured journalist and journalism scholar who returned to serve the country when it wasn’t expedient to do so in 2008 when he completed his doctoral degree in the United Kingdom.

I hope Nigeria’s leaders at all levels would realise from this story that there is no alternative to the power that meritocracy can bring to this time that knowledge rules for country and global competiveness.

The Trinity of State Decay (III): The architecture of resurrection

By Max Amuchie | The Sunday Stew

In the last two weeks, Parts One and Two diagnosed a structural mutation in the Nigerian state: a dual sovereignty system in which the Institutional Mirage performs authority while the Shadow Order exercises it, sustained by The Insecurity Triad as a mechanism of mutual reproduction.
What remains is the hardest question in political theory: not what is happening, but whether it can be reversed.
The answer is yes—but not through reform.
Systems that reproduce decay cannot be repaired within their own logic. They must be structurally interrupted.
The Trinity does not collapse. It is displaced.

From Ritual Governance to Peripheral Presence

The first reversal targets the geography of illusion.
The Institutional Mirage is concentrated in the symbolic centre—where governance is performed through summits, communiqués, and administrative ceremony—while dissolving at the periphery where authority is actually tested.
This produces a distorted state: visible in Abuja, absent in the borderlands.
To reverse the Trinity, the state must abandon Ritual Governance—the substitution of performance for presence—and return to the empirical occupation of territory.
This is not military occupation. It is administrative presence as sovereignty.


A state exists not when it speaks in the capital, but when:
a child attends a functioning school without paying a parallel tax of fear;
a farmer harvests without negotiating with non-state authority;
a dispute is resolved by a recognised court faster than an armed intermediary.
Governance is not restored by declaration. It is restored by continuity.
Where state presence becomes routine, the Shadow loses its monopoly on predictability.

From Pacification Bargaining to Sovereign Integrity

The second reversal confronts a deeper failure: negotiated sovereignty.
The state has increasingly drifted into a system of Negotiated Sovereignty sustained through what may be described as Pacification Bargaining—the purchase of temporary calm from rival authority structures through ransom logic, amnesty arrangements, protection payments, or informal accommodation.
This is not strategy. It is dependency disguised as pragmatism.
Every bargain strengthens The Insecurity Triad by:
monetising abduction economies;
legitimising territorial extraction;
reinforcing the Shadow’s role as a negotiating sovereign.
The result is a system of self-financing violence in which each concession funds the next cycle of coercion.
Pacification Bargaining does not resolve insecurity. It institutionalises it.
Each transaction deepens the perception that coercion is profitable, territorial pressure is negotiable, and sovereign authority is conditional rather than absolute.
Sovereign recovery therefore requires rupture in this economy.
The state must reassert a non-negotiable monopoly over:
taxation;
adjudication;
legitimate force.
Integrity, in this context, is not moral posture. It is institutional refusal to participate in markets of coercion.
A state that bargains over its coercive authority is not managing insecurity—it is outsourcing sovereignty.

The Critical Break: Dismantling the Insecurity Triad

To dismantle The Insecurity Triad is to break the loop between performed sovereignty and enforced sovereignty.
This cannot be achieved through security operations alone, though coercive force remains an essential and non-negotiable instrument of restoring empirical sovereignty. It requires something deeper: the reconstruction of institutional credibility in the very spaces the Institutional Mirage has abandoned.
It requires the state to stop performing governance and start delivering it. To stop negotiating the terms of its own authority and start enforcing them.
To recover the map—not in abstraction, but in detail: name by name, community by community—that armed actors are actively redrawing through coercion, taxation, and enforced renaming.
Dismantling the Triad is therefore not only a security task. It is a reversal of political geography itself.

The Cartographic Re-occupation of the Republic

The Shadow Order does not only occupy land. It reorganises meaning.
Through what may be understood as Constitutional Erasure, it renames territories, restructures local identity, and replaces the symbolic map through which authority is recognised.
Once this occurs, sovereignty is no longer contested physically alone—it is contested cognitively.
Cartographic Re-occupation is therefore not symbolic politics. It is structural restoration.
It requires three coordinated acts.
First, administrative re-anchoring: the immediate restoration of functioning institutions—schools, clinics, courts, and local administration—under continuous state presence.
Second, symbolic restoration: the reassertion of original geographic and civic identities through formal public renaming and constitutional recognition.
Third, cognitive consolidation: governance must cease to appear as intervention and become the default condition of life.
The state is not restored when it returns to territory. It is restored when territory returns to the state’s cognitive map.

Intellectual Closure: The State After Fragmentation

The deeper insight of this architecture is that sovereignty in Nigeria is no longer singular.
What has emerged is a fragmented order in which authority is distributed between competing logics of governance—one performed, one enforced, both partially functional, neither complete.
This is where African political thought clarifies the structure beneath the surface.
The logic of adaptive survival described by Jean-François Bayart explains why the state persists even as it weakens. Achille Mbembe explains how survival itself becomes managed rather than guaranteed.
Together, they clarify the central claim of the Trinity: this is not collapse. It is reorganisation.

Closing Movement
Nigeria does not face a singular collapse of authority. It faces a structured competition between performed sovereignty and functional sovereignty.
The Mirage still speaks in the language of the state.
The Shadow still governs in the language of necessity.
Between them, society survives by navigating two competing logics of order.
The question is no longer who governs.
It is whether governance itself can be reassembled into a single coherent structure.

The Reversal Condition: Sequential Sovereignty Restoration

The Trinity is reversible, but only in sequence.
Protection must be restored before compliance can shift.
Compliance must shift before territorial credibility stabilises.
Territorial credibility must stabilise before institutional authority can move from performance to function.
Any inversion of this order produces relapse.
The system is not resistant to reform. It is resistant to mis-sequencing.
The Trinity reverses only when sovereignty becomes empirically enforceable again through the sequential reconstitution of protection, compliance, and territorial credibility, thereby disrupting the mutual reproduction loop between the Institutional Mirage and the Shadow Order sustained by The Insecurity Triad.
Where this sequence fails, the loop does not weaken. It adapts.

The Social Contract Is Not Broken — It Is Being Replaced

There can be no social contract in a state where the sovereign performs authority it does not possess, negotiates with rivals it cannot defeat, and watches—from the polished corridors of Abuja—as the names of its own communities are erased from the landscape it claims to govern.
The conventional framing of Nigeria’s crisis describes a broken social contract: the state has failed its obligations, and the people are paying the price.
That framing is not wrong. But it is insufficient.
A broken contract implies a single agreement that has lapsed—and the possibility, in principle, of renegotiation and restoration.
What the Trinity of State Decay reveals is something more structural.
The social contract is not merely broken. It is being replaced.
In the spaces where the Institutional Mirage does not reach—in the northwest, northeast, and Middle Belt, in renamed villages and abandoned farmlands—a rival contract is being written.
On rival terms. Under rival authority. With rival consequences for those who refuse to sign.
The Shadow Order does not offer freedom. It offers a different captivity—one organised around extraction, fear, and the brutal clarity of power that does not pretend to be something it is not.
Within its own logic, it is internally consistent and therefore predictable.
And in conditions where protection becomes uncertain and uneven, predictability itself begins to function as a substitute for legitimacy—not as consent, but as adaptation under constraint.

The Institutional Mirage, by contrast, sustains a different form of instability: the unpredictability of protection, the inconsistency of enforcement, and the performance of authority that does not reliably translate into outcomes.
It is this asymmetry—between predictable coercion and unpredictable protection—that accelerates the silent transfer of compliance from formal sovereignty to rival order.

Conventional state failure frameworks assume a linear erosion of capacity.
The Trinity departs from this by demonstrating a dual-state condition in which formal and rival sovereignties coexist, interact, and reinforce decay.
Nigeria is not a failed state.
It is a state in the grip of a Trinity.

The Definition

Drawing on the full architecture of the foregoing analysis, I now offer a formulation of the Trinity of State Decay theory:
The Trinity of State Decay is the decoupling of a state into rival sovereignties: the Institutional Mirage, which performs authority without fully possessing it, and the Shadow Order—or competing Shadow Orders—which exercises de facto authority in spaces the Mirage has vacated, both sustained by The Insecurity Triad as the mechanism of their mutual reproduction.
The Trinity intensifies where the Mirage fragments into competing centres of performed authority, accelerating the transfer of empirical sovereignty to rival structures.
The Trinity reverses only when sovereignty becomes empirically enforceable again as a stable condition of governance.
This condition is not defined by the mere presence of the state, but by the alignment of three realities: protection must be enforceable, compliance must orient toward the state, and territorial authority must remain continuous.
Where these diverge, sovereignty fragments.
Where they converge, sovereignty reconstitutes.
Recovery is not repair or return. It is the production of a new equilibrium in which the Mirage collapses into function, the Shadow is displaced, and The Insecurity Triad loses its organising role.
This condition is produced through sequence: protection must precede compliance, compliance must precede territorial credibility, and territorial credibility must precede institutional function. Any inversion produces relapse; where the sequence holds, the loop breaks.
While derived from the Nigerian case, the Trinity offers a generalisable framework for analysing state decay in contexts where formal sovereignty persists alongside entrenched systems of rival governance.
Stay seasoned.

•Concluded

•Dr. Max Amuchie is the CEO of Sundiata Post and architect of The Insecurity Triad Analytical Framework, and the Trinity of State Decay theory. He writes The Sunday Stew, a weekly syndicated column on faith, character, and the forces that shape society, with a focus on Nigeria and Africa in a global context.
X — @MaxAmuchie | Email: [email protected] | Tel: +234(0)8053069436

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

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