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FREEMEN AND SLAVES

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Understanding Social and Religious Behaviour in Contemporary Nigeria

By Moses Oludele Idowu

“For it must be admitted that some are slaves everywhere, others nowhere.”
– Aristotle (384 -322 BCE) POLITICS (350) Book One Part V.

In every society, in every land there are two kinds of men and women – the freemen and the slaves.In NIgeria today we have these two classes of men and women in different walks of life and in every discipline and vocations. The two are easily categorized and discernible by certain dominant traits and behavioral patterns. But that is not my concern now. We shall not bother about the free for now, I want to focus on the slaves.
Among the slaves there are two kinds: those who are slaves by nature and those who are slaves by circumstance.
The slaves by nature constitute the largest number of the population and are the worst and most dangerous to the society and to the nation. It is one of the main reasons why this nation with her vast potentials is still trapped in the mesh of bondage.
Slaves by nature do not understand freedom and cannot understand its concept. It is beyond them. Slavery is inherent in their nature and buried in their system. Education does not help them it only makes them worse slaves and a hazard to society and community of free men.
Slaves by nature are ruled by their bodies, passions, ambitions, desires, greed and other sensual fantasies not by reason, morals, ethics or rules or appeals to sense of honiur. Because they are slaves to their passions and fantasies they are like untamed beasts except that they are clothed in human skins. These are the worst segment of the lot. Some of the worst atrocities are committed by these demographic against their own fellow men and the state. Rapists, ritual murderers, bandits, sellers of human parts etc belong to this demographic.
There are other slaves by nature who are not of this type but are more dangerous to the state and the larger community.
These categories will not engage in physical murder or armed brigandage but they are far more sinister to the collectivity by the way they think, act, and by their attitudes to the state and government.
Slaves by nature are more concerned with mundane considerations – ethnicity, religion, tribes, clans, money, promise of personal gain etc. rather than values. They are the type who support a politician to get into power even if he is the worst of the lot simply because he is of the same tribe and religion with them. And they would defend him in power even if the policies of the government he heads bring them further and further down to ruination and woes. Slaves by nature care more about tribes than values or Honour in public service. They justify corruption and sleaze and see nothing wrong with nepotism. Corruption is only evil if it is perpetrated by others. The Fulani slaves saw nothing wrong when Buhari was perpetrating his own brand of nepotism because it favoured them. Now that a Tinubu is doing his own all hell is loose because the winds are now on their faces. Meanwhile the Yoruba slaves too are justifying that. When Goodluck Jonathan was doing his own brand to favour the Igbos and his Ijaw kinsmen the Igbo slaves saw nothing wrong with it. When he gave the entire finance sector appointments to Igbos the slaves of Igboland saw nothing wrong and even voted for him and rigged for him in 2015.
Do you see what I am saying? There are slaves everywhere. That is what Aristotle was saying: there are slaves everywhere. Only few people have the boldness and the confidence to stick to what is true and just under all circumstances. Unfortunately they are few in Nigeria and they never get into leadership positions because most Nigerians are slaves by nature and they are careful to elect from among their own brand.
Even with the abysmal record of Muhammadu Buhari I saw some of my neighbours in Ibadan calling their fellows to go and vote on the day of election “to put Buhari in power” not because of his performance but because of his religion. I saw the Muslims gathering and mobilizing to go and vote. To them it is a religious issue not a development issue. Even if he has rigged himself into the ballot for a third term they would still have voted for him because afterall he is a Muslim. These are the slaves by nature. They are averse to thinking and rational thoughts. Principles mean nothing to them. Order or rule of law is an albatross to them.
It Is the reason why a social and progressive revolution is impossible in Nigeria.

I read a report a week ago that troubled me very deeply but confirmed this thesis that many even among Christian leaders are slaves. They don’t really understand the Christian Gospel or the Apostolic Gospel as delivered by the Great Lord Jesus Christ and by His Apostles.
A pastor confessed that banks called him to offer him a loan running into billions of naira. He had not requested for a loan but the banks – your slavish financial institutions run largely by natural slaves – are offering him. How would he pay back? I want you to hear him yourself and see why Nigeria is not just a problem, NIgeria is problem itself:

“Then I asked them how they want me to be paying back, and they said when we are doing revivals, crusades, we’ll be paying back monthly.

“And they mentioned some churches who got loans from them ranging from N3 billion to N4 billion. And I asked them how they expected me to pay back such an amount and they said those that collect such loans, that’s why they would never stop doing conferences, crusades, and revivals, and from there, they would get money to pay back,” the pastor said.[ https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/how-bank-offered-me-n1bn-loan-wanted-repayment-through-crusades-program..]

There are industries and manufacturing concerns going through crisis due to a strangulating and vicious policies by a government wedded to the IMF/ World Bank neo-liberal economic framework and needed funds to stay afloat and offer employment to Nigerians but the banks won’t offer them. They prefer churches not because they have any interest in the Gospel but to make the pastors their slaves and through them their churches and Christians. A borrower is a servant to the lender. Pastors who themselves are slaves to greed collect money they do not need and for which they are not entitled to and become slaves of slaves. They then go forth like their predecessors, the Pharisees to make others in their own image and double slaves as they are. Endless crusades and conferences that are not for the promotion of Christ and His Gospel but to raise money for banks. This is how pastors are impoverishing Nigerians and especially Christians because some of them are slaves by nature. Slavery is inherent in their system and internal constitution. That is why they conduct ministry in the reverse order in which the Master Himself conducted it. Jesus and the Apostles used their ministries to build and empower the people, the modern pastors and bishops use people to build and empower and run their ministry. That is why today the modern church is spreading poverty among the masses. It is one of the reasons why poverty is increasing in Nigeria when compounded with a political class that is bereft of ideas and slaves of greed and covetousness who have stolen the nation blind.

When a man is a slave by nature he acts as he is told. He does not question contrary opinions and has no opinion. Slaves act on the impulse , prompting and opinions of their masters.
They are the ones who will defend a government even against reason and fight you on every social platform for criticizing the government in power and their party.
They can physically attack you for saying anything about their religion even when it is true and their own history confirms it.
Slaves by nature are ruled by hate rather than reason or values. They hate others and sow poison in their own kindred slaves against others. One of such slaves is an Igbo woman by the name of Patience Amaka who resides in Canada whose video came out this week asking for the poisoning of water if necessary to kill Yorubas and Benin of the Southwest. That hate had been growing inside her waiting for release but she had no opportunity. Some people teach their children to hate others and other tribes because they are slaves by nature. They are setting their children for failure and disaster in a future world of diversity and inclusion because they won’t fit.

When you are truly free and know true freedom you will realize that God did not create tribes or ethnicity. He created only man and woman; it was human disobedience that brought about the confusion of tribes and multiplicity of languages.
No tribe is your enemy, no man or woman is your enemy. The greatest enemy you have is inside you – yourself.
When you find inner freedom, when you secure inner liberation and inward fortification no man can enslave you. No man can enslave me because I have found true freedom and liberation. I am not a slave to passion or possessions: I am happy with few and with plenty. And no one can make me hate another human being.
Read Epictetus. It is sad that a man who lived about 2000 years ago knew this and we of today do not know it.

Someone can have great talent and intellect and be a slave. Slaves by nature exist everywhere and in every compartment. When a teacher asks to sleep with a student or he would fail her then you know you are dealing with a slave by nature. When a professor asks a postgraduate student to go to his farm to work and sends him on errands as slaves it os proof that he himself is a slave – slaves by nature. It takes a slave to make a slave of another. Everyone produces after his kind.
A Nigerian politician lures a teenager abroad with the promise of helping him but actually to harvest his organ to save the life of his own child. Slavery.
How many white people have stolen their own public money to bring here to invest? But more than 60% of our resources today are outside these shores. They didn’t fly or dematerialize; they were taken their by Nigerians who are slaves by nature. They do not believe on the cause of Black Emancipation because they are children of bondage. They shackle this nation with debts and enslave the future generations for their greed and for the brokerage they will get from the loan. For their ambition of today they enslave the tomorrow of their children and postpone the glory of Africa. Slaves by nature.

Slaves by circumstance are those who by accident of birth, nativity, environment and other human – imposed limitations found themselves within a cubicle or space that made their lofty ambition unattainable and worthy goals unaccomplishable.
I think it was Macmillan or one of the leaders of Britain who remarked that Awo would have been a Prime Minister of Britain very easily if he had been born in Britain. That same man died without fulfilling the same ambition making him a slave of circumstance.
Ayodele Awojobi died at only 47 because he was born in Nigeria. Another genius of Mathematics in Britain, Betrand Russell died at 97. That is the difference between Britain and Nigeria: one nurture genius, the other destroys it. Awojobi was a slave of circumstance.
So was Aminu Kano, Sam Aluko, Gani Fawehinmi, Bala Usman, and a host of patriots who have fallen without seeing the kind of nation they desired or laboured for. Included in that list is a whole number of clerics, genuine prophets, pastors and even alfas who genuinely prayed and laboured to see a better nation. These too were slaves but they were slaves by circumstance.

I warned Nigerians about the last three administrations that have brought this nation to a zero point. I warned about Goodluck Jonathan that he wasn’t a presidential material. I warned about Muhammadu Buhari that a leopard does not change its spots. And I have warned about the coming of the present Tinubu administration that is busy trying to out- Buhari Buhari. Many compatriots felt the same way but inspite of our misgivings we are still trapped under a government in which we have no hands in installing. We have thus become slaves by circumstance.
The disturbing news now is the arraignment in courts for treason of 10 young protesters whose only crime was complaining about hunger and the suffering in the land which everyone but the blind can see.
In NIgeria.
The same people who claimed to have fought for democracy, who claimed to have fought Abacha have become the new totalitarians in our midst. David Icke is right: we become what we fight. Friedrich Nietzsche has also warned that those who fight monsters should ensure that they too do not become monsters at the end. And Abraham Lincoln has quipped: You don’t know a man until you have tested him with power.
Treason which carries death sentence for merely participating in peaceful protest? All hail the new totalitarians!

Now we are being told that prices will be determined by economic forces and fuel is no longer for the common man. But salaries and wages are not determined by economic forces but regulated. National debts has now ballooned to astronomical levels within only one year while massive sufferings never before seen ravaged the land while the lord of the imperial manor and his wife live in Hollywood style and majestic splendour and opulence. Future generations will now pay debts they did not owe because of three men: Goodluck Jonathan because he did.not save during a boom; Buhari because he mismanaged the economy and Tinubu because he compounded the fatal errors of his two predecessors by his impulsive actions, inattention to details and a lack of capacity to understand the intricate complexities of a national economy.
We are now trapped.

In essence we are all slaves in Nigeria but some are slaves by nature while others are slaves by circumstance.

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© Moses Oludele Idowu
September 7, 2024
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NDLEA dismisses allegations of lopsided appointments, nepotism as baseless

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By Ebinum Samuel

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, has described as baseless, allegations of nepotism and favouritism in the appointment of its Directors, Commanders and other top officials. The Agency in a statement on Thursday 5th September 2024 described as false, insinuations in some social media posts suggesting that appointments into high ranking positions are tilted in favour of Northern Muslims against Southern Christians. For the benefit of the reading public, the Agency will like to state as follows: Out of the 20 Directors/ Commandant in NDLEA, 14 are Christians and 6 Muslims; of the 14 Zonal Commanders, 9 are Christians and 5 Muslims; out of 37 State Commanders, 19 are Christians and 18 Muslims; of the 14 Special Area Commanders, 10 are Christians and 4 Muslims; out of 12 Coordinators/Heads of Units, 9 are Christians and 3 Muslims; while out of 11 Heads of Operation, 7 are Christians and 4 are Muslims. In all, out of the 108 topmost appointments and positions in the Agency, 68 of them are occupied by Christians and 40 Muslims, which represents a ratio of 63% – 37% as against the perception some mischief makers are trying to create against the leadership of the Agency.

The Agency wishes to assure the public that its leadership remains focused and committed to the goal of curbing the scourge of substance abuse and illicit drug trafficking while upholding the tenets of fairness, equity, and merit in its distribution of opportunities for its workforce.

Police Auctioneer Debunks Colleagues Allegation, Say Its Arrant Nonsense

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By Ebinum Samuel

A Frontline police auctioneer has lampooned his colleagues who alleged yesterday through an online publication that since the current Inspector-General of Police, IGP, Mr Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun, assumed office last year, only an individual police auctioneer sells police auction vehicles.The Auctioneer, Mr Omotayo Kupoliti who said he has been in police auction business for 35 years described as spurious and unfounded, the allegations by his colleagues. He said available records shows that a gud number of auctioneers in various parts of the country have been selling since Egbetokun took over from Alhaji Usman Alkali Baba. “Their allegations, through the so called spokesman, Adejumo Fasisi are baseless, unfounded, spurious and acerbic.

They are bunch of liars, lazy good for nothing people””This IGP remains one of the few God-fearing Nigerians I have ever met. He’s carrying everyone along except evil men. The Auctioneer, Chief Ayogun they said is the only one selling is a hardworking young man from the Eastern part of the country who is well known at the presidency as a credible and honest auctioneer”Kupoliti called on the “faceless” auctioneers calling on president Tinubu to come to their help to seek court redress if they feel that their rights have been trampled upon.

“The President has a lot on his head. He must not be distracted as one of his goals is revamp the economy and make life beautiful and wonderful for our people” Kupoliti said.He concluded by admonishing “disgruntled elements” to work hard today for a better tomorrow

Police Auctioneers Urge President Tinubu To Prevail On IGP Egbetokun, Says We Are Dying Of Hunger

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By Ebinum Samuel

In a passionate appeal to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, no fewer than 400 registered police auctioneers have called on him to as a matter of great urgency, rescue them from hunger occasioned by the Inspector-general of Police, Mr Kayode Egbetokun’s decision on the sales of police auction vehicles.


In the sombre and heart-wreching message to the president, the auctioneers, through their spokesman, Adejumo Fasasi, disclosed that since the assumption of office in June last year by IGP Egbetokun, only an individual auctioneer is authorized by the police high command to carry out the sales of police auction vehicles. This, Fasasi disclosed has led to hunger on other members he put at 400 with their families.


He expressed concerned over the failing health of police auctioneers which he attributed to depression and hunger. Fasasi claimed that none of his 400 members has sold any vehicle in this past 14 months that Egbetokun is in charge.
“Since the advent of the first indigenous Inspector-general of Police in 1964 , there has never been a time when an individual was appointed to auction all police vehicles nationwide. This is the first time only an auctioneer is saddled with the responsibility of auction sales. Is this not a classical case of stinking corruption?
“Mr president, it has been alleged at the force headquarters in Abuja that the order for an individual, Chief Ayogun to sell police auction came directly from your office.Our members nationwide are not convinced of this.

We are appealing to you, President Tinubu, not only to check this anomaly, but prevail on IGP Egbetokun to rescind his decision as what he did has visited us with deprivation, hunger, poverty, sickness and squalor “
“We want this to be urgently addressed by our president as failure to do so could morph into an unpleasant situation. We beg president Tinubu to give a marching order to IGP Egbetokun to revert to the status quo with regards to our sincere appeal, so to prevent our now jobless colleagues from commiting mass suicide “

BREAKING: Mother Of Late President Yar’adua Dies

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Dada Yar’adua, mother of former President, Umaru Yar’adua and a former Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Shehu Yar’adua, has died at the age of 102.

Akelicious learnt that she died at the Federal Teaching Hospital in Katsina State on Monday evening.

Dada is revered as one of the few women to have birthed top politicians in Nigeria’s history, including Umaru, a former President and two-time governor of Katsina State; Shehu, who was the ex-Chief of Staff, Supreme Headquarters, under the military regime of former President Olusegun Obasanjo; and Abdulaziz, Chairman, Senate Committee on Army

The news of her death has drawn prayers and condolences from well-meaning Nigerians.

The Katsina State Governor, Dikko Radda, paid a condolence visit to the Yar’adua family late Monday. This was revealed in a tweet by  his aide on Digital Media, Isah Miqdad, tweeting as #Miqdad_Jnr.

This evening, Governor Malam Dikko Umaru Radda of Katsina State, interrupted his official duties in Daura to pay a visit to the family of the late Hajiya Fatima Dada, the mother of former President Umaru Musa Yar’adua.

The late Dada is scheduled to be laid to rest tomorrow morning by Islamic customs. The governor expressed his deepest sympathies to the grieving family and extended his heartfelt condolences,” the tweet read.

Also, expressing sadness over Dada’s death, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, wrote via his X handle, tweeting as #atiku, “Innalillahi Wa’inna Ilaihir Raji’un. I am saddened by the passing of Hajia Aya Dada Yar’Adua, mother of my late mentor, Tafida Shehu Yar’Adua, late President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, Senator Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, among others. In the absence of my beloved mother, I adopted Hajiya Dada as a mother.

Indeed, she was a mother of multitudes, as her home was always a place of refuge where she welcomed everyone with love. She will be sorely missed. On behalf of the Atiku Abubakar family and team, I express my profound condolences to the Yar’Adua family, friends and associates over the loss of this gem of inestimable value.

“My condolences also go to the government and people of Katsina State. May her sins be forgiven and that she be granted Aljannah Firdausi. Ameen.”

Former Senate President, Bukola Saraki, with the username #bukolasaraki, tweeted, “Inalilahi wa ina Ilaehi Rajiun. Dada Habi Yar’Adua, the beloved mother of my dear friend and our late President, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, was a true matriarch. Her warmth, grace and compassion were boundless, extending to all who had the privilege of knowing her.

“My last encounter with her in Katsina State is a memory I will always treasure—filled with her kindness and wisdom. It was a reminder of the remarkable person she was. Today, I join the nation to mourn the passing of this incredible woman. May Almighty Allah (SWT) grant her a place in Al Jannah Firdaus. My thoughts and prayers are with the Yar’Adua family during this difficult time.”

Anioma State: I Have No Plans Of Becoming Governor………Senator Ned Nwoko

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The Senator representing Delta North at the National Assembly, Sen. Ned Nwoko has said he has no interest of becoming a Governor of Anioma state creation.The Senator stated this on Saturday 31 of August 2024 during a stakeholder’s summit for the creation of Anioma state summit at Grand Hotels and Resort Asaba.In the summit, which was attended by sons and daughters of Anioma from the nine local government areas that constitute the senatorial district.Speaking at the summit, Senator Nwoko disclosed that he has no interest in becoming Governor but that the first Governor of the new state will come from Ndokwa nation, an ethnic group he said has oil wells and contributes to feeding the nation but has been technically marginalized over the years.He said: “I want freedom for my people.

The first governor of Anioma state will come from Ndokwa land. Out of the nine local government areas, three are oil producing. The three are Ndokwa nation. But it has remained the most backward. It produces oil and gas, but the environment is devastated.”He said Delta state was created out of the defunct Bendel state, arguing that there’s no cause for alarm creating Anioma out of Delta state.He noted that the benefit of state creation are overwhelming.

He reasoned that before the creation of Delta out of defunct Bendel state, Asaba was a village adding that if the state capital was not given to Asaba, development would have been very far from the now bubbling city.He noted that a new state brings development closer to the people, just as he explained that three senators, more than three House of Representatives members and many house of assembly members will be produced from the new Anioma state.

THE AUDACITY OF HATE

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A Warning to the Serpents of Igboland

By Moses Oludele Idowu

“Record me very well. It is time to start poisoning the Yorubas and the Benins. Put poison in all your foods at work. Put poison in all your water so that you all will start dying one-by-one.

“You people will not die one day. You people will fall sick for a long time. I will put Otapiapia (rat poison) inside your waters and foods. You people will never get well.

“This kind of hatred I have for you people will last forever. In all your foods, I will put Otapiapia,
“I will put them in all your foods. If I go to work tomorrow, I will put it (poison) in Yoruba people’s food. Go and tell the government that I’m in Canada, I’m in Ontario. Hurry up, go fast.

“I will put Otapiapia, I will put Ogbomosho inside your foods. You will start hearing that Yorubas have died, Benins have died. I’m the one saying it.
“I want Igbos to have a heart of wickedness. You people are too quiet. You are too cool. Enough is enough. If you have a means of killing them, kill them out of the way, because they are too foolish. They are of no use to society. Lots of prostitutes and everything.”

That was Amaka Patience Sunnberger, a woman presumably of Igbo extraction and parentage based in Canada in a live video released few days ago. If these were the words of a Nazi zealot or skinhead in Hitler’s Germany of the 1930’s and 40’s we should have understood or at least be able to understand. But they are not. Even Nazis were far too clever, more noble and less audacious than this sociopath.
The sad thing however, the frightful thing that should worry us all is that there are now many people of Igbo descent who share and believe what that woman posted and, given the right opportunity, will be too ready to carry out exactly what that woman proposed. Did you notice there were other people in the background recording her and suggesting other poisons to her? Who could those be?
We have a big trouble on our hands. We are living in the midst of deceit pretending that all is well.
There are now potential genocidists, mass- murderers walking on the streets waiting for opportunity. Children of Hate, sociopaths, serpents and scorpions whose model is the Serpent and who behaves like the serpent – the likes of which the star prophet, William Marrion Branham calls “the seed of the serpent.”
Think of this woman working as a chemist or hydrologist in a Water Corporation of a cosmopolitan state like Lagos with a large Yoruba population. All she needed is to increase the chlorination of the water supply and then the deed is done to interminable generations.
That is why you should worry. That is why you should be afraid. It is okay to be accommodating and be welcoming, it is even required to love everyone including your enemies. But the same Holy Scripture warns that your love should be according to knowledge and judgement. In other words, you do not for love sake ignore immediate and remote consequences and hard evidence.
A man or woman does not make this kind of video because she ate too much or because she got a raise or promotion in the place of work and was overjoyed. No, this kind comes out of the depth of the heart. It is when a vessel is full that its content flows out. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. There are no jokes, there is nothing like comedy or fiction in real life. Jokes are the truth that spills out of the mouth after the heart is full; fictions are the avenue and medium to tell the real truth that are too explosive to be told in actual language.
A person does not make this kind of video for fun, this is coming from the depth of the heart. (I actually listened to the video myself.)
You do not threaten a human being with death for fun, much less an entire race and record it.
I know the Thought Police will attack me for writing this essay; the miseducated “useful idiots” of Political Correctness among the Yorubas, the do-gooders who always want to be polite even if they must jettison the truth. But as you know I have paid my due as an intellectual and have been writing for long and can’t be intimidated by anyone or tribe or even government from expressing what I know to be the truth. Not me.
This leads me to the next stage: the root of hatred. What we see in the video is simply the outgrowth of a seed waiting for harvest. Lady Amaka did not just hate Yoruba people yesterday; she had nurtured this hatred for long and now the serpent has grown inside her that she has to voice out for relief. This is how the psychology of hate works. Like a seed it germinates and grows waiting for the right opportunity for harvest. Hitler did not just hate the Jews when he was elected by the German people in 1933, he already hated them long before then as he revealed in his book Mein Kampf. The Nazi Party only gave him the platform and Germany merely gave him the opportunity to carry out his agenda. It is the lack of a platform and needed opportunity that occasioned the frustration which led Amaka Patience to make her video. This is how genocide occurs. This is how hate develops into behaviour and behaviour to action that crystallizes into harvest leading to disaster and tragedy.

Who planted the seed inside her? Who sowed this seed of Yoruba hatred inside her in a foreign nation and in the land of the free? Someone sowed that seed inside her. She was too young to have witnessed the Civil War firsthand so someone, most likely the parents, sowed the poison inside her against the Yoruba – a poison most Igbo men still carry even in our midst although they are too polite to acknowledge it.

Here I come to the most interesting part of this essay which some won’t agree with. But as a writer I must be true to the facts and to those who read and follow me.
Pay attention.

The reality of Igbo hatred against the Yoruba is what we have to admit and which we must address. Many Igbos hate the Yorubas with passion. Not all of them to be sure and we must be thankful to God for this. Of course I know there are Yorubas who hate the Igbos too. My former landlord in Lagos would charge the Igbo tenants more than the Yoruba for the same space. But there are more haters on the Igbo side. That is the truth.
Three Igbo men and women have confessed to my hearing personally that they were actually taught to hate the Yorubas. You don’t have to believe me, but I say this on my honour and I will defend it before God on the Day of Judgement if it is a lie. If there were three women or men who taught their children so then there could have been three hundred or three thousand or three hundred thousands. And if three admitted it to me there are probably ten or twenty who won’t admit it. I am educated but I also think. I cannot accept that those people were lying against their parents or elders. No one lies against his parent when no consequence is involved.
It is such seeds that produced the likes of Amaka and the video that you see. These are the results of bad parentage and of teaching children what no noble parents should teach their children. You do not sow a seed of hatred against another race and a people group in the impressionable minds of your children. You are setting them up for disaster.
Two things are responsible for this hate. The perceived and often – repeated lie of Yoruba Betrayal during the Civil War. This is the worst lie ever told and I am even ashamed that many Igbo scholars believed this trash. I have examined most of the literature and the things written about the Civil War and I have done my own research and I have challenged any scholar to show me how the actions of the Yorubas during the Civil War could be termed betrayal. No one has accepted my challenge till today. How does self-defense becomes betrayal? How is self-love an act of treachery? You are bringing war and carnage to my doorstep and you are surprised that I join the war to stop you? And you called this betrayal? Then the English Language must have lost its meaning.

Unfortunately, this is accepted by many Igbos and scholars and, sadly too, by even some Yorubas. Too bad.
After failing in their effort after the Civil War and seeing the level of devastation wrought someone has to take responsibility. The leaders of the Igbos did not want to take responsibility for their actions and as was necessary they sought a scapegoat: Awo and the Yorubas. This has been standard practice and repeated for generations as gospel that today it has filled some Igbos with red-hot hatred against the Yorubas. As one Igbo chap confessed to me, hatred of Awo and the Yoruba is Course 101 for Igbos. I am revealing this for the first time. You now understand why many Igbo men and even leaders act the way they do. You will understand why a Vanguard newspaper Editorial Chairman used an uncomplimentary language against Yorubas and why late Iwuanyawu, leader of the Igbos called Yorubas “political rascals.” You now understand the context for the dripping invectives and hate in Nnamdi Kanu’s video and why he was so obsessed with burning down Lagos. Hate. It is deep inside and occasionally it finds an outlet visible to those who still have eyes to see.
It is real and we ignore this at our own peril.

The seed of hate will continue to grow once sown and it will bring up a harvest once the opportunity is ripe, if it is not destroyed. Every seed produces a harvest. And the harvest is always greater than the seed. That is why I fear for the Yoruba.
However, what you sow is also what you reap. You can’t sow hate against a people, an entire race and expect to reap love and affections everywhere you go. I am not surprised that Igbos are hated everywhere. Even in the foreign lands in South Africa, Indonesia, China, Thailand, Egypt etc. The jails of those nations are filled to the brim with Nigerians mostly of Igbo extraction. The Singaporean security officer said the other day in a video that “NIgeria is the curse of Africa and the Igbo is the curse of Nigeria.” He was an immigration official based on what he has seen. That is the harvest. The hatred of Yorubas has also brought a worthy harvest for the Igbos as their children are hated everywhere. Even among their own Eastern Minorities like the Ijaws, Ibibios, Efiks., etc the hatred against the Igbos is unimaginable. You heard the other day when in a speech former President Goodluck Jonathan said that the “Ijaws would rather be slaves under the Hausas than be.kings under the Igbos.” This is the harvest for several decades of sowing the seeds of hate against others.
That is why it is time to change the script. It is time to stop spreading evil seeds of hate about other people groups based on fairy tales and old woman’s fable about Civil War – tales that cannot even pass the test of the canons of national historiography. Because the harvest won’t bring something good even for Igbos too. This is a warning to the haters of Igboland.
There are extremists everywhere and in every tribe. We do not judge a people or tribes by their extremists. But we must not ignore the extremists because they are bold and they are ready to die for their convictions, hence they exercise undue influence on the rest of society. Amaka may be an extremist but there are many others like her in every tribe. It is why Nigeria should worrry.
The Nazis were a minority but they eventually took over the most sophisticated European nation and precipitated a World War. The Bolsheviks were a minority in Russia but they precipitated a Revolution. So were the Jacobins in France and the Puritans in England. Be afraid of minorities who are coordinated and who believe in their mission no matter how ugly it is.
Amaka Patience Sunnberger is not alone. There are many like her who still carry within them the seeds of hate planted inside them to different degrees.

We need not deny it. A problem is not solved by denial but by addressing it. Many Igbos think like Amaka only they won’t go to that extreme. The evidence is there. I am a Researcher.

Firstly, why did most Igbo elites in Babangida government support the annulment of June 12 election won by a Yoruba man? Even when Babangida wanted to reverse himself it was the Igbo elements in that government according to Professor Omoruyi, an insider, who insisted on the annulment revealing the deep hatred against the Yorubas. The Apamgbo, Nzeribes, Chukwumerijes, Nwabuezes, these are Igbo names, active in the annulment and sustaining the fraud.

Secondly, why did Chinua Achebe write the then President Ibrahim Babangida not to give Awo a State Burial after his death when the push was being made and the AFRC was considering it in 1987? You at least saw his hatred revealed against Awo in his seditious book There Was a Country.
Yet when Odumegwu Ojukwu died no notable Yoruba writer or elite opposed a State Burial been given to him despite the fact that he was far less deserving of that honour than Awo. Awo was a founding father of Nigeria, Ojukwu was not.

Thirdly, why was there no notable Igbo writer and elite to show a sympathetic consideration and even congratulation to Professor Wole Soyinka in 1986 when he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature that year but instead went on a barrage of scurrilous attacks, innuendos, brickbats not only against the laureate but also, which is worse, against the Nobel Foundation. Because, rightly or wrongly, they believed an award had been given to a Yoruba man that they felt rightly belonged to an Igbo man, Chinua Achebe. Old writers can bear witness to what I am saying here.
Even for Soyinka, the same man who spent almost three years in solitary confinement for his efforts to save the Igbos from certain carnage!
So the hate has a history and a context.

These are the climates that produced the likes of Amaka Patience Sunnberger and many still lurking in the background waiting for opportunity.

This is what is fuelling the backlash now rising among the Yorubas. With this kind of video the ”Igbo Must Go” Movement in Lagos now have another arsenal with which to fight. The extremists among the Yorubas too now have another weapon to harass their moderate kinsmen: “Didn’t we tell you?” The Amaka video has now made it difficult for those of us rebuking the anti- Igbo elements and extremists among the Yorubas. It is because of the extremists outside that you have the extremists too at home. How do you disable the extremists inside when there are many extremists too on the other side?
The young man who has been writing insidious essays and inciting polemics against the “Igbo Zionists,” who has appointed himself the Police to monitor Igbos in Yorubaland now also has an opportunity to continue and many people would now give him a sympathetic hearing. And where would this leave the Igbos?
The reality today, the fact today on ground in Nigeria is that Igbos need the Yorubas much more than the Yorubas need the Igbos. Whoever cannot see this is not smart.
Those are not the people you should fight or quarrel with. And they are not the people you should hate. It is not even elementary logic, it is simply enlightened self – interest.
Some are fixated on the falsehood that Yorubas are cowards, betrayers and cannot fight. Some are deluding themselves that they can win a race war with Yorubas. This is the kind of delusion based on asymmetric thinking and wobbly, slipshod scholarship that brought Disaster the last time. Fire does not burn a man twice. That is a man who is wise. And I know the Igbos are wise, wise as serpent which is even a sacred animal in most part of Igboland. They would need to use this wisdom and rein in the extremists in their midst for their own good. They would need to change the script by the kind of stories they tell their children about others.
The Germans are a good example. Despite the level of their suffering and the reparations levied on them they didn’t blame the Europeans or Americans or Russians for their woes. And they didn’t teach their children to hate other people. They didn’t exonerate their parents or excuse their culpability and even gullibility in colluding with Hitler and the Nazis. That is History. That is how History should be taught not by exonerating yourself and blaming others for your woes. See how God has blessed Germany today! They have recovered and even better than their enemies now. That is how it works.
Truth wins. Love conquers. Hate is the way of the losers and I love the Igbos and do not want them to lose. However, in the final analysis it is their choice. Everyone reaps what he sows.

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August 30, 2024
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WHEN A GOVERNMENT CANNOT THINK

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On The 18- Year Age Limit for WAEC/ NECO Policy

By Moses Oludele Idowu

“The government is the problem, not the answer.”
– Ronald Reagan (1911-2004)

There is one thing about APC that often worries me. There is something about the government of APC that often unsettles and gives me concerns. It is its ahistorical, anti- intellectual, unscholarly, banal and pedestrian attitude and social behaviour which is generally reflected in the government it heads, in its policy initiatives and directives and even in its motivation, inputs and directives. In short, it is in its attitude and manner now commonplace to act first and think later.
We have a danger on our hands. We are trapped as a people. Because we have a government and a party that are both averse to intellectual rigour, mental exertions, thorough examination of ideas for their long- term implications and even workability.
It is now clear to all who can see that APC rarely thinks about the implications of their policies and rarely care about the consequences of their policies and the long – term effects and sustainability of what they promulgate as policy framework.
Without any planning or study on ground Muhammadu Buhari publicly declared the creation of Nigerian Airlines. Through that precipitate action alone and for lack of proper and due diligence NIgeria lost N1billion naira. After many lies and deceits and having squandered billions of naira that same government left the stage without a single aircraft and with nothing like Nigerian Air,- except in the convoluted and diseased imagination of APC leaders and their unfortunate thoughtless followers.
I can regale you with several policies and directives of that government of APC showing there was little or nothing of study, rigour or mental capacity behind them.
Act first, then think later. That was Buhari government and the APC.
It seems it is with that same attitude that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is approaching governance after “grabbing, snatching and running” with the presidential victory in the controversial 2023 “election.” His first major action reflected APC standard trademark of “act first and think later” when he thoughtlessly and “under inspiration” removed fuel subsidy by mere announcement without any proper study of the effects, implications and consequences on the average person, the economy and the nation at large and without any buffers or props on which the people and especially the vulnerable segment of the society could fall. That singular incident has occasioned the most acute suffering, the most intense hardship on the generality of the population than anything I yet know. In a lifetime of three score years I am yet to see a policy of government that has brought so much suffering, so deepening poverty and privations, acute and terrible hardship on the greatest number of citizens like this one. Today the government has seen its error and has now reverted to subsidy regime but the havoc remains and irreparable.
This is the result of acting before thinking. Government policies are not issued and conceived by coming under inspiration, they are worked out based on studies, mental rigour and deep thinking. There at least two or three other instances within the last one year of this government showing this tendency to act first before thinking, that I am beginning to think it is a trademark of APC.
It is against this backdrop that I now move on the latest in the baggages of thoughtless policies and directives, the very asinine and wobbly directive that students must attain the age of 18 before being allowed to sit for WAEC/NECO/UTME. This was rolled out few days ago by the Minister of Education, one Tahir Mamman.
In other words this directive stipulates that with effect from next year ( or is it this year?) a child cannot sit for those exams unless he or she is 18.
This is the trouble with our government and especially APC, the party controlling the government.
Do they ever think? Is there any study behind what they dish out as policies? Do they examine the workability, the sustainability or even consequences of what they promulgate as policies? Or, – which is worse, – is this party and government bent on national subversion of educational potentials of a large segment of the population?
Is it that the people who make our policies do not think or cannot think? Just a little thought would have shown that this would lead to nothing but chaos and if implemented would destroy the educational foundations of many children. I am troubled at the kind of mind that superintend our educational policies at the highest levels. I am troubled at the sheer wooden-headedness behind this policy and the tragedy this would bring to many children if implemented. Ronald Reagan’s observation of “the government is the problem” has now found fulfilment in APC and in the Tinubu administration.
Let us examine this policy and see the tragedy it would bring before going into its foolishness.
First, consider that most of the children in the final year or semi- final year in most secondary schools today, both private and public are in their 15th or 16th year of age. If this policy is implemented this year or even next year it means few students in our private schools will enrol students for WAEC/NECO. I know this to be true in the Southwest and the South in general. It then means many schools and parents may resort to fraud by forging the birth certificates of their children or withdraw the children after completing secondary education to wait at home for another two years till they are eligible to write the exams.
Do you get it? A child has been leading the class from even the first year of school and now gets to final year at 16 but cannot write the exams to proceed to the next stage of tertiary education not because he/ she is unwilling or unable but because a government of bandits has ambushed him with a bad policy, the product of a beclouded, locked -in thinking and confusion.
Most children in the South will face this problem. Most of the children in private secondary schools and even public secondary schools will encounter this problem. How does the government intends to solve this needless problem?
Think of students getting to final year at the top of the class and being stopped from writing exams because they are under-age at 16 or 15. Where would they be going when both parents go to work? It is a different thing if government is considering a bridging education as a stop gap. Would they start learning a trade after going to school while waiting till they are eligible to write examination? Would they still be smart enough to remember what they learned after two years of waiting at home doing nothing? What then will they be doing at home till they are 18 since there is no almajiri system in the South?
Or is this government trying to create one with masses of frustrated students?
Educational Foundation psychologists and experts tell us that after five years of a course of study without any practice to make use of what one has learned and without any refresher courses in the same study, a person lapses back into illiteracy. Now think of a student being kept at home after completing secondary school at 15 waiting for 3 years to write exams. Would he still be sound to take the exams again having largely forgotten what he has learned?
Where is this policy leading to? Who is bent on destroying the educational foundations of the South and especially the West?
Before now standard age of admission to universities is 16. Has any university complained to the Minister of Education that her students cannot cope with the intellectual rigour?
Two, if you look at the pattern of examination results in the last few years you again see this policy as not been well- thought out. Most of the highest scorers in both WAEC/NECO/ UTME in the last few years have been under -17 and the standard of examination has not lowered. Also look at most of the First Class awardees from the universities and their age; they were mostly those who got admission at 16.
If therefore the students are coping at 16 years of age why extend it to 18 if not a sinister agenda to destroy and truncate the educational hopes of a section of the country?
They increased the fees for university education and we didn’t complain, we still enrol our children at great sacrifice because we value education. They introduced Students Loan and skew it in such a way that the region that made the least contributions to revenue got the best allocation to her students. Northern students and universities have gotten the largest share of Student’s Loans packaged by this government, the West got very little and Southeast is completely cut off as if it is not part of the Federation. Still we didn’t complain, we still enrolled our children all the same and refused to withdraw them, at great personal costs. Now a policy must be used to prevent many Southernen children from education and from the universities. What increase if fees won’t do, a policy must be invented and enforced to do. This, we shall resist both legally and by all means available. No government has the right and the power to legislate or promulgate a policy that destroys the future of an entire generation because it is intellectually lazy and cannot think.
In Mamman Tahir’s North, government is conducting mass wedding and giving 15- year olds for marriage to procreate children to swell their population for increased votes during election (?). If he is not aware of this then he is ignorant; if he is aware of it and does not know the implications then he is mischievous. What has Minister Tahir done about this and other elites of the North? But his worries is to stop 16 year- olds from furthering their educational career. So in Tahir’s Nigeria a 15 – year old can marry and bring forth children but she cannot write exams or further her education. Sometimes, when I ponder on Buhari and Tinubu’s administrations I almost conclude that APC actually means Almajiri People’s Congress.

Let us now consider one more fact because I don’t want this essay to be lengthy: physical age versus maturity age. I do hope that the people in the Education Ministry know that there is a difference between physical age ( or natural or biological age of a child) and maturity age of the same child. In a nation as diverse as Nigeria a policy with a uniform age that subsumes the entire demographic of student population within a specific armbit is bound to be counterproductive.
Look at it. A 15- year old Northern girl may be bodily or physically stronger than her Southern counterpart but is likely to be less matured and sophisticated than her Southern age mate. Put in another way, a 16- year old child in Lagos may be older in Maturity Age than his biological age mate from Zamfara or Katshina – all things been equal. A child could be 15 or 16 and be even more matured than a 20 – year old elsewhere.
What we should worry about is that a student is emotionally and mentally matured to withstand intellectual rigour and mental exertions of a university education instead of just putting arbitrary obstacles on the path of students. Does this student have the intellectual sophistication and mental adequacy to cope or go through higher education? In real life what is the difference between an 18- year old and a 16- year old?

My daughter took the GCE exams at 15 and passed with flying colours we still kept her in school just to attain the mandatory 16 years before she could write JAMB and gain admission to the university. Her younger brother had to be kept at home for two years just to attain the mandatory 16 years before going to the university even after passing the exams in flying colours.
Now that the age has been extended to 18, I am afraid that their younger brother who is always top of the class from primary school may have to stay at home for possibly 3 years before he is eligible to even sit for the examination. Doing what? I have no farm or trade to send him to assist me. That is the tragedy that is loading which the Tinubu administration is about to unleash on the people of this nation and the future generations.

That is why I am worried for these children and many in their class.
I am a patriot and have always fought for Nigeria and its indissolubility and against ethnic nationalities or separatist movements. I have always fought against break-up of Nigeria not because I get anything from this nation but I believe that Nigeria has been simply unlucky and , like a woman with a succession of bad and irresponsible suitors, has not been given a chance.
But today I must confess that having watched the terrible atrocities and havocs done by the APC administrations in the last 9 years, its pedestrian, anti- intellectual attitudes to governance, its corrupt, illiterate and self- serving elites, mediocre policies, my faith in this nation is shaken. Possibly the promoters of Yoruba Nation and Biafra may know something that I am not seeing and have not been seeing. Possibly, I too am taking NIgeria too seriously than I should have.
In the meantime I have hope that this policy will be reversed or defeated. It is indeed sad. Indeed, in NIGERIA the government is the problem not the answer.

Good morning, Nigerians.

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August 27, 2024
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Adeleke Speaks On ₦1bn Donation To Lagos Church

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The Osun State Government has broken his silence on the allegations made by the state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) regarding a ₦1 billion donation to a Cherubim and Seraphim Church In Lagos by Governor Ademola Adeleke.Denying the allegations in a statement issued on Saturday, Governor Adeleke’s spokesperson, Olawale Rasheed said the APC’s claims are baseless and a result of the party’s frustration over the Governor’s “superlative performance.”

Clarifying the allegations, Adeleke’s spokesperson said neither the state government nor Governor Adeleke made the donation, emphasizing that the funds did not come from the state treasury.“The state APC and its operatives have run out of ideas, hence the opposition resorts to barefaced lies and fake news on an event globally live-streamed and a donation personally made by the billionaire father of a billionaire, Dr. Deji Adeleke,” he said.He further noted that the philanthropist responsible for the donation has a history of contributing generously to various causes, including to the previous APC government.In his statement, Rasheed urged the public to dismiss the “vituperations” from the APC, accusing the party of spreading fake news as a result of its declining popularity in Osun State.

NIGERIA AS A GAME

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Understanding the Contours of a Troubled Nation

By Moses Oludele Idowu

There are two dangers, mortal dangers, into which anyone of us can fall; and which we must avoid at all cost. The first is not taking Nigeria seriously. But the second is the worst: taking Nigeria *too seriously* that we allow events to bother us and dominate our personal space and consciousness and rob us of our inward peace. Most uneducated and ignorant people are prone to the former but the educated and enlightened and patriots usually fall for the latter. The great genius and intellectual giant, Professor Ayodele Awojobi made this mistake and it cost him his life. He took Nigeria too seriously and, as a consequence, it led him first to insanity, then to death.

Some Nigerians especially educated people and patriots have confessed in recent time that it is becoming difficult for them to cope and maintain their sanity and peace reading the headlines of newspapers or even on Social Media. And to be sure you can’t read our newspapers today or even stay for sometime on Social Media and not be troubled if you have a soul. This could lead to depression with terrible consequences. I nearly fell into that trap under Sani Abacha’s regime when I would just wake up in the night thinking about Nigeria unable to sleep. In this essay I want to give you a perspective by which you can gain an understanding, a different understanding of Nigeria. This would save you and your soul from disaster because more terrible news are still coming.

The noted journalist and celebrated columnist, Sonala Olumhense asked a question: Is Nigeria a game? Well I want to answer that question here in the affirmative although not in the nature of his own understanding. Nigeria is not a bush game that hunters go to the bush to hunt; I do not see it like that which is how Sonala intended in his essay. Rather Nigeria is a game in another sense – as a thing of sport, fun, entertainment, merriment and exercise or play for a trophy. Except that in this peculiar game lives, destinies and careers of entire generations are being carefully truncated, systematically destroyed and entirely wiped out. The dictionary has some interesting definition of a game as “an activity that one engages in for amusement.” It is for amusement and I can assure you that many find Nigeria amusing. To the generals who collect money for arms and pocket most of the fund without accountability it is a thing of fun. The oil subsidy thieves who told the grand master that he should end the subsidy regime because “they are tired of making money” also see Nigeria as amusement. The senators and lawmakers who take a killing of a salary and allowance for sitting less than a hundred days some of which he is absent, also find Nigeria an amusement. The venal politicians who warehouse the palliatives meant for the suffering of masses also find Nigeria fun and amusement. To all these Nigeria is fun, Nigeria is a game. And it sure is. In a game there are no consequences for losing because it is generally believed that this is thing for fun and amusement and entertainment. No one goes to jail for missing a penalty kick or failing to save a free kick resulting into a loss. In Nigeria too no one pays any penalty for miscarriage or looting.

Has any subsidy thief gone to jail for all the trillions of naira lost, of petrol imported into the country that Customs has no record of its entering into Nigeria? A ministry invited job applicants to Abuja stadium in which 18 citizens were trampled to death. Even the minister didn’t lose his job and the government did not cease to exist. Because in a game there is no consequence and Nigeria is a game. In a game you have two contestants or competitors, and judges and a large mass of spectators. In our own game too we have an Executive and a Legislature and the Judiciary who is supposed to referee them and a largely illiterate, disoriented citizenry serving as spectators cheering them and fighting each other for their sake. Unfortunately for Nigeria both the Executive and Legislature and even a substantial segment of the Judiciary belong to the same Team so they are not playing against each other but against the ignorant masses hailing them and defending them and that is being daily led gradually but steadily to Golgotha. Once you understand this concept and see Nigeria in this light many things will open up to you and you will understand Nigeria including what one Marxist scholar calls “the cyclical character of Nigeria’s ruling class.” Look at it again this way.

In a game you have different people and different activities. When a summer Olympics is coming for instance various things come into the minds of various people and organizations. The conglomerate and multinational prepare to get their products before the world to capture the attention of the world, the athletes go on extra mile to get ready to excel in their area, the hospitality industry put things in order to make maximum profits from the surge of crowds coming…the sex workers too for the expected surge in patronage. The same event, the same place, the same time but different expectations and meanings to different people. Nigeria is such a place; Nigeria is like that game. To some genuine patriots Nigeria is a nation that given the right climate and under the right leadership wll be great; to others it is a tool to achieve their ambition. To some others it is the bequest from their founding fathers to use for domination and to spread their religion and desert culture.

To others it is a clog in the wheel of their progress hindering them from achieving their own ethnic nationalities’ aspirations… Nigeria means many things to many people. Not every Nigerian wants Nigeria to succeed. Many people love Nigeria for their own sake and for the sake of their religion and only few people love Nigeria for Nigeria’s sake.A game when seen as a verb also connotes manipulation. Nigeria is also game in this sense as a theatre for endless manipulations. Everyone wants to game the system, eat from Nigeria and loot Nigeria. Everyone is involved in a game except that it is a game against the destiny of Nigeria.Shehu Shagari after his misrule in the Second Republic was kept under house arrest by the Buhari junta and they refused to try him. Governors who served under him were jailed for as long as 120 years while he and Vice President Alex Ekwueme were left untouched.

The people began to clamour for his trial. Nigerian Tribune in an headline “Shagari is due for trial”, which led to thd arrest of the editor and detention by that junta. Finally a panel was set up to try and examine Shehu Shagari. He was immediately vindicated and freed and acquitted. Here then is the tragic thing about it and I am revealing this today because of youths who had not been born or who were too young then. As soon as the verdict was pronounced the Shagari Defense Team jubilated, – expectedly so. Then the shock of the nation: even the Prosecution Team joined the Defense in congratulation and joyous moment in a way that suggested they might have been working together for the same answer. Only in Nigeria. They couldn’t even wait to disguise their intentions from the public. We all saw this on National Television. This was the kind of things that threw Awojobi into depression. He took Nigeria too seriously. Nigeria is a game. Those who are playing the game know what they are doing. The Defense and the Prosecution are the same people; APC is PDP and PDP is APC. Labour Party is simply the disaffected members holding the wrong end of the stick; those who lost out in the internal power games of the big league of the major players of the two leprous hands of a diseased body.

In 2010 Jacob Zuma invited Goodluck Jonathan for the World Cup Olympic tournament in South Africa. Off he went to South Africa which is at least understandable. But it doesn’t stop at that because Nigerians have a gift of excess, a genius for deconstruction. 62 senators ( about 56%) out of the 108 senators also left their jobs to follow Jonathan to South Africa at government expenses. Nigeria didn’t qualify for anything and is not playing for final yet a whole Senate nearly shut down because of going to South Africa to watch football. No other nation sent more than 6 senators for the tournament. Germany that qualified for finals didn’t send senators, only Chancellor Merkel and some officials went to cheer their team to victory. Nigeria has no team to cheer, no medal in view and no trophy expected; yet 56% of our senators went there leaving their legislative duties for entertainment. That is Nigeria; a nation where everyone is playing games. Everyone wants to game Nigeria for its own good.It was worse in 2012 at Summer Olympics in London. The Nigeria Olympic Village was a carnival of orgies and entertainment by people who were supposed to be representing their nation in a serious tournament. Every night it was parties galore – all night carnival and carousing. Even King Sunny Ade was brought from Nigeria to entertain people who were supposed to be sportsmen and their administrators.

Every night in other game villages of other nations there was planning, preparation and brainstorming to review the day’s performance and see how they could improve the next. But in the Nigerian Camp it was the sound of entertainment and merry- making as men who have lost their senses danced with women of easy virtues with costly wines under a regime when “stealing is not corruption.” How many medals did Nigeria win or bring home? Nothing. They left with plenty money, large delegation, made so much noise disturbing the serenity of London but nothing at the end. Just sound and fury signifying nothing. They knew they won’t win any medal and they must spend the money allocated to them or return it to the Treasury hence they started spending the moment they got to London. So much so that Hennessey wine gave Nigeria the trophy for being the largest consumer of its brand in 2012. That was the trophy Nigeria won, not the Olympic trophy or medal but the Hennessy medal for drinking. Which is why I am not surprised that this year, 12 years after that event Nigeria got nothing from Paris and 12 billion naira has gone to waste. More delegates than athletes some of who had to borrow items from their counterparts from other parts of the world. That is Nigeria.Did anyone suffer any consequences from the South Africa or London misadventures? None. And no one will suffer from the latest Paris debacle because in a game there is no consequence for failure and Nigeria is a game. That is the reason for the culture of rampant impunity for which Nigeria is now world famous.

The recent scandal is the Hajj scandal where N90b looted from Nigerian people through subsidy removal and tax payers by a government that has lost its way to pay for some select people to go to Saudi Arabia to stone Satan. And now the pilgrims are back with tales of woes and sufferings from the satans who administered their journeys in NAHCON. Ashayton is not in Saudi Arabia, he lives in Nigeria. He lives right here among you and in your hearts – leaders and led. Oh yes, satan lives right here with you and in your midst and inside you. You don’t know this? Satan is in your leaders, past and present, who put heavy yokes on the poor and the vulnerable without lifting it with their own hands; who asks for endless sacrifices from the people while they and their wives live in majestic splendour and unconscionable luxury and maniacal opulence. These are the real satans you should stone. Satan is your politicians who keep palliatives for themselves and cronies and watch hungry people in the streets dying of hunger.Satan is your occultic pastors who build their altars in human blood and human sacrifice thus denying the Message if the Cross and denying the Blessed One Who gave all for Humanity. Satan is your Alfas and Mallams who are so bigoted it is a wonder they still live among humans. It is one of such who said “a dead Muslim is better than the best Christian.” It is another of such who said a First Lady should be assassinated because she is a Christian. Fools, anarchists, illiterate bigots, enemies of God and men. These are the real satans, the ashayton that you need to stone if Nigeria will cease to be mere game and fulfill her destiny as a nation. They are here, not in Saudi Arabia. In one day bandits wiped out an entire battalion of soldiers in Niger State. Bandits stormed the capital and prison and freed their men from prison, took train passengers hostage for months and shot at a Presidential convoy under a government headed by one who is supposed to be a general of the Army.And what happened thereafter? Nothing. Now consider the opposite. Only the abduction of three Israeli soldiers on Lebanese border forced an emergency Executive Council that night. By the next day Israel with fury from land, sea and air, artillery and infantry poured into Lebanon leading to an invasion of another nation to bring those bastards to justice and bring justice to those who aid them. Just because of three soldiers none of which was even an officer! But a battalion was wiped out here and nothing happens. Bandits have sent citizens to IDP camps and living in their villages in Benue and Plateau State and it has not even merited a mention from the seat of power.

What is the difference? Israel is a nation, Nigeria is a game.Atiku Bagudu is being accused by United States of helping Sani Abacha to loot billions of dollars in the 1990’s as his budget minister. Though not convicted by any court but he is alleged by US Justice Department in an ongoing lawsuit before a Federal judge in Washington, according to William Clowes, of being part of a group headed by Sani Abacha that “embezzled, misappropriated and extorted billions from the government of Nigeria.” Now despite the fact that the new powers in APC were aware of this they still made him a minister of government. Possibly he is being brought into government to do for the new Hegemon of Bourdillion ( sorry, Aso Rock ) what he was alleged to have done for Sani Abacha. That is Nigeria – a game meant for amusement and entertainment. This is a government that says it will fight corruption. Every Nigerian government claims it is out to fight corruption except those headed by Babangida and Abacha. At least these were honest enough not to promise what they knew they would never deliver. That is why when the history is written Babangida and Abacha will have a better place than even Buhari with his self- deluded hypocritical self – laden turban of anti- corruption.What happened to the $12.4b Gulf Oil windfall? The Okigbo Panel Report is still in the Archive. Under Jonathan government loans were taken and Abacha loots returned that could not be accounted for in a time when oil sells for more than a hundred dollars per barrel. But anything could happen when “stealing is not corruption.” Under Buhari $3b loan from IMF was taken that cannot now be traced. What did Buhari do with N72 trillion?Quietly the CBN probe and investigation by the Tinubu government has been discontinued. It wasn’t meant to unearth anything.That is another aspect of Nigeria as a game. In Nigeria probes are not meant to unearth the truth or recover money but to douse public fury and temper public anger.Abacha set up the Okigbo Panel on the Gulf Oil not because he was interested in getting to the root or recovering money but to buy credibility against NADECO. As soon as the power was consolidated in his hands he jettisoned the report and took Nigeria on a new heist unknown to history.

Obasanjo did the same with Kolade Report on Abubakar regime. Under Yar’Adua andJonathan attempts were made to probe the $16b that was thrown into the bottomless pit of power. Buhari has done the same with Jonathan but what came out of the probes? Tinubu has also used this game to buy credibility and sympathy from people. Now that the power is firmly in his hands he has discontinued the CBN heist under Emefiele and how a whopping sum was squandered under that regime. Probes in Nigeria are not for fact- finding or to unearth any facts or recover money but to keep the public from excessive anger and irrational actions just as in a stadium you erect barricades to keep the public away from the main arena. NIGERIA is a game.It is not only about the leadership even the followership is the same. An elite that is bereft of a culture of honour, a youth segment that is disoriented and lacks any meaningful purpose except hedonism, religions that cater only to gratify self and selfish motives, a business class that is also out to game the system… These are the ones that reinforce Nigeria as a game. Who will save these ones? Who will teach them, unfortunate products of a wasted generation ; untrained and poorly trained and miseducated children of a fatherless generation? Consider this story which is fact from a post whose source I can’t remember and see how youths respond and what interests Nigerian youths. You know a people by what interests them.In a Big Brother show, a common favorite of our youths, an housemate was caught having sex with another. When this was posted it drew the following responses: comments (60,700), likes (100,300), shares (70,300)In the second case the news item that Nigeria Government signs power generation contract with Siemens of Germany to boost electricity attracted dismal response: comments (4), Likes (2), Shares (6)How about that? The sexual immorality and permissiveness on display attracted more response and reactions and passion than the solution to one of the major problems facing Nigeria on the quest for industrialization. That is the youths that Nigeria is railroading into the 21st century. Total number of votes at Big Brother in 2018 was, it is alleged, 170 million while the total number of registered voters that participated in the 2019 election is 27 million.Yahaya Bello was accused of stealing 80 billion naira of Kogi State money. Witness how many lawyers stormed the court to defend him? 500. That is another dimension of the game: out learned men.

A politician steals enormously and prodigiously he then hires a certain number of SANs to defend him or prevent his prosecution through all manners of alibis and shenanigans. That is the game in Nigeria. Lawyers put obstructions on the path of justice against their own Fatherland and their own people helping criminals to escape justice. That is the game in which we are all playing. Someone is thinking of tomorrow, there is no tomorrow with this kind of youths, tomorrow actually died yesterday. Unless the Mercies of God intervene Nigeria is a lost Cause. The only sad thing is that this is real and this will lead to the loss of lives and destruction of countless destinies because human lives are involved.I do not blame soldiers when they desert in the battle front or resign their commission. It is callousness to expect a man to fight without giving him the tools to do so. A soldier posted the food that was served on the battle front on Social Media, so bad that even people won’t give to dogs. These are the men we expect to fight to keep a nation together. Have you seen the kind of weapons our policemen carry? Compare that with the AK- 47 that terrorists and bandits wield. And you blame them for removing their uniforms and running away? Man’s first instinct is for self-preservation and you can’t blame a man for saving his life in a difficult circumstance. That is not cowardice, it is self-preservation. If Nigeria wants them to fight give them the required tools to do so. 

Have you seen the Israeli policemen and women or the American police in formation? Which robbers would frontally come against them except he wants to commit voluntary suicide?

This brings me to the last aspect of this essay as I round up. Nigeria is a game and no one dies because of a game. As long as Nigeria is administered the way it is, as long as the rulers of Nigeria refuse to answer the real questions of nationhood: accountability, justice for all, equity, fairness, just and judicious distribution and redistribution of commonwealth, equality before the Law etc., it is a waste of lives to die for Nigeria. No one should die for a fraud. Human lives are too precious and too rare to waste on a game. Nigeria, as it is run and administered and operated today is not a nation; it is a game. And no one should die because of a game. I do not recommend it. That is not being unpatriotic; I want to serve and love a nation but a real nation not a mere plaything of the scoundrels and a toy of the hypocrites. If Nigeria were a real nation none of the men who have shot themselves into power in the last 20 years won’t even have a chance. And we have not seen the end of the decay and the debasement. The tunnel is darker through and through and who knows where and when?

  The unfortunate thing is the world now know what I am saying here but they are too polite to say it to us. They know it is all fun. Only Nigerian officials collude with outsiders to defraud their own people and nation. A minister of government was expressly ordered to stop action on a contract because it was improper and beyond his statutory capacity as a minister by the Federal Executive Council; yet the following morning he went ahead writing on the letter head of Nigerian Government to commit Nigeria to a contract that she does not need. That has now become a case for international arbitration.

  Everyone wants to swindle Nigeria, everyone wants to game the system and steal for himself. It is just as if Nigeria is in the hands of her enemies. We have had a government that took loans for which Nigerian people will pay to build roads and railway and bridges to other nation and in other nation. Enemy actions.

  Contracts are entered into frivolously and without any thoughts for future generations, loans are taken and looted thus enslaving future generations to a life of penury and hardship.

But sometimes it backfires. The evil we do comes back to us too. People reap what they sow too. It is pleasing that it is an APC government in Ogun State that unilaterally cancelled a legitimate contract with a Chinese company entered by a previous PDP government that has now backfired leading to the seizure of three Presidential jets for which an APC Federal Government is now in trouble. At the rate it is going and loans are being taken and procured they wont come one day to seize the Nigerian Coat of Arms and even sovereignty.

   That is why you should be careful about Nigeria. Don’t lose your peace or patience. This is indeed a trying time for the true patriots and nationalists. We are in a tunnel and it is dark and darker through and through. But it will not end this way. Something keeps telling me that this nation will survive her numerous enemies and keep her appointment with destiny.

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   August 17, 2024

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