www.newstower.ng

Menu
Facebook Twitter Youtube

Category: Politics

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

Posted on by admin50

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

Posted on by admin50

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.

Follow me:

Facebook: Moses Oludele Idowu

WhatsApp: 07045083710

X : @OludeleIdowu

© Moses Oludele Idowu
August 30, 2024
All Rights Reserved

WHEN A GOVERNMENT CANNOT THINK

Posted on by admin50

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.

Follow me:

Facebook: Moses Oludele Idowu

WhatsApp: 07045083710

X : @OludeleIdowu

© Moses Oludele Idowu
August 27, 2024
All Rights Reserved

Adeleke Speaks On ₦1bn Donation To Lagos Church

Posted on by admin50

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

Posted on by admin50

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.

Follow me:

 *Facebook* : Moses Oludele Idowu (stop sending friend request but you can follow me)

WhatsApp: 07045083710

© Moses Oludele Idowu

   August 17, 2024

  All Rights Reserved 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Governor Adeleke Attends Thanksgiving Service at C & S Headquarters

Posted on by admin50

In memory of his late mother, Nnena Esther Adeleke and in appreciation of God’s blessings in his life, Governor Ademola Adeleke today attended the much delayed thanksgiving service at the headquarters of the Cherubim and Seraphim, Lagos, praising divine grace in the making of his governorship of Osun State.The Governor’s mother, the late Esther Adeleke, was a Senior Mother- in- Israel of the church, the same title presently held by the Governor’s sister, Yeyeluwa Modupe Adeleke-Sanni.

Governor Adeleke who had always affirmed his faith in God through praise worship in churches and mosques was also conferred with a senior church title long before his assumption of governorship in recognition of his deep service to God and humanity.In his short remarks, Governor Adeleke affirmed his undiluted faith in God and his determination to use all available platforms to praise and worship the creator of heaven and earth.Amidst songs of praise and dance by guests and congregation, the Governor recounted the many divine favours of God on the Adeleke family, his life and his successes so far as governor, announcing his ever faithfulness to the creator of heaven and earth.

The Governor of Lagos state, Babajide Sanwoolu and his Ogun state counterpart, Prince Dapo Abiodun attended the thanksgiving programme.Governor Adeleke was accompanied to the event by his brother, business mogul, Dr Deji Adeleke; the Deputy Governor, Prince Kola Adewusi; matriarch of the Adeleke family, Yeyeluwa Dupe Adeleke; the wives of the Governor- Her Excellencies, Titilayo Adeleke and Ngozi Adeleke; the Chief of Staff to the Governor, Hon Kazeem Akinleye; global music icon, David Adeleke (Davido); House Speaker, Prince Adewale Egbedun; the Deputy Speaker, Hon Ireyode; the Head of Service, Elder Ayanleye Aina; members of the State House of Assembly; members of the State Executive Council; media entrepreneur, Akinrogun Dele Momodu and other top business and political friends of the governor.Signed:Mallam Olawale Rasheed,Spokesperson to the State Governor.”

President Tinubu, Akpabio For IGP Son’s Wedding

Posted on by admin50

By Folorunsho Atta

The president, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio are among distinguished Nigerians that will grace the wedding of the son of the Inspector-general of Police, IGP , Mr Kayode Egbetokun on Saturday this week in Lagos.Reliable source disclosed that the reception of the wedding fixed at Harbour Point in Victoria Island is expected to be graced by who is who in Nigeria.

Expected at the occasion are governors, Ministers, Chairman of Police Service Commission, PSC, DIG Hashimu Argungu ( RTD) and Chairman of Nigeria Police Force Micro Finance Bank, Mr Samuel Adegbuyi.The police in Lagos have began security arrangements for the grand occasion.

Details later….

The Movement for Okura State and the Tyranny of the Majority

Posted on by admin50

By Samuel Eke Petu

Nigeria’s democracy often feels like a surreal theatre where the unimaginable becomes reality. This political arena, filled with both the extraordinary and the absurd, is a quagmire navigable only by those skilled in political mudslinging and survival. A recent article (in Leadership News, July 19th, 2024) titled “Bill To Create Okura State Out Of Kogi Passes Second Reading” highlights the struggle for power and dominance by the majority ethnic group in Kogi State. The bill, sponsored by Hon. Abdullahi Ibrahim Halims and others, proposes the creation of Okura State with Egume as its capital, arguing that it would engender “balance, more representation, and equitable distribution of the nation’s resources, more development and wellbeing of the people of Igala”.  However, the bill has faced significant opposition. Hon. Sanni Egidi Abdulraheem, representing Ajaokuta Federal Constituency, objected to the bill, claiming that his constituency was not consulted. Additionally, the Minority Leader, Hon. Kingsley Chinda, pointed out that the bill failed to follow constitutional procedures for state creation, as outlined in Section 8 of the Constitution. Since Kogi State was created in 1991, whenever the Igala demand Okura State, they include Bassa, a non-Igala-speaking local government.

Their previous attempts, including a similar bill in 2009, have consistently included Bassa, despite objections from the Bassa Nge people. As if repeating falsity ever makes it a truth. The Bassa Nge have always preferred their current political configuration (in Kogi State) and have no interest in being part of Okura State. The campaign for the creation of Okura State, ironically, highlights the Igala’s discomfort with their majority status in Kogi State. The Igala have held significant political power, with four of the state’s twelve governors coming from the Igala ethnic group. Despite this dominance, they have shockingly been unable to achieve their dreams within the current state structure, leading them to seek a new state where they can ‘maintain control’. This pursuit of power by the Igala raises concerns about the “tyranny of the majority,” a concept first coined by Alexis de Tocqueville in his work “Democracy in America.” Tocqueville warned that even in a democratic system, the majority has the potential to oppress minority groups. In the case of Kogi State, the Igala majority’s push for Okura State threatens the rights and interests of the minority groups, particularly the Bassa Nge. The history of state creation in Nigeria has often been fraught with tensions between ethnic groups. The Bassa Nge, for example, have been moved between different states over the years, from Kwara to Benue and finally to Kogi. Throughout these changes, they have consistently expressed a desire to remain in their current political configuration rather than being subsumed into a new state dominated by the Igala. 

The Igala’s latest move for Okura State, despite the objections of other ethnic groups, mirrors the actions of a group that serves itself first at a banquet, leaving only scraps for others yet remaining hungry. Without the consent of others, it can only amount to political rape, which is immoral in every sense. The National Assembly must resist this bill and protect the rights of minority groups in Nigeria. The sponsor of the bill has openly stated that the proposed “state will be inhabited by the Igala people, who are the ninth largest ethnic group in Nigeria.” This is a state for the Igala. Period.  Political theorists like John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche have long warned against the dangers of majority rule without safeguards for minority rights. Mill emphasised the importance of protecting minority rights in a representative government, while Nietzsche spoke of the “will to power,” where groups continuously seek to expand their influence at the expense of others. The Igala’s effort for Okura State reflects this will to power, as they seek to create a state where they can maintain control and influence. However, it is unlikely that the Igala will achieve in Okura State what they could not achieve in Kogi State. The claim that Okura State would ‘promote balance, representation, and equitable distribution of resources’ is laughable. Despite being in the majority and governing Kogi State for most of its history (approximately 62.5% of the democratically elected governors of Kogi State have been from the Igala), the Igala have not been able to achieve these goals. The drive for Okura State highlights the need for a political system that ensures equitable representation and protection for all ethnic groups, preventing any single group from monopolising power and resources.

Only then will minority groups have a sense of belonging and be free from the tyranny of the majority. The Bassa Nge have made it clear that they want nothing to do with Okura State, and this discussion should end here. We hope the National Assembly will protect the rights of the minority, and when the final gavel drops, the proposed fraud will be nullified.

RITUALS, BLOOD AND DEATH, THE SPIRITUAL SIDE OF ASO VILLA

Posted on by admin50

BY REUBEN ABATI

People tend to be alarmed when the Nigerian Presidency takes certain decisions. They don’t think the decision makes sense. Sometimes, they wonder if something has not gone wrong with the thinking process at that highest level of the country.I have heard people insist that there is some form of witchcraft at work in the country’s seat of government.

I am ordinarily not a superstitious person, but working in the Villa, I eventually became convinced that there must be something supernatural about power and closeness to it. I’ll start with a personal testimony. I was given an apartment to live in inside the Villa. It was furnished and equipped. But when my son, Michael arrived, one of my brothers came with a pastor who was supposed to stay in the apartment. But the man refused claiming that the Villa was full of evil spirits and that there would soon be a fire accident in the apartment. He complained about too much human sacrifice around the Villa and advised that my family must never sleep overnight inside the Villa.I thought the man was talking nonsense and he wanted the luxury of a hotel accommodation.

But he turned out to be right. The day I hosted family friends in that apartment and they slept overnight, there was indeed a fire accident. The guests escaped and they were so thankful. Not long after, the President’s physician living two compounds away had a fire accident in his home. He and his children could have died. He escaped with bruises. Around the Villa while I was there, someone always died or their relations died. I can confirm that every principal officer suffered one tragedy or the other; it was as if you needed to sacrifice something to remain on duty inside that environment. Even some of the women became merchants of dildo because they had suffered a special kind of death in their homes (I am sorry to reveal this) and many of the men complained about something that had died below their waists too. The ones who did not have such misfortune had one ailment or the other that they had to nurse. From cancer to brain and prostate surgery and whatever, the Villa was a hospital full of agonizing patients.I recall the example of one particular man, an asset to the Jonathan Presidency who practically ran away from the Villa. He said he needed to save his life. He was quite certain that if he continued to hang around, he would die. I can’t talk about colleagues who lost daughters and sons, brothers and uncles, mothers and fathers, and the many obituaries that we issued.

Even the President was multiply bereaved. His wife, Mama Peace was in and out of hospital at a point , undergoing many surgeries. You may have forgotten but after her husband lost the election and he conceded victory, all her ailments vanished, all scheduled surgeries were found to be no longer necessary and since then she has been hale and hearty. By the same token, all those our colleagues who used to come to work to complain about a certain death beneath their waists and who relied on videos and other instruments to entertain wives (take it easy boys, I don’t mean nay harm, I am writing!), have all experienced a re-awakening.Every one who went under the blade has received miraculous healing, and we are happy to be out of that place. But others were not so lucky. They died. There were days when convoys ran into ditches and lives were lost.

In Norway, our helicopter almost crashed into a mountain. That was the first time I saw the President panicking, The weather was all so hazy and he just kept saying it would not be nice for the President of a country to die in a helicopter crash due to pilot miscalculations. The President went into a prayer mode. We survived. In Kenya once, we had a bird strike. The plane had to be recalled and we were already airborne with the plane acting like it would crash. During the 2015 election campaigns, our aircraft refused to start on more than one occasion. The aircraft just went dead. On some other occasions, we were stoned and directly targeted for evil. I really don’t envy the people who work in Aso Villa, the seat of Nigeria’s Presidency. For about six months, I couldn’t even breathe properly. For another two months, I was on crutches. But I considered myself far luckier than the others who were either nursing a terminal disease or who could not get it up.

When Presidents make mistakes, they are probably victims of a force higher than what we can imagine. Every student of Aso Villa politics would readily admit that when people get in there, they actually become something else. They act like they are under a spell. When you issue a well- crafted statement, the public accepts it wrongly.When the President makes a speech and he truly means well, the speech is interpreted wrongly by the public. When a policy is introduced, somehow, something just goes wrong. In our days, a lot of people used to complain that the APC people were fighting us spiritually and that there was a witchcraft dimension to the governance process in Nigeria.But the APC folks now in power are dealing with the same demons. Since Buhari government assumed office, it has been one mistake after another. Those mistakes don’t look normal, the same way they didn’t look normal under President Jonathan. I am therefore convinced that there is an evil spell enveloping this country.

We need to rescue Nigeria from the forces of darkness. Aso Villa should be converted into a spiritual museum, and abandoned.Should I become President of Nigeria tomorrow, I will build a new Presidential Villa: a Villa that will be dedicated to the all-conquering Almighty, and where powers and principalities cannot hold sway. But it is not about buildings and space, not so? It is about the people who go to the highest levels in Nigeria. I really don’t quite believe in superstitions, but I am tempted to suggest that this is indeed a country in need of prayers.We should pray before people pack their things into Aso Villa. We should ask God to guide us before we appoint ministers. We should, to put it in technocratic language, advise that the people should be very vigilant.

We have all failed so far, that crucial test of vigilance. We should have a Presidential Villa where a President can afford to be human and free. In the White House, in the United States, Presidents live like normal human beings.In Aso Villa, that is impossible. They’d have to surround themselves with cooks from their villages, bodyguards from their mother’s clans and friends they can trust. It should be possible to be President of Nigeria without having to look behind one’s shoulders.But we are not yet there. So, how do we run a Presidency where the man in the saddle can only drink water served by his kinsman? No. How can we possibly run a Presidency where every President proclaims faith in Nigeria but they are better off in the company of relatives and kinsmen. No. We need as Presidents men and women who are willing to be Nigerians. No Nigerian President should be in spiritual bondage because he belongs to all of us and to nobody.Now let me go back to the spiritual dimension.

A colleague once told me that I was the most naïve person around the place. I thought I was a bright, smart, professional doing my bit and enjoying the President’s confidence. I spelled it out. But what I got in response was that I was coming to the villa using Lux soap, but that most people around the place always bathed in the morning with blood. Goat blood. Ram blood. Whatever animal blood. I argued.He said there were persons in the Villa walking upside down, head to the ground. I screamed. Everybody looked normal to me.

But I soon began to suspect that I was in a strange environment indeed. Every position change was an opportunity for warfare. Civil servants are very nice people; they obey orders, but they are not very nice when they fight over personal interests.The President is most affected by the atmosphere around him. He can make wrong decisions based on the cloud of evil around him. Even when he means well and he has taken time to address all possible outcomes, he could get on the wrong side of the public.

A colleague called me one day and told me a story about how a decision had been taken in the spiritual realm about the Nigerian government. He talked about the spirit of error, and how every step taken by the administration would appear to the public like an error. He didn’t resign on that basis but his words proved prophetic. I see the same story being re-enacted. Aso Villa is in urgent need of redemption. I never slept in the apartment they gave me in that Villa for an hour.

NLTF Enhances Osun Healthcare: Comrade Tosin Adeyanju Donates Vital Medical Equipment, Lauds President Tinubu’s Health Initiatives

Posted on by admin50

The Executive Secretary of the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF), Comrade Tosin Adeyanju, has donated vital medical equipments to Ijebu Jesa General Hospital in Osun State.

Adeyanju, who was received by Governor Ademola Adeleke, expressed his gratitude to President Bola Tinubu for appointing him to lead the NLTF. He praised the president’s commitment to improving the lives of Nigerians, particularly in the areas of health.

The NLTF boss noted that the agency has implemented various projects in Osun State, including the distribution of sports equipment to 62 primary schools and first aid equipment to 9 public schools between 2017 and date.

Adeyanju said that the commissioning and presentation of medical equipment to Ijebu Jesa General Hospital is a significant contribution to the healthcare sector in Osun State. He listed the equipment to include:

  • 1 X-Ray Mobile Machine
  • 4 Infant Incubators
  • 3 Haematocrit Centrifuges
  • 10 Suction Machines
  • 5 Autoclaves
  • 3 Defibrillators (AED) Automatic and Functional self-test
  • 2 Electrophoretic tanks/machines
  • 2 Physiotherapy equipment
  • 2 ENT Diagnostic sets
  • 10 Sphygmomanometers (Digital and Manual)
  • 3 Caesarean section instruments

He urged the community to take ownership of the equipment and utilize them appropriately for the benefit of the citizens. Adeyanju also announced that the NLTF’s Monitoring and Evaluation team would be visiting all the projects executed for feedback and encouraged the community to provide their feedback and suggestions.The NLTF boss praised President Tinubu’s efforts in improving the healthcare sector and prayed for God’s blessing on the president’s endeavors.Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, in his remarks commended the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) for its intervention in the health sector of the state.“I am pleased to host the Executive Secretary and his team at the Government House,” Governor Adeleke said. “I thank you for choosing a hospital in Osun State for this intervention. The support will help the health sector of our state, and we appreciate your efforts.”

The governor noted that he has been informed of the numerous interventions of the NLTF in the state and expressed his desire for more partnerships with the agency.“We have been told of many interventions of the agency, and we look forward to more benefits,” Governor Adeleke said. “We seek partnership with your agency to support our efforts in developing the state.”Governor Adeleke also highlighted the rich cultural heritage of Osun State and called for support from the NLTF in promoting it.“Osun State has great cultural heritage, which can be supported by your agency,” he said. “We appreciate your effort to support our efforts, and we look forward to working with you.”

In his remark, High Chief Oladele Fasewu, the Odofin of Ijebu Ijesa and representative of the paramount ruler of the benefiting community said,”I am delighted to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Executive Secretary of the National Lottery Trust Fund, Tosin Adeyanju, for the generous donation of health equipment to our community hospital. The hospital, which was built by our community, has been greatly enhanced by this gesture.“I must emphasize that the equipment donated is of high quality and is not easily found in our state. However, I appeal to the government to provide the necessary personnel to manage the hospital effectively. This will ensure that our community benefits maximally from this kind gesture.“Once again, I thank the National Lottery Trust Fund for their support and encouragement. May this donation bring joy and improved healthcare to our community.””The event was attended by dignitaries, including traditional rulers, government officials, and stakeholders in the healthcare sector in the state.

All Progressives Congress state chairman was represented by Femi Kujbola and Mr Remi Omowaiye, the Executive Director, Project Implementation of the Federal Housing Authority (FHA)Other dignitaries include;– Otunba Tola Faseru, Commissioner of Agriculture(represented governor of Osun)– Dr. Kemi Oladigbo, Director Medical Service Board– Adigun Adedoyin, Permanent Secretary, Osun State Ministry of Health– Oba Abiodun Adewumi, Chairman Hospital Management Service– Adigun Adedoyin, Director Osun State Nursing BoardThe commissioning of the health equipment is a significant milestone for the community, and the presence of these dignitaries and community leaders demonstrates the importance of the event.

The health equipment donated by the National Lottery Trust Fund is expected to improve healthcare services in the area.Arowolo Solomon AlabaSpecial Assistant to the Executive Secretary (Media & Corporate Communications)