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Alaafin Stool: Putting Culture To The Sword? [OPINION]

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By Suyi Ayodele

May the Awujale of Ijebuland, Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, live long on the throne of his fathers. But, how about my illustrious Ijebu people having Fuji musician, Wasiu Ayinde, as their oba one day? That is what I see in the current drama of some Ijebu obas and others paying homage to him inside an ‘ipebi’ (seclusion). So, let me be the first outside Ijebuland to pay homage to the latest ‘oba’ in Yoruba land. Long live, Kabiyesi, Alayeluwa, Oba Wasiu Ayinde, the Olori Omooba Akile of Ijebuland. May you reign long on the throne of your forebears! Wasiu has money, which is the vehicle of power. More importantly, he has the king of Nigeria as his godfather. Don’t mind me. My mind is just playing a prank on that possibility. But that is not the main reason for today’s discourse. Oyo Alaafin is my destination.

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I am not an alarmist. But an alarm is ringing, loud, in my head. It is about the happenings in Oyo town. The sons of Atiba, Omo ojo pa sekere mo de (Oyo, the sons of Atiba, whose cymbal does not deflate when beaten by rain) are on the verge of sending the last vestige of Yoruba culture to its grave. Once Oyo Alaafin (Place where the owner of the palace resides) succeeds in desecrating the Alaafin stool, the Yoruba race can as well kiss its culture goodbye. Awon Alale o ni je (May the owners of the land not allow it). Ewi aye o ni wi; Egba Orun o ni gba (May the sayer of the world not say it; may the hearer of heaven not accept it). I feel I should go invocative now, to call on all Itas (forebears), who have gone to Iwaleasa (great beyond), to rise, and defend our land. Our elders say: oku olomo kii sun (the dead who have offspring don’t sleep). Are our forebears sleeping? Ee ti je (how come it is so)? If I were to see the Ijelu Ekiti priest of Esu, I would have asked him to help us appease Laaroye to have mercy on us. If I were to run to the Alamoeku (Chief Ifa Priest), the Adifa-se-bi-aje (he who divines accurately like a witch) himself, I would have asked him to help us ask the only one known as Okunrin-kukuru-Oke-Igbeti (The short man who resides on the hills of Igbeti), Ifa, what our crimes are. What is happening in Oyo is bigger than Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State. It is bigger than what the Oyomesi can handle. The entire Kaaro, oojire (the entire Yoruba race) must come together and rescue the race. Keeping silent is akin to allowing a mad man to single-handedly attend to his mother’s corpse. He will throw it into the community river and pollute our source of water. We cannot afford that! Oyo kingmakers known as Oyomesi, are insulting our sensibilities as a people. They are attacking the very essence of our being. They say Ifa, the Yoruba religion, is not required in the selection of a new Alaafin! Haaaa! Eemo re (this is stranger than strange)!

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Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III, the Alaafin of Oyo, joined his ancestors on Friday, April 22, 2022. His passage was celebrated all over the world. The succession battle to fill the vacant stool began almost immediately. The last one year has been turbulent, so to say, in the history of Oyo in recent times. It is the battle for the right candidate for the throne of Oranmiyan that is ringing the alarm in my head. I read the news. I did not believe it. It was published by the Saturday Tribune on September 23, 2023. It was an interview granted the newspaper by High Chief Wakilu Oyedepo, the Lagunna of Oyo. The Lagunna is a member of the Oyomesi – Oyo Kingmakers. The head of the group is Bashorun. The occupant of the title today is High Chief Yusuf Ayoola. Saturday Tribune said that the Bashorun gave permission to grant the interview to the Lagunna. The Lagunna was asked: “What is the role of Ifa in the selection process?” Here is his response: “Ifa (oracle) has never been consulted in the process of selecting the Alaafin of Oyo. The Oyomesi is Ifa; Ifa is the Oyomesi. The decision of the Oyomesi is supreme in the choice of a nominee for the exalted stool of the Alaafin. Ifa was not consulted when late Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi III was to be enthroned as the Alaafin. What happened at the time of his enthronement is still fresh in our memories. Why was it that the person that topped the list was not enthroned as the king but Oba Adeyemi if truly Ifa was involved in the selection process? Since we have been enthroning the Alaafin in Oyo, Ifa has never been consulted. The issue of Ifa arose during the reign of Alaafin Sango.” This left my mouth agape! How can an Oyo man utter such a sacrilegious statement? We are talking about the nomination of one of the princes in Oyo to fill the vacant stool of an Alaafin and a member of the Oyomesi is saying Ifa had never been consulted in the past in carrying out such an exercise! Really? Who is Ifa? Who is Oyomesi? How can Ifa be Oyomesi and Oyomesi is Ifa? How can the decision of Oyomesi be superior to that of Ifa? Who made Oyomesi in the first instance? From where do members of the Oyomesi Council derive their power?

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World-known Ifa priest, the very Awise Agbaye, Professor Wande Abimbola, an Oyo man, says of Ifa in his Ijinle Ohun Enu Ifa Apa Kini and Apa Keji (parts one and two), that Ifa is a very important deity among Yoruba people. He added that the belief of the Yoruba people is that Ifa was sent to the earth by Olodumare (God Almighty), to use his heavenly wisdom to organise the earth. Yemi Elebuibon, another Yoruba notable Ifa priest, wrote a book in Yoruba Language. The title is: “Ifa Elerin Ipin”. On page i of the book, he has this to say: “Oosa kan pataki ni Ifa je ni Ile Yoruba (Ifa is an important god/deity in Yoruba land). Ouni ni (He is): a-kere-finu-sogbon (He that is small but full of wisdom), ako eran tii i soku ale ana daaye (the strong one who revives the corpse of last night to a living soul), Ela Isode ti i komo loran bi iyekan eni (The one from Isode, who explains a situation to one like one’s relation)”. The title, Eleri Ipin, when interpreted, means the one who witnessed destiny. Part of the oriki (praise names) of Ifa is “Arinu-rode, Olumoran-okan (He who sees both the inside and the outside, the decipher of human thoughts). In another instance, Ifa answers the name; “Atun-ori-eni-ti-o suwon-se (the repairer of a bad head – unfortunate destiny). Ifa is not just the Yoruba religion; it is the essence of the race; the very one which directs the functionality of the people right from the time lizards were few! Incidentally, Ifa, as a religion, deity, and way of life, was exported to other Yoruba towns and villages from Oyo. On June 20, 2023, in a piece titled: “Yoruba governors are Ifa priests”, which I did in response to the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba Abdulrasheed Akanbi, who claimed the same position that the Lagunna of Oyo is claiming today, I traced the history of Ifa to the reign of Alaafin Onigbogi, who adopted Ifa from Arugba-Ifa, the wife of Alafin Oluaso and mother of Alaafin Onigbogi. The entire story is told by The Reverend Samuel Johnson, in his “The History of the Yorubas”, (pages 118-189). From then on, Ifa did not just become the religion of the Oyo people but that of the entire Yoruba race.

From Abimbola, to Elebuibon, and up to Abosede Emmanuel, who, in her “Ifa (As Literature), English Translation of Yoruba Text of Revd. E. M. Lijadu”, a translation of Rev. Emmanuel Mose Lijadu’s Ifa Nipa (1908), the consensus is that Ifa was once a human being, who lived among us but had to ascend to heaven, using the palm tree with 16 branches, which are the 16 Odu Ifa (Odu Merindinlogun). The story is told in many Ifa verses (Ese Ifa), with Iwori Meji being the principal corpus (Odu Ifa). Abimbola’s Ijinle Ohun Enu Ifa Apa Keji (Page16-21), gives a vivid account of the story. While Orunmila refused to return to earth as human, he, nevertheless, handed over to the people, the 16 divination seeds (Ikin Merindinlogun) of Ifa, and instructed that for that whatever issue might confront the people, they should consult Ikin Merindinlogun. The entire Yoruba race accepted the gift and whenever any major decision is to be taken, the people consult their Babalawos, who will ask Ifa what the solution is. That has been the way of life of the Yoruba race. Foreign religions of Christianity and Islam have not been able to change that. Lijadu that is referenced here, was an Egba catechist, evangelist, and a confirmed Deacon and communicant of the Anglican fold. So, if we may ask High Chief Wakilu Oyedepo, the Lagunna of Oyo, and his fellow Ifa-is not-required Oyomesi, what has changed?

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Four days after Oba Adeyemi III passed on, and worried by the way and manner Yoruba thrones have become meta toro (three for two and half Kobo), as reigning obas desecrate the thrones of Oduduwa with impunity, I did another piece on April 26, 2022, with the title: “Alaafin: Message to Oyomesi, Makinde” But for the fear of being accused of intellectual laziness, I would have loved to reproduce that piece here because the contents are relevant to today’s discussion. All the fears I expressed in that piece are coming out one after the other. This is why I feel so burdened that the way the Oyomesi are going about the selection of a new Alaafin, if care is not taken, the pride of Yoruba race will be greatly jeopardized. Governor Makinde., while speaking at Iseyin on September 15, 2023, alluded to the fact that some members of the Oyomesi had collected money from some candidates jostling to become Alaafin. Makinde said in that speech: “Some people might have collected money from someone; Alaafin stool is not for sale. It is so important to Yorubaland that we won’t sell it. Anyone who might have gone to collect money, I won’t take them to OYAC; I will take them to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the man who started the EFCC is here seated, and I am saying in his presence.” I was expecting Oyomesi to answer the governor and dare him to name those who were suspected to have collected bribes from any of the contestants. That would never be. In a shocking manner, when the Saturday Tribune reporter put the question to the Lagunna of Oyo, here, again, is what he said: “Ko si ibi ti won kii ti jule, meaning, there is nowhere in the world where gift is forbidden. Such an act is not alien to our culture. Even politicians spend money during electioneering to lobby the electorate. I said it at the beginning of this interview that the Oyomesi is like the Ogboni cult. Our secret remains among us, but unfortunately, these same personalities betrayed the oath of secrecy. They travelled to Abuja to tell the governor that kingmakers collected money from one of the aspirants.” Imagine the raw admittance of bribery. To the respected Oyo kingmaker, if “politicians spend money during electioneering to lobby the electorate”, contestants for the Alaafin stool can also spend money to “lobby” Oyomesi. We need to ask this: is that why Eleri Ipin, Ifa, is not required in the selection process? Chief Lagunna knows too well that Ifa kii paro; Opele kii se’ke (Ifa does not lie, Divination is truthful). He would rather prefer that the cult-like “secret” of Oyomesi is not leaked to the governor and the public. This is where the danger lies. A section of the Oyomesi is ready to compromise the age-long tradition of Ifa consultation in the selection of a new Alaafin. This is what my people call “those at home have reached the farm (ara ile ti de oko). Every rational mind should be worried about this development. Permit me to quote myself in the April 26, 2023, piece:

“This is where the issue of the successor to Alaafin Adeyemi III should be of paramount interest to the entire Yoruba people. The time we are is the season of the locusts. The throne of Oyo is too big, too significant, and too important to the survival of our culture… This is where the Oyomesi- the kingmakers of ancient Oyo must stand firm. Oba Adeyemi III’s greatest asset was his integrity, his character, his disposition to everything that cements Yoruba culture. He was a Moslem; a practicing one for that matter. But in that, he never ignored the noble tradition of the people. He upheld the culture that made him Alaafin. He did not become Alaafin at the age of 31 because he had money. He became Alaafin because he had character. Yoruba say “iwa ni eniyan” – character is the man. Whoever comes after Oba Adeyemi III must not be less.” I warned them further about the danger of a long process of selection. I envisaged that “finding a fit-in successor”, would be difficult and posited that “that, however, should not be an excuse for the delay in selecting a new Alaafin. When a man stays too long on the chamber pot, different kinds of flies begin to perch on his scrotum.” Now we have the flies in their swarm perching not only on our scrotum, but dancing palongo on our phallus. Oyo princes are up in arms against one another. Cases are pending in courts. Oyomesi is sharply divided with two members of the council, High Chief Asimiyu Atanda, Agba-Akin of Oyo, High Chief Lamidi Oyewale, Saamu of Oyo, and another Chief, Odunrinde Olusegun, Alajagba of Oyo, singing a different song. The House of Oramiyan is not united anymore. Who will bail us out? Who will step in and ensure that the curse placed on the race by Alaafin Abiodun Aole (1770-1789), does not come home to roost again? The very one we can run to; the Atori-Eni-ti-o-sunwon-se, is said not to be needed. A child who sets his father’s Umosanyin (shrine) on fire should know that when sickness and fire break out, there will be no deity to run to. I made a passionate appeal in that April 26, 2022, piece. I seek your permission once again to repeat some of them here: “The Oyomesi will do Yorubaland proud if they resolve to give us an Alaafin that we can all follow to the battlefield. They should strive to give us an oba that will be royal in all ramifications of life. They will record their names in gold if, in considering the next Alaafin, the Oyomesi put character before wealth; integrity before popularity and our supreme culture before ‘civilisation’…. All eyes are on the Oyomesi. How they handle this assignment will definitely define their future and the future of Oyo town and Yorubaland. All Yoruba men everywhere in the world should not sleep. They should stay awake and monitor how the next Alaafin will emerge and who the person is and where he is coming from. We don’t want to enthrone an agent of the enemy as king….”

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Nothing untoward must happen to the Throne of Alaafin. The consequences will be too dire for Yoruba land. Oyomesi must know this. Oyo princes too must equally appreciate that. Those who can add two to three (mu eeji kun eeta), the initiates in the land, must tell Chief Lagunna and those who share his sentiment of “Ifa is Oyomesi, Oyomesi is Ifa”, that he is eternally wrong! Ifa is our way of life. He is far above any mortal. Ewi nle Ado, Mapo Elere, Erinmi lode Owo; Mapo Elejelu: Maba Otun; Omo enikan saka bi agbon, is not a mate of any chief, high or low. Our forebears consulted Ifa in the past and things went well with us. High Chief Lagunna accepted that at the choosing of Alaafin Sango, Ifa pointed the way. He cannot act otherwise now. Those who have gone before, and who handed Okin Merindinlogun to us, are watching. If anything goes wrong, the ones who established the Alaafin Throne will ask questions and act appropriately. Nobody can shew alligator pepper to avert the consequences. As for me, I know that: Ifa, iwo l’awo (Ifa, you are the initiate), emi logberi (I am the uninitiate); bi a ba njoko (when you are burning the bush) ma jo eliju mi (don’t born my savannah)!

This article written by Suyi Ayodele, South-East/South-South Editor, Nigerian Tribune was first published by the same newspaper, and published by INFO DAILY with the permission from the author.

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OPINION: David Mark, Dele Giwa, Abiola And Other Stories

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By Lasisi Olagunju

Who killed Dele Giwa? Who was Gloria Okon and where is she today? How did David Mark accurately predict in 1994 that Sani Abacha would spend five years in power and would attempt to contest a multi-party presidential election with only himself as candidate? Why did M. K.O. Abiola contest the 1993 election even after he had been told eight years earlier that he would one day successfully gun for the nation’s top job but would have the crown blown away by a storm at his crowning ceremony?

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A book that contains those details (with even more ghastly ones) is certain to stir up a hurricane across the nation. That is what Mr. Yakubu Mohammed, Dele Giwa’s friend and colleague at the Concord and Newswatch, has written. He gave the autobiography the title: ‘Beyond Expectations’. The old media entrepreneur graciously last week ushered me into the locked room of his soon-to-be-released book of stories. He gave me an advance copy for a preview which this piece is all about.

Good books are a compass to the past and a guide to the future. If not for a book as this, how many of us would recollect that in April 1994, Brigadier-General David Mark in exile in London told Dan Agbese, editor-in-chief of Newswatch, in an interview that General Sani Abacha was determined to stay put, at least for five years, and thereafter, transmute into a civilian president through an election in which he would be the only contestant? That was five months after Abacha sacked Ernest Shonekan and gullible Nigerians were waiting on him to cede power after six months to M.K.O. Abiola. It turned out that David Mark was right; pro-June 12 Nigerians who enthroned Abacha were dead wrong.

Was it David Mark’s party or the party of NADECO that eventually deposed Abacha? This question is a knot in the untangling hands of time. But the same David Mark who saw tomorrow in 1994 is in charge of a democratic onslaught against the incumbent president today. Mark is a trained marksman. It would be scary to have a reticent sniper gentleman officer leading a coalition against a self-sure president and his over-confident party. My dictionary says a sniper is a marksman. It says a sniper is a dead shot with uncommon skills. His missile is long-range, his position concealed. He employs stealth and camouflage techniques to remain undetected, and he is rarely detected. His training is specialised, his tools are high-precision; and his sight telescopic. The marksman’s engagement of targets is with pin-point accuracy. God help those at the receiving end of his shots.

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Yakubu Mohammed complains loudly in his book that he suffered several arrests and detentions from the government and its agents. But it is always better to lose one’s cap than to lose one’s head. Hubert Ogunde sings in an album that a man that is beaten by the rains but escapes the withering celts of Sango should learn to thank God (eni òjò pa tí Sàngó ò pa, opé l’ó ye é). Mohammed is lucky that he lives to write his story. His friend, Dele Giwa, was not that lucky; he died before his time.

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Giwa’s author-friend has ample space for an interrogation of the nagging question: Who killed Dele Giwa? He asks that question and raises posers which only he, Ray Ekpu and Dan Agbese could raise. Then he provides insights. Was Newswatch doing a story on a certain Gloria Okon? Who really was she? Yakubu’s book answers the questions in a manner that may activate many more people to write their own books or update existing ones on the case.

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Given the stories we’ve read on their bitter-sweet relationship, I expected to see David Mark and M.K.O Abiola appearing in the same sentence or paragraph; I couldn’t find that in the book. But there are several MKO surprises that should extract gasps from the reader. Imagine Abiola as a reporter pursuing a story with his editor in the dead of the night. As editor of Abiola’s National Concord, Yakubu Mohammed says “one night, I was going to meet a news contact in Surulere. He (Abiola) had an idea of the story I was pursuing and he inserted himself into the investigation team. He offered to accompany me. We took off from his residence in my car. Only three of us; he, in the passenger’s seat and I, in the driver’s seat with one security detail at the back seat. We did not return to Ikeja until about 4.00 the following morning, mission accomplished” (Page 168). Accounts of several escapades like this make the book a thriller. Or how should I describe a scene that has billionaire Abiola stranded in a motor park one midnight in Benin? The money man finally got bailed out by the police and on the way to Lagos that night, Abiola entertained his boys in the police car with good music – a fork and a plate supplying the percussion.

When the book is out, readers will confirm that a time there was in Nigeria when a newspaper financed a bank. It is difficult to believe but that is what I read in Yakubu Mohammed’s autobiography. Hear the author: “Abiola’s initial contribution to the establishment of Habib Bank which he co-founded with his friend, Shehu Musa Yar’Adua, was paid from the Concord purse. I knew it because I signed the cheque”.” (Page 176).

As Concord journalists, Dele Giwa, Yakubu Mohammed and Ray Ekpu were famous for the unconventional work they did; they were even more famous for the flamboyance of their social life and engagements. They were brilliant, hardworking and rich. They lived big. A columnist with the rival New Nigerian newspaper based in Kaduna went with the pseudonym Candido (someone said he was Malam Mamman Daura). One day, the columnist turned his musket on the trio and called them “the Benzy journalists in Lagos who wear Gucci shoes.”

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A journalist, even if an editor, riding a Mercedes Benz in Nigeria of the early 1980s was a big deal. But Yakubu Mohammed does not think it should be a big deal. He has a space for a confirmatory rebuttal of that charge in his book: “That was when the famous Candido column of the New Nigerian, the man behind the mask, who claimed to see all and everything from afar, referred to the trio of Dele Giwa, Ray Ekpu and Yakubu Mohammed as Benzy journalists wearing Gucci shoes. The column did not mean to be offensive but it helped to add something to the amour of our potential detractors. Yes, we were riding Mercedes Benz cars, but we were not the first journalists or editors to do so. I don’t know about Gucci shoes but we were frequent visitors to New Bond Street and Oxford Street, the high-end shopping areas of London. If we were the envy of colleagues, it was thanks largely to (MKO) Abiola’s large-heartedness…” (Page 199).

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In the 1970s through early/mid 80s, the Lagos/Ibadan powerhouse of the Nigerian media had “The Three Musketeers.” That was the honorific tag hung on Messrs Felix Adenaike, Peter Ajayi and Olusegun Osoba who were at the helm of the Nigerian Tribune, Daily Times/Daily Sketch, and Nigerian Herald. They were the reigning big boys of that period. Then came the three “Benzy journalists” in imported, expensive shoes. Professor Olatunji Dare in the Foreword to this book drops a positive line on the “quiet elegance” of Yakubu’s wardrobe.

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Before their time, a time there was when the Nigerian journalist lived poor and sore. They lived solely for work, booze, cigarettes and sex. The males among them worked hard during the day and retired in the evening to the NUJ Press Centre loosening up into an orgy of excesses. The newsman of that era was a church rat; he commanded neither genuine respect nor genuine pity. The society simply accommodated him as a gesture of tolerance, a necessary evil.

It was a period of derision, a black phase which journalists in other climes also passed through. In the United Kingdom of the 1800s, a Scottish nobleman described journalism as a job fit only for the “thorough-going blackguard.” Blackguard? Check the meaning: someone who behaves in a dishonourable or contemptible way. Sir Walter Scott (15 August 1771 – 21 September 1832), novelist, poet, and historian, used that description for the newspaper journalist. It would appear that he didn’t really coin the insult. Charles Abbot, who later became Speaker of the British House of Commons, wrote in his diary that he was going to the Cockpit on I9 December I798, then he found the room nearly full of strangers and “blackguard news-writers.” Again in the same Britain, a certain Thomas Grenville told his brother, Lord Grenville, the Prime Minister, that “his aversion to all editors was such that he had never had and never would have any communication with them.” Thomas Barnes (11 September 1785 – 7 May 1841) was famous and hugely successful as the editor of The Times of London, yet a powerful gentleman could only compliment him as “an insolent, vulgar fellow.” There was Sir Robert Peel, British conservative statesman who was twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–1835). Before getting into all those big offices, he was Irish Chief Secretary during which time he described Irish journalists as “vile and degraded beings.”

In 1807, the Benchers of Lincoln’s Inn made a rule to the effect that no one who had ever been a newspaper journalist should be entitled to be called to the Bar. It took a 23 February 1810 petition to the House of Commons by journalist George Farquharson to defeat that prejudice. Read ‘The Social Status of Journalists at the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century’ (1945) by A. Aspinall. It harbours all these UK cases I cited above, and more. Across the borders in Germany, we meet in Arthur Schnitzler’s satiric comedy ‘Fink und Fliederbusch’ (1917) the journalist as essentially “a man without substance and without conviction.’ Statesman and Chancellor of the German Reich, Otto von Bismarck in 1862 was quoted as describing journalism as a “dumping ground for those who had failed to find their calling in life.”

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It was as bad in Nigeria. Read Alhaji Ismai’l Babatunde Jose’s ‘Walking Tight Rope: Power Play in Daily Times’ (1987). Read Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s ‘Awo: An Autobiography’ (1960). Chapter 7 of Chief Awolowo’s autobiography is an interesting read on the life of the Nigerian journalist in the 1930s, especially. The very second paragraph of that chapter says journalism “was an unprofitable, frustrating and soul-depressing career at that time in Nigeria.” The third paragraph says “there was a general but inarticulate contempt for newspapermen, particularly, the reporters. They were regarded as the flotsam and jetsam of the growing community of Nigerian intelligentsia: people who took to journalism because they were no good at anything else…” Chief Awolowo joined the Nigerian Daily Times in September 1934 as a reporter-in-training; three months later, he became the newspaper’s resident correspondent in Ibadan. Then he saw journalism in its abject, stark nakedness. He jumped out of it after just eight months. He writes that it was clear to him that he “would never succeed in raising enough money to become a lawyer from the reporting business.” He was in journalism because he needed money to study law.

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“That time offer’d sorrow;/ This, general joy”, Shakespeare writes in Henry VIII; Act 4, Scene 1. Every night must yield to the compulsory break of dawn. One of the concluding clauses in Aspinall’s 1945 piece cited earlier above is a reference to John Lord Campbell’s ‘The lives of the Lord Chancellors and Keepers of the Great Seal of England’ (1848). In it, the author holds that “whereas half a century earlier, newspapers had been in the lowest state of degradation, they were now conducted by men of education and honour.”

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Some fifty, forty years ago, debauchery was not a negative word in the life of the average Nigerian journalist. But today, if he has excesses, he does not wear them on his sleeves. This is 2025, almost 100 years after the Awolowo experience with the poverty of the press. As with other professions, the story has changed substantially positively for the Nigerian journalist. If the journalist is the town, he competes competently today with the gown. A contest for intellectual and resource success is ongoing across newsrooms. The Benzy journalists of the 1980s were the pioneers in modern Nigerian journalists becoming entrepreneurs. Today’s journalists learnt from them and are living well. They write great books, do business, make good money and amass wads of certificates. The Nigerian Guild of Editors celebrates new PhDs with the regularity of new arrivals in busy maternity wards. When the Nigerian Tribune clocked 75 last year, a former colleague wrote that the Tribune had more PhDs than some university faculties. That is a fact that has remained very true. Unfortunately, we lost one of us two weeks ago. Dr Leon Usigbe, highly resourceful gentleman, was our Bureau Chief in Abuja. Death took him two Fridays ago and impoverished us. May God repose his soul and look after his family.

Yakubu Mohammed’s autobiography is a bare-it-all history of the journalism of his era. I told him he has written a monumental book: brisk, breezy, smooth and sweet like bitterleaf soup. I asked him when and where the book would be presented to the public, he replied that he did “not have the capacity to do public launching.” I wish it is done the way it should, so that it will turn out the way it normally does.

The media is a long suffering entity. The same with its operatives. When it is out, you will find Yakubu Mohammed’s ‘Beyond Expectations’ a book of tribulations, of a few ups and many downs. It is in there, how people of power use and dump journalists, and how journalists disgracefully undermine journalists for patronage, positions and privileges. You also see and feel accounts of the journalist’s patriotic actions, many times unappreciated by the beneficiary-society. German playwright and novelist, Gustav Freytag, in 1854 published his famous play, ‘Die Jouralisten’ (The Journalists), a comedy in four acts. A voice in that play describes journalists as “worthless fellows, these gentlemen of the quill! Cowardly, malicious, deceitful in their irresponsibility” (Act 3, Scene 1). At a point in the plot, one of the characters, in utter mockery and despair exclaims: “The evil spirit of journalism has caused all this mischief! The whole world complains of him, yet everyone would like to use him for his own benefit.” Yakubu experienced this many times and it is there in the book. His partner, Dan Agbese, puts this starkly in the Preface: “He expects no rewards and receives none. Some pay him back with the coins of ingratitude. That should make a lesser man bitter but not Yakubu. He takes it in his strides.”

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MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: ‘They Chop Their Own, They Chop Our Own’

‘They’ asked orò (masquerade) to stop throwing stones, he countered that the one in his hand, what should he do with it? This is a preview, it is not a review and so, I should put a stop to spoilers here. But like orò did, can I take the liberty of my having read the book to drop this last paragraph? In the first paragraph of this piece, I said Abiola was told of the annulment of his election eight years before the June 12 tragedy. How? Yakubu Mohammed writes: “It happened in 1985, not quite one year after I had left Abiola’s Concord. At about 2.00 o’clock after midnight, I was startled out of bed by a dream that left me shaking and sweating. I dreamt that the government conducted a presidential election and MKO Abiola won it fair and square. The country went wild with jubilation. We trooped to the National Stadium where he was scheduled to be crowned. As we all gathered for the ceremony and before the crown could be placed on his head, there was an unprecedented storm that swept the crown off and scattered the crowd away from the arena. The storm thus brought the inauguration ceremony to an abrupt end. Then, I woke up with a start. The following morning, I began to contemplate how to handle this development. One option was to call MKO and tell him. I demurred because, knowing him very well, I did not want Abiola to regard me as Joseph the dreamer looking for a way to get back to him, having resigned as his editor. I then decided to invite Femi Abbas to my residence. When I asked him if our boss was back in politics, he was taken aback. He then asked: “Where is the politics? You guys succeeded in persuading him out of it and even now the military is in power.” Then I told him about the dream. He promised to do something. But strangely enough, as soon as he stepped out of my house, I had completely forgotten all about the dream. Up to the time the publisher went back into the presidential contest and until the election was annulled; even until Abbas narrated the whole experience in the Sunday Vanguard which I read with absolute amazement and some trepidation, nothing reminded me of the dream. In the article, Abbas recounted my discussion with him way back in 1985, leaving out no details. He revealed all the measures they (he and Abiola) took including prayers in Abiola’s Ikeja residence, followed by another series of prayers in Saudi Arabia and the advice Abiola was given concerning constant prayers to ward off disappointment. He ended his piece with the same conclusion: that it was all divine, something that was destined to happen.”

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NAS Offers Free Medical Services To Over 800 Residents In Imo Community

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National Association of Seadogs (Pyrates Confraternity) has provided free medical services to more than 800 residents of the Orogwe community in the Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State as part of the association’s humanitarian service.

The medical mission, held at the National Primary Healthcare Centre, was part of the association’s 49th National Konverge and Annual General Meeting in Owerri.

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The event offered diagnosis, treatment, and essential medications to hundreds of community members, many of whom had been unable to access healthcare due to financial hardship.

NAS Cap’n, Dr Joseph Oteri, said the initiative was part of the confraternity’s broader vision to support vulnerable communities and bring healthcare directly to those most in need.

“This programme targets those who ordinarily cannot afford basic healthcare, especially treatment for non-communicable diseases,” Oteri said.

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READ ALSO: Seadogs Champions Social Justice Through Inaugural Art Exhibition In Owerri

“Today, we attended to a child with a serious condition. Thankfully, we had a paediatrician on the ground who stabilised her and referred her to the Federal Medical Centre, Owerri. We’ve also identified a few cases that will require surgery, and we plan to support their hospital bills.”

He emphasised that NAS, formed in 1952 by seven young idealists including Imo-born Ralph Opara, has evolved into a formidable force for social advocacy, committed to humanitarian and civic interventions.

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Dispelling common misconceptions about the association, Oteri said: “We are not a cult group. We exist to protect the downtrodden and drive positive societal change.”

The association’s Chief Programme Officer, Chief Bart Akelemor, echoed this commitment, stressing that the NAS legacy is one of access, equity, and community service.

“Our mission is to promote a just society where citizens can access resources such as healthcare, education, and employment,” Akelemor said.

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READ ALSO: Seadogs Want FG Declares State Of Emergency On Kidnapping As Insecurity Worsens Nationwide

“With Nigeria’s growing population and the acute shortage of doctors and functioning medical facilities in rural areas, bringing this medical outreach to Orogwe is both timely and necessary.”

According to him, 41 volunteer doctors, drawn from across Nigeria and the diaspora, participated in the programme, attending to hundreds of patients with ailments ranging from malaria and hypertension to vision and dental issues.

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One of the beneficiaries, Mrs Chizoba Igwe, who received treatment for malaria, described the initiative as a “life-saving intervention.”

With the way things are in the country now, I couldn’t afford hospital bills or medication,” she said.

“This free treatment is a big relief. Many people here share the same feeling.”

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READ ALSO: Seadogs Pyrates Provide Free Medical Services To Benin Residents

Another resident, Mrs Mmesoma Njoku, received medicated glasses after undergoing an eye test.

“I’ve been struggling with my sight for a while, but couldn’t go to the hospital because of money. Today, I not only got tested, but they gave me glasses that now help me read tiny print. I am truly grateful,” she said.

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NAS Medical Pyrate, Dr Chiazor Odoemene, confirmed that over 800 residents were treated during the outreach, with critical cases referred to public hospitals for further management.

Beyond healthcare, the association also launched an arts exhibition aimed at promoting awareness around good governance, security, poverty alleviation, and Nigeria’s path to a more prosperous future.

The medical outreach has been lauded as a meaningful complement to the efforts of the Imo State Government in improving healthcare access and delivery, particularly in underserved areas.

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2027: Otuaro Urges N’Delta Youth To Resist Politicians’ Ploy To Destabilise Region

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Dr. Dennis Otuaro

The Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, has warned ex-agitators in the Niger Delta to resist being manipulated by desperate politicians plotting to destabilise peace in the Niger Delta, ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Speaking during the closing ceremony of a three-day strategic Leadership, Alternative Dispute Resolution, and Mediation training organised by the PAP in collaboration with the Nigerian Army Resource Centre, Abuja, Otuaro expressed concern over the recent rise in politically-charged rhetoric and some politicians’ coordinated attempt to pit ex-agitators and beneficiaries of the programme against the Federal Government.

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In a statement signed by his Special Assistant on Media, Mr Igoniko Oduma, on Sunday, he added that such moves were “reckless and unnecessary,” especially in light of President Bola Tinubu’s demonstrable commitment to the region.

READ ALSO:Otuaro Lauds President Yar’Adua For Establishing Presidential Amnesty Programme

There is no basis for anyone to cause destabilisation. We can all see the commitment of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, and the National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to the Presidential Amnesty Programme. Ex-agitators and beneficiaries in general should not be deceived and distracted by some politicians,” Otuaro told the ex-agitators and stakeholders.

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He cautioned that any calls for confrontation or disaffection at this time were “not only misplaced but also harmful to the gains we have recorded,” urging stakeholders to focus on peace, stability, and progress in the region.

According to Otuaro, the Tinubu administration has backed its support with tangible action.

Be assured that nobody will do it better than President Tinubu. As Niger Delta people, we have to thank the President for his genuine love for the Presidential Amnesty Programme and our region as a whole.

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READ ALSO:Group Urges Public To Disregard Reports Of Rift Between Otuaro And King Ateke

“The President has expanded the budget of the programme, allowing us to reach more beneficiaries and strengthen our reintegration and rehabilitation initiatives,” he stated.

He also pointed out that the inclusion of Niger Delta citizens in key federal positions was further evidence of Tinubu’s goodwill.

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Furthermore, Niger Deltans have been appointed to strategic positions in key ministries and agencies. This level of inclusion is unprecedented and deserves acknowledgement. All we need to do is to be united for the President,” Otuaro declared.

The PAP boss, who presented certificates to participants of the training and later hosted them at a reception at the PAP headquarters, reiterated his commitment to sustaining peace and building human capital in the region.

He further called on traditional rulers, community leaders, and other stakeholders to keep sensitising the youth to reject political manipulation, stating that “Lasting progress can only be achieved through cooperation, not conflict.”

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