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Buhari, Gbajabiamila And The Greedy Bats

Published

5 years ago

March 23, 2020

Tunde Odesola

Sight, the king of the five senses, is superior to touch, taste, hearing and smell. But sight is inferior to insight. I contemplated this truth last week when I interrogated the essence of a man whom life blinded with a vicious uppercut. But, instead of lying floored on his back in defeat, he rose up to live and die on his feet.

Benjamin Aderounmu wasn’t born blind. His nameless stepmother, driven by mad envy, mixed alligator pepper with lime juice, tiptoed to where the 10-year-old laid his head in sleep; pulled apart his eyelids and stuffed her toxic mixture into his innocent eyes. After three days of satanic agony, total darkness enveloped Aderounmu’s world.

Subsequently, the little jewel from an Owo ruling house in Ondo State dropped out of school and began to wander in search of kindness in a cruel world, earning along the way, a curious nickname, Kokoro (Insect), which probably reflected his peregrination from his Owo hometown to Ilesa, Osogbo, Ede, Ibadan and ultimately, Lagos, where he found meaning to his existence and lived 62 years of his almost 84-year life.

When the wicked act of his stepmother stopped him from furthering his education, Kokoro embarked on the path of self-rediscovery. He knew he was on a mission to preach love, unity, kindness, honesty, courage; peace, perseverance, hard work, godliness and hope to humanity. Getting a sound education was, clearly, a means through which Kokoro could have achieved his mission on earth. Ascending the throne of his forebears was another. But blindness slammed the door shut on both options because Braille then wasn’t a popular form of writing he could afford and no kingmaker would enthrone a sightless man.

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Quite unlike Nigeria’s Presidency, Kokoro set forth at dawn, evolving a solution to the stumbling block against his desired success by mastering how to sing and play the drums, ultimately specialising in the tambourine. He didn’t just sit down in Owo to bemoan his tragedy or fold his arms and watch the days go by – like the Federal Government shilly-shallied on coronavirus before imposing travel bans; Kokoro was restless – moving from one town to the other, looking for answers to the riddles of his life.

In contrast to the General Muhammadu Buhari administration, Kokoro was an inspiration, whose life struggles inspired the popular novel, “The Drummer Boy,” by Cyprian Ekwensi. Kokoro worked with two of Nigeria’s departed musicians, the evergreen Bobby Benson and the legendary Victor Olaiya, yet he didn’t abandon the recipients of his message who lived on the street like the Buhari-led Federal Government shunned the dead and living victims of the Abule Ado gas explosion around FESTAC Town in the Amuwo Odofin area of Lagos, on Sunday, March 15, 2020.

It’s terrible that none of the politicians raised by Lagos since 1999 has visited Abule Ado to commiserate with the state in her moment of need because none of them wanted to be seen as doing the right thing which Buhari failed to do. “Do not outshine the master,” is the first law of power recommended in “48 Laws of Power” by Robert Greene for survival in a cutthroat world.

Kokoro is receptive to learning and change. He didn’t marry more than one wife, having experienced one of the dangers of polygamy which culminated in the loss of his eyes. The Buhari government is intolerant to change.

Unlike the leadership of the House of Representatives, symbolised by the Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, Kokoro believed in the country, invested his time and talent in it, and never preferred the allure of foreign land to the ricketiness of Nigeria. He never exhibited preference for foreign cravings over Nigerian foods, music, environment and culture. Being a proponent of Nigerian music, people and spirit, Kokoro wouldn’t have gone to Dubai to wax an album or to celebrate his mother’s birthday. Kokoro was a dyed-in-the-wool Yoruba man who would choose buba, sooro and agbada over bespectacled three-piece suits, false marxist beard, white hair of unintelligence and fake populism – all legislative euFEMIsms for deceit.

The minstrel would not doublespeak like the House of Representatives that preaches love for made-in-Nigeria goods but ordered 400 brand new Toyota Camry cars when a local automobile plant, Innoson, begs for patronage.

As a sad prince, he probably could have abandoned the country for Benin, Togo, Ghana or elsewhere, but he chose to sink or swim with Nigeria, celebrating her successes and failures. Kokoro wasn’t a prodigal son. When he travelled abroad, Aderounmu sang the dignity and honour of Nigeria, propelling his audience to give out money to him, which he brought back into the country to spend. Unlike Gbajabiamila, Kokoro didn’t pack money from the country and headed to Dubai on a lavish birthday spending spree, happy that the sightless eyes of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission weren’t on sight.

In one of his online videos, I watched Kokoro sing for his wife and kids in his poor house. He had a happy family. His kids danced to his music while his wife listened. He was content. He wasn’t a woman beater like that crawly maggot in the legislative chamber who ABBOminably beat up a young mother at a sex toy store, making her life hang by the CLIFF.

Kokoro didn’t reap where he didn’t sow. He played his music for the high and mighty at highbrow concerts, and also for the low and little on the streets, making people happy, think, repent and become better persons. People appreciated Kokoro for his art, passion and belief as some gave him alms while some sought his harm. Kokoro would have played to the delight of home-bound students in front of the 79-year-old Reagan Memorial Baptist Girls’ Secondary School, Yaba, but he would neither have coveted having the school named after him nor thought of having the remodelled Reagan Memorial Baptist Nursery and Primary School, Yaba, changed to his name – for robbers in his time were tied to stakes and shot.

Though blind, Kokoro would know that it was honourable to preserve the legacy and memory of American Baptist missionary and philanthropist, Miss Lucile Reagan, who established the school to nurture girls to womanhood.

Born in 1897, Reagan, a native of Texas, arrived at the Lagos port on October 12, 1921 to start an awesome missionary career that watered the flourishing Baptist Academy, Lagos and birthed the Yaba Baptist Church, Lagos, Baptist hospitals, among countless other enduring legacies across Nigeria, mastering the Yoruba and Hausa languages in the process. Reagan died on July 12, 1937 after being stricken by Yellow Fever and was buried in Ogbomoso, Oyo State. Though Kokoro never saw Reagan because he arrived Lagos blind, he would have known it is evil to attempt to erase the memory of such an inspiring character and replace it with that of an undeserving, average politician.

Kokoro was ubiquitous, but he wasn’t the greedy Jagabat, whose pretentious wife REMInisces about her fair skin without recognising the virtues of a fair character.

Though he had an album to his credit and was always on the street singing to earn a living, Kokoro could have died without a roof over his head if not for the Lagos State Government headed by Babatunde Fashola that built him a bungalow in Shasha, Lagos.

Unlike Nigeria’s political leadership, Kokoro showed his irrevocable commitment to modesty in these words, “The right place for my music is here with poor people on the streets of Lagos. I’m not a recording artist, though I did once record an album; my aim is to sing directly to people in the street, and give the message of my song to them face-to face. My life is simple, I’m a minstrel, a beggar. I don’t care about what others do.”

Sight is truly inferior to insight.

Sleep on, Kokoro, the unsung songster.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Tunde Odesola is a seasoned journalist, writer, and a columnist with the Punch newspapers

Featured

Over 200 Killed In Yelewata Massacre As Survivors Grapple With Fear, Loss, And Trauma

Published

3 months ago

June 15, 2025

Editor

The village of Yelewata in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, has become the latest site of mass tragedy in Nigeria following a coordinated overnight attack by suspected armed herdsmen that left more than 200 people dead and dozens more injured and displaced.

The attack, which took place in the early hours of June 14, targeted Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) shelters and residential homes in the area. Eyewitnesses account say the assailants stormed the community from multiple entry points, torching homes, opening fire on sleeping residents, and trapping many inside burning buildings.

Local security volunteers described the scene as “a war zone,” with charred bodies recovered from the remains of burnt homes and many still unaccounted for. Entire families were wiped out in what locals now refer to as “a night of hell.”

The Benue State Government has confirmed the killings and has called for increased federal security presence in the region. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, during a visit to Benue on June 16, condemned the killings as “senseless bloodletting” and promised that “those responsible will be brought to justice.” The attack has since drawn sharp condemnation from Amnesty International, local civil society groups, and human rights observers.

– A Family Torn Apart, Twice –

Among the survivors is Olumide Michael Makinde, a 39-year-old father of two who says this is the second time he has narrowly escaped death in Nigeria.

Makinde was living in Owo, Ondo State, in 2022 when St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church was attacked during Pentecost Sunday Mass. Over 50 worshippers were killed in the Owo church massacre, including his stepfather, Mr. Maxmillian Ogunleye. His mother was among the dozens injured and left permanently incapacitated.

“The whole town was shaking. I lost my father. My mother never walked again after that,” Makinde recalled.

Fearing for their safety, Makinde, his pregnant wife, and their young son fled Owo in the aftermath of the attack and settled in Yelewata, where they hoped to start over. The family began farming, enrolled their first child in school, and welcomed a new baby girl in January 2023. For a while, peace returned, until the massacre of June 14 changed everything.

Makinde recounted the horrifying night his family was torn apart once again.

“We were sleeping when we heard gunshots. Everything was on fire. People were screaming. I grabbed my son and ran into the bush. My wife, holding our baby, ran in another direction,” he said.

Hours later, at dawn, he found his wife bleeding and crying, lying in a pool of blood. She had been raped by two attackers while hiding in the bush.

“She survived only because she was holding our baby,” he said, visibly shaken.

Makinde rushed her to a nearby hospital while the fires still raged in Yelewata. When he returned to what used to be their shelter, it was gone. So was nearly every home in the area. The camp had been burned to ashes, entire families reduced to nothing but smoke and silence.

– No Place Left to Run –

Today, the Makinde family, like many others in Yelewata, is devastated, emotionally, physically, and psychologically. The trauma of surviving two massacres has left deep scars.

“We have nowhere to go. We’ve run twice. We’ve lost everything. My wife… she can’t even talk about what happened,” Makinde said, holding back tears.

Their belongings, livelihood, and sense of peace have all been lost, first in Owo, now in Benue. More than anything, the family says they live in fear. The fear of what might come next. The fear of being forgotten. The fear of being attacked again.

“People think we’re just IDPs,” he added. “But we are people who have been hunted twice.”

For survivors like the Makindes, the massacre at Yelewata is more than just another tragic headline. It is a daily reminder of how fragile life has become in many parts of Nigeria, where homes are turned to graves, and families carry trauma they may never fully recover from.

Featured

Two Suspected Gays Escape Jungle Justice In Oyo

Published

12 months ago

September 14, 2024

Editor

By Dayo Adesina|Ibadan

Two young men suspected to be involved in homosexual activities were on Thursday, 12 September, 2024 beaten by an angry mob, as they described the act (homosexuality) as abominable and sinful.

The suspects, Oluwafemi Azeez Adeola and his partner; Odeleye Adewale Abel were caught at a hotel (name withheld) when a hotel attendant went to perform room service at the room where they were lodged.

The attendant had reportedly informed the hotel authorities of the ‘atrocity’ being performed in one of the rooms.

The ensuing pandemonium threw the premises into turmoil as other hotel guests and angry youths rushed to the room, held them and started pouncing on the two suspects.

One of the suspects, Odeleye Adewale who pled for his life, allegedly confessed to have relocated to Oyo in search of acceptance of homosexual.

Hee was said to have forced to flee Lagos some years back when he was caught with one Olaosebikan Ademola at Ikotun area of Lagos, and never returned to his family for fear of being attacked or killed by members of the community.

Narrating how Oluwafemi and Adewale were caught, the attendant who pleaded not to be mentioned, explained that he was initially suspicious with the public display of affection being shown by both guests when they approached the front desk.

“They could barely keep their hands off each other”, he said, adding: “So, when they requested for room service, I went to their room with the water they had requested for. It was Oluwafemi that opened the door while Adewale was on the bed, naked. I reported them to the manager and other guests came out when they heard noise”.

“The mob that gathered around the hotel decided to lynch both homosexuals but the hotel manager did not want the lynching to happen in the hotel premises, and decided to call in the police.

“So, while waiting for the police, the two young men escaped under the pretext of picking something from the room they were lodged.

“Both of them tricked us. They said they wanted to pick their bags from the room. When we did not see them, we checked and discovered they had escaped through the small gate by the swimming pool”, said the attendant.

Contacted, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) of the Oyo State Police Command, Adewale Osifeso, said he could not confirm the arrest of the two suspects.

He noted that the suspects had taken to their heels before the police arrived, but operatives were trailing the suspects to ensure their arrest and prosecution.

Featured

Shun Planned Nationwide Protest, Group Urges N’Deltans

Published

1 year ago

July 29, 2024

Editor

Group known as Niger Delta Nonviolence Agitators Forum (NDNAF) has urged people of the region to reconsider participating in the planned nationwide protest, citing concerns about potential violence and political undertones.

In a statement, NDNAF National President, Comrade Wisdom Oniekpar Ikuli, expressed solidarity with Nigerian youths on the issues they have raised but advised against a protest that could be hijacked by unscrupulous elements.

NDNAF highlighted the 2012 anti-subsidy protest, led by Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu and General Muhammadu Buhari, as an example of a protest with political undertones.

The organization also noted that the current protest has been linked to Northerners, advising Nigerians, particularly those from the South, to stay away.

NDNAF advocated for dialogue as a means of resolving issues.

The organization encouraged Nigerians, especially youths, to engage in dialogue with authorities, citing the example of David’s restraint in not harming King Saul despite having the opportunity.

NDNAF’s statement emphasised the need for caution and nonviolent means of addressing grievances, urging Niger Deltans to emulate David’s example and avoid retaliatory actions.