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OPINION: A Journey Through Ogoni, The Titusville Of Nigeria

Published

5 months ago

March 18, 2025

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

“I am happy the mangroves are coming back. I feel happy because for a longtime now, we haven’t had fish, no crabs; life has not been easy. But today, I can walk through that (pointing at the river in Gio) to fetch this jionudor (a palm tree-like stump) that serves as our firewood. Before now, the river was covered by oil. Everything in it died. Now, aquatic life is coming back gradually. I am happy and I know many of our people are happy.”

The above are the words of 65-year-old Godwin kirijio a retired civil servant, as he waded through the shallow end of the Ogoni River in Gio, Gokane Local Government of Rivers State. I engaged the retired civil servant by the bank of the river.

At a time when the Rivers of Crisis is threatening to overflow its bank, I was on a tour of the creeks of Ogoniland.

My beat is the South-South and the South-East as Regional Editor of the Nigerian Tribune. I had heard stories of poisoned soil and dead fishes and wanted a feel of the life that killed them. Then, I had an opportunity through an agency of the government called HYPREP (Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project) which is charged with cleaning up the polluted soil and water of Ogoniland. The Dr Peterside Dakuku-led Media Voices for Accountability extended the opportunity to me which I grabbed without hesitation. I wish there was a political equivalent of that agency HYPREP. If there was, we would empower it to detoxify our politics, clean up the beds of Rivers and make the people live again.

The two-day voyage in Ogoniland opened my eyes to the effects of the damages caused in that locality by the activities of the International Oil Companies (IOCs), which have operated in Ogoniland for over six decades. I saw what many may never see.

Remember Titusville, Pennsylvania, United States of America? It is the ‘Oil Creek Valley’, where Edwin L. Drake first struck oil in commercial quantity on August 27, 1859. The story of the once booming creek-turned city presents for every good student of petroleum history, the evil associated with the wealth obtained from the black substance known as crude oil.

The unfortunate story of Titusville has nothing to do with the fact that the first oil explorer, Drake, died as a poor prisoner in 1880. The tragedy of Titusville lies in the environmental degradation caused by the oil exploration activities that have affected the environment and the people.

The most unfortunate account of the misfortune of oil exploration in Titusville is contained in what petroleum experts call ‘Orphaned Oil Wells’, a euphemism for abandoned oil wells that have passed their usefulness. Those once-prosperous oil wells, now abandoned, cause unmitigated environmental damages.

The American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA,) states that over three million ‘Orphaned Oil Wells’, which “have not been properly plugged and decommissioned”, are scattered all over the country with “over nine million Americans living within a mile of the abandoned oil wells!”

The implications, according to the EPA, are that: “When an oil well is abandoned, it may emit toxins and pollution that contaminate groundwater, affecting local communities and the environment. Abandoned and orphaned wells are also considered major contributors to greenhouse gas emissions… Improperly plugged or decommissioned oil and gas wells are essentially open holes in the ground. They may release toxins like methane, arsenic, benzene, and hydrogen sulphide into the environment, even when they are no longer productive. They can cause fires and explosions. Even a small leak from a single well could have a tremendous impact over years or decades, affecting the soil and groundwater and causing air pollution.”

As it was with Titusville in God’s Own Country, America, so it is with the oil-rich Niger Delta region of Nigeria. The elders of my place say that a whirlwind which troubles the ogi (raw akamu) seller must have rendered the yam-flour seller empty of her wares (Ategun to damu ologi ti so elelubo d’ofo). If America with its sophistication in technology could lament about environmental degradation because of oil exploration, one can imagine the fate of the environment and the people of the Niger Delta.

The history of Ogoniland is one that humanity will never forget. The oil-rich locality was largely unknown until the early ’90s when the indigenes began agitating against the adverse effects of oil exploration in the area and demanded action to alleviate their suffering. The flagship of that agitation was the Ogoni Bill of Rights of November 1990, endorsed by leaders of Ogoni from Babbe, Gokana, Ken Khana, Nyo Khan and Tai.

The Bill, an intellectual arm of the struggle against environmental devastation in Ogoniland, also had its militant wing known as the Movement for the Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP). MOSOP was led by the State-murdered environmentalists, writer and poet, Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa, otherwise known as Ken Saro-Wiwa, or simply, Saro-Wiwa.

The agitation for the emancipation of Ogoniland from the shackles of IOCs visiting untold environmental pollution in the area took a tragic-dramatic turn on May 21, 1994, when the foursome of Albert Badey, Edward Kobani, Theophilus Orage and Samuel Orage, who were holding a meeting in Giokoo Community in the Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State, were attacked by an irate mob and murdered.

The Federal Military Government of the expired Head of State, General Sani Abacha, wasted no time as it arrested Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight others, accusing them of being the masterminds of the killing of the four Ogoni leaders. Saro-Wiwa and his eight Ogoni leaders: Saturday Dobee, Nordu Eawo, Daniel Gbooko, Paul Levera, Felix Nuate, Baribor Bera, Barinem Kiobel, and John Kpuine, were railroad before Justice Ibrahim Auta’s special tribunal which found them all guilty and sentenced them to death by hanging.

The Abacha-led military junta affirmed the sentence on November 8, 1995, and had all the nine Ogoni leaders executed on November 10, 1995. Their bodies were never released to their families! In all, Ogoniland lost 13 of its illustrious sons to the agitation to have a clean environment for the people. Many of the IOCs left the area and have not returned. Many oil wells in the locality became ‘orphaned’ and the attendant effects of such ‘Orphaned Oil Wells’ combined with the already environmental degradation, made Ogoniland lie in waste!

The death of the initial Ogoni Four and the State murder of the Ogoni Nine opened the eyes of the international communities to the happenings in Ogoniland. Taking a clue from the happenings, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) commissioned a report on the environmental devastation in Ogoniland. The UNEPA report recommended, among others, the immediate remediation of the soil and groundwater in Ogoniland.

The report was presented to President Olusegun Obasanjo’s government, which did nothing. Thus, the Ogoni Clean-Up project became a political sloganeering in the hands of successive governments until, surprisingly, the lethargic administration of General Muhammadu Buhari took over the challenge and initiated the Ogoni Clean-Up Project with the establishment of HYPREP under the Federal Ministry of Environment, vide a memo dated April 28, 2022, with Ref No, PRES/81/SGF/82.

Before the Ogoni Clean-Up Tour, Ogoni had remained, to me, a mystery; a land of fairy tales, typical of the mystical city of Kathmandu in Nepal. So, the tour became experiential, especially as the team was taken through the landscapes to have first-hand information of what happened in the land of Ken Saro-Wiwa, and what HYPREP is doing in fulfilling the mandate given to it to remediate Ogoniland.

The idea of the tour, when it was first mooted by Dr Dakuku, ignited in me a deep sense of enthusiasm. I knew it was an opportunity I must take, first, out of curiosity. But more importantly, to have a first-hand idea of what the famous Ogoniland of the late KenSaro-Wiwa and his eight other heroes of the 1995 agitation against the inhuman environmental degradation caused in the area, and the entire Niger Delta in general, looks like, by the operations of the IOCs extracting crude oil.

My first impression as we took a detour to Ogoniland was that life had returned to the once-devastated land. The pre-tour presentation by the Communication Department of HYPREP headed by Dr Enuolare Mba-Nwighoh on what the body had put on the ground, no doubt fired inspiration to explore the famed Ogoniland. Ditto the idea, as suggested by the Project Coordinator (PC) of HYPREP, Professor Nenibarin Zabbey, that HYPREP had gone beyond the original mandate of remediation to providing basic infrastructures to make life abundant for the Ogoni people.

So, as we hit Ogoniland, I looked out to see if indeed the narratives have changed and if life is back in Ogoniland. I admit here that indeed, Ogoniland is getting back its glory before the devastation. The peasants and their farmlands, the luxuriant vegetation, the new road networks and the presence of government in the locality all combined to show that Ogoniland will be great again.

Just as Professor Zabbey, HYPREP Project Coordinator assured that: “HPREP will implement the UNEP reports and recommendations but not sheepishly” but would “add value to the report. Beyond the core value of remediation as recommended by UNEP, we are adding electricity, healthcare delivery services and potable water facilities”, the agency can be said with empirical evidence that it has lived up to its billing as an interventionist agency.

The HYREP water projects in Korghor/Gio and Barako, the giant ongoing 100-bed specialist hospital in Dotem due for completion in September; the 40-bed cottage hospital at Buan Community slated for commissioning in July and the N40 billion Centre of Excellence, a research institute with its Integrated Soil Management Centre (ISMC), sitting on a 28-hectare of land, are mind-boggling!

With what HYPREP has been able to do, one can confidently say that life is back in Ogoniland! The remediation works ongoing in Ogoniland to address the pain of the people are pointers to the fact that life could become abundant in the area again.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Gambaryan’s Flower Of Thorns

Day two of the tour of the HYPREP remediation sites opened one’s eyes to the level of devastation visited on the agrarian community by the various oil companies that had operated in Ogoniland in the last 60 years! I saw for the first time what oil spillage looks like. I was shocked and sad to see, for instance, at LOT 15 of the Obajioken remediation site, a land measuring 30,750 square metres, polluted up to 6.2 metres deep! Even with my almost total anosmia state, I could perceive the smell of crude oil in the environment!

But it is heartwarming to note that gradually, life is returning to Ogoniland. Revegetation is taking place and aquatic habitats are being restored. The massive excavation sites geared towards removing the contamination in the soil and groundwater are encouraging. One can boast that the Ogoni Clean-up project has gone beyond political sloganeering and has now become a reality.

More engaging is the fact that HYPREP is also focusing on reforestation of the ancient Ogoni mangroves. Though I couldn’t follow the team on the voyage to the big sites for the mangrove replanting because of my phobia of water, the few sites by the banks of the Ogoni River at Goi in Gokana Local Government Area, are enough testimonials that aquatic elements and avian species would soon return to their natural habitats. The simple implication of this is that the locals would soon have their aquatic delicacies and means of livelihood back!

More delightful is the engagement of the locals in the projects. The sense of belonging, relevance and ownership given to the Ogoni rural dwellers cannot be quantified. This is the physical manifestation of light at the end of the tunnel!

This is why HYPREP cannot afford to drop the ball. Its ambitious projects in Ogoniland indicate that with the right mindset, sustainable willpower, and determination to make a difference, establishments can indeed change the narrative for a people once on the verge of extinction. One can only hope and pray that Nigeria will not happen to those giant strides in Ogoniland.

The Ogoni people, nay, the entire Nigerian people, owe it a duty to sustain the efforts of HYPREP in Ogoniland by building a solid wall of protection around the facilities deployed to redress the injustices of the past six decades. HYPREP must be self-challenged to keep upping the ante. The success of the Ogoni Clean-Up Project is the success of the Niger Delta people.

The PC of HYPREP, Professor Zabbey, re-echoed this when he intoned that “HYPREP sees the Ogoni clean-up project beyond Ogoniland. What we are doing is a sustainable project for the entire Niger Delta region and the whole country at large. We are determined to ensure that what we are doing in Ogoniland will serve as a template for other areas where we have that kind of experience as Ogoni.” Nothing can be more encouraging!

As the tour ended, the biggest message for me is that the late environmentalists, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and his fellow Ogoni patriots who were murdered by the State, and the four Ogoni chiefs who paid the supreme price for a better Ogoniland, in the wake of the Ogoni crisis, did not die in vain. Without any intention to engage in necromancy, I say this: Ken Saro-Wiwa, hear this: You and your ideas live on in HYPREP.

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[OPINION] Wasiu Ayinde: Shame Of A Nation (1)

Published

2 hours ago

August 15, 2025

Editor

Tunde Odesola

Unenviable bee life. Despite buzzing from pillar to post in the field, transporting tonnes of nectar sugar to its hive for honey, the bee, like the Value Jet aircraft passenger, is ultimately deboarded from its hive in an extractive process to yield nature’s sweetest and goldiest liquid, honey; a perfect example of the product outvaluing the producer.

As a youth looking forward to sitting the secondary school-leaving certificate examination, the release of the album, Talazo’84, by the new kid on the Fuji music bloc, Wasiu Ayinde Barrister, presented to me an opportunity for defiance, self-belief and entertainment.

But my admiration for Wasiu had to be in secret because my no-nonsense parents preferred the rich and instructive music of Tunde Nightingale, Adeolu Akinsanya, Haruna Ishola, Jim Reeves, Jim Rex Lawson, I.K. Dairo, Victor Olaiya, Osita Osadebe; Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Victor Uwaifo, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Orlando Owoh, Ofege, etc, to the originality-lacking music of Wasiu of those days.

In my father’s home, there was an unwritten, but effective law. If you’re watching a programme on TV or listening to the radio, and a Fuji song wafts in, you must change the channel or frown, stand up and walk away. That was the disdain my family had for Fuji, a music genre considered vulgar and lowlife.

And, if you pretend as if you didn’t notice the Fuji song on the radio or TV, my father, Pa Adebisi Odesola, of blessed memory, in the most sarcastic of voices, would twist a sentence in the music, like, “Wese Boy ko, Wese girl ni; o ti gbe rubbish yen kuro ki n to wa gba eti e! Will you turn off the rubbish music before I slap you!?”

But in the eyes of a teenager born on Lagos Island and bred in Mushin, Wasiu was a symbol of possibility. He felt like a big brother and folk hero, whose musical breakthrough whispered to me, “This is Wasiu, young and successful; if Wasiu can achieve musically, you too can, academically.”

Well, 41 years after the release of Talazo’84, I remain a fan of Wese Boy, but now with a better understanding of what enduring music is, an example of which is the music of Fuji Oracle, the late Chief Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, whose songs are truly timeless.

Although I still love Wasiu Ayinde, I hate his lifestyle. The ambivalence between his life and music takes me back to the bee and the honey metaphor – the creation and the creator. This ambivalence prompts the questions: Can the artist be separated from his art, and should fans appreciate and enjoy the music of a morally deficient artist?

While he lived, King of Pop, Michael Jackson, was a matchless talent in voice and dance. Though not convicted, Jackson faced longstanding allegations of child sexual abuse, making many feel uncomfortable supporting his work, and raising the question: Can the powerful messages in his songs like “Man in the Mirror” or “Heal the World” be separated from the allegations against him?

“Mute R. Kelly” became a widespread movement after American R&B god, Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of multiple sex crimes, including against minors. His conviction caused a sharp drop in public support, with many refusing to stream his music. Unlike the music of Jackson, however, R Kelly’s music brims with autobiographical themes, making the separation of the artist from his art more difficult.

Back home in Nigeria, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti needs no introduction. Though celebrated for his fight against corruption and government highhandedness, Fela was criticised for ruling his Kalakuta Republic with the same highhandedness he criticised public officials for. While some believe his personal flaws shouldn’t be magnified to overshadow his socio-political relevance, others say his activism was no excuse for extremism.

After 41 years in Fuji limelight, controversy is no stranger to the son of Anifowose, who has made a fortune by ingratiating himself with high-end politicians such as ministers, senators, governors and incumbent President Bola Tinubu, singing their praises for a fee.

However, his lack of discretion and unbecoming arrogance, two flaws many blame on the absence of adequate formal education, saw him record a personal phone call with President Tinubu and put the audio call online, breaching the protocol of the Office of the Nigerian President. Sadly and quite worrisomely, the Office of the President did not sanction Wasiu’s recklessness on that particular occasion.

A few days after thoughtlessly exposing President Tinubu’s phone conversation with him, Wasiu grew wings and perched on the roof of his Ijebu-Ode home, looking down on Islamic alfas, who graced his mother’s burial, describing them as interlopers who opened their mouths like an umbrella when there was no rain or sunshine. “Ile baba mi ni Fidipote, awon alfa, won lo be. Ibi ni gbogbo won wa se kinni, ni won wa ganu si,” Wasiu said.

In an attempt to douse the heat generated by his numerous controversies, including the allegations of maltreatment levelled by his former drummer, Kunle Ayanlowo, and the President’s phone call leak, KWAM 1 granted an interview to online TV, Agbaletu, owned by multitalented journalist and music aficionado, Dele Adeyanju, in April 2025.

In the interview, Igi Jegede, clad in a Yoruba attire, with a purple and beige colour thinking cap to match, gave a good account of himself as he denied the allegations of maltreatment, arrogance, highhandedness, vindictiveness and ruthlessness levelled against him. Interspersing the Yoruba interview with some unilluminating English grammatical expressions, Omogbolahan cut the picture of a man sinned against, rather than he sinned.

However, he shot himself in the foot when he highlighted to Agbaletu TV the virtues someone of his social status is expected to possess. His words, “At this juncture in my life, the responsibilities I carry are so many. Wasiu Ayinde is the one you know (but) Wasiu Ayinde has different meanings in various communities, especially in Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole. Wasiu Ayinde is the Oluomo of Lagos – a very prestigious title and responsibility. This will constrain me from saying some things the way I should, but I won’t be able to say them the way I should. So, also, Wasiu Ayinde is the Mayegun of Yorubaland. Someone who is Mayegun is a peacemaker; no one hears foul words from the mouth of Mayegun.”

With the thinking cap still firmly on his head, the Oluaye Fuji continued, “Mayegun should not talk, and people go asking, ‘Was it the Mayegun that said such?’ The greatest of the greatest honour (is my title) as Olori Omoba of Ijebuland; that’s also so big, the society must not hear bad things from my mouth. There are many things I will overlook or choose not to hear or respond to. It’s not that I overlook or wave such things off, but because no one hears foul words from the mouth of Abore (the chief priest). I have two more years to turn 70. Imagine someone who has all these titles, and the things you hear from him are still controversial.”

I wonder where K1 De Ultimate put the thinking cap he wore while granting the Agbaletu interview when, on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, he exhibited a behaviour unbefitting of an Omoluabi, a Mayegun and an Olori Omoba, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, where he stood in the path of an aeroplane – boasting and threatening – trying to prevent it from taking off, like NURTW members would threaten yellow buses in Lagos. Arabambi became grumpy and baptised the members of Value Jet airline’s cabin crew with w(h)ate(ve)r was the content of his flask, prompting the airline to bar him from travelling, even as he moved the battle to the front tyre of the plane, blocking it from moving.

Until the clips of his shameful airport saga went viral, Wasiu, shortly after dodging the wing of the fast-moving plane in an ‘ariku yeri’ fashion, played the victim, claiming he was in the right, and threatening the owner of Value Jet airline, Kunle Soname, his fellow Ijebu tribesman, saying, “Soname will feel me.” Oniyeye. Ironically, the Wasiu, who, in a song, warns a mother about her child climbing the branchless pawpaw tree, is the one engaging in eregele in front of a plane.

Ayinde’s mentee, Kunle Alabi Pasuma, aka Lagata, likens ere ’gele to the dangerous play by a young boy, Ade, who recklessly rides his bicycle along the road where an egg seller displays her wares, upturning crates of eggs and incurring a huge debt. Pasuma, also known as Iba Wasi, stretches the recklessness metaphor a bit further by likening Ade’s tale to a drunk, who also convulses, saying it is a double whammy for a drunk to convulse, “Ade ma n sere ’gele, Ade n gun keke, nibiti iya eleyin joko…”

According to a leaked audio, Arabambi said he needed water ‘every second’, yes, ‘every second’, and I quote, “I need water. I am dehydrated, I constantly take water…I am a patient. I needed this water, every second, I needed it. You don’t want to see me shut down.”

To ensure fairness and clarity, I placed Wasiu’s claim of needing water ‘every second’ on the table of medical doctors. A medical doctor and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Adeoye Oyewole, said, “It is a lie. No dehydration would be on that level. If dehydration gets to that level, the patient would be placed on IV fluid to prevent renal failure. It is a lie.” Speaking on anonymous condition, another medical doctor, who owns a hospital in Lagos State, said, “If Wasiu claims to need water constantly, the question to ask is, ‘Does he not sleep at night?’ Does he not play for hours without drinking? If he needs water constantly, as he claims, such water must be ORS containing sugar and salt; it can’t be ordinary water. He’s lying.” Yet another medical doctor in the service of Osun State dismissed Wasiu’s claim. The doctor, nicknamed BJ, said, “Wasiu was just looking for an excuse. His claim lacks medical backing if subjected to medical analysis. He’s a joker.”

Hours after Wasiu’s blowup, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), acting like he was in a just and serious country, swiftly condemned the bad action of the bard as ‘totally unacceptable’, and placed him on a no-fly list, an action that drew a resounding applause from Nigerians. Following Keyamo’s action, a jittery Wasiu quickly clambered down his high horse and ate the humble pie, making a public apology in which he begged Tinubu, Keyamo, NCAA, and FAAN for forgiveness. But, in what he called an apology, the haughty way Olasunkanmi Ayinde described himself as an ambassador of the country in the past 50 years, highlights a refrain in his Talazo’84 album, ‘ko seni to le na mi lore, loju tani, Asiwaju Ahmeda o….’ Wasiu’s limited knowledge precluded him from knowing that nobody appoints themselves an ambassador – an authority needs to appoint someone an ambassador.

It appears the scales of utopia were to later fall off Keyamo’s eyes as he soon realised the minstrel in the eye of the storm was the canary ‘son’ of Tinubu, whose privileged position defies justice and defiles integrity. As an intelligent politician, Keyamo probably took a cue from the fate that befell some Lagos elders, who gathered under the aegis of the Governor’s Advisory Council, and advised Tinubu on the need not to meddle in the removal of Lagos State Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, by Lagos State House of Assembly members. Bourdillon refused the counsel of the elders and facilitated the reinstatement of Mudashiru in a brazen manner, which echoes a line from Wasiu’s song, “E mo egbé e yín ke jòkó jé…”

To underscore Ayinde’s arrogance, I reproduce basically the viral phone conversation he had with Tinubu when he lost his mother early this year: How can you (Tinubu) be in power and I (Wasiu) will suffer tribulation. You (Tinubu) can’t be in power, and I (Wasiu) will suffer. That is impossible in the Nigeria that you (Tinubu) are president; the Nigeria that you (Tinubu) have in your hands.

At this point, it is pertinent to peep into the mind of Wasiu and psychoanalyse what constitutes the keys to success for him. This exercise will give an idea of why he behaves the way he does.

Giving what looks like a pep talk in a viral video, Wasiu enumerates three fundamental keys to success in life. According to him, these keys are ‘money, boldness and connection’. Simple! In the short video clip, Baba Sultan was actually referring to Baddo, Nigeria’s hip-hop sensation. For a man close to 70 to assert that ‘money, boldness and connection’ are his three key recipes for success, it goes to say that the power show at the Abuja airport reveals a man whose id dominates his ego and superego. If a man dominated by moral conscience were to give such a pep talk, he would list integrity, hard work, kindness, morality, patience, fairness, commitment and justice as keys to success.

When people describe Nigeria as a puppet on a string controlled by the powerful, the administrations of Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu readily come to mind, not forgetting those of Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Ya’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Do you still remember the indicted cop, DCP Abba Kyari, who was heard on a recorded phone conversation negotiating access to the cocaine seized from two criminal suspects? Hahaha, that’s Naija for you.

A sane mind would think Kyari would have been brought to justice. But is Nigeria a sane country? Kyari’s indictment for drug crime came on the heels of his indictment by the US in the multinational fraud involving Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, currently serving an 11-year jail term for international wire fraud after he was arrested in Dubai by the FBI in 2020 and consequently sentenced.

The Buhari administration turned down the request by US authorities for the extradition of Kyari to face criminal charges, maintaining the disgraced cop was on trial in Nigeria, already. Subsequently, the court barred journalists from covering Kyari’s trial, which began in March 2022, saying the identities of witnesses needed to be protected. However, journalists have yet to resume covering the case even as Kyari has been released on bail for not escaping when the gates of the Kuje prison were flung open during an attack on July 5, 2022. Chibunna Patrick Omebi and Emeka Ezenwa, the suspects in possession of 21.25kg of cocaine, have since been released after serving their time in prison, but Kyari is still on trial in Naija. Hahahaha!

Kyari is a northerner like Buhari. Wasiu is a south-westerner like Tinubu. Ushie Rita Uguamaye, aka Raye, is from the south-south creek of Cross River State. She is the National Youth Service Corps member, whose certificate of national service is being withheld by the NYSC in controversial circumstances – after she described President Tinubu as a ‘terrible leader’ overseeing a worsening national economy.

For Raya to receive a pardon like Wasiu, she might need to wait till 2060 when her kinsman might emerge Nigerian president. By then, the foundation of the ethnic bias laid by Jonathan, built by Buhari and cemented by Tinubu would have long become an enduring law in the Nigerian Constitution.

But Raya is not as lucky as Comfort Emmanson, the Air Ibom female passenger, who let all hell loose in a fit of rage that saw her wig, bag, shoes, and all flying in different directions during a free-for-all with cabin crew members inside a plane that arrived in Lagos from Uyo. Unlike Raya, Wasiu and Emmanson have reportedly been appointed as ambassadors by various organisations, but a mass protest led by human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, to enforce Raya’s rights, was overlooked by Tinubu while Wasiu, his ‘son’, got his hand raised in triumph as if he just won a Grammy.

Emmanson should thank her stars that the timing of her fight coincided with the time when the overpampered ‘son’ of Tinubu was showing the world that this is the best time to be a Yoruba.

To be continued.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

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Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

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IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

“As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.