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OPINION: APC And Lessons From Oyo By-election

Published

4 months ago

August 18, 2025

By Lasisi Olagunju

The Cambridge English dictionary defines ‘carcass’ as “the body of a dead animal, especially a large one.” The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) was recently described as “a carcass” by one of its former governors, Mr Ayodele Fayose. Yet, that carcass defeated the reigning lion, the APC, in a decisive election in Oyo State at the weekend. PDP was dead; PDP is not dead. If I were the APC presidency, I would accept this reality as a divine warning. I would go back to work; I would talk and scheme less, I would start working truly for the people’s welfare. I would know that only this will kill the ‘dead’ enemy.

An APC leader told me that the Oyo election result was “the effect of bizarre developments in the APC.” He said the APC candidate “scored 6 (six) votes in his polling unit.” Oyo State APC truly has a huge reward problem. It has the liability of a Lagos-centric Abuja, unfair in appointments in Oyo, imperial in disposition. Does this solely explain the loss? It does not. Listen. I work and live in Ibadan and I know that the state governor, Seyi Makinde, has a firm grip on the politics of the state. His stellar performance as governor and his humility before the palace and the people have made it very easy for everyone to be his friend. It will take more than ‘federal might’ to defeat such a person (and his party) now and in the future. Indeed, the by-election was a referendum on his six-year tenure as governor. It was also a pointer to how well the APC and its federal government have sold themselves to the people of Oyo State.

Defence minister, Alhaji Muhammad Badaru Abubakar, is the immediate past governor of Jigawa State. His image handlers spent the night of Saturday and the whole of Sunday fighting off the news that he lost his Jigawa State polling unit to the PDP. Because bad news is good news, the story of the minister’s loss was quite popular on the internet. Then a report surfaced on Sunday that “Badaru did not vote at PU 001. His accredited polling station is PU 002. There, the APC secured 188 votes while the PDP scored 164 votes.”

The unit which the minister is disowning is Babura Kofar Arewa Primary School PU 001, very next to the one he claimed, and both situated in the same primary school compound. At that Unit 001, while APC polled 112 votes, PDP won with 308. Now, do the arithmetic. The minister did not vote in that unit, but his polling unit shares the same location with this unit where his party lost with a margin of almost 200 votes. Can we just add the two units’ votes together and ask the powerful minister to say something? Did his party win the election in that location? If I were the minister, I would keep quiet and nurse the wounds inflicted by a mere carcass.

The ruling party must be very unhappy at the pushback it got across the country on Saturday. The APC wants to go into the 2027 elections without opposition. And it is working really hard to achieve that. Poisoned carrots in the air; State of Emergency and defections down there; arrest and detentions here and there. Who will warn ‘them’ that what they desire is lethal? Where there is no opposition, there is no check upon corruption; the government itself becomes the opposition to good governance, and ultimately its own death. Find out why there are ample provisions for His Majesty’s Government and His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition in England. There was a reason why democratic Canada, in 1905, provided a good salary for the leader of the opposition. Parliament voted that year to give the incumbent an additional salary allowance, “equal to that provided to Cabinet Ministers.”

C. P. Bhambhri in 1957 wrote ‘The Role of the Opposition in the House of the People (1952-56)’. In that seminal piece, he warns that: “In a community where no opposition parties are permitted, the alternative government is one of courtiers, policemen, soldiers and gangsters and it is only by violent methods that the government may be ousted.” It is the Indian’s argument that “an effective opposition renders a government a going concern. It prevents the formation of monopolies in politics. It ensures a neutral and non-political civil service and armed forces.”

Flood should stop thinking it will sweep away the river. What we saw in Saturday’s by-elections was a reassurance that despite everything, the opposition is alive in Nigeria, and the people and their democracy are safe. But it is not enough to be alive; it will be enough only if and when the opposition is not a living dead. A vibrant opposition is needed against a creepy dictatorship slithering into the walls of our democracy. Listen again to Bhambhri: “To find out whether a people is free it is necessary only to ask if there is an opposition and if there is, to ask where it is. The existence of a strong opposition is the greatest guarantee that there shall be no tyranny of the ruling party.”

So, the dead can come back, fight and win a war? There is a story in the October 1856 edition of the Church Missionary Society (CMS)’s ‘Quarterly Token For Juvenile Subscribers’. The story has this convoluted headline: ‘The dead, alive—The lost, found: Dasalu’s Odyssey.’ It is a story of death and of not dying. It reads: “In the Yoruba country, which you know is in West Africa, there was a town called Igbore. The Apena, or judge of the town, was named Deri. One of his sons, born about 1810, was generally called Dasalu, but sometimes Ogan. By and by, Igbore was destroyed by slave wars; but Deri and his family escaped to Iro. Afterwards they went to Ijana, where Deri died. Dasalu’s mother, Lutumbi, then took him to Ilaro, andp

A finally to Abbeokuta. Many Igbore people had settled there. That part of Abbeokuta in which they live is called Igbore. The boy grew up a bold, active young fellow, and the head of a party who used to roam about the country, seizing all the people they could, and selling them for slaves.” He later converted to Christianity, dropped his wild ways and was christened John Baptist Dasalu.

During the Dahomian invasion of Abeokuta on March 2, 1851, Dasalu was at the war front, defending his land. After the war, he was discovered to be among the missing. His elder brother, Lujobi, on the fifth day claimed that he had found a headless corpse in a bush. He then proceeded to seize “the poor fellow’s property, to the amount of fifty pounds as the headless corpse was claimed to be his.” However, it was later discovered that Dasalu had been captured, not killed, and was taken as a prisoner toward the coast. “Great was the stir the news made in Abbeokuta. Well it might! Had not his dead body been found? So, everybody thought at the time. Everybody? Did Lujobi? Or did he knowingly pass off some other dead body (it was headless, remember) for Dasalu’s? Lujobi’s cruel conduct afterwards seems to condemn him.” From his place of captivity, undead Dasalu managed to send a coded letter (àrokò) to his wife: a stone, a piece of charcoal, a pepper-pod, and a grain of parched maize, or Indian corn, all tied up in a rag.” What did this mean? “It meant that he was quite well, and as hard or strong as a stone. The prospect before him was, however, very dark, like charcoal. This has made him hot as pepper, and his body had dried like parched maize. While as for his cloth, it was a mere rag.” All attempts to ransom the man failed because he was known by his other name, Ogan. Years later, freed Yoruba returnees from Cuba brought news that Dasalu was alive there, writing as “Dasalu, the lost one.” He had been shipped as a slave but ended up in Havana after his vessel was seized. The British Consul eventually found him, and he was taken to England, where his photograph was made. So, Dasalu, once thought dead in the Dahomian war, was actually captured and enslaved, later found in Cuba, and eventually freed to return to his wife, Martha, in Abeokuta. His case is a dramatic story of loss, faith, betrayal, survival, and redemption.

The grim content of Dasalu’s aroko to his wife aptly represents the state of things with the PDP today. Like Dasalu, the carcass of the PDP rose from the cemetery to defeat the ‘Dahomians’ on Saturday in Ibadan. The Ibadan North Federal Constituency by-election saw a “dead” party blindsiding the all-powerful APC with 18,404 votes; the Abuja party struggled and netted 8,312. Now, do the maths: the difference is 10,092 votes. When a contest records such a margin of win, the English man would say it was a shellac. I would have borrowed from the Germans the word ‘blitzkrieg’ (lightning war) but that would have been grossly inappropriate to describe the Oyo State operation. It was not ‘surprise’ that overwhelmed the defeated on Saturday. No. Ogun Àwítélè means a war foretold; the defeated knew they would fall.

Check how the newspapers reported the result of Saturday’s electoral contests across the country; read the headlines: ‘PDP clears all 12 wards In Ibadan North by-election as APC candidate loses PU’;

‘Violence, vote-buying mar by-elections in Ogun, Kaduna, Kano;’ ‘Kano by-election marred by electoral malpractice, APC alleges’. Indian scholar, Railul Ramagundam, in January 2005, did a paper on the relationship between newspaper headlines and how a society is run. He entitled the piece: ‘The ‘State’ Revealed in Newspaper Headlines.’ The man says: “From a newspaper headline one can draw not just news and views about a society, but also ascertain the nature of the society and the state itself.” Those headlines are proof that Nigeria is very far from what the enemy designed for it: a one-party dictatorship.

Ramagundam wrote about India, but because scholarship is universal, we feel the validity of his thesis here, daily. Take this headline from last week: ‘After spending N21bn, FG budgets 180x more for Third Mainland Bridge repairs’. Someone in government would read this and wonder who the ‘subversive’ sub-editor was that cast that headline for Business Day newspaper. To announce the latest trillion naira contract binge of the Federal Government is to tell us that because opposition has collapsed in the parliament, money has become rain water here. Almost all federal roads in the South -West are ‘dead’, less than two trillion naira will fix all of them. But works minister, David Umahi, said recently that he was begging the president for funds to fix the collapsed South-West roads; yet our president casually and calmly approved N3.8 trillion for a bridge repair in Lagos. And he will campaign for 2027 votes outside Lagos.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Super Falcons’ Lesson For Kwankwaso

Each of the parties in Saturday’s by-elections across Nigeria must have learnt some lessons in how not to take the people for granted. For parties that are rent by the dog-eat-dog posture of politics, I recommend the Bible’s Mark 3:24-25: “And if a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.”

Folklorist Solomon T. Plaatje, in ‘English in Africa’ (September 1976) has this story for parties of the avaricious: Once upon a time a Bechuana village was attacked by an army, which chased the people from their homes. There remained among the ruins a cripple and a blind man. These two invalids agreed that the blind man should carry the cripple, that they should flee and follow the people. While they were passing through the country, the blind man carrying the cripple, the one who could see, saw some vultures hovering. So he told the one who had the use of his legs about it, and they went towards the place (where the vultures were hovering). There they found some vultures assembled round the carcass of a wild animal. When they had driven away the vultures, a dispute arose between them (over the meat). The cripple said: “It was my eyes that found this anima”; the blind man said: “It was my feet that found it.” When their dispute became more heated, and they would not give in to one another, the cripple crawled away from the blind man. Then the blind man, being unable to see neither his companion nor the animal, called out: “My friend, it is evident that you are our eyes. Why should you lose your temper? I know that the animal was found by you.” The cripple heard his partner and came back and led the blind man to the animal, their food.

Our politicians will never step back as the blind man did. They quarrel over spoils, over positions, and over privileges, and won’t mind losing everything to birds of carrion.

The Bechuana tale speaks to the folly of selfishness and the wisdom of cooperation. It reflects directly on the greed of the avaricious in our politics. We wait to see which politician or party learns from this as we jog towards 2027, the year of the apocalypse. The cripple and blind man story teaches all scammers in power that collective survival depends on honest partnership; that those with vision need those with mobility, and vice versa. In 2015 and 2023, the wily among politicians forged alliances to take power; they succeeded in their mission; but the king and his men scammed many allies; they rewarded a few. They consolidated and moved further, scamming the people. Today, they elevate political 419 to state policy. With exclusive claims, they own a free meal they didn’t prepare. But do they know that their conduct invites vultures to come over, inherit and eat what should have sustained everyone?

Those who lost Saturday’s by-elections will lose the 2027 general elections unless they stop taking the people to be Shakespeare’s “blocks, stones… worse than senseless things.” The people may be hungry and powerless, but they are not stupid. They are waiting and watching. It is a clitche to say they will laugh last. Niyi Osundare says it better in ‘The Eye of the Earth’: the people always outlast the palace.

News

Trump Places Nigeria, 14 Others On Partial Travel Restrictions To US

Published

21 minutes ago

December 17, 2025

Editor

The United States has partially suspended the issuance of immigrant and non-immigrant visas to Nigeria and 14 other countries, citing concerns on radical Islamic terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State operating freely in certain parts of the West African country.

Specifically, the classes of visas affected include the B-1, B-2, B-1/B-2, F, M, and J Visas.

President Donald J. Trump, on Monday, signed a proclamation expanding and strengthening entry restrictions on nationals from countries with demonstrated, persistent, and severe deficiencies in screening, vetting, and information-sharing to protect the country from national security and public safety threats.

The United States also cited the Overstay Report, noting that Nigeria had a B-1/B-2 visa overstay rate of 5.56 per cent and an F, M, and J visa overstay rate of 11.90 per cent.

The Proclamation includes exceptions for lawful permanent residents, existing visa holders, certain visa categories like athletes and diplomats, and individuals whose entry serves U.S. national interests. It narrows broad family-based immigrant visa carve-outs that carry demonstrated fraud risks, while preserving case-by-case waivers.

While the proclamation continues the full restrictions and entry limitations of nationals from the original 12 high-risk countries established under Proclamation 10949: Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen, it adds full restrictions and entry limitations on 5 additional countries based on recent analysis: Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan, and Syria.

On October 31, the U.S. President Trump redesignated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern (CPC)” for the persecution of Christians by violent Islamic groups.

In a Truth Social post, Trump hinted that the US will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria and may very well go into the country, “guns-a-blazing,” and that the military intervention “will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our cherished Christians.

In his first term, President Trump imposed travel restrictions that restricted entry from several countries with inadequate vetting processes or that posed significant security risks.

The Supreme Court upheld the travel restrictions put in place in the prior Administration, ruling that it “is squarely within the scope of Presidential authority” and noting that it is “expressly premised on legitimate purposes”—namely, “preventing entry of nationals who cannot be adequately vetted and inducing other nations to improve their practices.”

Trump in recent weeks has used increasingly loaded languages in denouncing African-origin immigrants.

At a rally last week he said that the United States was only taking people from “shithole countries” and instead should seek immigrants from Norway and Sweden.

In June 2025, President Trump restored the travel restrictions from his first term, incorporating an updated assessment of current global screening, vetting, and security risks.

News

OPINION: Man-of-the-people, Man-of-himself

Published

2 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

Whatever Comrade Adams Oshiomhole lacks in height and body volume, he makes up for in mischief. If you are not prepared for the mud, don’t engage the pint-size Edo senator in any combat.

His greatest weapon is his tongue. This is why he prefers to be called ‘Comrade’ – just an appellation he acquired in his hey days in the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), when the masses thought that he was fighting their battles. His public persona tilts towards that of the man-of-the-people. But on a scrutiny, the man is a man-of-himself.

Comrade’s best strategy in any argumentation is sheer sophistry! His eloquence is top-notch, his argumentative prowess arresting and his rhetoric captivating. He can be sarcastic and can also be deadly acerbic! He speaks and gyrates at the same time. Give him a microphone stand a bit lower than his height; Oshiomhole still leaps forward to emit incomprehensible verbiage. He is a dramatist par excellence. No. He is the drama itself! He combines all the characterisation of a folklore as he quadruples as heroic, non-heroic; anti heroic and A-heroic figure – beating the trinity to a distant second place!

Oshiomhole is a man one cannot afford to hate. He is equally a man too dangerous to love. His basket of mischief remains inexhaustible, his repertoire of goodwill also bottomless! He disappoints when one expects wisdom; and equally excels just when one gives up on him. A master of confusion while he remains unperturbed, Comrade is a summary of the dysfunctionality of the Nigerian political system! He displayed that in good measure last week.

I would have made a huge cash-out last week if the childhood experience I had over gambling had not taken the better part of me. Someone, who was ready to put anything to it that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s ambassadorial nominees like Reno Omokri, Fani-Kayode and Mahmood Yakubu, the former Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) would not make it through the senate, had staked a huge amount of money. I held a different opinion. He asked us to bet, not like the small finger-thrust displayed by Governor Monday Okpebholo on national television recently. This was real-time betting.

I was tempted to enter the ring especially when he was willing to double his stake while mine remained static. But I remembered that I must honour the solemn pledge I made to my late father. I assured the old man that I would never gamble again in my life. I had used the two Kobo he gave to me to buy Phensic, a type of analgesic medicine of those days, to play kàlòkàlò. It was an experience I never hoped for again. As the offer came, my father’s voice rang in my head: É s’ómo kèé hì ta tété kì ha jalè (a child who gambles will eventually steal). I declined and I lost what would have been a Christmas bonus!

Alas, the screening turned out to be a hollow ritual; a drama of the absurd with Oshiomhole playing the lead villainous character! The former governor of Edo State was at his sophistry best at the screening of the 68 rotten tomatoes and sweet potatoes President Tinubu packaged as ambassadorial nominees and sent to the Senate for screening and approval. Many of us were entertained by the charade the National Assembly displayed at the ‘screening’. The only people who were disappointed were those who expected the senators to ‘skin’ the nominees.

As it turned out, all the 68 nominees were cleared. Any moment from now, Reno Omokri will be presenting his letter of credence endorsed by Tinubu, to the president of his ambassadorial post. By then, Tinubu would no longer be a “drug Lord” and certificate forger as Omokri alleged when he ‘was in the world’! It was Omokri’s screening that provoked Comrade Oshiomhole to tackle one of the oldest senators in this political dispensation, Ali Ndume of Borno State.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR:OPINION: Nigerian Soldiers In Benin Republic

For Oshiomhole, who, in one of his numerous campaign frenzies, had once opined that once a politician decamped to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), all his sins are forgiven, one cannot put anything past the Iyamoh-born politician. No cause is too dirty for him to defend, no candidate is too unpopular for him to support, project and vow for.

A short voyage to the Comrade’s political shenanigans. In 2016, as the out-going governor of Edo State, Oshiomhole, while projecting the chairman of his economic team, Godwin Obaseki, as the governorship candidate of the APC, said that Obaseki was the “compressor” of the air conditioning of the state economic successes under his watch. He told the people to vote for Obaseki because Obaseki was the one who brought all the funds the government used in achieving feats for the people.

Then he went after the jugular of Obaseki’s opponent and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. Comrade Oshiomhole said that in his entire life, I quote him: “I have never seen a pastor who lies effortlessly like Ize-Iyamu.” He went further to label Ize-Iyamu as a violent pastor “who carries Bible in the day and gun at night.” The crowd cheered. He added so many other unprintable expletives and Ize-Iyamu lost the election.

Four years later in 2020, Obaseki and Oshiomhole fell apart. As the National Chairman of the APC, Oshiomhole denied Obaseki a second term ticket. Obaseki, who had earlier got Oshiomhole suspended from the APC, changed to the PDP and picked the party’s gubernatorial ticket.

On the other side, Ize-Iyamu left the PDP and picked the APC ticket. Edo people waited to see what Oshiomhole, who had been disgraced out of the APC national chairmanship office, would do. Brazenly, Comrade took over the campaign machinery of Ize-Iyamu. Oshiomhole on several occasions knelt to beg the people to vote for Ize-Iyamu!

Oshiomhole told bewildered audiences from town to town that he was misinformed of Ize-Iyamu’s character! He said so, jumping from one end of the podium to another without any modicum of remorse! According to him, after the practice of dipping Agege bread into a hot beverage, the next best thing that has ever happened to humanity is Ize-Iyamu! Fortunately, the people could see through the Comrade’s hypocrisy! His candidate was beaten blue-black at the count of the ballot.

That was the Oshiomhole that spoke last week in defense of Omokri’s nomination as an ambassador. In his warped reasoning, now that Omokri had weaned himself of his infantile perennial attacks on the character of President Tinubu, ‘all his sins are forgiven’ and he is worthy to be an ambassador! His argument, if projected further, is that once a man becomes transformed, his past would no longer count!

That argument did not sit down well with Senator Ndume, and possibly some others who would rather get Omokri to explain how he saw the light and heard the voice on his way to Damascus to persecute Tinubu! Oshiomhole’s response was his sophistry of “when I talk, those who have not been governors should listen”, as if we have not seen governors and former governors as witless as the next-door fatuous Gardner in this dispensation.

The elders of my place said when a song is bad, nobody justifies it as being a palace song. That is exactly what Oshiomhole did in his defence of the irritation that Omokri and his ambassadorial nomination have constituted. Who would ever think that a day would come when a once fascinating character like Comrade would rise to defend a figure like Omokri!

The response by Ndume that he had been senator before Oshiomhole ever dreamed of becoming one took the argument to the highest buffoonery! What has been the impact of the decades Ndume has spent in the senate on his people? How many of his constituents are in captivity? How many of the people he represents are working as slaves on the farms of bandits so that they can live? Beyond the numeric of his years in the senate who Ndume epp?

Things happen. One of the things that have happened to Nigeria is the current senate – a dump site for former governors. No sane mind will not be scandalised by the conduct of the senate under Godswill Akpabio! The upper chamber has turned into a stinking chamber pot of anything goes. Last week, the chamber took the perfidy of “bow and go” to another annoying level when virtually all the ambassadorial nominees were cleared without any serious questions asked.

What, for instance, are the wives of former governors nominated as ambassadors bringing to the table? What are their pedigrees? Are they not the same peacocks we saw when their husbands were governors? Beyond rubbing pancakes and spending our patrimony as non-state actors, how else can we assess those ex-first ladies?

Without sounding pessimistic, except for the career diplomats among them, the rest of Tinubu’s ambassadors are disasters packaged in golden wrappers. The qualities of the figures nominated by the president and endorsed by the senate speak to the quality of those in power today. Sure, no man gives what he does not have. President Tinubu has given us his best men and women as our ambassadors. We wish them diplomatic successes!

Adibe Emenyonu and Michael Adeleye: It is hard to say goodbye

We lose those dear to us. That is what nature dictates. Every loss is painful. But when it doubles, it becomes very painful. I experienced double losses this last weekend. Two souls, very dear to me, were lowered to their graves. The reality that I would not see or talk to them again hurts!

I joined a group of other journalists led by Patrick Ochoga of the Leadership Newspapers, who doubles as the Chairman, Edo Correspondents Chapel of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council, to Obibiezena community in Owerri, Imo State, for the funeral rites for Adibe Augustine Emenyonu.

Emenyonu, whom I called Adibs, slumped and died on October 18, 2025, at the age of 62. He was – imagine Adibs now being referred to in the past tense – until his death, the Edo State Correspondent of ThisDay Newspapers. Our paths crossed over two decades ago in Benin City where we plied the ‘he-said’ and ‘he-emphasised’ trade of journalism together. Adibs was a fearless and colourful writer.

Even when I left journalism for the corporate world, we continued to bond. On my return to the pen fraternity after 16 years, Adibs received me warmly, opening his contacts to me like many others did. We became closer, turning friendship to brotherhood!

I was devastated, when on the morning of Saturday, October 18, 2025, Ochoga called to announce: “Leader, I have bad news for you. We have lost Adibe!” The news was hurtful and seeing Adibs, naked in the morgue when I visited alongside the Edo State NUJ Chairman, Festus Alenkhe, and others, broke me.

Talk of a man who laboured and did not eat the fruits thereof; talk of Adibs. He was a good father to his four beautiful daughters. Three of them are university graduates today and the last baby of the house is a sophomore. Two of the three graduates attended private universities, and the last girl is also in a private university. But the man who toiled to ensure the girls got good education is no more. This is a tragedy!

Travelling to Obibiezena to pay my last respect to a wonderful friend was an eye opener. I saw Adibs’ modest country home bungalow. I saw his bust, commissioned by Genevieve, his first daughter, with Adibs’ traditional ishiagwu cap. I dared him on several occasions to wear the cap to Igbo land, and I felt sad. I became sadder with the reality that Adibs’ 93-year-old mother was inside a room in the house while the rites of passage were being performed for the son who travelled home every month to attend to her!

The entire Obibiezena mourned Adibs! The wailing, when his body arrived for the traditional lying-in-state was infectious. The old, walking with the aid of walking sticks turned up. Everyone spoke well of the departed. When I was asked to talk to his Obibiezena Development Union (ODU) executive, I gave a new name to Adibs – Adáraníléadáraníta. It means he who is good both at home and outside. Adibs was. His people testified to his goodness, his kindness, his generosity and his commitment to the community. He was, for many years, the Secretary General of ODU!

Adibs was a devout Catholic. He never joked with his creator and faith. In his ‘mischief’ whenever we talked about our religious inclinations, he would ask: “Are you sure you are a Pentecostal or a penterascal?” Adibs had a deep voice, and he equally had a deep character. Like all humans, he had his flaws. But his greatest strength was his inability to betray a trust. He was dependable, he was reliable!

I could not bring myself to go near his grave as Adibs’ remains were lowered. Coincidentally, Adibs was buried under the same avocado tree he used to taunt his friends, anytime he was in the village saying: “I am sitting under the avocado tree.” Now, Adibs sits no more, he rests, permanently, under the avocado tree! Fare thee well, Adibs!

As we journeyed back to Benin, my mind was in far away Canada, where another friend and brother, Michael Adeleye, simply Mike, was being committed to mother earth.

The news of Mike’s demise was broken to me by another friend, Tunde Laniyan. I met the duo during my voyage to the corporate world. Mike adopted me as his elder brother and all through, he called me “Oga Suyi”. His respect for age and experience remain inimitable. There was no time of the day Mike could not call to ask: ‘Oga Suyi, ki ni kin se’ (Oga Suyi, what should I do?). Mike resigned and left for Canada with his family. I was in the know of the plan to relocate from incubation to fruition. And while over there, we maintained that line of communication.

On October 9, 2025, at about 3.09 pm Nigerian time, I sent a message to him thus: “Hello. How are my people? Can you get this book for me: “For One More Day”, a novel by Mitch Albom.” Six minutes later, Mike responded with a screenshot of the book and asked for confirmation, which I did. “Okay, I will order it now. I should get it latest tomorrow. Then we shall discuss how to send it to you.” He responded and the following day, he had the book.

After the initial plan of sending the book by hand through someone travelling to Benin failed, Mike put the book in the mail on November 1, 2025. At my last tracking shortly before I dropped off this piece, the information on the tracking platform was to the effect that the book is with the Nigeria Customs having been presented to the agency on November 20, 2025, at 11.04 am! The country we live in!

We kept chatting and then the news came. Mike is dead! How? What killed him? Just like that! Mike, gone like vapour! Mid this year, Mike called to announce that he had completed his house in Lagos. “Oga Suyi, it is your project o”, he gleefully announced. I answered by saying that I was looking forward to being hosted to a meal of pounded yam whenever his family visited Nigeria. Now, Mike is gone and gone forever! What is this life!

As I penned this, my mind raced to Mummy Oyin, Mike’s wife. The two were inseparable; they were more than a husband and wife. How is she coping, herself? What about the two beautiful daughters? Why should nature be this cruel! Mike was industrious. He had hopes and aspirations.

They caution us in Christendom not to mourn as unbelievers. I will keep to that doctrine.

Rest on Mike; sleep from all your labour! May the good Lord comfort your wife and children. Good night, Mike, fare thee well!

News

Okpebholo Presents ₦939.85bn ‘Budget Of Hope, Growth’ To Edo Assembly

Published

2 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Editor

Governor Monday Okpebholo of Edo State on Tuesday presented a ₦939.85 billion 2026 Appropriation Bill christened ‘Budget of Hope and Growth,’ to the state House of Assembly.

Presenting the budget, Okpebholo said the 2026 fiscal plan was carefully designed to build on the foundation laid in 2025, while expanding the reach of government programmes to directly impact the lives of Edo people across all sectors of the economy.

The governor said the budget prioritises critical areas of sustainable development, including security, infrastructure, agriculture, education, job creation and healthcare.

He stressed that his administration remains committed to delivering “development the people can see and feel.”the governor, the budget prioritises critical areas of sustainable development, including security, infrastructure, agriculture, education, job creation and healthcare, stressing that his administration remains committed to delivering “development the people can see and feel.”

A breakdown of the proposal shows a total expenditure of ₦939.85 billion, with capital expenditure standing at ₦637 billion, representing 68 percent of the budget, while recurrent expenditure is pegged at ₦302 billion, accounting for 32 per cent.

Okpebholo explained that the strong emphasis on capital spending reflects his administration’s determination to fast-track development through strategic investments in roads, schools, hospitals, water supply, housing and other high-impact economic projects across the state.

He disclosed that the 2026 budget would be funded through Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) estimated at ₦160 billion, Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) allocations projected at ₦480 billion, capital receipts and grants of ₦153 billion, ₦146 billion from Public-Private Partnerships (PPP), as well as other viable revenue windows available to the state.

The governor, who assured Edo residents that his government would not impose unnecessary financial burdens on citizens, noted that the administration would instead intensify efforts to strengthen revenue systems, block leakages and improve public finance management.

Under sectoral allocation, the economic sector received the largest share with ₦614.2 billion earmarked for agriculture, roads, transport, urban development and energy. Priority areas include rural and urban road construction, completion of two flyovers, drainage works, urban renewal, and expansion of farm estates and irrigation facilities.

The social sector was allocated ₦148.9 billion to cater for education, healthcare, youth development, women affairs and social welfare.

Planned interventions include extensive school renovations, recruitment and training of teachers, expansion of primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare facilities, as well as investments in youth skills, sports and entrepreneurship programmes.

For governance and service delivery, the administration sector received ₦157.7 billion to drive civil service reforms, staff training, deployment of digital tools, improved revenue collection systems, support for ministries, departments and agencies, and the full rollout of e-governance platforms.

The justice sector was allocated ₦19 billion to strengthen the courts, improve justice delivery and support legal reforms and access-to-justice programmes, while regional development and local government support will focus on grassroots empowerment, community road construction, rural electrification, water and sanitation projects, and security outposts in border communities.

Governor Okpebholo said the 2026 Budget of Hope and Growth is anchored on his SHINE Agenda, built on five pillars—Security, Health, Infrastructure, Natural Resources/Agriculture and Education—with the overarching vision of creating a prosperous and united Edo State where every citizen feels the impact of governance.