By Lasisi Olagunju

In the early 1940s, Sir Ahmadu Bello, the hugely popular Sardauna of Sokoto, found himself at a crossroads of politics and rivalry. After losing the contest for the Sultanate of Sokoto to his long-standing rival, Sir Abubakar III, he was appointed emirate councillor and superordinate district head of Gusau in Sokoto Province. The posting, however, came with what he would later describe in his autobiography as “not lacking dark undertones and hidden motives.”

The shadow over his new position darkened in 1943. One day in the afternoon, a friend arrived with a troubling warning: Bello’s enemies were plotting his fall.

The man said: “Look, a plot is being arranged against you, so that you will fall into an inescapable trap.”

“What sort of a plot?” Ahmadu Bello said he asked the friend. He went on to say that “people were being organised to lay complaints against me so that I would be involved in a court case. I replied, ‘Tawakkaltu Alal Haiyil Lazi Layamutu (I depend on the Soul that never dies).’ A week later, I heard some Fulani (herdsmen) were being told to say that they paid cattle tax to me which never went into the treasury.” He was also accused of accepting gifts. The allegations quickly became a weapon in the hands of his rival, the Sultan. “After necessary investigations by an instigated administrative officer who was specially sent for the purpose, I was summoned to appear before the Sultan’s Court. I was tried and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.” Bello recalled in his autobiography years later: “Knowing my own reputation and standards and the way the case was tried, I appealed to the Appeal Court. The learned Judge (Mr. Ames), with two Muslim jurists, allowed my appeal and I was therefore acquitted.”

He got back his freedom; but that experience signposted an example of what politics could throw at any of its practitioners no matter the height of their standing. Bello’s experience was an early taste of the trials and political intrigues that would mark his rise to prominence in the years ahead. Read ‘My Life’, Sardauna’s autobiography. Read ‘Ahmadu Bello: Sardauna of Sokoto’ by John N. Paden, page 119. Read Chapter 2 of Steven Pierce’s ‘Moral Economies of Corruption.’

You saw what happened in France last week. Seventy-year-old Nicolas Sarkozy was sentenced to five years in prison by a Paris court. There is a lot of fun in watching tragedies. Some courts are crazy. The man they jailed was the Commander-in-Chief of a super power. He wielded veto powers at the United Nations and rubbed shoulders with the president of the Almighty United States. He did not kill, he did not rape. Even if he killed and raped, didn’t he have everlasting immunity from being treated like a common commoner? His crime was not even looting of his country’s treasury. His sin was criminal conspiracy in a scheme to secure campaign funds from the late Libyan dictator, Muammar Gaddafi. What kind of crime was that?

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Reuters reported that “the presiding judge said there was no proof Sarkozy made such a deal with Gaddafi, nor that money that was sent from Libya reached Sarkozy’s campaign coffers, even if the timing was “compatible” and the paths the money went through were “very opaque”. But she (the judge) said Sarkozy was guilty of criminal conspiracy for having let close aides get in touch with people in Libya to try and obtain campaign financing.”

Why would the president of a first world country be so broke as to go to North Africa for a bailout? The central bank of France is called the Banque de France (Bank of France). Don’t they print money there? Wasn’t Sarkozy the one who reappointed Christian Noyer as the governor of that bank? So, what happened that Noyer allowed his benefactor to be that exposed and hard pressed that he had to go beg Ghadafi, the ultimate sinner, for campaign funds? What is even bad in collecting money, even from Satan? What kind of law and judicial system did that to a benefactor of their country?

Sarkozy should have been a Nigerian. If he were a Nigerian, our courts would have scolded the prosecutor for being rude to a father of the nation. We would have told him sorry and compensated him with a comeback from retirement and a third term.

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Nigeria can never be France. A country where people love life and fear death more than they fear hell is a doomed state. Nigeria is caught in that loop. We have long abandoned the fear of sin and hellfire. We mock morality, twist God’s words, and purchase prayers to sanctify our iniquities. Yet, while trampling on conscience, we go to great lengths to stay alive. We act with impunity, but move about with convoys of armed men so we may live to enjoy the spoils of our recklessness. We wreck healthcare at home and pile money into hospitals abroad against the day when sickness comes calling. We sin, we revel, and we rock the world. We move freely with sinful steeze without consequence, without judgment. Sarkozy should have been a Nigerian; he would have been saved the insult of that Paris trial and conviction.

I am not the originator of the contrast between fearing death and fearing hell. A man called Thomas Hobbes saw it centuries ago and wrote it down. Hobbes lived from 5 April 1588 to 4 December 1679. At his death he was described as “greater in his foes than in his followers.” He is the same man who, in his social contract book ‘Leviathan’, famously declared that without law and order, life collapses into fear and violence; and, in his words, it becomes “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.”

Times change, people change. Hobbes observed that in his own age the fear of hell outweighed the fear of violent death. Religion then carried such weight that eternal damnation was a stronger restraint on conduct than the threat of sword or sentence. Men trembled more at the thought of sinning against God’s commandment than at the prospect of breaking the law. Religion and politics worked hand in hand to uphold order.

But that was Hobbes’s time. Today, the opposite holds sway. And that inversion explains the brazenness of misbehaviour around us. When men cease to fear God, and hell (the consequence of sin), they also cease to fear what the Yoruba call Atubotan; they disdain legacy, and numb conscience. Their only terror is not afterlife; it is just death, and, maybe, poverty and loss of privilege. And so, to prolong their lives and cling to power, they kill, they silence critics, they loot without restraint. The loss of a soul is, to them, an abstraction; but the loss of office and privileges is real, immediate, unbearable.

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I go back to Hobbes; he was right: fear shapes society. But when the wrong fear governs, politics mutates into predation, and the polity collapses into a jungle. Nigeria suffers that fate. We are ruled by men who worship power and fear coffins more than they fear God. Until that fear is reordered, until conscience returns as a brake on ambition, no constitution or law will be strong enough to restrain leaders who no longer believe that God is watching.

Back to Sarkozy, Western media described his fate as “a historic moment for modern France”, a nation where politicians, until last week sinned while sneering at the idea of punishment. The media said Sarkozy, who served as president between 2007 and 2012, was known for his hard line on immigration and national identity, and for championing harsher punishments for offenders. He must now prepare to face the same fate. Judges ruled that within months he will report to prison, making him the first former French president in modern history ordered to serve time behind bars.

It was, as The Guardian of UK put it, “a spectacular downfall and a turning point” in France’s struggle to deal with graft and political impunity. Sarkozy sat in court flanked by his wife, Carla Bruni Sarkozy, and his three sons as judges delivered a sentence laced with a message: Thomas Fuller’s words of almost four hundred years ago, “Be ye never so high, the law is above you.”

France has shown that even the mighty can crumble under the weight of justice. Nigeria, by contrast, keeps teaching its politicians that what sin has is not consequence but reward. Until our courts can frighten the powerful as much as our cemeteries do, Hobbes’s warning will remain our reality: life in this jungle will stay poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

As Nigerians join the rest of the world to mark World Heart Day today, an internal medicine physician, Dr Olusina Ajihahun, has advised everyone to adopt healthier habits that will protect the heart and reduce the rising cases of hypertension, stroke, and heart disease in the country.

Ajihahun explained that many people only think of their heart when sickness strikes, but preventive care is more effective and cheaper than treatment.

He stressed that simple lifestyle changes could go a long way in keeping the heart strong.

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Here are eight heart-healthy tips he recommended:

Check your blood pressure regularly

High blood pressure is called a “silent killer” because it often shows no symptoms. Regular checks help you detect problems early.

Reduce salt intake

Too much salt raises blood pressure. Ajihahun advised Nigerians to reduce seasoning cubes and processed foods that contain hidden sodium.

Cut alcohol

Excessive alcohol weakens the heart muscles and raises blood pressure. He said moderation or total avoidance is best.

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Avoid smoking

Smoking damages blood vessels and reduces oxygen flow, making the heart work harder. Quitting protects both the lungs and the heart.

Exercise often

At least 30 minutes of brisk walking five times a week strengthens the heart, improves circulation, and reduces stress.

Take your medication as prescribed

For those already on drugs for blood pressure, diabetes, or cholesterol, Ajihahun stressed the importance of strict adherence. Skipping doses increases risks.

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Don’t miss routine health checks

Regular visits to the doctor help track heart health and detect early warning signs.

Eat healthy

A diet rich in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish, and nuts is vital for long-term heart health. He advised cutting down fried foods and fizzy drinks.

Ajihahun urged Nigerians not to wait until complications set in before caring for their hearts. “Your heart works every second of your life. The least you can do is protect it with small, consistent actions,” he said.

Justice Emmanuel Danjuma Subilim of the National Industrial Court in Abuja has restrained the Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) from embarking on its planned industrial action against Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE.

Justice Subilim, in a ruling on an ex-parte application by Dangote Refinery on Monday, specifically restrained the defendants, which included the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd. (NNPCL), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority, and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, from cutting crude and gas supply to Dangote Refinery.

A Senior Advocate of Nigeria, George Ibrahim, from Ogwu James Onoja Law Firm in Abuja, argued the application and secured the order against the defendants.

The senior lawyer, in the ex-parte motion, applied for an order of interim injunction restraining the 1st Defendant, its members, agents, servants, privies, representatives, assigns, or whatsoever and howsoever called, from calling or directing the halt of crude and gas supply to the Claimant under any guise and/or embarking on any industrial action against the Claimant with a view to crippling, blocking roads, or obstructing the flow of vehicular movement, shutting down operations of the Claimant or licensees of the 2nd to 4th Defendants named in the 1st Defendant’s directives dated September 26, 2025, or by any means frustrating the businesses/activities of the Claimant/Applicant pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.

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He said, “An order of interim injunction restraining the 2nd–4th Defendants, their employees, members, agents, servants, privies, representatives, licensees, assigns, or whatsoever and howsoever called, from giving effect to the directives of the 1st Defendant to halt the supply of crude and gas to the Claimant, or joining, continuing, embarking on, or in any manner participating in the planned industrial action of the 1st Defendant and its affiliates and cronies, or any other strike whatsoever against the Claimant/Applicant, with a view to frustrating her businesses and operations pending the hearing and determination of the motion on notice.”

Ibrahim argued that the Applicant is a petroleum production and/or distribution company licensed to own, operate, and produce petroleum and petrochemical products for the general consumption of the Nigerian public, and whose business provides essential services to the Nigerian economy and the general public.

He said that in recent times, there have been incidents of sabotage by some employees of the Claimant at the Claimant’s plant, which raised issues of grave health concern and the safety of human lives.

According to him, the management of the Claimant came to an irresistible conclusion that there should be re-organisation in the plant, which led to the relieving of some of its staff of their employment, and same was communicated to all staff by a memo or circular dated September 25, 2025.

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The senior lawyer said that in the early hours of Friday, the 26th day of September 2025, the Claimant received an online report that Nigerian workers were laid off by the Claimant because they joined the 1st Defendant’s union.

According to him, the management of the Claimant, by a press statement, refuted the said report and explained in clear terms that the Claimant was not averse to its members unionizing, as that is their constitutional right, but clarified that the Claimant has over 3,000 Nigerians in its workforce and that only a negligible number of staff were affected by the re-organisation of the plant as a result of sabotage and safety concerns.

The lawyer asserted that by a letter dated September 26, 2025, and circulated online, the 1st Defendant, through its General Secretary, Comrade Lamumba Ighotemu Okugbawa, wrote to the Hon. Minister of Petroleum and Gas and warned that the 1st Defendant and its members were going to take action that would force the Claimant to its knees if the Claimant failed to recall the affected staff, which was described in the said letter as over 800.

He said, “The 1st Defendant issued a press statement on the 26th day of September 2025, wherein it erroneously referred to the laying off of the workers by the Claimant as anti-labour practices, alleging that the workers were being victimized because they joined the 1st Defendant as members of the union, which is not correct.

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“Irrespective of the explanation offered by the Claimant in Exhibit DR3, the 1st Defendant became more provoked and directed its Executives and Members in the licensees of the 2nd–4th Defendants, through whom the Claimant accesses crude and gas for its plant, to stop supplying gas to the Claimant.

“The 2nd–4th Defendants are on standby to carry out the directives of the 1st Defendant through their agents and licensees, as mentioned in Exhibit DR6, with a view to stopping the supply of gas and crude oil to the Claimant in order to halt its business and operation as threatened, unless the Honourable Court intervenes.

“The 1st Defendant is going to make good its threat to shut down operations of the Claimant, knowing the strength of its membership across the country, unless the Honourable Court intervenes.

“The Claimant’s plant was constructed with over 20 Billion US Dollars by its promoters to solve the energy problem of Nigeria that has been lingering for decades and has been sailing with good results to consumer satisfaction, and has been making significant contributions to the economy of Nigeria. But the 1st Defendant, if allowed to make good its threat, will undoubtedly plunge Nigeria into the dark days of energy dearth and crisis, and again jeopardize the livelihood of the Nigerian end users and consumers, and negatively impact the economy.

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“The 1st Defendant, its members, and protégés in the services of the 2nd–4th Defendants have perfected plans to embark on an industrial action which will cripple the operations and services of the Claimant to the Nigerian public as well as the economy.

“The 1st Defendant has not engaged the Claimant with respect to a dispute, if any, before championing and calling for an industrial action against the Claimant, contrary to the extant laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

In his brief ruling on the ex-parte application, Justice Subilim held that the balance of convenience is in favour of the Applicants, as the continuation of the strike would irreparably damage its business and cripple the provision of essential services to the Nigerian public.

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The judge held that it was in the interest of justice for the Court to restrain the Respondents to preserve industrial peace and further aid the continuous provision of essential services to the Nigerian public pending the hearing and determination of the substantive suit.

Justice Subilim, while granting the restraining order, directed that same be served on the defendants immediately along with the motion on notice.

The judge held that the restraining order shall last for seven days only.

He subsequently fixed October 13 for hearing of the motion on notice.