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

Published

4 months ago

August 4, 2025

By Lasisi Olagunju

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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OPINION: Nigeria’s ‘Sheikh Of The Slaughters’

Published

11 minutes ago

November 25, 2025

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

The festive period is here, yet one wonders how the sound of fireworks will affect us, given our recent experiences in the hands of terrorists and bandits. I also wonder how the elderly women we saw in the video of the attack and abduction at Eruku town in Kwara State will react to the sound of knockouts this season. This is not the best of times for us. We have never had it this bad. Why does terrorism thrive here, and the government remains flat-footed? Emma Sky provides an answer.

The British adviser to the US military in Iraq states: “Corrupt regimes and terrorists keep each other in business. It’s a symbiotic relationship.” He made this remark while speaking about the connection between terrorists and those in government.

Chapter two of the 270-page book, ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror, written by the American journalist, author and news commentator, Michael Weiss and the columnist for UAE-based English daily, The National, Hassan Hassan, (Pg.20, 2015), opened with the above quote ascribed to Sky. The authors took that route to underscore the claims in many quarters that terrorism is not just a mere game but a transactional enterprise between those in power and the agents of death, the terrorists. The sub-title of that chapter, ‘Sheik of the Slaughters’, tells the story more. It is our today’s headline

The cliche: “to win the battle and lose the war”, often used in military circles, is defined as: “to achieve a minor success or victory, but lose or fail to achieve a larger, more important, or overall goal, especially when the larger failure is at least partly due to the smaller victory.” (Collins COBUILD Idioms dictionary, 3rd edition, 2012)

Nigeria, at the moment, presents a stark reversal of the old saying. Here, we have lost the battle and are dangerously close to losing the war. We sure need Deus ex Machina – the Greek plot device – to serve as denouement and rescue the nation. The bitter truth is that despite extensive propaganda about “technically defeating” terrorism, the terrorists are now firmly among us! Unfortunately, our response so far reflects the same predictable, panic-driven approach of previous years!

Our governments – federal, state and local – do not only negotiate with terrorists. Officials at various levels openly associate with them, attend their social functions and take photographs with individuals responsible for widespread loss of life. Not long ago, there was a report that the government paid a particular terrorist group a substantial sum of money to recover a lethal weapon the blood-sucking demons seized from our military. It was at that time that, if left in the hands of the terrorists, the weapon could be used to shoot down our president’s aircraft!

Most states in the North pay terrorists and bandits in order to maintain a semblance of peace. Farmers and other residents in the region also pay these violent groups simply to plant and harvest their crops. When individuals are kidnapped, ransom is paid, depending on the number, the circumstances and their identities, or governments ‘negotiate’ their release. In some instances, we are told that our security agencies “rescued” victims after “exchange of fire with the abductors.”

Nigeria is in ruins! Pardon the sharpness of that expression, but a milder word seems inadequate! We live in fear, perpetually at the mercy of terrorists and bandits. In the past, we slept with both eyes closed. Over time, we learnt to sleep with one eye closed. Today, we hardly sleep at all – and it is not because we suffer from insomnia, but because those more powerful than the State appear to exert control across the nation from the North to South and East to West! The government is battered, those in authority are overwhelmed!

This is not the time to play politics in Nigeria. The nation is in bad shape. Non-state actors are in control of our affairs. Those we entrust our lives to are practically absent. The leaders are in panic mode just as the governed are marooned on the island of insecurity. The iconoclast rapper, Eedris Abdulkareem, did not see anything when he sang Nigeria jaga jaga. Now is the time the protest song is most relevant!

The humanity in us dictates we should pity President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. The old fox must have realised the wisdom in the caution of our wise ones that no one should sell gravel as goods. The exchange currency is usually in pebbles, our forebears posit. Today’s power wielders in Nigeria know where what is hitting them comes from. They sold sand as goods to Nigerians and Nigeria in 2014, when they politicised the mass ‘abduction’ of school children. Today, they are being paid in the same coins of pebbles (àwon tó ta ojà iyèpè ti ńgb’owó òkúta). This is sad because we are all victims!

The Yoruba indigenous religion, Ifa, in Oyeku Meji, warns that when the enemies gather to wage war against the all-female-inhabited town, no wise man should join the venture (tí wón bá sí’gun Ìlúbìrin, má bã won lo). I once asked an elder to interpret the caution in that Ifa Corpus. His response is very instructive here. The all-female-inhabited town, Ìlúbìrin the elders said, is always calm like the duck in hibernation (Ìlúbìrin máa ńdáke róró bíi pépéye tó sàba). He explained further that the gentle bird does not fight on its own because it is a bird of the women’s cult. It has an unseen army fighting its battles.

That unseen army is what the elders of my place call èsan (vengeance). The Holy writ, the Bible, says: “vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord” (Deuteronomy:32:35). The gods and humans fight on behalf of the duck (àti ebora àti ènìyàn níí ja ìjà pépéye), the elder concluded. We are tempted to ask the leaders of today if they have ever broken the eggs of a duck in hibernation. If they answered in the affirmative, we would ask them to seek help. They need it!

The event of the last one week have further confirmed that Nigeria has moved from the stage of a failed nation. The country feels non-existent! How do those in power today even sleep at night? What comes to mind when they reflect on the roles they played, directly or indirectly, during the orchestrated Chibok schoolgirls’ ‘abduction’ happened on April 14, 2014? What runs through their minds?

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When the Chibok incident occurred 11 years ago, some of us believed it was a ruse. We argued that shepherding 276 girls from a school would require more than a mere illusion. We reasoned that the ‘abductors’ must have been extraordinarily well-resourced to feed the children while they were supposedly in captivity. We also noted that securing a location to keep them would not have been a simple undertaking. Furthermore, providing medical care in the so-called Sambisa Forest, where we were told they were taken, would have been an even more daunting challenge.

But we were asked to remain silent! When we insisted that the act would eventually return to haunt the perpetrators, harm the entire nation and injure the innocent – who had no part in the dangerous politicking that led to Chibok, we were told to blame the “clueless” President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Ironically today, those who once silenced us for suggesting that Chibok was a scam, are now the same set of people claiming that the recent series of schoolchildren kidnapping are political weapons aimed at undermining President Tinubu.

The calamity sweeping across the country today is like the proverbial rain – it spares no one. As the elders say, “A thing that is not sufficient is not allowed to go to waste” (ohun tí ò tó, kìí s’òfò). The North of Nigeria is widely regarded as an educationally disadvantaged. Yet, in that same region, 46 unity schools, all owned by the Federal Government, are now completely shut because terrorists are attacking schools across the 19 northern states! Just when it seemed that the problem was confined to the North, a school in Ekiti State – the Federal Technical College (FTC), Usi Ekiti – was also closed! The question now is: where is safe in Nigeria?

The United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, Safe School Data, (September 2023), reports stated that 723 schools were closed in the North because of insecurity. A few of the schools, the report added, were shut down because non-state actors (terrorists) and Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) occupied the schools’ premises. It listed states such as Adamawa, Benue, Borno, Katsina, Sokoto Yobe and Zamfara as mostly affected.

Yet we expect students in these schools to compete favourably with their counterparts down South. The campaign to bridge the educational gap between the North and the South has been ongoing for generations, championed by Nigerians of goodwill. Sadly, those for whom others undertake great sacrifices are busy enjoying comfort and abundance!

My concern is that ultimately, the misfortune of the North will be spread in equal measure across the Federation. The daily migration of northern young men and woman, from childhood to adulthood, to the South demonstrates that when the North suffers, it invariably drags the South along.

This is why nobody should adopt the attitude of “it is their problem over there.” The North is eating the bad insect today; the attendant whooping cough of that bad habit will give all of us sleepless nights. This is why we must all set politics aside and join hands in the fight against this menace. If a school could be shut down in Ekiti State because of threat of terrorism, no school in the South-West is truly safe. As the saying goes, when a fellow hunter shouts, “it is coming”, our elders advise that we set our nets in readiness for a catch (ó hún bo, ó hún bò, àwòn làá de dèé).

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The last week has been that of great calamity for Nigerians. It was a week the nation lost a two-star General, Brigadier-General Musa Uba and three other officers, killed by terrorists who ‘captured’ them after they survived an earlier ambush. Ask those who know the art of war, and you will be told that for an officer of the rank of a Brigadier-General to die on the battlefield, not a few other officers and other ranks would have gone! But it happened here, and we shoved it aside, facing other calamities.

Within the same week, almost 400 students were ‘kidnapped’ in Niger and Yobe States by terrorists. The same ‘sheik of the slaughters’ also killed no fewer than 68 Nigerians across some states of the North. In Eruku, 38 worshippers in a church were kidnapped and three others killed! While the government of Kwara State announced on Sunday that the 38 victims had been ‘rescued’, a blog in the locality claimed that the government paid close to N200 million before the victims were released. Whom do we believe, whom do we trust?

On the farm or on the way to the stream and in the comfort of our bedrooms, we all live in the fear of terrorists. If we are not the victims today, we assist our kidnapped neighbours and relations in raising the ransom for their release. Those of them who were unfortunate and died in captivity, we organised their funerals. In most extreme cases, we don’t get their corpses to be buried! Whichever way one views it, we are all victims, helpless victims for that matter! The only question on our lips is: how did we get here?

Just as we are grappling with the closure of those 47 unity schools, the governments of Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba States, ordered that all schools – private or public – operating boarding facilities in the states must close them due to the threat of terrorist attacks! What, then, is the fate of the students of these closed boarding schools? Will the West African sub-regional examination body wait for them when it is time to sit for the regional sub-examination? How can we treat our future this shabbily and still expect Nigeria to develop?

From all indications, and I hope President Tinubu gets this: Nigeria has lost the battle. And by the way things are going, we are on the verge of losing the war. When terrorism and banditry started as a battle pre-2014, and the government of President Jonathan wanted to confront it headlong, many of the actors of today’s power frustrated the efforts for political reasons. Notable leaders from the North said fighting Boko Haram was like fighting the North. We accepted their narratives and looked on while the felons overran Nigeria!

Those who travelled as far as the United States to ask for ‘help’ all in the bid to get rid of Jonathan, are now crying because the same US has noticed that Nigeria is not just a “disgraced” country, but a nation in dire need of help! Many of us still don’t understand why the issue of Nigeria’s sovereignty should be paramount now when 11 years ago, the present handlers of our affairs threw that same principle to the wild dogs! The US assisted them into power. Today, the same American Government has indicated that it would, on its own volition, intervene and put an end to the killings in Nigeria.

What is the reaction of the government? A powerful delegation was sent to the US to go and explain that nothing like genocide is happening here! We die in our hundreds, they say it is not genocide! Do we have to wait till there will be nobody to bury the dead before the realisation will dawn on us? Growing up, we were told that the man with a thorn in his foot limps to meet the man holding the blade. The reverse is the case today in Nigeria.

When our swollen pus-infected foot is visible to the world, our leaders say all is well. However, the truth starring us all in the face is that whether America comes or not, the present government here has lost the battle. If it remains lethargic, it will lose the war in a matter of time. When that happens, our leaders will not merely limp, looking for the man with the razor, they will take a dash in their wobbling tracks seeking help. May it not be too late!

News

10 Countries With The Strongest Global Reputation In 2025

Published

23 minutes ago

November 25, 2025

Editor

In today’s world, countries’ reputation is more than prestige: they shape investment, trade, tourism, and diplomatic influence.

CEOWORLD Magazine’s Global Nations Reputation Index 2026 evaluates 197 economies using 50 key attributes across governance, ethics, innovation, sustainability, and social cohesion. The result is a comprehensive measure of global trust and respect.

Leading the ranking is Singapore, recognized for its stability, innovation, and effective governance, surpassing long-established reputations of Switzerland, Ireland, and Germany.

Here’s a look at the top 10 countries with the strongest global reputation:

1. Singapore (97.83) – Asia

Renowned for policy consistency, transparent governance, and advanced infrastructure. Singapore is a hub of innovation, multicultural inclusion, and neutral diplomacy.

2. Switzerland (97.81) – Europe

Admired for neutrality, financial integrity, high quality of life, and robust institutions. Switzerland is a global standard for stability and innovation.

3. Ireland (97.22) – Europe

Known for economic openness, skilled workforce, and cultural diplomacy. Ireland combines modern business competitiveness with strong social cohesion.

4. Netherlands (96.77) – Europe

Celebrated for progressive policies, sustainability, and global trade leadership. The Netherlands excels in human capital development and innovation.

5. Germany (95.49) – Europe

A powerhouse of industrial and technological innovation, governance, and global influence. Germany maintains a strong reputation for efficiency and reliability.

6. Norway (93.55) – Europe

Respected for social welfare, environmental stewardship, and transparent governance. Norway blends prosperity with high citizen trust and global responsibility.

7. Denmark (93.46) – Europe

Known for quality of life, ethical governance, and sustainability. Denmark consistently ranks high in innovation, education, and societal cohesion.

8. Luxembourg (93.34) – Europe

Small but influential, Luxembourg is admired for economic stability, governance, and financial integrity. It maintains a strong reputation as a safe and prosperous nation.

9. Sweden (92.93) – Europe

Celebrated for social equality, innovation, and environmental leadership. Sweden balances economic competitiveness with progressive policies and human capital development.

10. Liechtenstein (92.79) – Europe

Highly respected for governance, economic stability, and quality of life. Liechtenstein combines a strong financial sector with a reputation for discretion and reliability.

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Edo: Stakeholders Rally To Address Children Trafficking Through Education

Published

34 minutes ago

November 25, 2025

Editor

Stakeholders in migration and education gathered in Benin on Tuesday to discuss Mainstreamed TIP Content in the revised National Curriculum, and how best to utilise the new curriculum addressing irregular migration and children trafficking in particular.

The stakeholders, comprising the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD); the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP), and Edo State Government held a two-day two-day training of subjects teachers on Mainstreamed TIP Content in the revised National Curriculum code named School Anti-Trafficking Education and Advocacy Project (STEAP).

In her speech, ICMPD Head of Office, Nigeria, Isabelle Wolfsgruber, revealed that over 75% of trafficking victims in West Africa are children, and that Nigeria shares a high percentage, stressing the urgent need for preventive efforts, particularly “within our schools.”

The ICMPD Head of Office, Nigeria, said the rising statistic underscores the urgent need to “leverage education as a powerful tool to prevent trafficking.”

Her speech, which was read by Favour Simeon, ICMPD, Wolfsgruber expressed optimism that at the end of the training, the teachers would have been equipped, and by extension, the “larger school community with knowledge about the risks of trafficking, how to recognize warning signs, and strategies to stay safe.”

The Head, Nigeria Office, ICMPD, who disclosed that 150 teachers drawn from 50 schools across the state were captured for the training, added: “That is why we have organized this two -day training workshop for subject teachers from selected schools in Edo State. Through this training, teachers will gain practical skills to apply the curriculum
effectively while fostering safe and supportive classrooms that protect children from harm.

“The training aims to equip teachers with a thorough understanding of human trafficking, practical skills to deliver the national approved curriculum effectively, and the capacity to act as child protection advocates, fostering safe, supportive, and collaborative school environments.”

On her part, Director-General NAPTIP, Binta Bello, who said trafficking in Persons remains “one of the gravest human rights violations confronting Nigeria today,” emphasised the need for collective effort to “safeguard the future of our children and strengthen the national response to human trafficking through education.”

The DG, who was represented by Hassan Tahri, added: “The statistics are deeply troubling-children account for more than 55 percent of identified victims.”

In his speech, Edo State Commissioner for Education, Dr. Paddy Iyamu, while lamenting that “Edo State has, in the past, been significantly affected by the devastating consequences of human trafficking,” however, noted that “tremendous progress has been made in recent years, we must continue to consolidate our gains by strengthening education-driven prevention mechanisms.”

Iyamu, while stating that “education remains the most powerful tool for shaping values, informing decision-making, and protecting the next generation from exploitation,”
promised that his ministry will continue to “reinforce our State’s preventive strategies and expand the impact of our anti-trafficking interventions in schools.”

“This training is not just another workshop—it is a strategic investment in the human infrastructure that supports our fight against Trafficking in Persons (TIP),” he said.