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OPINION: Destiny And Enemies Of The State [Monday Lines]

Published

1 year ago

August 26, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

Nothing we do or say now will change Nigeria unless it turns back from its present plunge. Nothing. “No spring changes the desert. The desert remains; the spring runs dry. Not one spring, not thirty, not a thousand springs will change the desert…” That quote is from ‘Two Thousand Seasons’, a tumultuous novel by Ayi Kwei Armah. Remember he also wrote ‘The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born.’

We won’t stop asking that this country be rebuilt on the foundation of its beginning. Nothing will shoo away the present birds of hunger and thirst. Not this government; not the next. You don’t turn your back on your destiny and be well.

Grandfather of Nigerian theatre, Hubert Ogunde, sang a prayer which must be the prayer point of those in power today: “If I have a good head, may I also have good legs (Bí mo l’órí ire, Elédàá jé n l’ésè ire).” Orí (head) is destiny; Esè (legs) are the tyres that propel destiny to its realisation. Right there in the mix is ìwà (character) which helps man do what Karin Barber describes as “picking his way, aided by his Orí, between a variety of forces, some benign, some hostile, some ambivalent…” If your head gives you a throne, rule well; do not let your character open the door to forces that blow off roofs.

We become what we choose to become. I have two destiny stories to tell. They are from the earliest times’ tray of knowledge. The first is about a serially failing young man who asked questions and was told by the oracle that he wouldn’t amount to anything in life unless he became a thief. The second story is about another who was told that he wouldn’t ever be rich unless he was cruel and bloodthirsty.

The young man who must sell cruelty to be rich thought fate was not fair to him. A precondition of wickedness before wealth would sound alarming to whoever had that (mis)fortune. But this man did not have to wait long before an accident of fate created a trade for him. He became the pioneer maker of tribal marks. In the palace in Oyo, he got royal contracts to beautify princes and princesses with eyo marks. To the noble of Oyo, he slashed horizontal marks on each cheek and called it àbàjà. He went to Owu where he etched six incisions on each of the cheeks. In Ogbomoso, he gave straight and curved lines and called it kéké. He dashed down to the courtyard of the Osemawe in Ondo and, with generous thanks, inflicted one pronounced stroke below each eye. To the Ijebu, Ife and Ijesa he made the marks perpendicular and called what he offered pélé with variants of his offering dropped across other clans and towns of Yoruba land.

The man took his trade to the Tapa (Nupe) where he gashed the young there with the beauty of below-the-temple cruelty. He was called and invited to virtually all kingdoms around to come and sell the pretty pain he was hawking. They all looked at the work of his hand, pronounced it beautiful and paid him handsome sums. The ‘wicked’ grew rich and famous. His descendants today answer a praise name that valourizes his trade in brutality. Adebayo Faleti, in one seminal piece, said this man’s offspring are children of “he who stabs people and gets paid for doing so/ The one for whom it was divined that he must be brutal for him to be wealthy (Omo A-sá-mo-l’ógbé gb’owó/ Tí wón ní ìkà ni yí ó se là).”

The one who was to become a thief rejected the prophecy the way Pentecostal Christians reject bad portions. But nothing the man tried his hands on prospered until one day hunger pushed him to go dig his neighbour’s yam. At the very point of his being caught by the farm owner, his cutlass fortuitously killed a big snake coiled up by the yam heap. To the thief’s horror, the farm owner leapt out of a thicket. Among the Yoruba, death is always preferable to shame. If the ground would open its mouth and swallow the yam thief, he would kneel in eternal thankfulness to his Creator. But, there was neither a place to hide nor a wand to transport him out of the mess. This was, however, the point at which destiny took over. To the thief’s shock, the farm owner shouted for joy on seeing the big snake’s death. The farmer did not see a thief in the trespassing gentleman; what he saw was a benefactor who had delivered him from a dreadful reptile that had almost sacked him from his farm and barn. The yam farmer thought he owed the killer of his nemesis some token of appreciation. Fate pushed him to give the thief enough field and yam seeds that forever weaned the wretched of his poverty. The ‘thief’ was to become rich and famous. That is fate’s cultural explanation for the prosperity of the ‘unworthy.’

In both stories, the two gentlemen enjoyed their good fortune till the end of time because they had character (ìwà). Early this year, I told the mythical story of one poor, old prince in Ofa who owned neither calabash nor plate (kò ní’gbá, kò l’áwo) yet he became king because he had a good head. Then his enemies said “this one will not be long before he dies and another will take his place.” But the old man became king and refused to die. Because he had character in addition to his good head, he ruled well; his people enjoyed him and prayed for his reign to last forever. He reigned long and died well. Why do you think Baba Opalaba in the Mainframe master play, Saworoide, asks the long dead Alaafin Abiodun to come back? You remember that solemn request? It is because the living oba has failed.

Thomas Hardy, in his novel, ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’, says “character is fate.” He adds that “fate and character are names for a single idea.” It was as if Hardy was born a Yoruba with their very elaborate concept of destiny. My people put destiny at the mercy of character. They say if you have good destiny, pray also to have a character that is desirable because a bad character will most certainly destroy your good head. We see in ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ how fate propels someone from the gutters of life to wealth and to the position of mayor; we watch as the man loses his good character and consequently declines progressively in public estimation and respect. We see how he finally loses his authority and wealth and life – all to his bad character, his awkward ways.

A person’s calling is their destiny. It is my job to write what I feel. The right to hold opinion is a fundamental one which neither state nor its operatives can alienate. I am neither an enemy of the state nor hater of those in government. One funny coward who lives abroad is sending notes, with names, across WhatsApp groups suggesting exactly that about some of us – newspaper columnists. The idler may not be the only one with that pastime. Were they sent that errand of slaves? I am not sure. They just think they are inciting power against the bard. They forget that no matter how early a child gets to the farm, he will always meet Kùkùté there. Fishers of attention from corridors of power do what they are doing to please their palate. They tie the forehead to the occiput; they sit back and laugh. They are Esu, the one whose eyes cry blood while the bereaved sheds mere tears.

We warn because we notice not just the beak of the fowl; we see the whole bird. The seed we offer our soil is of the day; we offer none that is of the night. That is a line of invocation from the Bakongo. If you want more of the words, read J. Van Wing’s ‘Bakongo Incantations and Prayers’ (1930). It tells how trauma invokes the elements, seen and unseen.

The world is sick; even the sky weeps. Anyone who tells this government that things are alright is an enemy of the state and a hater of the president. It is probably the abroad fellow’s destiny to live away from the hassles of home. But, we live here. And, I do not know how to thank or ignore the ones to whom we are victims. We gave some people chickens to rear for us; we turned and they started peeling yam and washing their soup pot. And you think we should be deaf and dumb. To their own teeth, they feed the softest of meat; for the teeth of others, they give the toughest of tendons. Eyín eléyín ni wón fi nj’eran tó l’éegun. We write so that the prowling wolf shall see our sheep and goats and cows and have its teeth on edge. Van Wing again.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Protesters Of The North [Monday Lines]

Businesses are bleeding; the rich are crying. Weevils have taken the barn; weasels have overwhelmed the pen. Right on the road to the stream are wolves of thirstiness. We can join the Alleluyah chorus and feed from the gatehouse of power. But if we do and everyone keeps quiet, and this desert completes its encroachment, the hill will lose its trees and leafy glade; the valley will be shorn of its verdancy; the abroad will have no home to return to. We keep talking and warning because it is almost midnight. Nothing works – except mindless gluttony. Nothing is available – except long queues at petrol stations. In places that have sanity, electricity is called power; here, it has same value as the shit of the masquerade – very unavailable. On special nights when grace brings light, it is quickly switched off because its price is dagger to the heart of homes. So, shall we not talk in the midst of all these bad news? We get abused for putting our mouth into that which ‘friends’ of power think should concern us not. It is Fatwa they have not pronounced. We are fighting for Oja’s sake; Oja is asking who is fighting at his backyard.

Arise News founder, Nduka Obaigbena some days ago received Tinubu’s media/public relations managers in his office. They were there to seek his understanding and support. I watched them; they looked sober. Then, with acrid calmness, Obaigbena told them the truth: “People say you’re not communicating – you are communicating, you are here. But the communication you are not doing is communication by example.” Obaigbena said the way people in government live, “the way they conduct themselves, does not show that we are in trouble.” Candid words.

There is always a problem anywhere the palace feasts while the people yawn. Filthy, festy ostentation and mindless show-of-force degrade authority. Freedom curtailing, extra-legal actions shame democracy; they put a lie to all its lofty claims. They drag democracy back to be at par with where we were before May 1999. Copying what the military did that made it lose the people will post a tag of regret on our struggles that birthed this era. Perhaps, everything takes us back to the need for a restructuring of this cracked structure.

When Obaigbena said his words, I would have loved to see how his guests took the shot. The visiting ones are not the problem. They have a difficult job to do which is increasingly made more difficult by the real culprits, the cats in opulent offices. Those ones are too big to care about what image they etch in the psyche of the city. They don’t go out to seek help; they are too big to crawl out of the vault. You can’t be feasting and telling the people to fast. I am fasting for your sake, you are flaunting mid-day meals (A ngbààwè nítorí won, àwón nj’òsán). That is what this government and its big men do. They feast and fart; the people fast and faint. They say it is patriotism. The government is wise; the people are stupid.

Starving workhouse inmates of Charles Dickens’ ‘Oliver Twist’ never prayed for the housekeepers. Friends of this government in the media are daily embarrassed by its aberrant ways. One of my old university teachers wrote a warning in a Lagos newspaper some weekends ago. The professor told the government that “creating a zone of affluence in circumstances of bewitching poverty or a new breed of billionaires in a condition of appalling deprivation will produce a toxic effluence which can overwhelm the entire society.”

I hope ‘they’ listen to the advice from the prophets and tell the big boss to clean up his government. A government that won’t go with the winds will do what the eyes do. The eyes, in utter humility, lower their gaze, and because they are humble, they are allowed to see the nose. Hubris is a government speaking the words of Archibald MacLeish’s poet persona: “We have learnt the answers, all the answers. It is the question that we do not know.”

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FULL LIST: FG Lists Nigerian Veterans For Honours To Celebrate 100 Years Of Aviation Industry

Published

34 minutes ago

November 30, 2025

Editor

The Federal Government of Nigeria has unveiled Nigerian veterans and distinguished aviators to be honoured for pioneering contributions that have shaped Nigeria’s aviation industry over the past century.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, announced the event in an X post on Saturday, describing the awardees as “icons whose vision and dedication laid the groundwork for Nigeria’s aviation success.”

He also shared photos of some of the honourees ahead of the event slated for Monday, December 1, 2025 at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre in Abuja.

According to him, the recognition is part of activities marking 100 years of aviation in Nigeria, tracing the sector’s evolution from colonial era to its present status as a critical contributor to the country’s economy.

“The first ever aircraft to land in Nigeria was in Kano in 1925. As a result, we are celebrating 100 years of aviation in Nigeria this year. On Monday, December 1, 2025, at the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Center, Abuja, we shall celebrate this milestone with a number of performances and events, including honouring veterans of the aviation industry in the last 100 years. We are inviting all aviation stakeholders to the event,” he wrote.

Below are the list of some of the Nigerian veterans who have shaped the aviation industry, as shared by the Aviation Minister:

Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, founder of Okada Air.

Late Alhaji Ahmadu Dan kabo, founder of Kabo Air.

Capt Robert Hayes, Nigeria’s first certified pilot.

Chief Mbazulike Amechi, former Minister of Aviation and instrumental in establishing Nigerian Airways.

Chief Allen Ifechukwu Onyeama, Air Peace founder, promoted local content and invested in Nigerian youths’ training.

Dr Emmanuel Enekwechi, contributed to the aviation industry’s growth.

Capt. August Okpe, founder and CEO of Okpe Aviation Services, Nigeria’s first indigenous aviation engineering company.

Sen. Hadi Sirika, former Minister of Aviation, initiated policies like the national carrier launch.

Capt Rabiu Hamisu Yadudu, pioneered Nigeria’s aviation industry and transformed airports into world-class facilities.

Capt Ado Sanusi

Chief Wale Babalakin

Sir Joseph Arumemi

Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu

Capt Dele Ore

Capt Wale Makinde

Capt Ibrahim Mshella

Capt Dapo Olumide

Ms Bimbo Sosina

Capt Benoni Briggs

Mrs Deola Olukunle

Dr Thomas Ogunbangbe

Capt Edward Boyo

Dr Gbenga Olowo

Elder Dr Soji Amusan

Engr Awogbemi Clement

Sen Musa Adede

Georg Eder MBA

Capt Prex Porbeni

Mrs Folashade Odutola

Dr Taiwo Afolabi OON

Capt Fola Adeola

Dr Seindemi Fadeni

Capt Chinyere Kali

Harold Demure

Akin Olateru

Mr George Urensi

Mrs Deola Yesufu

Engr Babatunde Obadofin

Dr Ayo Obilana

Capt Felix Iheanacho

Capt Peter Adenihun

Capt Jonathan Ibrahim

Pa Odeleye AC

Capt Toju Ogidi

Pa Abel Kalu Ukonu

News

Bishop Kukah Insists No Christian Genocide In Nigeria, Gives Reasons

Published

51 minutes ago

November 30, 2025

Editor

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese and Convener of the National Peace Committee (NPC), Most Rev. Matthew Kukah, has insisted that there’s no Christian genocide in Nigeria, explaining that number of people killed doesn’t amount to genocide.

Bishop Kukah stated this while presenting a paper at the 46th Supreme Convention of the Knights of St. Mulumba (KSM) in Kaduna.

His comments follow criticism that trailed reports quoting him as advising the international community against designating Nigeria as a “country of particular concern.”

The bishop explained that such labels could heighten tensions, fuel suspicion, and give room for criminal groups to exploit the situation, which would disrupt interfaith dialogue and cooperation with government.

Addressing figures circulated about alleged Christian killings in Nigeria, Kukah said he aligns with the Vatican Secretary of State, the President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Nigeria, and all Catholic bishops in the country.

He said, “They are saying that 1,200 churches are burnt in Nigeria every year, and I ask myself, in which Nigeria? Interestingly, nobody approached the Catholic Church to get accurate data. We do not know where these figures came from. All those talking about persecution, has anyone ever called to ask, ‘Bishop Kukah, what is the situation?’ The data being circulated cleverly avoids the Catholic Church because they know Catholics do not indulge in hearsay.”

On the use of the term genocide, he noted, “Genocide is not based on the number of people killed. You can kill 10 million people and it still won’t amount to genocide. The critical determinant is intent, whether the aim is to eliminate a group of people. So, you don’t determine genocide by numbers; you determine it by intention. We need to be more clinical in the issues we discuss.”

Kukah also challenged claims that Christians in Nigeria are being targeted. He said, “If you are a Christian in Nigeria and you say you are persecuted, my question is: how? At least 80% of educated Nigerians are Christians, and up to 85% of the Nigerian economy is controlled by Christians. With such figures, how can anyone say Christians are being persecuted?”

He linked many of the challenges faced by Christians to a lack of unity, stating, “The main problem is that Christians succumb to bullies. The day we decide to stand together, believing that an injury to one is an injury to all, these things will stop.”

He further warned against loosely labeling victims as martyrs. “Because someone is killed in a church, does that automatically make them a martyr? Whether you are killed while stealing someone’s yam or attacked by bandits, does that qualify as martyrdom? I am worried because we must think more deeply.”

Clarifying his earlier remarks, he added, “People say there is genocide in Nigeria. What I presented at the Vatican was a 1,270-page study on genocide in Nigeria and elsewhere. My argument is that it is not accurate to claim there is genocide or martyrdom in Nigeria.”

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OPINION] MOWAA: Unpleasant meal cooked for Benin from the outside (Two)

Published

2 hours ago

November 30, 2025

Editor

By Tony Erha

“Agha tot’ ikolo, t’ amen mie ede”; A Benin idiom holds sway that; “When the earthworm dominates a discussion, the rainfall would be all day long”. For the Museum of West Africa Art (MOWAA), whose skewed establishment had resurfaced about 2018, dominated global discourse and has reached a peak. Day in, day out, there is intense global indignation, bothering on an alleged swindling of the museum’s artefacts and huge accrued monies, which were under the care of the immediate-past governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, alongside some of his political and business associates, which many commentators presented to be a f monumental fraud. As already claimed, it could as well have been called MOWAA-gate!

This article, being the second and last stanza of the first, published two weeks ago, was predicated on the decimating crisis of MOWAA. A condensed recap of the said article was partly anchored on a lavish reportage by swamps of Nigerian and foreign press, which largely implicated the Obaseki’s government, as inept in the due processes of MOWAA’s setup. MOWAA is a charitable entity, which sprang up on global funding and other resources of the state government, whereupon a case of undue diligence was allegedly stressed on Obaseki and his government.

There is a threesome public inquiry, thus raising a gummy accusation of indecency, especially when the ex-governor Obaseki’s People’s Democratic Party (PDP) had been voted out by the All Progressives Congress (APC), with Senator Monday Okpebholo as the present governor. And the MOWAA-gate is getting messier as Governor Okpebholo and the state’s House of Assembly, the lawmaking arm, had each set up a probe panel. Disturbed that the MOWAA-gate is earning the nation a bad name, the National Assembly, from a far-away Abuja, the nation’s capital, also instituted another probe.

”The returned looted Benin artifacts, like other sacred art work of Benin provenance, are not just superficial or ornamental, but infused with the mystical command and supernatural energy of the Benin kingdom of great antique. The key to correctly identify, classify, and position the authentic totems, in time and space, lies in the Royal Benin Palace, under the power of the Oba of Benin”. Sampson Ebome, a lawyer and perceptive cultural activist, uttered, postulating further;

“In every other society as Japan, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Britain, the Netherlands, Saudi Arabia and Morocco etc., royalty holds a choice-place in preserving the unique cultural and corporate identity of the society and its governance. It is no co-incidence, therefore, that even in today’s Europe, there are about twelve statutory monarchs in its advanced democracies. Perhaps, the grave error of Godwin Obaseki’s administration was to proceed on the false logic that a concrete divergence existed between the government and the Benin kingdom, the very source and origin of the history, dialects, cultural identity and heritage of all the people of Edo State. To have persisted in this gargantuan ruse, an original artifice of the colonising powers of Europe, was always bound to be destabilising to the spiritual and socio-political equilibrium of the state”

In the state’s legislative’s probe, cans of worms are being revealed on MOWAA and the Reddisson Hotel construction, said to have been Obaseki’s conduit pipes. And there is intense firework by the contending parties. Chief Osaro Idah and some of the Oba’s palace chiefs have dragged MOWAA to the law court, a development which Oyiwola Afolabi SAN, MOWAA’s lawyer said had jeopardised the appearances of Godwin Obaseki, Osarodion Ogie (former Secretary to State Government) and other MOWAA’s executive at the House of Assembly summon.

“Even khiri-khiri keke udemwen idan ere ogbakhian”. “Fierce wrestling is a companion to violent thuds”. And the fight is now more forceful as no man will leave his leg for an opponent to grab. “Emwin na ma ru ese, to si itale emwen”, a Benin parlance for; “That which had been tardily or slyly done is bound to cause disaffection”. And so, the fight ranges whilst the onlookers are left to mock he that is already falling!

“Ovbi ekpen ere otolo ekpen ehae”. “Osayomore Joseph, the late music crooner and a soulmate, had often reminded me about the age-long Benin axiom; “It takes only the Cub – heir, to tickle the forehead of a Leopard. Instructively, HRM, Ewuare II, the revered Oba of Benin, with the Methuselah of wisdom at play, narrated the seizure of the artefactual ownership and benefaction, as he stoically alleged the undue conscription of his heir into the corporate board of Edo Museum of West Africa Art (EMOWAA) by ex-governor Obaseki. His son had also attested to that. The claim was also buttressed that EMOWAA was an inordinate scheme evolved by Obaseki and his associates to wrestle the returned looted artefacts and supplement payment from their foreign sources.

The Esans of Edo would say; “Ehun no ho obhiaha emoen, avava uwendin, ole odia”. “The sharp fart that disgraces the bride perches in-between her buttocks”. Once upon a time, Governor Okpebholo, on the heels of his final governorship declaration by the Supreme Court, which Obaseki and his protégé, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, the PDP candidate had dragged him through, was swayed by the of Senator Adams Oshiomhole insistence on the probe of Obaseki and his government. But Nyesom Wike, the flammable minister of Abuja, had dissuaded a pliable Okpebholo. But, Obaseki wasn’t mindful that he had escaped the expected probes, until he caused it with his usual foibles.

“Asua gha sua egile, oya danmwen ekpatu; eighi ye ebe gue egbe”. In a Benin folktale, it’s about the adventurous snail that crawls up the tree and soon crash to the ground, failing to cover itself from its hunters. The headstrong former governor, with the braggadocio of a ‘diaspora governor’, has taken the fight from ‘iya’ (valley) to ‘oke’ (mountain top). All we now see is the continuation of a “filaga filogo” (a street brawn with broken bottles and cudgels), now that ‘slappers and bone breakers’ fight wherever they meet in Europe and America. It is a bitter reminder of Obaseki’s heydays of masterminding the ‘Torgbas’ fighters’ gang that fought the APC’s ‘Tokpas’, which had earned him aliases like ‘Emanton’ (Iron Rod) and ‘Isakpana’ (the god of anger).

Whilst Nigerians and humankind watch the ‘filaga filogo’ and shame emanating from the Nigeria’s ‘heartbeat’ state, the very man who was called the ‘Wake and see Governor, may be laying down in the foreign climes the same landlines, that he laid on his home’s pathway that makes him to go into self-exile’.