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OPINION: For the Yoruba Of Northern Nigeria [Monday Line]

Published

7 months ago

April 14, 2025

By Lasisi Olagunju

“As an Offa citizen, I am made to look like an inferior being. While competing for anything in the North, I would be told that I am a Yoruba man. If there is something to compete for in the South-West, I would be reminded that I am a northerner. Permanently, I am an inferior citizen until this lopsided, skewed, warped national structure is re-configured.”

Chief J. S. Olawoyin was the leader of the opposition in the Northern Nigerian House of Assembly from 1956 to 1961. On Wednesday, 5 February, 2025, I was in his hometown, Offa, Kwara State, to review a book launched by his family and the Offa community to posthumously mark his centenary. Olawoyin was the first Asiwaju of Offa and a Yoruba patriot who used his entire political lifetime fighting against his people being put unfairly in northern Nigeria. For this, he was jailed, released and jailed many times. At the book launch event, I used the review to interrogate the dilemma – actually the tragedy – of a floating people; bats who are neither south nor north. The quote above is on page 22 of that book.

Heaven is God’s throne; Earth, His footstool. Whether throne or footstool, whichever you are, you are part of the palace. But some people are neither throne nor stool; they are neither on earth nor in heaven. They float. That is what we see in the recent NNPCL appointments and the subsequent noise over the Yoruba of northern Nigeria’s Kogi and Kwara states, and the perceived privileges they enjoy under a south-western Yoruba president.

My Zaria friend came for me at the weekend. He called (calls) me Tinubu’s man. I don’t know what I have achieved to merit that badge of honour. He accused me and everyone around me of marginalising the North in federal appointments. “Once you people can’t get a Yoruba from Lagos, you go pick one from any of the SW (South-West) states. If none exists, you slide to Kwara or Kogi to get one. Tinubu will be an OTP (One Term President). It shall be well.” That is his WhatsApp message to me.

His mention of Kogi and Kwara strikes me. Butterflies are not birds and can’t be birds unless their Creator recreates them. Think about this: If you were born a Yoruba, and Kwara or Kogi is your state, can you ever be president of Nigeria? If you contest a major political party’s presidential primary and there is a freak, and you win the ticket, where will your running mate come from? Will he or she come from the North where you geographically belong or from the South where, ethnically, your home is? Can you even be vice president? The same factors that make you unfit for number one cancels you out for number two.

But, sometimes the butterfly enjoys birdy bounties. You are Yoruba from the North Central. You will be lucky if the president is your brother Yoruba from the South-West. Because blood is thicker than water, he will give you jobs that are zoned to northern Nigeria. Only he can do that. To any other, you are a nobody. And, if your brother does that for you, he will say Eni ò dùn mó kò gbodò wí. Those unhappy won’t be able to shout because they also need you tomorrow. You have been that lucky twice: Under Olusegun Obasanjo, you produced, twice, the Chief of Naval Staff (Admirals Samuel Afolayan and Ganiyu Adekeye). The officers, in 2001 and in 2005, respectively filled a northern slot – because they were northerners. And now under Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Yoruba of Kogi and Kwara become, once again, northern Nigerians.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: [OPINION] Omololu Olunloyo: An Egret Flies Home

Every ethnic group should be a ruling house in a just Nigeria. But no. There are Royal Houses, long decided. It is a huge misfortune to be a minority here. It is worse if your tiny conchie has to contest a space with regional hawks. Think of how really the minority have fared in the North since the beginning of Nigeria. The British were not tentative in anything they did here; they left records. And, through those records, we get great insights into what they did with the country, where we are and the likely face of the future.

I use their records to address here the spectacle of spectators called the Yoruba of the North Central. Those who created Nigeria divided the regions (north and west) along the lines of pre-colonial conquest. With painstaking dutifulness, they also maintained interesting profiles of the tribes that inhabit each of the regions. For the North, they observed and kept a meticulous account of the peoples, their features and their characters. They then decided who would rule and who would serve the rulers.

Major G. Merrick, researcher and officer of the colonial government, wrote a long list of tribes in his ‘Languages in Northern Nigeria’ (published in October 1905). Beyond listing the tribes, he has a cross-ethnic comparison of each of the peoples’ mental and physical fitness. The first group he identifies in our North are the Shuwa Arabs whom he says “are a good class of men” who have “a certain independence of spirit, objecting to being commanded by Yorubas…whom they hold to be inferior races.” This feeling, he says, “has earned them a reputation for insubordination.” The Hausas, he says, “make the best soldiers”. The (northern) Yoruba are “useless as soldiers.” The Fulani, he writes, are “an intelligent race” but they are “somewhat exclusive, and the negro is, in general, somewhat afraid of them.” The list is long. Every ethnic group mentioned in that publication has a mark of the beast.

Lord Frederick Lugard in his ‘Northern Nigeria’ (published in January 1904), has a deeper (political) assessment of the groups that make up his favourite Northern Region. To Lugard, the Hausas are “the business-men of West Africa” who also “make admirable soldiers, and are brave and reliable.” The Yoruba, Lugard notes, “are hardly less keen traders than the Hausas, at least equally industrious, and much quicker to learn.” The Fulani, he calls “the ruling race” but whose “misrule has compelled interference” by the British. Lugard, however, declares that “bad as their (Fulani) rule has been…the future of the virile races of the protectorate lies largely in the regeneration of the Fulani.” Lugard explains how he arrived at that conclusion. He says the Fulani’s “…coloured skins, their mode of life and habits of thought, appeal more to the native populations than the prosaic rule of the Anglo-Saxon can ever do.” He then declares a resolve “to regenerate this capable race, to mould them to ideas of justice and mercy, so that in a future generation, if not in this, they may become worthy instruments of rule under British supervision” (page 8).

Note what those two gentlemen wrote on the principal tribes of the North. The past is forever true with our present. It explains why some people rule forever, and others, till eternity, rue their exclusion from power. Think about T. S. Eliot’s “Time present and time past/ Are both perhaps present in time future/ And time future contained in time past.”

My Zaria friend was angry because of the appointment of the NNPCL Managing Director, Bashir Bayo Ojulari, a native of Oke Ode in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. My friend would not listen to me when I told him that Kwara and Kogi are in the North and Ojulari, from that axis, is a northerner like him. He insisted that the reason the man got the job was because of his Yoruba ethnicity. From my friend’s tempest, it would appear that the far Muslim North is the only North. He forwarded to me a social media post comparing Buhari’s nepotism with that of Tinubu. My friend gave the trophy of dubiety to Tinubu.

A very long list of Yoruba appointees of Tinubu is slithering across the World Wide Web. I looked at that list; I read through Buhari’s records. One mirrors the other. They mock Nigeria; they shame decency; they laugh at whatever our old and new national anthems say about unity and brotherhood; about truth and justice.

The government is scrambling to say the Tinubu list is a lie. The regime stutters, very embarrassingly. Can we also have lists of appointees made from other tribes? Tribe and tongue are the new identifiers. States and regions are dead.

Whatever the North does to the Yoruba and their Tinubu now and in the future serves right the Yoruba elite. They used to demand a restructuring of the Nigerian federation for better delivery. They harassed regimes after regimes with that demand. They said it was the cure-all for what ailed Nigeria. But they are quiet now; very quiet. They are either with their brother, eating with both hands and with ten fingers or they are sharpening their teeth, expecting to be called to the table. It is a shame that they forget that this Egúngún festival is never forever. At the end of this season, priests and all, including their children, will have to pay before they eat àkàrà and èko.

We read statements that talk of “Tinubu’s Yoruba government”. Can I be allowed to say that Tinubu is not building a Yoruba cult for Nigeria? The strongman is, instead, carefully building a sect of personal devotees. A majority of his worshippers being Yoruba (from Lagos) is just normal. But how far can one region, one ethnic group, or a cabal, or a family go enjoying Nigeria alone? We saw how fleeting, brief, and transient it was with the insular, north-centric regime of Muhammadu Buhari. The streets of the North enjoyed it while it lasted. And, I think some of us warned the North that time that today would come; and it is here. Where I come from, we say that if you eat alone, your eyes would be red twice: the first time is when you eat yours, the second is when others eat theirs. If I were of Buhari’s persons and region, I would be too ashamed to complain that someone is using my fake coin to pay for my service.

Ikú nde Dèdè; Dèdè nde ‘kú – Death baits Dede; Dede baits Death. Tinubu plays the tongue-twisting game. The president took the chairmanship of the NNPCL from his bosom friend in the South-West; he gave it to an ‘outsider’ from the North-East. He took the Managing Director of that company from the North-East and gave it to the North-Central. The two top jobs went to the North, yet the North is in pains. The South-West has neither of the two juicy positions, yet it is rejoicing and dancing. The region that lost the chairmanship of the oil company is grateful; the one that gained the firm’s two topmost posts is angry. Oxymoronic reactions. Outsiders would be confused. But the child that is crying knows why it is weeping; the mum knows why the child is inconsolable. From the two divides are reactions that confirm the artificiality (or superficiality) of what we call zones and states, and Nigeria. It is a stain on our claims to a banner of unity and strength.

Our president does what he wants when he wants it while leaving the dazed asses to bray. But, across the Niger is a humming volcano called the North. It is very evident that the North is mobilizing for battle. The northern establishment has gone to exhume Buhari from provincial Daura. They’ve replanted him in their regional capital, Kaduna, for proper coordination of the street and the boys. I think Tinubu knows what is going on; but he is not bothered. He thinks he is the other power bloc and is on very firm ground. He truly is. If he were in Italy, he would be addressed as Capo di tutti capi – boss of all bosses. He thinks he is Nigeria’s very first real strongman. And he acts and lives it. He has money in super abundance – his wife and son show this off dropping some billions here, some billions there – in a season of famine. The man has power and he knows how to use both with precision and to maximum effects. He combines Muhammed Ali’s stings with Iron Mike Tyson’s bulldozer punches. If I were part of his enemies, I would be very worried. This man won’t go the Goodluck Jonathan way.

In all of this, the ordinary man, north and south, are the losers. They lose life, they lose living. Under Buhari’s ‘Change’, their lives took a plunge. Today, they battle to breathe.

News

Why We Expanded Presidential Amnesty Scholarship Scheme — Otuaro

Published

14 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

Otuaro (middle) in a group photograph with the PAP foreign scholarship students in the United Kingdom after an interactive session in London on Saturday, 25 October, 2025.

The Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme, Dr Dennis Otuaro, has expressed his unwavering commitment to ensuring that more indigent students and communities of the Niger Delta benefit from the PAP scholarship scheme.

He stated this while explaining what informed his decision to expand the scheme and increase formal education opportunities for poor students, and to build a huge manpower base in the region.

A statement issued by Mr Igoniko Oduma, Special Assistant on Media to the PAP boss said Otuaro spoke during an interactive session in London on Saturday with the beneficiaries of the scholarship initiative deployed for undergraduate and post-graduate programmes in universities across the United Kingdom.

The engagement, which was at the instance of the PAP boss, provided an opportunity for the Office and the scholarship students to discuss issues pertaining to their welfare and challenges with a view to addressing them.

Otuaro said that while in-country scholarship deployment was 3800 in the 2024/2025 academic year, the figure increased to 3900 in the 2025/2026 and foreign scholarships were about 200.

He attributed the increase in deployment to the massive support of President Bola Tinubu and the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Otuaro stressed that he was greatly encouraged by the President and the NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, and that he knows how impressed both of them are concerning the PAP initiatives, which align with the Renewed Hope Agenda.

He reiterated his call on the students to justify the huge investment in their education by the Federal Government by studying hard to make good grades.

He also urged them to conduct themselves and be responsible ambassadors of Nigeria while in the U.K, stressing that “you will be adding value to your families and communities when you complete your programmes successfully.”

The PAP helmsman said, “We want the scholarship programme to impact more students and communities in the Niger Delta. That’s why we have expanded it and increased formal education opportunities.

“We want you to take this opportunity very seriously so that the government, too, will be encouraged. I know how much support His Excellency, President Bola Tinubu GCFR, gives to the Presidential Amnesty Programme.

“Mr President and the National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, are very impressed with what we are doing. On your behalf I would like to, once again , thank His Excellency and the NSA for giving you this life-changing opportunity. We are confident that Mr President and the NSA will continue to support us.

“The knowledge you are receiving in your institutions today is to enable you plan yourself and prepare for the future. Whatever knowledge you gain cannot be taken from you.

“So as PAP scholarship students, we expect responsible and good behaviour from you. Government is investing heavily in you and you have the obligation to justify the investment. Be agents of change and avoid acts of mischief while in the U.K.”

News

OPINION: A ‘Crazy’ African Nation, Where Citizens Eat And Drink Football

Published

16 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

By Tony Erha

It was in October, a semi-summer-month and twilight of the year that ushers in the chilling and extreme winter. A nonagenarian woman gave me a friendly smile that revealed cheeky dimples. As I bowed respectfully to her ripened age, she offered a leathery hand for a handshake, which I received warmly, returning her infectious smile. For a youth who prays for longevity shouldn’t deprive the elderly of the walking stick. I had helped her, carrying a furred handbag to our seats on a night-long intercity bus, from Istanbul to Ankara, in Turkey, the Balkan nation, where we stopped over, in year 2004.

She spoke Turkish rapidly, whilst I retorted in a passable and incoherent Turkish language that ‘I don’t speak the official language of the only country of the world that is located on two continents; Europe and Asia. “You American?” She asked in English. It was obvious that my jeans, necklace and a fez cap that I upturned, in the manner of the Yankees, might have portrayed me as one. “No. I am a Nigerian”, I said, dragging the words. “You Nee-jay-rian!” she exclaimed, whilst I nodded confidently. Then she was elated; “Okocha Jay-Jay!” She spoke to others in the bus that clapped and hailed. I wondered why a 91 years-old-woman, was so passionate about football and one of its heroes, as if she was a youth.

At her request, an old video of a football match showed the mesmerising display of Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, viewed on a television set affixed to the bus. There were instantaneous excitement and catcalls each time Okocha, the great football ‘talisman’ from Nigeria, did his ball flips and dribble-runs that displaced his opponents, earning him one of the few (if not the greatest) football entertainers in football’s history. It was as if the video tape, recorded in his notable plays in Besiktas, a Turkish club side, was a live match. So great was Okocha’s global fame that the old woman relived again; “Jay Jay Okocha is a dangerous footballer, who’s full of tricks on the field of play. The only trick he didn’t do with the ball from his bag of football artistry was to play on top the swimming pool”. In Mustafa Ataturk’s nation, footballers of Nigeria’s decent had and still make their soccer very eventful.

Victor Osimhen, the leggy playmaker and striker with a dye-hair like the white mushroom head, who recently renewed his contract with Galatasaray, a Turkish top team, is also a Nigerian, who has received the applause in the peninsula country and across the globe like Jay Jay Okocha. Candidly, Oshimen, the goal mechine, who is a tonic to the Turks and football fans across the world, also does the unimaginative with the round leather, but certainly not with the same fascinating skills of Jay Jay! But the Turkish fans are readily tilted to football fanaticism.

Victor Osimhen

If it’s ‘fanatic-fans’ in Turkish football, it’s certainly ‘supporters hooliganism’ in the United Kingdom (UK), where association soccer (football) was founded in 1863, with similar kicking games played in Greece, China and Rome since 2,000 years. In UK, football is played with fanfares, pool betting and media vuvuzela. English soccer is a gainful entertainment industry raking in huge gate fees from plays, promotions, television and media razzmatazz, which is often imitated in Nigeria, with passions and ‘occult’ following. So worrisome was the ‘social hype and lawlessness’ youths and others attach to English soccer that security operatives have constant migraine fighting soccer addiction and frequent street brawls.

Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Dan Amokachi, Taribo West and other Nigerian stars, that once dominated and currently rule other foreign clubs, opened the floodlight of extremist football following into the country. Once upon a time, the then Prince Charles (now the king of England), was spotted (with young boys) playing the game, inside the Buckingham Palace, all wearing jersey number ’10’ with Jay Jay Okocha’s name inscribed). That the number-one-global-royalty adored soccer by wearing the jersey of a footballer from a third-world African nation, somewhat illustrates that which is often said about soccer being more than a mere sport. ‘Football Tripper’, a British online news porter, describes soccer as “oxygen” to numerous men and women. In Brazil, the South American nation, there is a deity called “Soccer”, as well as it’s a vivacious Reggae, a unique music genre in Jamaica.

Still, it is food and sups in Nigeria. In this Africa’s most populous nation, with plentiful viewing centres and liquor spots, there are live television football tournaments and soccer video games, with consumable food, alcoholics, carbonated drinks and some ‘unlawful substances’ that are at the behest of business owners and ‘intoxicated’ fans.

In what soccer dramatics came to know as ‘the Dammam Miracle’, viewing centres, beer parlours and restaurants were instantly sold out in the country, in 1989, after ‘footbocrazy’ Nigerians, stormed the streets in prolonged wild celebrations. For the Nigerian U-20 football team, at the FIFA World Youth Championship, held in Dammam, Saudi Arabia, came back from a four-goal deficit to level up and defeat the Russian counterpart, making the Nigerian team the first to come back from a semi-final to win a FIFA tournament. Soccer, indeed, is a crazy sport in Nigeria. Once upon a time, a man had shattered the screen of his expensive television, because Austin Jay Jay Okocha, his favourite star, had lost a penalty in a continental match!

It’s said that football, especially when the Nigerian national teams of men and woman play, tends to unite Nigerians than other national blights that turn them apart. Now, the current national fanaticism is for the Victor Osimhen-inspired Super Eagles, to qualify for the 2026 World Cup gala, even though it has to go the extra obstacles of playing more legs, whereas the team had frittered the early opportunities to qualify.

And sensing that most Nigerians care less of the economic woes that plagued them, but for the football fad, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the nation’s President, would cash-in to feed their ago awarding huge cash to high profile football tournaments and wins, like he recently accorded the Super Falcons, the female national team, for achieving a similitude of the Dammam miracle, to bring home a coveted African Cup of Nations (AFCON) trophy!

News

Ex-soldiers Fume Over Lifetime Benefits For Sacked Service Chiefs

Published

21 hours ago

October 26, 2025

Editor

The sacked Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa, and two other service chiefs, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Abubakar, and Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla, are set to receive generous retirement benefits.

The benefits include bulletproof vehicles, domestic aides, and lifetime medical care.

Their exit follows President Bola Tinubu’s appointment of new service chiefs on Friday.

General Olufemi Oluyede has been named the new Chief of Defence Staff, while Major-General W. Shaibu takes over as Chief of Army Staff.

Air Vice Marshal Sunday Kelvin Aneke becomes the new Chief of Air Staff, and Rear Admiral I. Abbas the Chief of Naval Staff. The Chief of Defence Intelligence, Major-General E.A.P. Undiendeye, retains his position.

The President’s Special Adviser on Media and Public Communication, Sunday Dare, said in a statement on Friday that the removal of the service chiefs was in furtherance of the Federal Government’s ongoing efforts to strengthen Nigeria’s national security architecture.

According to the Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers and Enlisted Personnel in the Nigerian Armed Forces, signed by President Tinubu on December 14, 2024, the service chiefs are entitled to substantial retirement packages upon disengagement.

The document stipulates that each retiring service chief will receive a bulletproof SUV or an equivalent vehicle, to be maintained and replaced every four years by the military.

They are also entitled to a Peugeot 508 or an equivalent backup vehicle.

Beyond the vehicles, the package includes five domestic aides — two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener — along with an aide-de-camp or security officer, and a personal assistant or special assistant.

They will also retain three service drivers, a service orderly, and a standard guard unit comprising nine soldiers.

The benefits extend to free medical treatment both in Nigeria and abroad, as well as the retention of personal firearms to be retrieved upon their demise.

However, while officers of lieutenant-general rank and equivalents are entitled to international and local medical care worth up to $20,000 annually, the benefits for the service chiefs, though not stated in the document, are believed to be considerably higher.

The HTCOS reads, “Retirement benefits for CDS and Service Chiefs: The following benefits shall be applicable: one bulletproof SUV or equivalent vehicle to be maintained by the Service and to be replaced every four years. One Peugeot 508 or equivalent backup vehicle.

‘’Retention of all military uniforms and accoutrement to be worn for appropriate ceremonies; five domestic aides (two service cooks, two stewards, and one civilian gardener); one Aide-de-Camp/security officer; one Special Assistant (Lt/Capt or equivalents) or one Personal Assistant (Warrant Officer or equivalents); standard guard (nine soldiers).

“Three service drivers; one service orderly; escorts (to be provided by appropriate military units/formation as the need arises); retention of personal firearms (on his demise, the personal firearm(s) shall be retrieved by the relevant service); and free medical cover in Nigeria and abroad.”

However, the policy specifies that such entitlements apply only if the retired officers have not accepted any other appointment funded from public resources — except when such an appointment is made by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

In such cases, the officers, according to the document, will only receive allowances commensurate with the new role rather than a full salary.

Retired soldiers protest lavish perks

Reacting, some retired soldiers decried what they described as the luxurious benefits and entitlements reserved for service chiefs and senior military officers.

They lamented that junior personnel continued to suffer neglect and unpaid entitlements despite years of service to the nation.

The retired officers expressed frustration over the disparity in welfare and treatment between senior and junior ranks within the military.

One of the leaders of the discharged soldiers demanding their owed entitlements, Sgt. Zaki Williams, expressed frustration over the entitlements reserved for the service chiefs.

Speaking in an emotional tone, Williams, who claimed to be speaking for more than 700 soldiers in his group, said many retired non-commissioned officers had been abandoned despite dedicating their lives to defending the country.

He said, “I don’t really understand how our people in Nigeria do things. The people at the top always do things to favour only themselves. They don’t care about the poor or the junior ones who sacrificed everything.”

The retired sergeant recalled that government officials had made several promises to improve their welfare, but none had been fulfilled.

“Since the day they made those promises to us, we went back home and didn’t hear anything again. Everything just ended there. We’ve been waiting till now, but nothing has happened,” he added.

Williams said the situation had left many of his colleagues demoralised and divided over whether to continue pressing for their entitlements.

“Some of us said we should protest again, but others refused. We told them that day that we were not going for another protest. If the government wants to help us, they should help us. If not, we’re done,” he said.

He also accused senior military officers of frustrating efforts by the defence ministry to address the concerns of retired personnel.

According to Williams, life after service has been extremely difficult for most of them who retired voluntarily or were discharged without compensation.

“How can someone retire after years of service and still not get their entitlement? Many of us can’t even build a house. The senior officers have houses, cars, and everything good, but the rest of us have nothing,” he said.

He added that the little compensation given to some was not enough to rebuild their lives.

“If they give you N2m today, what can you really start with it in this country? You have children, family, and responsibilities, yet you can’t even afford a plot of land,” he said.

Expressing disappointment, he said most junior officers had lost faith in the system.

“We’ve handed everything over to God,” he said quietly. “We’ve cried and done our best. They promised us, but in the end, it’s still zero. We haven’t seen anything. That’s why many of us are now silent.”

Another retired soldier, Abdul Isiak, lamented that promises made to retired personnel had remained unfulfilled, leaving many struggling to survive.

He said, “All you said they would give to them would be done promptly, and they are more than what we need to sustain our lives. This is very unfair. We have suffered a lot, and they’re yet to give us our entitlements after leaving the service. What is our offence? Is it because we are junior officers?”

The former sergeant said the senior officers continued to enjoy generous retirement packages while lower ranks were denied their due benefits.

“We are preparing for another protest for them to pay us. This is very bad,” he said.

(PUNCH)