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OPINION: ‘I am Here to Plunder’ [Monday Lines]

Published

11 months ago

September 16, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

I always wonder why it appears difficult for President Bola Tinubu to defeat banditry in Nigeria. The president’s most popular chieftaincy title is Jagaban Borgu. Jagaba means chief warrior in Hausa – one of the two dominant languages in Borgu of Niger State. It would translate to either Balogun or Aare Ona Kakanfo in Yoruba. There was a time in the 19th century when plundering was ‘trade’ where the president got his Jagaba title. They called banditry ‘swadibu’ and the bandits themselves ‘swadio’, a psychedelic term which means “somebody who eats on the road.” Olayemi Akinwumi’s ‘Princes as Highway Men’ digs deep into this. I take my title from Ray Kea’s 1986 work on banditry in 19th century Gold Coast. His title is: ‘I am here to Plunder on the General Road.’

Mid last week, respected journalist, Jaafar Jaafar, wrote and had this posted online: “A friend from a prominent northern family yesterday narrated a painful story of how his family paid through the nose to secure the release of a relative from bandits. Apart from payment of N35m cash as ransom, they also delivered – as demanded – the following: six brand new motorcyles; four cartons of whiskey; 10 packets of Tramadol; 1(one) bag of Indian Hemp; 1(one) carton of Aspen cigarette; 12 bags of rice (50kg); 10 bags of maize (100kg); 5 bags of beans (100kg); 1(one) 25-litre jerry can of groundnut oil; 1(one) 25-litre jerry can of palm oil; 1 (one) carton of seasoning; 10 packets of paracetamol; 10 packets of chloroquine. While preparing to deliver the foregoing items, the bandits called and ordered them to service the motorcycles and fill up the tanks. Allah Ya kawo ƙarshen wannan masifa.”

Do governments sometimes lose control at night and regain it during the day? The late Professor of History, Ali Mazrui, asked that question twenty-nine years ago. I asked the question again after reading Jaafar. Where did those bandits get the courage to ask for so much without the fear of being followed and busted by the state? A super-thief craved the king’s flute but told his gang that he just couldn’t go for it. Surprised, petty thieves around him asked the boss why. He told them that stealing the king’s bugle is not the problem; the problem is finding where to blow it. I have always thought that saying to be wisdom unimpeachable, time-tested. But, I am no longer sure after reading the post above and the items demanded by the bandits. You need, at least, a trailer to carry those offerings of ransom, yet, the abductors felt unthreatened by the risk in their demands. And, if what the journalist posted is true, the bandits got everything they demanded without consequences. Where was the government when all this was happening?

In a myth of the Greek, Alcestis “appears to die in winter and to come back to life again in the spring.” On Saturday, the president praised the military for achieving what he described as strings of successes in the war against banditry in the North-West. He mentioned the killing of a wanted bandit leader, Halilu Sububu, “who had been unleashing terror on citizens in Zamfara, Sokoto, and other parts of north-western Nigeria.” The president danced and danced while noting further that “troops also killed another terrorist, Sani Wala Burki, in a joint operation in Katsina and busted a terrorist enclave in Kaduna where 13 kidnapped students were freed.” I also clap and stand at attention for our gallant forces. Commendable feats. But they must be tired of killing the killers who come in inexhaustible numbers. Every day, the security forces announce the ‘neutralization’ of bandits and terrorists. Yet, the forest remains infested from one end to the other. Could it be that the neutralized have also mastered the art of neutralizing death? For, the more killed of the bandits by our troops, the more the bandits troop back to abduct and kill. Or, has death been cosseting bad men who hunt men, women and children, while claiming their liquidation? Where a load rejects the rafters and won’t sit on the floor, our elders will always find a place to sit it. What else should we do? The innocent are tired of life.

We will continue to support our security forces and their troops. But for them, the present darkness would have been total. Terror roams everywhere. A very senior former editor of a national newspaper who hails from, and lives in Oyo State sent me his own local experience some time ago: “They are taking over our towns and villages in Oke-Ogun. I’m afraid to go to Igbeti as it is. They’re in every nook and cranny of the town. This was not so a few years ago. And they walk about armed with swords and daggers. The last time I was at the mosque for Juma’ah prayers, they all came to the mosque with their swords which they laid down in front of them while praying. And it was like that in the three major mosques in the town. Imagine how they will massacre the indigenous people in case of any altercation. I have not been able to get the issue out of my mind since then and I can’t roam our mountains again when next I go home as I had done for decades. I called the attention of a few stakeholders to the issue even though I knew there’s little they could do. Nigeria is such a mess.” The former editor was a great supporter of President Bola Tinubu. He was. But in the message, he sounded utterly disappointed and despondent. “I thought he would make a difference. It is a shame,” he said, while asking how we could “have back our country.”

Nigeria is an interesting country of many ‘presidents’. I pity President Tinubu who rules from the Villa in Abuja – or from abroad. He daily contends with forest felons who contest the cockpit with him. But what has he done with his implements as chief warrior? You cannot be made a kite and be afraid of chickens. There are hard men everywhere who do not answer to any title but who wield powers that degrade the state and cancel the powers that inhere in the real president. One of them is a felon fellow called Bello Turji who reigns in Nigeria’s primary zone of terror. He rules the forests, controls the villages, and commands the towns of Nigeria’s north-west. A report last week reconfirmed this bandit leader’s worth as the classic antinomian. The report said Turji imposed a N50 million levy on a Zamfara village called Moriki. “Yes, you are right. We imposed a N50 million levy on Moriki,” Turji owned the heist in a video posted online. He gave reasons which further delegitimized a broken sovereign.

To be helpless is to be “lacking in protection or support; defenseless.” That is what my dictionary says it is. The Nigerian state is at this moment helpless – even, hopeless. Before you ask why, ask first why anyone would expect awkward crab to teach its children how to walk straight. Why should bandits act freely dictating who lives and who dies; who is free and who is held? And there is a government. “Successful bandits inspire fear and respect” …they are hard men “who make themselves respected.” That is from the late Dutch anthropologist, Anton Blok, author of ‘The Peasant and the Brigand: Social Banditry Reconsidered.’ Blok explored the “varieties and complexities” of banditry. He hypothesised that “the more successful a man is as a bandit, the more extensive the protection granted him.” I am tempted to say that Nigeria is a country of successful banditry.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: In Defence Of Our President [Monday Lines]

Nigeria validates Blok’s proposition. Turji, for instance, inspires fear more than the law. He commands greater ‘respect’ in his spheres of influence than those we elected there. He receives obeisance from big and small men in the terrorized zone and gets propitiated. Like devotees of Shango, the people prostrate before the small god of banditry with one lone prayer: Do not fight fight me, I do not have money for offerings at home. The law wisely cowers where he reigns. The result is anomie writ large. Because of bandit lords, big men in the North-West have learnt the wisdom of detaining themselves in Abuja and in their state capitals. The poor who could afford the swiftness of the eagle have dragged their tired bodies and souls across the boarder into Niger Republic. The flightless ones, in their millions, work the fields for protection from the bandit leaders. The situation shames the law, ridicules the constitution and all its creations, including our executive presidency.

The horror we saw last week in the collapsed dam of Maiduguri perfectly illustrates the criminal cisterns of Nigeria bursting at the seams. In the South-West are showy, shadowy felons whose terrorism is in shrines of the occult. They inflict an epidemic of ritual killings on the land, abducting the young and the old. There is a migration from, or a convergence of, Yahoo Yahoo and money ritual. They abduct, murder and pound the very promising into pulps of nonsense. Parents are breathless at noon, and sleepless at night. For many, safety of their children from marauding priests and occult clerics dominate prayers at family talks. We no longer know who truly worships God and whom to trust.

The Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) held “a special meeting of elders and top-level leaders” from all parts of Northern Nigeria on Wednesday, 4 September, 2024. A very thoughtful communique came out of the gathering. The ACF said the north was ready “for a review of Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution as well as the restructuring of the administrative structure of Nigeria.” It said it was not afraid of both. I read that part and clapped for them. But can I say the same of the hypocritical Yoruba who have dropped the ball of restructuring and are busy protecting a pot of soup that is really not theirs? The ACF said in the communique that it reviewed the state of the nation and expressed deep concerns on Nigeria’s intractable problems – economic and security. It proffered solutions: “The current approaches to fighting the insurgents and bandits are not yielding the desired results. Other measures, even unconventional ones, need to be considered and tried.” The northern leaders counseled government and suggested to it “community-driven models of defence, such as the Civilian JTF.” Thoughtful north did not make that case for itself alone. It suggested that “similar or modified models” of that security management “be authorized in other parts of the country.” I agree with them. I wish the president and his government listen to the ACF.

In the days before the white man came with his peace, law and order, my part of this country had security structures that must either ship in or ship out. There was Aare Ona Kakanfo whose existence was tied to fighting and defeating the enemy. “You do not become the Aare and lament that there is no war to fight. If the enemy refuses to charge at you, go out and take the war to his doorstep. Or you provoke a rebellion at home and crush it without mercy. That is the raw meaning of Kakanfo — patriotic (sometimes), rebellious, courageous, heady, merciless, merciful, tough, warlike, bloody, unyielding.”

The quoted clauses above belong to me. It was the introductory paragraph to my piece published on January 15, 2018 – two days after Gani Adams was installed as the Aare Ona Kakanfo of Yorubaland. I went back to read the piece again after I read Adams’ open letter to President Tinubu last week. Adams, in the letter, was frontal in his choice of language and in the allusions he drew. He said the nation had failed and the president a big disappointment. He said (without saying it) that the circumciser who was employed to beautify the Nigerian baby had allowed it to die right in his hands. I found it quite daring. His suggestions on the economy and security appeared to be on all fours with the ACF’s. But, the Kakanfo missed out on one key point that would have made his letter truly revolutionary. His missive miserably lacked the front teeth- which is his people’s demand for a reexamination of the structure of the Nigerian nation. Adams himself had been consistent in asking for restructuring of Nigeria from all predecessors of Tinubu. But in his letter of 1,258 words, spread across 52 paragraphs, Adams’ mantra was not there. Was it a genuine error of omission or an abdication of a cause he had consistently pursued before now? Or what? His subsequent newspaper interviews filled that void.

My Kakanfo offering of 2018 was a steamboat; it rowed us through the dark, treacherous canals of the imperiled existence of the past, and their various (un)predictable harbours of turbulence. Gani Adams’ skull took 201 incisions stuffed with 201 unknown stuffs. I don’t think he made his head available for that ordeal because he enjoyed it. Adams was in the news last week. He wrote about bandits ravaging Nigeria “from the north to the south, east to the west.” He then queried the competence of the commander-in-chief and the commitment of his commanders. I think Tinubu should read Adams’s letter, pick whatever is good in it and implement. Perching precariously on the head of my 2018 article is the title: ‘Eni Ogun in Times of War.’ ‘Eni ogun’ means man of war; if you add another letter ‘o’ to the ‘ogun’, the salutation becomes problematic. He will then be called ‘eni oògùn’ – man of magical powers, or, ‘eni òógùn’, man of perspiration. Whichever mark you put on the ‘ogun’ or ‘oogun’ will be right and applicable to the man who took a 19th century title in the 21st century and is demanding to act the antiquated status in a republic. I thought Adams would deny the authorship of the letter. He didn’t. Indeed, his subsequent press interviews were even more damning. The incisions are truly working.

How many ‘presidents’ can a nation have at a point in time? Has Nigeria failed? Or has it not failed? In 1995, Ali Mazrui assessed state failure. He cited a country that had “lost sovereign control over a large proportion of the country, with the result that it has also lost control of resources, infrastructure, revenue, social services, and governance.” He wrote about another country in which the cities were “under the control of the authorities during the day and under the control of militants at night.”

Nigeria of 1995 was bad, but it was not among those so agonized over by Mazrui. If he were alive today, Mazrui would, with very heavy heart, not hesitate to put Nigeria of 2024 at the top of his list of the failed. Under the roof of their present husband, Nigerians are losing on all fronts: they are broke, they are hungry, they are terribly terrorized. Kidnappers are breaking their doors and dragging them into captivity. The supreme commander of our own troops would rather move from one world capital to the other fulfilling childhood dreams of shaking stockinged hands of imperial kings and queens. They are here to plunder.

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[OPINION] Wasiu Ayinde: Shame Of A Nation (1)

Published

8 hours ago

August 15, 2025

Editor

Tunde Odesola

Unenviable bee life. Despite buzzing from pillar to post in the field, transporting tonnes of nectar sugar to its hive for honey, the bee, like the Value Jet aircraft passenger, is ultimately deboarded from its hive in an extractive process to yield nature’s sweetest and goldiest liquid, honey; a perfect example of the product outvaluing the producer.

As a youth looking forward to sitting the secondary school-leaving certificate examination, the release of the album, Talazo’84, by the new kid on the Fuji music bloc, Wasiu Ayinde Barrister, presented to me an opportunity for defiance, self-belief and entertainment.

But my admiration for Wasiu had to be in secret because my no-nonsense parents preferred the rich and instructive music of Tunde Nightingale, Adeolu Akinsanya, Haruna Ishola, Jim Reeves, Jim Rex Lawson, I.K. Dairo, Victor Olaiya, Osita Osadebe; Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Victor Uwaifo, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Orlando Owoh, Ofege, etc, to the originality-lacking music of Wasiu of those days.

In my father’s home, there was an unwritten, but effective law. If you’re watching a programme on TV or listening to the radio, and a Fuji song wafts in, you must change the channel or frown, stand up and walk away. That was the disdain my family had for Fuji, a music genre considered vulgar and lowlife.

And, if you pretend as if you didn’t notice the Fuji song on the radio or TV, my father, Pa Adebisi Odesola, of blessed memory, in the most sarcastic of voices, would twist a sentence in the music, like, “Wese Boy ko, Wese girl ni; o ti gbe rubbish yen kuro ki n to wa gba eti e! Will you turn off the rubbish music before I slap you!?”

But in the eyes of a teenager born on Lagos Island and bred in Mushin, Wasiu was a symbol of possibility. He felt like a big brother and folk hero, whose musical breakthrough whispered to me, “This is Wasiu, young and successful; if Wasiu can achieve musically, you too can, academically.”

Well, 41 years after the release of Talazo’84, I remain a fan of Wese Boy, but now with a better understanding of what enduring music is, an example of which is the music of Fuji Oracle, the late Chief Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, whose songs are truly timeless.

Although I still love Wasiu Ayinde, I hate his lifestyle. The ambivalence between his life and music takes me back to the bee and the honey metaphor – the creation and the creator. This ambivalence prompts the questions: Can the artist be separated from his art, and should fans appreciate and enjoy the music of a morally deficient artist?

While he lived, King of Pop, Michael Jackson, was a matchless talent in voice and dance. Though not convicted, Jackson faced longstanding allegations of child sexual abuse, making many feel uncomfortable supporting his work, and raising the question: Can the powerful messages in his songs like “Man in the Mirror” or “Heal the World” be separated from the allegations against him?

“Mute R. Kelly” became a widespread movement after American R&B god, Robert Sylvester Kelly, was convicted of multiple sex crimes, including against minors. His conviction caused a sharp drop in public support, with many refusing to stream his music. Unlike the music of Jackson, however, R Kelly’s music brims with autobiographical themes, making the separation of the artist from his art more difficult.

Back home in Nigeria, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti needs no introduction. Though celebrated for his fight against corruption and government highhandedness, Fela was criticised for ruling his Kalakuta Republic with the same highhandedness he criticised public officials for. While some believe his personal flaws shouldn’t be magnified to overshadow his socio-political relevance, others say his activism was no excuse for extremism.

After 41 years in Fuji limelight, controversy is no stranger to the son of Anifowose, who has made a fortune by ingratiating himself with high-end politicians such as ministers, senators, governors and incumbent President Bola Tinubu, singing their praises for a fee.

However, his lack of discretion and unbecoming arrogance, two flaws many blame on the absence of adequate formal education, saw him record a personal phone call with President Tinubu and put the audio call online, breaching the protocol of the Office of the Nigerian President. Sadly and quite worrisomely, the Office of the President did not sanction Wasiu’s recklessness on that particular occasion.

A few days after thoughtlessly exposing President Tinubu’s phone conversation with him, Wasiu grew wings and perched on the roof of his Ijebu-Ode home, looking down on Islamic alfas, who graced his mother’s burial, describing them as interlopers who opened their mouths like an umbrella when there was no rain or sunshine. “Ile baba mi ni Fidipote, awon alfa, won lo be. Ibi ni gbogbo won wa se kinni, ni won wa ganu si,” Wasiu said.

In an attempt to douse the heat generated by his numerous controversies, including the allegations of maltreatment levelled by his former drummer, Kunle Ayanlowo, and the President’s phone call leak, KWAM 1 granted an interview to online TV, Agbaletu, owned by multitalented journalist and music aficionado, Dele Adeyanju, in April 2025.

In the interview, Igi Jegede, clad in a Yoruba attire, with a purple and beige colour thinking cap to match, gave a good account of himself as he denied the allegations of maltreatment, arrogance, highhandedness, vindictiveness and ruthlessness levelled against him. Interspersing the Yoruba interview with some unilluminating English grammatical expressions, Omogbolahan cut the picture of a man sinned against, rather than he sinned.

However, he shot himself in the foot when he highlighted to Agbaletu TV the virtues someone of his social status is expected to possess. His words, “At this juncture in my life, the responsibilities I carry are so many. Wasiu Ayinde is the one you know (but) Wasiu Ayinde has different meanings in various communities, especially in Yorubaland and Nigeria as a whole. Wasiu Ayinde is the Oluomo of Lagos – a very prestigious title and responsibility. This will constrain me from saying some things the way I should, but I won’t be able to say them the way I should. So, also, Wasiu Ayinde is the Mayegun of Yorubaland. Someone who is Mayegun is a peacemaker; no one hears foul words from the mouth of Mayegun.”

With the thinking cap still firmly on his head, the Oluaye Fuji continued, “Mayegun should not talk, and people go asking, ‘Was it the Mayegun that said such?’ The greatest of the greatest honour (is my title) as Olori Omoba of Ijebuland; that’s also so big, the society must not hear bad things from my mouth. There are many things I will overlook or choose not to hear or respond to. It’s not that I overlook or wave such things off, but because no one hears foul words from the mouth of Abore (the chief priest). I have two more years to turn 70. Imagine someone who has all these titles, and the things you hear from him are still controversial.”

I wonder where K1 De Ultimate put the thinking cap he wore while granting the Agbaletu interview when, on Tuesday, August 5, 2025, he exhibited a behaviour unbefitting of an Omoluabi, a Mayegun and an Olori Omoba, at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, where he stood in the path of an aeroplane – boasting and threatening – trying to prevent it from taking off, like NURTW members would threaten yellow buses in Lagos. Arabambi became grumpy and baptised the members of Value Jet airline’s cabin crew with w(h)ate(ve)r was the content of his flask, prompting the airline to bar him from travelling, even as he moved the battle to the front tyre of the plane, blocking it from moving.

Until the clips of his shameful airport saga went viral, Wasiu, shortly after dodging the wing of the fast-moving plane in an ‘ariku yeri’ fashion, played the victim, claiming he was in the right, and threatening the owner of Value Jet airline, Kunle Soname, his fellow Ijebu tribesman, saying, “Soname will feel me.” Oniyeye. Ironically, the Wasiu, who, in a song, warns a mother about her child climbing the branchless pawpaw tree, is the one engaging in eregele in front of a plane.

Ayinde’s mentee, Kunle Alabi Pasuma, aka Lagata, likens ere ’gele to the dangerous play by a young boy, Ade, who recklessly rides his bicycle along the road where an egg seller displays her wares, upturning crates of eggs and incurring a huge debt. Pasuma, also known as Iba Wasi, stretches the recklessness metaphor a bit further by likening Ade’s tale to a drunk, who also convulses, saying it is a double whammy for a drunk to convulse, “Ade ma n sere ’gele, Ade n gun keke, nibiti iya eleyin joko…”

According to a leaked audio, Arabambi said he needed water ‘every second’, yes, ‘every second’, and I quote, “I need water. I am dehydrated, I constantly take water…I am a patient. I needed this water, every second, I needed it. You don’t want to see me shut down.”

To ensure fairness and clarity, I placed Wasiu’s claim of needing water ‘every second’ on the table of medical doctors. A medical doctor and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Adeoye Oyewole, said, “It is a lie. No dehydration would be on that level. If dehydration gets to that level, the patient would be placed on IV fluid to prevent renal failure. It is a lie.” Speaking on anonymous condition, another medical doctor, who owns a hospital in Lagos State, said, “If Wasiu claims to need water constantly, the question to ask is, ‘Does he not sleep at night?’ Does he not play for hours without drinking? If he needs water constantly, as he claims, such water must be ORS containing sugar and salt; it can’t be ordinary water. He’s lying.” Yet another medical doctor in the service of Osun State dismissed Wasiu’s claim. The doctor, nicknamed BJ, said, “Wasiu was just looking for an excuse. His claim lacks medical backing if subjected to medical analysis. He’s a joker.”

Hours after Wasiu’s blowup, Nigeria’s Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamo (SAN), acting like he was in a just and serious country, swiftly condemned the bad action of the bard as ‘totally unacceptable’, and placed him on a no-fly list, an action that drew a resounding applause from Nigerians. Following Keyamo’s action, a jittery Wasiu quickly clambered down his high horse and ate the humble pie, making a public apology in which he begged Tinubu, Keyamo, NCAA, and FAAN for forgiveness. But, in what he called an apology, the haughty way Olasunkanmi Ayinde described himself as an ambassador of the country in the past 50 years, highlights a refrain in his Talazo’84 album, ‘ko seni to le na mi lore, loju tani, Asiwaju Ahmeda o….’ Wasiu’s limited knowledge precluded him from knowing that nobody appoints themselves an ambassador – an authority needs to appoint someone an ambassador.

It appears the scales of utopia were to later fall off Keyamo’s eyes as he soon realised the minstrel in the eye of the storm was the canary ‘son’ of Tinubu, whose privileged position defies justice and defiles integrity. As an intelligent politician, Keyamo probably took a cue from the fate that befell some Lagos elders, who gathered under the aegis of the Governor’s Advisory Council, and advised Tinubu on the need not to meddle in the removal of Lagos State Speaker, Mudashiru Obasa, by Lagos State House of Assembly members. Bourdillon refused the counsel of the elders and facilitated the reinstatement of Mudashiru in a brazen manner, which echoes a line from Wasiu’s song, “E mo egbé e yín ke jòkó jé…”

To underscore Ayinde’s arrogance, I reproduce basically the viral phone conversation he had with Tinubu when he lost his mother early this year: How can you (Tinubu) be in power and I (Wasiu) will suffer tribulation. You (Tinubu) can’t be in power, and I (Wasiu) will suffer. That is impossible in the Nigeria that you (Tinubu) are president; the Nigeria that you (Tinubu) have in your hands.

At this point, it is pertinent to peep into the mind of Wasiu and psychoanalyse what constitutes the keys to success for him. This exercise will give an idea of why he behaves the way he does.

Giving what looks like a pep talk in a viral video, Wasiu enumerates three fundamental keys to success in life. According to him, these keys are ‘money, boldness and connection’. Simple! In the short video clip, Baba Sultan was actually referring to Baddo, Nigeria’s hip-hop sensation. For a man close to 70 to assert that ‘money, boldness and connection’ are his three key recipes for success, it goes to say that the power show at the Abuja airport reveals a man whose id dominates his ego and superego. If a man dominated by moral conscience were to give such a pep talk, he would list integrity, hard work, kindness, morality, patience, fairness, commitment and justice as keys to success.

When people describe Nigeria as a puppet on a string controlled by the powerful, the administrations of Muhammadu Buhari and Bola Tinubu readily come to mind, not forgetting those of Olusegun Obasanjo, Musa Ya’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan. Do you still remember the indicted cop, DCP Abba Kyari, who was heard on a recorded phone conversation negotiating access to the cocaine seized from two criminal suspects? Hahaha, that’s Naija for you.

A sane mind would think Kyari would have been brought to justice. But is Nigeria a sane country? Kyari’s indictment for drug crime came on the heels of his indictment by the US in the multinational fraud involving Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, currently serving an 11-year jail term for international wire fraud after he was arrested in Dubai by the FBI in 2020 and consequently sentenced.

The Buhari administration turned down the request by US authorities for the extradition of Kyari to face criminal charges, maintaining the disgraced cop was on trial in Nigeria, already. Subsequently, the court barred journalists from covering Kyari’s trial, which began in March 2022, saying the identities of witnesses needed to be protected. However, journalists have yet to resume covering the case even as Kyari has been released on bail for not escaping when the gates of the Kuje prison were flung open during an attack on July 5, 2022. Chibunna Patrick Omebi and Emeka Ezenwa, the suspects in possession of 21.25kg of cocaine, have since been released after serving their time in prison, but Kyari is still on trial in Naija. Hahahaha!

Kyari is a northerner like Buhari. Wasiu is a south-westerner like Tinubu. Ushie Rita Uguamaye, aka Raye, is from the south-south creek of Cross River State. She is the National Youth Service Corps member, whose certificate of national service is being withheld by the NYSC in controversial circumstances – after she described President Tinubu as a ‘terrible leader’ overseeing a worsening national economy.

For Raya to receive a pardon like Wasiu, she might need to wait till 2060 when her kinsman might emerge Nigerian president. By then, the foundation of the ethnic bias laid by Jonathan, built by Buhari and cemented by Tinubu would have long become an enduring law in the Nigerian Constitution.

But Raya is not as lucky as Comfort Emmanson, the Air Ibom female passenger, who let all hell loose in a fit of rage that saw her wig, bag, shoes, and all flying in different directions during a free-for-all with cabin crew members inside a plane that arrived in Lagos from Uyo. Unlike Raya, Wasiu and Emmanson have reportedly been appointed as ambassadors by various organisations, but a mass protest led by human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, to enforce Raya’s rights, was overlooked by Tinubu while Wasiu, his ‘son’, got his hand raised in triumph as if he just won a Grammy.

Emmanson should thank her stars that the timing of her fight coincided with the time when the overpampered ‘son’ of Tinubu was showing the world that this is the best time to be a Yoruba.

To be continued.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

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Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

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IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

“As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.