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OPINION: In Defence Of Our President [Monday Lines]

Published

1 year ago

August 19, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

How rich is Vice President Kashim Shettima? I ask because twice last week, the big man from Borno described President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Lion of Bourdillon, Jagaban Borgu, Asiwaju of Lagos, as “this poor man.” To prove that the president is poor, Shettima said since he knew him “he has been using only one wristwatch” and living in a house without swimming pools. And, as a wrap-up of his definition of “poor”, he described himself as a better dresser than Tinubu. “He has overcome all those odds to dress well,” he said of the president. May God save us from the spirit of ostentatious poverty.

In case you missed it, a recap: “The vice president spoke in Abuja last Thursday at the launch of a book. The event and the book itself were on universal education and what is needed to make it work. I didn’t read or hear the vice president speak on that topic. Instead of words on education, which his country needs desperately, it was the size of the president’s house and his table manner that tickled Nigeria’s number two. First, in defence of the government and the ravages of these lean times, he said the president once drank garri and munched groundnut –a perfect marker of poverty. “At the formative stage of the APC, we held a meeting in his house. They served us a variety of meals but he opted to take garri with groundnut for àaaaaàaàaaa.” Tinubu’s deputy said those words. He was sure that “posterity will be very kind to this poor man.” I wonder what members of his audience were thinking. There was no one bold enough there to tell him that garri had stopped being poor man’s food; and that groundnut was no longer selling for peanuts.

Vice President Shettima is a lover of books, an aficionado of the written word. But Albert Einstein warned us against the evil of reading too many books. First century CE Roman philosopher, Epictetus, spoke about reading right and thinking better. There are others with similar cautions. If you read too much, you will likely start seeing what ordinary eyes do not see. Photographs of the vice president in bookshops home and abroad dot the Internet’s landscape. The man reads; what he reads, I do not know. He sees also. We say Ení we’jú l’èru nbà – the clairvoyant sees stuffs and gets scared. But this man sees and enjoys his seeing the unusual. The vice president may not be like Shakespeare’s Cassius who “has a lean and hungry look”, but like Cassius, “he reads much…and looks through the deeds of men.” Unlike you and me, blind bats, Senator Shettima sees the inner man. He declared that he had “seen the soul of Bola Tinubu” and it is “a good soul.” Unlike the Roman senator who trusts not Caesar, our own senator-VP passionately begged us to invest our trust in his boss, Tinubu, and “rally around this poor man” – the president.

At a time in the 1980s, a very prominent oba described Chief M.K.O. Abiola as a man who needed prayers to be truly rich. And that was at the peak of Abiola’s glory as a billionaire. The oba was someone everyone knew had a deep pocket, an old money, and so, no one could say he talked rubbish. That is what I remembered when Shettima uttered those words about Tinubu being “poor”. He went further: “He (Tinubu) means well for the nation. He wants to live in a place of glory. He is not in power to engage in primitive capital accumulation. He is in power to leave landmarks in the sands of time. He is the most demonised politician in Nigeria. The first time I went to his house at Bourdillon, I was looking forward to seeing a mansion comparable to Buckingham Palace, with gardens, and swimming pools, but there was nothing special about that house. My house in Maiduguri is better than the house in Bourdillon.”

MOR FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Yoruba’s Spirit Of Resistance [Monday Lines (1)]

Where is our good old writer, Nkem Nwankwo, author of ‘My Mercedes is Bigger than Yours’? It is in that novel we encounter clansmen and women extolling “the luck of the clan” for having a son who has come home with a “mythical car.” It is in that story that one of them, Herdsman, is heard saying with much pride: “From today, we are the greatest. Any clan which claims they are equal with us, let them come out.” The author says “the speech received applause” (check page 41 of that novel). Death is wicked – and wasteful. If death hadn’t taken Nwankwo, the storyteller, perhaps Shettima would have inspired him to give us another bestseller- ‘My Manson is Mightier than Yours.’ This is a good time to be alive.

A child’s name is his star; his culmination (orúko omo níí ro’mo). ‘Tinubu’ should not have occurred in the same sentence with ‘poor’. Indeed, the vice president and all who do not know should know today that the name ‘Tinubu’ is the shortened form of “Òsun-ti-inú-ibu-wá (Osun goddess has come from the depths of the seas)”. That is not my invention; it is the very original truth as documented in history books. The deity who birthed that name is never associated with poverty and a lack of any good thing of life. In fact, it is to the bosom of that goddess of fecundity that people in need of help go for succour. And they get their hearts’ desire. So, let no one again describe this Tinubu as poor. The gods will be angry.

The president is my brother, he shall not want. We won’t allow anyone, including the vice president, to point at him a finger that suggests poverty. Where we come from, being poor is being cursed; we pray fervently against wretchedness; we bind the spirit of poverty. A war that is won shall never raise its head again. Poverty is an affliction which our man defeated a long time ago. Even if our brother is not picking our calls, we his people won’t ever wish him evil. Never.

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But why did the vice president veer off and go on that voyage? Will Tinubu being poor educate the uneducable and the uneducated? Will it give food to the hungry and make the sick well? And, how rich really is this Shettima to whom our wealthy Tinubu is a poor man, and who boasted that his far northern house is “better” than Bourdillon’s street-to-beach mansion in Lagos? Even the president’s gardener would laugh at that comparison. In the best of times, Buckingham Palace, if built in Shettima’s Maiduguri, won’t be worth half a plot in Tinubu’s Bourdillon Street.

Someone should just not provoke our president’s masquerade to dance out of the grove with all the majesty of his elegance. If the president has not read his deputy’s eulogy, I appeal to my brothers in charge of his media to cover it with palm fronds of forgetfulness. The president must not show the size of his weight, the height of his full length and the hues that are his colour. But, even if he reads the words, I am sure Tinubu is too seasoned to be provoked into wearing gold bars as wristwatches. He would not be president of Nigeria if he was just a wealthy pauper with a mansion in the richest part of Lagos. When a child is smart, our people say ‘o mo way’. Our president is president because he is rich in ways and in means.

Sir H. Rider Haggard KBE (1856-1925) was an English writer who authored many adventure fiction romance novels. He wrote ‘King Solomon’s Mines’ and its sequel, ‘Allan Quatermain’; he wrote ‘Morning Star’; he wrote ‘She’; he wrote ‘Queen Sheba’s Ring’; he wrote ‘Finished’ and fifty other novels. At a time, he told us to take things easy because ultimately “time eats up the works of man.” Sir Haggard’s adventure stories are as money-and-women-themed as the adventures of our big men here. His characters are as varied in character as the characters you find in our politics here. These include the urbane prince, Umbopa, and the ugly witchy hag, Gagool. I am interested in his Umslopogaas, king of the wolves – a man he describes as “full grown, fierce and keen”. The one who would be our president here and ride the waves would be that character who sees “by night as well as by day”. In Haggard’s voice, I say Bola Tinubu is president because, like Umslopogaas, he is “fleet of foot”, and of “valour unequalled”. Such men can’t be poor; their wealth is denominated in gold and diamond mines – not in bars, not in rings and wristwatches.

The man who is our president is our president because he is smart and generous with his money. People who are around him or who have been ‘fortunate’ to be in his presence say he does not know what tribal mark the circumciser put on naira and dollar bills. They say he has no patience to check the mien of all currencies of value before spending them. They say you don’t go into his den of dough sobbing and come out still teary. They say the man’s nimble needle sutures all tears. But, they add that he is not a stupid spender. They say he is strategic in spraying his gold coins and in throwing his diamond bars. They say he gives in measures that won’t make him lose the receiver and that won’t swat his own desires. Our late friend, Yinka Odumakin, once told a story: A man from ‘the other side’ sneaked into Bourdillon Road with a valuable piece of information. The man was well ‘appreciated’ but our friend said he felt the ‘appreciation’ was not big enough; he suggested a little more. “No”, the wise spender told his adviser, “if he gets more than that, he won’t come back.” Wisdom!

One more thing: I have read haters also making a fuss around the president’s new Airbus A330 and his latest wonder-on-wheels – a Cadillac Escalade. They are speculating on the costs. What is money? Money is nothing! Does it really matter that a woman we married in this season of famine is moulding bricks and blocks with pounded yam? (Ìyàwó tí a fé l’ósù agà t’ón f’iyán mo’lé). If the president of Nigeria does not spend Nigeria’s money, who else will? When a commission of inquiry in 1956 said Adegoke Adelabu spent money of IDC (Ibadan District Council), his appreciative people poured into the street with songs that endorsed whatever he did with their money: “Adegoke omo Adelabu / Máa k’ówó wa ná/ Ìgunnu l’ó ni Tápà/ Tápà l’ó nì’gunnu; Máa k’ówó wa ná (Adegoke, son of Adelabu/Spend our money/Igunnu owns Tapa; /Tapa belongs to Igunnu/Spend our money…).” It is not the fault of Tinubu’s haters. I blame the president for being too soft with everything, including our purse. An ancient oba who was that soft was rebuked by his courtiers with something that sounded like: “You are at fault/ You who married their wives and did not marry their mothers;/ You are to blame.” I blame the president. He should spend our money like a rich man that he is. He should not mind what haters and enemies say. Their anger is induced by envy; it is a fight that cannot be resolved by the passage of time (Ìjà ìlara ni, kò lè tán bòrò). Ultimately, all heads shall bow; all knees shall bend. At the end of this president’s two thousand seasons, we will thank him and praise him — and worship him.

News

Nigerian Engineers applaud Gov. Mohammed’s $5bn Investment Deals

Published

23 minutes ago

October 12, 2025

Editor

The Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE), Bauchi state chapter has commended Gov. Bala Mohammed for organising the maiden international investment summit that recorded a 5 billion Dollars investment deal in the state.

It could be recalled that Prof. Murtala Sagagi, Chairman of the Summit Planning Committee, disclosed at the end of the summit that it recorded over 5 billion Dollars investment deals and 47 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) signed.

He said that the agreements signed covered agriculture, solid minerals, power, infrastructure, and ICT sectors, adding that one of the MoUs translated into a concrete investment deal worth 1 billion dollars, which would become operational before the end of 2025.

Speaking with newsmen on Sunday, Engr. Abdulkarim Hassan, Chairman, NSE, Bauchi state chapter, congratulated the state government for organizing and the successful completion of the economic and investment summit.

According to him, the summit has also showcased Nigerian engineers’ professional prowess to the world as the newly constructed International Conference Centre (ICC) where the summit was held was built by a Nigerian construction company.

He expressed confidence in the governor for engaging Nigerian engineers to do the job, saying “the feeling is mutual because if he didn’t have confidence in us, he would have engaged foreign engineers to do the work.

“We extend our profound
congratulations to the governor on the successful completion of the Bauchi
Investment Summit.

“This summit was not merely an event, it was a clear demonstration of his visionary leadership and unwavering commitment to transforming Bauchi State into a prime destination for investment.

“The quality of delegates, the insightful discussions, and the tangible commitments secured during the summit have set a new benchmark for economic engagement in the North-East and other
regions in Nigeria.

“As professional engineers, we were particularly encouraged by the strong emphasis placed on infrastructure, industrialisation, and technological development, which are key pillars that will
drive sustainable growth,” he said.

Hassan added that the success of the summit has laid a robust foundation for attracting the capital necessary to execute the ambitious infrastructural projects required for the state’s development.

He expressed the readiness of the NSE, Bauchi branch to partner with the state government by offering its professional expertise and technical support to ensure that the outcomes and MoUs from the summit translated into sustainable reality for the people of Bauchi State.

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OPINION: Oshiomhole In A Fight Between The Elephant And The Pit

Published

11 hours ago

October 12, 2025

Editor

By Tony Erha

‘Okuo imose”, “no fight is attractive” – all fight is ugly, according to the Edo people. If a fight doesn’t pluck the teeth it would drip the noise of red blood. That is why pundits were apprehensive and had to caution Dangote Refinery and the Petrol and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) to a sound reasoning, over the sack of 800 of its workers by Dangote, which was followed by a strike action that was later called-off. The fisticuff was intensified as the National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG), joined the spat by supporting PENGASSAN.

Like the American freestyle wrestling, where partakers fight with anything they lay their hands upon, a melee, a-free-for-all in which no one seems to know the real opponents. The fallout of the Dangote and PENGASSAN fight has unsettled Nigerians. The Benins would say “ama re fi ekpa arie gb’ ihue”; “the fisticuffs hadn’t started when the nose bled blood”. For the hapless consumer public is still at the mercy of the raging feud after the settlement. Indeed, the grass suffered where two elephants fought dirty. Buyers of Dangote products are still groaning under a surge of cooking gas price, from about N1,000 to N3,200 per kg.

Dangote Refinery’s kingpin, Aliko Dangote, who has huge investment monies flowing in his veins, vowed to a showdown with the PENGASSAN and NUPENG. Do not take my calmness for cowardice; Aliko seemed to have said, flinging his hat into the ring. “…There is no fight I have never won…” he boasted, whereas he actually won several and lost some, in the monopoly business with fellow competitors.

It was a rivalry fight between the Elephant and the Pit, when the Elephant arrogates to being the largest land animal; and the Pit boastful he is the hugest depth in the ground. The Pit threatens to swallow the Elephant and the Elephant determined to cover up the Pit. Finally on the encounter, the Pit that swallows the Elephant wouldn’t swallow more animals, nor will the Elephant live to swallow another pit.

In wrestling and boxing of exchange of punches and slams, America’s loquacious president and all-time wrestling and boxing promoter, Donald Trump, is well-known. One of the memorable grim and tricky fights of the tempest Trump was when he dragged his fellow promoter from the ringside to the dais, and beckoned on others to instantly shave his head, to the wild delight of wrestling fans across the globe. Realising that he had truly missed out from his rasmatazz in promoting competitive boxing and wrestling, an intoxicating Trump had recently arranged for a cage-wrestling showdown to mark one of his official events in a US presidential venue. When a lion king thirsts for the blood and flesh of prey, as he no longer go hunting, he claws to his own tongue to a consolatory leak of his own blood to quench his lust for blood.

Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, Nigeria’s former labour leader and ex-governor of Edo State, was dragged into the fight with his comment that PEGASSAN erred declaring a strike action without a second thought for the majority poor, who were bound to suffer the strike’s consequences. PENGASSAN and NUPENG thereby saw Oshiomhole as entering the fight arena as in ‘Enter the Dragon’, an epic film in which Chuck Norris; a famous kickboxer sorted it out with Bruce Lee, the late iconic martial artiste. It was somewhat absurd for NUPENG to point menacingly at Oshiomhole, declaring him a ‘persona non grata’ and placed a ban on him from all NUPENG’s activities, whereas the oil union was only one amongst the over 41 affiliate unions that constituted his command of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC), with him as its two term president.

Now, Oshiomhole seems better placed having resumed his pro-people stand, with his current valuable contributions to it in the Senate’s chamber. But NUPENG is irritated that one of their own could attempt to stop the mongoose from killing the snakes that had all along been killed for gains and superiority sakes. Do the organised labour trust Oshiomhole, vice versa? It’s likened to the crusading music of the late musician Joseph Osayomore; “Who know man naim dey kill man” (one’s enemy is his friend). Although Oshiomhole left active labour activism about two decades ago, he’s probably the same ‘adamant Adams’ who knows the strength and pitfalls of regimental unionism, where men in khaki are soldier ants.

Why will NUPENG, led by William Akporeha, its president, be so unfair banning their former leader from speaking in their public fora, knowing that speaking in the function of the organized labour was the most effective pills he takes to get well?

Oshiomhole may not be a ringside promoter to Dangote and his mercantile, in the fight-to-finish with the PENGASSAN and NUPENG warlords, as he was accused of, nor for a ravaging workers union, than for a weary public that is a usual butt of undue strikes by insensitive workers’ and endless monopoly by businesses. A suspicious PENGASSAN and NUPENG, even though are rightly condemned for anti-people stand, by their inept strike, might have made a valid point that leaders, whose words sometimes (if not often) conflict with the good examples they preach, set the bad example for others to follow.

In a game of survival, like the odd one currently faced by the Super Eagles, in their bid to qualify for the world cup, a Gernot Roy, Nigeria’s former coach, who was booted out, and now leading the national team of the Republic of Benin, would open Nigeria’s football secrets to his newest side, as NUPENG also think their leaders are to Dangote. And is an irony that Gernot Roy is a decider of the fate of Nigeria, in the Super Eagles final match with the Benin team for the world cup carnival.

Like Trump, Oshiomhole is ‘very slippery’ as he has in common a showmanship, raw courage and the resilience of a marathoner. Oshiomhole is ‘a giant’ who’s physical and determined. Sufuyan Ojeifo, a prolific writer and journalist, once called him ‘dynamite that comes in pieces’; while I add ‘dynamite that turns a mass into pieces’. For a man who trains so rigorously, and does drills which most young men can hardly do, I was terrified when Oshiomhole, unlike a pugilist promoter in a prematch talk-show, angrily warned Reuben Abati, the Arise TV presenter, that he would punch him to puff-puff’ (swollen pie), with a black-eye and calluses, for slandering him.

If the fight between the Dangote petroleum outfit and the oil unions was in the interest of the public, and not for their selfish interests, all wouldn’t be bothered. Union workers usually orchestrate strike actions, only when it comes to their welfare, whilst staple oil derivative products are still beyond reach , notwithstanding that Nigeria is one of the leading oil producing countries of the world, that are starved of its products.

News

Edo: Council Boss Attacked During Traffic Intervention At MUYI Line

Published

12 hours ago

October 12, 2025

Editor

The acting chairman of Egor Local Government Council, Edo State, Hon. Osaro Eribo, was reportedly attacked by thugs suspected of MUYI Line Transport Company while personally leading the council’s traffic enforcement operation along the Uselu-Lagos Road.

Eribo said the assault occurred as he sought to address complaints about indiscriminate parking and road obstruction by MUYI Line.

According to him, on several occasions, the council had serviced MUYI Line notices to desist from the indiscriminate parking and obstruction of the highway, but refused to comply with the instruction.

He said, “On assumption of office, I discovered that each time I’m going to the office there is always serious traffic gridlock caused by the MUYI Line. So I decided to visit the transport company, repeatedly meeting with the manager, who walked out on us on our last visit and suddenly some hoodlums there attacked us.

“I had to place a call to the Chief of Staff to the governor who detailed additional security personnel from Government House, that made the situation not to escalate further,” Eribo said.

“After the thugs were apprehended, we had asked the management of the transport company to come to the council to sign an undertaking, after several appeals from well meaning individuals. I’m surprised that the same people are the ones now quick to run to social media misrepresenting the situation.”

“We even learnt that previous administrations have had their buses confiscated at a point over this same traffic obstruction,” he added.

He dismissed claims that the operation was intended to harass transport operators or targeted at MUYI Line.

“Our intervention was purely about public safety. We cannot fold our arms while lives are being put at risk daily. This is what MUYI Line is currently doing. So, it was never a witch-hunt or an attempt to embarrass anyone,” Eribo said.

The council boss explained that the traffic operation was part of a broader initiative to keep major roads within Egor safe, accessible, and orderly.

“We are determined to make driving in Egor stress-free and accident-free. Every action we take is guided by the need to protect residents and motorists,” he added.

Eribo also clarified that neither MUYI Line nor Mouka Foam were singled out of malice.

“We respect them as employers of labour and contributors to the local economy.

“Our engagement is about partnership, not confrontation,” he said, noting that discussions with both companies are ongoing to find workable solutions.

He urged residents to ignore false reports circulating online.

“Governance sometimes requires tough decisions for the greater good. Our only aim is a cleaner, safer, and more orderly Egor,” Eribo concluded.

Calls to the proprietor of MUYI Line Transport Company for a reaction were not picked, neither were messages sent to his WhatsApp were responded to.