News

OPINION: Issues In Adenuga’s ‘Death’ Rumour

Published

7 months ago

November 25, 2024

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

There is the legend of a newspaper journalist who had an issue with his uncle, an oba in present-day Osun State, and threatened the king with death. The man needed a favour; the oba closed his eyes to the man’s demand. “Kabiyesi, you will die,” he reportedly informed the oba. “Iku boo?” Everyone who heard him gasped and upbraided this man for the sacrilege of speaking ill to a king in the palace. They thought his beer and booze had again taken hold of him. In response to demands of apology, the man stormed out of the palace, and back to his base in Lagos.

We say a tree does not fall in the forest and kill someone at home. I used to believe that proverb would be true at all times until I heard how this man carried out the regicide he promised. He got to Lagos and submitted a report to his editor that his uncle, the oba, had joined his ancestors. Did the editor pass the story for publication? Well, who else could be the best source and authority on the life and times of a king if not his own kin, the king’s man himself? And so, an abnormal tree that fell in Lagos killed the oba at home. The king read his own obituary, courtesy of his own nephew who worked in faraway Lagos.

The event happened in the 1970s, so we were told in the 1990s. And we were warned as newsmen never to build our truth on a foundation laid by only one source. The man got the fake news of the oba published and stood by it. We couldn’t really get hold of the publication but we were told the man’s name. When the second republic came with its opportunities, the man moved to Ibadan. He had to. His ways had made the waters of Lagos too shallow for his shark to swim.

Our man edited an ephemeral newspaper for some politicians in Ibadan in the early 1980s. Then he spiced it with some other extra journalism stuff. I wished he were alive now for me to ask him why he ‘killed’ the oba. But if we did not see what his Ajantala did in the bush, we saw the man’s face as he joined in shredding icons on the streets of Ibadan on days when the metropolis lived its reputation. What reputation? I have beside me here a copy of Ruth Watsons ‘Civil Disorder is the Disease of Ibadan’. Everyone came to this world with a disease which defines their existence. The end came twenty-something years ago for the man who used his pen to kill his uncle, the king. It was not a nice end.

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

The world was crazy 50 years ago when a newspaper was deployed to ‘kill’ a monarch. It is crazier now with social media and its unhinged tendencies. I remembered the death story of the undead king when some unknown persons with unknown motives used social media to announce the death of Globacom chairman, Dr. Mike Adenuga, Tuesday last week. I also remembered the Zik-is-dead hoax of 1989. Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was in his study in November 1989 working on book manuscripts when he read his own obituary complete with a list of a committee to bury him. It was crazy. One thing is clear, the one who wishes one dead is not a friend. A death wish whether oral or written is an enemy action.

The social media can be rumour pro-max. Rumour, most times, comes false and in unfriendly costumes. While its currency is virality, it easily spins out of the spinner’s control. Robert H. Knapp in his ‘A Psychology of Rumour’ (1944) avers that “if leaflets, newspapers or radio broadcasts are likened to bullets, then rumour must be likened to a torpedo, for, once launched, it travels of its own power.” Social media scholars have at various times raised the alarm that false information is a threat to modern society. Lt Col. Jarred Prier of the United States Airforce in 2017 published a seminal piece that demonstrated how social media had become a tool for all kinds of ‘war’. In his ‘Commanding the Trends: Social Media as Information Warfare’, he mentioned “malicious users” and “malicious actors” creating malicious trends and manipulating internet platforms to spread negative messages, most times fake news. And, fake news he defined as “propaganda composed of false story disguised as news…”

Death rumours rarely have an identifiable source. The one about the Globacom chairman did not appear to have any. What it had were internet rats in desperate grab of trends. Whoever started the fire disappeared soon after lighting the match. I got calls; the first from a colleague in the United Kingdom; another from Benin, yet another from my office in Ibadan. A friend sent the screenshot of a Facebook version of the vile announcement. Everyone who contacted me sounded alarmed and apprehensive. But, why would they be calling me for a confirmation of bad news? Who do we call – or text? My friends suggested names. First a text to a certain number. “Good evening, sir”. No immediate response. Then I placed a call. A laugh; the line went dead. Then a response came in one minute: “Chairman is fine…” That was a text message from the man I called; we call him Bob Dee (Chief Dele Momodu). Two other messages of reassurance soon followed from that channel. Then, the newsroom went calm, and the same social media that created the topic of death scrambled to quench the fire. “Are rumours just rumours?” Rumour theorists, Heng Chen, Yang K. Lu and Wing Suen, once asked themselves. And they answered, yes. They also noted that rumours (that are not rooted in truth) “often disappear quickly without a trace.” I read all that in their ‘The Power of Whispers: A Theory of Rumour’.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: The Shuffle In Abuja [Monday Lines]

I asked one of my callers why he sounded so troubled by the death rumour. He told me what I already knew: You remember that old song by Juju music commander, Ebenezer Obey? Anyone who knows the evil ways of darkness will not wish the moon bad (Èdá tó mò’se òkùnkùn, kó má mà d’Ósùpá l’óró) And, I think I heard a new one from Obey on Friday. He weighed in with a new song, using his music to list the benefits of the moon and why its soft, golden glow must continue to drape the night in ethereal light. It fits this hour. There is so much darkness here, in the public space and in the space we call private. That was why as children, we got sad whenever the full moon was seen reducing in size and getting far gone in distance.

Why were my friends almost hysterical at the virality of Adenuga’s death rumour? I can tell why. You know how many people work in that man’s businesses – telecoms, oil (downstream, upstream, midstream), banking, construction etc? Some trees singularly make a forest. This is one of them – one of the reasons Nigeria is not completely an economic arid zone. Read Martin Williams’s ‘When the Sahara Was Green’ (2021). The Sahara desert was once lush with greenery. It became what it is today because of unconscionable humans, agents of eco destruction. Malicious bush burning joined hands with other vices to tip the land’s moisture balance. Collectively, they degraded the green that made that stretch to breathe. The result is what the Arabs saw and gave the label ‘sahra’ – the meaning of that word is ‘wilderness’. Now, apply that to our economic situation and be alarmed. Foliage is the canopy of the forest. When you remove trees that make forest forest, the forest dies. That is why we say this China shop should not be heady goats’ playground. Mortar, we can roll; pot, we mustn’t. If you roll a pot like you do pounded yam’s mortar, the master potter will roar in angers of lightning and thunder.

When someone of value is pronounced dead and they refuse to die, the Yoruba have a name for such a hard-to-crack nut. They are called Kokumo (This-is-no-longer-dead). Such are moulded into Ìkòkò ribiti (well-rounded pot); they are, in carefulness, protected from wanton eyes of malice. Adenuga’s Conoil struck gold in 1991, the first indigenous oil company to achieve that feat. His Globacom is also the first and has remained the only wholly indigenous telecoms company in Nigeria. The fact of these businesses coming first serves not just the owner; it serves more the country. It has served as a bulwark against the exploitation of foreign waves. That is why we say the man behind it must live and why we say “no time to check time” to his deathwishers. They are a dead horse. Who are they, anyway? And why are they angry?

The invidious, false news of a top entrepreneur’s death should interest the state and its operatives. Howard Wolk, co-author of ‘Launchpad Republic: America’s Entrepreneurial Edge and Why It Matters’ said in a December 2022 interview with Forbes magazine that America is great because it consciously nurtures its businesses and protects their owners even from the state itself. “We limit the ability of incumbents to stifle entrepreneurs,” he declared with an air of pride. Here, the challenge is not a threat of state stifling, it is the menace of bad belle, threats from fake news and the odious bile of idle envy.

His Wikipedia page speaks to where he is coming from: “Adenuga made his first million in 1979, at age 26, selling lace and distributing soft drinks. In 1990, he received an oil drilling licence, and in 1991, his Consolidated Oil struck oil in the shallow waters of Southwestern Ondo State, making it the first indigenous oil company to do so in commercial quantity.” Then, he branched off into telecommunications. He got a conditional GSM licence in 1999. It was revoked. But where he comes from, a man is not allowed to lie supine because a stupid horse flings them off. He must get up and mount the horse again. Which is what the man did. He joined the fray again. He won and received a licence when the government held another GSM auction in 2003. Then the story of telephony changed in Nigeria – for the better, forever.

Nigeria should not be a graveyard of businessmen and their businesses. Great businesses make great economies. A Nigeria without four-star businesses cannot have a five-star leadership. The world has no seat for the poor. We have an environment that is toxic enough for entrepreneurs, we should not add for them rumours of ill-timed setting of their radiant sun. We have lately seen, not one, not two, very big entrepreneurs having issues just for giving Nigeria what Nigeria desperately needed. Now, it is Adenuga. How does that encourage economic growth? And a country and its leadership are as great as their frontline businesses. We see this in America’s political and financial systems which empower entrepreneurs to create and invest capital and compete without the fear of knives of envy being driven into their backs.

We enjoy the ‘rebellion’ of Adenuga’s Glo; it serves our individual and national interests. There is something about that model in the Forbes interview I cited earlier: Howard Wolk said “entrepreneurship is a rebellious act” and that the United States is great because its political and judicial systems encourage that rebellion while spurring the rebellious to rise and seize new opportunities. His claim is correct. The more unconventional a business is, the more it fires up a country’s creative energy. Globacom did this when it came in 2003 and ruptured the tendons of predatory competition it met on the turf. Nigerians enjoyed that patriotic recalcitrance from Glo. They still enjoy it. That is why millions of them are wedded to that network as a duty to Nigeria. And they will remain so even though the house may be on fire and robbers may be on the prowl (Bí ilé ńjó, b’olè ńjà).

News

Obi Berates Tinubu For ‘Ignoring’ Benue, Says No Value For Human Lives

Published

36 minutes ago

June 16, 2025

Editor

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, Peter Obi, has criticised President Bola Tinubu for lack of “leadership empathy” over the recent killing of over 50 people in Benue State, as well as the recent flooding in Niger State.

In a post on his X handle on Monday, Obi wondered why there were no presidential visits to Benue and Niger states despite the loss of lives in both incidents.

The former governor of Anambra State blamed this on a lack of competence, capacity, character and compassion on the part of the Nigerian leader.

In contrast, he gave an example of how both Indian and South African leaders were quick to visit the scene of a plane crash and flooding in their respective countries, saying that was leadership with compassion.

“Sadly, the evidence is right before our eyes. Recently, we witnessed severe flooding in Niger State that claimed nearly 200 lives, with many still missing. Yet, not even a single presidential visit, this, in a nation where the scene of the tragedy is less than an hour away by helicopter.

“Just days ago, over 200 Nigerians, innocent men, women, children, and even soldiers, were massacred in Benue State. Again, no presidential visit. No physical presence at the scenes of pain. No genuine national mourning. No leadership face to comfort the grieving or give hope to the people.

“Yet, we have seen what true leadership looks like elsewhere: In India, after a plane crash killed nearly 200 people, the Prime Minister was physically at the scene within hours.

“In South Africa, when floods claimed 78 lives, the president went personally to the affected communities, stood with them, and took responsibility.

“That is leadership with compassion. That is leadership that understands the value of human life. But here in Nigeria, we have normalised leadership without empathy, without accountability, and without a human face.

“That is why I insist: Nigeria does not just need another president; Nigeria needs a leader, a leader with competence, capacity, character, and compassion. Until we choose leaders on these principles, the cycle of pain will only continue,” Obi’s post read.

Obi also warned that Nigeria will keep facing failed leadership if citizens continue to vote along tribal lines rather than based on competence and capacity.

He maintained that where competence, capacity, character and compassion are non-existent, there is no magic one can do to improve the leadership of any nation.

“Leadership of a nation is such that it’s either succeeding or failing, none can be hidden. There are critical areas of leadership that must exist for a nation to move forward, and these are summed up in four Cs: Competence, Capacity, Character and Compassion. Where these four are non-existent, there is no magic you can do.

“It’s in this line that I have always maintained that we must move away from voting based on tribe and religion, and begin to vote for people with competence, capacity, character, and compassion, because we have all seen, painfully, what leadership without these qualities has done to our country.” Further emphasising the importance of the aforementioned qualities, Obi stressed that Nigeria today needs a leader who understands the issues, who has the knowledge, experience, and clear ideas to solve them.

“Competence because Nigeria today needs a leader who understands the issues, who has the knowledge, experience, and clear ideas to solve them. Capacity because it is not a ceremonial position; it requires strength, stamina, and the mental energy to confront our complex challenges.

“And above all, leadership must be rooted in character and integrity because without integrity, public trust collapses, corruption thrives, and selfishness takes over. But perhaps most importantly, we need compassion, because when a leader lacks compassion, human lives are treated as statistics, and suffering is ignored,” Obi added.

News

Hon. Andrew Uzamere: Redefining Legislative Representation

Published

5 hours ago

June 16, 2025

Editor

By Anthony Osazuwa

Two years ago, Hon. Andrew Uzamere stepped into the Edo State House of Assembly as the representative of Ovia North East Constituency II.

Today, as we reflect on his journey so far, it is evident that he has brought a refreshing approach to legislative representation — one rooted in accessibility, responsiveness, and impact.

In the Edo state House of Assembly, Hon. Uzamere has consistently raised his voice for policies and legislation that benefit not only his constituency but the entire state. His participation in debates and sponsorship of motions reflect his deep commitment to education, security, youth empowerment, and community development. But beyond the chambers, it is his grassroots-driven leadership that truly distinguishes him.

From school renovations to clean water access, the evidence of his work is visible across the constituency. He facilitated the renovation of Eweka Primary School in Obagie-Uwaifiokun community and oversaw the provision of boreholes in underserved areas like Gelegele, Ite, and Iguzama — demonstrating his focus on basic yet life-changing amenities.

Education, a key pillar of his agenda, has received notable attention. He paid WAEC fees for over 500 indigent students in public schools, ensuring that no child is left behind due to financial hardship. In addition, through regular empowerment programs, hundreds of constituents — particularly women and young people — have received tools, training, and start-up support, paving the way for self-reliance and economic growth at the local level.

Despite the usual political speculation that comes with public office, Hon. Uzamere has remained unwavering in his commitment to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — the party through which he earned the mandate to serve. He has repeatedly affirmed his loyalty to the party and its ideals, choosing to stay focused on delivering democratic dividends rather than being distracted by political noise.

Perhaps most commendable is his consistent presence among the people. Through town halls, constituency meetings, and day-to-day interactions, Hon. Uzamere has proven that representation is not about occupying a seat, but about staying connected to the people’s concerns and working every day to address them.

As he marks his second year in office, it is clear that Hon. Andrew Uzamere is not just holding a political position — he is redefining what it means to represent a people. With two more years ahead in his current tenure, the constituents of Ovia North East Constituency II have every reason to believe that even greater achievements lie ahead.

Here are some of the lists of projects embarked upon by Hon. Andrew Edobor Uzamere that have earned him the name, Mr. Projects

WATER PROJECTS – Boreholes with Generators
Provision of motorized boreholes and generating sets across communities:

1. Gelegele Community – Oduna Ward (Completed)
2.Ekewan-Waterside – Oduna Ward (Completed)
3.Iboro Community – Oduna Ward (Completed)
4.Ugbineh-Urhobo Camp – Oduna Ward (Completed)
5. Ite Community – Utoka Ward (Completed)
6.Iguzama Community – Iguoshodin Ward (Completed)
7.Igueze Community – Okada East Ward (Completed)
8.Egbeta Community – Uhen Ward (Completed)
9.Iguomo Community – Okada West Ward (Completed)
10.Okada Community – Okada West Ward (Ongoing)
11.Oduna Community – Oduna Ward (Ongoing)
12.Utese Community – Uhen Ward (Ongoing)
13.Olumoye Community – Uhen Ward (Ongoing)
14.Ugbuwe Community – Uhen Ward (Ongoing)

EDUCATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS
Rebuilding schools, markets, and classrooms for a better tomorrow:

Igo Community Market – Oghede Ward (Completed)

1 Block of 6 Classrooms – Emaba Primary School, Iguoshodin-Ngbemaba
→ With furniture, headmistress office and toilets (Completed)

2 Blocks of 9 Classrooms – Oghede Secondary School
→ With furniture, principal’s office & toilets (Completed)

1 Block of 6 Classrooms – Primary School, Obagie-Uwaifiokun
→ With furniture, headmaster’s office & toilets (Ongoing)

Reconstruction of 3-Classroom Block – Uhen Mixed Secondary School, Uhen Ward (Ongoing)

EDUCATION SUPPORT – Scholarship Scheme
WAEC/NECO Scholarship Programme

→ Over 200 indigent students in public secondary schools across the constituency (Completed)

SOCIAL INTERVENTIONS – End-of-Year Palliatives
Annual End-of-Year Palliatives (Since 2023)
→Distribution of bags of rice and at least 1 cow per ward across:
▪️ Oduna Ward
▪️ Utoka Ward
▪️ Iguoshodin Ward
▪️ Okada East Ward
▪️ Okada West Ward
▪️ Uhen Ward
▪️ Oghede Ward

Aimed at supporting families during the festive season (Ongoing annually)

PROJECT SUMMARY
14 Borehole Projects (9 Completed, 5 Ongoing)
5 Education & Market Projects (3 Completed, 2 Ongoing)
Scholarship Scheme (200+ Students Sponsored – Completed)
Palliatives Distributed Across All 7 Wards

Click links below to watch:

News

OPINION: Death Of A Queen

Published

6 hours ago

June 16, 2025

Editor

By Lasisi Olagunju

“There is a kind of price for life,” says Charles A. Curran, and that price, he says, “moves in the direction of death.” Death blows no trumpet but we all know it is coming. It is the unalterable final part of the process of life. Some of us spend our entire life worrying about death; some simply ignore it; some mortally fear it; some calmly look forward to it. Whichever you and I choose, the final portion is that we all have to die one way or the other. It is destiny at work.

In the afternoon of Thursday last week, I was with the Orangun of Oke Ila, Oba Adedokun Abolarin, who lost his wife, Olori Solape Christianah Abolarin, exactly one week today. She was 51 years old.

I knew her; she was my wife’s friend and colleague in the civil service of Osun State. Her death has made us poorer here. If anyone had asked the dead what she thought was next in her life, she would probably have said she looked forward to becoming a permanent secretary. Her diligence at work was preparing her for the top job. For her, death was too far-fetched to consider. She had so much ahead, and a lot in her plate to attend to. But she died. We all mourn her untimely passage.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: [OPINION] Sick Nation Debate: APC Vs ADC

“We care, God cures” is a bold inscription on the wall of a popular hospital in Ibadan. A very sensible thing for every person and physician to say is in that message. No matter the degree of care, people die, some young, some old. Probe certain ailments; for women, for instance, probe fibroids: “The exact cause is unknown” is what comes up. Modern medicine and its prophets get confounded now and then despite humanity’s progress across centuries. That is why since the beginning of creation, women anatomy and freak deaths appear together, constantly holding hands. German physician, Eucharius Roesslin (1470-1526) told his readers in 1513 that “very many (are) the perils, dangers, and throngs which chance to women…” Read about him and why he wrote his ‘Der Rosengarten’ (The Rose Garden), later translated to ‘The Birth of Mankind’.

The death of our king’s wife reminds the mindful of a hugely cerebral editor, columnist and Queen of Letters, MEE (May Ellen Ezekiel). Married to Richard Mofe Damijo, MEE died after a fibroid surgery on 23 March, 1996 in the best hospital of her day in Lagos. She was aged 40. The uterine course (and cause) of her transition was identical with this exit in Osun State. The stabbing pains of the whys, till eternity, rack the brain.

Amidst a torrent of personal grief and familial lamentations, Oba Abolarin reeled out the pearls of his companionship with the departed Olori: “Many of the things people praise in me, she was the architect. Everyone who was my person was accepted by her as her person. She was mother to all the boys and girls in our college. She made our home cosy for orphans. She was from Igbeti in Oyo State, she married me and became completely Oke Ila and Osun State …” The king’s men and women in attendance nodded in agreement.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Ngugi, Where Is The Light?

The grieving oba went on and on punctuating prayers from visitors and friends with tales of the great bond he shared with the departed. Hearing him and looking at the histrionics that accompanied what he was saying reminded me of a passage on intimacy, death, and grief: “…with a person’s death and our experiences of grief comes…the clearest view of what that person and relationship have meant to us in life” (Brian tie Vries in ‘Grief: Intimacy’s Reflection’).

When a loved one dies, everyone periodically pauses and queries their efforts. We’ve all lost persons whose death left us to wonder if we did enough to keep them around. I ask myself till tomorrow if I put in everything I should to keep my parents alive despite their very old age. With the deceased’s immediate younger sister beside him retelling, amid sobs, the last-moment stories, I heard Oba Abolarin asking himself repeatedly what he ought to do which he did not do. “I am a finicky person, so what happened?” He asked no one in particular.

Those who experienced it would swear that a spouse’s death is a life-altering experience. They say it is a tough one. I read in Phyllis R. Silverman’s ‘Widowhood and Preventive Intervention’ that during courtship, people commonly rehearse for marriage, but “no similar rituals prepare the individual for the inevitable termination of the marriage when one of the partners will die.”

Between this husband and his late wife is a 12-year-old prince, Tadeniawo. And I heard Kabiyesi asking how he was going to cope going forward: “I am close to 70. How is a 70-year-old man going to take care of a 12-year-old, all alone? The boy was very close to his mum.” The oba said; then he went on and on even as he struggled to put on the visage of courage.

He has to be strong; he is an oba, husband of the whole town. One of the covenants he had with those who had been on the throne before him is that his hard wood must never shed tears. Ako igi kò gbodò s’oje. He has handled it so well so far. We keep praying for him.

“Death, thou shalt die” comes as a verdict from seventeenth-century English poet, John Donne. In that Holy Sonnet, Donne asks ‘Death’ not to be proud because “One short sleep past, we wake eternally,/ And death shall be no more…”

May Olori Abolarin’s soul rest in perfect peace. May God look after her husband and child and all her other loved ones.