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[OPINION] Nepal Bloodshed: Of Nigeria’s Big Masquerades And Gọntọ

Published

8 months ago

September 14, 2025

By Festus Adedayo

Nepal, the Himalayan nation of 30 million people, boiled like water on a lit cauldron last week. As my people say, behind the logic of christening a woman at birth as “one who died with her glory,” (Kumolu) is a plethora of reasons. The bloodshed reminds me of the theme of resistance in the song of Ibadan bard, TataloAlamu. In one of his tracks, Alamu sang that the big masquerade (eégún) who walks into a gathering without recognizing the smaller one (gòntò) deserves the retaliation of non-recognition he gets. The song goes thus: “Bí eégún ńlá bá wọlé t’ó l’óhun ò rí gòntò, gòntò náà ò r’éégún …”

Ibeji, British-Nigerian Afro-soul singer-songwriter, whose fifth studio album, Intermission, won the Best Alternative Album at the 2022 Headies Award, also explored this motif. The eegun and gọntọ to him symbolize victory of the oppressed in the hands of their oppressors. The same motif can be found in Bob Marley’s Small Axe track where he asked the oppressors, “the evil men,” not to boast at their Pyrrhic victory against the people. They are “playing smart (but) not being clever,” he declared, because they are “working in iniquity” to “achieve vanity”. If they ever thought they were “the big tree,” the mass of the people, sang Marley, are “the small axe” that are “sharpened to cut you down” and “ready to cut you down.”

If you didn’t hear Tatalo or Ibeji sing in Nepal last week, the youths heeded the signification of their songs. Gọntọ will sooner than later conquer the selfish and oppressive big masquerades who are the political leaders bent on suppressing their voices. Yes, the gọntọ in power today may ignore the welfare of the common man on the street, the agency to challenge the gọntọ is resistance. An unrest which began Monday got this landlocked country in South Asia tailspinning into unimaginable chaos.

What set off public anger was Nepalese authorities’ ban of 26 social media platforms. Nepal has a dysfunctional leadership similar in texture and form to Nigeria’s. Unemployment, heavily concentrated among younger adults of both countries, has resulted in thousands seeking existential bailouts outside their shores. In Nepal, young men and women, in tens of thousands, according to a New York Times report of last week, exodus out daily to the Persian Gulf, Malaysia and India. They swarm long-term contracts in oil-rich countries to work as seasonal migrant labourers. In Nigeria, young men and women swarm out to risk their lives. In the process, many die unsung in the Mediterranean Sea. Nepal government data reveals that over 741,000 youth japa-ed in 2024 to eke a living. The World Bank reports that a fifth of Nepalese people, aged between 15-24, are unemployed and the country has a GDP per capita of just $1,447. The statistics are almost a replay of the scary figures bedeviling Nigeria.

There is however a truth that tastes as bitter as Jogbo leaf in the mouth of Nigerian and Nepalese leaders. It is that their dysfunctional leadership challenges are borne out of failure to recognize that a trinity exists between the voter, (people) votes and the voted. This trinity is almost like the sacred pact between the drum, the drumstick and the drummer. Late Ibadan Awurebe music lord, EpoAkara, alluded to this trinity in one of the lines of his song when he sang that the drummer and the brass bell are woven together like a tapestry. “Oní’lù l’ó ni saworo…” he sang.

Taking this further in his 1999 epic movie, Saworoide, Tunde Kelani deployed a biting satire to convey how Nigerian rulers have consistently betrayed this sacred pact with the people. He chose the sacred Yoruba drum, Iya Ilu, to convey this. As a motif, he then used the ritual significance of the drum and the jangling brass bell decorating its neck. In the ancient town of Jogbo, (a very bitter leaf chosen as representative of the bitterness encountered by the people) this drum plays a central role in crowning kings. Kelani’s drum motif now stood as a mystical symbol, the people’s voice and a pact with kings (rulers) that they have the obligation of serving them. At the end, Kelani was able to explore themes of tradition, corruption, voice of the people and leadership failure in this highly rated film.

When the face of this sacred trinity between the people, the drum and the drumming stick is trodden upon with impunity, there will be disequilibrium. Rats will cease to chirp and birds won’t chirrup as they used to. Just as is the case today in Nigeria.

Th Siamese of Nepal and Nigeria is not just in both countries’ humongous population rascality of 300 and 200 million people. Their leaders also share texture of irresponsibility. In its rebellion last week, it will however appear that the Gen Z of Nepal, unlike Nigeria’s, was pushed to the wall against leaders who have over the decades fixed their individual stomachs, rather than fixing the nation.

I agree that sometimes, leaders’ intention can be misjudged by the people. Leaders also sometimes suffer for their stiff-necked commitment to doing good. Former First Lady of the United States, Rosalynn Carter, had a fabled quote in this regard. Late Governor Abiola Ajimobi of Oyo State gleefully reproduced it to explain his leadership roadmap. Carter had posited that, while “a leader takes people where they want to go,” a great leader “takes (them) where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be.” This was the fate of Chief Obafemi Awolowo in the 1954 federal elections.

Back to Awolowo. He became a casualty of the Carter admonition. As Premier, he brought before the Western Region parliament four policy frameworks which eventually became his political undoing. They were (1) agricultural development, which included rubber plantation (2) customary courts reforms (3) democratization of local councils and (4) free universal primary education and free health service. Though these policies later revolutionize the West, they cost Awolowo’s Action Group (AG) victory in the 1954 federal elections. The electoral loss made AG the only party in power to lose a parliamentary election supervised by it.

Because no meaningful agricultural revolution policy could be achieved without acquisition of lands, peeved, those whose lands were acquired for the policy voted against Awo in the election. The 1953 law enacted to replace old and illiterate customary court presidents, many of whom were chiefs, with educated ones, suffered backlash. Adelabu Adegoke for instance rode on this to form the Mabolaje/NCNC alliance, becoming the doyen of the common people in the process. Also, the AG’s new policy of democratizing local councils by stopping nomination and replacing it with election of members irked those steeped in the past. They in turn voted against the AG.

The most sweeping rebellion against Awo’s AG came with the free education and health policies. While Awolowo supported voluntary education, many leaders of the party voted for compulsory education. Many members of the farming population, afraid that the policy would deny their children and wards’ help on the farm, voted against AG in the 1954 election. Also, a capitation tax of 10 shillings to fund the policy imposed on every taxable adult boomeranged. Opposition elements went out to incite the people that the tax was meant to enable ministers build personal houses and buy cars. These all led to the AG’s loss in the 1954 election.

While it may be unpatriotic to call for a walk on the violence road, the truth is that, Third World leaders are sworn to self-destruct unless a seismic shake recalibrates their brains. Yoruba, in affirming that likes should attract likes, say “ó jọ gáté, kòjọ gáté, ó f’ẹsè méjèèjì tiro”. They similarly render a call for similarity of treatment of felons in an illustration of a limping man who leapt out of the same closet where a limping masquerade just leapt into, costumed in the usual enormous, multi-colored regalia.

Like AG in 1953, the present FG must have persuaded itself that, by taking Nigerians down the murky alley of a rough road, it was going the route of Rosalynn Carter. The ousted clowns in Nepal must have similarly thought so. Regime clowns may cite AG’s 1954 public perception as justification. However, in barely two years, the rhythm changed for Action Group. While it launched these policies, especially the free education and health service in 1955, by 1956, the dividends began to trickle in for the people. The party then won that year’s regional election by 48 to 32 seats, as well as subsequent elections.

Conversely, in Nigeria today, what we get is impostor economics. Early in the month, the Nigerian president, at a Villa event, declared that he had met revenue target for 2025, ahead of schedule. The country would no longer rely on borrowing to fund its budget, he said. The exchange rate, he further said, had stabilized after initial turbulence and that the Naira had appreciated from over N1,900/$ to about N1,450/$.

Regime fawners went to town with these bogus statistics. Again, just as his lickspittle Senate President said last year that FG had dashed states N30 billion each, he and his commissars have engaged in a binge of demonizing Nigerian 36 states. The question people ask the fawners is, how have all those mantras of “revenue target”, “stable Naira” and “downward inflation” impacted on the common man? Have transport fares gone down? Are medications cheaper? Are Nigerians dying less from acute poverty? The “revenue target” was met as a result of squeezing the people to pay tax so, how much has he given back to the people in terms of social safety nets? Yet, the presidential economy is becoming elastic, the president’s second home is France and the I-don’t-care attitude of the leadership is worsening.

I am on a WhatsApp platform where there is intense musical-chair competition to fawn and capture the hearts of powers-that-be. Someone there asked why “state governments” are not pilloried for stagnation of development but the FG. He hoisted Prof Toyin Falola who constantly “bemoan(s)” Nigeria’s “dysfunctional federalism” and “the generous financial inducement of the media” as reasons why this FG-bashing view is gaining traction.

My reply to him was, “Doesn’t this sound awkward and I dare say, self-serving? To divert the proportion of blame and responsibility of Nigeria’s developmental stagnation from a central government that collects 52% of federal allocation and laying such at the feet of states – 36 of which share 32% of such national allocation – isn’t a watertight logic. The truth is, Nigeria’s federal government is big-for-nothing, wasteful, and needed to be pruned if we want development. It is why there is unbelievable squandering and theft at the Aso Rock Villa. Not heaping proportionally high blame on the FG as against states for Nigeria’s stagnation, seeking a whipping boy in states and scapegoating the media equal playing the ostrich. This is the usual singsong of Nigerian politicians.”

This generated reactions. What the revenue formula means is that, with 36 states collecting 32% of federal allocations, each state collects less than one per cent of this monthly allocation. While no one should defend state governments, many of whom are inept and wasteful, we should not lose track of the fact that the federal government has grown too unwieldy, receiving too much, superintending over too much, giving so little and is a bastion of corruption.

Recently, some ministers in this government were accused of owning properties that are far beyond their means. Like General Yakubu Gowon, perceived as timid in the face of corrupt elements in his government, mum has been the word from the Villa. In 1975, the scandal surrounding the importation of cements, nicknamed the Cement Armada, which was handled by officials of the defense ministry and the CBN under Gowon, was mind-boggling. Governor of Benue/Plateau State, Police Commissioner Joseph D. Gomwalk, was one of the accused. Gowon acquitted him.

The way out of the Nepal volcano that will surely sweep through Africa is for governments to prioritize the welfare of their people. Regime fawners and data boys can only worsen the fates of rulers. Once President Bola Tinubu, in his imperial power as the Eegun, does not serve miniature pounded yam to the gọntọ, the Nigerian masses, he can be assured that the fate of Nepal Prime Minister, Khadga Prasad Sharma Oli, commonly known as K. P. Sharma Oli, will be far from him.

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Otuaro: Baseless Allegations, Disregard Them, Group Urges Public

Published

20 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

The Ijaw People’s Development Initiative, IPDI has reacted to a statement circulating online regarding the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), describing it as baseless.

The statement under the disguise ‘Niger Delta Stakeholders Forum and Niger Delta Ethnic Nationalities,’ had demanded accountability regarding the management of the Programme and its administrator, Dr Dennis Otuaro.

Reacting to the statement, National President, IPDI, Comrade Austin Ozobo, said: “We consider it necessary to respond point by point to correct misconceptions, reject unsubstantiated claims, and keep the record straight in the interest of PAP beneficiaries, stakeholders, and the general public.

“It is worthy of note that the PAP operates under strict federal financial regulations and is subject to routine audits by the Office of the Auditor-General of the Federation, the Ministry of Finance, and other oversight bodies.

“All disbursements, including stipends, vocational training, education support, and third-party contracts, are processed through the Treasury Single Account, TSA, with verifiable records”, the statement read.

According to the IPDI, the Programme welcomes lawful criticism and scrutiny at any time. However, linking such a call to specific individuals without evidence amounts to trial by the media and undermines due process.

“Dr Dennis Otuaro, administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme has maintained a good record of financial management, hence no formal petition with verifiable evidence has been submitted to any anti-graft agency till date”.

“It may interest you to know that the N65,000 monthly stipend is fixed by the Appropriation Act and can only be reviewed through a budgetary process approved by the National Assembly and the Presidency.

‘The PAP management has consistently conveyed beneficiaries’ concerns on cost of living to relevant authorities”.

“Again, claims that allocations to the Programme have risen significantly while stipends remain unchanged misrepresents the budget structure.

“Note, increased allocations in recent years have been tied to expanded reintegration programs, education sponsorships, skills acquisition, and infrastructure support for training centers, not solely to stipend payments”.

The group reiterated that the allegation that the Amnesty Programme Office “kidnaps and detains delegates” is false, reckless, and defamatory, adding that the PAP has no paramilitary or law enforcement mandate, nor does it operate detention facilities and that any incident involving law enforcement is outside the control and purview of the Programme.

“We challenge the authors to provide verifiable details of time, place, and persons involved so the matter can be addressed through appropriate legal channels,” the group said

On Claims of Selective Empowerment and 500% Payment Increases, the group maintained that payments to contractors, ex-agitator leaders, and service providers were governed by existing contracts and agreements predating the current administration.

“No individual or camp has received unilateral increases without contractual basis or due process. Allegations of 500% increases are unsubstantiated and designed to stoke division among beneficiaries,” it added.

“The current administration has maintained a policy of transparency in engagement with leaders and has expanded inclusion by verifying and capturing previously omitted beneficiaries where due“, IPDI added.

The group further said, “The PAP remains a neutral, peace-building institution established under the 2009 Amnesty Declaration. Its mandate is to coordinate disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. The Office does not engage in political victimization, intimidation, or exclusion of stakeholders. Engagement with ex-agitator leaders and community structures is conducted based on their role in maintaining peace and facilitating reintegration, not political alignment”.

“The PAP under Chief Denis Otuaro’s leadership remains committed to transparency, fairness, and the original mandate of the Amnesty Programme. Constructive criticism is welcome and has informed policy adjustments in the past. However, campaigns of calumny, unverified allegations, and attempts to drag the Programme into commercial or political disputes do not serve the interest of peace in the Niger Delta”, IPDI said.

“We urge all stakeholders to channel grievances through the established engagement channels of the Programme and to avoid statements that threaten the fragile stability we have worked to sustain”.

Consequently, the IPDI urges members of the public to disregard what its described as “flimsy and unsubstantiated allegations, misconception, and missives by faceless groups above“.

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[OPINION] Olukoyede’s EFCC: Taming The ‘Fantastically-Corrupt’

Published

21 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

Since its creation 23 years ago, by Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, as president of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous and influential country, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), had apparently not gotten a head, who had piloted the affairs of the commission, like Mr. Olanipekun Olukoyede, its Executive Chairman, a chief-operations-officer of the Commission.

It could be said that Olukoyede, the Czar thief catcher and arrestor of economic saboteurs, has given the EFCC’s enemies such a tough time as he has taking the anti-graft fight to the doorsteps of the high-profile individuals across the country. These range from former state governors, serving and former ministers, retired and serving civil servants, businessmen, clergies, traditional rulers, cyber-influencer, entertainers, professionals and numerous others.

Olukoyede brings years of experience in law, fraud management, and business intelligence to bear on the position. Before him, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu was EFCC’s inaugural chair; succeeded by the first and only female, Mrs. Farida Waziri; Ibrahim Lamorde, Ibrahim Magu, and Abdul Rasheed Bawa.

The anti-graft agency has its hands full with massive financial fraud and money laundering cases. In the clause of “physicians, look at thyself”, EFCC in its resolve is known to have been flushing out officers within the body, who run foul to the law.

In the past, before Olukoyede’s appointment, it was widely believed that it was only the “fries and not the big fishes”, who the Commission could summon the courage to prosecute; and that most culprits were also left from the hook, because of compromise by some corrupt officers of the Commission, and feeble litigation processes.

Mr. Godwin Emefiele, former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), happened to have opened to Olukoyede’s a deluge of “big-men and women”, who have been arrested, investigated and cooling their feet in detention or those bailed, that are facing severe court trials. There is the biggest 19-count charge at the Ikeja Special Offences Court, involving an alleged $4.5 billion fraud.
Immediate-paste governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, faces two massive, but separate legal battles totalling over N190 billion on fraud allegation. EFCC secured from the Court of Appeal, forfeiture of 14 properties and huge money linked to him.

Abubakar Malami (former Attorney-General of the Federation), with his son, Abdulaziz and his wife, is currently charged on a-16-count of money laundering. The court has stayed interim forfeiture of 57 properties valued at over N213 billion.

EFCC had also secured the arrest of Sadiya Umar-Farouq, a female former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, and a former Permanent Secretary, through a Federal High Court, on a 21-point alleged fraud and corruption charge, involving $1.3 million and N746.6m and others amounting to 37.1 billion.

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, also female and former Minister of Women Affairs, was removed from office by President Bola Tinubu, over alleged misappropriation and diversion of N138.4 million, and had been under EFCC questioning.

A recent discovery, which startled Nigerians and the world, the Commission (EFCC) had reportedly arrested a serving Director-General of the Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, over alleged money laundering involving about ₦500 billion.

Somewhat, this had deflated the claim that those arrested and persecuted are political opponents and not serving officers of the Tinubu’s government.

EFCC is a “Nigerian law enforcement and anti-graft agency that investigates financial crimes, such as advance fee fraud (419 Fraud) and money laundering. It was also set up to fight against corruption and to protect the country from economic saboteurs”.

The Commission, whilst responding to pressures from the Financial Action Task Force on Money Laundering (FATF), that named Nigeria as one of 23 countries not cooperating in the international community’s efforts to fight money laundering, had revved in performance, in a bid to roll back the blights.

And so, it is a strenuous goal for EFCC, as entrenched in the ‘EFCC Establishment Act 2004’, which gives it specialist jurisdiction against severe financial and commercial crime – covering multiple high and lower levels.

Born on 14 October 1969, Olukoyede, a civil servant, has had a clear break from past, where past executive chairmen of the Commission had left the Commission, where all serving officers were drafted from the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). However, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is widely commended for Olukoyede’s appointment to the position, with the Senate also eulogized for screening him.

Whilst briefing the Press in Abuja, on his two-year activities in office, on October 23, 2025, the Commission’s boss certainly made unprecedented progress in the fight against economic and financial crimes. He spoke through the Director of Public Affairs of the Commission, Wilson Uwujaren, as he listed the recovery of N566 billion, alongside other currencies and assets, among the achievements of the Commission.

He further revealed that the Commission received over 19,000 petitions, conducted 29,240 investigations, filed 10,525 cases in court, and secured 7,503 convictions.

Olukoyede asserted that the Commission recovered ₦566,319,820,343.40, $411,566,192.32, £71,306.25, €182,877.10, and other foreign currencies from proceeds of financial and economic crimes. Added to this was the recovery of 1,502 non-monetary assets, comprising 402 properties in 2023, 975 in 2024, and 125 so far in 2025.

“Among these recovered assets are two notable landmarks: the final forfeiture of 753 units of duplexes in Lokogoma, Abuja, and the forfeiture of Nok University, now the Federal University of Applied Sciences, Kachia, Kaduna State,” he said.

He listed several high-profile cases prosecuted within the period, including those involving former governors Willie Obiano, Abdulfatah Ahmed, Darius Ishaku, Theodore Orji, and Yahaya Bello. Others are former ministers Olu Agunloye, Mamman Saleh, Hadi Sirika, Charles Ugwu, and former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele.

EFCC was also said to have reentered and invigorated some longstanding fraud cases, such as ones linking Fred Ajudua, former People Democratic Party, PDP National Chairman Haliru Bello Mohammed, ex-National Security Adviser Sambo Dasuki, and former Nigerian Social Insurance Trust Fund, NSITF boss, Ngozi Olojeme.

The EFCC said it arrested 792 suspects involved in asset and cryptocurrency frauds in Lagos, among who were 192 foreigners who were prosecuted and deported.

A Task Force on Naira Abuse and Dollarisation of the Economy was established by EFCC, which accordingly, had notable impacts in sanitizing money actions countrywide. “The campaign against naira abuse, racketeering, and speculative currency trading has helped reduce pressure on the naira and complemented the Central Bank’s efforts in stabilizing the economy,” he said.

Olukoyede also spoke on the Commission’s strengthened partnerships with foreign law enforcement agencies, including the Korean Police, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Spanish Police, and German Police.

He also mention benefitting synergy with the FBI, the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), INTERPOL, and Japan’s JICA, in subsequent joint investigations and the repatriation of stolen assets to victims from Spain, Canada, and the United States.

Strengthening EFFC’s mandate at the regional level, and in Africa, Olukoyede and the Commission are said to be up and doing. For instance, a thing that had never happened to EFFC, he had been twice elected as President of the Network of National Anti-Corruption Institutions in West Africa (NACIWA), which led to the founding of a permanent secretariat in Abuja.

A strong media presence is needed to successfully inform the public of the ideals of EFCC and its update activities. And so, ‘EFCC Radio 97.3FM’, Nigeria’s first anti-corruption radio station, was established Olukoyede. EFCC should count itself very lucky for having in its fold, tested, diligent and veteran journalists who are ostensibly seasoned in the ideals and watchdog principles of the Commission.

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APC Primaries: Johnny Rallies Support For Senator Thomas’ Re-election Bid

Published

22 hours ago

May 17, 2026

Editor

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress in Delta State, Chief Michael Johnny, has called on Delta South Senatorial District’s party faithful to come out in large tomorrow and vote for Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas (JOT) in the party senatorial primary election.

Johnny, widely regarded as a leader par excellence within the APC, described the primary election as a critical moment that will determine the political stability, unity, and future direction of Delta South.

According to him, Delta South needs a detribalized leader with the capacity to unite people beyond ethnic sentiments and political divisions.

He warned against leaders whose style of politics promotes ethnic division and unnecessary tension within the region.

Chief Johnny stated that Senator Thomas has continued to distinguish himself as a leader who carries everyone along, irrespective of tribe, political background, or local government affiliation.

He noted that JOT’s leadership style has strengthened cooperation, peace, fairness, and political inclusion across Delta South.

Speaking further, Chief Johnny declared that the Ijaw people have resolved to stand firmly behind Thomas because fairness, justice, and political balance must prevail in Delta South.

“As Ijaw people, we have decided to support Senator Joel because this is the turn of the Isoko nation, and Ijaw stands for truth. That is our position,” he stated.

He also appreciated what he described as “genuine Itsekiri sons and daughters” who believe in fairness, equity, and peaceful coexistence, adding that Delta South can only move forward when the various ethnic nationalities work together in unity and mutual respect.

Chief Johnny maintained that the senatorial district must not be dragged backward by divisive politics or ethnic interests capable of weakening the collective strength of the region.

He stressed that all APC members in Delta South must remain united in their support for Senator Joel-Onowakpo Thomas.

“Delta South is bigger than personal interests. This election is about unity, stability, fairness, and the future of our people. Senator JOT represents continuity, experience, and inclusive leadership for all ethnic groups in Delta South,” Chief Johnny added.