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[OPINION] Pa Adebanjo: A Celebration Of Death

Published

7 months ago

February 17, 2025

By Lasisi Olagunju

Afenifere leader, Chief Ayo Adebanjo, died on Friday. He would have been 100 years old if death had not been too fast; if it had waited three more years plus two months. An age of almost a century is a huge haul, a boon anywhere. Yet, when the 96/97-year-old’s death was announced four days ago, the world gasped and agonized over his departure. In courage and in principle, he was vintage wine, the older the better. He lived well and strong; he ended very well and very strong. He never lost his voice – literally and as a metaphor. In a season when his mates followed the scent of soup, he followed his conscience. He comported himself so well that at his exit, it has not been difficult to say of him that he delivered what he carried successfully with the chinaware unbroken.

In the days of our ancestors, when a mainframe cracked, got broken and fell, the cry was “ayé ti bàjé” (the world is spoilt). As he was ebbing away, Adebanjo was utterly shocked at how our world found it very easy to accommodate and excuse evil. He raised his voice, he shouted and cried himself hoarse; regime hailers raised their noses against him and his warnings. He didn’t keep quiet; no one could shut up or shout down the voice of his gong. But before our very eyes, ayé ti bàjé. Just as the genius of George Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eighty Four’ warned, there is no more curiosity about anything ennobling, no enjoyment of the process of life. All competing pleasures are progressively destroyed; a flood of intoxication of power increases and is constantly growing, not subtler now but bolder. Boots stamping on the human face enjoy the thrill of victory; they savour the sensation of trampling on the helpless till eternity. What Orwell wrote as the picture of the future is here. The earth has lost what made it see.

Two years ago when he turned 95, the newspaper I edit asked Chief Adebanjo if he was going to take a break when he turned 100. He was quick to answer with a resounding No. He said “That is not possible. Until I am buried in the grave, I won’t stop and I took that from Chief Awolowo. When we asked him: ‘are you going to retire?’, he would say ‘no, when I’m in the grave I will still be tall fighting’. We didn’t know what he meant at that time. He is dead now but is there any day people don’t mention the name ‘Awolowo’? Oh, Awolowo did this! Oh, Awolowo did that! That is what I’m doing. I’m a lone ranger now. ‘He doesn’t like Tinubu’; ‘He is against a Yoruba man’; ‘He is against Igbo man.’ I don’t go the popular way that is not good.” That was his answer and he was not done; it was not his last answer.

He said he was “a lone ranger now.” When a man declares that he is not afraid to walk alone, watch him. You remember Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’? The traveller is confronted with two roads diverged in a yellow wood. He examines the two roads carefully, then takes “the one less travelled by.” The traveller says that decision “has made all the difference.” Standing alone can be very lonely, but it always makes a difference. The pain of Adebanjo’s death is palliated by the courageous way the dead lived his life.

The Yoruba, in elaborate ways, celebrate the death of the aged who lived and died well; we call it ‘òkú síse.’ And that is what I am doing here. As we celebrate life, it becomes necessary to celebrate the death of death also. In ‘The Great Refusal’, Maurice Blanchot is ecstatic that “we have lost death” I read Blanchot and the defeat of death. I read Michael Purcell’s ‘Celebrating Death’, a piece on death, its management and its overcoming. I skimmed Adebanjo’s ‘Telling It As It Is.’ I took a long look at the life the departed lived, the grassy road he took and the global applause he got at his full time. I agreed with those who described death as life maker.

Whether its victim be young or old, death’s pang is painful. Man loves and celebrates birth; he rejects and outlaws death. Yet, birth and death are two experiences that unite all that live. Like the skies and the ocean, life feeds death; death feeds life. My Christian friend donates a verse: “Unless a wheat grain falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain; but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.” And, to this, I add a verse from the Qur’an: “A sign for them is the dead land which we bring to life and from which we bring forth grain of which they eat.”

Death is so final and I wonder why. Nothing we do reboots the game after the final whistle. Ancient Egyptians thought they could defeat death with denial. To achieve immortality, they invented the science of keeping their dead intact forever. In museums of the west today are bodies of Egyptians who died thousands of years ago. They called the process mummification. Read Herodotus, father of history; read Diodorus of Sicily, universal historian. Move further west, in the southern desert of the science and tech capital called California in the United States is an aboriginal tribe of Indians who harnessed death to serve life: Zuni Indians made masks and carved images. Their motive was to ‘save’ the life of their dead in perpetuity. Our ancestors did that too. They called theirs Egúngún, a masked construct for social immortality. But mummies and masks are what they are – lifeless fillers of life.

Egyptians and North American Indians were not alone in the search for life without death. Ancient Mesopotamia was celebrated as the land between two rivers (Tigris and Euphrates). The Arabs call it Al Jazirah (The Island). In Mesopotamia and Babylonia, its southern neighbour, were people who worked round the clock in search of magic to overcome death. The magical formulas were carefully encased in capsules of words called poems. Some of the arts survived the ravages of age, fires and flood; many went with the ruins of wars and the eccentricity of monks, kings and clerics. Among the survivors is the Epic of Gilgamesh where we read of the king of Uruk who risked his all to crack the code of immortality, the secret of eternal life. This king moved from one end of the world to the other end; he was in search of what would end death. And, in the end, the royal who was seeking eternal life got the eternal truth: “Life, which you look for, you will never find. For when the gods created man, they let death be his share, and life withheld in their own hands.”

The MAMSER man, Professor Jerry Gana, famously said in the mid to late -1980s that “if you are a director, direct well…” For several decades, Chief Adebanjo was a director of the Nigerian Tribune. I observed his excellence displayed on that board; he protected that legacy institution with the attentive eyes of a mother hen. At his departure last Friday, the board of directors of the Tribune was more than grateful to a man who was a guardian angel. A fitting tribute, effusive in thanks and appreciation, was competently penned by the chairman of the newspaper house, Ambassador Olatokunbo Awolowo Dosumu. The piece says it all on how well the nonagenarian discharged his duties to the 75-year-old newspaper of his leader. I quote from the board’s message of appreciation:

“A man of remarkable dedication, Chief Adebanjo never treated any board meeting with levity. Even in his advanced years, he was always prompt and consistent, undeterred by long journeys, considering absence from meetings a personal failing. His resoluteness, passion, and absolute concern for issues affecting ANN Plc were both admirable and infectious. To him, the Tribune was more than a newspaper—it was a sacred legacy. He often declared: ‘I want to be able to give my Leader, when I see him, a good report about our newspaper, the Nigerian Tribune.’ His love for the Tribune was unconditional and absolute. He would accept nothing less than excellence in preserving the ideals and values upon which the paper was founded.” No testimonial can be better than that from a board chairman to a departed board member.

Some people don’t read newspapers; they study them – for various reasons. Chief Adebanjo studied the Tribune and had appropriate words for whatever he observed on its pages. On more than one occasion, he sent nice words to the editors – or he complained if something displeased him. Our last encounter was at the secretariat of the Awolowo Foundation in Lagos. Frail in body, strong in spirit and resolve, he looked round and asked “Olagunju dà?” (Where is Olagunju?). My colleagues pointed me out. I greeted him; he looked deeply into my eyes, then smiled broadly. That was all, and it was last year.

I have spent the last couple of years meticulously studying him and his mates. He stood out in courage and forthrightness. He was a very reliable and effective Yoruba leader who was not blinded to truth and justice by his Yorubaness. He spoke just and did just no matter whose ox was gored. He was an akekaka who demanded what the concerned would do if they heard his hash words. He gave his autobiography an unusual, audacious title: ‘Telling It As It Is’. He called rose rose and bullshit bullshit. Even his enemies know that he was not afraid to be unpopular. He never hesitated to take a stand in support of anyone or any cause or group that deserved justice. That is the meaning of godliness. “It is joy to the just to do judgment.” That is a verse in the Bible. “Whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin”. Another from the Bible. And he was a Christian who read his scriptures, believed, lived and acted according to the teachings of his religion. I wish all who claim Christianity read and act those verses. And, if you are a Muslim, like me, it is in our Qur’an too that all believers should “be persistently standing firm in justice, witnesses for Allah, even if it be against yourselves or parents and relatives.”

It is significant that those Adebanjo worked against agreed at his death that he was a champion of justice and democracy. I read that in President Bola Tinubu’s tribute on Friday. There is power in being positively different. In the Tribune interview I quoted earlier, Chief Adebanjo declared that the progressives’ political family he belonged to always charted a path for the future. He reminisced that “by the time Chief Awolowo founded the Action Group, how many people followed him in the Western Region, including the obas? Some of them are talking now; how many of them followed Chief Awolowo? It was when we won election in 1951 and we began to do the wonders of development and education and everything, everybody now started saying ‘all of us are Afenifere’…Those were the days of politics of principle. It was the principles and manifesto that we used to defeat the NCNC in the Western Region. We never killed ourselves; we never did murder.” He lamented today’s erosion of values, declaring that “that was why I could not celebrate my 95th birthday.”

He will also not participate in the celebration of his centenary in 2028. Death has said no to that. Victorian public schoolmaster and Anglican hymnographer, Reverend Gerald Moultrie (1829-1885), wrote “Brother, now thy toils are o’er.” John Ellerton (1826-1893), another reverend gentleman of genius, took it further from that verse with his version: “Now, the labourer’s task is over…” All tasks were over for Chief Adebanjo on Friday in Lagos; and all his battle days past. The voyager has landed on the farther shore, and, now, in God’s glorious keeping we leave the labourer to rest, to sleep. May his great soul enjoy the Lord’s repose.

News

SEC Warns Nigerians Over AI-generated Investment Scams

Published

12 minutes ago

September 28, 2025

Editor

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned Nigerians to be cautious of a rising wave of artificial intelligence (AI)-driven scams that are targeting unsuspecting investors with promises of guaranteed profits and fake celebrity endorsements.

The Commission, in a statement, recalled that platforms such as CBEX, Silverkuun, and TOFRO were operating illegally by advertising AI-powered trading systems that promised unrealistic returns.

“These platforms are not registered or regulated by the SEC, yet they continue to mislead the public with false claims of AI-driven investments. They pose serious risks to investors; hence, the Commission issued a series of disclaimers against their activities,” the Commission stated.

The SEC explained that fraudsters are increasingly turning to deepfake videos and AI-generated content to lure victims, noting that manipulated videos featuring politicians, celebrities, and television hosts are being shared through Facebook adverts, Instagram reels, and Telegram groups to give fraudulent platforms an air of credibility.

According to the Commission, “Scammers are exploiting AI to fabricate endorsements and testimonials that appear genuine. This has made traditional fraud detection methods less effective, hence the need for tech-enabled regulation and greater public awareness.”

To counter the growing threat, the SEC explained that it is adopting advanced surveillance systems capable of detecting fraudulent activity in real time, adding that partnerships with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU) are being strengthened to enable data sharing and joint enforcement actions.

“We are moving from reactive to predictive oversight. This is essential in combating fraud and systemic risks in our market,” the Commission emphasised.

The regulator said it has also engaged social media companies to clamp down on misleading adverts and cautioned influencers against promoting unlicensed investment schemes.

“Any influencer or blogger found to be complicit in promoting illegal platforms will face regulatory sanctions or even prosecution,” the SEC warned.

The Commission urged Nigerians to take extra precautions before investing, stressing that any scheme promising daily profits, zero risk, or celebrity-backed endorsements should be treated with suspicion.

It stated: “Any investment that guarantees unrealistic returns or uses manipulated videos of public figures should immediately raise a red flag.”

The Commission further encouraged Nigerians to verify the registration status of any investment platform on its website, where a list of licensed Capital Market Operators is available.

It added that investors should confirm that registration numbers displayed on company websites match the details on the SEC portal and avoid platforms that only operate through Telegram or WhatsApp without a verifiable office address.

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Olubadan Unveils Economic Plan For Ibadanland

Published

41 minutes ago

September 28, 2025

Editor

The newly crowned 44th Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja,
The newly crowned 44th Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, has assured both local and foreign investors of an enabling business environment as he reeled out his socio-economic plan.

Ladoja, who made his first appearance at a Thanksgiving service in his honour at the Ascension of Christ Catholic Church, Bodija, Ibadan, stressed the need for the resuscitation of moribund businesses as well as the employment of the teeming youths in Ibadanland.

He said this had become imperative in order to grow the economy of not only Ibadan but Oyo State as a whole.

He stated that the throne of Olubadan was not about status or bead-wearing but about facilitating the socio-economic growth of Ibadanland.

The monarch added that this could only be achieved with the support of all stakeholders.

According to him, “The major assignment before me as Olubadan of Ibadanland is the growth of Ibadanland.

“The status of Olubadan is not about the wearing of status but ensuring the all-round growth of the town.

“To achieve this feat, I will collaborate with the government at all levels to ensure that Ibadan and Oyo State at large maintain their pace-setter status.

“We are all governing Ibadan. I am just the coordinator. You people are the small Olubadans; I am the big Olubadan.

“Ibadan will be greater by God’s grace and with your support. I am now the king of all religious groups in Ibadan.

“We have never had a record of religious crisis in Ibadan because members of the various religious groups are represented in each family in Ibadanland.

“Ibadan is a fertile land for investment and economic growth. It shall continue to be well with Ibadan.”

In his congratulatory message, the Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of Ibadan, Most Rev Dr Gabriel Abegunrin, described Ladoja’s installation as the new Olubadan as the unfailing providence of God, who had preserved the life of the monarch with strength and wisdom.

According to him, Ladoja’s longevity is a crown of grace, and his enthronement is a divine mandate which entrusted him with peace, unity and the progress of the Ibadan people.

The cleric hailed Ladoja for commencing his reign with an act of thanksgiving in the house of God, saying the gesture of the new monarch reflected not only his humility before God but also his deep recognition of the sacred duty of fostering harmony among all faiths.

“Oba Ladoja has set forth a shining example of interfaith goodwill and mutual respect which will long endure as a legacy of his reign.”

Abegunrin said the church and Christian community in Ibadanland commended Ladoja as a father, leader and custodian of Ibadan heritage, pledging the church’s continued prayers and support as it looked forward to collaborating with the monarch in promoting justice, peace and the common good for all residents of Ibadan.

He, however, prayed that God would bless Oba Ladoja with continued good health, wisdom from above and divine guidance to rule with justice, compassion and courage.

The event was attended by the Olubadan-in-Council, the family of the monarch, Iyalodes and well-wishers.
(TRIBUNE)

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NDLEA Arrests Two Drug Kingpins, Seizes Cocaine, Heroin, Meth In Lagos

Published

2 hours ago

September 28, 2025

Editor

Operatives of a Special Operations Unit (SOU) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) have arrested two drug kingpins, Victor Nwosa and Felix Chika Obiegbu, after consignments of cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine being prepared for export to Europe and beyond were recovered from their Lagos homes following weeks of intelligence and surveillance on their criminal networks.

While 64-year-old Nwosa paraded himself as a successful textile merchant, 49-year-old Obiegbu was known to many as a businessman in wine distribution, but beneath their outward appearance lay their hidden illicit drug business, unearthed by NDLEA operatives after months of intelligence gathering on the syndicates led by them.

According to a statement by the Director, Media and Advocacy of the NDLEA, Mr Femi Babafemi, on Sunday, at the time they were preparing their consignments for export, NDLEA-SOU operatives, who had kept them under surveillance for months, swooped on them in different parts of Lagos.

Nwosa was arrested on 17 September 2025 at his home at 16, Femi Kila Street, Okota, where 4.33 kilogrammes of heroin and 448 grammes of cocaine were recovered during a search of the house.

In Obiegbu’s case, he was arrested on 11 September at his home at 5 Shada Shonefun Street, Aguda, Surulere, where, in the course of a search, 2.902 kilogrammes of methamphetamine were uncovered and seized.

Attempts by suspected suppliers of illicit drugs to terrorists and bandits in Borno and Yobe to move narcotics concealed in the engine compartment of a Mercedes-Benz jeep and in a woman’s travelling bag were also thwarted by NDLEA operatives during stop-and-search operations in the two states.

In Borno State, following weeks of intelligence, NDLEA officers on Saturday arrested Baba Kaka Ibrahim at Njimtilo village while driving a Mercedes-Benz GLK marked JRE 987 AE along Damaturu Road. A search of the vehicle led to the recovery of 39,380 pills of tramadol 225mg and Exol-5 stuffed in the engine compartment of the jeep.

That same day in Yobe State, NDLEA operatives intercepted a woman, Halima Adamu, along the Damaturu-Maiduguri Road, where 39 parcels of Colorado, a synthetic strain of cannabis weighing 1.4 kilogrammes, were found concealed inside the casing of her travelling bag. A swift follow-up operation led to the arrest of another woman linked to the consignment, Habiba Muhammad, at her Baga Road, Maiduguri home.

Two suspects, Aliyu Sani and Yahaya Tata, were arrested on Saturday by NDLEA operatives along the Zaria-Kano Road, Gadar Tamburawa, Kano State, with 30,030 pills of tramadol seized from them, while three suspects – Friday Elebechi, Tobin Godgift and Aya Clement – were arrested by NDLEA operatives at Swali Jetty, Yenagoa, Bayelsa, on 22 September after 12 kilogrammes of skunk, a strain of cannabis, and 50 Diana AAA cartridges were recovered from them.

A 45-year-old ex-convict, Femi Owoeye (aka Do Good), was arrested on 25 September by NDLEA officers at his home at 24 Oke-Igele Street, Ikere Ekiti. He was found in possession of 32 kilogrammes of skunk and 10.5 grammes of tramadol. He had previously been convicted and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for a similar drug trafficking offence in 2016.

In Kaduna, a suspect, Adedamola Olayeni, was arrested on 22 September with 404 blocks of skunk weighing 262.6 kilogrammes at the Abuja-Kaduna tollgate. The consignment was found in his Honda Pilot jeep marked MKA 499 TT, coming from Osogbo, Osun State, and heading to Katsina State.

Another suspect, Zubairu Haruna, was found on 24 September with 506 grammes of methamphetamine at the Gwantu-Fadan Karshi checkpoint, Kaduna, while a follow-up operation in Gombe State led to the arrest of the intended receiver of the consignment, Babangida Mohammed.

No fewer than 85,100 pills of tramadol and other opioids were seized from the trio of Dauda Abubakar, Abdullahi Umar and Ismaila Muhammed in the Apapa area of Lagos on 22 September, while NDLEA operatives in Abuja, the following day, 23 September, arrested Opeyemi Ogundipe with 2.1 kilogrammes of Colorado along the Abaji-Gwagwalada Expressway.

In Edo State, NDLEA officers on 23 September destroyed a total of 12,115.6 kilogrammes of skunk on 4.846244 hectares of cannabis plantation at Uromi Forest in Esan West LGA, where two suspects, Ernest Uche and Felix Mugorga, were arrested and 345.5 kilogrammes of processed substance evacuated.

At Ogu Forest, Igueben LGA, no less than 12,031.245 kilogrammes of the same psychoactive substance were destroyed on 4.438442 hectares of cannabis farm on 24 September, with 106.1 kilogrammes of processed consignment evacuated. A truck conveying 82 bags of skunk concealed in bags of charcoal, with a total weight of 1,025 kilogrammes, was intercepted by NDLEA operatives along Wareke-Auchi Road, Etsako West LGA, on Friday, while two suspects, Kabiru Abdulahi and Anas Safiyanu, were apprehended in connection with the seizure.

While commending the officers and men of the SOU, as well as those of the Borno, Yobe, Edo, Lagos, Kano, Kaduna, FCT, Ekiti and Bayelsa Commands for the arrests, seizures and their dexterity, the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the NDLEA, Brig-Gen. Mohamed Marwa (Rtd), urged them and their colleagues nationwide to continue with the ongoing balanced approach to the Agency’s drug control efforts.

He noted that “the success of the various operations across the country underscores our commitment to safeguarding Nigeria from illicit substances that threaten public health and national security. Every gramme of these dangerous drugs we seize and remove from our streets and communities reinforces our determination to protect our youths, disrupt criminal networks, and strengthen national security.”