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OPINION: Pastor Adeboye And King-size Destinies

Published

2 years ago

December 25, 2023

By Lasisi Olagunju

Ahmadu Rabah was 28 years old in 1938 when he made a very strong bid for the Sultanate of Sokoto. He lost the throne to Alhaji Siddiq Abubakar, a man who was not even on the list of three submitted to the British Resident. Fatalists would say that was destiny at work. Ahmadu Rabah later became known as Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and Premier of Nigeria’s Northern region. But he was still not content with all the political power he had over the Sultan and the entire sultanate; he wanted that throne. At the very height of his political glory, he said very clearly that he would be pleased to take the post of Sultan of Sokoto if the position became open. Sultan Abubakar III was quoted, famously, as saying, repeatedly, that “the Sardauna is waiting for me to die.” But it didn’t happen; destiny intervened on January 15, 1966. Sultan Abubakar III went on to reign in admirable peace for 50 years. Ahmadu Bello’s biographer, John N. Paden, wrote in 1986 that “if the Sardauna had become Sultan…he might have tried to set up the Sultan of Sokoto as Head of State of Nigeria…” I am sure Nigeria would have taken care of that ambition if he had tried it. But, another scholar, Jonathan T. Reynolds, stretched this further in 1997 with a more thinkable possibility: “It may well be that the Sardauna hoped to reintegrate political and religious authority in the north with himself as both Sultan and premier.”

There are lessons in the Sardauna story for all stool contenders. I recommend his biography, ‘Ahmadu Bello, Sardauna of Sokoto: Values and Leadership in Nigeria’ by John Paden. You may read from page 108 to 128 and also page 215.

For princes, kingship is sweet and nothing compares to sitting on the throne, whatever the sacrifice. And, they can be resolute in pursuing their ambition even when the chances of success are very slim. Those who succeed in having the crown credit their destiny and thank their stars. Those who fail rarely agree that it is not their destiny to be king. So, they fight on, forever in the air, on the land and under the sea – until fate says the final yes or no.

Christians see themselves as persons of destiny; people fated to be saved. Today is Christmas, their day. About a week before today, at the Beulah Baptist Conference Centre, Ogbomoso, Oyo State, an interdenominational thanksgiving service was held for the new Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Afolabi ‘Ghandi’ Olaoye. At the event, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), highly respected Pastor Enoch Adeboye, said the new Soun was destined from the womb to be oba. In an apparent response to persons who wondered why the General Overseer encouraged a pentecostal pastor to plunge head-long into a cavernous cultural grove, Pastor Adeboye declared: “To my critics, if I said no and God said yes, whose word is the final? God, of course. So, I cannot stop him because Pastor Ghandi Olaoye was destined to be a king even before he was born; and thank God, it is coming to fruition.” Olaoye was a senior pastor in RCCG before his selection as the 21st Soun.

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There are issues around the kingship of the new king. Some use his faith to query his presence in the secluded presence of the ancestors. Really, what would drive a born-again Christian pastor to sit on a stool sanctified with the spirits of the ancestors? Such posers are not without some validity: a pastor sitting on the throne of his fathers means drinking from the same vessel with the undead, undying past. Why would a pastor mix his holy communion with the quaint brew of the ancient? But, people who made this query are not looking at the ‘undue’ influence of destiny in the affairs of men. We are each born to play specific roles in our allotted space. Whatever that role is, we know not; we only work and wish and wait for its manifestation.

Every era has had to grapple with the complexities of fate. Every race and creed has something to say about it – unalterable, unstoppable. We call it Àyànmó in Yoruba land with orí (head) as the propeller. We have Àkúnlèyàn- the life we chose while kneeling before our Creator. We have other terms, one of them is kadara, a word we borrowed from the Arabic Qadar. The Romans had Parcae, drivers and directors of destiny; the Greek had the Moirai, deities of fate, sharers and allotters of portions; spinners of the thread of life, personification of man’s inescapable destiny. Classical poet, Homer (8th century BC), wrote in the Iliad about fate’s unchallengeable properties: “…No man will hurl me down to death against my fate. And fate? No one alive has ever escaped it, neither brave man nor coward, I tell you – it’s born with us the day that we are born.” You will read something almost like this in the Christian Bible which came hundreds of years after the Iliad: “…whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” That is from the book of Romans. And, in Proverbs 16:9, it is said that: “In their hearts, humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.” And, my Muslim brothers and sisters know that God “created everything according to a measure of destiny” (Quran, 54:9); they also know and fear that “…when Allah intends for a people ill, there is no repelling it…”(Quran 13 verse 11). It was a situation like this that held the steady hand of the famous poet, James Shirley (1596-1666), and made him write: “There is no armour against Fate.” It was the same that made Plato say that “no one can escape his destiny.”

Oba Olaoye’s longstanding friend and fate mate, cerebral Oba Adedokun Abolarin, the Orangun of Oke Ila, disclosed last week that the new Soun once scoffed at the idea of him ever contesting to be king. But, the French have a proverb: “One meets his destiny often in the road he takes to avoid it.” The faster we run from fate, the quicker it overtakes us. Yet, there are critical views like that of Henry Miller, an American writer who lived between 1891 and 1980. Miller believes that “destiny is what you are supposed to do in life. Fate is what kicks you in the ass to make you do it.” That debate oscillating between fate and free will has raged throughout history. It is still on although Jay Livingston and Ray Evans’ Qué será, será remains forever sweet in our ears.

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Are we truly helpless “grasshoppers in the hands of wanton boys” or we are gallant masters of our destinies? Would Pastor Olaoye have become Oba Olaoye without strongly joining the contest for the stool? My Muslim brothers reading this will remember the first part of Quran 13 verse 11: “Indeed, Allah will not change the condition of a people until they change what is in themselves.” Olaoye’s Bible would tell him at all times to “stand at the door and knock” and be diligent enough in knocking for anyone to hear his voice and open the door. It is his standing and knocking and listening and seeing the door open that qualified him to sit on that throne (Revelation 3:20). But would that qualification alone have put the crown on his head if fate had refused to smile on him?

The new Soun was caught on camera kneeling before Pastor Adeboye, a non-king. Cultural conservationists have not stopped shouting desecration and defilement. They think the new king broke a covenant so early in his reign. They say even the pastor’s Bible frowns at acts that violate the sacred; and they think their culture and tradition are as sacred as holy writs. Temples have lost their potency and nations their verdancy because things which should not have been done were done. Bible scholar, Tova Ganzel, in 2008 wrote on ‘The Defilement and Desecration of the Temple in Ezekiel’. He thinks desecration “extends to the intolerable acts perpetrated by the people that eventually brought about the Temple’s destruction and the nation’s exile.” Ganzel’s thoughts are deep, the details you will find in the journal, Biblica, published in 2008 – Volume 89, Number 3, from page 369 to 379. There are other cases brought to our attention by other sources. Here, I lack the space to cite them. When you are made king in Yorubaland, you are banned forever from kneeling or prostrating to and before any man or woman born of woman. That is the rule and it is presumably strict. But the pentecostal king slipped. He knelt before his pastor and his pastor prayed for him holding the crowned head – another violation. Is it not in the Bible (Mathew 25:21) that the good and faithful servant gets his master’s well done because he “has been faithful over a few things” by doing what he is asked to do with tact? Ogbomoso is in Yoruba land where killing vultures is forbidden and eating vultures is forbidden. But there are still ways in which people eat taboos and wash them down with foaming palm wine. Kings kneel and prostrate before priests but they do not do it in the market place as Oba Olaoye has done. I think it was a genuine error. I believe he won’t do it again.

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Then, again, the new king was heard addressing his people in the English language. That was another error. Listeners would view their king as an elitist alien. Even when the people understand that language, they would refuse to understand its message. And every leader needs the people as the wind behind their sail. In ‘The tale of the Heike’, a Japanese masterpiece, it is said that “the sovereign is a ship, his people water. Water keeps the ship afloat; water can capsize it as well. Subjects sustain their sovereign; subjects also overthrow him.” That is why a king must literally and metaphorically speak the language of his people. Speaking in pentecostal tongues alienates leaders. Coming down to the people’s level, using their words, builds trust, fires them up and inspires them to serve their lord and master. The Yoruba have a saying for the groom who speaks to his in-laws in a language he alone understands. But I know that like other human engagements, the kingship process is work in progress; its wine gets better as it adds years. The rough edges may yet get smoothened as the journey progresses in Ogbomoso.

Because in a situation like this, it does not rain, it pours, there was another issue. At the coronation ceremony in Ogbomoso was the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi. Some people feel the occupant of the throne of Oduduwa should not have got up to welcome Osun State governor, Ademola Adeleke, to the event. They say he should have emulated the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III, who sat beside the Ooni and looked unmoved by the gubernatorial entrance. I heard the critics and wondered if they knew that Adeleke was Ooni’s governor and what we run is not a monarchical democracy. And, have they asked themselves if that was how the Olu of Warri would sit if it was his Delta State governor that came before him? Can the critics check why the Olu of Warri bowed when he visited his own governor in Asaba on November 5, 2021? The photo is available online. Before our neo-Yoruba nationalists push their various obas to take on governors, they should reflect on the likely result of a head-butting contest between egg and stone. The governor is the stone, the oba the egg.

I join in celebrating the new king in Ogbomoso. The new oba presents a promise of greatness. His education, his exposure, composure, his physique, his standing and, very importantly, the company he keeps, suggest he will be good for his people. Prayers for him should, therefore, not be left for his pastors alone. He needs the evocative support, the blessing, the gird and the guidance of the owners of the morning and of those who hold the reins of the night. I believe he is a worthy addition to a short line of oba currently leading the people’s journey back to what Ayi Kwei Armah calls ‘the way.’ If he and others do it well, we may actually see in them an alternative to our politics of pain. We may start asking forcefully: why can’t we have a very good oba, obi or emir as president or governor? Or is there anything in our constitution that says they cannot be?

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[OPINION] Gov Adeleke: Cure Madness With Madness

Published

10 hours ago

October 10, 2025

Editor

Tunde Odesola

This is the definition of shock. A squirrel’s stomach rumbles like a faucet belching water, despite a barn of walnuts in full view. But the barn is utterly inaccessible. Fidgety on the same spot, the squirrel sits, skips, sighs and yawns in hunger, furtively watching four moustachioed scarecrows guard the four pillars of the barn. Two of the scarecrows wear buba and sokoto, the other two wear agbada and abeti aja caps.

Then came a whirlwind. The squirrel, head peeping out of its burrow in the earth, watches as one abeti aja cap goes up in the air, while the scarecrow donning the abeti aja cap crashes facedown on the barn gbooaa!

Terrified, the squirrel dashes into the ground on the limbs of lightning. By the time it came back to peep from its burrow, another scarecrow had crashed and crumbled like Humpty Dumpty. If it were human, the squirrel would have spoken in pidgin English, with a thick Warri accent, “Ehn-ehn? I see. So, na effigy I bin dey fear since all dis days wey hunger dey wire me? Human beings wicked o. I go show dis farmer pepper!” In this moment of sudden realisation, the look on the squirrel is the definition of shock.

If I told you I became an Ambassador when I was 12 years old, I’m sure you would be shocked. But that’s the truth. It was at Araromi Baptist Church, located at 42, Sokunbi Street, Mushin, that I was made an Ambassador in the Layode Chapter of Royal Ambassadors – a male youth group that mentors teenagers and young adults in faith, leadership and service. The motto of the Boy Scouts-like organisation is, “We are ambassadors for Christ,” a quote domiciled in 2 Corinthians 5:20.

Though our church is located in Mushin, where we grew up, Royal Ambassadors didn’t take marijuana, not to talk of colos, loud, codeine, tramadol, cocaine, heroin, etc, hard substances popular among today’s youths.

According to Royal Ambassadors’ cherished manual, which contains the philosophy and guidelines of the organisation, “An ambassador is the one who represents a king at the court of another king.” All churches under the Nigerian Baptist Convention have Royal Ambassador chapters. In my days as an ambassador, we learnt how to pitch a tent in an open-air camp, make a lanyard, control traffic, conduct a march-past, sing and play martial and secular musical instruments, and preach the word of God.

Of late, in Nigeria, however, there’s a strong umbilical cord connecting shock and the term ambassador. Thesaurus, the book of meanings, says scandalise is a synonym for shock. It also gives ‘emissary’ as the equivalent of ambassador.

From popular marijuana-smoking Naira Marley to tarmac-invader, King Wasiu Ayinde Marshall, and the content-creating irritant, Ayomiposi Oluwadahunsi, aka Mandy Kiss, who sought to bed 100 men in 24 hours, and earn Guinness World Record fame – the official reward for infamy in Nigeria is an ambassadorial award.

But the ambassadorship conferred on me by Araromi Baptist Church is in Christ, not in crisis. Nigerianly, the ambassadorships conferred on Naira Marley, Wasiu Ayinde and Mandy Kiss were rewards for the crises they precipitated.

In the southwestern domain of Governor Nurueen Ademola Jackson Adeleke, three issues stand out as either befitting of Nigeria’s present-day ambassadorial awards or outright condemnation. They are the embarrassment the Osun Amotekun Corps is fast becoming, the Apetu of Ipetumodu saga, and the gassing Oluwo of Iwo. Thank goodness, Adeleke has not yet glorified the ridicule these three have smeared on public consciousness by making them ambassadors. It is, however, instructive to note that he has yet to condemn any of them. And, silence, wisdom whispers, is another name for consent.

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Dear Governor Adeleke, the people of Osun are asking, “Where has one of the kings in our State of the Living Spring, the Apetu of Ipetumodu, Oba Joseph Oloyede, gone? The people of Osun are saying the Apetu’s royal head that wears the beaded crown of Ipetumodu has been exposed koroboto in a US jail, shining to the derision of inmates who wonder why a king dragged his nobility in criminal mud. It is too big for my basketmouth to ask the Oba Elewon if it was greed or ambition, or both, that pushed him off the throne into the trash of dishonour. Your Excellency can help the people of Osun ask him, using the authority of your office.

My governor, the Oriade of Ipetumodu will not only be sleeping outside his domain in the next four and a half years, the Igba Keji Orisa will be sleeping in a foreign prison, wearing prison clothes, eating prison food, bathing with fellow prisoners and doing prison labour. Abomination! Do the Yoruba not say ‘oriade kii sun ita?’ Governor Adeleke, this oriade has slept outside; it should not be allowed back into the palace.

Thank heavens, Governor Adeleke has no visual challenge; thus, I ask, “Is the optics of Apetu in prison orange uniform good for the integrity and image of Osun? If it is not, why has the Peoples Democratic Party-led Osun administration kept quiet for many weeks after the jailing of the Alayeluwa? Remember, Mr Governor, many months after the Apetu was arrested in the US over a multimillion-dollar COVID-19 relief fund fraud, your administration said it would await court judgment to know the direction to go on the matter.

On August 28, 2025, however, a US Distinct Judge in Ohio, Christopher Boyko, found Oloyede guilty of leading a conspiracy to exploit COVID-19 emergency loan programmes designed to assist struggling small businesses, sentenced him to 56 months in prison and ordered him to refund $4,408,543.38, $90,006.89, forfeiting the house he bought in Medina, Ohio, with the proceeds of the fraud.

Speaking exclusively to PUNCH newspaper after the judgment, Osun State Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters, Dosu Babatunde, said the Adeleke administration would not act based on social media reports.

Babatunde said, “While it may be true that the monarch has been convicted and jailed, there is no official record with us. We cannot rely on Facebook posts and stories to justify such a serious matter.” Babatunde added that the government would get the Certified True Copy (CTC) of the judgment before making any decision regarding the stool.

In a shocking move that unfolded two days after his imprisonment, however, persons believed to be loyal to the 62-year-old Oloyede, subsequently ransacked the palace and allegedly carted into hiding crowns and royal paraphernalia in a bid to stall the appointment and installation of a new king. While the people of Ipetumodu are calling on the state government to commence the process of appointing a new king, the deafening silence on the part of the Adeleke government appears to be a tacit tactic to stall and hold the crown down for the criminal king.

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As a US resident, I know it is not likely to take up to 15 minutes to obtain the CTC of a case in a US court, upon application, having obtained information myself in a court sometime ago. The statement by the Osun State government that it needed a CTC to commence action on the Apetu’s case reeks of foot-dragging and hypocrisy when the king had been held in prison since April 2024, sentenced in August 2025, with the report of the sentencing on the official website of the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Ohio.

By asking for the CTC, does the Adeleke administration intend to appeal the judgment on behalf of the Apetu? If yes, did the state governor or government benefit from the proceeds of the fraud? And, why has the government not obtained the Almighty CTC since judgment was given? Oba Oloyede is the second case of an Osun monarch jailed for criminal offences in the US, the first one being the Oluwo of Iwo, Oba, Emir, Alaafin Abdulrasheed Adewale Akanbi, the Telu I. Why is the Adeleke government buying time for a king whose royal gourd Ipetumode kingmakers should have smashed into oblivion by now? Is the state government saying the monarch has been on a sabbatical holiday since April 2024, when he was held in the US? Now that the king has been jailed and the report has grabbed headlines across the world, it is absolutely unthinkable that the Osun State government appears undecided and clueless on the matter. The people of Osun need an answer to the question of the jailed Apetu urgently.

My governor and aburo Serubawon of blessed memory, getting a CTC in a US court is far less stressful than the energy you exert dancing. The people of Osun voted for you to show good leadership. There is no better time to prove your mettle than now. You bear the illustrious title of Asiwaju; it’s time to prove you are not the snail that carries two horns on its head, but lacks the power to butt.

Egbon Ademola, the lastborn of Pa Ayoola Adeleke and Mama Esther Adeleke, remember the son of whom you are. You’re the descendant of Timi Agbale, Olofa ina. You are omo arogun ma fi t’ibon se, omo Mapo Arogun, iyako agbo, omo aji lala oso, aji f’ojo gbogbo dara bi egbin. The pall of darkness cast over Ipetumodu by the Apetu’s imprisonment needs your Imole. Shine your light to chase away darkness in Ipetu.

I’m sure you know Dr Olusegun Mimiko. He is a former Governor of Ondo State. His nickname is Iroko. When the then Deji of Akure, Oba Oluwadare Adeshina Adepoju, engaged his wife in a public brawl, Iroko uprooted him and flung him outside the palace, replacing him with the incumbent king, Oba Adegboye Adesida. Baba B-Red, please, prove to the world that if Ondo State had Iroko, Osun State has a true Asiwaju, too.

But if Imole is jittery to take action on Oloyede because of his re-election bid in 2026, I’ll advise him to listen and take courage from the song titled, “Were la fi n wo were,” by a Juju musician named G Melody.

Is the governor surprised that the song doesn’t even belong to Taye Currency, a low-current Ibadan-based Fuji musician, who inappropriately sang the song at the recent coronation of the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Adewolu Rashidi Ladoja? I was surprised, too. The song belongs to G Melody. But Currency sang it energetically as if it were his own, without giving credit to Melody.

While investigating the ownership of the song, I called music aficionado, Bimbo Esho, of the Evergreen Musical Company fame, and asked who owns Were la fi n wo were. Bimbo sent me a voice note containing the voice of Ogun State-based G Melody in which he told the story of how he got the inspiration to compose the song.

Melody said, “It’s my song. People have been calling me about the song. Some of the boys I trained, like Ola Liberty, sing it. Ola Liberty is my very good son. I’m not a noise maker. It’s my song. There’s another song of mine, “Kilode te n ya were, abosi?”, that they are singing all over the place now. I composed Were la fi n wo were song in Imeko, where I had gone to sing at a political rally. Some guys were trying to disrupt the rally, and I said they should calm down, that they cannot stop me. I infused it with political undertones, saying they cannot steal our votes, and if they do, we would cure madness with madness – were la fi n wo were.”

Governor Adeleke, it is high time you cured madness with madness in Osun. It is not right for a hunter to flee homeward from the forest, shouting, “Help! Help! Save me! A ferocious animal is on my heels!” Please, restore the Omoluabi ethos of dignity, integrity and honour to Ipetumodu royalty.

It’s obvious the same affliction of greed that plagues the Ipetumodu crown plagues the Iwo monarchy; àrùn to n se Ipetumodu lo n se Iwo, but Iwo manifests a malignant and metastasised cancer needing urgent surgery. First, the Oluwo should be deposed for his criminal conviction in the US over fraud, just like the Apetu. Second, the public actions and utterances of the Oluwo negating the honour and source of the Yoruba should be investigated and sanctioned by the state government.

In an old video, Oluwo said, “Me and Ooni do talk, we have a very good relationship. He (Ooni) is the head of all kings in Yorubaland; that is the source. It doesn’t matter what anybody says; Ife is the source of all crowns. Ife is where Oduduwa lived and got his crown from. Every other king who is from ancient town is a prince from Ife. I am a prince from Ife. Every other crown that you see, that is an ancient crown in Yoruba land, is prince from Yorubaland. So, the crown he (Ooni) is wearing is the father of all the crowns. It doesn’t matter what anybody says.”

In a new video, Akanbi, who named his palace, “Aafin Olodumare Iwo,” dares the Ooni to speak Ife dialect in Ibadan, and inferred that the Ooni was not a Yoruba king because he does not wear ofi clothe, insisting that Yoruba kings do not tie their clothes over their shoulders as the Ooni does. In a moment of epiphany, fueled by God-knows-what, Akanbi also says Ife is not the source of the Yoruba, leaving people who had watched his earlier acceptance of Ife as the source of all crowns, wondering if all is well with the Oluwo of Iwo.

Were la fi n wo were. Governor Adeleke, as a matter of urgency, should take this song to the headquarters of the Osun State Amotekun Corps, where a malignant form of madness is festering.

Reports emanating across Osun against the modus operandi of Amotekun indicate that the corps has turned into a full-fledged organ of terror. The corps, under the leadership of a retired policeman, Isaac Omoyele, is a classical example to be cited by antagonists of state police. Evidence abounds that the corps now extorts the citizenry, detaining people and charging them money for bail.

In June, officials of the corps were accused of illegal arrest of residents in the Itaapa community, a situation which led the residents to stage a protest in Osogbo, the Osun State capital. The Odofin of Itaapa, Olusegun Owoeye, who led the protesters, said Amotekun officers arrested some members of the community’s security volunteer team alongside some chiefs, following a complaint by a leader of the governor’s party, the PDP.

Omoyele had insisted that those arrested were criminals armed with guns, but the community said the guns belonged to the town’s vigilante members.

Before he was appointed by Adeleke as Amotekun commander, Omoyele, in 2022, was accused of brutality by an #ENDSARS panel while serving as a police officer.

In its latest show of barbarity, officials of the corps stormed the Akinlalu community and opened fire on innocent citizens, killing no fewer than four people, while claiming that they did so in an attempt to retrieve a pump-action gun some youths of the community seized.

Before Osun is turned into a lake of fire, the governor should tell his Amotekun that it is wrong to carry out reprisal attacks on innocent people while trying to retrieve a gun, just as the arrest of 20 members of the corps by a special squad of the police is commendable.

Omoyele, who was the chief security officer to Adeleke, should be relieved of his post, while a more mature, disciplined and experienced replacement should take his stead.

I won’t mind if my governor gyrates to Were la fi n wo were, sliding two fingers over the corner of his eyes while his followers shout themselves hoarse, but he must truly cure the madness in Osun with madness.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

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Jonathan To Meet Tinubu Over Nnamdi Kanu’s Detention — Sowore

Published

14 hours ago

October 10, 2025

Editor

Human rights activist and former presidential candidate, Omoyele Sowore, said former President Goodluck Jonathan has agreed to engage President Bola Tinubu on the continued detention of the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, Nnamdi Kanu.

Sowore disclosed this on Friday via his X handle after meeting with Jonathan in Abuja.

According to him, their discussion centred on the “urgent and compelling need” to address Kanu’s case “decisively and justly.”

Sowore said, “Earlier today in Abuja, I met with former President @GEJonathan (Goodluck Jonathan) to discuss the continued incarceration of Mazi @NnamdiKanu

“President Jonathan agreed that there is an urgent and compelling need to address this matter decisively and justly. I thank him sincerely for recognising the importance of resolving Kanu’s case in the interest of peace, fairness, and national healing.

“Particularly assuring was that he promised to meet @officialabat (President Bola Tinubu) to discuss this issue as soon as possible.”

He noted that with this development, Jonathan joins a growing list of Nigerians who have called for justice in Nnamdi Kanu’s case.

“A list that already includes ex-Vice President @atiku, Femi Falana SAN, Senator @ShehuSani, and many others across political and regional divides,” Sowore said.

The activist reiterated his call for Kanu’s release, saying the IPOB leader “remains in detention today because he took up the just cause of confronting the long-standing issue of marginalisation in Nigeria.”

He also urged political, cultural, and religious leaders, including Peter Obi, Chukwuma Soludo, Alex Otti, Francis Nwifuru, Peter Mbah, Hope Uzodinma, Oby Ezekwesili, and Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s John Mbata, to join the campaign for Kanu’s release.

Kanu has been in detention since 2021 after being re-arrested abroad and returned to Nigeria to face trial on charges bordering on terrorism and treasonable felony.

Several court orders granting him bail or ordering his release have yet to be implemented.

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Yiaga Africa, Kukah Centre, Others Demand Live Broadcast Of INEC Chair Screening

Published

14 hours ago

October 10, 2025

Editor

Civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria have appealed to the Senate to ensure that the screening of Professor Joash Amupitan (SAN) for the position of Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is broadcast live to the public.

According to the groups, a live broadcast of the screening would promote transparency, accountability, and public confidence in the process of appointing the head of the nation’s electoral body.

In a statement made available to The Guardian on Friday, they emphasised that, given the crucial role INEC plays in safeguarding Nigeria’s democracy, citizens have a right to witness and assess the integrity, competence, and independence of the nominee being considered for such a sensitive position.

The CSOs include Yiaga Africa, Women Rights Advancement Protection Alternative (WRAPA), International Press Centre, The Kukah Centre, Centre for Media and Society, TAF Africa, African Centre for Leadership, Strategy & Development (Centre LSD), Nigeria Women Trust Fund, Accountability Lab Nigeria, and YERP Naija Campaign.

According to the organisations, live coverage would help dispel any suspicion of bias or backroom dealings, while allowing Nigerians to engage more meaningfully in discussions about electoral reforms and leadership within the electoral body.

“We call on the Senate to ensure that its confirmation hearings are transparent, televised, and inclusive of citizen and civil society input through memoranda, petitions, and participation in the confirmation hearings.

“The Senate should undertake a rigorous examination of his competence, public records, vision for electoral reform, INEC’s institutional strengthening, as well as his capacity to resist political interference and uphold electoral integrity.

“The Senate should also interrogate the nominee’s plans to address systemic challenges, including voter registration, result transmission, and enforcement of INEC’s regulations and guidelines.

“Nigerians expect the Senate confirmation process to be open to citizens’ participation in line with the Framework for Citizens’ Engagement in the INEC Appointment Process previously submitted to the Senate by the undersigned civil society organisations. This includes full disclosure of the nominee’s credentials, public service history, and capacity to manage elections without political interference,” the statement reads.

While acknowledging Professor Amupitan’s academic and professional accomplishments, they declared that they have no objection to his nomination, even as they tasked him to “demonstrate moral courage and resistance to political interference,” if confirmed by the Senate.
(GUARDIAN)