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OPINION: The Bile In Oshiomhole’s Heart

Published

1 year ago

September 6, 2024

Tunde Odesola

Former Governor of Edo State, Senator Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, was born on April 4, 1952. If baby Adams had come into the world three days earlier, he would have been born on April Fools’ Day. Adams is now 72 years old, long past 40, the popular age society set as the bar for fools to sink or swim. Oshiomhole is not a fool, he was only born on April 4, the same day and month all hell broke loose in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. April 4, unto us a baby is born.

Old age doesn’t always beget wisdom, though experience is its forte. This fact is lost on Nigeria’s President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s National Assembly, and education policymakers, whose aversion to genius and scholarship informed the barring of under-18 students from accessing tertiary education.

Dressed in the robes of fake leaders, Nigeria’s blind visioners in Asso Rock and beyond bark, ‘Kill them before they grow’, at young admission seekers milling around the almighty gates of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, with Bob Marley’s song, “I Shot the Sheriff,” playing in the background.

Oshiomhole loves dancing. As a comrade in the trenches of the Nigeria Labour Congress, he must have danced to Fela Anikulapo’s Beasts of No Nation, in which the Abami Eda describes himself as Basketmouth. Basketmouth is the street slang for the big-mouthed. When Oshiomhole talks, baskets overflow. But a Yoruba proverb warns, òpò òrò ò ká’gbòn, aféfé ló ń gbe lo, a basket full of words is worthless. Whenever he feels strongly about an issue, the force of his oration appears compelling even if what he belches is just hot air, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Adam was the name of the first human created by God, so say the Holy Bible and the Holy Quran. Adam means ‘Son of the Red Earth’. Aliyu is one of the 99 names of Allah. It means ‘The Most High’ or The Exalted One’. As ‘the Son of the Red Earth’, Oshiomhole’s thoughts and actions are expected to be deep-rooted in the soil of wisdom. As ‘The Exalted One’, his words are expected to typify dignity.

But Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, while on a campaign trail in Edo State a few days ago, defiled his two names. Without regard to wisdom or civility, Oshiomhole threw decency to the dogs as he pronounced his former begotten son and incumbent Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, and his wife, Betsy, childless. A Muslim reportedly converted to Christianity by his late wife, Clara, Oshiomhole’s characteristic aggression is typical of converts.

When caught midair in the breaking light of dawn, witches become confused and they drop to the ground. They also confess. Oshiomhole said, “I was shock (sic) yesterday to see Mrs Obaseki, the First Lady, saying that our candidate has no wife; I’m sorry that she has to say that because here’s a woman who has no child. Between him (sic) and Obaseki, they have no child, they’re childless. They are even not ready to adopt. I mean, I don’t blame anybody shouldn’t (sic) have a child but people who have love for children, they go to motherless home(s) and adopt children, they have not adopted, they are both in their 60s.

“So, you married, I don’t know whether it’s a contract one, but whatever it is, but they have no child. Now, our candidate not only have (sic) children, he has invested in the education of those children, such that you watch them on live television, covered by your media stations where the first that spoke is a lawyer, the second one is a medical doctor, and they addressed the crowd in Edo-South, in Edo-Central, in Edo-North, and their mother was there.”

I can’t tell why witches are repetitive but I suspect the electoral whipping Obaseki gave Oshiomhole in the 2020 governorship election in Edo has created a hatred in Oshiomhole’s heart large enough to accommodate 10 wounded lions as he described Obaseki and his wife as childless four times in a one-minute video clip. Osho Baba, na wetin?

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The tirade quoted above was what Betsy Obaseki got for declaring at a rally that only the Peoples Democratic Party candidate in the Edo governorship election, Asue Ighodalo, was married. Though she didn’t specifically mention any candidate as being unmarried, the undertone of her message wasn’t lost on her audience. The Betsy innuendo was what Oshiomhole, a former national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, couldn’t take, and he decided to run the errand meant for media aides and party roughnecks, all for his political son, Monday Okpebholo, the APC governorship candidate. What a great national leader Oshiomhole is!

Betsy could have done the more involving breaststroke swimming style in the sewage of Edo’s political bitterness but she didn’t, she chose the stylish backstroke, maybe for its steaze or womanishness. But Oshiomhole would drag anyone, male or female, without a child, to the bottom of the sewage for child-ish baptism because he’s the god of Edo who gives children.

According to the University of California San Francisco’s Memory and Ageing Center – Weill Institute of Neurosciences – there are three major areas of the brain responsible for speech and language. They are the Bocca’s area, Wernicke’s area and the Angular gyrus.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Does Sparing The Rod Spoil The Child?

In a research, “Speech and Language,” published on its website, the university says, “When someone has trouble understanding other people (receptive language) or explaining thoughts, ideas and feelings (expressive language), that is a language disorder.”

UCSF, a world-class citadel of knowledge, added, “When someone cannot produce speech sounds correctly or fluently or has voice problems, that is a speech disorder.”

In a society where pettiness is a virtue within the ruling class, Betsy’s preoccupation with marriage and Oshiomhole’s fixation with childlessness reflect the shallowness of the characters who populate Nigeria’s corridors of power.

The lack of roadmaps by Presidents Goodluck Jonathan, Muhamadu Buhari, Bola Tinubu, and governorship, legislative and local government council candidates standing election entrenches us firmly at the bottom of global development. The silence that greets misgovernance in Nigeria concretises our national doom.

At election times, the Nigerian electorate bickers over frivolities and expects candidates who had no manifestos to wave the magic wand after snatching and robbing like mafiosos.

In our electoral childishness, childlessness was a talking point in the Edo governorship election in 2020 when Oshiomhole was accused of not fathering a child with his Cape Verde wife, Iara. Oshiomhole, who has children with his late wife, Clara, could choose not to have children anymore. In Nigerian politics, the shoe is always on the wrong foot. The PDP threw the first stone in 2020, and now the APC is casting a rock.

It’s ironic that Oshiomhole who is kicking against Betsy’s remarks today, had in 2016, accused then-Senator Dino Melaye of not capable of ‘maintaining a decent matrimonial home’ after Melaye said on the floor of the Senate that there was the need to enact a law that would stop Nigerians marrying foreigners from paying dowries in dollars – in a veiled reference to Oshiomhole.

The former Edo governor thundered in a statement, “It’s an open secret that Senatoe Melaye cannot maintain a decent matrimonial home hence he could descend to this pedestrian level of using the hallowed chambers to categorise women as if they were pieces of items for purchase.”

In Africa, children are viewed as inheritances from God. It’s wrong to needle anyone with children or lack of them. When I was a child, I remember I was occasionally taken to the house of my father’s childhood friend, the late Mr Jacob Asha Afainiya, because his wife, the late Mrs Olajumoke Comfort Afainiya, who was my mom’s childhood friend, had not conceived, despite the two couples marrying about the same time.

The Afainiya couple got their firstborn, Seun, when my parents had their third, Florence, now deceased. I occasionally stayed with the Afainiya family, who lived a stone’s throw from us in Mushin, in the belief that my ‘head’ would call from heaven children for the Afainiya couple – ori omo lo ma n pe omo waye. That’s the African belief. It also shows the importance which Africans attach to children. And I enjoyed going to the Afainiyas because mummy Afainiya made okra soup like no other mother.

One day, in the presence of both couples, I told my mom to cook her okra like mummy Afainiya’s, and everyone present laughed. When I got home, I cried for my basket-mouthedness as my mom descended on me.

Nigeria, it’s high time we based our campaigns on developmental issues and stop running our mouths like torn baskets, please.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

News

Reviewed List Of Presidential Pardon Recipients

Published

29 minutes ago

October 29, 2025

Editor

President Bola Tinubu has approved a revised list of convicts granted clemency under the Instrument of Presidential Prerogative of Mercy, 2025.

This is as the Presidency announced a review of the pardon list following widespread criticism.

The list, dated October 21, 2025 and personally signed by the President, contains 86 names of inmates across various correctional facilities nationwide, whose sentences were reduced or commuted under Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The document, sighted by PUNCH Online, titled “Reduced Terms of Imprisonment and Sentence, 2025,” shows that several inmates convicted for offences ranging from manslaughter, culpable homicide, drug trafficking, illegal possession of firearms, conspiracy, and unlawful mining were granted reduced sentences.

They include:

Homicide and Manslaughter Cases

•Yusuf Owolabi (36) – Convicted of manslaughter in 2015 and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Kirikiri. Now to serve 15 years based on “educational improvement, remorsefulness and acquisition of vocational skills.”
•Ifeanyi Eze (33) – Life sentence for manslaughter (2021), now to serve 15 years.
•Maryam Sanda (37) – Convicted for culpable homicide (2020) and sentenced to death by hanging. Her sentence commuted to 12 years based on “compassionate grounds, the best interest of her children, good conduct and remorsefulness.”
•Markus Yusuf (41) – Culpable homicide (2023), 13-year sentence reduced to 8 years due to ill health.
•Alhaji Abubakar Tanko (61) – Culpable homicide (2018), 30-year term reduced to 20 years.

Drug and Narcotics Offences

•Patrick Mensah (40) – Drugs (2015), 17 years reduced to 13 years.
•Obi Edwin Chukwu (43), Tunde Balogun (32), Lima Pereira Erick Diego (27), Uchegbu Emeka Michael (37), Salawu Adebayo Samsudeen (46), and Napolo (61) were all convicted for drug trafficking between 2015–2017.

“Sentences of 15 years reduced to 12 years each based on “remorsefulness and vocational skill acquisition.”

Financial and Fraud-related Offences

•Mustapha Ahmed (46) – Criminal breach of trust; 7-year sentence cut to 5 years.
•Innocent Brown Idiong (60) – Possession of Indian hemp; 10-year term reduced to 6 years.
•Inibong Imayen Nuikidem (46) – Obtaining money by false pretence; 7 years cut to 5 years.
•Buka Adamu (40) – Advance fee fraud; 20 years reduced to 9 years.
•Ada Audu (72) – Fraud; 7-year mandatory imprisonment cut to 4 years.
•Chief Jonathan Alatoru (66), Umannah Ekatte (70), Utom Thompson Udoaka (60) – Granted reduced terms for age, remorsefulness and good conduct.

Firearms and Related Offences

•Abubakar Mamman (38) – Possession of AK-47 rifle (2020); 10-year sentence cut to 7 years.
•Muhammed Bello Musa (35) – Possession of firearms; 10 years reduced to 7 years.
•Nnamdi Anene (67) – Illegal dealing in firearms; life sentence commuted to 20 years.
•Alhaji Ibrahim Hameed (71) – Illegal property possession; 7 years reduced to 5 years.

Maritime and Conspiracy Offences

•Bright Agbedeyi (46), Babangida Saliu (35), Jude Saka Ebaragha (44), Frank Insort Abaka (46), Sluna Alolo (42), David Akinseye (39), Ahmed Toyin (46), Shobajo Saheed (57), Adamole Philip (52), and Mathew Masi (39) were all convicted for conspiracy to hijack fishing vessels in 2020. Their 12-year sentences were reduced to eight years with N1m fines waived “based on remorsefulness and impecuniosity.”

Unlawful Mining Offenders

A total of at least 45 inmates across the Medium Security Custodial Centre, Agodi, Oyo State, were convicted in January 2024 for unlawful mining.

Each was sentenced to three years, now reduced to two years, “based on remorsefulness, good conduct and a letter of undertaking dated April 22, 2025,” reportedly facilitated by Senator Ikra Aliyu Bilbis for their rehabilitation and empowerment after release.

The list includes:
Yusuf Alhassan, Abdullahi Isah, Zayanu Bello, Habeeb Suleman, Jubria Sahabi, Shefiu Umar, Seidu Abubakar, Haruna Abubakar, Rabiu Seidu, Macha Kuru, Zahradeen Aminu, Nazipi Musa, Abdullahi Musa, Habibu Safiu, Husseni Sani, Musa Lawali, Suleiman Lawale, Yusuf Iliyasu, Sabiyu Aliyu, Halliru Sani, Shittu Aliyu, Sanusi Aminu, Isaaka Adamu, Mamman Ibrahim, Shaibu Abdullahi, Sanusi Adamu, Sadi Musa, and Haruna Isah, among others.

Presidential Approval and Legal Backing

The document cites Section 175 of the 1999 Constitution, which empowers the President to “grant any person concerned with or convicted of any offence in Nigeria a pardon, either free or subject to lawful conditions.”

It was formally titled: “S.I. No. 79 of 2025: Instrument of Presidential Prerogative of Mercy (Reduced Terms of Imprisonment and Sentence).”
(PUNCH)

News

NDLEA Files Forfeiture Case Against Lagos Socialite’s Club Over Drug Party

Published

42 minutes ago

October 29, 2025

Editor

The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Buba Marwa (retd.), has disclosed that the agency has filed a forfeiture suit against a Lagos nightclub owned by socialite Mike Nwogu, popularly known as Pretty Mike.

The agency had on Sunday raided a drug party held at Proxy Night Club, located at 7 Akin Adesola Street, Victoria Island, Lagos, where operatives arrested over 100 attendees, including the club owner and his manager, Joachin Milary.

The NDLEA said the operation followed intelligence that the organisers had circulated flyers inviting people to what was described as a “drug party.”

In an update issued on Tuesday, the agency’s Director of Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi, said undercover operatives infiltrated the club, made pre-purchases of illicit drugs, and monitored activities for about four hours before storming the premises between 11 p.m. on Saturday and 3 a.m. on Sunday.

Babafemi said operatives recovered 384.886 kilograms of Canadian Loud, a potent strain of cannabis, and other illicit substances from the club’s storage area.

Speaking during the NDLEA’s annual commendation and award ceremony in Abuja, where 15 senior officers were decorated with new ranks and several personnel recognised for outstanding performance, Marwa said the forfeiture suit followed the raid after the club owner “brazenly advertised” a drug party, openly encouraging patrons to indulge in drugs.

According to him, the agency will not allow a culture of impunity to take root in the entertainment sector or any part of the country.

“In Nigeria, the possession and use of drugs in persons or premises is illegal. It is against the law, and we are the drug law enforcement agency to enforce the law.

“We will not allow a culture of impunity such as this to evolve in Nigeria. If you allow one, give it two or three weeks and every nightclub in the country will invite people to come and have a drug party. We will not allow it,” he said.

Marwa warned club owners, hoteliers and facility managers nationwide that their buildings risk being seized if they are used for drug-related activities.

“All club owners, hoteliers and the like should be aware that the risk is the forfeiture of their properties if they are used for perpetrating criminal drug activities. And we will definitely make an example with this particular club in Lagos,” he added.

Marwa also highlighted the agency’s achievements in the last 30 months, stating that the NDLEA recorded 45,853 arrests, seized over 8.5 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs, secured 9,263 convictions, and rehabilitated 26,613 drug users.

He said the agency conducted 9,848 War Against Drug Abuse sensitisation campaigns nationwide within the same period.

Marwa said, “In the past 30 months, on our two major plans of drug demand reduction and drug supply reduction, leading to 45,853 arrests. Seizure of over 8.5 million kilogrammes of assorted illicit drugs and conviction of 9,263 offenders, with 26,613 drug users counselled and rehabilitated in our treatment facilities spread across the country, while a total of 9,848 war against drug abuse sensitisation activities were conducted in schools, workplaces, markets, motorparks, churches, mosques, and communities, among others, during the same period.”

While commending officers for their dedication despite risks and temptations, Marwa said the agency’s reward and recognition system has strengthened morale and improved operational outcomes.

News

UPDATED: Tinubu Reverses Maryam Sanda’s Pardon, Convict To Spend Six Years In Jail

Published

2 hours ago

October 29, 2025

Editor

…Relocate office of Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative

After backlash for granting a presidential pardon to Maryam Sanda, sentenced to death in 2020 for the killing of her husband, Bilyaminu Bello, President Bola Tinubu has revoked the pardon and reversed her sentence to 12 years.

This was revealed in an official gazette released by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, on Wednesday.

According to the gazette, Sanda, who had already spent six years and eight months at the Suleja Medium Security Custodial Centre, will now spend approximately six additional years in jail after getting an approved term on compassionate grounds.

It read, “Maryam Sanda, whose offence was culpable homicide, sentenced on 27/01/2020 with death by hanging, has served six years and eight months at the Medium Security Custodial Centre (MSCC), Suleja will now serve 12 years based on compassionate grounds, in the best interest of the children and good conduct, embraced a new lifestyle, model prisoner and remorsefulness.”

In the gazette titled “reduced terms”, the explanatory note stressed that the beneficiaries whose names were listed therein were in pursuance of section 175 of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended).

The beneficiaries included 37-year-old Sanda, Harunah Isah (35), Mamman Ibrahim (50), Sanusi Adamu (28), Sadi Musa 20, Sabiyu Aliyu, Halliru Sani (18), and 79 others.

Corroborating the gazette in a press statement, the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) said the presidential pardon earlier released that granted Sanda and others clemency has been reviewed following consultations with the Council of State.

Fagbemi added that the President received concerns on the recommended list and consequently initiated a due process review.

The statement partly read, “It is to be recalled that following consultations with the Council of State, the President received concerns on the recommended list and consequently initiated a due process review. This exercise has been completed and approved by the President. This exercise was to ensure that only persons who met stipulated legal and procedural requirements would benefit from the prerogative of mercy.

“During this final review, few persons earlier recommended were found not to have met the necessary requirements and were accordingly delisted, while in some other cases, sentences were reviewed and reduced to reflect fairness, justice, and the spirit of the exercise.

“This exercise underscores the President’s desire to balance justice with compassion and the belief that justice must not only punish, but also reform and redeem. The review was undertaken with meticulous commitment to due process to reinforce the administration’s broader commitment to justice reform and humane correctional practices in line with international standards.”

The Minister of Justice further said that President Tinubu has directed the immediate relocation of the Secretariat of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy from the Federal Ministry of Special Duties to the Federal Ministry of Justice.

“To ensure that future exercises meet public expectations and best practices, the President has directed the immediate relocation of the Secretariat of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Prerogative of Mercy from the Federal Ministry of Special Duties to the Federal Ministry of Justice.

“The President has further directed the Attorney-General of the Federation to issue appropriate Guidelines for the Exercise of the Power of Prerogative of Mercy, which includes compulsory consultation with relevant prosecuting agencies.

“This will ensure that only persons who fully meet the stipulated legal and procedural requirements will henceforth benefit from the issuance of instruments of release,” the statement added.

The PUNCH reports that Tinubu granted Sanda a pardon because her family pleaded for her release, arguing that it was in the best interest of her two children.

The pardon was part of a larger decision to grant clemency to 175 Nigerians and foreigners, including notable figures such as the late environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, Major General Mamman Vatsa, and other members of the “Ogoni Nine”.

However, the pardon was greeted by a backlash from opposition parties and political figures, including the African Democratic Congress and former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, who condemned Tinubu’s decision to grant presidential pardons to dozens of convicted criminals, including drug traffickers, describing the move as a grave setback to Nigeria’s anti-drug campaign and a dangerous affront to justice and morality.

(PUNCH)