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OPINION: The Girls Of Chibok, Maga, Papiri And Our Frankenstein

Published

1 month ago

November 23, 2025

By Festus Adedayo

Famous Ogbomoso, Oyo State-born bard, Foyanmu Ogundare, had some words for evil spins and spinners. Religionists call these spinners “workers of iniquity”. They are a legion in Nigerian politics. Ogundare popularised this genre of oral poetry called Ìjálá Ọdẹ, traditionally chanted by hunters and warriors. Though a special verbal art of worshipers of Ogun, the Yoruba god of iron and war, Ìjálá is sung by hunters most times at their leisure, upon return from hunting expeditions. In an Ijala chant which he entitled Òré Òdàlè – Betrayer – Foyanmu chanted: “While the liar dies and his legs are buried in a sprinkle of ashes; the evil one, at death, has his legs laid inside hot charcoal, the legs of the righteous, at death, are stretched inside a coffin made of brass.” The bard rendered the poetry thus in Yoruba: “Purópuról’ókús’ójúeérú o/Sìkàsìkàkú, ò nasès’áàrò/Sòótó-sòótó nìkan l’óku sí’núpósí ide.” In this particular poetry, Foyanmu compared evil-doers to “alágàbàgebè” – hypocrites. They are deft and adept at killing and burying their victims, away from the gaze of the world. He, however, reminded them that when they have successfully killed and safely buried their victims, God alone is one who could take the evil shovel off their hands and unbowel their dark secrets. You will see Foyanmu’s poetry in action in Sayo Alagbe’s Ijala: Ogundare Foyanmu (2006).

On the night of April 14, 2014, rumour took over the Nigerian space. On that night, as Islamic jihadists’ trucks and buses forcibly conveying abducted 276 girls from Chibok, Borno State, disappeared into the Sambisa forest, a scary rumour whooshed in the Nigerian air. The girls were aged 16 to 18 and students of Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok. It brings the question, what is the place of rumour in our everyday society? Nicholas DiFonzo and Prashant Bordia, in their “Rumor, gossip and urban legends” Diogenes (2007) say rumour is an “unverified and instrumentally relevant information statement in circulation”. As such, even with power, majesty and Intel reports at his disposal, as the Jihadists ferried the girls into Sambisa, President Goodluck Jonathan chose to queue behind “rumour” as an instrumentally relevant information. Rumour then assumed the place of fact.

But, what was the rumour of Chibok? That the abducted schoolgirls, mostly Christians and a sprinkle Muslims, were instruments in the hands of Nigerian politicians. But, how? When? Why?

While the All Progressives Congress (APC) was seeking to meander its way into Aso Rock in 2014, it was caught in the web of that rumour. Before anyone could stand in its way, the rumour had spiralled in like a typhoon. Even the maishai hawking hot tea by the sidewalks was sold the hot rumour. It was retailed on every outlet. Deft politicians of the APC were said to have woven the plot like a spider weaves its gossamer. Having brilliantly pelted the sour grape of “lacklustre” and “clueless” on Jonathan, “ineptitude” would finally ram in the last nail on his government’s coffin. America would buy it and APC would coast home to power. The rumour goes thus: enlisting local militants to siphon the girls out of Chibok was a top-notch political masterplan to tar-brush Jonathan. It has been said that the global outrage the Chibok abduction courted, with Barack Obama and his wife becoming willing recruits of the agenda, incinerated Jonathan. Its effect was so massive that, when he got to the polls in 2015, Jonathan was as worthless as a roll of tissue paper. For a very long time, a Big Man in the APC, said to have been handed the job of ferrying those girls out of Chibok, was never in good terms with Jonathan. Now, payday is here.

Fast-forward to last week. When their projection hits the bull’s eye, Yoruba say, the Babalawo had hardly unpacked his Ifa divination tablet, also known as an OpónIfá, than physical affirmation of his prophecy came to pass. DiFonzo and Bordia’s rumour definition again perched on us like a recalcitrant vulture on carcass. Events of last week earned the epaulette to be saluted as Nigeria’s most harrowing week. Gory occurrences happened in less than 24 hours span from one another. They were followed by high-quality rumours which traveled at the speed of light, bearing cadences of truth. Nigeria’s recent insecurity nightmares, the rumours say, are pay-day for persons in this government who, eleven years ago, gathered to cook a broth of lies with faggots of untruth.

If you saw last week’s viral video of worshipers at a branch of the Christ Apostolic Church (CAC) Eruku in Kwara State, the picture you would get is a prostrate Nigeria, on its knees. When you add that sobering picture to last Tuesday’s story of armed Islamic terrorists’ killing of a vice principal, abducting at least 25 students of Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, Kebbi State, as well as the killing of a Nigerian Brigadier-General by ISWAP terrorists, the picture becomes complete. The week was almost ending when another horror occurred. Three hundred and fifteen students of St. Mary’s Catholic Secondary and Primary School, Papiri, Niger State were abducted. So huge is the terror that, in panic, government shut all the 47 unity colleges.

When you dig a trench to bury your enemy, folk wisdom counsels that you dig it as shallow as possible. The nugget of the counsel is that, that same trench may well be your sepulcher. In the wake of the week of palpable agony that was unleashed on Nigeria last week, the Jonathan narrative returned to Nigerian public discourse. It is the narrative of a Nigeria being run by a government that is clueless in taming the shrew of insecurity, but heavy in propaganda. The Obamas have now been replaced by Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and co. as taunters of those who dug Jonathan’s grave. Evil has turned full circle.

The Eruku church invasion has preyed on the subconscious of the world ever since. Its preying comes with terrifying and terrorising images.

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And then, the bandits stormed the church of God. Sporadic gunshots exploded. It was as if Eruku was Kyiv. When they eventually stepped their blood-stained feet on God’s sacred groove, the mainstreaming cameras caught the innermost recess of their hearts. It was thirsty for the blood of worshipers. Their physiognomy was unmistakable. It was that of our national tormentors, the Fula ethnic group, otherwise called Fulani. Dispersed across the Sahara, Sahel, West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan, this ethnic group has a sacred bonding that goes beyond the surreal.

In Nigeria, they are at the pinnacle of power. One of their topmost bloodlines in government today is Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu. So also, was Muhammadu Buhari, who was once quoted to have said in 2013 that “the military offensive against Boko Haram is anti-North”. Former Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, was also openly supportive of Fulani terror. In a viral video which had him crying and asking for retaliation, Isa Pantami, Nigeria’s erstwhile Minister of Communications, cried that there were retaliatory attacks against insurgents. In another sermon, Pantami called Boko Haram Islamic Jihadists “our Muslim brothers” who were being massacred “like pigs” rather than being accorded the privileges of Niger Delta militants. Under the Muhammadu Buhari presidency, a top official of that government shocked Nigerians when he said the Fula of countries in Africa had the “inalienable rights” to ingress into and egress out of Nigeria. They didn’t need Visas.

Last Tuesday, the Fula tormentors, cuddling menacing rifles like a mother cuddles her newborn, stormed Eruku. They stomped in like an army of occupation. Inhabitants said they got prior Intel of their invasion which they shared with security agencies. The question is, would Fula top chiefs manning Nigerian security hurt their bloodline to appease Eruku ‘infidels’?

So, they struck. Viral videos of their clinical operation showed about five armed bandits. They must have muttered “Allahu akbar” as they killed. Kwara State has confirmed that 38 worshipers, which included the pastor and congregants, were equally rounded up and marched into the forest. But, judging by its contiguity to the southwest, does Tinubu know that the next place to walk into for the Fulani terrorists of Eruku is Yorubaland?

Twenty four hours before, the terrorists found encore in Maga. Around 4a.m. on Monday, they struck this sleepy town in Kebbi State. It was the Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, in Danko/Wasagu Local Government Area that they chose. Maga brings fond memories of Kebbi State to me. Thirty two years ago, I saw caravans of traders, travelling on their mules galloping across the deserts through Yelwa-Yauri, Koko-Besse, Zuru, Suru, Jega, down to Argungu. Maga existed for us in conversations. Carrion-hungry ravens would seem to have polluted the unvarnished peace of Kebbi. When they concluded their pre-dawn raid of terror, 25 students were matched into the bush while the vice principal and a security guard were said to have been shot dead. In an interview, Malama Amina, wife of the slain vice principal, said the Jihadists, who dressed in army camouflage, spoke fluent Fulfude.

If you follow the unleashing of terror on the Nigerian space this past week, its abnormality would strike you firsthand. Was there a choreographed attempt to foist the narrative of an inept leadership? Or Christian persecution? The incongruities are manifest. One is that, kidnap of school students, since Chibok, would seem to have receded. Why is it resurgence now? Second is that, the inundation of the country with about four terrorist attacks in one week cannot be a happenstance. Piling the horrors into one single week raises a red flag of suspicion. At a time when America is firing its tempers at Tinubu from all cylinders, even an incompetent military analyst would confirm that this fusillade of attacks is not organic. In the manner of a recent lingo curated in Ibadan, Oyo State, that went viral, it looks like some persons, sitting somewhere, have chosen to cure past madness or even recent ones, with madness.

The upsurge of violence in Nigeria by Islamic fundamentalists looks like what Yoruba would refer to as egbìnrìn òtè. It is a complex and endless web of plots, intrigues and conspiracies. In this roller-coaster of intrigues, any attempt to find solution to one plot leads to more plots surfacing. It is comparable to a recurring infestation of disease.

To douse the fire of egbìnrìn òtè requires tact. Nigeria must do three things to wean this repeated violent blood-let off it. First, we must find out what the ideology of Boko Haram and other Islamists is. It is only when we know what makes them tick that we can find solutions to the insurgents’ irritancy. It is apparent that the “book is Haram” philosophy credited to the insurgents’ spiritual leader, Mohammed Yusuff, is no longer the Jihadists’ current ideology. Is the ideology a Fulanization agenda? Is it Islamic? Is it ethnic? These questions become necessary because there is so much Fulanization wrapped round the Boko Haram insurgency which makes prising them apart difficult. Second, in trying to tame this Frankenstein’s monster of insurgency and banditry, the Tinubu government must come clean with itself, just as it must be ready to clean the Augean stable.

For so long, Nigeria has accommodated seeds of destruction within itself like the proverbial foetuses within the gaboon viper, (Oka) which my people believe will eventually kill the snake. In Nigeria’s week of terror, security forces were fingered as enabling the insurgents. Government must clearly identify military barons and their civilian accomplices who see insurgency as business, religion or tribe. Upon identification, it must go after them with the venom of the western taipan, a species of extremely venomous snake of central east Australia origin. Saboteurs are a legion at the apex of power and are agents of the multiplication of the seeds of insurgency in Nigeria. It was this crack that Donald Trump entered in performing his “disgraceful country” showmanship. If Tinubu will, this hour, de-emphasise the politics of 2027 and embrace country, we will not have to repeat this orgy of bloodshed and kidnapping of our children.

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OPINION: Nigeria Deserves A President Donald Trump

Published

5 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Editor

By Suyi Ayodele

“I spoke with AJ on the phone to personally convey my condolences… He assured me that he is receiving the best care in the hospital.” From wherever he then was, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu relayed that Anthony Joshua, the British-born boxer of Nigerian descent involved in a recent car accident, had told him he was receiving the best medical attention in Nigeria.

Yet, with something as ordinary as a headache, the same president routinely jets out of the country for treatment, sometimes to the United Kingdom, sometimes to France, sometimes to destinations left undisclosed. No one asks Mr. President why he can not stay behind and partake of that same “best care in the hospital” available at home.

Instead, we busy ourselves with tallying the number of days he spends abroad, and when the arithmetic is done, we move on. Nothing more is demanded; nothing more is explained.

So, if tomorrow a President Donald Trump were to bar Nigerians from travelling to the United States for medical treatment, we would promptly denounce him as a racist. Yet the very next day, we would assemble a cultural troupe to welcome home a medical tourist president, one who left Nigeria quietly, without telling us what ailed him, and returned triumphantly after treatment abroad.

That is our lot; the predicament of a people wedded to decay and decadence. And it is precisely this contradiction, this ritual of self-deception, that makes it easy for some world leaders to dismiss Nigeria as a disgraced country.

President Trump is a man many love to hate. And justifiably too. The man attracts ‘hatred’ for himself as if his mission on earth is to do what many consider ‘despicable.’

I, however, have a different opinion about the man who rules America at the moment. I see him as more of an American patriot than the brute many people project him to be. I don’t see anything wrong in a president asking non-nationals to go back and fix their own countries. That, to me, is the central message of the Trump Presidency. My understanding of his philosophy on governance is that citizens should hold their leaders accountable, rather than fleeing their countries.

This is one of the reasons I hardly argue about Nigeria and its numerous failing institutions with any Nigerian living outside the shores of the country, especially those who japa less than 20 years ago. My position is simple: if you know that Nigeria is being run by the best of men now, just pack your bags and baggage and come back home. A friend once asked me why I don’t see anything wrong in “the racist called Trump”, and I responded by asking him to come back home and enjoy our nationalist president. If farming is an easy venture, blacksmiths will not sell hoes and cutlasses. Those are the words of our elders.

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Three days into the New Year 2026, President Trump opened the New Year on a very good note for the people of Venezuela. Venezuelans, at home and in the diaspora, woke up that Saturday, January 3, 2026, morning to discover that they had no president. Trump, using the sophisticated American soldiers in the US elite corps, invaded Venezuela in the dead of the night and abducted, if you like, kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro and his wife. Surprisingly, the people rejoiced at the news!

The husband and wife were in bed when the American soldiers came calling. One can picture how startled they were when they saw the strange faces in their inner room. The shock, especially when Maduro had, less than a month ago, boasted that he was safe and secure and dared America to come after him, is better imagined! What if the couple were making out when the intruders arrived?

Hours later, Trump boasted of the feat as “an extraordinary military operation,” during which “air, land, and sea were used to launch a spectacular assault. And it was an assault like people have not seen since World War Two.” He then described the operation as “…. One of the most stunning, effective and powerful displays of American military might and competence in American history” as the Venezuelan military capacities were “rendered powerless”, and “…. the men and women of our military working with US law enforcement successfully captured Maduro in the dead of night.” Could this be the reason why our elders advise that when one’s mother’s co-wife is older, one must call her mother (Tí ìyàwó ìyá eni bá ju ìyà eni lo, ìyá làá pèé).

A great public speaker, Trump warned that “This extremely successful operation should serve as a warning to anyone who would threaten American sovereignty or endanger American lives.” He listed those to be warned to include Cuba, saying, “I think Cuba is going to be something we’ll end up talking about because Cuba is a failing nation right now, a very badly failing nation. And we want to help the people. It’s very similar in the sense that we want to help the people in Cuba.”

Trump is a consummate power wielder. He did not forget Colombia. It is a known fact worldwide that Colombia and drugs are Siamese twins. If President Maduro of Venezuela could be ‘captured’ because he was accused of importing cocaine to America, the Colombian President, Gustavo Petro, President Trump warned, should “watch his ass”, because “He’s making cocaine and they’re sending it into the United States, so he does have to watch his ass.”

We must get this right from the start. No law permits what President Trump did in Venezuela. The invasion of the presidential palace and the kidnapping of President Maduro and his wife are bad in all ramifications. America is not the world police. At least, the United Nations (UN), that toothless world bulldog, Charter does not permit such an infraction. The sovereignty of Venezuela was raped by Trump. The sanctity of the human person of President Maduro was violated. Oh, yes, I must add this: the solemnity of the bedroom of Maduro and his wife was desecrated! What if Maduro and his wife had slept naked, as most couples do?

Article 2(4) of the UN Charter prohibits any member state from using force against the territorial integrity (sovereignty) of an independent country. The Charter, in Article 51, only allows the use of force in self-defence, while Articles 24 and 25 permit only the Security Council to use joint or collective force against any independent nation that threatens world peace. So, where did President Trump derive the power to invade another country, pick up the incumbent president, and transport him to America in handcuffs, as he did to President Maduro of Venezuela?

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I have read many comments about the Trump Presidency. This recent action in Venezuela added fuel to the inferno of hatred for the American President. If Nigerians in the Diaspora in America were to choose who governs God’s Own Country, Trump would not have smelled the presidency. In fact, he would not have been elected as the mayor of any city. But unfortunately for the entire world, the American people, or, as someone argued, ‘the American skewed system’, elected Trump as president. Everybody, haters or lovers alike, would have to deal with that fact.

From day one, Trump never hid his identity. He never pretended to be a gentleman. He did not tell anyone that he would run America for foreigners. His ‘Make America Great Again’ (MAGA) mantra is self-explicit. America would be for Americans, he promised. And he has lived up to that. That is honesty in its illiterate form! If you ask me, that is the type of president every nation deserves. No pretence, no diplomacy; all that matters is American interests. I wish Nigeria had such a President, the one who thinks, sleeps and dreams of Nigeria. We have been unfortunate with the selfish individuals that we have had as leaders. The present crop of transactional leaders is the very worst in our recent history.

If I were to choose a president for Nigeria, I would not think twice before picking a character like Trump. A man who places the nation’s interest above any other consideration is the man after my heart. This is what is lacking in Africa, and particularly in Nigeria. A nation that has no defined national interest is bound to be in ruins, like most nations of Africa.

Nigeria has the capacity, in all ramifications, to be great. What we lack is a president who is purposeful, courageous and above all, patriotic. We can imagine that our military became suddenly effective and efficient only after Trump ‘invaded’ Sokoto and cleared out a good number of terrorists. Yet again, nobody is asking what went wrong before the coming of Trump.

I have read so much about the sovereignty of Venezuela. I have no problem with that. But the one question I keep asking the proponents of national sovereignty is: at what time does the respect for a nation’s sovereignty stop? If, for instance, the sovereignty of Nation A threatens the peace of Nation B, what should Nation B do? Should it act in the interest of its own peace or fold its hands while the rudderless nation A acts anyhow?

If President Maduro was exporting drugs to America as Trump alleged, what should be the response of President Trump? I also find it curious that many who talked about the sanctity of the American judiciary in the case involving President Tinubu and the Chicago University certificate are the same set of people saying Maduro would not get justice in America! What a people!

After the ‘capture’ of President Maduro, the American President said that the US would “run” Venezuela. Many said that Trump was only interested in Venezuelan crude oil. Trump himself did not deny that. His press conference after Maduro had been taken into custody was clear enough. America had a huge investment profile in the oil sector of Venezuela. One of the responsibilities of President Trump, and this is applicable to all presidents, is the protection of the American economy at home and abroad. If the US investments are threatened in Venezuela because of the activities of Maduro, would Trump not be failing in his responsibility if he did not act in the name of sovereignty?

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Nnamdi Kingsley Akanni, a professor of International Law and Diplomacy, Rivers State University, in a 2019 paper on “The Concept of Sovereignty in International Law and Relations,” suggests that the concept of sovereignty may be a ruse after all. According to him, “The paper found that what third world countries enjoy is not sovereignty but ‘sovereignty on dictated terms’ of the so-called developed powers.”

The erudite scholar states further that at the end of the research exercise, “The paper also found that smaller States are not accorded protection from developed countries and that until that is done, the concept of sovereignty will continue to be elusive to smaller nations.” He then recommends “…that the UN should take proactive steps to give greater recognition and voice to developing countries as well as offering them the platform to assert their sovereignty in line with international law.”

What the scholar is saying here is that the concept of ‘sovereignty’ exists only when the developed countries are involved. When there is a conflict of interest between the world superpowers and any of the developing or ‘disgraced’ countries of the world, the principle of “Just War” applies. This is why Trump is going to get away with the Saturday invasion of Venezuela and the impending similar exercises in Cuba and Colombia, as the American President hinted.

If the UN wakes up today and gets its mojo back to interrogate Trump on Venezuela, the US can simply hide under the cover of the principle of ‘Just war’ as the invasion of Venezuela and the ‘capture’ of its president satisfied the jus ad bellum requirements of the ‘just cause’, just intention’; ‘just peace’; reasonable chance of success’; and ‘expected benefits outweighing anticipated cost.’. We don’t need a seer to predict that many drug-friendly leaders across the globe will think twice before making America their ‘depots.’ Trump took the American oath of office to protect American interests. This is why there has been no serious condemnation of the invasion in the US today.

The invasion of Venezuela is a lesson for third-world countries. The argument that Trump took that decision because of the last Venezuelan election and economic interest is noble in my opinion. That is what he was elected to do: protect America and its interests world over.

In Africa, in general, and in Nigeria in particular, let our leaders learn to develop our lands. Let those saddled with the responsibilities of paddling our canoes do so with utmost patriotism. And more importantly, let those who want to lord it over us do so through free and fair elections. Otherwise, we will all clap and celebrate should Trump decide to ‘capture’ and ship all undesirable elements with questionable character to America for trial. Venezuelans set the precedent on Saturday when they trooped to the streets in jubilation at the news of the removal of Maduro!1

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Oyo Traditional Ruler Suspended Over Alleged Illegal Mining

Published

7 hours ago

January 6, 2026

Editor

The Oyo State Government has suspended the Sobaloju of Ofiki, Chief Jacob Sobaloju, following allegations linking him to illegal mining activities and breaches of Executive Order 001/2023, which governs mining operations within the state.

The state government said the action was taken to protect the public interest and preserve government-gazetted assets.

In a suspension letter issued by the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Matters and signed by the Director of Chieftaincy Matters, Mr Olajire A.M., the traditional ruler was accused of contravening the executive order and forest reserve regulations by allegedly issuing consent letters to mining firms without lawful authorisation.

The letter further alleged that Chief Sobaloju permitted mining activities within government-reserved forest areas and facilitated unauthorised mining operations, actions said to be in violation of extant laws and regulations.

According to the ministry, the monarch was suspended from the palace of the Onitọ of Ito with effect from Monday, January 5, 2026, pending the outcome of investigations.

The suspension was described as a precautionary step to ensure an unhindered and credible investigation process.

The correspondence, titled “Re: Complaint against Chief Sobaloju of Ofiki for violation of State Executive Order, Forest Reserve Regulations and encouraging trespassing of government gazetted assets,” stated that the allegations bordered on violations of Executive Order 001/2023 and unlawful encroachment on state-owned assets.

Chief Sobaloju was also directed to immediately cease all mining-related activities, including the issuance of consent letters, avoid interference with the investigation, and make himself available to investigators whenever required.

The Oyo State Government reaffirmed its zero-tolerance stance on illegal mining and related infractions, warning that any individual found culpable would be sanctioned in line with the law.

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Why I Resigned As CIGM Boss – Arogundade Breaks Silence

Published

23 hours ago

January 5, 2026

Editor

Jubril Arogundade, former senior executive of CIG Motors, has clarified the circumstances surrounding his departure from the company.

He explained that his exit was voluntary and motivated by concerns over corporate governance, not misconduct.

Recall that Arogundade resigned from his position on December 2, 2025, citing persistent issues with internal controls, financial management, and regulatory compliance.

“I resigned from my position at CIG Motors after careful reflection and in line with due process,” he said.

“It is therefore deeply concerning that my voluntary exit has been publicly mischaracterized. My decision was guided by principle and professional responsibility.”

He explained that over a sustained period, he had raised concerns internally about corporate governance gaps, growing debt, and unresolved regulatory obligations but did not see meaningful corrective action.

“As a Nigerian professional, I take governance, compliance, and institutional responsibility very seriously,” Arogundade said.

“When internal efforts to address these matters did not yield results, I chose to resign rather than compromise on standards that I believe are fundamental to sustainable business.”

Addressing reports linking him to financial impropriety, Arogundade said, “I have nothing to hide and welcome any lawful, independent, and objective review of my conduct during my tenure. Contrary to public insinuations, no regulatory or law enforcement agency has contacted me regarding these claims, and I remain fully available to cooperate should any legitimate inquiry arise.”