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OPINION: The Humiliating Troika Of Obasanjo, Shettima And Bakare (2)
Published
2 years agoon
By
Editor
The hand of nature is upon Iseyin, a land whose rivers, hills and sky drape a brocade of dignity around duty, diligence and dare to produce a historic town famed for farming, aso-òkè, dyeing, carving, pottery and drumming, encasing the memory of one of its earliest settlers in this immortal chant, Iseyin órò omo Ebedí!
Unraveling Iseyin! Iseyin means the rig where the palm kernel is mined. It’s the fabled three firestones called àrò méta that don’t spill the oil. Palm kernel is to Iseyin what cashew is to Okigwe, a town in Imo State. In Okigwe, cashew plantation owners encouraged students to freely pluck and eat cashew but you must drop the nuts. As a student, I kindly helped cashew farm owners eat their cashews regularly.
Baba Iyabo said respect should be put on age and position. Abeokuta, the homeplace of Obasanjo, is a 19th-century creation established in 1830 while Iseyin is an 18th-century phenomenon created in 1732. By age and historical position, Iseyin is superior to Abeokuta, the rocky place of refuge that shielded Egba forebears from enemy bullets.
Iyabo, the true daughter of her father, called OBJ ‘a liar, manipulator and two-faced hypocrite’. For now, I will stick with ‘hypocrite’, and locate Obasanjo’s hypocrisy in his own words, “The governor has a higher position than any oba when he’s in power. Even when I was president, I prostrated to kings, but when we are indoors, kings prostrate to me. Let’s uplift our culture.”
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This statement exposed the Iseyin ego trip of Obasanjo, the anti-corruption messiah, who, as President, spent trillions of naira on electricity while light remained elusive at the end of the tunnel called Nigeria.
I’ll borrow another noun – manipulator – from Aunty Iyabo, and use it as an adjective, manipulative. OBJ wasn’t perturbed about the obas not standing up to greet Governor Makinde. He was angered that the kings didn’t stand up to greet him, Obasanjo, the father of modern Nigeria.
He started his argument by first recognising the supremacy and incumbency of the governor, and he thereafter wangled himself into situational relevance despite not being situated in power himself, extolling his self-importance after barking at the kings.
“The governor has a higher position than any oba when he’s in power,” Obasanjo began sweetly, even when I was President, I prostrated to kings, but when we are indoors, kings prostrate to me. Let’s uplift our culture.” Págà! Àgbàlágbà o gbodò sorò bí ewe! An adult mustn’t trifle the Oro cult. What culture is Ebora Owu uplifting by saying in public that traditional rulers prostrate to him? Baba Gbenga, that sucks. Soothingly, however, Aunty Iyabo had rightly alluded to her father’s vainglory, warning, “Dear Daddy, you don’t own Nigeria.”
When he had the floor, the ex-President could’ve expressed his disagreement with the attitude of the monarchs in an omoluabi manner, cautioning: ‘owo die die ni ara n fe o’ or ‘ki kere labere n kere, kii se mimi fun adiye’. All the monarchs would’ve stood up to greet him and the governor, and also apologise. Probably, they would’ve revealed if it was exhaustion from the long wait for the governor’s entourage that got the better of them. But OBJ, owing to his khaki brashness, lost the opportunity to earn the apology of the rulers he enrobes in public but disrobes indoors.
FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: The Humiliating Troika Of Obasanjo, Shettima And Bakare (1)
Makinde, an Americana, didn’t seem to care whether some old men greeted him or not. Ajise bi Oyo la a ri… He appeared more focused on the job than on greetings. If he feels slighted by the kings’ action, he knows the strings to pull.
I pity the Council of Yoruba Obas headed by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Adeyeye. The Iseyin situation is both a fart and salt in the mouth. In trying to spit out the fart, the salt may be lost. I commiserate.
Remember that banker-turned-politician, who turned up looking funny in a baggy suit, red tie and a pair of sneakers at last year’s Nigerian Bar Association conference in Abuja? He’s the Vice President today. His name is Kashim Shettima, an Excellency.
I had a smart classmate at Archbishop Aggey Memorial Secondary School, Mushin, Lagos. His first name was Hakeem. I’ll keep a lid on his surname, in case his children read this. We nicknamed him Slate because of the flatness of his occiput (back of the head), which the Yoruba call ògo.
Hakeem was tall, yet he wore small shirts and shorts. He didn’t know how to play football but he was always the first to get to the football field. Leave him with the ball and an empty net, Hakeem won’t score. Girls made jest of him but he thought he was Romeo. Oh, Hakeem! This is Isaac, your mate in classes 1, 2 and 3. I formed the Love Brothers group. Do you remember my nickname? Don’t say it o. The world must not hear it. I told my children about some of our escapades as Love Brothers, they laughed till tears streamed down their faces. I told them about how we emptied the various beers your foster mother kept in the fridge for sale, and how she dragged you by the ear to the school the next morning.
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Shettima is brilliant upstairs but clumsy in manner. He knows what is right but in trying to do the right thing, he missteps, sometimes. Shettima wants to speak with charm but lacks the Obama grace. He craves sartorial elegance but when his red tie winked underneath his suit, he became a butt of jokes.
A few days ago after Shettima hosted his classmates at the university, he said, “We’re the luckiest among Nigerians. We are not better than our next-door neighbour. Yesterday, I hosted my classmates from the University of Ibadan, the MSC class of 1991.
“The best-graduating student in my class was one Oladipo. Oladipo is languishing as a DGM in one mediocre bank. He was the best-graduating student, that goes to show that we’re here not because we’re the best of the best…”
I don’t think Shettima was trying to ridicule Oladipo because Oladipo dusted him in class. I think it was just a case of not knowing when to stop talking, a plane overshooting the runway. It’s what the Yoruba call alásojámù. Oga Shetty, it’s not everyone that has access to the public purse as politicians do. Equating Oladipo’s dignity in labour with languishing was a highhanded i-k-a. Calling his workplace mediocre shows why small banks won’t grow in the four years of your administration. What would Oladipo’s children, wife, friends and co-workers think about your loquacity? What lessons are you teaching the Nigerian youth when you rubbished academic excellence and extol materialism? Mr Oladipo deserves an apology, Mr VP.
The third and final horse in the tro-i-k-a of highhandedness was mounted by popular Lagos pastor, Tunde Bakare, who said the late Afrobeat singer, Ilerioluwa Aloba aka Mohbad, reaped the harvest of ‘smoking and associating with evil men’.
Speaking in Leicester, United Kingdom, where candlelight processions were held in memory of Mohbad, some days ago, Bakare said, “My wife and I listened to a tape last night on MohBad. How many of you know MohBad? The Nigerian artiste who died at 27? MohBad. When he was drinking and smoking and associating with evil men, he did not know that the harvest would come so soon and that he would soon be cut down at the prime of youth. I am not blaming him, I am just telling you. Is MohBad a good name? Moh Bad.”
Because I’m a child of God, I’ll not say Pastor Bakare is lying. But I’ve repeatedly read his above-quoted comment on Mobad’s lifestyle and his submission that Mobad deserved the end he got. One word fit and proper to describe Bakare’s comment on Mobad is sophistry. Saying that he wasn’t passing judgment on the singer was the father of all lies.
I’m not going to pass judgment on the blind presidential vision of Bakare which couldn’t land him in Aso Rock as he predicted, after spending N100m to purchase the All Progressives Congress presidential form. I won’t judge Bakare because I know that for everything there’s a season, a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to mourn, a time to rejoice, a time to talk, and a time to keep shut.
Concluded
Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com
Facebook: @Tunde Odesola
X: @Tunde_Odesola
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JUST IN: Dino Melaye Resigns From PDP, Cites Party’s ‘Lack Of Potency’
Published
3 hours agoon
July 31, 2025By
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Former Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye, has formally resigned from the Peoples Democratic Party, citing the party’s inability to provide credible leadership and deliver good governance to Nigerians.
In a resignation letter shared on his official X account on Thursday, dated July 4, 2025, and addressed to the chairman of the PDP in Ward 1, Aiyetoro Gbede, Ijumu Local Government Area of Kogi State, Melaye announced his immediate withdrawal from all party activities.
“I hereby tender my resignation from the Peoples Democratic Party at all levels of involvement.
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“This decision has become imperative due to the lack of potency and capacity by the party to deliver the Nigerian people from the prevailing political cankerworms that have eaten deeply into the fabric of our dear nation”, the letter partly read.
Melaye, who once served as the PDP’s candidate in the 2023 Kogi State governorship election, said his decision followed deep reflection on the party’s current state and trajectory.
“Having carefully reflected on the state of the party, I can no longer in good conscience participate in the activities of the parties or lend my support to her agenda”, the letter continued.
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He further requested that his resignation be treated as a formal and total withdrawal from all party levels and structures.
“In view of the above, please consider this as my formal withdrawal from the party and all its activities at all levels with immediate effect”, the letter added.
In his closing remarks, Melaye expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve under the party’s platform during his time as a member.
“Thank you for the opportunity to serve under the platform during my period of membership,” the letter concluded.
News
JUST IN: Tinubu Approves Tenure Extension For Customs CG
Published
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July 31, 2025By
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President Bola Tinubu has approved a one-year extension of the tenure of the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service, Bashir Adewale Adeniyi.
Adeniyi, whose tenure was initially set to expire on August 31, 2025, will now remain in office until August 2026.
According to a statement signed by the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the extension is aimed at allowing Adeniyi to consolidate ongoing reforms and complete key initiatives of the Tinubu administration.
These include the modernisation of the Customs Service, implementation of the National Single Window Project, and Nigeria’s obligations under the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) protocol.
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“President Tinubu recognises Mr. Adeniyi’s steadfast leadership and commitment to service.
“The President is confident that this extension will further strengthen the Nigeria Customs Service in achieving its strategic mandate of trade facilitation, revenue generation, and border security,” the statement read.
Tinubu appointed Adeniyi as the CG of the Nigeria Customs Service in October 2023.
Adeniyi, who took over from former CG Hameed Ali in June 2023, had initially been appointed in an acting capacity before his confirmation in October of the same year.
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[OPINION] The Gaffe And The Uproar: Okpebholo In The Public Eye
Published
5 hours agoon
July 31, 2025By
Editor
By Tony Abolo
It was widely circulated. The statement by Senator Monday Okpebholo at the welcoming of Hon. Marcus Onobun back into the APC in Uromi about a week plus ago. Sadly the statement that he escalated loud himself on Peter Obi got more traction than the event itself. And the reason is simple. It was an unnecessary bile against Peter Obi who had come to make a philanthropic gesture at St. Philomena Hospital, gifting their School of Nursing, in his characteristic manner, nationwide.
Only Senator Okpebholo can tell his intentions in stating that “if H.E Obi came to town, to Edo State without his permission informing him prior, then came the clIncher- “anything wen he see, let him take it”.”There is a new Sheriff in town” One can only surmise Okpebholo’s intentions. Wanting to placate his Supreme Court award of Governorship through the kind courtesy of, well, you know who. He wants to please Tinubu in anyway he can. This must be one of them. Ensure, the Obedients do not pose any build up inside Edo State as a form of opposition to Tinubu’s ambition in 2027. But was it necessary as at this time? By the fact of freedom of movement, any Nigerian can be anywhere he or she chooses. Peter Obi was not on a state visit and besides, both being on opposite ends of politics, was it going to be comfortable or necessary for any prior information before Peter Obi comes into town? As a Nigerian, could he not slip into town as he has done when Barrister Osaigbovo Akpata was contesting for the Governorship position under the Labour party? He even traversed Edo State, and there was no problem. So what is special when he comes to do charity in Edo State? Instead of being applauded, Okpebholo thought it mindful to chide Peter Obi.
Too many things come to mind. When H.E Gregory Peter Obi was Governor in Anambra State, where was Okpebholo? That was when he was doing his WEAC in which he passed only maths and flunked five on the papers. Then there is the issue of thoughtfulness. The occasion in Uromi did not warrant the outburst. But even if for security reason, or being solicitous over the safety of Peter Obi, was it not better it was an issue handled diplomatically, through phone calls, person to person conversation or a Governor to a former Governor and a former Presidential Candidate, a position, Okpebholo could and would never attain even if Nigeria came down to a Democratic Republic of the Congo or a run down South Sudan or Yemen.
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What rankles more is the uncouth and uncivilized language Okpebholo used in issuing his rude remarks about “those wen no get shi shi, where e see N1.5million, N15million to give” or the entirely needless asking Peter Obi to clear with him otherwise “anything wen e see, make e take am”. Where Nigeria’s morality and discipline not so run down, how could a sane country choose a neophyte, a barely literate and a less exposed person, to become a Governor in a state in Nigeria, more so, Edo State with its long tradition of quality and excellence in leadership since 1963. There is a language of dignity and of decorum expected of a personage of a Governor. Okpebholo fell so far below and off the mark.
The situation was made worse when the whole country rose up in utter shock and disbelief at the gaffe of Senator Monday Okpebholo and his media aides offered limp and lame defences, egged on, no doubt by his two enablers, Wike and Oshiomhole, he was still quoted as saying that
P byhe was not sorry for what he said against Obi. The rebuttal only reveals who Edo state has as Governor, a man who neither can act the part, nor has a mind of his own. His enablers and trainers now urged him to sound brave, a courage which ho does not have. To Nigerians, he only stood worsted and a sorry sight. To Edo State, he only brought us lower in National esteem and estimation. It only shows, we must all stand akimbo in shock as more gaffes are coming and we should be less shocked as this is all we have and must endure for another three years and three months. We didn’t bargain for this. Tinubu brought this on us.
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