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OPINION: Tinubu’s ‘Taste’ Gerontocracy

Published

2 years ago

June 17, 2024

By Lasisi Olagunju

The University of Ibadan is 75 years old. Chief Bisi Akande celebrated his 85th birthday on January 16 this year. He was made Secretary to Oyo State Government 45 years ago at the age of 40. He was Deputy Governor of Oyo State 42 years ago. He was elected Osun State Governor in 1999 – 25 years ago. He left the office of governor 21 years ago. Last Friday, the 85-year-old man was appointed by President Bola Tinubu to serve the University of Ibadan as its pro-chancellor and chairman of council. When you heard Chief Akande’s name as the appointee, you were almost as sure as I was that the old warrior would reject it in a jiffy. I told myself that he would tell his friend, the president, that his choice for UI’s top job must be an error; that only today’s hound can successfully chase today’s hare. But today is Monday – four days after, Chief Bisi Akande has not rejected the ‘juicy’ job. We have no business rejecting it for him.

An elephant chooses how he wants the forest to address him. If you schooled at the same time as I did, you must have read the poem ‘Salute to the Elephant’. It is there that you meet Elephant – “possessor of a savings-basket full of money” who is “huge as a hill, even in a crouching posture.” The Elephant is that mighty one “who carries mortar and yet walks with a swaggering gait…, animal treading ponderously.” The Elephant, more importantly, is that “mountainous animal, (the) huge beast who tears a man like a garment and hangs him up on a tree.” The sight of the Elephant, the chanter-hunter says, “causes people to stampede towards a hill of safety.” Now, imagine that elephant coming down from the height of his high reputation to mingle with deers in a scavenge-rush for forbs. An elephant would do that if it does not see itself as an elephant. It is his choice. I am not qualified to tell this chief’s elephant not to eat what common goats eat. But if I were his son, I would beg him to say “no, thank you.”

Chief Akande is not alone on that geriatric podium of self-diminution. With him is General Ike Omar Sanda Nwachukwu (Rtd) who was made chairman of the University of Nigeria governing council. The University of Nigeria is 69 years old. It was founded in 1955 but formally opened on October 7, 1960. General Nwachukwu will be 84 years old on September 1, this year. He has been everything anyone would ever want to be in Nigeria. As a soldier, he rose to be Major-General and General Officer Commanding. He was governor of Imo State 40 years ago. He was Minister of Labour 39 years ago. He was Foreign Affairs Minister 34 years ago. He was elected senator 25 years ago. He is back from the bench in this season of renewed past.

Must it be them? Don’t they have around them, in their political party, sleek-headed younger people with knowledge and ideas who can handle these assignments? They have them, but those ones are useful only as aides and as bag carriers.

Writing in May last year for US’ satire newspaper, The Onion, grand old Dianne Feinstein satirized America as “an out-of-touch gerontocracy” where “the average age of a senator is 65” – and the president eighty-something years old. She said she was “glad” not to live and get stuck in that country of “dementia-addled” leaders “who keep a stranglehold on power” and “who prioritise their own careers and bank accounts over the common good.” Then she wondered, angrily “how selfish you’d have to be to cling to power when you’ve long since ceased to understand the needs of ordinary people.” I will be shocked if I am the only one who thinks strongly that Feinstein wrote about Nigeria of today.

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I read a sonnet of William Shakespeare where he deplores “age” staying “too long.” In his ‘The Passionate Pilgrim’, Shakespeare explains why “crabbed age and youth cannot live together.” Shakespeare sings of “Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare.” He says “Youth is full of sport, age’s breath is short; Youth is nimble, age is lame; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold; Youth is wild, and age is tame…” Yet, our country’s vote is for the old and cold; the lame, the tame.

We have more of them. Our universities are now a rest home for the ancient. There is also 72-year-old Alhaji Yayale Ahmed who was announced as the chairman of 62-year-old Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. He was appointed Head of Service of the Federation in the year 2000 – 24 years ago. He occupied that post for seven years, retiring in 2007 to be appointed as the Minister of Defence. He left the office of minister in September 2008 to be appointed as the Secretary to the Government of the Federation. He held sway there till May 2011. He left thirteen years ago. He is back from retirement to preside over ABU’s highest governing body.

These king-size men and others on that long list will be interfacing with a 70-year-old minister. Professor Tahir Mamman is our minister of education. If he had remained in the university system, he would be due for retirement in three weeks’ time. The minister reports to a president who is officially 72 years old. Essentially, these 20th century men are the drivers of the 21st century vision of Nigeria’s knowledge industry. That is the way we roll. The National Universities Commission (NUC) regulates Nigeria’s university system. Who is NUC’s substantive executive secretary? Check if it has. And, who presides over its board? As I write this today, Sunday, 16 June, 2024, the commission in charge of our universities has on its website, Emeritus Professor Ayo Banjo as the chairman of its board. Baba Professor Banjo died last month – he was 90 years old. NUC has not remembered to update its website to reflect that fact – or it is reluctant to let go of the late Professor Banjo.

Beyond the dead, shall we ask the new octogenarian appointees where they hope to start from in this digital age? With their appointments, Nigeria is asking its Gen Z students to use fatigued eyes of tired men to prepare their journey into the future. May God help them.

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A leader must know when to say enough to seeking power. Someone (I can’t get their name) said knowing when to walk away is wisdom. He also said being able to walk away is courage. Yet, there is a third line: walking away with your head held high is dignity. Why would an eighty-something-year-old man want to be a baggage carrier – porter – to the youth of his land? Someone said it is the love of service. I replied that it is simply a case of an Egungun, because of perks, dancing itself into irrelevance.

Apart from them being his friends, are there patriotic reasons why the president posted these men to those schools? We may not know the real reason why our president made those geriatric choices – unless he tells us. Raul Magni Berton and Sophie Panel in 2017 did a paper on why non-democratic systems produce older leaders. They postulate that leaders’ “ruling styles” are “partly shaped by the rules that brought them to power.” They ask why anyone, even the old, would want to be ruled by aged people. They dissect types and motives of gerontocratic rule. They say “the selection of aging leaders based on premeditated considerations” is the definition of strategic gerontocracy. They contrast this with what they call ‘taste’ gerontocracy “which is based on genuine preference for old leaders”. They speak on ‘skills’ gerontocracy which assumes that the chosen had “specific skills acquired with age.” What special skills do our eighty-something-year-old ‘chairmen’ have that recommended them for our universities as pro-chancellors? Tinubu is not known to be a wine connoisseur who flaunts the old as the better. So, I wonder why the president loves old stuff – old, fossilized national anthem and aged administrators.

This government’s choice of yesterday’s men for today’s work has natural consequences. You know menopause, its complications and implications. That is what the University of Ibadan, UNN and ABU and some others in their geriatric shoes are now married to. Escaping the schools’ climacteric suitors and their creaky beds looks futile. When Humphrey Hawksley wrote his 2009 book, ‘Democracy Kills’, he probably had our case in mind. There is hardly anything which today’s democracy inherited that it has not fed to the dogs. While we fantasised on what the textbook says democracy is, the leaders have unitised the benefits in it; they’ve warehoused the gains in their family silos – for the comfort of their generations and for their friends’.

I am wasting my time writing this. The same applies to you raising complaints about how our planes are being run aground. The government does not care about the public and its opinion. You can’t blame it. There is a problem with winning all bouts all the time. It intoxicates the winner, making them look down on the street and disdainful of even their fans. “At being humble, I’m the greatest”. A Minnesota, United States mother in about 1970, was horrified to hear her young wrestler-son say this as he recorded wins after wins. The woman described that statement of her son as “silly” – but that was hubris at work. We read such ‘humility’ in the insults the Nigerian leadership rolls out almost daily. Everything points at the end of sanity in the conduct of our affairs. Yet, long before this present darkness, there had been eras of rationality and hope. There had been an age when leaders insulted not the people’s sensitivities and the people bowed in respect of fair leadership. We had a past of values which even those who colonised us acknowledged in their own moments of sobriety.

Between the last days of 1927 and the early weeks of 1928, a group of United Kingdom’s Members of Parliament visited Nigeria. They moved from the coasts in Lagos through the hinterland forests to the grasslands of the North. They thoroughly toured the East of Nigeria and the creeks of the Niger Delta – then went back to London through Lagos. At a dinner of the African Society in London on 13 March, 1928, leader of the delegation, Major Walter Eliot, presented his team’s report. In that report, Major Eliot said while in Nigeria, his team saw an “honest attempt” by the black man to build “a house” for his soul; a house “where the black man could find a shelter” against the impact of a strange alien culture; a house “from which in years to come, he may take his own share as a partner in the progress of the world – not as an inferior and certainly not as a serf…” Eliot’s optimism – expressed in that report 96 years ago – was hasty and misplaced. If the Briton visits Nigeria of today, he will meet 200 million people shuffling and struggling (not) to be serfs of power.

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That is not all from Eliot. Everywhere they went, his team said they saw a people who had very high regard for their leaders and who had their leaders’ respect. He disclosed that his team members were surprised (and impressed) and were of the conviction that “the black man should look to the black ruler as the keystone in the arch of rule; that the white man should not be the keystone…that the rule should be of the black man by the black man and – as far as we can devise it – for the black man.”

They are long dead, those proud, upright people who were met in Nigeria by the British in 1927. About a hundred years after the Eliot team experience and the positive testimony from London, and 64 years after foreign rule, a virulent strain of disdain for the ruled – and disgust for the ruler – reigns. Our democracy is a despicable bazaar; the classic “every man for himself and God for us all.” What the 1927/28 visitors envisioned as the rule “of the black man by the black man” has turned out not “for the black man.” The rule serves the strongman and his clan whose ways are decidedly not necessarily the ways of their people.

They take the benefits; their children take. Their concubines and mistresses also pick theirs while your own portion is tucked away in their pouch. It is the reason they can’t reason with us when we say Nigeria cannot survive as a unitary presidentialism. They take our call for federalist sanity as a threat to the advantages they enjoy. They think a truly federal Nigeria would be too tight to structurise into personal fiefdoms. They work that federalism won’t happen. Not now, not tomorrow. And they are winning. They spring on us federal surprises everywhere. They set up institutions and make appointments that are designed to unitarise our lives under Big Brother. Because they are smart, they easily know that they can’t compete and feed their greed in a Nigeria that is properly structured. The result of their knowing is that we can’t breathe without their permission.

A restructured Nigeria has the prospect of not surrendering to Comrade Napoleon’s unitary dictatorship in the Animal farm. Less than one week into this democracy, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, in the Friday, 4 June, 1999 edition of the Nigerian Tribune, warned that Nigeria was on the way to a most destructive form of unitarism. “The road to the hell of unitarism is paved with good intentions. They should be careful…”, he warned the inheritors of the gains of the struggle for this democracy. They ignored him. We were too hopeful to hear him. But, words of elders, if they don’t come true in the morning, they will in the evening. The evening of Nigeria is here.

The author, Dr. Lasisi Olagunju is the Saturday Editor of Nigerian Tribune, and a columnist in the same newspaper. This article was first published by the paper (Nigerian Tribune). It is published here with his permission.

Headline

Moving Abroad? Essential Things Nigerians Should Pack Before Leaving Nigeria

Published

16 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Editor

Moving abroad from Nigeria is one of those life changes that makes a suitcase suddenly feel much smaller.

What looks like enough luggage in your bedroom can seem painfully limited once you start choosing between clothes, documents, electronics, personal care items and the small things that make an unfamiliar place feel like home.

That is why a good diaspora relocation packing list guide should not be about squeezing everything possible into your bags. It should help you decide what deserves precious luggage space, what can be bought after arrival and what should never go into your suitcase in the first place.

The distinction matters because airlines have strict baggage limits, while destination countries have their own customs rules.

Baggage allowances vary by airline, route, cabin class and aircraft, while individual checked bags are generally recommended not to exceed 23kg for handling reasons. Power banks and spare lithium batteries, for example, must generally remain in carry-on baggage rather than checked luggage.

Start with documents, not clothes

Before thinking about clothing or food, create a secure travel folder for the documents you cannot afford to lose. Your passport, visa or residence documentation, flight information, accommodation details, employment or school documents, insurance information and important contact details should stay accessible throughout the journey.

Carry originals where necessary and keep encrypted digital copies or secure backups of important documents. If you are relocating with children, their birth certificates, school records, vaccination documentation and immigration papers may also be important depending on the destination and circumstances.

Do not put irreplaceable documents in checked luggage. A suitcase can be delayed, misrouted or damaged, but losing access to your passport or immigration paperwork at the same time can turn a manageable travel problem into a serious one.

Pack for your first two weeks, not your entire future

One of the easiest ways to overpack is to imagine every possible situation you might encounter after moving. Resist that temptation. Your first luggage should support your transition, not reproduce your entire Nigerian household overseas.

Pack enough everyday clothes for your initial period, but consider the climate of your destination before filling a suitcase with Nigerian weather essentials. A person moving to the UK in winter, for instance, needs a very different wardrobe from someone moving to a warmer country.

The better strategy is to prioritize versatile clothing that can be layered and reused. Comfortable shoes, underwear, sleepwear, basic toiletries and weather-appropriate outerwear deserve more attention than multiple outfits you may rarely wear.

This also reflects advice commonly shared in relocation communities: keep an “open first” collection of essentials so you are not searching through every box or suitcase when you are exhausted after arrival. The practical principle is simple, make your first few days easy before worrying about everything else.

Take the Nigerian items that are genuinely difficult to replace

Food is where relocation packing becomes particularly personal. Nigerians living abroad frequently mention missing familiar foods and ingredients, especially regional items that may be difficult to find or expensive in ordinary supermarkets.

Discussions among Nigerians abroad show that the issue is not necessarily basic rice, pasta or common spices; it is often the distinctive ingredients and flavors associated with home.

That does not mean you should fill an entire suitcase with food.

Instead, prioritise small quantities of dry, commercially packaged items that are legal to import into your destination and that you genuinely use. Depending on the destination, these could include permitted spice blends, seasoning, certain dried ingredients or packaged Nigerian foods.

However, never assume that because something is dry, packaged or commonly carried by other Nigerians, it is automatically permitted. Import rules differ significantly between countries.

For Great Britain, for example, travelers can bring some packaged foods such as biscuits, chocolate, pasta and packaged soup, while meat, dairy, fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds can be subject to restrictions.

The EU is stricter in several respects. Travelers arriving from outside the EU generally cannot bring meat or dairy products into the bloc, although specific exemptions apply to certain products and circumstances.

So if you are relocating from Nigeria to London, Paris, Amsterdam or another destination, check the destination’s official customs rules before sealing that bag of food.

Do not sacrifice luggage space for easily replaceable goods

A relocation suitcase should contain things that solve a problem, preserve something important or save you meaningful money—not everything you happen to own.

Basic toiletries, ordinary kitchen utensils, cheap hangers, bulky bedding and generic household products can often be purchased after arrival. Carrying large quantities simply because they are cheaper in Nigeria may not make economic sense once excess-baggage charges and limited suitcase space are considered.

The same applies to appliances. Check the electrical system and plug standard of your destination before taking Nigerian appliances abroad. A device that is cheap to replace may not be worth carrying if it is incompatible with the local voltage or requires additional equipment.

Ask yourself a blunt question before packing anything: Would I still pay to transport this if I had to buy extra luggage for it? If the answer is no, leave it behind.

Give electronics and valuables special treatment

Your laptop, phone, chargers, external drives, camera equipment and other essential electronics should be packed with both security and airline rules in mind.

Keep valuable electronics in your carry-on whenever the airline permits it. IATA specifically advises passengers not to place valuable or irreplaceable items in checked baggage, while spare batteries and power banks have specific restrictions because of fire risk.

Keep chargers organized in a small pouch rather than scattering them throughout your luggage. If you use several devices, label unfamiliar cables before leaving Nigeria; it sounds trivial until you are sitting in temporary accommodation with three identical USB cables and no idea which one powers your laptop.

Think about health and personal-care essentials

Your relocation luggage should also cover the personal items that may be inconvenient to replace immediately. Prescription medicines, if applicable, should remain in their original packaging and be accompanied by the documentation required by the destination country.

Basic toiletries and personal-care products that you know work for you can be worth carrying in reasonable quantities, particularly during the first few weeks when you are still learning where to shop.

Do not, however, turn your suitcase into a pharmacy. Check the rules of the destination country for medicines and controlled substances before traveling, because something legally purchased in Nigeria may have different restrictions elsewhere.

Leave prohibited and questionable items behind

Some of the worst relocation-packing decisions are made with the assumption that customs officers will not notice.

That is a dangerous gamble. The UK, for example, prohibits or restricts items including controlled drugs, offensive weapons, certain endangered species and personal imports of meat and dairy products from most non-EU countries.

Food restrictions also deserve serious attention. If you arrive in Great Britain with banned food and declare it, the Border Force can confiscate and destroy it; failing to declare prohibited products can result in penalties or prosecution.

When in doubt, check the official customs guidance for your destination before packing. If an item requires a permit, certificate or declaration, find that out before you arrive at the airport, not while standing in front of a customs officer.

Build one ‘first-night’ bag

Finally, separate the things you will need immediately from everything else.

Your first-night bag should contain a change of clothes, basic toiletries, essential documents, medications, chargers, important electronics and anything else you would need if your checked luggage were delayed. This simple step can save you considerable stress during the first 24 hours.

Your relocation luggage should make your new beginning easier, not burden you with your old life. Pack the things that are valuable, difficult to replace, culturally meaningful or immediately useful. Leave behind what is cheap, bulky and readily available.

Most importantly, remember that your airline’s baggage allowance and your destination country’s customs rules are separate issues. Staying within the weight limit does not mean every item inside the suitcase is legally admissible.

IATA emphasises that baggage conditions remain airline-specific, while governments set their own customs and import requirements.

For Nigerians relocating abroad, the smartest suitcase is therefore not necessarily the heaviest one. It is the one that contains exactly what you will need to begin your new life with less stress, fewer unnecessary expenses and no avoidable customs problems.
(TRIBUNE)

Headline

Why I Forgave Lindsay Clancy For Killing Our Children — Ex-husband Patrick

Published

16 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Editor

Patrick Clancy, the ex-husband of Lindsay Clancy, has spoken about his decision to forgive her for the deaths of their three children, saying he feared he would be “eaten up inside forever” if he could not reach a point of forgiveness.

In a new interview with CBS, Patrick said he believed he had done the best he could while his then-wife struggled with mental illness.

“I didn’t know how to manage a [postpartum illness]. I think mental illness has this ability to be tragically deceptive,” he said.

“When it comes to forgiveness, I also felt that if I didn’t get there, I would be eaten up inside forever,” he added.

Lindsay Clancy, a former labour and delivery nurse, was accused of killing the couple’s three children — Cora, five, Dawson, three, and Callan, eight months — in January 2023.

She attended her trial in a wheelchair after suffering permanent paralysis in the aftermath of the incident.

Patrick testified during the trial about his former wife’s mental health struggles following childbirth.

Clancy has never denied killing the children, while her defence argued that she was suffering from postpartum psychosis at the time and was not criminally responsible for her actions.

The case ended in a mistrial after one juror refused to find Clancy not criminally responsible.

Judge William Sullivan, who presided over the trial, has since sealed the jurors’ identities, citing a “real and present” risk of harm.

The prosecution had alleged that Clancy sent Patrick on an errand before the incident, deliberately removing him from the home.

Patrick became a focus of the trial during its seventh week, when he faced allegations that he was partly responsible for the deaths of the children.

“I think I did the best I could with what I had at the time.” Patrick said. “And I live with the outcome. I live with it every day.”

Speaking about the claims and speculation surrounding him, Patrick said they were “deeply harmful to the legacy of my children” and a “huge distraction from what really matters here, which is perinatal [mental health].”

Patrick has since moved to New York City with his new wife, Rachel Danis, where they hope to find some anonymity and normality.

He said he looks forward to starting a family with his new partner and telling his future children about their siblings.

The case remains unresolved and is scheduled to return to court on September 29 at Plymouth Superior Court in Massachusetts.

(Metro UK)

Headline

Former Fox Business Producer Jennifer Eckhart Dies By Suicide

Published

16 hours ago

September 22, 2026

Editor

Jennifer Eckhart, a popular podcaster and former associate producer at Fox Business, died by suicide at her home in Hobe Sound on Saturday morning, as reported by the Martin County sheriff.

Sheriff John Budensiek explained that he typically does not comment on suicides; however, he chose to speak publicly about Eckhart’s death to address conspiracy theories suggesting that she had been murdered.

“After thoroughly investigating the scene and the circumstances, we looked at it as if it were a homicide. However, it is not. It is a suicide. Unfortunately, she took her own life,” Budensiek stated.

Eckhart gained media attention after accusing a Fox News anchor of raping her. Investigators revealed that she had family and friends who attempted to help her, but she had been in and out of mental health facilities and had stopped taking her medications.

Elizabeth Burrows, the director of development and communications with 211 Palm Beach and Treasure Coast, highlighted the tragedy of suicide and encouraged anyone struggling to seek help.

“Every death by suicide is a tragedy,” Burrows said.

She noted that anyone in crisis can call 211 or 988, which are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to provide resources or someone to talk to.

“You’d be surprised at how often just having someone who’s there to listen can help someone make it through their darkest moments,” Burrows said.

Burrows also stressed the importance of being present and asking questions when supporting someone who may be struggling.

“It’s OK to ask. Asking about it does not make suicide more of a risk for them. If anything, it lets that person know that they are not alone,” she said. “The one answer I can always give is to never give up. As long as someone is still here, there is still an opportunity to support and assist them.”

The sheriff said Eckhart’s death remains an open investigation as they await toxicology results, but he emphasized that all evidence points to suicide.