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OPINION: Will Nigeria Be As Lucky As King Sunny Ade?

Published

1 month ago

May 23, 2025

Tunde Odesola

Bewildered by the riddle life was unravelling, King Sunny Ade, in 1974, lifted his voice in a plaintive cry, “È sú biri-biri kè bó mi o.” At the time, the fast-rising Juju maestro was merely 11 years into his musical odyssey when he birthed this evergreen song. Had the song been born in 2025, it might have been titled “Piti-piti Ayé”— to reflect the muttering of today’s youth generation navigating chaos in streetwise slang.

“È sú biri-biri kè bó mi o” is no mere lament; it is a philosophical lamentation, the outcry of a mind in a maze. In the song, a perplexed KSA pleads for an encompassing supernatural protection, confessing he cannot tell whether the bus of life he boarded is surging forward or sliding backwards.

Yet, in his quandary, the minstrel offers his adoration to God. “Mo ti ṣe’bà Ẹdùmarè, Ọba tó l’àyé,” he declares—I have paid homage to the Creator, the King of the universe. He continues, “Mo ti ṣe’bà gbogbo àgbà tó n be niwaju mi, dede ọmọ àwọ”— I revere the elders and all devotees. I adulate the killing Òpàkí and the saving Òlàkí witches, whose silence thunders at midnight…decreeing my protection. For it is the solidity of kòkò igi—the core of the tree—that protects the kòkò from being chopped; just as the albino enjoys the same honour of the òrìṣà.

The classic song unfolds in a cascade of Yoruba oral chant, rich in metaphor and mischief: “No one dares thrust a sword to the back of the housefly; no one beheads the housefly with a sword; no one shackles the legs of the housefly.”

The song reveals the conspiracy against Àgbè, the bird, but the conspirators mistakenly dip its feathers in dye, and Àgbè emerges more resplendent. Enemies scheme to ruin Àlùkò, but they dip its plumage in camwood, and Àlùkò becomes even more prosperous. Haters plot against Òdídẹ̀rẹ̀, only to stain its feathers with palm oil, and misfortune turns to fortune. They connive to undo the Lẹ́kẹ́lẹ́kẹ́ by marking it with white powder, but the Lẹ́kẹ́lẹ́kẹ́ soars into luminous success.

KSA goes on to dare ancient taboos by urinating and defecating on cowry-white cloth, and even wiping his butt with ìko ide, the tail feathers of the parrot. And yet, like the housefly untouched by the sword, he emerges, unscathed and unpunished. Like over 100 million Nigerians, I am scarred and scorched by what Nigeria has been offering since the roguish Ibrahim Babangida years till date. Leadership’s mouth is brimming with promises, but the masses’ hearts are hopeless. The honey and the bee reside on the top of the ladder.

I tell you what, I am not the stranded King Sunny Ade, I know exactly where I’m going. I am going to South Carolina, USA, to bring you a story that grapples with human dignity in the boundless arena of freedom and corpse rights. Yes, you read right: criminal corpse’s right! In death or infamy, you and I, let’s consider the worth of Nigerian life.

MM is a popular abbreviation that resonates in the world of firearms. In ballistic parlance, it stands for millimetres. The bore of a gun is its internal barrel. In the US and Britain, since 1950, the size of the internal barrel is measured in millimeters, hence some guns bear 9mm, 12mm, 15mm – codes to show the cartridge sizes they bear, and by extension, the kind of misery each gun can deliver.

But in South Carolina, MM is synonymous with sorrow. It is not just a unit of metric measurement—it is Mikal Mahdi, a man, a memory, and a murderer. In 2004, Mahdi wrote his name in blood, killing two people, one of them a police officer. He was caught and convicted, with his life loitering in the valley of the shadow of death, from 2004 to April 11, 2025, when a three-person firing squad aimed their muzzles at his heart and fired.

When bullets flew from the guns of the three sharpshooters, Mahdi did not die. He did not use ayeta. But he lived for about 60 seconds more than the law expected, and his relatives have headed for the courts, claiming Mahdi suffered ‘excruciating conscious pain and suffering for about 30 to 60 seconds’. The Yoruba have a saying: “Oro o dun lenu iya ole,” which means the mother of a thief is ashamed to make a plea, but Americans think otherwise; they are according a killer his rights in the grave.

At 42, Mahdi was handed a deathly privilege: the opportunity to choose his choice of death. The law, like a vigorous vendor at the market of woe, hawked three types of hot death, ikú gbóná, to MM, who had killed by the gun, and must inescapably die by the gun. One: Death by the electric chair was a hellward shuttle available to Mahdi under the law. The electric chair, a throne of fire wired to the underworld. Two: Lethal injection – the needle, piercing hand of chemistry, quiet calamity. But the third option – the gun, cold and callous — was attractive to MM, who, being gun-friendly, chose death by the stake, because he knew the speed of the bullet. The bullet does not bargain. It does not blink. It arrives before the scream.

According to a story, “Inmate executed by firing squad died in ‘excruciating’ pain after bullets missed his heart, autopsy report suggests,” which was published by US-based news media, People, Mahdi’s execution is cruel.

The story says, ‘When the state supreme court confirmed the legality of execution by firing squad in 2024, it did so with the understanding that the inmate would not suffer for more than ‘10-15 seconds’. Anything more than that would be deemed exceedingly cruel, unusual, and therefore, unconstitutional.”

An unnamed reporter for Associated Press, who was present at the execution, said Mahdi ‘cried out’ and flexed’ his arms after being shot, adding that ‘he groaned two more times for about 45 seconds, his breath continued for about 80 seconds before he appeared to take the final gasp’.

Mahdi’s case, which is before the State of South Carolina Supreme Court, is titled Mikal D. Mahdi (Petitioner) V. BRYAN P. STIRLING, Commissioner, South Carolina Department of Corrections (Respondent), with case number 2025-000491. It says a forensic pathologist, Dr Jonathan Arden, analysed the autopsy report on Mahdi.

The court papers reads, “The undersigned respectfully alert this Court that the execution of our client, Mikal D. Mahdi, was botched. As this Court has noted, SCDC’s firing squad protocol calls for a condemned prisoner “to be shot in the heart by (three) members of the firing squad using ammunition calculated to do maximum damage to—and thereby immediately stop—the heart.

“When Mr. Mahdi faced the firing squad on April 11, 2025, it appears he was shot with only two bullets, not three. Both entered just above his abdomen, shattering into metal splinters that destroyed his liver and pancreas, but that largely missed his heart. Mr. Mahdi remained conscious while his heart pumped blood from his wounds into his chest cavity. These facts, drawn from the autopsy commissioned by the South Carolina Department of Corrections (SCDC), explain why witnesses to Mr. Mahdi’s execution heard him scream and groan both when he was shot and nearly a minute afterwards.

“In assessing whether SCDC’s firing squad posed a “risk of unnecessary and conscious pain,” this Court ultimately determined that “though an inmate executed via the firing squad is likely to feel pain, perhaps excruciating pain…the pain will last only ten to fifteen seconds …. unless there is a massive botch of the execution in which each member of the firing squad simply misses the inmate’s heart.” Owens, 443 S.C. at 284, 904 S.E.2d at 600.

“A massive botch is exactly what happened to Mikal Mahdi. Counsel have attached the report from Mr. Mahdi’s autopsy (Exhibit A),1F 2 a photograph taken by the autopsy pathologist depicting the two entrance wounds to Mr. Mahdi’s chest (Exhibit B), a photograph taken of a small container with bullet fragments collected during the autopsy (Exhibit C), and an analysis by Dr. Jonathan Arden, a forensic pathologist (Exhibit D).2F 3 The autopsy documents only two entrance wounds on Mr. Mahdi’s chest—a fact that so alarmed the autopsy pathologist that he took the picture of the wounds and sent it to SCDC.3F 4 The two half-inch wounds are quite low on Mr. Mahdi’s torso and “just above the border with the abdomen, which is not an area largely overlying the heart.” Arden at 5.”

One of his attorneys, David Weiss, said they felt ‘obliged’ to share the information with the state to prevent other death row inmates from suffering a similar fate, stressing that Mahdi’s heart was left almost completely intact.

However, the Director of Communications, SCDC, Chrysti Shain, said the autopsy report conducted by SCDC showed that all bullets struck Mahdi in the heart, dismissing the counterclaims as ‘interpretations from paid consultants’. She disclosed that a medical professional used a stethoscope to accurately place a clear target over Mahdi’s heart before the execution.

Alphabetically, Abia to Zamfara represent the A-Z of the Nigerian state. Which of the 36 states is safe? Which is prosperous? Which has an efficient power supply? Which has good roads, effective public hospitals and schools? In which Nigerian state can Mahdi enjoy his rights? Well, King Sunny Ade survived his trials; will Nigeria survive the consequences of misgovernance? Time is ticking.

Email: tundeodes2003@yahoo.com

Facebook: @Tunde Odesola

X: @Tunde_Odesola

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How Atiku, El-Rufai, Amaechi Can Learn From Tinubu’s School Of Politics

Published

6 hours ago

June 22, 2025

Editor

By Festus Adedayo

Power politics in the animal kingdom could be as intense, deceptive and selfish as it is in the human kingdom. An ancient African allegory whose patent cannot be credited to a particular tradition illustrates this. It is the fable of an old forest warhorse, the lion. After years of feasting on animals, his mane soaked in their innocent blood, Old Lion became too senescent to hunt for games. Stricken with old age, diverse infirmities and unable to put food on his own table, the King decided to get food by subterfuge and trickery.

Always by himself and soaked in myriad thoughts and stratagems for many nights and days, one day a thought sidled into his mind. He would pretend to be so infirm that he could not hunt and thus court ‘get well’ visits of other animals. He then got emissaries to broadcast his infirmity round and about the forest. As the message got to them, the animals debated the prospect of visiting him after the debilitating havoc he had wrecked on their peers and forebears. The majority of opinions supported paying the king of the jungle get-well-quick visits.

Thus, one after the other, animals of various kinds paid the King visits in his supposed infirmary. As each sauntered in, the King made barbecue of their fleshes. However, Tortoise, the wily Trickster animal, according to the Yoruba version of that fable, burst the King’s bubble. Some other African climes’ account say it was not Tortoise but the Red Fox. So, the animal came to the conclusion that, though he would satisfy the majority’s decision to pay the King obeisance, he would be a whiff careful and wiser.

So Fox/Tortoise devised a trick. He presented himself at a respectable distance from a cave by the hill that led to the King’s lair. From there, he shouted at the top of his voice to the aged King Lion to announce his presence. On hearing his voice, the King peered out queasily and bade him come into the lair. Like an Apiroro, one who feigns sleep, who must be atop the mastery of the theatrics of their game, the Lion dragged his response with great effort and said, “I am not so well… But, my friend, why do you stand without? Pray, come in and wish me well.” The Fox/Tortoise, in a sarcasm that mocked the Lion’s theatrics said: “No, thank you, Your Majesty. But, I noticed that there are many prints of feet entering your cave, but I see no trace of any returning.”

Last Friday, ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Nasir El-Rufai, Rotimi Amaechi and their co-travelers inside the Nigerian National Coalition Group (NNCG) coach arrived at a significant juncture in their bid to send President Bola Tinubu back to Lagos in 2027. On that day, the NNCG formally applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for registration as the All Democratic Alliance (ADA) party.

As far as formality goes, the dramatis personae on this journey have many reasons to clink champagne glasses. In semiotic representation, which is the study of signs, symbols, their use and representation, ADA would seem to be the greatest weapon in the NNCG’s hands to skewer the heart of the Broom, symbol of the reigning All Progressives Congress (APC).

Like the old wily Lion, virtually all the political characters on the two aisles of the divide – opposition and in government – suffer similar fates in the estimation of Nigerians today. In relationship calculus, Yoruba advise a younger one burying the elder in the presence of the younger sibling to be mindful of the depth of the grave they dig because same fate awaits them. At the joint sitting of the National Assembly on Democracy Day, Tinubu literally gloated about the walnut-pod-seeds schism and discord that characterize Nigeria’s opposition parties. “It is, indeed, a pleasure to witness you in such disarray,” he said.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu And The Fish God

A few days later, the demon came out of its seclusion. The deodorant the APC had been spraying over its messy internal power struggles expired and the putrid smell hit the nose with the bang of an Iraqi missile. The party’s Northeast leaders’ meeting for the adoption of Tinubu for a second term exposed vultures gathering round the APC in an ominous exclusion plan against Kashim Shettima. The game is to spike Shettima’s name from the 2027 presidential ballot.

Today, APC’s power apparatchik is running helter-skelter. The task is to paper over a grisly crack, an implosion tornado that may erupt in the Shettima exclusion gambit. It is a throwback into a historic Tinubu total power holding tendency, a total frown at and intolerance for sharing power with anyone. As Lagos governor, Tinubu dispensed with deputies as a junky changes syringes.

All of a sudden, erstwhile good governance poster-boy, Borno State governor, Babagana Zulum, a Shettima boy, has become the proverbial Elúùlù, a Yoruba-named brown-feathered Wood Dove bird whose cry is reputed to possess the mystical power of drawing rains from the heavens. The belief is that Elúùlù’s rain could cause everyone to scamper out for alternative shield. As Zulum chirps like Elúùlù, either on the insecure security in his state, against the Tinubu government’s dissonant narrative of peace in Borno, or even over other matters, power watchers see an internal power disruption in the APC.

Zulum’s Elúùlù may be foreshadowing a bitter rain that will pour in the APC over Shettima’s exclusion from a second term. This cry may also be a reminder of a Kowée, another mystic bird which Yoruba mythological belief says whenever it chirps, a lurking danger of death is imminent.

The Shettima travails may point to a saying that the whiplash used to trounce the older wife is kept for the younger one on the rafter. It was this same Shettima who, on a Channels Television interview, mocked the totalitarian system of Nigerian presidency which sidelined Yemi Osinbajo under Muhammadu Buhari. Shettima had said, “Osinbajo is a good man; he’s a nice man. But nice men do not make good leaders, because nice men tend to be nasty. Nice men should be selling popcorn, ice cream.” Today, Shettima sells a medley of ice cream and popcorn under a nasty and grim presidential power play.

Then, there is intense hunger and anger in the land which government is obviously too lame to tame. Statistics have become ballistics which the Tinubu government’s mind-doctor evangelists bombard Nigerians with. The latest ballistic is that inflation figure has decreased. Yet, the spinners of these figures are unable to explain the fit of sulks Nigerians relapse into when they confront skyrocketing foods and goods in the market. Neither is anyone responding to the people’s groan at their ebbing purchasing power which the twin policies of subsidy withdrawal and Naira flotation have birthed. It is obvious that, as Nigerians walk into the electioneering years, government will have no balm to apply on the people’s aches.

Then, there is the gale of insecurity in the country. Unbeknown to Nigerians, the Tandi of the Buhari government which they thought was dance-shy, cannot even stand the TandiTandi of the Tinubu government which does not have a waist to wag to any danceable tune. Northeast terrorists dance to celebratory songs as they hijack Nigerian local governments as their spoils of war. Same terrorists drink palm-wine with dead Nigerians’ skulls as gourds. In the Northwest, bandits kill Nigerians en-masse as you trample on cockroaches. Benue and Plateau States are poster-boys of government’s helplessness in the face of superior herders’ brains, weapons and strategies. Nigerians in those states bury their dead in silence as federal government regurgitates obituaries, condolence messages as press releases which mask its cowardice. The recent Benue massacre is an example.

So many other missteps of the last two years line the dais. They are missteps which an opposition group or party could weaponize to win Nigerians’ hearts. Is it the Gilbert Chagoury-lization of the Nigerian economy? Or the lack of openness and accountability in the Lagos-Calabar 700km N15trillion road project which the president awarded to a man he openly admitted was his ally? Is it the Airbus A330 presidential aircraft which cost Nigeria $100million and which never passed the senate lens? Is it the flying rumour of mind-boggling corruption that has stuck to this government like a leech in two years? You do not have to scrape more than the surface to amass a shovelful.

To rehash what wily Trickster Tortoise told Lion, King of the jungle, those putting together the ADA as Nigeria’s opposition party also have Tinubu-type logs in their eyes. Nigerians see them as people who have “many prints of feet entering your cave, but (see) no trace of any returning”.

Tinubu was right by claiming, as he did in Kaduna last week, that Uba Sani had transformed the State from a “toxic, uncontrollable environment”.

Under El-Rufai, Kaduna was a horror scene. Though ranked comparatively higher than any other state in Nigeria by multilateral agencies on the scorecard of good governance and accountability, in eight years, El-Rufai’s Kaduna was a state of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. The peace in Southern Kaduna today is a departure from the toxicity of the El-Rufai era. When you now have the same character seeking to play leading role in bringing a let to the suffering of the people of Nigeria, it speaks volumes of the kind of leadership Nigerians should look forward to.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: Olunloyo: Goodnight, Voltaire

Then, Atiku Abubakar. The ex-VP’s politics is undoubtedly woven round self. Since 1993, he has been a presidential candidate and has failed on each occasion. It is obvious that the current ADA is again primed round him. When self is the issue as in this manner, Yoruba ask if the individual’s esophagus is the sole route to Oyo (Onàofu ntienikanniwonn’gbalos’Oyóní?)

Amaechi is not any better. Having lost out in the power equation of the post-Tinubu era, this former Transport Minister has become an emergency critic, even being ludicrous enough to claim he is hungry. The trio and their co-travelers are united by anger and lust for power, rather than any meaningful attempt to rescue Nigeria from the vice grip of Tinubu. ADA is a huge log that has stayed afloat on and fed on the ecosystem of the murky and filthy river of Fourth Republic Nigerian politics for too long. It has stayed so long on the river that it is mistaking itself for an amphibian animal. And Yoruba say, no matter how long a log stays in the river, it will never become a crocodile.

Borrowing from Lasisi Olagunju, ADA and its minders are like mourners at their own funeral. They can never be a soothing counterpoise to the rot of the Tinubu government. Were it to be possible, the Ibrahim Babangida newbreed model would have been a perfect reply to this current order where, head or tail, Nigerians may lose.

The ADA crew, especially Atiku Abubakar, would need to learn some basic lessons that Tinubu taught Nigerian politics. Between 2007 when he left Lagos governorship and 2023 when he became president, Tinubu wore the strategic patience garment of the vulture. He waited patiently within this period, biding his time for Aso Rock. He could have put himself forth to be Nigeria’s president in 2015 but strategically supported Buhari.

Conversely, at every election season, Atiku’s face thoughtlessly adorns presidential campaign posters like a boring epigram. It is obvious that he and his ADA are too mired in the problems and challenges of Nigeria to be a solution to them. Amaechi and El-Rufai are obviously in ADA out of anger and hungry for revenge against those who chucked them out of their birthright of being in government in perpetuity.

The little I know about anger is, when you are consumed by it, you wake up lost, and you will lose sight of everything. Including your sense.

News

Diri Approves Automatic Employment For UAT First Class Graduates

Published

20 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri, has offered automatic employment to First Class degree graduates of the University of Africa, Toru-Orua (UAT), in Sagbama Local Government Area of the state.

In a statement, the Chief Press Secretary to governor, Daniel Alabrah, said Diri made the announcement on Saturday at the maiden combined convocation ceremony of 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023 and 2024 academic sessions of the university.

Diri said the gesture was part of measures to check the brain drain syndrome.

The governor said the gesture had been replicated in other state-owned tertiary institutions such as the Niger Delta University, Amassoma, in line with his administration’s policy to prioritise education and boost human capital development.

Congratulating the graduands, the governor praised his predecessor, Senator Seriake Dickson representing Bayelsa West, for his vision and political will in establishing the UAT, which he noted was meeting the educational needs of the state and beyond.

“ln line with our government’s policy, all First Class graduates of UAT will be offered automatic employment to ensure that we do not lose our best brains.

“This first combined convocation ceremony of UAT is momentous and historical. When l took over as governor, l had a lot of presentations, which included closing down the UAT. But l came to the inescapable conclusion that rather than shutting it down, l opted to establish more because education remains our number one priority.”

As Visitor to the UAT, Diri announced the appointment and investiture of Dr. Nwachukwu Nnam Obi III, Ogba of Ogbaland in Rivers State, as the institution’s Chancellor.

Responding to the challenges presented by the Vice Chancellor, Diri said government will continue to address them through collaborative efforts and urged the institution to explore funding modules towards generating income.

While assuring that the auditorium and Senate building projects would be completed before the end of his tenure, the state’s chief executive promised that government would also address the problem of staff accommodation and that transport vehicles will be provided to ease the challenges faced by workers and students at UAT, NDU and the Federal University, Otuoke.

On the institution’s power needs, Diri said when the 60mw independent power plant procured by the government becomes functional, it would cover the university’s location.

In his remarks, the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Solomon Ebobrah, announced that 66 were awarded first class degrees out of the 905 graduands of the four academic sessions.

He expressed appreciation to the Diri administration for its increased monthly subvention to the UAT and listed a number of challenges to include uncompleted auditorium and Senate buildings, lack of perimeter fencing, power supply, staff accommodation, lecture theatres, teaching and non-teaching staff office accommodation among others.

In his remarks, the Pro Chancellor and Chairman, Governing Council, Barr. Kemela Okara, equally expressed gratitude to government for its support towards the successful accreditation of all programmes by the National Universities Commission.

News

Aiyedatiwa Proposes Death Penalty For Kidnappers

Published

22 hours ago

June 21, 2025

Editor

In a bid to eradicate kidnapping in the state, the Ondo State Government has proposed a death sentence for whoever is found guilty of kidnapping in the state.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice in the state, Dr Olukayode Ajulo, SAN, disclosed this while speaking with journalists on Saturday after the weekly state executive council meeting.

It was gathered that the state governor, Mr Lucky Aiyedatiwa presided over the meeting.

Ajulo said the proposal would soon be transmitted to the state House of Assembly for necessary legislative action.

He said, ”Kidnapping and cultism have become major threats to safety and public order and strengthening relevant legal frameworks would help deter such crimes and improve the overall security landscape.

”The proposals would soon be transmitted to the House of Assembly for necessary legislative action, including sentencing convicted kidnappers to death.”

Also speaking, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Infrastructure, Lands and Housing, Engr. Abiola Olawoye, revealed that the Executive Council approved the construction of two major dual-carriageway road projects in the state.

According to him, the first is the construction of a 24.75-kilometre dual carriageway from Ugbeyin Junction – Okitipupa Market – OAUSTECH – Ugbonla Junction – Igbokoda Jetty.

“The road will feature a 9.3-metre wide carriageway on both sides, a 1.2-metre median, concrete line drains, walkways, asphaltic shoulders in undeveloped areas, a 3-metre utility area, and solar-powered streetlights along the median. The entire road corridor is 28 metres wide, with a total right of way of 40 metres. It will also include modern traffic lights at critical intersections and is designed to carry heavy traffic with a reinforced pavement structure.

”The second project is the construction of a 6.7-kilometre dual carriageway from Supare Junction – Akungba – Ikare Road in Akoko area of the state. The specifications are similar, including a 9.3-metre carriageway on either side, 1.2-metre median, reinforced concrete line drains, walkways, a 3-metre utility area, solar-powered streetlights, and traffic management systems. It is also built to withstand heavy vehicular movement.

“In addition to these, the council approved the provision and installation of 6,000 standalone solar streetlights across the three senatorial districts—2,000 each for Ondo North, Ondo Central, and Ondo South. This is part of the state’s agenda to improve safety and public lighting infrastructure.”