By Israel Adebiyi

There is something about names that our generation has slowly forgotten – their power, their prophecy, their weight in defining purpose. In the African worldview, a name is never an accident; it is a covenant. Our forebears named their children with deliberation, believing that words shape destiny. They did not simply call a child by what sounded beautiful; they invoked meaning, heritage, and expectation. That is why the Yoruba man, in a blend of philosophy and poetry, says, “Orúkọ ń rò ènìyàn” – a name molds its bearer.

It was this philosophy that filled my mind recently while interacting with members of the National Youth Service Corps Editorial CDS. During the introductions, one of the names that caught my attention was “Ajobiewe.” It instantly set off a train of thought – could there be a shared essence between names like “Ajobiewe” and “Eweje”? Were these mere titles of grace, or metaphors for destiny? In that moment, I was reminded again that our ancestors were intentional people; they named not just for identification, but for instruction.

That meditation on names became even more striking with the emergence of a new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC): Joash Ojo Amupitan. His surname, AMUPITAN, loosely translates to “the one whose life will tell stories or bear testimonies.” It is an uncommon name, but in a nation desperate for uncommon results, perhaps Providence is sending a message. For too long, the stories from Nigeria’s electoral body have been grim – tales of betrayal, manipulation, and distrust. But with Amupitan, Nigeria stands once again at the threshold of possibility: can this man become the positive story we have waited to tell?

To understand the task before the new INEC boss, one must first confront the ruins of public perception. Few institutions in Nigeria suffer as much credibility deficit as the electoral commission. From one election cycle to another, INEC has been accused of playing foot soldier to political interests, shifting goalposts midway, and delivering outcomes that mock the people’s will. It is a sad irony that the very institution meant to uphold democracy is often viewed as its greatest saboteur.

The distrust is generational. From the annulled 1993 election that shattered the hopes of millions, to the bitterly contested 2007 and 2019 polls, Nigerians have seen enough to be skeptical. Even the 2023 general election, heralded by promises of technological innovation through the BVAS and IReV systems, ended in disillusionment for many. Citizens who had hoped that technology would outsmart human manipulation were left heartbroken by what they perceived as selective transparency. Confidence in the system has been badly eroded.

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This is the “itan” – the story – that Amupitan inherits. And it is not a flattering one. Yet therein lies his mandate: to rewrite the narrative, to tell a story different from those who came before him.

History has a way of testing every man it calls. For Amupitan, this appointment is both an opportunity and a trial. It is an opportunity to restore faith in one of Nigeria’s most important democratic institutions; but it is also a trial of character, courage, and conviction. He must choose whether to be remembered as another custodian of a broken system or as the one who dared to fix it.

In doing so, he must first recognize that electoral credibility does not rest merely on gadgets or grand pronouncements. It rests on integrity and institutional will. A thousand reforms mean little if those who implement them lack the courage to stand by the truth.

The new INEC Chairman must, therefore, prioritize transparency and communication. He must understand that Nigerians are not asking for perfection, but for honesty. He must rebuild confidence, not through press conferences, but through consistent and verifiable actions that prove the commission’s neutrality. Every election supervised by INEC, every rerun, every by-election must bear the unmistakable stamp of fairness.

The truth is that many of INEC’s failures stem not from technical limitations, but from internal rot. A structure compromised from within cannot deliver credibility externally. The new chairman must therefore embark on a bold internal reform – one that enforces discipline, integrity, and accountability within the ranks of electoral officers.

Every election year, Nigerians hear of “compromised ad-hoc staff,” “tampered results,” or “missing materials.” These are not coincidences; they are the consequences of a weak enforcement culture. To change the story, Amupitan must clean the house. He must be willing to confront the entrenched interests within the institution that have grown fat on impunity.

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There is also the urgent need to strengthen collaboration with civil society groups and the media. These watchdogs are not enemies of the commission; they are partners in accountability. Opening INEC’s processes to scrutiny will not weaken it – it will legitimize it. Transparency, after all, is the oxygen of democracy.

Technology, while essential, is not the silver bullet. The BVAS, the IReV, and other innovations introduced in recent years have shown both their potential and their limits. Machines can transmit data, but they cannot transmit conscience.

Amupitan must, therefore, pair technological innovation with ethical reform. There must be stronger vetting and training of ad-hoc staff, better communication with party agents, and clearer contingency plans for network failures and litigation. The aim is not just to conduct elections, but to conduct credible ones that leave no room for avoidable suspicion.

No democracy survives long when the people lose faith in the ballot. That is Nigeria’s greatest danger – not coups, not protests, but apathy. When citizens begin to believe that their votes no longer matter, they retreat from the civic space, and democracy slowly dies.

Amupitan’s task, then, is not just administrative; it is spiritual. He must rekindle belief. He must make Nigerians dream again of elections where competence triumphs over manipulation, and where winners celebrate without the sour taste of stolen mandates.

This will require humility – the willingness to listen to public grievances, admit institutional lapses, and take corrective action promptly. Leadership in INEC must shed arrogance and embrace service.

But even as we place demands on the new INEC Chairman, we must also turn to the political class. Electoral credibility is not the sole responsibility of the umpire; it is the collective responsibility of all who play the game. Politicians who see public office as a do-or-die affair undermine democracy more than any faulty server could.

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Nigeria’s political actors must learn to win honorably and lose gracefully. They must stop weaponizing ethnicity, religion, and violence to subvert the people’s will. For once, the pursuit of power should give way to the pursuit of purpose.

The judiciary, too, must rise above compromise. When courts deliver judgments that contradict the spirit of democracy, they do not just decide cases – they shape national destiny.

Democracy is not a spectator sport. Citizens cannot demand accountability from institutions they do not engage with. Nigerians must therefore reclaim ownership of the process. From voter registration to election day monitoring, the people must be involved, informed, and insistent.

Civil society must keep the pressure on. The media must continue to tell the stories that matter, without fear or favor. And ordinary Nigerians must understand that participation is power – the ballot, when used with conviction, is still mightier than the bullet.

Names, after all, are prophecies. Amupitan – the one who will be used to tell stories. The question is: what story will be told of him? Will it be another lamentation of lost opportunity, or a narrative of national redemption?

In a time when Nigeria’s democracy trembles under the weight of cynicism, his appointment is an invitation to hope. The story he writes will not be written with ink, but with integrity; not with words, but with actions.

At the end of his tenure, may the stories told of him not be of betrayal and bitterness, but of courage and credibility. May his name – Amupitan – indeed become a testimony, not just for himself, but for a nation that desperately needs one.

By Suyi Ayodele

Some Nigerians said it was wrong for Mr. Peter Obi to have labelled Yahoo Boys geniuses. I heard them and wondered whether ‘genius’ now has a new meaning apart from what the dictionary says it is.

The Shorter Oxford Dictionary (2007), on page 1091, defines genius as: “Natural ability or tendency, attributes which fit a person or particular activity. Natural aptitude, talent, or inclination for, to (something).”

Obi, the Presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 presidential election, in the post titled: “Our Youths Need Redirection”, that he shared on his verified X handle, after a conference he addressed in Onitsha, Anambra State, said that “some of our so-called Yahoo boys are geniuses who need redirection, not condemnation.”

He did not stop there. He posited further by saying that the “creativity and courage” of the Yahoo Boys, “if properly guided, can drive innovation and national development. Our challenge is to channel their energy from deception to productive enterprise. I also stressed that the reckless pursuit of money destroys both character and community. Leadership must lead by example, for a nation that rewards dishonesty cannot build integrity. I urged our youths to rediscover the dignity of labour and embrace hard work and innovation. Nations are built not by miracles but by men and women who think, work, and build.”

Pray, what do the Yahoo Boys display if not aptitude? How do they succeed in fleecing people of their hard-earned money if not that the Yahoo Boys are naturally gifted and their victims stupid or greedy, or a combination of both? How does a 17-year-old boy convince a 60-year-old man to part with his money on the promise that the old man would be given an oil block? Who swindles like that if not a genius? And we have these geniuses in our homes as children, wards and relations. The attention we pay to them matters.

A few weeks ago, I had lunch at an old friend’s house at Ido Ekiti. His wife, also a friend, was generous with the pounded yam she served. We were almost through when their 15-year-old daughter came in with two of her friends.

The girls greeted us and made for their section of the house when my friend called his daughter back. He complained that he was having an issue with his android phone and asked her to check it. The girl asked what the issue was, and the father explained. What followed almost ruined our lunch.

Taking the phone from the father, the young girl said: “But I taught you how to fix this problem before, Daddy. I know you will soon call me again because of this.” It was not what she said that was the problem. The what-else-do-you-think-that-makes-you-to-forget manner she said it, was the issue. If an adult were to say those words, he would have simply called my friend an alakogbagbe (teach-and-forget soul)!

The girl simply punched some buttons and returned the phone to the father. “I have done it”, she said, giggling. The father, surprised, asked how, since he had locked his phone. The girl, laughing, simply said: “I know your password, even mummy’s and Uncle Tunji’s password.” She dropped the phone and dashed inside to join her friends.

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We simply exchanged glances and continued with our lunch. But I could feel the tension. My friend’s wife was particularly embarrassed, but I felt nothing. Only God understands the ways of this generation.

While seeing me off, I decided to douse the tension, or minimise the reprimand I knew would follow once I departed. I quipped: “That’s a brilliant girl.” My friend responded: “Yes, but she can be rude. I have told her to watch how she talks.” I stopped and asked if the girl was rude or simply wondered why an adult should forget things easily. The wife joined the husband and affirmed that the girl was rude.

Then I said to the two of them: “I think I know what you people should do. Stop paying her school fees.” “Ha!” They both exclaimed, and I added: “Yes nao, sebi you said she is rude.” We all laughed at the joke, and I left.

My friend’s daughter will be 16 years old in June next year. But I was told that there is nothing she can’t design using computer applications! We have children like her in our homes; restless, brilliant, naturally impatient with perceived docility and outspoken to the point of seeming ‘rude’! What we do with them makes all the difference.

Teckworm, an online technology news and media company, on September 19, 2018, published an article: “Meet these 5 child hackers who could become top cyber security researchers.” The article, written by Maya Kamath, demonstrates how the society could guide negative prodigies into becoming useful members of the society especially in the field of Cybersecurity that is experiencing a shortfall of skilled professionals.

The first of the youngsters is Reuben Paul, a nine-year-old boy, and a third grader in Harmony School of Science, Austin, Texas, USA, who at a .B-Sides security conference, demonstrated how in a matter of minutes, hackers can easily steal all the important data from any Android smartphone including contact details, call logs and messages. The kid warned: “If a child can do it then a regular hacker can do it … so I just want everybody to be aware [and to] be more careful when you download games and stuff like that.” He went ahead to establish the Prudent Games and became the CEO at age nine!

Another kid is Betsy Davies, a seven-year-old British girl, who was able to hack the public Wi-Fi network following a short video tutorial. After 10 minutes, the article says: “Surprisingly, Betsy was able to hack the open Wi-Fi and steal the traffic of the volunteer in just 10 minutes and 54 seconds. Betsy managed this by setting up a Rogue Access Point which is normally used by hackers to carry out the “Man in the Middle” (MiTM) attack on the overly trusting web surfers to sniff web traffic.

The piece further mentions Kristoffer Von Hassel, a five-year-old kid hacker, the piece further states, “exposed the Xbox password flaw for which he has been officially added to the list of Microsoft’s recognized security researchers. We can expect a five-year-old kid to play the Microsoft Xbox Game as well as know the operating system. However, just imagine if a five-year-old kid starts finding a security vulnerability in the system. It just seems impossible; however, little Kristoffer Von Hassel discovered a back door into one of the most popular gaming systems and that is the Xbox Game.”

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Another wonder kid identified only as “An Unnamed Canadian”, said to be 12 years old and a fifth grader, “launched a series of Denial-of-Service (DoS), spoofing and even defacement attacks against the Canadian government websites in support of the Quebec student protests. It seems the young protester even passed the data which was stolen from the government websites to the Anonymous group in exchange for video games. The young hacker was from Montreal and also pleaded guilty for being responsible for the shut down of a number of government sites including the Quebec Institute of Public Health and the Chilean government.”

The last of the quintet is a 10-year-old security researcher, who goes by the pseudonym ‘CyFi. According to the article, “The young Californian school girl first discovered the flaw when “she started to get bored” with the pace of farm style games. The first DefCon Kids at DefCon 19 was held in August 2011, where CyFi presented her findings on the zero-day flaw in the games on the iOS and Android devices which was confirmed to be of a new class of vulnerability by experts. While speaking to CNET, CyFi said: “It was hard to make progress in the game, because it took so long for things to grow. So, I thought, ‘Why don’t I just change the time?’”

CyFi’s, whose “real identity is being protected… was already a Girl Scout and a state ranked downhill skier. In addition, the little girl was already an artist who gave a spontaneous 10-minute speech in front of a thousand people at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.”

The Nigerian society also has more than enough shares of those young and brilliant children. What we do with them as a people is what makes the difference. While more developed societies harness the potential of such youngsters and turn them into useful members of the community, often brand and blacklist them here, calling them derogatory names instead of seeking ways to change their orientation.

In our cities and towns, we see them everyday. Young boys in their teens and early twenties driving flashy cars. A friend, who teaches in one of the state-owned universities, once told me how young boys in his school created a massive car park for themselves. He said that the situation became embarrassing such that the university authorities had to ban students from driving their cars within the campus. When I asked if that measure had stopped other students from buying their own cars, my friend answered in the negative. So, what is the effect of the ban?

Who are these super-rich kids behind the wheels of exotic cars that we see in our neighbourhoods? How did they get the money? What do they do for a living? On February 8, 2022, I published a piece titled: “The Yahoo in us all: Whose conscience have we not scammed.” In that piece, I submitted that “The issue of Yahoo Boys, Yahoo Plus and HK, are not social problems that just hit us all suddenly. No. The Nigerian society gradually moved into this present level of moral decadence, which has reached a bestial level, where sucklings now kill to make money.”

Regrettably, nothing in the submissions above has changed today! Rather, we have moved from a bad situation to an even worse one, and the worst may still be ahead. The moral decadence in our society today has become so pervasive that no segment of the society is spared. Ironically, the leaders we should look up to for direction are also complicit.

A community led certificate forgers, drug barons, ex-convicts, corrupt politicians and adults without childhood playmates cannot question the moral decadence of the youths! The Yahoo Boys of our society today are products of failed parentage. While the influence of peer groups bears some responsibility, the erosion of family values carries the greatest share of the blame.

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More importantly, society’s response to the activities of these Yahoo Boys and girls will, no doubt, go a long way in transforming some of them into good citizens. This, I believe, is what Peter Obi meant when he said that “some of our so-called Yahoo boys are geniuses who need redirection, not condemnation.”

What Obi is saying is: Check these guys out, study them, understand their modus operandi and see how they can be re-oriented to channel those talents to positive ideas that will make them good and acceptable members of the society. That is exactly what a sane society does. The five kids mentioned by the Techworm are clear examples of how a negative path can be redirected.

When, for instance, Kristoffer’s parents discovered that their child could play games above his age on the Xbox Games platform, they reported their finding to Microsoft. The company investigated, discovered the flaws in the system that allowed a five-year-old to access those games and went ahead to fix the problem.

Then, Microsoft rewarded Kristoffer with $50, four games and a year subscription to Xbox Live from Microsoft! It went ahead to include “Kristoffer’s name in the list of recognised security researchers and Kristoffer now has his own Wikipedia page.” This, to me, is Obi’s message to the Nigerian society on the menace of Yahoo Boys.

This, again, I think Seye Oladejo, the Lagos State spokesman for the All Progressives Congress (APC), should see rather than his labelling Obi’s statement as “morally reprehensible”, and capable of encouraging “moral indiscipline.”

I read Oladejo’s reaction, and I wondered if he ever shared the piece with his superiors before he made it public. I don’t know how APC finds it convenient to talk about leadership that is rooted in “values, integrity, and moral responsibility”, when from top to bottom, the party flows with characters that are as despicable as the sight of maggots-infested faeces!

I would have been more at home with anyone asking Obi to always show the alternative routes anytime he comments on any public affair than anyone in the APC interrogating another man’s “moral compass”, as Oladejo did in his reaction. I begin to wonder if our politicians don’t look into the mirror to see the gory picture they depict before they go to the moral markets and spew sanctimony!

The Nigeria Customs Service has warned members of the public against falling victim to fraudulent WhatsApp messages advertising fake e-auction deals and “quick purchase” opportunities purportedly linked to the service.

In a statement posted on its official X handle on Tuesday, the service said it had become aware of a WhatsApp number,”234 814 732 3739”, impersonating its officers and misleading unsuspecting citizens with false claims of representing the Nigeria Customs Service.

“Please be informed that this number does NOT belong to the National Public Relations Officer of the Nigeria Customs Service.

“The messages and posts circulating from this number are FAKE and fraudulent,” the statement partly read.

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It added that the National Public Relations Officer, Assistant Comptroller Abdullahi Maiwada, has only one verified Facebook account, Abdullahi Aliyu Maiwada (with a blue tick), and one official WhatsApp contact, which is not the number used by the scammers.

The service clarified that “there is no ongoing auction via WhatsApp, and no individual officer is authorised to conduct e-auction on behalf of the Service through private messages.”

Urging the public to remain cautious, the statement advised Nigerians to “ignore and block such numbers,” and “not send money or personal information to anyone claiming to represent the NCS through WhatsApp or private messages.”

It further urged citizens to “report such accounts to the appropriate authorities immediately.”

For verified updates, the service encouraged members of the public to follow its official channels: Facebook (Nigeria Customs Service), Instagram (@customsng), X (@CustomsNG), YouTube (@customsng), and its official website — https://customs.gov.ng.

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The service concluded, “Please stay alert, verify before you trust, and share this message widely to protect others from falling victim to these scams.”

According to The PUNCH, rampant fraudsters now clone the Nigeria Customs Service website and other official-looking platforms to swindle unsuspecting buyers.

In another report, a 59-year-old woman, Rakiyat Musa, was arraigned before the Igbosere Magistrate’s Court sitting at Tinubu, Lagos Island, for allegedly impersonating a Nigerian Customs officer and obtaining over N34, 116,000, under pretence.

Musa, who appeared before Magistrate B. I. Amos, faced a four-count charge bordering on conspiracy, obtaining by false pretence, stealing, impersonation, and conduct likely to cause a breach of peace.