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Uproar As IGP, PSC Clash Over Retirement Of Police Officers

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The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun’s order, countering the recent directive of the Police Service Commission, PSC, to officers who have attained 35 years in service or 60 years of age to proceed on retirement, has drawn the ire of senior retired officers, who kicked against the order.

Meanwhile, Public Relations Officer of the commission said that the IGP’s comment for further directive does not mean that he rejected the commission’s decision.

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The PSC recently directed officers who have attained 35 years in service or 60 years of age, to immediately proceed on retirement from the force.

But according to a wireless message from the office of the Force Secretary, dated February 5, 2025, read, “INGENPOL strongly directs all officers affected by the PSC’s directive to stay action, pending further directive. This directive should be strictly complied with.”

Recall that last week, PSC’s spokesman, Mr. Ikechukwu Ani said the commission’s order followed a review of its earlier stance at the 24th plenary meeting in September 2017, allowing force entrants to use their date of enlistment instead of their initial appointment date.

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The commission cited the inconsistency with Public Service Rule No. 020908 (i & ii), which mandates retirement upon spending 35 years in service or reaching 60 years of age as reasons for it’s decision.

The PSC, however, clarified that it lacks the constitutional authority to determine the appointment or retirement of the current IGP, Kayode Egbetokun.

Reacting to the IGP’s order, some retired Police officers including Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIGs, Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIGs and Comissioners of Police, CPs, insisted that the PSC directive is in line with civil service procedures.

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READ ALSO: IGP Charges Officers On Professionalism, Integrity

Meanwhile, some of the officers affected by the PSC directive have dragged the commission to court.

I don’t see this as IGP rejecting our decision -PSC PRO

PSC’s spokeperson, Mr Ani, when contacted yesterday on the development, said: “We have conveyed this to the IGP. I saw the signal you are referring to. They mentioned that the IGP said they should hold on for further directives, and I don’t think it contradicts our decision, because there may be something he wants to put in place. They showed up for further directives, and I don’t see this as him rejecting the commission’s decision.”

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It’s about self-preservation – Retired AIG

A retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, AIG, who pleaded to remain anonymous told Vanguard: “It’s unfortunate that the Force keeps finding herself in such awkward situations.

“I believe those caught up in this mess should have been allowed to exit the Force quietly without any back and forth.

“After all, the Military has been retiring their officers without much fuss about it.

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“I believe these Force entrants should count themselves lucky to have attained their present rank, as they were promoted over and above their peers, who were toiling day and night shifts while they sneaked to study and acquire these qualifications most times without receiving approval to do so.

“That notwithstanding they want to stay put, claiming so called fresh appointment. The Public Service Rules quoted by the PSC is quite explicit.

“Most Force entrants usually exit the Force when they attained 60 or 35 years of service, so why the debate about it now?

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READ ALSO: PSC Approves Retirement Of Police Officers Above 60 Amid IG Tenure Controversy

“But curiously the IGP is also caught up in the same web, because should these guys leave, the pressure for him to leave might intensify,” he added.

IGP has no such powers to stop PSC -Retired DIG

Also, a etired Deputy Inspector General of Police, DIG, who preferred his name out of print, said: “The IGP has no power over PSC on that matter of retirement after serving 35 year or attaining 60 years.

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“What we heard from the grapevine is that vested interests from above, are trying to shift the goal post for political reasons. The institution bears the brunt.

It will cause low morale — Retired CP

A retired Commissioner of Police from one of the northern states, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said: “The IGP’s counter-order is wrong, and it will crash morale. Nepotism is getting worse, and it’s alarming.”

Also, another retired Assistant Inspector General from the South-West, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said: “The focus on who benefits from legislative changes will lead to demoralization, which is counter-productive to the force’s effectiveness. In our days, even though we were under-funded, we tried not to give prominence to favoritism and nepotism.”

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Affected serving officers sue PSC

Meanwhile, some Commissioners of Police, who left upon completion of 35 years but had not reached 60 years, threatened to fight for their recall or monetary compensation, since they were not up to 60 years at the time of retirement.

But one of them said: “This is playing out because it also affects the IGP. Already, there has been clamour for him to step down, having attained the Civil Service law on retirement.”

Another retired CP, who simply gave his name as Okey, said: “These reactions suggest that the IGP’s stance has sparked controversy and dissent within the Police Force, with many senior officers opposing the move as unjust and contradictory to the law.

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READ ALSO: PSC Promotes FCT CP, 13 Others To AIG

“Already, four senior police officers, including three Assistant Inspectors-General, AIGs, and a Commissioner of Police, have filed a lawsuit against the PSC, challenging the directive.

“The lawsuit is likely to further exacerbate the tensions between the PSC and the police hierarchy, which has been simmering since the directive was issued.

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“But it is worthy to note that the Act in question doesn’t explicitly state the retirement age or years of service, but it does mention that a retired police officer may be re-engaged for another period upon application. This re-engagement is subject to the approval of the IGP.

“There’s a proposal to create special retirement service years or age for police officers, different from the general norm in the civil/public service.

“It’s worth noting that the Act repealed the Police Act Cap. P19, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004, aiming to provide a framework for the police force to ensure cooperation and partnership between the police and host communities,” he added.
(VANGUARD)

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Brain Jotter, Flavour, Nedu, Chief Priest, Others Mourn Mike Ejeagha

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The Nigerian entertainment world was plunged into mourning on Saturday following the passing of revered highlife musician and folklorist Mike Ejeagha, whose timeless music touched generations across Nigeria and beyond.

The 95-year-old cultural icon passed away on Friday night after a prolonged 16-year battle with prostate cancer. His eldest son, Emma Ejeagha, confirmed the sad news during a telephone conversation with our reporter on Saturday. The highlife maestro breathed his last at the 32 Garrison Hospital in Enugu.

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Papa died at exactly 8 p.m. on Friday, and his body has been deposited in the morgue. I was with him during his final moments. I will meet with my family in the morning to break the news to them,” Emma said.

Emma described his late father as “a peace-loving man and a genius,” noting that Ejeagha had given instructions that his body should not be embalmed or kept in the morgue for too long after his passing.

READ ALSO: Tributes Pour In For Late Highlife Icon, Mike Ejeagha

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Tributes have since poured in from across Nigeria’s entertainment landscape. Leading the voices of grief was comedian Chukwuebuka Emmanuel Amuzie, popularly known as Brain Jotter, who recently reignited global interest in Ejeagha’s music with his viral 2024 dance skit based on the 1983 classic Ka Esi Le Onye Isi Oche.

Mike Ejeagha is a legend whose impact in the music world will remain unmatched and deeply missed,” Brain Jotter said in an emotional post shared on his verified Instagram account on Saturday afternoon. “Thirty-nine years ago, he made magic; thirty-nine years later, Nigerians and the rest of the world are dancing to it. Rest in peace, legend.”

Socialite and nightlife promoter Cubana Chief Priest also joined the chorus of mourning. “Baba Ejeagha was not just a musician — he was the voice of our culture and wisdom,” Chief Priest posted on his Instagram Stories. “His songs will continue to teach and inspire us for generations to come. Rest on, great man.”

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Actor and media personality Nedu Wazobia echoed the sentiments: “Sometimes you think legends live forever — and in truth, through their work, they do. Mike Ejeagha’s music was part of my childhood, and it will be part of my children’s childhood too.”

READ ALSO: Wizkid: Banky W Has Assured Me I’ll Receive Royalties – Samklef

Singer Flavour N’abania, known for modern highlife hits, also paid tribute: “We stand on the shoulders of giants like Mike Ejeagha. His mastery of storytelling through music was unmatched. Igbo culture and African music have lost a true icon.”

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Mike Ejeagha was a towering figure in Nigerian music, celebrated for his unique blend of traditional Igbo folk music and melodic storytelling. His works preserved cultural wisdom through parables and proverbs, often delivered with soul-stirring instrumentation.

In recent years, Ejeagha’s music experienced a cultural renaissance, especially after Brain Jotter’s dance skit went viral, sparking a global dance challenge that drew millions of views across TikTok and Instagram.

READ ALSO: Tragedy As UNIZIK Undergraduate Jumps From Three-storey Building, Dies

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The renewed attention underscored the timeless quality of his artistry. “This resurgence proved that the wisdom in his songs is as relevant today as it was four decades ago,” said cultural critic Obinna Ezeani.

As news of Ejeagha’s passing spread, fans flooded social media platforms with videos of themselves dancing to his classics in tribute. “Gone but never forgotten. Thank you for the music, thank you for the lessons,” one fan wrote on X.

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OPINION: June 12 And Its Casualties, 32 Years After

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By Festus Adedayo

On Thursday this week, it will be 32 years of that June 12 phenomenon. On July 9, 1998, the lifeless body of a young man adorned the front page of the Nigerian Tribune. The tear-jerking, bloodied body decorated the front pages of many other Nigerian newspapers like manacles in the hands of a convict. He had been shot dead by the police in Abeokuta, Ogun State. It was during a Southwest-wide protest against the perceived murder in detention of Chief MKO Abiola, winner of the June 12, 1993 election. The lifeless young man was one of the countless lives Nigeria propitiated at the grove of military despotism. It was the sacrifice to have the freedom of today.

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According to Nigerian newspapers’ edition of that day, students, workers, apprentices, bystanders were felled by police bullets. It was like the June 1976 protest by black school children in Soweto, South Africa which led to minimum of 176 dead and estimated 700 felled, with over a thousand people injured. The report said, in Lagos, about 40 lives were lost. Fourteen in Idi-Araba, 4 at Oshodi, 3 at Oworonshoki, and 2 at Ojodu. Unconfirmed sources told reporters that ten lives were lost at Mushin and ten at multi-million Naira Lagos abattoir area at Oko-Oba. In Ibadan, police dispatched five persons to their untimely graves at the Bodija estate area and three at the Bodija market. Perceived military apologist, Arisekola Alao’s Bodija building was in turn damaged by the protesters, leading to the death of two of them. In Abeokuta, the palace of the Alake of Egbaland was looted and torched. The monarch’s staff of office, beaded crown and royal umbrella were looted as well. A tyre warehouse belonging to one Alhaji Fatai Gbemisola was set ablaze with vehicles vandalized in their hundreds.

The above should remind one that life usually comes in binaries – good/bad; poor/rich; live/die and so on. Orlando Owoh, Yoruba Kennery music singer, perhaps had this binary in mind when he sang that beneath the sweet apple of the pineapple lies its lacerating pine. “Opon oyinbo fi dundun se’wa, oro inu e t’o egbeje” he sang. Owoh could as well have been talking about Nigeria’s binary, of yesterday’s June 12 struggle and today’s civil rule.

The repercussion of the election annulment by General Ibrahim Babangida was colossal. Hundreds of Nigerians were murdered while uncountable suffered collateral deaths. Many got imprisoned; livelihoods were lost, destinies got truncated and many never recovered their well-being, even till today. Many children and dependant of the dead had their destinies stymied by the crisis. On July 7, 1998, with General Sani Abacha obdurately soldiering on, in spite of widespread calls on him to release Abiola from prison and honour the people’s electoral wish, Abiola’s death was announced.

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

The casualties of June 12 were legion. Business colossus, Alfred Ogbeyiwa Rewane, was one of them. Nicknamed Osibakoro by Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Rewane was a staunch member of the Action Group political party and chairman of the AG-controlled Western Region Development Company. In the 1990s, as the military bared their fangs, Rewane was the refuge and sponsor of politicians and activists who desired what we eventually have today. His Lagos home was NADECO’s meeting venue. At Rewane’s memorial in 2000, late Chief Bola Ige recalibrated an earlier funeral oration he delivered in Warri at Osibakoro’s burial when he said, “The freedom we actually enjoy in Nigeria today must be credited, in good measure, to the self sacrificing disposition that (Rewane) displayed consistently…Osibakoro provided the progressive Nigerian politics with the sinews to fight the good fight…he stood up as a comforter of the family of the detained, those under house arrest, those in jail or those forced into exile…he never missed a chance to support all who were on the barricades. He had unwritten pact for instance with the guerrilla press.” On October 6, 1995, shortly after celebrating his 79th birthday, Osibakoro was brutally assassinated by agents of General Abacha at his residence in Ikeja, Lagos. They were never found.

In 1994, armed gunmen stormed activist and human rights lawyer, Gani Fawehinmi’s Lagos law chambers at Anthony Village. Two of his guards were defaced with bullets but unbeknown to the messengers of death, Fawehinmi was away. Beko Ransom-Kuti was also about this time programmed to be eliminated. His 8, Imaria Close home was torched when he could not be found. Same fate befell Ayo Opadokun. His Yaba home was raided and burnt. But for providence, NADECO chairman, Air Commodore Dan Suleiman would have been dead. His Chevrolet car was sprayed with a hail of bullets which shattered its windscreen but he miraculously escaped unhurt. In February 1996, affable publisher of The Guardian newspaper, Alex Ibru, was shot and lost an eye in the process. Earlier, his newspaper house had been burnt by yet unknown arsonists.

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Either self-imposed or providence’s grim retribution, on January 17, 1996, a plane carrying Abacha’s son and 13 others developed engine fault and crashed in Dausayi village in Kano. Thereafter, bomb blasts began to boom in Nigeria like rockets. On January 29, 1996, NTA news alleged that Wole Soyinka was the mastermind of terror activities in Nigeria with Today, Kaduna-based newspaper, accusing NADECO activists of being behind the terror. Many got killed by the coldblooded military regime of Abacha. The list is exhaustive and includes Rear Admiral Babatunde Elegbede, Dr. Sola Omatsola, Toyin Onagoruwa, Alhaja Suliat Adedeji and Mrs. Bisoye Tejuosho. Chief Abraham Adesanya escaped death by the whiskers when his car was sprayed with bullets while the likes of Chiefs Olu Falae, Olabiyi Durojaiye were detained.

Earlier, on October 25, 1993, a Nigeria Airways Flight WT470 was hijacked by four Nigerian boys who were riled by the annulment of the June 12 election. They were Richard Ogunderu (19), Kabir Adenuga (22) Razaq Lawal (23) and Benneth Oluwadaisi (24). They called themselves members of the Movement for the Advancement of Democracy (MAD). Three members of Ernest Shonekan’s Interim National Government (ING) were on that flight. They were Brigadier-General Hafiz Momoh, Prof Jubril Aminu and Rong Yiren, the vice president of China. They initially planned to divert the plane to Frankfurt, Germany but shortage of fuel made them to detour to Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey, Niger after the planned landing at N’Djamena, Chad and Gabon was disallowed. In Niamey, they made their demands: de-annulment of the June 12 election, re-investigation of the murder of Dele Giwa and the mysterious crash of a Lockheed C-130 Hercules that claimed 160 lives. It was believed to be a deliberate killing of the soldiers by the Babangida government.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Tinubu’s Lifejacket And A Deer’s Sacred Skin

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Nigerian journalism also suffered casualties of the June 12 war. Apart from millions lost to shutting down of newspaper houses’ operations for months, many journalists were detained and jailed by the Abacha regime. They fell victim of the Detention of Persons Decree No 2 which allowed for indefinite, incommunicado detention of citizens; the Offensive Publications Decree No 35 of 1993 which gave the military government latitude to seize any publication it deemed likely to “disturb the peace and public order of Nigeria” and the Treason and Treasonable Offenses Decree No 29 of 1993 which was later used in 1995 by a special military tribunal to convict Kunle Ajibade, Chris Anyanwu, George Mbah and Ben Charles Obi as “accessories after the fact of treason”. Their crime was reporting an alleged coup plot. Niran Malaolu, Deputy Editor of The Diet newspaper, was also imprisoned on December 28, 1997 after being convicted in July 1998 to 15 years in prison, alongside 95 others, for participating in a coup to topple the Abacha government.

Chief Frank Kokori, former General Secretary of The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) was also a major force in the June 12 election struggle. But for him, Abacha would have possibly succeeded in his life presidency ambition. Kokori locked down Nigeria during the crisis by deploying his NUPENG in pursuit of democratic struggles. He was detained by Abacha and died miserably and dejected in Warri on December 7, 2023. There are a thousand and one other casualties of the June 12 crisis that this piece cannot possibly capture. I went into the above chronology to remind Nigerians, especially the youths of today, that the civilian government we have enjoyed in the last 26 years came with weeping, wailing, deaths and gnashing of the teeth.

The sacrifices of June 12 remind me of John Pepper Clark-Bekederemo’s The Casualties. It was a poem written about the Nigerian civil war that raged between 1967 and 1970. Record has it that an estimated 100,000 military casualties and between 500,000 and 2 million Biafran civilians died. It was a period of tragedy and atrocity. Clark began this famous poem with the lines, “The casualties are not only those who are dead./They are well out of it;” nor are casualties “only those who lost/Persons or property, hard as it is.” Rather, he said, the casualties are the “emissaries of rift/So smug in smoke-rooms they haunt abroad/They do not see the funeral piles/At home eating up the forests/They are wandering minstrels who, beating on/The drums of the human heart, draw the world/Into a dance with rites it does not know.”

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The casualties, as Clark lyricized in that poem, are not those who died in the June 12 war, either as ancillary or intended victims. They are the hidden and multifaceted victims of the war who extend beyond the frontiers of those directly affected. The casualties today are the Nigerian people. They include Nigerians who are unlucky (yes!) not to have died from the war but are today grappling with the castles they built in their minds about a democratic rule which, 26 years after, has turned into myths.

Fast-forward to 32 years after. Last week, Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, responded to sons, brothers, sisters, kinsmen and countrymen of those casualties of the June 12 war who voted him into office. They had asked for accountability on the trillions of Naira of their money being spent on construction of the Lagos-Calabar highway. In a tone similar to Babangida’s “we’re not only in office but in power,” at the heat of criticism of his inhuman rule, Tinubu also said last week: «Don›t listen to those critics. They don›t know what they›re talking about. If they don›t like the road or if it›s too expensive for tolling for them, they could go to Idumota.” While Abacha and Babangida scoffed at us, victims of June 12, with guns, Tinubu does with Nebuchadnezzar arrogance.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Oloyede’s Tears And Nigeria’s Horror Scenes

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The question all of us, the casualties, should ask is, is what we have today all our fathers, mothers, sisters, brothers and contemporaries fought and died for? Did Rewane die to have a government that would spend N15.6 trillion “to tame the Atlantic” for a road project which did not go through any competitive bidding, and the contract awarded on a single-source basis, thus contravening the Public Procurement Act and Environmental Impact Assessment Act? Did he die to have a beneficiary of his death speak glowingly about Sani Abacha’s business partners, the Gilbert Chagourys and their Hitech Construction company, as a “symbol of courage and commitment” and openly acknowledge them as “my partner in daring”? Did those young boys risk their lives to hijack a plane for a democratic Nigeria, only to have Nigerians, 32 years after, have a government that carries on as if hunger, anger, starvation, hopelessness that rule the airwaves are not unusual?

More importantly, a very apposite question to ask is, 26 years after we got civil rule, is Nigeria a democracy? Leading scholar in democratic studies, Prof Larry Diamond, in a keynote at the conference “20 years of democracy in Nigeria: 1999-2019,” held at the St. Antony College, University of Oxford, on December 6, 2019, said Nigeria, as it is today, is a semi-democracy. Or anocracy. Prof Wale Adebanwi, in his Introduction to the book, Democracy and Nigeria’s Fourth Republic ( 2023) which he edited, described semi-democracy and anocracy as “a form of government that mixes democratic and autocratic attributes.” Robert Mattes has also described semi-democracy as a “hybrid regime” while some scholars call it “flawed democracy/regime”. The description of such government by the Economic Intelligence Unit is that, it is a “poorly functioning government, often with corrupt elected officials and officials otherwise unaccountable to the citizenry”.

Following in the saying that the one on whose head a coconut pod is smashed to access its milky fruit often doesn’t partake of its eating, how many of the children of Rewane, Ige, Opadokun, Ransom-Kuti, Ndubuisi-Kanu, Elegbede, Omatsola, Onagoruwa, Suliat Adedeji, Tejuosho, Abraham Adesanya, Falae, Durojaiye and many more who gallantly fought the military to a standstill in the June 12 war, are beneficiaries of this government? Rather, the toads of the war fought by those Nigerians above 32 years ago are Nigerians’ tormentors of today in power. Are the lives of children of these June 12 warriors even better? If the dead can see, will the casualties be happy with Nigeria where they are now? If there is another June 12 war to be fought today, will anyone stick their necks in a fight against establishment?

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Anyway, happy June 12, Nigerians. Like the boring refrain of a dirge, government will again declare a public holiday on Thursday and we will be fooled with voodoo statistics showing us as a happy people. But, are we really happy?

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OPINION: Tinubu, Sanwo-Olu And The Fish God

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By Festus Adedayo

As Ngugi wa Thiong’o says in his Wizard of the Crow, (2007), ire is more corrosive than fire. Make no mistake about it: President Bola Tinubu is angry. When Tinubu was similarly angry, I wrote a piece entitled Tinubu the Ap’ejalodo and his strange fish friend (September 18, 2018). That fable was one of the stories that helped to tame the greed of pre and post-colonial Yoruba society, as well as any tendency within it to play God.

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By that 2018, Tinubu had made up his mind to replace Akinwunmi Ambode as governor of Lagos State. The piece, using that anecdote, was to warn him not to take the place of God. Suchlike stories helped to shape the moral man in Africa. His cosmology was governed by anecdotes, lore and mores which prescribed moral codes. For centuries, these sustained the associational and moral forte of Africa. Anecdotes that restrained a potential emperor from treading the path of ruination were told to children, even in their infancies; same about petty thieves who came to ghastly ends. For instance, the destructive end of greed was foretold in pre-colonial Yoruba society in the emblematic story of Tortoise and the scalding hot porridge on the fire he stole and covertly put on his head. It burnt his scalp. Permit me to retell the anecdote.

Set in an African village, the story is that of a young wretched fisherman (Ap’ejalodo) who was ravaged by failure. He was unable to catch enough fish over the years to rescue him from the pangs of lack. One day, however, as he thrust his fishing hook into the river, it caught one of the largest fishes he had ever seen. Excited, Ap’ejalodo pulled his awesome catch up to the riverbank and proceeded to yank it off the hook.

As he attempted to carry it to the basket, however, the fish began to speak like a human being. Ap’ejalodo was at first afraid but he eventually pulled himself up and listened to the sermon of the strange fish. Singing, Ap’ejalodo, mo de, ja lo lo, ja lo lo… (Fisherman, here I come…) the fish pleaded to be rescued by the fisherman.

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MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION: Profiling Natasha As Segilola, Sweetheart Of 1001 Men

It promised that if the fisherman spared its life, in lieu of this rescue, he should ask for whatever he wanted in life. Excited, Ap’ejalodo let it off the hook and asked for wealth. Truly, by the time he got home, the ragged clothes on him and his wife had become very big damask agbada and aran, respectively, with their wretched hut transformed into a big mansion. Both now began to live the life of unimaginable splendour.

After a few years, the couple was however barren and the wife entreated Ap’ejalodo to go fishing again and ask his fish friend to rescue them from the social shame. As he thrust his hook into the river again, it caught the strange fish and the earlier process was repeated. This time, he asked for a child and the strange fish granted it, giving him children. Over the years, the fisherman magisterially summoned the fish through same process and the fish bailed the couple out.

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Then one day, Ap’ejalodo and wife were just waking up from their magnificent bed when a blinding and intruding ray of the sun meandered into their bedroom. Enraged, Mrs. Ap’ejalodo couldn’t understand the audacity the sun had to intrude into their sacristy. Couldn’t it respect the privacy and majesty of the richest couple in the land? She then angrily commanded Ap’ejalodo to go meet his fish friend and ask that they be given the power to control the temerity of the Sun and other impertinent celestial forces.

MORE FROM THE AUTHOR: OPINION:Nigeria Hosts Nyerere’s One-party Ghost

Off Ap’ejalodo went to the river bank, thrust his fishing hook into the river and again invoked the strange fish. And Ap’ejalodo made his plea. The fish was peeved by the fisherman’s greed and audacity.“You were nobody; I made you somebody and you now have everything at your beck and call. Yet, you want to compete with God in majesty and you will not allow even a common sun to shine and perform the illuminating assignment God brought it to perform on earth!”

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The fish angrily stormed back into the river and as Ap’ejalodo, downcast, walked back home, his old torn and wretched dress suddenly came back on him, his mansion transformed into the hut of the past and the couple’s latter wretchedness was more striking than the one of yore.

After writing that piece in 2018, as fate would have it, I was wrong and Tinubu was right. In spite of the several entreaties to him, Ap’ejalodo had his way and Ambode became history. Today, Ap’ejalodo has warred with all his governor nominees since 2007. He attempted to remove all of them but only succeeded with Ambode. On each occasion, he made himself the victim of his disagreements with his mentee governors, answering to that Oscar Wilde statement that you cannot be too careful in the choice of your enemies. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has joined the infamous train of victims of Tinubu’s ferocious anger.

READ ALSO: OPINION: Aso Rock, Voodoo Statistics And My friend, Al Venter

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As far back as January of this year, sullen murmurs of bees of power in Alausa and Aso Rock hinted that Ap’ejalodo was angry. While Ambode’s err was failure to offload requested funds, Sanwo-Olu’s was his indiscretion and temerity. An alleged female friend of the governor was said to have helped him courier Lagos funds to Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi to enable him win the 2023 governorship. In violation of the laws of power, Sanwo-Olu thus outshone the Master. While he won his Lagos election, Ap’ejalodo lost. Ap’ejalodo actually didn’t mind him losing the election, with the aim of cutting his wings but regaining his overlordship of Lagos in a subsequent estimated victory in the court. At a meeting of the two, while the governor swore his innocence, Ap’ejalodo was said to have derisively laughed him off, maintaining he had security reports which affirmed the transaction. The stroke that broke the camel’s back was the governor’s effrontery in removing Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, Ap’ejalodo’s protege who had been overtly rude to the governor.

Twice in a week, Ap’ejalodo has ridiculed Sanwo-Olu at both the Lagos-Calabar highway and Lekki Free Port road commissioning. He skipped shaking his hands in one and ensured his absence in the other. You could hear the ghoulish cries of vultures waiting to feed off the flesh of the governor. At the Port road commissioning, Ap’ejalodo was fuming from all cylinders: “I am glad the Deputy Governor of Lagos is here. Take it that we will remove all those approvals given on the setbacks already given. No more planning approvals for those unplanned island being created illegally,” he said. Ngugi wa Thiong’o was indeed right. Ire is corrosive.

Ap’ejalodo, having been lifted up by his fish god friend to have an elephant firmly rested on his head, still wants to know what tiny crickets are doing in their small holes. He is enraged by the audacity of Sanwo-Olu’s Sun to intrude into his sacristy. Couldn’t the lanky fellow respect the majesty of the No. 1 Citizen of Nigeria, its richest

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