Atiku to Tinubu: Nigerians Need Protection, Not Fairy Tales By Moonlight

The Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Tinubu, Bayo Onanuga’s comments on Arise News TV yesterday on the freedom of the Kebbi school girls is to say the least a shameful attempt to whitewash a national tragedy and dress up government incompetence as heroism.

Truth be told, the release of abducted Nigerians is not a trophy moment; it is a damning reminder that terrorists now operate freely, negotiate openly, and dictate terms while this administration issues press statements to save face.

If, as Onanuga claims, the DSS and the military could “track” the kidnappers in real time and “made contact” with them, then the question is simple: Why were these criminals not arrested, neutralised, or dismantled on the spot? Why is the government boasting about talking to terrorists instead of eliminating them?

Why is kidnapping now reduced to a routine phone call between criminals and state officials?

This irresponsible and reckless narrative exposes the truth:

Under Tinubu, terrorrist/bandits have become an alternative government — negotiating, collecting ransom, and walking away untouched — while the presidency celebrates their “compliance.”

No serious nation applauds itself for negotiating with terrorists it claims to have under surveillance. No responsible government congratulates itself for allowing abductors to walk back into the forests to kidnap again.

Onanuga and his ilk should stop insulting Nigerians with propaganda.

If the security agencies truly had eyes on the kidnappers, then letting them escape is a national disgrace that smacks of complicity.

And if they did not have such capacity, then Onanuga is simply manufacturing lies to cover up a monumental failure of leadership.

Either way, the statement is an embarrassing admission that this administration has lost control of national security and is now trying to spin incompetence into achievement.

Nigerians deserve protection, not fairy tales by moonlight!

Signed:

Atiku Media Office

Abuja

November 26, 2025.

THE BOOMING BUSINESS OF TERRORISM IN NIGERIA

Federal High Court in Abuja heard yesterday how alleged terrorists’ negotiator, Tukur Mamu, was offered N50 million by leader of a terrorists group.

An official of Department of State Services stated this while testifying as sixth prosecution witness in Mamu’s trial for terrorism-related offences.

The witness said: “The second voice that played for five minutes is Shugaba’s, who is leader of a terrorist group, appreciating the defendant’s efforts and asked him to remove N50 million for his use from a ransom amount he was to deliver to them (the terrorists).”

The DSS official identified Shugaba’s voice among others audio conversations, he said, were extracted from Mamu’s mobile device during interrogation after he was arrested in Egypt.

Mamu was arrested on September 7, 2022, by Egyptian security officials at Cairo International Airport, on suspicion of financing Boko Haram terrorism activities.

He was alleged to have convinced the terrorists to discuss ransom with families of hostages of the train attack instead of the Chief of Defence Staff Committee set up by Federal Government for his personal financial gain.

He was said to have been nominated by the terrorists that attacked Abuja-Kaduna bound train in March 2022 which took hostages.

Mamu was alleged to have collected ransoms on behalf of Boko Haram terrorists from families, confirmed the amount and facilitated the delivery of same to the terrorists.

Led in evidence by prosecuting lawyer, David Kaswe, the DSS official told the court that, after Mamu was brought back from Egypt, he submitted his Samsung tablet and two phones to DSS’ officials.

The witness, who said he was part of those who investigated the case, told the court that when the defendant was intercepted in Egypt, he put a call to his in-law, identified as Mubarak Tinja and directed him to move out his valuables, comprising cash, cars and other items, from his house to a safe location, to avoid detection by security agents.

The sixth prosecution witness added: “The defendant was arrested in Egypt and returned back to Nigeria, where investigators received him.

“A search warrant was duly executed in his property and office in Kaduna, during which cash, in local and foreign currencies; cars and other valuables were recovered.

“In compliance with his directive to Tinja, and the other dependants in the house, some cars and cash were moved out to various locations.”

The witness said investigators later traced and located some items, including about 300,000 US dollars, seven cars, including Toyota Camry (Muscle); Peugeot 5008, Lexus, Mercedes E350 and Hyundai.

Car documents were tendered by prosecution through the witness, which the court admitted in evidence.

The witness added that when the defendant was brought back, he “handed his Samsung tablet and two phones to our exhibit keeper, who sent them to forensic department for forensic analysis.

“The outcome of the analysis, including voice notes between the defendant and terrorists, were part of the content presented to the interrogation team and items recovered from his home.

“He (the defendant) was interviewed, during which content of his phones and other items were presented to him.

“During the interview, the defendant admitted giving instruction to Mubarak to move his valuables from his house. He also admitted communicating with the terrorists, using his voice notes extracted from his two phones and Samsung tablet,” the witness said.

The sixth prosecution witness added that the defendant also admitted owning a pump action gun, which was recovered from his house, which he claimed was duly licensed.

The witness told the court that investigators later discovered that the licence expired in December 2021, nine months before he was arrested.

“In one of the voice notes extracted from the defendant’s phone, the terrorists requested him to teach them how to develop a website and the defendant promised to get back to them in that regard,” the witness said.

The DSS official said about 98 percent of the conversation on the voice notes are in Housa language, some of which were translated to English language because they were too many. The witness said he did the transcription.

Kaswe then applied to render the recorded voice notes stored compact disk plates and the flash drive, which the court admitted, following which about six of the recorded conversations were played in court.

When asked to identify the owners of the voices in the conversations, the witness said: “The last two voices are those of Baba Adamu, who is the spokesperson of the terrorists group.

“The first voice note was the defendant, where he was fixing a date for the delivery of ransom.

The second was …that played for 5 minutes is that of Shugaba, who is the leader of terrorist group, who was appreciating the defendant efforts and asked him to take/ remove N50m for his personal use from a particular ransome amount to be sent to them.

“The last note was Baba Adamu, asking the defendant to help them procure public address system, like speakers, for their preaching activities and the defendants assured that he would look into their requests.

“Adamu also requested that the defendant teach them how to create a website for their activities.”

The witness added that in the course of investigation, two victims volunteered written statements in which they recounted their experiences.

The DSS official said the victims, a male and female, were no longer available, because they expressed their unwillingness to attend court to testify because of fear and trauma.

The court admitted the statements of the victims, one was written in English by the female victim, while the other written in Hausa by the male victim was translated into English.

The court admitted in evidence eight statements made to investigators by the defendants and video recordings of the statements writing sessions.

Kaswe subsequently informed the court that he intends to bring a formal application for the court to visit where the items recovered from Mamu’s house and office are kept.

Further hearing in the case resumes at 11am on Wednesday.

COMRADE KWESI PRATT JNR.

Comrade Kwesi Pratt Jnr. Issues Clarion Call for African Reparations and Liberation at the International Conference on the 80th Anniversary Commemoration of the 5th Pan-African Congress

By Socialist and Progressive World

Accra, Ghana – In a powerful and unflinching address marking the 80th anniversary of the Fifth Pan-African Congress, veteran journalist and activist Kwesi Pratt, Jnr, declared that the struggle for Africa’s true liberation remains unfinished, demanding concrete action for reparations and a final break from neo-colonial economic chains.

Speaking to an audience of comrades, thinkers, and citizens in Accra-Ghana, Comrade Kwesi Pratt reframed the commemoration not as a passive remembrance, but as a proactive “rallying ground for a new generation of Pan-Africanists,” echoing the revolutionary spirit of the 1945 Manchester Congress where figures like Kwame Nkrumah, George Padmore, and W.E.B. Du Bois declared that “Africa must be free.”

“We do not assemble to mark a date on a calendar; we assemble to claim our history and to shape our destiny,” Mr. Pratt stated, setting the tone for a speech that was both a searing historical indictment and a bold blueprint for future action.

“Naming the Crime”: A Record of Historical Exploitation

Comrade Pratt began by methodically outlining what he termed the “deliberate, calculated, systematic robbery” of the African continent. He forced the audience to confront the brutal arithmetic of the trans-Atlantic slave trade: over 12.5 million captured, nearly two million dying in the Middle Passage, their bodies “thrown overboard to the sharks.”

“The Atlantic became a cemetery without tombstones,” he said, emphasizing that the unpaid labour of enslaved Africans “built the modern world,” financing the rise of European cities and stock exchanges while stripping Africa of its most productive generations.

He highlighted the profound injustice of the abolition era, noting that Britain paid slave owners £20 million, equivalent to £17 billion today in compensation; a debt British taxpayers only finished repaying in 2015; while the victims and their descendants received nothing.

The advent of colonialism, he argued, was merely a new “mechanism of exploitation,” formalized at the 1884 Berlin Conference where Africa was carved up without African representation. Mr. Pratt catalogued its horrors: the 10 million killed in King Leopold’s Congo, the genocide of the Herero and Nama people in Namibia, and the millions who died in independence struggles from Algeria to South Africa.

“Colonialism stole not only our land and labour but our minds,” Comrade Pratt asserted, pointing to the estimated 90% of Africa’s cultural treasures, like the Benin Bronzes and Asante gold, that remain housed in foreign museums. “What civilisation parades the bones of those it murdered?”

A Global Double Standard on Justice

In a pivotal moment of his address, Comrade Pratt pointed to the global precedent for reparations to highlight the hypocrisy meted out to Africa. “Germany pays reparations to Holocaust survivors; the United States to the Japanese for the atomic bombings; Britain to Kenyan veterans of the Mau Mau rebellion,” he stated.

“Yet when Africa demands justice for four hundred years of slavery and a century of colonialism, we are told to forget, to move on, to be ‘practical’,” he continued, his voice echoing with defiance. “Yes, we will be practical but our practice must lead only to the defeat of neo-colonialism and the building of a new Africa free from degradation and all forms of poverty.”

The “Illusion of Sovereignty” and the Neo-Colonial Trap

Moving to the post-independence era, Mr. Pratt argued that freedom brought “the illusion of sovereignty without substance.” The borders drawn in Berlin remained, and trade routes continued to point outward. He paid tribute to leaders like Nkrumah, Lumumba, Sankara, and Cabral, who sought to break this pattern and were, consequently, “overthrown or assassinated.”

“Imperialism does not forgive defiance; it kills it,” he stated bluntly.

He laid bare the ongoing economic exploitation, citing that Africa loses over $80 billion annually in illicit financial flows and that more than $1.3 trillion has left the continent this way since 1970. “For every dollar of aid, twenty-four leave our shores in interest and profit,” he declared, lambasting institutions like the IMF and World Bank for imposing Structural Adjustment Programs that decimated social services and saddled African nations with crippling debt.

“In 1970, Africa owed $11 billion; today it owes more than $1 trillion. We spend more on debt servicing than on the education of our children,” Comrade Pratt noted, painting a picture of an economic system designed to perpetuate dependency.

A Blueprint for Action: From Demands to a Continental Tribunal

Mr. Pratt’s speech culminated in a concrete call to action, urging a transformation of the “cry for reparations from a chorus of scattered voices into the demand of a united people.”

He proposed the establishment of a continental tribunal empowered to prepare legal claims against former colonial powers, supported by a continental reparations fund financed by African states and diaspora contributions. He stressed the importance of coordinating with the Caribbean Reparations Commission, forging a united trans-Atlantic front.

However, Comrade Pratt made it clear that reparations are not solely about financial compensation from the West. “They are also about what we owe ourselves, the responsibility to rebuild, to heal, and to ensure that Africa shall never again be a playground for external powers.”

He called for a cultural and educational revolution to “reclaim the narrative” and “restore the dignity of African knowledge.”

A New Pan-African Vanguard

Mr. Pratt ended with a direct charge to every sector of African society. He called on governments to adopt reparations policies, parliaments to debate them, schools to teach this history, and diplomats, economists, and lawyers to carry the fight into international halls of power.

“Let our people carry it into the streets, into the farms, into the hearts of the youth who will inherit the struggle,” he concluded, his voice resonating with conviction. “We shall definitely win this struggle and Africa will become a centre of excellence it once was. There is victory for us.”

The address has been widely hailed as a significant moment, likely to reinvigorate the debate on reparations and Pan-Africanism, pushing it from academic circles and activist forums into the mainstream of continental political discourse.

I WAS MINUTES AWAY FROM BEATING OBASANJO AT MY PARTY.—- FAYOSE

𝐈 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐬𝐨 𝐟𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐨𝐮𝐬, 𝐈 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐎𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐚𝐧𝐣𝐨 𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐝𝐚𝐲 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐲 — 𝐅𝐚𝐲𝐨𝐬𝐞

I was enraged. I felt like taking the mic from Obasanjo’s hand and hitting it on his head

- Ayodele Fayose 

Former Governor of Ekiti State Ayodele Fayose said he would have physically assaulted Former President Olusegun Obasanjo for the uncomplimentary remarks he  he made about him during his 65th birthday. He said he restrained himself because of the presence of Vice President Kashim Shettima at the occasion.

“I was enraged. I felt like taking the mic from Obasanjo’s hand and hitting it on his head. This is being sincere.

“But to show maturity, not by age, but by self-respect and out of consideration for the vice-president’s presence, I kept my cool

How do you say such things to a man on his 65th birthday?

“If I knew this was how it would end, what do I need Obasanjo for? Am I contesting the election? Do I need his validation? No.

“Whatever differences we have had in the past, let’s put them behind us. If I have offended you, if you have offended me, let us put it behind.

“I never called to go and apologise to Baba. I did not offend him. He was the one who removed me from office. If anybody should apologise, it is he.

“We took pictures together. All in good faith. I changed $20,000 and gave it to him. How can you accept somebody’s money and come and be spitting on that person?”

Baba said he would be the one to speak last. I became suspicious.

He later directed the moderator to invite Vice President Kashim Shettima before him and requested that I and my  wife stand beside him throughout a speech that lasted one hour, 14 minutes.

PRESIDENT JULIUS NYERERE

President Julius Nyerere’s eight-day state visit to the People’s Republic of China in February 1965 came at a decisive moment in Tanzania’s early nationhood. The union between Tanganyika and Zanzibar was barely a year old and the country had only recently adopted a one-party structure under TANU. With limited resources, an overwhelmingly rural population and a tiny educated elite, President Nyerere was searching for a development path rooted in African realities. By then, Nyerere had already developed a worldview rooted in African communal life, enriched by Catholic moral teaching and the Fabian socialism he had studied in Edinburgh. What was missing was a convincing organisational model. China appeared to offer one.

When Nyerere arrived in Beijing on February 16, 1965, he was received by Premier Zhou Enlai, Vice Premier Chen Yi, and senior Communist Party officials. Over the next week, he toured communes around Beijing Municipality, agricultural schemes near Tianjin, factories in Shanghai, and people’s communes modeled on Mao Zedong’s rural transformation campaigns. Everywhere, he observed tightly coordinated mass mobilisation: young people in the Communist Youth League, cadres in village committees, and peasant cooperatives that formed the backbone of China’s development drive.

On February 20, Nyerere addressed thousands at Peking Square (Tiananmen), praising the Chinese people’s achievements since 1949 and declaring that Tanzania’s friendship with China would not be dictated by Western anxieties. He noted the “discipline and unity” with which China pursued national reconstruction, qualities he increasingly believed Tanzania needed.

Several impressions from the trip later shaped Ujamaa. First was China’s elevation of the peasantry as the anchor of socialist transformation. This resonated with Nyerere’s belief, already hinted in his 1962 “Ujamaa” pamphlet, that development must begin in the villages. Second was the moral example set by the Chinese leadership. Nyerere admired the frugality of officials like Zhou Enlai, which reinforced his conviction that African leaders must avoid elitism. Third was the doctrine of self-reliance. China’s determination to build with its own labour despite poverty deeply influenced Nyerere, eventually appearing in the 1967 Arusha Declaration as a foundational principle.

Still, he did not return a Maoist. Nyerere rejected Marxist class struggle, arguing that pre-colonial African societies lacked rigid classes. He insisted, in later essays collected in Freedom and Unity (1966) and Freedom and Development (1973), that Tanzanian socialism must be authentically African. China provided inspiration, not ideology: a working example of how a poor nation could mobilise its population for collective development.

The effect was visible almost immediately. From 1965 onward, Nyerere’s speeches increasingly emphasised communal production, leadership humility, and nationwide mobilisation for development. By 1967 these ideas were consolidated in the Arusha Declaration, which set out the blueprint for Ujamaa Vijijini, the villagisation programme that expanded between 1969 and 1973 under TANU and later CCM.

The 1965 visit also forged strategic ties. China became Tanzania’s most reliable partner, culminating in the TAZARA Railway (1970–1975), built by Chinese engineers and linking Dar es Salaam to Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia, then the largest foreign aid project in Chinese history.

In retrospect, Nyerere’s journey to China was not an ideological conversion but an ideological crystallisation. It confirmed that Tanzania could craft a modern, self-reliant socialism grounded in African values while drawing practical lessons from other post-colonial nations. China showed him what disciplined, rural-centred development could look like, and Tanzania adapted that vision to its own history and aspirations.

#Africa #EastAfricanHistory #Nyerere #Tanzania #EastAfrica #World

How They Buy the Judges — And Break the Country

A lot happens in Nigeria that, if you did not witness it yourself, you would swear it was impossible. Some events are so bizarre, so grotesque in their violation of common sense and morality, that even D.O. Fágúnwà’s magical adventures in Ìrìnkèrindò Nínú Igbo Elegbeje pale beside them. Yet these are not tales from another world; they are the lived realities of our republic.

From time to time, I feel compelled to share some of these experiences — not to dramatize, but to awaken. Our democracy is sinking, and few institutions illustrate this decline more starkly than the judiciary. We complain about it almost daily, but nothing demonstrates its decay more vividly than the episode I am about to recount.

I am compelled to narrate this story in view of the contradictory rulings that recently emerged from Abuja and Ibadan over the contentious Peoples Democratic Party convention — judgments issued not on merit, but based on who has influence in particular jurisdictions. It is a dangerous sign of the times.

And may I tell you that the charade, the national disgrace that happened in Abuja between Minister Nyesom Wike and the young naval officer was a result of lack of trust in the judiciary which engenders a resort to self help from both sides.

A Meeting That Should Never Have Happened:

Several years ago, during a political dispute in Ekiti, I received an unexpected call from the late Senator Buruji Kashamu. He invited me to Lagos, promising to help resolve the matter. Out of courtesy, I went.

When I arrived, a prominent lawyer and another Ekiti politician were already seated in his living room. We exchanged greetings, and the conversation began casually enough.

Then came the moment that still chills me.

Kashamu excused himself, climbed the stairs, and returned with a briefcase. He set it down, opened it with a flourish, and turned to the lawyer with a smirk:

“Egbon, you refused when I asked you to write judgments for me. Each one would have earned you ₦50 million. Anyway, I have found another lawyer who does it very well.”

My friend looked at him, stunned. I sat rooted in disbelief.

Kashamu then brought out file after file — documents no private citizen should possess.

Inside that briefcase were:

• Judgments for cases already in court

• Judgments for cases he planned to file

• Judgments for cases he anticipated might be filed against him

All pre-written.

All waiting for the right judge.

He boasted that all he needed was to ensure his cases were assigned to “friendly judges.” Once that was done, he handed over the completed judgments — after greasing the necessary palms.

It was a moment of horror. A moment when the illusion of justice crumbled.

As Lord Denning once warned:

“Justice must be rooted in confidence, and confidence is destroyed when right-minded people go away thinking that the judge was biased.”

I walked out of that meeting with my faith in our judiciary deeply shaken. From that day, I resolved never again to take his calls.

Justice for Sale, Democracy in Danger

This story is not about one man. It is about a system slowly suffocated by those entrusted to protect it. When judgments are drafted in private homes before cases reach the courtroom, what we have left is not a judiciary but a cartel of influence, a black market of verdicts, and a criminal conspiracy wearing the robes of justice.

Let us be clear:

• Corruption in the judiciary is not ordinary corruption. It is corruption that eats the soul of a nation.

• It does not only steal money; it steals trust.

• It does not only distort outcomes; it destroys the foundation of society.

Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, one of Nigeria’s greatest jurists, once cautioned:

“The judiciary is the last hope of the common man. If the judiciary fails, where shall the common man turn?”

We are approaching that frightening moment.

Five Terrifying Implications of a Rotten Judiciary

(1). The Innocent Can Be Destroyed

When the gavel is for sale, an innocent man can be jailed for another man’s crime. A widow can lose the only land her husband left behind. A community can be dispossessed overnight.

(2). Criminals Become Untouchable

The powerful can violate laws, crush opponents, loot funds, and then secure court orders to legitimize their wrongdoing.

(3). Politics Becomes Warfare

When verdicts follow money, not evidence, elections become meaningless. Courts become battlefields where victory goes to the highest bidder.

(4). Public Trust Evaporates

Citizens lose faith in institutions. Cynicism becomes the national attitude. Society drifts towards self-help and anarchy.

(5). No Nation Can Thrive Without Justice

As Justice Learned Hand warned:

“If we are to keep our democracy, there must be one commandment: thou shalt not ration justice."

Yet that is precisely what we have begun to do.

How Did We Get Here?

This rot did not begin today. It accumulated slowly:

• Politicians seeking shortcuts

• Lawyers willing to sell their conscience

• Judges who traded honour for envelopes

• A system that rewards impunity

• A society too fatigued to resist

Now we live in a country where justice can be pre-written, transported in briefcases, and delivered like contraband.

A Nation at the Edge:

We stand at a dangerous precipice.

A country survives hunger.

It survives insecurity.

It survives economic crisis.

But no country survives the death of justice.

When courts lose credibility, citizens withdraw their loyalty.

When judges can be bought, the rule of law collapses.

When justice is for sale, tyranny becomes inevitable.

What Must Be Done:

There is no option but urgent, radical reform. We must:

• Purge corrupt judges

• Introduce transparent case allocation

• Strengthen oversight and discipline

• Protect judges from political pressure

• Digitize court processes to reduce human interference

• Enforce rigorous asset declarations

• Empower judicial whistleblowers

• Demand accountability from the NJC and legal associations.

Above all, we must restore dignity to the bench. A judge without integrity is more dangerous than an armed robber — for the robber can only steal property, but the corrupt judge steals justice, peace, and the future.

A Final Warning:

Some may dismiss this as another Nigerian anecdote. It is not. It is a mirror held up to a nation drifting towards catastrophe.

Unless we confront and uproot the rot in our justice system, we will one day wake up to find that we have no country left — only a territory ruled by the powerful and the lawless.

We cannot continue like this.

Justice must return to the courts.

Honour must return to the bench.

And truth must once again be something a citizen can expect — not something that can be bought.

Until then, Nigeria will continue to stagger like a giant robbed of its spine.

Source: Babafemi Ojudu

Who Were the Etruscans?

The AFRICAN CIVILIZATION That Helped Shape Early Rome

You may have seen eye-catching images like this circulating online but the real story of the Etruscans is even more fascīnating than the myths.

The Etruscans were a powerful and influential Civilization in Central Italy (modern Tuscany, Lazio, Umbria) long before Rome became an empire. Flourishing between the 8th and 3rd centuries BCE, they profoundly shaped Roman religion, architecture, engineering, art, and even political symbols.

What the images show:

The artworks in this collage come from Etruscan tombs, statues, pottery, and frescoes. Etruscan artists often used bold pigments and stylized features, which looks exactly as Black Africans and different from later Roman art. These portrayals represent deities, performers, mythological figures, and everyday people, each reflecting the Etruscans’ unique artistic style.

What we Do know about the Etruscans:

They were a highly sophīsticated urban Society.

They influenced Rome in everything from city planning to religīous ritūals.

Their language was distinct neither Greek nor Latin.

Their artistic traditions blended local, Greek, and Near North African influences.

Rome absorbed Etruscan kings, rituals, symbols, and technology as it rose to power.

History becomes more powerful and more interesting when we look beyond viral claims and explore the evidence. The Etruscans weren’t just a footnote before Rome; they were a remarkable Civilization whose legacy still shapes Western culture today...

Black People, Black Nation & Civilization

THE AFRICAN ORIGIN OF PASTROLISM

Archaeologists have long believed that food production developed worldwide much the way it did in the Near East: as climate changes made wild grains less available, hunters and gatherers settled in villages and relatively quickly domesticated plants and then, over the next few thousand years, animals (Grigson, 1991, p. 119). However, recent genetic studies and excavations in Africa suggest that the patterns of domestication there were strikingly different (Abdulhamid, 2015, p. 27). This new research, emerging in the last few years in academic books and articles, shows that in Africa, wild cattle were domesticated several thousand years before plants, and that farming and herding spread patchily and slowly across the continent (Di Lernia et al., 2013, p. 2).

While the first undisputed remains of domesticated cattle appear in the African archaeological record about 5900 B.C. at a site in Chad, other studies suggest that cattle were domesticated in the same region as early as 9,000 years ago (Grigson, 1991, p. 139). A study of African cattle published in the journal Science in 2002 suggested that cattle were domesticated independently in Africa, rather than being imported from the Near East, as they were across most of Europe and Asia (Hanotte et al., 2002, p. 336).

The first pastoralists in Africa, who traveled with domesticated cattle, had probably captured wild animals at first to provide insurance as the Sahara, then partly covered in grassland, began to dry (Abdulhamid, 2015, p. 46). They moved south to savannas to find moister conditions (Di Lernia et al., 2013, p. 5). These cattle-assisted hunter-gatherers took milk, blood, and meat from their animals (Grigson, 1991, p. 140). Some pastoralists began to worship cattle, burying them in elaborate graves (Abdulhamid, 2015, p. 49).

At sites across the Sahara, cattle images appear in rock art (Di Lernia et al., 2013, p. 8). Pastoralism gradually spread west across the southern Sahara, and then south, reaching the equator around 2000 B.C. and South Africa by the first centuries A.D. (Grigson, 1991, p. 141). Like the hunter-gatherers with whom they shared their environment, pastoralists made great use of the abundant wild African grasses growing in the savanna, but did not plant them (Abdulhamid, 2015, p. 50). Both groups also made ceramics, an innovation that in the Near East came only with settled agricultural villages (Di Lernia et al., 2013, p. 10).

References

Grigson, C. (1991). An African origin for African cattle? — some archaeological evidence. The African Archaeological Review, 9, 119-139.

Abdulhamid, L. A. (2015). Artistic styles in the engravings of the ancient rock art in Wadi al Baqar (Valley of Cows) in the Sahara Desert in Libya. University of Newcastle.

Di Lernia, S., et al. (2013). Inside the "African Cattle Complex": Animal Burials in the Holocene Central Sahara. PLOS ONE, 8(2), e56879.

Hanotte, O., et al. (2002). African pastoralism: Genetic imprints of origins and migrations. Science, 296(5566), 336-339.

Marshall, F. (2000). The origins of African pastoralism. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 19(2), 163-187.

Smith, A. B. (2005). African herders: Emergence of pastoral traditions. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.

#Africa #BlackHistory #World

BRAIDING AS A NORM IN BLACK CULTURE

Braiding has been weaved into the DNA of Black culture for generations. For many Black women, getting their hair braided serves as a right of passage. While braids may have gained more popularity and visibility in recent years, the style has a rich history spanning generations and continents.

Braids have been utilized for thousands of years around the world, dating back as early as 3500 BCE. The cornrow specifically may be the oldest braiding style. An ethnologist and his team discovered a Stone Age rock painting in the Sahara depicting a woman with cornrows feeding her child. Another Nigerian clay sculpture from 500 BCE showed a figure from the Nok civilization with cornrows etched onto its head. Certain looks and styles could indicate the clan you belonged to, religion, marital status, or age. Hairstyles would be passed down through the matriarchs of each generation. 

In order to understand the history of braids and Black American hair culture specifically, it is necessary to look at the impact of slavery on African women. Slavery brought not only physical and psychological trauma, but it also brought erasure. In an attempt to strip them of their humanity and culture, traffickers would shave the heads of women. Colonizers effectively attempted to take away the women’s lifeline to their homeland. Braids were also known to be used to hide rice or seeds in their hair in order to have food to eat on their Middle Passage journey. As women endured the hardships of slavery, there was no longer time to create intricate styles. Sunday, which offered somewhat of a relief from the harsh conditions, became the only day women could prep their hair. Since hairstyles needed to last the entire week, African-American women began to wear their hair in more simplistic styles. They chose to wear styles like single plaits that were easier to manage, and used the oils available to them, like kerosene, to condition them.

Remarkably, Black women used braids for another important use: a secret messaging system for slaves to communicate with one another. People used braids as a map to freedom. For example the number of plaits worn could indicate how many roads to walk or where to meet someone to help them escape bondage. Similarly in the early fifteenth century, hair functioned as a carrier of messages in most West African societies including the Wolof, Mende, Mandingo, and Yoruba. Hair was an important piece of a complex language system, in which it communicated the identity of the person wearing the braids.

African-American women did everything they could to hold on to their ancestral tradition of wearing intricately braided styles. Nevertheless, when Emancipation took place in 1865, it brought along a desire to leave all things which recalled the horrific time of slavery behind. During the Great Migration, Black women began to migrate and flock to cities like Chicago and New York. They usually took on jobs as domestics, one of the few positions open to them. But braids quickly became synonymous with backwardness. Plaits and cornrows were increasingly traded in for chemically straightened or pressed hair.

Perceptions of hair began to shift with the Black Power Movement of the 1960s. With it came the affirmation of Black people and the rejection of Eurocentric standards of beauty. During this time a deep desire developed to honor African roots, and the styles came to reflect that. Braids became an expression of self-acceptance and self-love. Cicely Tyson was famously known for wearing the first cornrows on television in 1962 on the CBS series East Side, West Side. More recently in the 90s and early 2000s more braided styles were seen in mainstream media with Janet Jackson in Poetic Justice, Queen Latifah in Set It Off and Brandy in Moesha. According to celebrity hairstylist Vernon François, braids reached new heights during this time. Alicia Keys’ look solidified this notion, showing that you could be a successful artists with braids. Beyoncé later also began donning traditional African hairstyles like in her Formation video wearing Fulani braids, and most recently in her Black Is King project.

#Africa #BlackHistory #World

BELLO MATAWALLE.... THE MAN TINUBU SENT TO BRING HOME THE KIDNAPPED VICTIMS...........A BRIEF HISTORY

Matawalle kept terrorists at the government house, and ransom was paid to terrorists through the government. Matawalle purchased 34 brand new 2019 Model Hilux and distributed to the terrorists leaders like Ado Aleiru, Halilu Subububu and Bello Turji.

A former senior aide to Nigeria’s Defence Minister and former Zamfara governor, Bello Matawalle, has accused him of continuing to maintain direct contact with notorious terrorist commanders whom he allegedly funded, equipped, and politically mobilised during his time as governor.

Buying Stolen Cows Directly From Bandits:

The former aide claimed the governor routinely purchased rustled cattle from terrorists at discounted prices, especially during festive seasons.

He said bandit leaders complained that when they took stolen animals to the market, owners often identified them, prompting Matawalle to buy directly.

“He uses to buy rustled animals from bandit with cheaper rate during sallah festive season… he decided to buy directly from them. And he bought them at flat rate… N150,000 each.”

He alleged that Matawalle regularly invited bandit commanders into Government House despite their involvement in killings, kidnappings, and mass displacement.

“He used to invite bandits to the Government House Zamfara during his tenure and discussed even political issues with them and how they would compel the communities to vote for him for the second tenure.”

Election Influence And 2027 Plans:

The former aide claimed the minister maintains the relationships for political leverage.

“Those of us that are close to him, we are suprised why would a minister be doing this but it is clear why he is holding them.”

He alleged that Matawalle used bandit groups to secure votes in 2023 and intends to do so again in 2027.

“Because they are still using them during political periods and 2027 election is coming.”

He added that many terrorists voted for the ruling APC on Matawalle’s orders: “Many of these terrorists voted for APC in 2023 because the minister was the governor and he told them to vote for APC and Tinubu also won them, because of their votes.”

AGBESE; WISE, INTREPID, FEARLESS: Dare Babarinsa, CON, Chairman, Gaskia Media Ltd

I first met Oga Dan Agbese in 1984 during the preparatory days of Newswatch, the pioneering Nigerian newsmagazine.  Before then, his reputation had preceded him as one of the stars among the alumni of our Department of Mass Communication of the University of Lagos, UNILAG.  Then we met at the home of Dele Giwa, off Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikeja, where I had gone to meet the four editors who were destined to shape our lives.  Agbese was the only one I did not really know among them then.  He had the reputation of being the man writing the Candido column in the old New Nigerian newspapers, a great institution that dominated our growing up years that is now regarded as Nigerian Journalism Golden Age. Candido, the man behind the mask, column was said to have been created by Alhaji Adamu Ciroma, one of Agbese’s illustrious predecessors as editor of the New Nigerian.  Here was he now before me in flesh and blood! We were to work together for five giddy years.  His influence was to remain with me forever. 

Newswatch early years was dominated by big dreams. I was among the four first editorial staff of Newswatch; Rolake Omonubi, Dele Olojede, Wale Oladepo and I.  Among the four founders, three of them were already well known to those of us coming from the stable of the Concord Group of Newspapers. Ray Ekpu was already a famous editor who ran the Sunday Times with so much vigour and creativity that the old conservative elements of President Shehu Shagari’s government felt very uncomfortable with him.  He was forced out and, in the end, resurfaced as the chairman of the editorial board of the Concord Group founded by that great man, Chief Moshood Abiola.  When I was a student at Unilag, Dele Giwa, as the feature editor of the Daily Times, was the man who made me a stringer for the paper. I was introduced to him by my friend and roommate, Waheed Olagunju, who later became the Managing Director of the Bank of Industry. I was writing a column for the Daily Times called Campus News every Friday.  Yakubu Mohammed, the editor of the National Concord, was the one who employed me and Oladepo in November 1982.  Mohammed was also the one Oladepo and I followed into Newswatch.  The man we did not know before was Agbese.

We soon found Agbese to be in a special class of his own.  To him, journalism was science.  To him, a journalist needs to be precise and unambiguous.  He should employ brevity if it would convey a clearer meaning than circumlocution.  He writes as he speaks; with precision and wisdom.  He put himself under the rigour of proof and demanded the same from us.  When we encounter Oga Agbese, we knew we were in a special master’s class of journalism.  He taught us a lot.  He demanded beauty of expression; not of flowery language, but of the kind of words that convey greater truth than the best photographs and paintings.  He was a special kind of artist. 

Like his other colleagues, Agbese regarded journalism as an instrument of service to Nigeria and humanity. He was resolute, resourceful and intrepid in the pursuit of his calling as a first-class journalist.  He believed in journalism as a pillar of any thriving democracy.  He put himself in the line of fine for his belief.  He was fearless. Therefore, he was one of the heroes who gave us democracy.  He endured with dignity and courage the constant harassment and intimidations during the military era.  In the formative years of Newswatch, he was designated the managing director until our editors decided to combine the office of Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief and Dele Giwa was allowed to hold the two offices.  

But the journey was meant to be turbulent. What was meant to be a professional business concerns soon became a serious struggle with the operators of the Nigerian state.   On October 19, 1986, less than two years after Newswatch hit the news stand, Dele Giwa was killed with a parcel bomb and our life was changed for ever.  Our editors were at the centre of the storm.  The echo of that bomb still rings in our ears till today.

Less than one year after Giwa was killed, Newswatch carried a story on a panel report on the draft Constitution that would guide the Third Republic.  The military regime of General Ibrahim Babangida seems to have been looking for any excuse to pounce on the media house.  This exclusive story, which is based on the truth, was the excuse the regime used to outlaw Newswatch.  It passed a special decree, called the Newswatch Prohibition Decree, declaring that even the media house cannot seek redress in the court of law, declaring that “notwithstanding anything written in the Constitution or any other law,” Newswatch remained banned.  It was the beginning of Newswatch Second Session.  I remember Oga Dan and his colleagues, corralled in front of our office at Oregun Road, surrounded by security agents as they were being prepared for detention.

But no prison could keep the soul of a great person in bondage.  Despite the travails and vicissitude of those days, Agbese and his colleagues stood tall.  Agbese was figure of serenity under pressure, including the pressure of deadlines. He demanded from us his subordinates, the exactness of science and would not allow any fussy language to escape his scalpel as an editor.  He demanded what he gave.  His column, brimming with wits and wisdom, was a pilgrimage into Nigerian history and society.  His thoughts, deep and clairvoyant, ring with candour and bitter truth.  He was the one who described Chief Obafemi Awolowo as “the best President Nigeria never had,” in an essay he wrote to mark Awo’s 78th birthday.  When Awo died on May 9, 1987, Chief Emeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, was to quote him without attribution.  Agbese was an original thinker who thought us to value critical thinking.  

In October 1990, I went to inform him that I would be resigning.  By that time, it had become an open secret that I and four of my colleagues were planning to start another magazine, TELL.  He invited me to his house and we held a long discussion in his private study.  It was an intimate moment and our discussion was frank.  I learnt a lot of lessons on how to treat subordinates from the great men who led us in those giddy years at Newswatch.  

I am indebted to Agbese.  I leant Mass Communications in Unilag, but the great men of Newswatch thought me journalism.  Agbese was deep.  His solidity and courage give the impression of timelessness.  You have the feeling that nothing can scare him and when you enter his office, he would raise his head, with his glasses perched on his nose, you are confronted with something almost spiritual.  Agbese had a presence filled with ethereal force, creative and comforting.  He transmits his aura with effortless ease.  He was a great man.

My memoir, One Day and A Story, published by Gaskia Media Ltd in 2016, was based on my five years tour of duty in Newswatch.  After it was published, I went to my bosses at their new office on Acme Road to present copies.  I was received enthusiastically.  Our former General Editor, Olusoji Akinrinade, joined Agbese, Ekpu and Mohammed to give me a royal welcome.  I am happy that I had maintained a cordial relationship with my old bosses over the years.  Some years ago, when I approached Mr Mohammed to come and serve on the Advisory Board of Gaskia Media Ltd, he readily agreed. Recently I visited him at home to congratulate him on the publication of his enthralling autobiography, Beyond Expectations. With the death of Agbese, a significant chapter of that book has closed.

But Agbese, like all great thinkers and writers, would always be with us.  His corpus of works, which includes, Babangida: Military, Politics and Power in Nigeria, The Reporter’s Companion, and The Art and Craft of Column Writing, would ensure that down the centuries, future journalists, historians and youths, would continue to cherish the depth of his thoughts, the profundity of his knowledge and the sheer beauty of his rendering.  Now, he has embraced mortality, the ultimate fate of all of us, so that he can inherit immortality. His magnificent wife, Aunty Rose, and wonderful children, should take solace that the patriarch completed his assignment on this side of the Great Divide.  When he was with us, he was blessed with the wisdom of the ages like a living ancestor.  Finally, he has become a true ancestor.  May his valiant soul find eternal rest.

 The End

MAKONGENI COMES DOWN (1921–2025): The Story of an Estate That Built a Nation

When the first stone houses of Makongeni rose in 1921, Nairobi was still a young colonial outpost, dusty, ambitious, and rapidly growing. The British administration had just expanded the Kenya–Uganda Railway, and with the growth came thousands of African workers who built, maintained, and powered the colonial capital. Housing was scarce, conditions were harsh, and the railway workforce needed a planned settlement close to both the workshops and the city.

Makongeni was the answer:

Designed originally as a railway workers’ estate, it was one of the earliest formal African residential areas in Nairobi. The planners wanted a predictable, loyal, and healthy labor force—so they built simple but solid stone houses, straight streets, communal wash areas, and blocks arranged like a regimented camp. What began as functional colonial workers’ quarters soon evolved into something far more meaningful:

A home, a community, and a cultural cradle:

Through the 1930s and 40s, Makongeni became a hub of urban African life. Generations of public servants, mechanics, tailors, clerks, and railway artisans passed through its gates. Children played football in the dusty open fields, mothers traded vegetables at the estate markets, and men in overalls cycled to the railway yard at dawn. In the evenings, radios crackled with voice drama, Swahili taarab, and the news that shaped Kenya’s awakening.

By the 1950s, as nationalist waves swept the country, Makongeni had become a meeting point for ideas, debates, and union talk. Many early labor movements found their first audiences here. After independence, the estate transformed again—no longer a symbol of colonial control, but a foundation stone of a growing African city. Its houses, though modest, offered stability to thousands of families who would go on to educate teachers, soldiers, engineers, nurses, athletes, and shopkeepers who helped build post-colonial Kenya.

Through the decades, Makongeni stood stubbornly against time:

It survived the population boom of the 1970s, the economic squeeze of the 1980s, the political tensions of the 1990s, and the real-estate fever of the 2000s. Even as Nairobi grew into a metropolis of glass buildings and expressways, Makongeni retained its soul: the laughter of children in the courtyards, the echo of iron sheets flapping in the wind, the smell of kerosene stoves at dinner time, the warmth of neighbors who knew each other by name.

Now, in 2025, as redevelopment plans finally come to life and the estate begins to come down, Makongeni leaves behind 104 years of service, sacrifice, and memory. The walls may fall, but the legacy stands: a century-long story of Kenyan workers, families, and dreams woven into every stone and every pathway.

Makongeni was more than an estate:

It was a starting point, a home base, and a silent witness to Kenya’s journey—from railway colony to modern nation.

The memories will always be cherished:

And the spirit of Makongeni will live on in every family it sheltered, every worker it supported, and every story it helped shape.

#Africa #BlackHistory #World

THE AFRICAN GREAT GENETIC VARIATION

Africa is where modern humans evolved and is the starting place for the global expansion of our species (Campbell & Tishkoff, 2008, p. 403). African populations also have the highest levels of genetic and phenotypic variation among all humans (Beleza et al., 2005, p. 366). Archaeological evidence indicates that the continent has been inhabited by humans and their forebears for some 4,000,000 years or more (Stringer, 2011, p. 20). Anatomically modern humans are believed to have appeared as early as 200,000 years ago in the eastern region of Africa (Tishkoff & Kidd, 2004, p. 133).

Africa has the most physically varied populations in the world, from the tallest peoples to the shortest; body form and facial and other morphological features also vary widely (Hiernaux, 1975, p. 15). It is the continent with the greatest human genetic variation, reflecting its evolutionary role as the source of all human DNA (Campbell & Tishkoff, 2008, p. 405). Naturally blonde hair is often associated with white or Caucasian people (Loomis, 1967, p. 25). However, there are groups of dark-skinned people who have naturally blonde hair also (Beleza et al., 2005, p. 370). Some of these groups include the Aboriginal Australians (Aborigines) and the Melanesians (Friedlaender, 1975, p. 30). "The Aborigines are thus direct descendants of the first modern humans to leave Africa, without any genetic mixture from other races so far as can be seen at present (Friedlaender, 1975, p. 35). Their dark skin reflects an African origin and a migration and residence in latitudes near the equator, unlike Europeans and Asians whose ancestors gained the paler skin necessary for living in northern latitudes (Jablonski, 2006, p. 40). Similarly, the Solomon Island Melanesians have dark skin, blue eyes, and blonde hair (Friedlaender, 1975, p. 40). The children often have curly blonde hair which may turn darker when they get older (Loomis, 1967, p. 30). Blonde hair is also found in many of the women as well (Beleza et al., 2005, p. 375).

When people think of skin color in Africa, most would think of darker skin, but there is a huge amount of variation, ranging from skin as light to the darkest skin on a global level and everything in between (Jablonski, 2006, p. 45). Populations of indigenous people in southern Africa like the San people carry a gene that causes lighter skin, and scientists have now identified the rapid evolution of this gene in recent human history (Tishkoff & Kidd, 2004, p. 135). Africans are known to mostly have brown or black eyes, while Caucasians are mostly known to have varieties of colors (Loomis, 1967, p. 35). However, contrary to the popular belief, having blue eyes is not limited to Asians or Europeans; a significant number of Africans are known to have blue eyes (Beleza et al., 2005, p. 380). “Originally, we all had brown eyes, but a genetic mutation affecting the OCA2 gene in our chromosomes resulted in the creation of a ‘switch’ which literally ‘turned off’ the ability to produce brown eyes” (Eiberg & Troelsen, 2011, p. 20).

References

(1). Campbell, M. C., & Tishkoff, S. A. (2008). African genetic diversity: Implications for human demographic history, modern human origins, and complex disease mapping. Annual Review of Genomics and Human Genetics, 9, 403-433.

(2). Beleza, S., Gusmao, L., Amorim, A., Carracedo, A., & Salas, A. (2005). The genetic legacy of western Bantu migrations. Human Genetics, 117(4), 366-375.

(3). Stringer, C. (2011). The origin of our species. Penguin Books.

(4). Tishkoff, S. A., & Kidd, K. K. (2004). Implications of biogeography of human populations for 'race' and medicine. Nature Genetics, 36(11), 133-137.

(5). Hiernaux, J. (1975). The people of Africa. Scribner.

(6). Loomis, W. F. (1967). Skin-pigment regulation of vitamin-D biosynthesis in man. Science, 157

TINUBU!!!! TINUBU!!!! TINUBU!!!!!

The Catholic Diocese of Kontagora has declared 88 more students missing in the attack on St Mary Secondary School, Papiri, Agwara Local Government Area of Niger State.

Many parents were said to have gone to school to evacuate their children but couldn’t find them after the attack.

Daily Trust had reported that terrorists invaded the school in the wee hours of Friday, kidnapping students and staff.

In an update on Saturday morning, Most. Rev. Bulus Dauwa Yohanna of the Catholic Bishop of Kontagora Diocese said a total of 303 students are now missing.

He had earlier said 215 students could not be accounted for after the attack, adding that four female and eight male teachers were kidnapped during the raid.

He said the school had a population of 430 pupils in primary section and 199 secondary students.

The Bishop denied any prior warning from either the government or security agencies as claimed by the Secretary to State government.

“We have asked the Education Secretary if he received a circular he said no; or if he was asked to send any to us, he said no. We asked if he was verbally informed, he also said no. Let them tell the world who they gave the circular to, or through what channel did they send it.

“We also asked the National Association of Private Schools, they did not get any such circular. They claimed the school was shutdown and reopened few days ago, that is also not true, we are law abiding”, he said through his aide, Daniel Atori.

LETTER TO PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU

Dear President Bola Ahmed Tinubu

‎His Excelency, Sir

‎Over 30 million Almajiri roam Northern Nigeria...boys and girls deliberately denied of education, protection, and opportunity. This is not just a religious or cultural crisis; it is the deep reservoir from which terrorism continues to draw strength.

‎Even if Sambisa Forest is levelled today, by tomorrow another battalion of indoctrinated youths will emerge, armed with dangerous ideology and convinced by extremist clerics that martyrdom is their pathway to honour.

‎Sir, remember one of your major opposition supported the killing of a lady named Deborah over unverified allegation of blasphemy. That is how cheap human life is with indoctrinated illiterates.

‎You cannot bomb poverty. You cannot shoot illiteracy. You cannot arrest decades of religious manipulation with rifles.

‎A culturally and religiously backed banditry machine cannot be defeated by guns alone. It is almost 2 decades since we've been fighting banditry and teorrism. Until the political actors who weaponised ignorance and poverty are held accountable, and until the youths are deradicalised, re-educated, and economically empowered, the cycle will continue...no matter the billions we spend.

‎Is State Police the Answer?

‎Not yet.

‎Creating state police in the current climate is like lighting a match in a room soaked with adulterated petrol. On one side are heavily armed bandits.

‎On the other are angry, unemployed youths who may be hastily recruited and given uniforms, power, and the freedom to settle old ethnic or political scores. (even this writer will fight anybody who calls Lagos a no man's land), so please, don't give me a gun!

‎A policeman posted from Maiduguri to Lagos cannot immediately understand the crime culture of Mushin, Ketu, Ikorodu, Surulere, Ajangbadi, Ọkọ̀ta or Agege.

‎This lack of local intelligence fuels the dangerous romance between police and criminals...a trend worst observed in Lagos and Ogun. Almost all the policemen in Lagos and Ogun State are cultists.

‎Nigeria’s over-centralised policing system no longer fits our complex, multi-ethnic reality, yet decentralisation without preparation will undoubtedly throw us into anarchy.

‎What Then Should We Do?

‎We must redesign Nigeria, not patch it.

‎The next two years MUST be devoted to a sober, inclusive national dialogue  not the cosmetic conferences of the past orginzed by Obj and GEJ, to decide whether:

‎We return to a regional system,

‎or we design a uniquely Nigerian model of federalism that reflects our diversity, security challenges, and aspirations, instead of this copy and paste brand of democracy that is taking us to where we don't know.

‎The calls for restructuring are now deafening. The cracks in our union are widening. Internal sabotage has become normal...the kind that led to the tragic death of Brigadier Uba. The kind that inspires desperate pleas for foreign military intervention, even if Nigeria burns.

‎If an Arewa Region emerges tomorrow, the Northern elite and the talakawa alike would have no choice but to confront terrorism or be consumed by it.

‎If a Biafra Region is granted constitutional self-governance within a restructured Nigeria, the agitation that makes them see Nigeria as a “zoo” would evaporate; the Ibos would finally build the Eldorado they envision. They'll defend their territory against fulani invasion.

‎The Middle Belt and minority groups would, for once, choose their destiny...not be annexed by the political greed of others.

‎Aṣíwájú…Leadership Is Timing

‎Akanbi Ọmọ Olódó Idẹ, there is no shame in being the last president of the old Nigeria, if you will be the first architect of a new one.

‎You once said: “The quality of a leader is the ability to do what ought to be done, at the time it should be done.”

‎That time is now:

‎But the task before us is not to divide Nigeria, it is to restructure Nigeria before it collapses under the weight of its contradictions and internal sabotage.

‎Let the regions breathe.

‎Let justice be local.

‎Let security be community-rooted and intelligence-driven.

‎Let every nationality build according to its values, strengths, and vision.

‎If we must preserve this union, we must rebuild it. If we must prevent chaos, we must reform deliberately. If we must secure the future, we must let the people shape it.

‎Nigeria does not need to be broken...it needs to be REBORN.

Source: Olasunkanmi Shobowale

‎

NIGERIA IS BLEEDING

Malik Samuel, Researcher, ISS Regional Office for West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin.

Tinubu’s appointments to head the security agencies will show how much importance he attaches to the issue.

The president must also consider long-term solutions that go beyond military intervention. He should devote equal attention to the governance and socio-economic issues that provide fertile ground for recruitment into violent extremism and criminal gangs.

With the best land force in Africa and the second best military in sub-Saharan Africa, Nigeria has the capacity to provide leadership in the region. What is lacking is the political determination to translate that capacity into tangible results.

Tinubu should consider an intelligence-driven sector that nips security threats in the bud before they manifest. To achieve this, the Nigerian security sector must be transformed from its current largely predatory nature to one that is civilian-centric and focused on building trusting relations with civilians. If Nigeria’s people trust security officials, they will be willing to help, especially when it comes to intelligence gathering.

As Commander-in-Chief, the president must be seen to be in charge of the situation. He can do this by being decisive, holding appointees to account and linking their tenure to meeting deliverables. He should heed the litany of complaints and public outcries calling for previous security chiefs to be sacked – and Buhari’s refusal to budge. Buhari in fact continued to defend them in the face of worsening insecurity.

Some of the early appointments a Nigerian president usually makes are heads of the security agencies, ranging from the national security adviser to the chief of defence staff. These are the people who will drive his vision on security, so getting these appointments right will show how much importance he attaches to the issue.

At that time, the insurgents controlled 27 local government areas across North East Nigeria, causing one of the world’s biggest but most under-reported humanitarian crises.

Boko Haram presents the hardest security test for Tinubu. Now in its 14th year, the insurgency has defied solutions, which to date have been mostly military. Buhari was the third president unable to end the crisis, despite promising to do so during his campaigns. He claimed to have defeated the group after becoming president, but Boko Haram’s violent attacks have continued, including outside its core areas of the North East.

In some cases, communities are forced to pay bandits in order to be allowed to farm. The damage this causes to livelihoods has increased malnutrition among children in the region. Banditry is already spilling over into Niger, a country that is also facing the Boko Haram challenge.

Similarly, in North Central Nigeria, the farmer-herder crisis remains a major concern. At the same time, communal clashes and separatist agitation threaten peace in the south, notably the South East and South South zones.

Tinubu undoubtedly has his work cut out for him, but the incoming president also has an opportunity to show Nigerians that he can rein in insecurity.

As Commander-in-Chief, the president must be seen to be in charge of the situation. He can do this by being decisive, holding appointees to account and linking their tenure to meeting deliverables. He should heed the litany of complaints and public outcries calling for previous security chiefs to be sacked – and Buhari’s refusal to budge. Buhari in fact continued to defend them in the face of worsening insecurity.

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CANNOT PROSECUTE THOSE FUNDING TERRORIST. --- MINISTER FOR INFORMATION

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, says the Federal Government has not prosecuted individuals suspected of financing terrorism because the process requires extensive and delicate investigations that cannot be rushed.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday, Idris explained that contrary to public perception, the matter was not as simple as having a list and immediately taking suspects to court.

The minister’s statement came against the backdrop of growing concerns over alleged government complicity in the escalating insecurity ravaging the country.

Successive governments have faced public pressure to identify and prosecute individuals suspected of financing terrorism, particularly Boko Haram, ISWAP, and bandit groups operating in the North.

Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, officials disclosed that some suspected financiers had been identified, raising expectations that trials would soon follow.

However, no high-profile prosecution has taken place, fuelling criticism from civil society groups and security analysts who argue that the delays strengthen public distrust in government efforts against insecurity.

Addressing the matter, Idris said, “It is not a question of having the list or not having the list; it is not as simplistic as that. Investigations have to be conducted. In some cases, there are merits in what they said.

“You don’t say, ‘because pronouncements have been made, let me take you to court directly.’ There must be sufficient investigation carried out.

“Unfortunately, when you are fighting these kinds of battles, it is not something that you just sort out within a day or two. That is why, all the time, we are calling on our partners within and outside this country to understand the complexity and diversity of the situation we have here.”

The minister maintained that President Bola Tinubu’s administration was “working assiduously” to end terrorism and other security threats.

He noted that significant progress had been made since May 2023, adding that many Nigerians were inclined to overlook the gains.

“Sometimes we forget the successes we have recorded in the fight against bandits, criminals, and some of these jihadists. From May 2023 to date, over 13,500 of these criminals have been neutralised and taken off our society.

“Over 17,000 of them have been apprehended. Even as we speak, some of them are having their day in court, and some have been sentenced. I think we should recognise these efforts.”

On the delayed appointment of ambassadors, the minister said President Tinubu was already finalising the list, adding that the nominees were undergoing security vetting.

The minister also confirmed ongoing diplomatic engagements between Nigeria, the United States, and other countries, explaining that misunderstandings about Nigeria’s security challenges were being clarified.

“We agree that ambassadors should be there (US), and the President has agreed that he is going to release this list. As I speak with you, the President is finalising it. They have passed them to security agencies for checks. I can tell you that ambassadors are going to be appointed pretty soon.

“There is diplomatic engagement happening between Nigeria and the United States and other countries. What we feel is that there is no proper understanding of what the situation is about.

“This is the message we are taking to them. We are open to any kind of cooperation—regional, international, American or anybody who wants to see that there is an end to this crisis in Nigeria.”

SEGUN, AWOLOWO AND THE DEFEAT OF DEATH

Upon receiving my own dose of the grace of God people needed to overcome the shocking news of the death of a great brother and friend, Segun Awolowo yesterday, I first  recollected the way I felt on a particularly unforgettable day in 1987?

It was soothing to witness the accompanying energy needed to suppress the anger and pain of the reality of the death of this beloved brother, and still muster the will to write about it with relief and reassurance in the dose of faith in God of which the human soul is capable.

This hope, accompanied by an unshakeable faith in God, will continue to quicken the inevitable weakening of death’s sting in the Awolowo family, which, by the actions of their foremost patriarch, the late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, has already made  life meaningful and endurable for layers of generations in  Yorubaland, Nigeria and elsewhere.

In the morning of May 9, 1987,  in the quiet village of Epe near Ilesa, in the Old Oyo state, I  was performing my daily shores of sweeping  around the compound of my grandfather’s house when Baba Ajakaiye; a popular, elderly man; a bold, politically aware and highly reverred hunter, suddenly rushed out of his house from the direction of the west wing of the village , wailing loudly and frantically calling my grandfather ”Baba Ropo, Baba Ropo, se hin mi gbo radio? Se hin mi gb’uroyin  lorii radio?”, He continued along the street, followed closely by his friend Baba Kola, both exclaiming loudly and causing such a stampede that their shouting raised and forced other men to quickly jump out of bed and rush out of their houses.

Within the time it takes a crab to blink, a lot of people had gathered on the roadside in front of our house, which happened to be located near the edge of the main junction in the village, most of them with scanty clothes on their bodies, young and old, many had their hand on their heads and in that common gesture of surprise and regret.

All of them had heard the same shocking news that pushed Baba Ajakaye out of his house with barely enough clothes on.

It came from the 7.00am news thaa being read on the Oyo state “Radio OYO”. 

And the broadcaster was making some shocking and forbidden statement to the effect that;

Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo is dead!

Haaaaaaaa! Wahala deeeeeee! Awolowo ti kuuuuu! 

Baba Yoruba, 

Awooooooooo!

Haaaa, O ma se oooooo!

Why? How? I mean, how can Awolowo die? Was the question of everyone’s lips.

It was just unbelievable.

My grandfather brought out his resting chair, - a strange habit for a farmer at that time of the day. He sat down with his legs crossed and his face in his palms, saying nothing. I looked in his eyes I found nothing other than that weird expression that scares a child more than a frown; a blank.

On a normal day. He never sat in that chair or on that spot in the morning.  In that hour on a normal day, he would be on the big sedimentary rock opposite that spot, sharpening his cutlasses, making ready for the farm. But this was not a normal day.

No farmer in our village went to the farm that day. Most families spent the day at the front of their houses watching how other families were reacting to the news.

What else happened elsewhere in Yorubaland that day, I can’t tell, but I know and will always remember where I was and what I was doing on the day Chief Obafemi Awolowo died.

For me, it was not only that Segun’s death and that of his grandfather will continue to remain a shocking reality. It is also because I am moved by the thought of the graceful coincidence of how much the two Awolowos; grandfather and grandson, did to get me andy generation where we   are today.

Just as I vividly recollected the regret and outrage  with which my grandfather and our village received the death of Chief Awolowo, I must openly appreciate Segun’s encouragement and help in alleviating my cost of living and travels across Lagos at a crucial time of my life.

The goodness of the Awolowo clan that Segun radiated and represented before he left is a trait that tricled right from Papa Awolowo and Segun down through me to reach my own  children. And I have spared no details in drawing relevant correlations about the   redeeming power and everlasting value of good governnance and sound policies.

For parents who had children in schools enjoying Awolowo’s Free Education policy and hundreds of thousands of farmers whose hopes hinged on Awolowo’s Cocoa Development Union, CDU grants, Awolowo’s death was clearly a calamity too massive to contemplate. It was a loss of unquantifiable scale, with political consequences of unpredictable dimension.

We too knew something had hit our parents. From village to village, the atmosphere was charged.

We were aware that Awolowo was the man on whose goodwill and benevolence our parents were managing to send us to schools. Whenever piles of textbooks on various subjects and exercise books were issued out to us, we also knew instinctively that one of the most unforgivable ways to offend the school’s authority was to mishandle, tear or damage those books. 

How can I better explain why the news of the death of Mr Segun Awolowo, a scion of the collosal Awolowo name, and a major pillar upon which the great Awolowo family house rests hit me and my generation who went to school at that time below the belt. The name Awolowo is one that my generation will continue to cherish, rever and pray for.

As we mourn the death of a brother and the grandson of the man who fought the iniquitous Nigerian system and won a place for us all to go to school for free, we consider Segun’s death a fresh opening of a still healing wound inflicted in 1987 on the hearts of all true omo Yoruba by the death of the great sage.

For me as a Yoruba, you dont get more deeply related by blood to anyone whose grandfather was jailed while also enduring near death experiences in order to secure a region of a nation indee which you got the opportunity to get educated for free.

i knew and worked briefly with Segun at the onset of journey working with political leaders.

My relationship with him took its roots right from the founding days of the political group Progressive Action Movement, PAM, in 2001. My closeness to him took me to work briefly with him at his grandfather’s house in Lagos.

I had not become a photographer at the time of course.

As soon as I enrolled in journalism school in 1994, it didnot take long before I became the errand boy of a close ring of senior scholars, eminent writers, seniors journalists and technocrats including the late Professor Ayo Olukotun, Akin Osuntokun Femi Fani Kayode and Charles Akinola. I was regularly involved in many academic and political activities involving them. The annual Obafemi Awolowo Foundation’s colloquium ; the Nigerian Civil War Conference, spearheader by Professor Eghosa Esaghae at the University of Ibadan are of great memory.

My experience as an assistant, working around the people I met in PAM and these frontline  researchers, public commentators and others working in the media was extensive and actually constitutes a tangible part of what claim I may make today about being educated outside the journalism school. Being an avid reader and a copious collector of books on sundry subjects from history and conflicts to diplomacy and monarchies ensured I always got called upon by any of them  for assistance. It was my job in those days when there was no email to hit the Lagos roads distributing their articles to the editors of frontline national newspaper dailies. It was an especial experience distinctive from any other. By the time I was starting out as a young journalist with the Daily Times, I already had my hands full. I was starry eyed, highly impressionable and opened my mind to all winds of academic doctrines. This ringside position helped me look in early and gained advance insights into the trajectory of political developments and the activities of some of the personalities who shaped them. Distributing these articles also availed me first-hand opportunities to read before they were published, the contentious opinions of fierry columnists like Femi Fani-Kayode and the prickly arguments of Akin Osuntokun and wait to watch how they shape national discourse and public perception of burning national issues.

You can then imagine the luck I had so early into my career at the prospect of later meeting in PAM and moving around some of today’s leading names in Nigeria’s governance and political economy.

Soon after the military relinguished power in 1999, PAM attracted and brought together many of the children of the cynosure of all eyes in the first and second republic politics in Nigeria and some of the most active captains of the media and political industry.

Children of political juggernauts of early post-colonial Nigeria, popular columnists of established newspaers, political and media activists, some just released from military detention of the Abacha years, all soon came around to swell the PAM ranks. Segun Awolowo was one of them.

I still have an old copy of one of their attendance lists. It was always long and I can only recollect the names of a prominent few; the late Segun Awolowo, Opeyemi Agbaje, Akin Osuntokun, the current Emir of Kano, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Babafemi Ojudu, Tunde Fagbenle, Toyin and Modupe Fagbayi, Femi Fani-Kayode, Jumoke Akinjide Balogun, Segun Maiyegun, Muyi Ladoja, Lai Aare, Kayode Ogundamisi.

Remarkeably, I an Ijesa son, had been in the care of prominent Ekiti sons and daughters for so long, and I still am.  Perhaps it represents a token of the traditional hospitality of the Ekiti people or an extension of the goodwill shared between our fathers during the Ekitiparapo war coalition. 

Whichever, as a young journalist, Akin Osuntokun, who I was living with at the time asked me to squeeze out the time to serve at the office of PAM. The meetings of the movement was initially being hosted at Osuntokun’s house, but membership soon began to swell and the need for a formal office became urgent l, and Chief Awolowo’s house at Park Lane in Liverpool area of Apapa was made available.

Every member of PAM was a very busy person. And that included me who was not even a registered member.  I was only a young bookwarm who was around them, handy and also willing to serve the purposes of this movement many of which members I had only read about and around whose presence I imagined a ladder existed  which God may have dropped for me to reach up to any height I wished in life.

But I wonder how many useful opportunities waiting with great mentors like Segun and others did I manage to explore before losing ties with them, losing their contacts or dissapearing from their rader screen altogether? Few, very few.

The death of this Awolowo has shocked me into wandering when I would ever be able to pinch myself enough to wake up, refresh or reestablish links with some of these my early mentors that are still alive and I can still reach.

I will keep trying and I only hope it works, because I am still doing a bad job of it. One big challenge is that I will have to figure out how to still be useful around them or what I could do to also contribute to their lives.

One way I have readily figured out and have already started exploring is that I can find away of making them see reasons to tell their own stories, NOW.

Too many good people are leaving this world too soon, and death, or our own preoccupation with the endless to-do list we carry about in this world hardly leaves the ample time to make the most of their irreplaceable precence while they were still here. I have started and am already succeeding in tracking and sitting down to work with my mentors.

Due to the fact that we live in the same town of Ado Ekiti, and if I am serious enough, I could see him at The Farm; the arts and writers rendezvous he has created to refresh his health, welcome valuable people, boost his sanity and encourage those who take themselves serious, the only one among them, who I may boast I remain close to; and who has and still play influential roles in shaping my career is Senator Babafemi Ojudu. Even at that, I doubt very much if I am not still being too much of a truant around him.

I regret never getting the privilege of ever meeting the father of the modern Yoruba race and the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, but I had the privilege of meeting his grandson, who unfortunately, we just lost.

There are some names that have achieved so much and have been robbed in such extreme glory that they have also attained immortality, such that even death cannot wipe them out or undo them nomatter the scale of tragedy.  

Such names will continue to be mentioned on the lips of men and would live in the minds of people forever.

Maybe the questions to ask is why too many great people hardly ever live long. At least, long enought for us to find them to return to when we suddenly get jolted again by the shocks of life.

If I had known I was only deceiving myself, If I had known that there was never going to be a future time,   after I had satisfied my curiousity achieving the heaven and earth I am chasing, I could return to sit around one of the Awolowos and listen to lost stories just found, I would have done more in recent years to draw closer to Segun before this time of regret.

My eyes are now clear. Now that there is not going to be the Segun I used to know to return to.

I will always comfort myself with the memory of who he was to me within the short time I worked with him during the PAM days and the few other times we met at social  gatheringswhen I was working as King Sunny Ade’s PRO.

There are some names that have achieved so much and are robbed in garments of such extreme glory that they have also attained such immortality that even death cannot wipe them out or undo them nomatter the scale of tragedy.

Awolowo will continue to be mentioned by the lips of men and would live in the minds of people for as long as life exists.

Source: Femi Adagunodo.

Legal Experts Tear Apart Nnamdi Kanu Ruling, List 10 Major Flaws That Could Nullify the Judgment on Appeal

Legal and constitutional experts have raised alarm over Justice James Omotosho’s ruling on IPOB leader Nnamdi Kanu, describing it as riddled with jurisdictional errors, constitutional breaches, and procedural irregularities—faults they say make the judgment too defective to stand on appeal.

Legal analysts and constitutional experts are raising serious concerns over the recent judgment delivered by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, in the case involving detained IPOB leader, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu.

A detailed review of the ruling reveals multiple procedural lapses and constitutional violations that, according to experts, severely undermine the validity of the judgment.

Below is a simplified breakdown of the key issues highlighted:

(1). Failure to Decide Jurisdiction Before Proceeding

Kanu’s legal team challenged the court’s jurisdiction—a mandatory legal hurdle in criminal proceedings. Instead of addressing it, Justice Omotosho proceeded with the case.

Legal experts stress that any trial conducted without resolving jurisdiction is null and void, rendering the entire process defective.

(2). Directing Objections to a Final Address, Then Blocking It

The judge instructed the defence to include all objections—including jurisdictional issues—in the final written address.

However, when the time came:

The court blocked the filing of final addresses

Judgment was delivered without hearing the objections

This, analysts say, constitutes a clear breach of fair hearing.

(3). No Written Rulings on Key Applications

Several defence motions were filed before judgment, including those relating to:

Illegal rendition

Abuse of court process

Double criminality

Repealed statutes

Defective charges

Justice Omotosho issued no written rulings on any of these applications. Experts note that judges are legally required to provide written decisions—failure to do so is a fatal procedural error.

(4). Forcing Kanu to Plead Under a Repealed Law

Although the judge acknowledged that the Terrorism Prevention Act 2013 had been repealed, he still compelled Kanu to plead to charges framed under it.

Legal scholars maintain that a repealed law cannot sustain a criminal charge, making the proceedings invalid.

(5). Violating Section 36(12) of the Constitution

The Constitution states:

No one may be convicted of an offence not clearly defined in an existing written law.

Analysts say the judge relied on:

Allegations not contained in the charge

Claims unsupported by evidence

Accusations not made by any witness

One example is the claim that Kanu plotted to bomb foreign embassies during EndSARS—an allegation never mentioned by the prosecution.

(6). Elevating a “Savings Clause” Above the Constitution

The court leaned on a savings clause in the new Terrorism Act that allows old cases to continue.

Experts argue:

A savings clause cannot override the Constitution

A repealed law remains repealed

No one may be tried under an expired law

This interpretation, they say, contradicts legal hierarchy.

(7). Ignoring the Mandatory “Double Criminality” Test

Since the government alleged Kanu committed crimes in Kenya, Nigerian law requires proof that the alleged acts are also crimes in Kenya.

No such evidence—police reports, witnesses, or documentation—was presented.

Analysts say the court avoided this necessary test altogether.

(8). Denial of Fair Hearing Makes the Judgment Void

Blocking final addresses, ignoring objections, and failing to rule on motions all amount to denial of fair hearing.

Under Nigerian law, any ruling reached under such circumstances is automatically void.

(9). Introducing Claims With No Evidence

Experts describe as “alarming” the judge’s introduction of claims—such as plans to bomb foreign embassies—that:

Were not charged

Had no witnesses

Were not in any prosecution filings

Had no investigative backing

They say this violates judicial ethics and raises concerns about impartiality.

(10). Conclusion: Experts Say the Judgment Cannot Survive Appeal

Based on the documented flaws—jurisdictional errors, constitutional violations, reliance on repealed laws, and introduction of extraneous claims—legal experts say the judgment is unlikely to withstand appellate review.

They also warn that the ruling raises broader concerns about judicial accountability and constitutional safeguards in politically sensitive cases.

NDI IGBOS SHOULD STAY CALM. ---BIANCA OJUKWU

Nigeria’s former ambassador and widow of Biafran leader Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Bianca Ojukwu, has condemned the life imprisonment slammed on IPOB leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, urging Nigerians, especially the Igbos, to remain calm but resolute as political solutions are explored.

Ojukwu, who had just returned from a monitoring assignment in Zanzibar, said the judgment was not the outcome anyone hoped for.

In her statement issued on Friday, she warned against any response that could inflame tensions at home or abroad.

“There comes a time in the history of a people when there is need for calm… I advise Ndigbo and Nigerians as a whole that such a period is now,” she said.

She urged restraint, calling on citizens to avoid actions that could escalate the already charged atmosphere, noting that “a word is enough for the wise.”

According to her, the path forward must be built on strategic engagement, not anger. Ojukwu called for a united front of Igbo leaders—including governors, senators, lawmakers, traditional rulers, clergy, and the business community to collectively interface with the Federal Government.