Category: Daily Trust

The father of Lionel Messi has passed away after prolonged illness.

Aged 68, Jorge Messi died at Sanatorio Centro hospital in Rosario where he had been receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness.

He had missed the entire 2026 FIFA World Cup co-hosted by USA, Mexico and Canada between June and July.

Jorge was unable attend despite his son, and Argentina, making it to the final of the Mundial where they lost 1-0 to Spain after extra-time.

He died in the early hours of Saturday, according to the hospital’s official statement signed by Medical Director Carlos Mackey.

The hospital called for respect for the family and offered no further information regarding the cause of death.

‘Sanatorio Centro, through its Medical Director, regrets to inform you of the passing of patient Jorge Messi, 68 years of age, which occurred today at 2:00 a.m.

‘We extend our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones during this difficult time. In compliance with current regulations regarding patient data protection, and out of respect for the family’s privacy, no further details will be provided regarding the medical circumstances of his death.’

Tributes have poured in for Jorge Messi, who took a young Messi to Europe for career-defining treatment and signed his first Barcelona contract on a napkin in December 2020.

Newell’s Old Boys, Messi’s first club, praised Jorge as ‘the pillar and the person who, with vision, rigour, and affection, supported the career of the greatest player of all time,’ while the Argentina Football Association stood in solidarity with the family on the loss and with a warm embrace.

Barcelona, where Lionel Messi broke numerous club records and became its best ever player, thanked Jorge for entrusting it ‘with the beginning and the most glorious years of his son Leo’s football career.’

Real Madrid, Barcelona’s arch-rivals, says it deeply regrets the passing of Jorge Messi as it commiserated with Leo, his family, and all his loved ones.

Jorge Messi was Lionel’s football agent since the mercurial footballer turned 14 years in 2001 and remained so until his death.

Permit me to once again share the words of the Sweden-based Nigerian writer Prince Kio Jaja Amachree. He wrote the following on X: ‘In 1990 when Mandela came to thank Nigeria for its support to the ANC and the Pan African Congress he was given 10 ten million USD by the Nigerian Government as our further contribution to the ANC when he was leaving. 61 billion dollars was the total figure that Nigeria donated to the ANC and the Pan African Congress by 1994. Adjusted for three decades of inflation, and with even a conservative rate of interest applied, as any court applies to any unpaid debt, the true present value of Nigeria’s sacrifice runs into the hundreds of billions of dollars’.

He went further by saying, ‘this was money that Nigeria, with its own crushing debt burden, collapsing infrastructure and 130 million of its own citizens living in multidimensional poverty, needs desperately at home’.

He was right. He went on to ask the following question and immediately provided the answer.

‘How the debt Is being repaid? Here is how South Africa has serviced this account in the year 2026. Musa Yunana Joe and Charles Iroegbu, two Nigerian nationals, were killed on June 28, one allegedly at the hands of South African police officers, the other by attackers who remain conveniently unidentified. They died two days before an unofficial deadline set by anti migrant vigilantes for foreigners to leave the country. They were not the first this year. In April, Amaramiro Emmanuel was beaten to death, according to Nigeria’s consul general, by officers of the South African National Defence Force, soldiers of the very state Nigerian money helped bring into being. Ekpenyong Andrew was arrested in Pretoria and was next seen in a mortuary. The mobs of Operation Dudula and the March and March movement have marched through Johannesburg and Durban, some in warrior dress, carrying spears, whips and shields, telling African migrants to leave or, in the words circulated on their platforms, return in a coffin. By early July, nearly 600 Nigerians had been evacuated on emergency flights, with roughly 1000 registered to flee, abandoning shops, cars, homes and life savings built over decades. Across all nationalities, more than 13000 African migrants have been driven out in a matter of weeks. None of this is new. It is the fourth great wave. After 2008, when more than 60 people were butchered. After 2015. After 2019. Each time, Pretoria issues its regrets. Each time, no meaningful prosecutions follow. Each time, the machetes return. This is how South Africa repays the country that paid for its freedom’.

Amachree’s analysis is factual and unassailable.

He concluded with the following.

‘History matters! Those who say Nigerians should stop talking about South Africa and face Nigeria’s own problems have it exactly backwards. This is Nigeria’s problem. It is 61 billion dollars of Nigeria’s problem. Money taken from the salaries of Nigerian clerks and the pockets of Nigerian students and the treasury of a struggling young republic, invested in the freedom of a people whose government now cannot summon the will to stop mobs from hunting Nigerians in the streets. Nelson Mandela knew what Nigeria had done. He said so, in Lagos, on camera, in 1990. The tragedy is that the nation he founded has chosen amnesia. Nigeria and 220 million Nigerians have not forgotten. The dead, Musa, Charles, Amaramiro, Ekpenyong, and the scores before them, will have justice. Through courts, through commissions, through commerce, and through the unyielding memory of history. Not today, perhaps. But the ledger is open, the arithmetic is documented, and history, as it always does, will collect’.

Can anyone dispute what he has said?

Now consider the following words which came from one Phakel Umthakaki Ndanbandaba who is one of leaders of March on March and who was recently hosted by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

In front of a massive and unruly crowd of supporters a few days ago he said, ‘I don’t sleep because I am so scared that PEOPLE FROM NIGERIA who are feeding our kids drugs are here in this country. They are all very dangerous people. And as a man, I took it upon myself to say, you know, let me choose death than to look at what is going on like this. Let me protect our kids. Let me protect our law enforcement officers. Let me protect even our government.’

I am not given to responding to those whose words are fuelled by ignorance, racism, afrophobia and hate but in this case I will make an exception.

Someone should remind this Zulu Phakel that innocent Nigerians don’t sleep easily in South Africa anymore because they are being targetted, beaten, persecuted and killed like chickens in the streets by murderous, homicidal mobs that walk around half naked wielding axes and spears and that are led by thugs like him.

It is the job of law enforcement to catch drug dealers and we support them in doing so wherever those dealers are from but it is not the job of angry mobs who always lump the innocent and kill them with the guilty to do so.

What this man is doing is called race-baiting and incitement against Nigerians and he is endangering our lives. He is also being supported, encouraged and bankrolled by a hidden foreign hand to do all this because he is not capable of doing it on his own.

Yet the question must be asked, has it not occurred to this Zulu Phakel that Nigerians are not the only ones selling drugs in his country?

Some do, just as South Africans smuggle in and sell drugs to Nigerians in Nigeria and South Africa too, but we cannot possibly demonise all South Africans and call them all drug dealers.

There are evil men that are involved in this evil trade from both sides and the answer is for the good men and women on both sides to join forces and resist them.

The answer is NOT to criminalise and demonise all Nigerians and label us as drug dealers.

This has to stop.

One of the leaders of the South African opposition by the name of Herman Mashaba, who we have been reliably informed is one of those bankrolling the madness and egging thugs like Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Phakel Umkathaki Ndanbandaba on, said the following on X: ‘South Africa is not going to be blackmailed by anyone or country to accept illegality because they claim to have assisted during apartheid’.

Mashaba would do well to take heed of the following words.

Nigeria will not sit by silently as our nationals are being targetted and killed.

Deny it as much as you like but the truth is that if not for us you would still be in chains.

No one is asking South Africa to accept illegality.

If you choose to be ungrateful and repay our good with evil that is your call and we leave you to God.

Needless to say had it not been for our efforts during your struggle you would still be bondage and abject poverty today and probably be speaking Afrikaans as your national language.

Do as you please but what we insist on is that you operate according to due process and within the law and stop vilifying, demonising, targetting and killing our nationals.

Is this too much to ask?

If you insist on taking the course you have chosen know that nothing is off the table and there will be consequences which will come at a time and place of our own choosing.

Nigerian lives are precious. For each one that your thugs take there will be a heavy price to pay.

Know this and know peace. A word is enough for the wise.

Permit me to add the following.

Many in our country are boiling with anger today about what is happening to our compatriots in South Africa and this is understandable.

The situation is unacceptable and has, rightly, resulted in outrage not just in Nigeria but throughout the entire African continent and indeed the civilised world.

As I approach the end of this contribution I appeal for restraint, understanding, patience and calm from our people despite the smears, violence and mindless and inexplicable provocations for, as the Bible says, ‘this too shall pass’.

Outside of that one thing is clear: those that carry out these barbaric hate crimes and acts of Afrophobia in South Africa deserve more of our pity than our anger.

I say this because when you see a black South African attacking or threatening a foreign African national and telling him to ‘go back home’, it is like a person pouring petrol all over his own body, setting a match to it and burning himself alive.

The reality is that we are one and when a black South African attacks an African national he is attacking himself.

Coupled with this is the issue of suppressed and ingrained trauma which came as a consequence of the apartheid years and which a respected South African leader by the name of Zwelinzima Vavi, the Secretary General of the South African Federation of Trade Unions, alluded to and I mentioned in Part 4 of this series.

The truth is that when the black South African vents such hate towards his fellow black Africans for no just cause it is essentially a manifestation of the deep-set psychological trauma that Vavi was referring to.

It is not only uncontrollable but it is also pathological.

And coupled with poverty and lack of any real prospects of rising to the top, it’s cause is obvious yet lost on most.

To establish that cause one has to study the history of the black South African and know what he has been through and where he is coming from.

The situation was simply shocking for the black majority population in apartheid-South Africa and many from other parts of the world have either forgotten or never knew.

What was done to them can best be compared to what was done to the Africans that were captured, transported like cattle and sold into slavery in America and the Carribean centuries ago and what was done to the Herero and Nama tribes in modern-day Namibia by Imperial pre-World War 1 Germany who literally wiped them out and ethnically cleansed them during colonial rule in the early 19th century.

For four hundred years and particularly after the apartheid system was fully established it was not just a question of South Africans being denied the right to lead and rule in their own country. It was far more insidious and worse than that.

The whole system was designed to dehumanise and destroy the psyche of the black South African, crush his spirit, wound his soul, rob him of his manhood, turn him into what in modern parlance is described as the proverbial ‘cuck’ and strip him of all hope.

I am constrained to set my prejudices aside and reluctantly admit that no-one put it better than the self-exiled Nigerian opposition figure, dissident and author by the name of David Hundeyin, who wrote the following on his X handle:

‘the apartheid system created laws restricting black people to ‘Bantu education’ with movement restrictions and racial hub qoutas, forbidding them from getting middle or high income jobs, creating unbreakable multi- generational poverty for 89% of the country’s population’.

He forgot to add the fact that black people were not allowed to live in the cities but only to go and work there after which they were compelled to return to their filthy, run-down ghettoes and townships at the close of work.

Worse still they were required to use passes as they moved around, rather like the Palestinians that enter Israel to look for work are required to do today.

This understandably resulted in protests which led to the massacre of 69 black South Africans and 180 injured by South African security forces in a town called Sharpeville on March 21st 1960.

Blacks that did not live in the townships and serve as a cheap labour force for the cities were forced to move and exiled to their distant ‘homelands’ in the countryside, which were little better than empty and barren reservations.

One needs to stop and actually ponder on this to fully appreciate it’s implications. There was no freedom of movement or freedom of choice in the matter.

As a black South African you were basically a slave who lived to serve the interests of the Boers and Afrikaaners or you were confined and restricted to a homeland which was not only hopeless and empty but also in the middle of nowhere.

They called all this ‘separate development’ which, when translated to Afrikaans, is ‘apartheid’.

It was so bad that at some point there was an attempt by the apartheid state to make ALL black South African children be taught in only Afrikaans, the language of the white Boers, in school.

This was the greatest humiliation and cultural imposition of all.

When you take away a man’s language and compel his children to learn and speak in only yours you have taken away his heritage, history, essence and soul and left him with nothing.

And that was precisely the purpose of the exercise.

It also represents the most compelling evidence of total subjugation and conquest because it sought to strip the African bare and deny him of the memory of who he was, what language he once spoke and where he was coming from.

Simply put it was evil.

Understandably this resulted in protests by the children themselves and that is what led to the massacres of no less than 700 to 1000 CHILDREN by the South African police and security forces in Soweto on June 17th 1976.

Yet it gets worse.

The South African Roman Dutch Church officially regarded and described black people as being the Biblical ‘drawers of the water and hewers of the wood’ that chapter 9 verse 21 of the Book of Joshua in the Holy Bible referred to and were therefore nothing but ‘accursed slaves’.

As far as the South African Roman Dutch Church was concerned black Africans, including the Bantus of South Africa, were the descendants of Ham who had been cursed by God thousands of years ago!

It is with this gross and perverse manipulation and misinterpretation of scripture that the South African Roman Dutch Church (which was the official Church of the state in apartheid-South Africa) sought to justify and rationalise the support it willingly gave to the evil of apartheid and white minority rule.

Outside of that sex or marriage across racial lines was a criminal offence and those that violated this law were sent to jail whilst their offspring were treated with nothing but contempt and regarded as nothing but products of ‘a corrupt, ungodly and illegal sexual union’ and ‘evidence of a break-down in law and order and societal values!’

Forgive me but is this not utter madness? Is it not unadulterated wickedness? Is it not callous? Is it not inexplicable? Is it not unbelievable?

Can apartheid not be legitimately regarded as being spawned from the pit of hell? Is it not a marvel that some white South Africans still yearn for those days and that a man like Errol Musk, Elon Musk’s father, can say ‘black people in South Africa were better off during apartheid than they are today’!

That is the level of hatred and oppression that the Bantus were subjected to and Musk’s comments represents the level of delusion that their Afrikaaner masters once suffered from and, in the case of a few of them, are still suffering from today.

How can any race be invaded, overwhelmed, stripped of all they had, including their dignity, history, language and identity and subjugated to this extent and come out of it unaffected and whole?

How can they be treated like that for hundreds of years by a group of callous and cruel European settlers and conquerors that literally came over and forcefully imposed their will on them and stole their land with the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck in Table Bay (Cape Town) in 1652 and not be badly traumatised till today.

Many forget that black South Africans only won their freedom and independence 32 years ago and up until today they are still suffering from total and complete economic bondage because the wealth of the nation is still concentrated and trapped in the hands of a tiny white minority.

This is what has led to so much frustration, resentment, anger and bitterness amongst black South Africans and sadly instead of resolving the issue by insisting on a more equitable degree of wealth sharing they are tatgetting foreign black African nationals and venting their spleen on them.

The situation is so bad that her enemies and detractors have erroneously, unfairly and cruelly described South Africa as ‘a nation with a black body and a white head’ which I believe is not only completely false but also inappropriate and deeply insulting.

All this and you do not expect the majority of the black population in South Africa to suffer from a debilitating level of deep-set anger and trauma?

Frankly I am surprised that it is not even worse.

The South African people, as hostile, violent, aggressive and annoying as some of them may be, are our African brothers and sisters and given all they have been through they do not deserve our anger and hate but rather our compassion, sympathy, love, care, support, concern and pity.

Regardless of all, we must offer them all these things, re-build the bridge and work closely with them for the sake of our collective future.

As Rev. Martin Luther King said, ‘You cannot drive out hate with hate. You can only drive out hate with love’.

Permit me to conclude this 6-part series with the following.

There is an entire generation of Nigerian leaders and members of the ruling class to which I belong that dedicated their youth to resisting apartheid and white minority rule when we were at various universities in the United Kingdom, Europe and indeed all over the world.

As students we marched in the streets, attended rallies, joined hands with members of the Anti Nazi League, clashed violently with members of the pro-Nazi National Front, picketed sports stadiums where South African rugby teams were playing and fought hand to hand combat with the pro-apartheid gangs in the campuses, schools and streets.

We debated our enemies, wrote articles, attended rallies, delivered inspiring and passionate speeches, defied the police, broke all boundaries and, with our tightly clenched fists lifted up high, sang legendary and famous revolution songs like Gil Scott-Heron’s ‘Johannesburg’ as we were arrested, carried away and locked up for standing up against the tyranny that our African brothers were being subjected to in far away South Africa.

The distance was no barrier and we felt the pain of our brothers as if it were ours. That was the sacrifice we made and the price we paid.

I am talking about men like my two childhood friends and brothers Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar and Chief Jeffrey Onyeama, both of whom were appointed Foreign Ministers of Nigeria many years later.

There were of course many others like my dear sister Senator Gbemi Saraki (who was elected to the Nigerian Senate many years later and went on to be appointed as Minister of Solid Minerals), my dear sister Honorable Temi Harriman (who was elected to the Federal House of Representatives many years later), my brother Mallam Abba Kyari (who was appointed as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari many years later) and others that are too numerous to mention.

We paid our dues and fought a good fight.

Our dream and collective objective was the establishment of a South Africa that was free, that was rid of apartheid, that enjoyed black majority rule and that was a brother to our nation Nigeria and indeed to the rest of Africa.

It was a deeply emotional issue for us as it was for the black South Africans themselves and the fact of the matter is that despite the fact that they bore the brunt of the pain and trauma of the subjugation and oppression that they were subjected to, they were never alone.

We stood with them every inch of the way!

We spoke for them, fought for them and prayed for them and today we have no regrets for doing what we did.

As a matter of fact I am sure that I speak for us all when I say, despite all we see in South Africa today, if we had to do it all over again we would do so gladly.

Our love, like all true love, is not conditional: it is what they call ‘agape love’: a Christ-like love that stands and endures despite all the faults, weaknesses and challenges of the individual or group of individuals that it is offered to.

The South Africans are not our friends, they are our brothers.

That is why we must never allow our bridge of love and brotherhood to be burnt or our sacred and historical bond to be broken.

I close this massive 6 -part 13,000 word contribution with the words of President Olusegun Obasanjo, a man that I love and revere, whose Government I had the privilege and honor of serving as Minister of Culture and Tourism and later Minister of Aviation many years ago and one of the few elder-statesman and fathers of the African continent that was not only there from the start but that also played perhaps the most significant role of all in the fight to liberate South Africa and Zimbabwe from the oppression and evil of apartheid and white minority rule.

A few years ago, when President Jacob Zuma was still President in that nation, alarmed and outraged by the issue of Xenophobia and Afrophobia in South Africa, Obasanjo said the following:

‘If I were President Zuma I would put a stop to the Xenophobia with a firm hand and make an example of those behind it. If South Africa cannot accommodate other African nationals on their soil then they no longer deserve to be regarded as being a leader in Africa’.

These are firm, clear, insightful and instructive words spoken by a leader and elder that has spent the last 60 years of his life fighting for the Rainbow nation and championing not just their cause but the cause of the African continent.

When elders like Baba speak it is important that we listen and I sincerely hope and pray that President Cyril Ramaphosa and the entire leadership of the Government and ruling class of South Africa retrace their steps, do the needful, put an end to the Xenophobia and Afrophobia that is endemic in their country and accept his wise counsel before it is too late.

May God lead and guide us all, may He grant us wisdom, patience and understanding and may an unbreakable bridge of mutual respect, love and understanding be rebuilt between the Republic of South Africa and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has dismissed the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practises and other offences related Commission (ICPC) on the alleged fake Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).

In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi, the ADC said the report failed to explain how a fictitious agency allegedly secured federal office space, had civil servants deployed to it and found its way into the 2026 budget with a N1.3 billion provision, even as the investigation reportedly uncovered two other fictitious organisations linked to the principal suspect.

‘The African Democratic Congress (ADC) has reviewed sections of the interim report of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) that have been made public regarding the so-called Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC).’

‘It would be recalled that when President Bola Tinubu directed the ICPC to undertake investigation into this case, ADC had waived it off, insisting instead on a full investigation by an independent panel. With the so-called interim report of the ICPC, our fears have come to pass as the report is not only predictable, it appears more concerned with exonerating government officials rather than providing clear answers to the serious questions that the scandal has raised.

‘The ICPC report appeared to have given the impression that what happened was mere failure in government processes or procedures. This position is difficult to sustain in the light of publicly available evidence, which establishes that this is not an error of omission or a mere glitch in the system. Instead, what happened was a grand scam that could have been possible only with the active connivance of government officials and institutions at the highest level.

‘The ICPC report also comes gravely short by suggesting that there could be accomplices within government, but mentioned none. Yet, an agency that was able to recommend only Adeyemi for prosecution on the basis of an investigation that the Commission itself has tagged as either on-going or inconclusive. If all that the commission had to present was a preliminary report, why not simply present it as confidential brief to the President instead of making a public drama of it in a manner that potentially prejudiced the overall investigation and cast Adeyemi as the principal culprit?’ Abdullahi asked.

ADC said what Nigerians expected was an investigation into how a ‘fictitious agency’ managed to obtain all authorizations and institutional support required to operate as a legitimate government agency.

‘Instead, what we are being offered, after weeks of so-called investigation is the same official narrative that the government had offered from the start: that what happened was a case of one clever impostor who, somehow, managed to outwit an entire government.’

‘Even as self-indicting as that would appear, the facts already in the public domain make such a conclusion difficult to sustain. What is clear is that the so-called PFIPC was not a creation of any Nigerian law or legitimate executive approval. Yet this same organisation managed to secured office space within the Federal Secretariat. If according to the ICPC report, Adeyemi had kicked down the door of the Secretariat office and allocated it to himself, did he also deploy the civil servants to himself, allocated a reported N1.3 billion to himself in the 2026 Appropriation Act, allocated official vehicles with customized number plates to himself and deployed armed security to himself? It is indeed impossible to answer yes to these questions and not conclude that this is the most incompetent and porous government in Nigeria’s history.

‘Most troubling is the N1.3 billion provision in the 2026 federal budget. Budgetary provisions do not materialise by accident. They leave records, submissions, approvals and an audit trail. The National Assembly has itself commenced an investigation into how PFIPC found its way into the federal budget. The ADC therefore expects the ICPC to tell Nigerians who proposed the allocation, who processed it, who verified the beneficiary agency and how a body that the Presidency now says never existed survived the scrutiny required to appear in an Appropriation Act. To prosecute Mr. Adeyemi without answering these questions would be to punish the man who entered through the window while refusing to ask who left the doors open. What has happened is a national disgrace in the full glare of the entire world. No serious government should be satisfied with identifying one culprit for prosecution.’

The ADC called for the immediate publication of the full ICPC interim report.

‘We also demand that every public official whose action or negligence enabled these entities to acquire official legitimacy must be named and held accountable where wrongdoing is established. Nigerians are not asking the government to manufacture culprits; they are asking it to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. Anything short of this, this so-called investigation, will remain what it presently appears to be: an exercise designed less to discover the truth than to contain the historic embarrassment.’

Dr Adamu Mohammed Fika worked for many years in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, as permanent secretary before he moved to the federal civil service where he also served in that capacity in many ministries. He became the clerk of the National Assembly when the transition to civil rule started. He later became the executive chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission. Fika, who died on Thursday, August 7, 2026, granted this interview in July, 2023. Weekend Trust republishes it in his honour.

How would you describe your early years?

I was born in 1942 at Fika in Fika Local Government Area of the present day Yobe State. However, when I was born, we were still in Borno Province, the present day Borno State. We were part of the northeastern states.

I had my primary education at Fika from 1948 to 1952. I moved from there to Provincial Senior Primary School from 1953 to 1955 and was thereafter admitted into Barewa College.

How did you earn admission into Barewa, which was the premier college in northern Nigeria?

It was a very competitive process. There was actually an interview for selection. A senior education officer, an expatriate, interviewed us. In the end, five of us were selected from Borno Province.

Can you remember some of the five?

I can remember all of them – Ali Madaki, Ibrahim Alkali, myself, Alhaji Umaru and Ambassador Mahmud Ahmed, who is still alive.

Barewa was in Zaria, which is far from Borno; how was the experience, especially travelling to Barewa in those days?

Most of the time we travelled by lorry. And it was very adventurous, especially in the rainy season. It took about 10 days from Potiskum to reach Zaria because whenever it rained, the trunk road was closed for 24 hours. And if you were not lucky, before 24 hours, another rain would fall and the road would be closed for another 24 hours. So there was no specific time for arrival, but usually, during the rainy season, it took a minimum of 10 days to reach Zaria.

As young boys, where were you eating and sleeping during such number of days on the road?

The lorry would usually stop in a village. And we had mats, which we would spread under the lorry and use our wooden boxes as pillows while sleeping. Sometimes we would sleep in the lorry when it was raining. But as young men, it was a real adventure for those five years. We used to come back home by train, often from Zaria via Kafachan to Jos, or from Zaria to Kano, then complete the journey by road. We really enjoyed it.

How long would it take on train?

The train service from Zaria to Jos took overnight. We would set off from Zaria around 5pm or 6pm and arrive in Jos around 5am the following day. It took some hours only to Kano, but we enjoyed it, whichever way.

Barewa was a very elitist school, where some intellectually gifted young northern boys were put together. This was a very sharp contrast to your lifestyle in Potiskum; what was your experience there?

We had six houses in the college. It was in those houses that you would meet your classmates for the first time, as well as your seniors with a year or two. We were about five students in a room.

Normally, we would assemble from 7am and there would be a parade, after that we would go to classes and take breakfast at 9am. Thereafter, we would go to school and continue with academic activities till 1:30pm, then go to pray. We would have lunch and afternoon rest; then games in the evening.

Were you eating good food?

The food was excellent, better than what we enjoyed in our respective homes. And we had three square meals every day. It was a pleasure to be in the college.

After Barewa, you went to Keffi for a higher school certificate, another long way from Borno, can you also share your experience?

Yes, I went for a Higher School Certificate (HSC) in Keffi because it was the policy of the northern government then to reshuffle students. Although HSC started in Barewa before I finished Form 5, the government decided that I should go to Keffi to do it, while some students from that place, Ilorin, Sokoto etc would do theirs at Barewa. That was one way of expanding the experience of the younger elites as they grew up.

In Keffi, we also met a new fresh set of people. In the art class we were only 11 while the science class was bigger; they were up more than 20.

We did two years and stayed for the final exams. Luckily, I passed all my papers in flying colours.

How come you went to Makerere University, Uganda, for your degree?

It will say it was just luck because when I finished at Keffi in December 1962, I went straight to Kaduna, where I met Alhaji Adamu Fika, who later became head of service.

At that time, he was the principal of the Federal Training Centre, Kaduna, so he gave me a job as an assistant instructor. It is from the training centre that I went for an interview of the Northern Nigeria Scholarship Board.

They offered me a scholarship to go to the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), which started one year earlier. But I said I wanted to go to Ibadan, where I would read History as a single honour. In ABU you had to study two subjects, and that was not appealing to me.

But the secretary said the Northern Nigeria Government would not give me a scholarship to Ibadan, and I said I would not go to ABU either, so I went back to teaching.

Why were you determined to read History in Ibadan at that age?

Ibadan and Makerere were started at the same time. I wanted to be a teacher of history, so any other subject would distract me from my area of interest. The secretary was unyielding, so I went back to teaching.

In July 1963, Alhaji Sabo, the then secretary of the scholarship board phoned the principal, asking of the whereabouts of his troublesome younger brother and he said I was teaching.

He said that two days ahead, the registrar of Makerere University was coming to interview students to study on USAID scholarship for teachers in Nigeria, so if he was interested he should come on the day in question. I took that opportunity and attended the interview. Two of us were selected from northern Nigeria to go to Makerere – myself and one Shittu Alimi from Kabba Province. That was how we set off to Makerere.

So you found yourself in Kampala in the 1960s, how was it?

I was the only Hausa-speaking fellow of the whole of Nigerian students, the rest were Igbo, Yoruba or other languages. But I was able to adjust properly because those senior to us, especially those in the same hall, took me as their younger brother, particularly one older Ukeje Elogu, who is now about 92 years in age, and Ralph Eboje from the Mid Western State. I quickly settled down and I enjoyed my studies. In the first year when we studied three subjects-English, History and Geography-I concentrated on History.

At that time, how was life in Uganda when compared to Nigeria?

We had the same level of development. The good thing was that they used shillings as their currency while we used pounds. I think that among the students, Nigerians had the highest allowances. So, life was really very enjoyable with all the scholarship paid, plus pocket money to go along with it. We had no problem whatsoever until we graduated after three years.

Did you travel and make friends in Uganda?

I made friends and travelled, particularly to northern Uganda. I also travelled to Kenya with some friends. We really enjoyed our stay. After graduation I visited Nairobi and other places several times.

Is it true that after graduating from Makerere University you taught for a while in Kenya?

Yes.

Why did you choose to do that?

I chose it because when I finished my examinations, the 1966 coup in Nigeria had just happened about two and half months earlier and the papers and magazines were full stories of uncertainties and anxieties about the country. So I felt it would not be safe to return home; hence I opted for the job in Kenya. I taught there for about eight months before I came back to Nigeria to join the staff of the Ahmadu Bello University but based in Abdullahi Bayero College, which was in Kano. It was a campus of the ABU, Zaria.

When you were moving from Uganda to Kenya to teach, did you have a family?

I did not have a family, but three or four days before l left Uganda for Nigeria, I got married to a Ugandan, who was a student in an equivalent of a teachers’ college.

Did you come back together?

No; I left her to finish her studies before joining me.

You were in Bayero, an affiliate of the ABU for quite a while before going abroad again, the United Kingdom, for further studies, was it on another scholarship?

It was another scholarship because when I started teaching in 1966, I registered for a master’s degree under the late Professor Abdullahi Smith, who was the head of the Department of History at the ABU. There, I did two years and I had nothing to show for it towards achieving the master’s degree.

Didn’t you make progress in those two years?

I didn’t make progress. We were young, so we spent a lot of our time in social activities rather than studies. Besides, my supervisor was in Zaria while I was in Kano, so there was a problem. I just could not make much headway towards achieving a master’s degree. So I booked an appointment to see the registrar, the late Professor Ishaya Audu.

Was he the registrar or vice chancellor?

He was the vice chancellor. Luckily, he gave me an appointment. And before it would be concluded that I was unproductive or not brilliant, I narrated my predicament, saying I needed his assistance to be able to pursue postgraduate studies outside the country.

He looked at me and said if I could get an admission in any university in the United Kingdom or United States, he would get me a scholarship to go and study.

So, I applied to many American and British universities and a British university gave me admission. I chose to go to the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.

I informed the vice chancellor, a wonderful leader, and I got a Ford Foundation scholarship through the Institute of International Education in New York. It was a full scholarship.

So I packed my things; and at that time, my wife had arrived from Uganda about three months earlier. We headed for London, where the scholarship board was very generous.

They also allowed me three-quarter of my salary monthly in Nigeria. So, if I ran short of cash in the United Kingdom, I would always run to the ABU, London office, to sign a cheque of say, 100pounds. And our pound and the UK pound were about the same.

How was life in London for a young scholar at the time?

It was very interesting and time-consuming because my main place of study was the public records office because I was to study Kano history and most of the references were in that place. And you had to be on queue by 7am.

And because the seats available were only 17 or so, every morning you had to race to be at the gate of public records office to be able to be allowed to enter for study, from say, 8am until 5pm everyday. I really enjoyed it because either buses or trains kept to time in arriving at a particular station.

How did you deal with cold in UK?

I had to buy warm cloths, but we were young people, so we were able to tolerate a lot of the cold. Sometimes when it was summer you would go out in shorts. But now, even when I am in suit in London, I feel cold 24 hours unless I put on the heater. It was very pleasurable to be in London.

It seems you combined the master’s degree and PhD there; how long did it take?

In fact, when I went to London in the first instance, I registered for a Master of Philosophy in History, but after one year, my supervisors decided that I was good; therefore, I should skip the programme and go straight for PhD. That was how I came back to Nigeria after one year to do a field work, where I conducted a lot of studies and information from Kano, Zaria and Kaduna archives, as well as Arewa House.

I went back to London after one year to start writing my thesis on the history of Kano from 1882 to 1940. I went to my supervisor and reported that I was back, and asked how I would go on.

He said I was the expert; therefore, unless I wrote my first chapter there was nothing he could do. And I had never been taught how to write, so I was stuck. For five months I could not produce the first chapter.

I did not go to see my supervisor and he kept phoning me because I took up a job in a factory making sweets, until he finally caught up with me and begged me to come, saying my study was waiting for me.

We sat for three hours and he lectured me on how to go about it. In a very short time he encouraged me to commence writing my thesis and I started.

When I wrote my first chapter, I took it to him and he was very happy. He really improved it, to my amazement. I was surprised at myself and that made it easy for me to continue writing until September 1972 when I finished writing the PhD thesis.

Bala Usman, Mahmud Tukur, Sule Bello and many others also studied Nigerian history. Was Abdullahi Smith still the head of the Department of History when ABU was known as a radical school?

Most of them were my friends.

But you seem not to be in this radical kind of tradition of the ABU?

I was radical but a very subdued one. That was how I was even elected as a member of the ABU Senate, representing grassroots teachers.

So, you didn’t quite flow with Bala Usman?

I didn’t go with the extremism of Bala Usman; I did it in my own way in Kano. I was probably the foremost radical at that time because the authorities said students were not allowed to go to staff club, but as a rebel, I would always invite students to join me because I said that before God, we were all the same, so why shouldn’t they come. That was how my rebellion went.

But Marxism and all those things were not for you?

My own was for equality before God and man; the students were not small boys, so why should you prevent them from going to wherever they wanted on campus. We made many friends, and we are still friends with some of them.

Eventually, we had an acting head of department, a Sudanese, who issued a circular that Nigerian History would be optional for those reading History for honours. He put it on various boards. I went and tore it, stating that given my experience in the US, UK, India and every country in the world, the history of a country was compulsory for an honours degree in History, so we would not allow a black Sudanese to treat us as second class citizens.

I stated that I was also in Sudan and their history was compulsory. We quarreled with him and he couldn’t pull out my own circular because he was afraid of the reaction of Nigerians.

I went to Zaria to see the vice chancellor and complain. The vice chancellor, who was very friendly, said I should write to him through my head of department; and I said okay.

I went back to Kano, wrote a letter of resignation and gave a six-month notice, which would expire in November 1974.

I went to Maiduguri for an interview in the Civil Service Commission for a job. But one of the members who was from Borno didn’t want me to move from teaching in ABU to the civil service of the state, but the chairman was sympathetic, as well as the governor.

Despite the visit by the vice chancellor, Prof Ishaya Audu, the governor still wanted me to come and work in his office.

So the vice chancellor tried to stop you from going to the civil service?

He tried to stop me because they had spent so much on me by way of scholarship, and I had taught for only one and half year or so.

So you didn’t fulfill your own part?

Yes, I didn’t fulfill the minimum requirement but that was how I left.

You left the university rather abruptly as lecturer one. Before that incident, did you intend to stay in the university and become a professor?

That was my intention, but I was put off when the vice chancellor told me to write to him through the head of the department, who I was not even on talking terms with.

With a PhD from London, any other university would have loved to have you; why didn’t you think of going to another school?

My ambition was to teach in ABU, so once that was frustrated, I said it was better for me to offer my services to my people.

Were you aware that the tradition of the academia was quite different from the civil service?

I knew. I was welcomed and my permanent secretary and other colleagues helped me to settle down. I was promised accommodation so that my wife could join me in Maiduguri.

I was given an office as a principal assistant secretary in the Political Affairs Department in the governor’s office. So it was another exciting change and I was very happy. That was in December 1974.

Is it true that you served the Borno State Government as a permanent secretary in virtually every ministry?

Key ministries like Trade and Industry, Works and Housing, Animal and Forest Resources, Agriculture, Finance and Health. When I became a permanent secretary in the governor’s office I was in charge of administration and the political department, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Information.

Didn’t you find the freedom of the academia versus the restrictions of the civil service strange?

I did not find any restriction in the civil service. As long as you complied with the rules and regulations you were free. People like us really had a wonderful time during the 10 years I was a permanent secretary in Borno State. I had an opportunity to make a difference and it was worthwhile.

Can you recall anything as your special contribution to Borno?

It was during my time as the permanent secretary in the Ministry of Animal and Forest Resources. It was one of the most controversial; it even appeared in the New Nigerian newspaper in 1980 as a scandal of sorts. I went to Kenya to collect wildlife the then President Jomo Kenyatta donated to northeastern states when he visited Maiduguri in 1973.

In Kenya, I was taken as a guest of one of the elephant farms, where there were more than 5,000 elephants. I spent about a month there. The animals had to be caught and tamed before they would be sent out.

When I came back to Nigeria, the news leaked that I had gone to Kenya in East Africa with N52 million to buy animals, but it was 52,000 shillings only.

It was very cheap, including the air freight from Nairobi to Maiduguri. Among the gift was also a giraffe, but it could not enter the plane.

By the time the rest of the animals came, we took them to the Northern Province because they were being acclimatised not to run away from people. But the newspapers carried out a sort of drawing showing animals in the aircraft, including the neck of a giraffe, which we did not bring.

What I did was to send one forest officer to Sambisa forest, where we had two giraffes already.

He was told to go and not come back to Maiduguri except he brought back a giraffe for Kalami Park. He went and caught a giraffe, brought it to the park and set it free. And giraffe is not used to other animals or people, so it kept running until it broke its neck and died before I came to see it. It was another very interesting incident.

So you moved to the federal service after 10 years in Borno?

Yes.

Was it by invitation or you decided to move?

In fact, I was forced to move to avoid being retired because by 1985 I was virtually the most senior of the permanent secretaries, after the secretary to the government.

Following the Ibrahim Babangida coup in 1985, Muhammadu Buhari was toppled, and the governor, General Abubakar Waziri, who was a classmate, towns mate and friend, was retired. During Waziri’s time, the secretary to the government felt that I usurped his powers, which is not true.

Were you the permanent secretary in the Government House?

No. I was permanent secretary in the Ministry of Finance, from where I was moved to Establishment. Within three months, there was another announcement to reshuffle permanent secretaries, but my name did not appear. So I headed the Ministry of Establishment and waited for 10 days, but there was no news.

I went to the secretary to the government and told him that he had taken me away from Establishment but I did not see my name on the circular he issued.

He told me that they wanted to retire me but too many people from Fika were retired, so the new military governor, Lieutenant-Colonel Aminu from Katsina said they should send me to Biu as a sole administrator of a local government.

That was what prompted me to expedite action about transfer because I said if Aminu was transferred, the secretary to the government would probably recommend that I should be retired and I was only in my 40s. I think it worked.

And you applied to the federal service?

I applied to the federal service for transfer and kept following it up through friends etc until it was successful. But before that happened, nine months after I was in Biu, there was a circular, a signal from Maiduguri, that I should leave whatever I was doing in Biu and come to Maiduguri.

I went to Maiduguri, and the following day, I went to the secretary to the government and he said, ‘I am going on leave and the military governor said you should come and act as secretary to the government.’ I said there was no problem.

He handed over on a Monday to start his leave. Three days later, by the time I got to work, I was working on the conference table rather than from the table of the secretary to the government. My boss was in the office; he was back.

I asked what happened and he didn’t tell me anything. He just sat there. We spent six weeks and I was doing the work of the secretary to the government on the conference table. My boss was sitting there every day until his leave was over and I handed over to him.

Do you think he was worried that you would take over the job?

I think one of the mallams misled him to believe that if he went away for six weeks, I would take over the job.

Thereafter, I went to say goodbye to the military governor and he said I would not go. I asked how and he said he enjoyed working with me as secretary to the government. He made me the permanent secretary, special duties. So whatever files that went to him from the secretary to the government, he referred them to me.

When my transfer came, the governor said he would not release me to go to Lagos because there was nobody for him to work with.

I reminded him that his job was temporary, which meant that if they took him away, my boss would recommend that I should be retired, and I was not yet 50. So, I begged him and talked to all his friends all over the country before he finally agreed to let me proceed to Lagos. I did that in November 1986.

Did you find it challenging working in Lagos?

It was challenging but I got used to the routine. In any case, Alhaji Adamu Fika, my namesake, was the Head of Service. I was in his office as his special assistant pending when I would be posted to a ministry.

Eventually, in February the following year, I think it was in 1987, they posted me to the Ministry of Works and Housing as secretary for administration and finance.

I was enjoying my job there. By July I had solved the backlog of promotions in that ministry.

By August, while I was still at work on promotions, there was an announcement on television that I was being appointed a commissioner in the newly created National Electoral Commission under Professor Awa.

I wrote a petition, stating that I was a civil servant and didn’t want to bother about a political job, so the government should leave me to continue enjoying my job.

After about four weeks, the Head of Service phoned me, saying that government had instructed I should report to Professor Awa unfailingly or both of us would be shown the way out of service. I had no option but to obey.

Did you enjoy it?

I didn’t enjoy it because I didn’t like it from the bottom of my heart. To my surprise, Prof Awa had so much confidence and faith in me, such that he kept me very close to himself. I had to do my best and became the head of the Recruitment and Training Unit.

That way, I had the chance to give jobs to a lot of acquaintances, which I think many of them still appreciate.

You also had another political job, so to say, or something associated with politics, as clerk of the National Assembly.

Yes.

How did that go?

It was very rewarding because the Shagari National Assembly was disbanded following the coup of 1983/1984 and the entire staff disbanded and humiliated and I became the first to be appointed by government as the clerk of the National Assembly. I had to employ the rest of the staff, from messenger to deputy clerk.

I could only attract two people from the defunct Shagari National Assembly because the treatment they received was very bad, so only two were willing or able to accept to come back to serve in the Assembly. I had to fill all other vacancies.

How many years did you serve as clerk?

I stayed there for about four years. In fact, I stayed there until the ill-fated Third Republic Assembly was convened in December 1992.

You were made the chairman of the National Assembly Service Commission; was it a continuation of your civil service career or it came after retirement?

It was long after retirement. I was retired in April 30, 1999, one month before the General Abdulsalami Abubakar transition ended. So, from that time until 2013, I was a retired person.

But in the interim, from March 2004 until the end of 2019, I was teaching at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS), where I rose from the position of a study group director to an acting director of studies for six years.

That gave me another opportunity to interact with top civil servants and people from both the public and private sectors who came to do their courses in order to be made members of the national institute.

What have you been doing since you left the National Assembly Service Commission?

I have not been working. But we were doing consultancy programmes. Myself, Prof A.DYahaya and several colleagues owned a company through which we were invited to do a lot of training and retraining for top civil servants.

Are you still doing that?

No. I think the thing has dried up. We dissolved the company because we spent up to five years without any job and we kept paying rent for the office, paying secretaries, messengers etc.

Having fully retired, what do you do?

I just read. I go to London at least once a year. And I make sure I go to a firstclass bookshop to buy books every time I go there. That keeps me abreast of politics, current affairs and history. I have been enjoying it that way.

Aside reading, do you have another hobby or activities you do?

No.

How is your typical day?

I normally wake up around 4:30am, say my prayers and continue supplicating to God Almighty until 8am or 9am. Very often, I go back to bed for about three hours before the 1pm prayer.

That is the pattern every day.

Do you socialise or you just stay at home most of the time?

I stay at home most of the time.

Do you observe any restriction on your diet?

I eat anything brought to me except pork; I am lucky.

How is family life for you?

Family life is okay. I am lucky to have been blessed with 14 children, and 12 of them are already graduates and working, mostly here in Abuja. That gives me great joy.

Did you marry again after Uganda?

I married again and they became two. At one stage they became three; then ultimately, they remained two because I divorced one and the senior wife died in 2009. But I still married another one, so there are still two of them, although they don’t live in the same house. That situation forced me into having two homes.

Do you still socialise with your friends, peers and mates?

I socialise largely through telephone or when I go to Friday mosque. I meet with friends like Prof Bajoga and others. I also talk with friends like Tonnie Iredia. We have been close friends since I was an electoral commissioner. He lives in Abuja, so he visits me. Before I had a problem with my legs, I used to travel to Benin with him and we would often visit Chief Igbinedion, his uncle. We got a lot of generosity from Chief Igbinedion and his son, Lucky, a onetime governor of Edo State.

Do you still go to Uganda and other countries?

I used to travel outside the country, at least three or four times, and I have been to Uganda several times since then, but most of my travels are to London for medical checkups and treatment.

You have seen quite a lot of Nigeria over the years, what is your feeling about the current state of the country?

I think the country was in a state of despondency under the former administration. But I think that people, including me, are now being very optimistic and expectant of better life under the present government.

Despite the problems we are having with diesel, petrol and electricity prices, we believe that things ought to be better for us in the next four or eight years.

We also believe that the security situation in the country would improve. I have not travelled to Potiskum for about 10 years because of the fear of the dangers

on the road. I want to see a change in my lifetime.

Whenever the name, Adamu Fika is mentioned, the first person that comes to mind is the older Adamu Fika; has that ever been a kind of disadvantage or advantage to you in your career?

I think it has been an advantage because wherever one goes, one would have recognition until one explains to them that the older Fika is my teacher, relative and boss. Another difference is that he is addressed as Alhaji while I am called Dr Adamu Fika.

So, the name has never been a problem to you?

No. This is because Google has something on people, and there is something on me which gives my background and shows that I am the smaller Fika.

I also have contributions to the wellbeing of some students and Nigerians, especially in Borno and Yobe. Some of our projects are still being used; and I am very proud to visit Yobe and Borno states at any time.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has debunked rumours it has joined calls for Gianni Infantino to step down as FIFA President.

The Nigerian football governing body disclosed its neutral stand in a statement on its X account where it described the news as outright falsehood.

Nigeria is a strong supporter of Infantino and previously praised his leadership on numerous occasions.

However, the Italian administrator has been under pressure following his controversial and now-rested financial proposal that faced backlash from majority of the football community.

The number of European nations calling for his exit has increased in recent days with Norway the latest to join the bandwagon.

However, Infantino has been thrown a life jacket by Mexico and Argentina, but Nigeria has refused to declare its position in the ongoing power tussle in the Zurich-based organization.

However, there are rumours on social media that the NFF has broken its positive outlook towards Infantino and joined calls for his exit, but the NFF quickly shot down the insinuation with a brief statement.

The Ibrahim Gusau-led body asked fans to disregard the rumours, but failed to take sides in the football civil war.

‘Contrary to reports, especially on social media,’ NFF started, ‘the Nigeria football federation has never asked and is not asking for FIFA President, Mr. Gianni Infantino to step down as FIFA PRESIDENT. This is outright falsehood. Kindly disregard.’

Infantino is up for re-election in March 2027 at the end of his latest four-year term, but it remains to be seen if the Italian, a former UEFA General Secretary and FIFA Reforms Committee member, will finish his present term in office.

Every day, thousands of heavy-duty trucks transporting goods between Lagos and northern Nigeria travel along the Bida-Lapai road in Niger State, one of the country’s most strategic economic corridors. The highway serves as a vital link between the seaports in Lagos and markets across the North, while also providing a route for the movement of agricultural produce and livestock to southern Nigeria. Yet, despite its importance to the country’s economy, the road is in a state of severe disrepair.

Years of neglect have left the highway riddled with deep potholes, damaged asphalt and long stretches that have become hazardous for motorists. Transport operators say the deteriorating condition of the road has led to frequent vehicle breakdowns, prolonged travel times, rising transport costs and repeated accidents involving heavy trucks, resulting in loss of lives and properties on a daily basis. They warn that the situation is not only disrupting the movement of goods but also increasing the cost of doing business and ultimately affecting the prices of commodities in markets across the country.

For thousands of truck drivers, traders and communities whose livelihoods depend on the Bida-Lapai road, the issue goes beyond a failing highway. It is a story of lives at risk, businesses under pressure and an economy bearing the cost of neglected infrastructure. As motorists continue to navigate the dangerous route daily, they urge the federal government to urgently rehabilitate the road before more lives and livelihoods are lost.

Road taking lives

For members of transport unions, the poor state of the road is no longer just an inconvenience; it has become a matter of life and death.

Abdurahman Umar Gimba, a member of the National Truck Drivers Associations, said transport unions had been forced to devise their own safety measures to minimise casualties among motorists and members of surrounding communities. He lamented that every journey carried significant risks, especially for heavy-duty vehicles transporting goods across the country.

He told Weekend Trust that many lives have been lost on the road, prompting members of drivers unions to adopt measures aimed at reducing the risks to commuters. He noted that a taskforce committee was formed with the support of the police area commander and saddled with the responsibility of controlling the movement of heavy trucks in and out of Bida town.

‘Just recently, trucks killed three commercial motorcycle riders; that’s why we are here to control them. We restrict their movement from this point opposite the police area command towards Bida town. And we communicate with our members at the other end of the Bida-Lapai road, which is in severe deteriorating condition.

‘As traffic moves, we release 50 to 60 trucks at a time and stop the rest. And when the road is free, we release another batch. This is what we have been doing, day and night. And if we fail to do it, there will be more casualties as the accidents caused by the bad road condition are too much,’ he said.

Lamenting that every journey comes with significant risks, especially for heavy-duty vehicles transporting goods across the country, Abdurahman Gimba urged the authorities to come to their aid by fixing the road.

The nightmare continues

Commercial drivers said the deteriorating state of the road had significantly increased vehicle maintenance cost, with tyres, suspension systems and steering components wearing out faster than expected.

Traders transporting food and other goods also face delays, while passengers endure longer travel times, higher transport fares and increased fuel consumption.

Muhammed Sani, a truck driver who was transporting bags of soya beans loaded on his truck from the North to Ibadan, told Weekend Trust that he had spent three days covering less than 40 kilometres before his truck overturned because of the condition of the road.

He said: ‘This is what we face daily on this road. My truck overturned after spending three days covering less than 40 kilometres. The loss is enormous. We appeal to the government to urgently repair this road.’

For drivers like Sani, every breakdown means not only expensive repairs but also damaged goods, delayed deliveries and lost income.

The physical damage to the road is obvious. Massive craters punctuate long stretches of the highway, while broken pavement forces vehicles to weave dangerously from one side of the road to another in search of safer paths. During the rainy season, pools of muddy water conceal the true depth of the potholes, making accidents almost inevitable.

Beyond the damaged surface lies a deeper story, one of livelihoods threatened, businesses disrupted, lives lost and communities left to bear the burden of failing infrastructure.

For commercial transport operators, the Bida-Lapai road has become an expensive obstacle to doing business.

Drivers who once completed trips within hours now spend days navigating less than 100 kilometres. The slow pace of movement translates into higher fuel consumption, frequent mechanical breakdowns and reduced earnings.

Every damaged section of the highway leaves another victim behind: a burst tyre, broken suspension system, damaged steering rack or an overturned truck.

Passengers also pay the price as transport fares have steadily increased as operators struggle to recover the soaring cost of vehicle maintenance.

What should be a routine journey has become an exhausting experience marked by delays, discomfort and uncertainty.

Frustration mounts

A truck driver, Usman Jaba, a member of the GDN Truck Drivers Association, described the Bida-Lapai road as a disaster requiring immediate government’s intervention. According to him, drivers have reached a point where they can no longer depend solely on repairs by the government.

He said transport operators had collectively spent millions of naira filling dangerous potholes and carrying out temporary repairs, simply to keep the road passable.

Weekend Trust reports that while these community efforts provide short-term relief, they fall short of the comprehensive rehabilitation the highway desperately needs.

‘We are unable to wait any longer for government’s intervention. Truck drivers plying the deteriorating Bida-Lapai road have taken the unusual step of contributing money among ourselves to carry out emergency repairs on some of the worst sections of the highway.

‘Our decision was not about taking over government’s responsibility but protecting lives, preventing accidents and reducing the huge financial losses caused by the road’s worsening condition. Our food is on this road – truck drivers depend on it to feed our families and pay the school fees of our children.

‘Without this road, people in northern Nigeria cannot have access to fuel and other commodities transported from the seaport to the North. Also, people in the southwestern part of the country will not have access to foodstuff and animals being transported from the North to their region. Unfortunately, despite all these, this road has been abandoned for over eight years.

‘You would notice that we are now under a higher tension because the main highway is no longer motorable,’ he said.

According to him, they heard that the federal government had approved the rehabilitation of the road since February this year. It is six months later, but we have not seen any sign of improvement on the side of the federal government. We also heard recently that Dangote would be the one to rebuild the road. As you can see, this is a truck conveying Dangote’s fertiliser which just overturned. Even if it is not affecting him, it is affecting his customers. You can also see another container for Inland Port heading to Kano that has also overturned. Another one carrying scrapped mental from the North also overturned. At this point, over five trucks have overturned. This is what is happening on a daily basis along the Bida-Lapai road.

Usman Jaba added that under a normal condition, heavy trucks conveying goods to or from Kano, Kaduna and Barno axis, would have to follow the Bida-Lapai road as their best route is Kaduna-Birnin Gwari.

‘But due to the deteriorating state of that Birnin Gwari-Kaduna road and issues with insecurity in that axis due to the presence of bandits, truck drivers were forced to ply Bida-Lapai, which is an additional 120-killomer distance or more. If the Kaduna-Birnin Gwari is in a good condition, the bandits would not have the opportunity to incubate. It is the deteriorating condition of this road that allows bandits to operate, he added.

He said that in the last six months, drivers had contributed nothing less than N20 million to fix the road, adding, ‘If we were not doing the repair, this road would not be motorable for now. And we can only do it in our own little way. Let them do it even if they are going to construct a tollgate and regain what they spent.’

Environmental hazard

Residents living along the Bida-Lapai road are raising concern over the growing environmental risk posed by frequent accidents involving trucks and other vehicles transporting industrial chemicals.

They said the poor condition of the busy highway had led to repeated crashes, leaving hazardous substances to spill onto surrounding farmlands, drainage channels and nearby communities.

According to Isa Alhaji Sani Dankwarai, many of the spills are never properly cleaned up, raising fears of soil and water contamination, health risks and damage to agricultural lands.

‘Just two days ago, a truck carrying chemical, which was unknown to us, overturned and spilled the chemical here. We don’t know what the chemical is, but many trees and grasses have burnt down. The chemical has even gone deep into the underground water that residents depend on. I learnt that some children were hospitalised a day after the incident because they drank from one of the wells,’ he said.

He said farmers were also worried that continued exposure to the chemicals could reduce crop yield and endanger livestock, while community members are in panic as the leaking substances are often washed into streams and wells during the rainy season.

Isa Dankwarai also criticised the slow response to accidents involving hazardous materials, noting that overturned trucks sometimes remain at crash sites for hours or days without proper containment of the spills.

Dankwarai also urged the federal government to urgently rehabilitate the Bida-Lapai road, calling on environmental and emergency agencies to investigate the repeated chemical spills, assess their impact on surrounding communities and ensure that contaminated sites are properly cleaned before the situation develops into a larger environmental crisis.

Drivers count losses

Truck drivers said almost every trip on the road came with a high cost, revealing that many people complain of damaged tyres, broken suspension systems, cracked axles and increased fuel consumption.

Muhammed Bashir, a transporter, said the poor state of the road also increased the cost of moving goods across the country, a burden that is eventually passed on to consumers. One driver explained that the money they contribute voluntarily was less than what they would spend repairing vehicles damaged by the road.

‘If we don’t fix these dangerous spots ourselves, we risk losing our trucks, goods and even our lives,’ he noted.

Residents and motorists said the sight of truck drivers repairing a federal highway highlighted the growing frustration among road users.

Rather than wait indefinitely for rehabilitation works, many believe that temporary community efforts have become the only option for keeping traffic moving.

Transport unions and motorists also said that while the repairs carried out by the drivers provided temporary relief, they could not replace a proper engineering work required to reconstruct the highway, adding that the dangers extend beyond accidents and financial losses as they heighten security concerns.

Weekend Trust reports that many drivers now avoid travelling when it is dark, preferring to wait until daylight despite the resulting delays.

For transport operators working under tight delivery schedules, this has become another costly consequence of the bad state of the road.

Residents along the Bida-Lapai corridor said they had repeatedly appealed to successive governments to rehabilitate the highway to no avail.

For many communities, the road serves as a lifeline connecting farms, markets, schools and health care facilities.

Businesses also report declining patronage as travellers increasingly avoid the route whenever possible.

To many Nigerians who have never travelled the Bida-Lapai road, discussion often centres on potholes. But for those who use the highway daily, the story runs deeper. It is about children waiting longer for parents to return home safely. It is also about traders watching profits disappear because goods arrive late, transport operators spending more on repairs than expanding their businesses, and lives cut short by avoidable accidents.

Above all, it is about communities whose economic survival depends on a road that no longer serves its purpose.

Despite years of complaints and repeated promises of rehabilitation, road users said they continued to endure the same hardship.

As traffic inches through damaged sections of the highway each day, motorists remain hopeful that meaningful intervention would finally restore one of Niger State’s most important transport corridors. Until then, every journey along the Bida-Lapai road remains a reminder that the cost of neglected infrastructure is measured, not only in damaged vehicles but also in lost time, shattered livelihoods and, too often, human lives.

The Bida-Lapai road, which remains one of the busiest highways in the North-Central, provides access for agricultural produce from Niger and neighbouring states to markets across the country, while also serving as a major route for goods moving between northern and southern Nigeria.

Frequent vehicle breakdowns and traffic delays on the road have raised transportation cost and affected businesses that rely on timely deliveries.

Meanwhile, road users are urging the federal government to accelerate comprehensive reconstruction of the highway, warning that continued delays could lead to more accidents and economic losses.

The federal government had, in previous years, acknowledged the strategic importance of the Lambata-Lapai-Bida road and assured road users that rehabilitation would continue under road infrastructure funding programmes.

For the truck drivers now spending their own money to fill potholes however, the message is simple: Until permanent repairs are completed, they have little choice but to help keep one of Nigeria’s busiest highways passable.

Dangote confirms preparation for road construction

Dangote Group has confirmed that it is continuing preparation to commence the construction of three major roads in Niger State under the federal government’s Road Infrastructure Tax Credit Scheme.

The confirmation was given by the company’s spokesman, Tony Chiejina in response to inquiries about the projects by Weekend Trust.

According to him, the roads covered under the project are Mokwa-Bida, Bida-Lambata and Mokwa-Tegina with a combined length of approximately 410 kilometres.

The company stated that technical assessments and project planning were underway to ensure that all the requirements were completed before contractors are mobilised to the project sites.

It stated that contractors were expected to be deployed to the sites between now and the end of the third quarter of the year provided the ongoing preparation is completed as scheduled.

Dangote also disclosed that the construction work was expected to take 30 months from the official commencement date.

Zamfara Governor Dauda Lawal has been honoured with the ZIK International Peace and Leadership Award in Ghana, recognising his administration’s notable achievements over the past three years.

The 7th ZIK International Peace and Leadership Award ceremony was held on Friday at the British Council in Accra, Ghana.

This year’s theme for the lecture was ‘Leadership, Peace, and Regional Integration: Advancing Africa’s Development in a Changing Global Order.’

The award’s board and governing council emphasised, among other reasons for the honour, Governor Dauda Lawal’s significant progress in public sector leadership and economic reforms in Zamfara State.

The BOT chairman of the ZIK Pan-African Award, His Royal Highness Professor Echefuna R.G Onyeabadi, stated that the award aims to recognise individuals making meaningful contributions in service to the people.

In his remarks after receiving the award, Governor Dauda Lawal expressed his gratitude and committed to doing more to help rescue and rebuild Zamfara State.

He said: ‘This award is dedicated to all the people of Zamfara State. My administration has been working tirelessly to ensure the state can compete with any other in Nigeria. That was our promise, and we have surpassed expectations in just three years.

‘My administration has transformed Zamfara through urban renewal initiatives; we constructed a modern, state-of-the-art airport, something that had not existed for over 30 years since the state’s founding.

‘We have made great strides in security, civil service reform, education, health, and other sectors.

‘I appreciate the organisers of this annual lecture and award. It means a lot to me and will motivate me to do even more for my people. Zamfara is on the rise.’

Among other dignitaries awarded at the event is the Nasarawa State Governor, Engr. Abdullahi A. Sule, for his contributions to public service and sustainable development.

The Sultan of Sokoto and president-general of the Nigerian Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), His Eminence Alhaji Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, has unveiled the EasyZakat app, a digital platform designed to promote transparent and accountable collection and distribution of Zakat in Nigeria.

The platform, developed by the Ummah Zakat Foundation (UZF), was unveiled on behalf of the Sultan by the Emir of Keffi, Dr. Shehu Usman Chindo Yamusa III during a ceremony in Abuja attended by Islamic scholars, government officials, development partners and members of the diplomatic community.

The event also featured the inauguration of the foundation’s Board of Trustees, with stakeholders describing technology-driven Zakat administration as an important tool for poverty reduction, social protection and human capital development.

Delivering the Sultan’s address, the Emir of Keffi said Zakat was not merely an act of charity but a sacred obligation and an instrument of social justice, wealth redistribution and protection of vulnerable members of the society.

He said the establishment of the Ummah Zakat Foundation came at an important time as it sought to combine Islamic principles with modern technology to improve the administration and impact of Zakat.

The Osun State Off-Cycle Governorship Election scheduled for Saturday, 15th August 2026, brings the rear to the series of such elections. In this league of off-cycle governorship elections are: Kogi, Imo, Bayelsa, Edo, Ondo, Anambra and Ekiti states.

Though these off-cycle governorship elections were court-ordered, and were informed by the overarching need to correct the failings of our elections, they have turned out, not only as blessings, but God-sends, to our checkered electoral process.

Their coming, off the election season, have enabled the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to test its processes and innovations, engaged its staff through out the Electoral Cycle (pre-, during and after elections), and honed these processes and innovations ahead of each General Election. This has been the practice since 2011.

Its being the last in the catalog does not relegate the Osun State Off-Cycle Governorship Election to the backwater. Instead, it puts it, perhaps in the most pivotal and propitious position to proffer unique insights into how the 2027 General Elections will be conducted. Its close proximity to the 2027 General Elections, ineluctably, makes it a subject of the greatest scrutiny.

Unlike the other off-cycle governorship elections, the Osun one is probably the most keenly and fiercely contested. And unlike the others, the Osun election is often, at least, a two-horse race. In one instance, it was a three-horse contest.

In 2018, Ademola Adeleke, then of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) scored 254,698 votes while his closest rival, Gboyega Oyetola, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), garnered 254,345 votes. Since the total number of cancelled votes in that election was 3,498 and it exceeded the margin of 345 votes between the two candidates, a return could not be made at the first ballot. Translation: the election was inconclusive. Even in 2022, the contest was close: Adeleke scored 403,371 votes against Oyetola’s 375,027.

This year’s off-cycle governorship election is guaranteed to be hotly contested: An opposition political party is pitched against a governing party at the centre. The campaign has been electric. And the Osun political space has been both charged and tense.

As in the recently conducted Ekiti State Off-Cycle Governorship Election, there are more female voters than their male counterparts. Out of a total of 2,339,233 registered voters, 1,234,769, representing 52.79%, are of the female gender while 1,104,464 are of the male gender.

What is thrilling about the election is that for the first time, in the annals of off-cycle governorship elections, candidates of the female gender are not content merely with playing second fiddle. Out of the fourteen (14) candidates contesting, one is of the female gender. This is a remarkable departure. It should embolden other members of the female gender who have since been driven to the margins of our politics.

Students constitute 752,800 of the registered voters, representing a healthy 32.18% while artisans make up 320.416 of the registered voters, representing 13.70%. Gleaned together, the demography shows clearly that the election is going to be determined largely by youths who constitute 857,056 of the registered voters, representing 36.64%.

Salutary as the emergence of a female candidate in the Osun State Off-Cycle Governorship Election may be to the electoral process, the lead up to the election has been defined by violence and tension.

The tension was so palpable, and the violence was so concerning, that even before the General Abdulsalami Abubakar-led National Peace Committee (NPC) made the political parties and their candidates on Thursday, 30th August 2026, to commit themselves and their followers to peaceful conduct during the election, the Osun Development Association (ODA), had convened a one-day peace summit two weeks prior.

The Association said it was deeply concerned over political violence, destruction of campaign materials and tension in the state.

Even the Election Management Body (EMB), namely INEC, was not spared the violence that framed the activities leading to the election. Gun-toting hoodlums snatched Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) devices at a collection center at Oyinlola DC (Ward 2) in Okuku, Odo-Otin Local Government Area.

The charged atmosphere was not helped by the arrest of members of the opposition, some of whom were alleged to have been detained in jurisdictions outside Osun State.

Even though the violence and tension that characterised the campaign season may not rear their ugly heads during the conduct of the election, the arrests carried out by the Police impose a greater need for professionalism on their part. Stakeholders will be looking out to see whether the security agencies will carry themselves with neutrality and impartiality.

The mock election conducted by INEC on Saturday, 1st August 2026, in four Local Government Areas each of the three Senatorial Districts of the State, was revealing. Not a few glitches visited the BVAS devices. It is reassuring that apart from 4,427 BVAS devices that are to be deployed across 3,763 polling units for the election, there is a back-up of 1,328 copies, representing 15%. Nonetheless, the Commission’s Registration Area Technical Support Staff (RATECHS) need to up their game in trouble-shooting glitches that are most likely to occur during the election. Besides, the increasing number of glitches are a clear manifestation that the BVAS are aging and that they are losing their shelf lives. This means that some of the devices will need to be replaced outright, with new ones, before the 2027 General Elections.

Stakeholders will also be looking, with eagle eyes, at the new forms vote trading, which has menaced our elections, will assume. In Ekiti, it took the shape of digital transfers. At some polling units, names were harvested, and mysterious lists drawn, ostensibly, with a view to paying off voters who compromised their franchises.

The Osun election is certainly the most testy and crucial in the genre of off-cycle governor

ship contests. It will once more provide us with an opportunity to test the Electoral Act 2026 as well as provide us with a clearer picture of how the 2027 General Elections will turn out. We wait with bated breath.

Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Kogi East senatorial district have endorsed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the Kogi State governor, Ahmed Usman Ododo for re-election in 2027, while calling for a negotiated and peaceful framework for power rotation among the state’s three senatorial districts.

The position was contained in a communiqué issued at the end of the Kogi East APC Strategic Leadership Conference held in Abuja on Monday under the chairmanship of Major-General Patrick Ademu Akpa (retd).

The stakeholders pledged to mobilise support across the 9 local government areas of Kogi East to ensure the victory of President Tinubu, Governor Ododo and other APC candidates in the 2027 general elections.

They described Kogi East as the state’s largest voting bloc and recalled that the district delivered the highest number of votes for President Tinubu among the three senatorial districts during the 2023 presidential election.

The group also expressed appreciation to President Tinubu for appointing indigenes of Kogi East into key federal positions, describing the appointments as evidence of the president’s commitment to inclusiveness.

While reaffirming support for the APC-led governments at the federal and state levels, the stakeholders called for dialogue with Kogi Central and Kogi West to establish a transparent and equitable framework for the rotation of political power in the state.

According to the communiqué, the region would no longer accept what it described as political marginalisation but would pursue its aspirations through consensus-building and peaceful negotiations.

The conference also urged the federal and state governments to address what it described as over two decades of infrastructural deficit in Kogi East through accelerated road construction, public infrastructure upgrades and other development projects across the district.

The stakeholders attributed the region’s development challenges to years of neglect and internal political divisions following the death of former Governor Prince Abubakar Audu, and pledged to work towards greater unity among political leaders in the area.

Among other resolutions, the conference called for the institutionalisation of the Prince Abubakar Audu Leadership Foundation, and urged the federal government to confer a national honour on the late former governor in recognition of his contributions to Kogi State’s development.

The communiqué was signed by 26 prominent leaders from the district, including Major-General Patrick Ademu Akpa (retd); Ambassador Isaac A. Onu; Ismaila Inna Hussani; Dr Emmanuel Egwu; Hajiya Salamatu Baiwa Umar-Eluma; AIG Abutu Iyaro (retd); Dr Sani Teidi; Dan Okolo; Abdulahi Haruna (SAN); Dr Johnson Musa and Prof Aliyu Idris.