Category: Nigerian Tribune

For one week every August, Redemption Camp along the Lagos-Ibadan expressway becomes as much a marketplace as it is a site of worship. This year’s Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) convention, held from August 3rd to 9th, drew its usual crowd of worshippers seeking prayer and healing.

But behind the spiritual programme, hundreds of vendors turned the week into one of their most consequential trading periods of the year, paying for stands, undergoing mandatory health screening, and, for some, taking losses they can barely afford.

Interviews with vendors across the camp reveal a trade economy operating in parallel with the church’s official programme; one with its own costs, risks, and rewards, largely invisible to the worshippers it serves.

A Reliable Platform for Business

Divine Prince, who sells phone accessories under Divine Communication, has attended enough conventions to draw a clear distinction between it and the church’s other large gatherings. ‘Convention is every year, and it’s always different from other programmes like Special Holy Ghost Service or Holy Ghost Service,’ he tells Sunday Tribune. ‘Convention is the best way to advertise your goods.’

For Aluko Oluwapelumi, who runs the bag business Preal Haven, convention is also a chance to clear inventory that has not moved.

‘Apart from the spiritual aspect, which is the key thing, I feel good because there’s an option to sell goods that have not been out in a while,’ she says. ‘My kind of brand, my customers expect new arrivals every time. Some items just get stocked and aren’t moving, so during convention I get to showcase them to a larger audience and connect with people.’

Not every vendor is chasing sales figures. Oyindamilola Arogudada of D’Honey Spot and Victoria of Veekee Threads say they came to camp primarily for visibility and networking; an opportunity to put their brand in front of an audience that could carry it beyond convention week.

The Cost of Entry

Sunday Tribune gathered that setting up at convention carries a cost that goes beyond the price of a stand.

A stand costs roughly ?20,000, according to Prince, who registered through the church’s CRM system. Aluko Oluwapelumi, who runs the bag business Preal Haven, paid between ?42,000 and ?45,000 for a stand and canopy, depending on the product category. ‘It’s not free; we pay for the stand and we pay for the canopy,’ she says. ‘The total I paid was ?42,500, including canopy.’ Oyindamilola, who secured space through a private hotel rather than the church’s official channel, says she paid separately for a tent and the space itself.

Beyond the direct costs, vendors describe a toll that does not appear on any receipt. ‘It takes a whole lot,’ Oluwapelumi says. ‘Apart from my goods – with or without convention, I would restock anyway – there’s getting the canopy, paying for the stand, the back and forth of registration. I can’t even quantify it, because it’s emotional stress, physical stress, everything.’

For food vendors and hairdressers, entry comes with an additional requirement: mandatory health screening.

Oni Esther, who works at the White Suite Indomie Spot, says vendors undergo medical checks, including HIV tests, before being cleared to sell.

‘Before we start selling, we go for check-up, because they don’t allow people to just come in and sell for people here,’ she says. ‘They test us if we are fit. They do HIV tests and all, so we don’t infect people coming for the programme. It’s not only us; it is all food vendors and hair salons.’

Oyindamilola, who runs a snack stand, confirms the requirement applies to her business as well. ‘It cost a whole lot; let me say roughly ?500,000 or more,’ she says. ‘I had to go through medical tests. You have to submit your health documents to be assured you’re fit to do the job.’

Uneven Returns

Despite the outlay, convention does not guarantee a profitable week, and vendors describe adapting their strategies from year to year in response.

Blessings Afolabi switched her product line after a disappointing run selling small chops at previous conventions, bringing slippers instead this year.

‘It’s different for me this year, because this isn’t what I was selling before, but people are patronising me,’ Afolabi tells Sunday Tribune. ‘The small chops didn’t have much gain; that’s why it’s different this year, because I’m seeing profit.’

Oluwapelumi describes her experience as inconsistent. Buyers, she says, tend to delay purchases until the convention’s final days. ‘Most people say they’ll come back Thursday, Friday, Saturday; they don’t want to spend all their money before going home, so they prefer to come at the end.’

A late change in her stand’s location, from a higher-traffic spot to one outside her target market, has compounded the difficulty. Pricing has been a further point of friction: ‘Someone said ?8,000 is too expensive for a bag that normally sells for ?10,000 to ?12,000 and people buy it at that price elsewhere. Coming here is even discouraging, because they still want me to slash it further.’

But other vendors report the opposite experience.

‘I make sales, I can’t even wait,’ Afolabi says. ‘It always feels like there should be convention here every day. If I sold my goods here every day, I would make far more.’

Similarly, Esther says her stand sees similarly strong returns: ‘We do make sales more than on normal days. During Holy Ghost Service we make sales, but convention is when we make the most.’

Balancing Trade and Worship

With the church programme running alongside the trading day, vendors have adopted different approaches to staying connected to the convention’s spiritual purpose.

Divine Prince, a member of the church, says he does not feel the two pull against each other. ‘I go for the programme from 9:30am, and when Daddy finishes, I come back,’ he says. Oluwapelumi says the service is projected near the vendor stands, allowing traders to follow proceedings between customers.

Not all vendors have that access. Afolabi says she has no one to mind her stand, ruling out in-person attendance. Esther says her team previously had a speaker relaying the service but no longer does. ‘We feel left out, but there’s nothing we can do. We work for the office, and they don’t allow us to go to the auditorium to watch, so we have to stay here.’

Oyindamilola and Victoria have found an alternative: streaming the service online from their stand using a personal speaker and power bank. ‘I’ve been connecting since Monday, straight through to Friday for the main service,’ Victoria says. ‘We’re not only here for the business.’ Oyindamilola adds: ‘I don’t feel left out, because I joined online. As I’m working, I’m praying.’

A Trade-Off Vendors Keep Making

Some vendors have traded at convention for more than a decade; others are attending for the first time.

The costs – a paid stand, mandatory health screening, and a customer base that expects convention-week discounts regardless of a vendor’s margins – are consistent across both groups. What varies is the return. For vendors like Afolabi and Esther, this year has justified the expense. For others, including Oluwapelumi, the outcome remains uncertain even as the convention draws to a close.

What keeps traders coming back, by their own account, is the scale of opportunity the week represents; one that no other point on the church calendar offers.

Nigerian-American gospel artiste and convener of the 1-150 Songs of Psalms, Evangelist John Kola-Idowu, has urged Nigerian youths to embrace positive values and reject attempts by politicians to use them as instruments of violence ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Kola-Idowu, made this warning to the youths against sacrificing their future for pecuniary gains from desperate politicians, stressing the need for peace, unity and peaceful coexistence.

He spoke at the launch of the Psalms 1-150 Global Concert, Global Choir and Global Indigenous Worship Project in Osogbo, where he described spiritual songs as a potential tool for addressing insecurity, social division, hopelessness and moral decline.

According to him, the messages of the Psalms can inspire young people to choose hope over despair, unity over division and positive engagement over destructive behaviour.

‘At a time when our world faces conflicts, insecurity, social division and economic challenges, we need initiatives that encourage love, understanding, hope and peaceful coexistence,’ he said.

The cleric also called on governments and world leaders to prioritise peace-building, youth empowerment, cultural inclusion and moral development in tackling insecurity, noting that the fight against violence should go beyond security operations to address its social and moral causes.

He urged religious leaders to intensify the preaching of peace and discourage their followers from participating in electoral violence.

‘We must pray that the 2027 general election will not divide us, but rather strengthen our commitment to unity, justice and peaceful coexistence,’ he said.

Kola-Idowu said the Psalms 1-150 project was more than a musical initiative, describing it as a movement aimed at preserving indigenous languages, empowering young people, promoting peace, celebrating diversity and uniting people across nations through worship.

He disclosed that the global concert would bring together established and emerging gospel artistes, worship leaders and choirs from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Americas and other parts of the world, beginning with online participation before expanding to physical concerts in different countries.

The project, he added, would feature celebrated gospel ministers and artistes, including Evangelist Bola Are, Yinka Alaseyori, Woli Agba and Mike Abdul, alongside other gospel singers, in a bid to inspire a new generation of worshippers.

President Bola Tinubu on Sunday declared that Nigeria requires patriotic leaders and citizens whose commitment to national development transcends personal interests and self-aggrandisement.

?Tinubu, who spoke at St. Monica Cathedral of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria, LCCN, Jimeta, Yola, in Adamawa, during a thanksgiving service organised to mark the 70th birthday of former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, Dr. Boss Mustapha.

?Represented by Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, the President called on public officials and citizens alike to embrace devotion to the public good as a core value.

?In his words: ‘Nigeria needs men and women who value what transcends personal interest, but rather a devotion to public service.

?’Today is first and foremost a day for thanksgiving. We gathered not only to celebrate a passage of seven decades, but to celebrate the faithfulness of God, who has preserved and sustained Boss Mustapha through the various seasons of life.’

?Also speaking at the event, Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang, described the septuagenarian as a benchmark for public service integrity, while making a case for unity among political leaders in the Middle Belt region.

?Similarly, Adamawa Governor Ahmadu Fintiri, represented by his deputy, Prof. Kaletapwa George Farauta, lauded the former SGF for his contributions to nation-building and the steadfastness he has demonstrated in public governance.

Have you ever had one of those days when everything seemed to be going perfectly, until one little thing went wrong and suddenly you felt like the entire day was ruined? Perhaps you prepared carefully for a presentation, delivered it well and received positive feedback, but then you stumbled over one answer during the question and answer session. Instead of remembering everything that went well, your mind immediately says, ‘I messed up. The whole presentation was a disaster.’

Or maybe you set a goal to exercise regularly, but you missed two days. Instead of telling yourself, ‘I had a difficult week, I can start again tomorrow,’ your mind says, ‘I have failed. I can never stick to anything.’

Sometimes, the mind does not leave much room for grey areas. It wants things to be either right or wrong, success or failure, good or bad, perfect or useless. This is known as all or nothing thinking, one of the common cognitive distortions we can fall into without realizing it.

All or nothing thinking happens when we see a situation in extremes and overlook everything in between. Instead of recognizing that something can be partly successful, imperfect but worthwhile, or difficult without being a complete failure, the mind creates two opposite choices and forces the situation into one of them.

Think about a student who receives 75 percent in an examination but focuses entirely on the 25 percent they did not get. They may say, ‘I failed.’ But did they really fail? The result may not have been perfect, but it certainly does not erase what they achieved.

Or consider someone who has been working hard to improve a relationship. They have had several good conversations, made progress and resolved some disagreements, but then they have one serious argument. Their mind immediately says, ‘We are back to where we started. Nothing has changed.’

This is the problem with all or nothing thinking. It can make us overlook progress simply because the outcome is not perfect.

And perfection can be a particularly dangerous standard because life rarely gives us perfect outcomes. We can do our best and still make mistakes. We can love people deeply and still disagree with them. We can be successful and still have disappointing days. We can be confident and still feel afraid. Two things can be true at the same time.

You can make a mistake without being a failure. You can have a bad day without having a bad life. You can be disappointed about one thing and still appreciate many other things in your life. You can fail at something without becoming a failure.

The mind sometimes struggles with these middle grounds because certainty feels easier. It is simpler to say, ‘I am good at this’ or ‘I am terrible at this’ than to accept that we may be good at some aspects and still have things to learn.

This way of thinking can also affect our relationships. We may begin describing people as completely good or completely bad depending on how they treat us at a particular moment. Someone disappoints us and suddenly we think, ‘I knew they were never a good person.’ Someone makes us happy and we place them on a pedestal, only to feel deeply betrayed when they eventually make a mistake.

But human beings are complicated. We are not one behaviour, one mistake, one disagreement or one good deed. Neither are our relationships.

This is not about making excuses or lowering our standards. It is about seeing the whole picture.

The next time you catch yourself thinking, ‘Either I do this perfectly or I have failed,’ pause and ask yourself, ‘Is there a middle ground here?’ Ask, ‘What went well, even if everything did not go perfectly?’ You may discover that the situation is not as black and white as your mind first presented it.

Here is a little Mind Exercise to carry with you this week. Whenever you notice yourself using words such as ‘always,’ ‘never,’ ‘everything,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘perfect’ or ‘failure,’ pause and ask yourself: ‘Is this really all or nothing, or is there something in between?’

Life is rarely all or nothing. Sometimes, good enough is still good, progress is still progress, and one difficult moment does not erase the whole story. The fact that you have failed before does not mean you will fail again. It simply means that something did not work that time. You have learned, you have grown, and you have another opportunity to try differently.

Life is filled with attempts, lessons, progress, setbacks and second chances. So, give that project another chance. Give love another chance. Apply again. Start again. Try that thing you abandoned because one attempt did not work out. Do not allow one disappointing experience to convince you that the story is already written.

There is a whole world between ‘I failed’ and ‘I am a failure.’ There is also a whole world between ‘it did not work’ and ‘it will never work.’ Sometimes, what we need is not a perfect outcome, but the courage to leave room for another possibility.

And perhaps that is the healthier way to think: not everything has to be perfect to be worthwhile, and not every setback has to become a final verdict on who we are.

Give yourself permission to see the middle ground. There may be more possibilities there than your mind is allowing you to see.

A man in Taiwan was sentenced to five months behind bars after recording his wife’s extramarital affair with a robot vacuum cleaner, the country’s media reported on Friday.

The media reported the bizarre case of a scorned man who, after catching his wife cheating with another man, used the footage to sue them both for compensation.

Unfortunately, that same footage was then used against him in a counter-lawsuit for recording people without their consent.

The unnamed man and his wife married in 2021 and moved in with his parents. They also owned a vacation home that they only visited during the holidays.

Recently during one such visit, the man found a strange toothbrush, which raised suspicions about his wife’s fidelity.

After checking the surveillance footage from the parking garage, he noticed a man who had previously driven his wife home from work.

When confronted, the man’s wife denied any wrongdoing, and he believed her. However, three months later, he accidentally discovered that she had indeed been having an affair.

He had remotely activated the home’s robot vacuum cleaner via its mobile application to surprise his wife by talking to her through it, but he ended up catching her with her lover.

Upon activating the vacuum cleaner’s camera, the husband saw his wife in bed with the man he had seen on the surveillance camera.

His instinct was to confront them immediately, but he kept his cool and decided to continue recording them as evidence in a subsequent lawsuit.

The footage showed his wife embracing her lawyer and walking around the house naked while the man sat on the sofa.

Armed with video evidence, the husband took his wife and her lover to court, demanding NT$2 million ($68,000) as compensation.

The judges ruled that the man’s extramarital relationship surpassed the boundaries of friendship and ordered them to pay the cheated husband NT$500,000. Unfortunately, his success was shaded by a counter-lawsuit filed by his wife.

The video evidence captured with the robot vacuum cleaner may have helped the man prove his wife’s unfaithfulness, but it also proved that he had recorded the two lovers without their consent.

He claimed that his actions were justified, but the court ruled that marital obligations do not supersede a person’s right to privacy, and he had no right to record his wife and her lover without their consent.

Under Taiwanese law, recording or disclosing another person’s private activities or information without informing them carried a sentence of up to three years in prison and a fine of up to 300,000 Taiwanese dollars.

In this particular case, the husband was sentenced to five months in jail and ordered to pay a fine of 150,000 Taiwanese dollars.

A 32-year-old truck driver, Oriyomi Ayesoro, has been convicted and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment for unlawful transportation of 2,647 kilograms of Cannabis Sativa.

Justice Akintayo Aluko of the Lagos Division of the Federal High Court sentenced the truck driver after he pleaded guilty to a one-count charge filed against him by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).

The judge equally ordered the interim forfeiture of the white Iveco truck with registration number FKJ 271 IYL and Chassis Number SBCAIA000B015241, used to convey the illicit drugs, to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

In addressing the court, the counsel for the NDLEA, Paul Ekuri, stated that the convict was arrested on July 9, 2026, at Abraham Adesanya Street, Lekki, Lagos, while transporting the banned substance from Alasia Tipper Garage to Berger, Lagos State.

According to the charge designated FHC/LAG/CR/642/2026, the offence is contrary to and punishable under Section 11(b) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency Act, Cap N30, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004.

Ayesoro pleaded guilty to the offence when the charge was read to him.

Therefore, consequent upon his guilty plea, the counsel for the NDLEA prayed to the judge to convict and sentence him accordingly and to order the forfeiture of the truck to the Federal Government.

Even the convict’s lawyer, Dennis Warri, did not oppose the request for conviction but opposed the final forfeiture of the truck, citing several legal authorities and provisions of the NDLEA Act.

Handing down his judgment, Justice Aluko sentenced Ayesoro to five years’ imprisonment but gave him an option of N1 million fine instead of the jail term.

The judge further held, while speaking on the fate of the truck, that the onus is on the vehicle owner to prove that the crime was committed without his knowledge or consent.

According to Justice Aluko, ‘The owner of the vehicle, of the truck, is given a period of seven days from today to place facts or evidence before the Court to show cause why the final forfeiture order should not be made over the truck.’

Uber’s announcement to exit Nigeria has introduced significant uncertainty into an ongoing dispute involving e-hailing drivers, passengers, and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) regarding airport pickup regulations. This conflict has been acknowledged by FAAN in two separate statements, yet complaints from drivers in Abuja and passengers in Lagos continue to arise.

On Wednesday, Uber stated that it would discontinue its operations in Nigeria effective September 2, 2026, ending a 12-year presence that began in Lagos in 2014. ‘After a thorough review of our business, we have made the tough decision to wind down our operations in Nigeria,’ the company announced.

Uganda also saw a similar shutdown on the same day; however, Uber clarified that this decision was ‘limited strictly to these two markets.’ This exit is part of a broader global restructuring that includes a 10 percent reduction in workforce.

In Abuja, Shifaw Rahman, who operates a car hire service called ‘Ride With Shiffy,’ expressed concern that Uber’s departure further exacerbates the losses drivers have already endured due to FAAN’s restrictions on e-hailing services at Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport.

‘Uber leaving Nigeria is honestly a big loss, particularly for drivers. It connected me with more reliable clients, including international passengers. Their customer service was prompt and professional, and having a physical office for issue resolutions made the platform feel seamless and dependable,’ Rahman said.

Rahman noted that FAAN had barred Bolt and other e-hailing operators from the airport for several weeks before allowing Bolt to resume operations ‘just a few days ago,’ but she described the current arrangements as still unsettled.

Additionally, FAAN continues to charge a ?2,000 fee for airport pickups, even when the passenger is someone known personally rather than through an app booking.

FAAN’s own statements, released in August, confirm parts of this timeline while disputing others. In a release dated August 20, the Authority stated that its position ‘is not, and has never been, directed at limiting passengers’ access to transportation options.’

Instead, it attributed these restrictions to concerns over ‘passenger solicitation and touting,’ as well as the need for ‘operational visibility’ over vehicles and drivers at the airport. The release clarified that ACHRAMS, FAAN’s car-hire management platform, ‘is not an e-hailing application and is not intended to compete with’ Uber, Bolt, or similar services.

A follow-up release dated August 27 and signed by Henry Agbebire, Director of Public Affairs and Consumer Protection, directly apologized to affected passengers.

‘We sincerely apologise for the difficulties this caused our passengers,’ the statement read, adding that FAAN and Bolt had ‘reached an agreeable operational framework’ allowing Bolt to commence its services at FAAN-managed airports immediately.

FAAN also stated that it remained ‘engaged with other e-hailing operators’ to address outstanding issues and denied any intention to create a monopoly in airport transportation.

The dispute has extended beyond Abuja. Respondents to FAAN’s Instagram statement have raised similar concerns about fares at Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.

A commenter with the handle @tywo_omole noted that FAAN’s approved airport transport system charges as much as ?30,000 for a trip from the airport to Ikeja, compared to the ?5,000 to ?8,000 previously charged by e-hailing platforms.

Another commenter, @sisibiola, stated that FAAN-affiliated cab drivers were charging ?12,000 for a trip to GRA Ikeja, which typically takes under 10 minutes, citing airport parking fees as the reason.

Additionally, @ktrineempire asked FAAN to disclose the terms of its agreement with Bolt after being quoted ?30,000 for a ride within Ikeja.

In response to these fare complaints, FAAN’s statement released on August 27 clarified that these rates were ‘not newly imposed by FAAN or created by ACHRAMS.’

The authority explained that airport taxi fares have long existed independently of the application and that ACHRAMS merely made these pre-existing rates more visible to passengers.

This visibility, they noted, understandably raised concerns when compared to the lower fares that passengers had become accustomed to with e-hailing platforms.

A separate, unverified claim posted on the same FAAN Instagram thread by a commenter using the handle @folaitanjimi_, who described herself as a driver displaced from Bolt’s airport shuttle work, alleged that drivers caught picking up Bolt passengers at the airport were fined and had their tires deflated. This claim has not been independently verified, and FAAN has not addressed it directly in its public statements.

Bashir Ahmad, a former presidential aide on new media under ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, suggested on X that driver behavior may have contributed to Bolt’s decision to exit the market.

He pointed out that the phrase ‘please cancel the trip so we can go offline’ has become familiar to many riders, indicating a pattern in which drivers exploit Uber’s platform to connect with customers before taking them off the app to avoid commission fees.

Ahmad warned that this ‘short-term greed’ could ultimately lead to the exit of Bolt, inDrive, and other ride-hailing platforms from the country, as the burden of attracting and connecting drivers with passengers falls primarily on the platforms themselves.

FAAN has not issued any additional statements specifically addressing Uber’s exit, and their most recent public release predates this announcement by about a week.

Big Brother Naija (BBNaija) housemate Gerald Adebija, popularly known as Gerald, has been evicted from the Season 11 reality show.

His eviction came during the latest live show as housemates continued their battle for survival in the competition.

Following the eviction, Barry was named the Most Influential Player of the Week in the Big Brother Naija house.

However, in line with this week’s ‘Switch’ theme, Barry will not receive the usual immunity attached to the Most Influential Player title.

Instead, he was rewarded with a BB Box.

Barry also won an air fryer after participating in the spin, adding another reward to his week.

The development makes Barry the latest housemate to claim the Most Influential Player title in the ongoing BBNaija Season 11 competition.

Meanwhile, Gerald’s eviction further reduces the number of housemates competing for the grand prize as the reality show progresses.

ON his 2007 album, ‘Controversy and Precision’, the late Fuji music maestro, Alhaji Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, did something noteworthy that went under the radar. He dedicated the eight-minute, thirty-three-second ‘Precision’ track to appreciating his colleagues in the Yoruba-language part of Nollywood.

A towering figure in entertainment who continues to inspire several other aspiring musicians despite being dead for over a decade, the Ibadan, Oyo State-born artist displayed remarkable humility by listing the names of the players in Yoruba Nollywood, uniquely praising them the only way he had mastered.

Adebayo Salami, Sunday Omobolanle, Ronke Oshodi, Iyabo Ojo, Bolaji Amusan, and many others, favourites of millions of Nigerians, were mentioned, as Barrister celebrated his fellow entertainers in acting.

It was the turn of Taiwo Hassan, better known as Ogogo, around 5.05 minutes of the track. He acknowledged the close ties between Yinka Quadri and Ogogo, asking the latter, ‘Sho n ti e bami toju handsome Taiwo Hassan mi o. Ogogo kulodo…’, that is, are you caring for the handsome Taiwo Hassan? Barry asked rhetorically before moving on to other artists.

Nineteen years after Barrister’s tribute, Ogogo passed away on Sunday, August 23, at the age of 66. Earlier, one of his children had told the public about his battle with cancer, making it clear that the family was not asking for money but hoping to find doctors who could help.

Ogogo will be remembered primarily as an actor, director, producer and mentor; a towering figure whose face and voice became familiar to generations of Yoruba film audiences. But before the films, there was another artistic foundation to his career: praise singing and chanting.

Ogogo’s journey into the performing arts began with ràárà, Yoruba praise singing and poetic chanting. He performed as a chanter in stage productions before finding his way into film and eventually becoming one of the defining figures of Yoruba Nollywood. He trained under Awo Ademola Fagbemi, learning the art of reciting eulogies, while his famous name, Ogogo, was drawn from his family’s oríkì.

In that sense, Ogogo represented something that is sometimes overlooked in discussions of Yoruba cinema. He was not simply an actor who happened to chant. He came from a performance tradition in which acting, music, poetry, praise singing and storytelling often overlap.

Like Barrister, Ogogo possessed a powerful voice, and throughout his career, he occasionally returned to those roots. His performance in productions such as the award-winning Seven Doors, for instance, reminded audiences that behind the actor was a performer shaped by the older traditions of Yoruba oral art.

Since his death, short videos of Ogogo chanting and singing have circulated on social media. Beyond the understandable nostalgia, those clips have served another purpose: they have reminded many people of the artistic range that existed behind the familiar screen persona. They have also drawn attention to an important question: what happens when the generation that carries these traditions begins to disappear?

That question became even more urgent with the death, a day after Ogogo, of Pa Alabi Ogundepo, the veteran poet and ìjálá chanter.

The coincidence of their deaths brought two related but distinct traditions of Yoruba oral performance into the same moment of public reflection. Ogogo took the skills of praise singing into theatre and eventually into popular cinema. Pa Ogundepo remained more closely identified with ìjálá, the rich poetic tradition historically associated with hunters, although his talent also took him into theatre, broadcasting and film.

Born in Saki, Oyo State, into a family with a hunting background, Ogundepo learned ìjálá chanting from his father and from other masters, including Lasisi Alarape Oni. After his primary education, he worked several jobs, including milling and gathering gravel, before his unusual gift for performance opened the door to theatre.

The late Pa Oyin Adejobi recognised that talent and brought him into his theatre company. From there, Ogundepo›s voice travelled across different artistic spaces. He appeared in Professor Ola Rotimi›s Kurunmi as a praise singer. He later auditioned for Professor Wole Soyinka’s Kongi’s Harvest, directed by the late Ossie Davis and produced by Pa Francis Oladele’s Calpenny Nigeria Films.

His journey also took him into The Acting Company at the University of Ibadan, where he became friends with the late Wale Ogunyemi and Uncle Tunji Oyelana. He performed with Oyelana’s band, The Benders, chanted at occasions and worked with other theatre companies.

For Ogundepo, ìjálá could belong to the hunting tradition, the theatre stage, radio or television. If you don’t remember what Chief Ogundepo’s chant sounded like, you can find it in General Kollington Ayinla’s 1984 album ‘Knockout Special’. Listen to his beautiful chant in the ‘Ogun Onire’ track.

But perhaps his widest impact came through broadcasting. Ogundepo spent most of his life in Osogbo while promoting Yoruba culture through his work with Radio Nigeria, Ibadan; NTA Ibadan; Radio OYO; and the then Television Service of Oyo State.

For many people of my generation and those before us, his voice was part of everyday life. We grew up listening to his poems and ìjálá on radio and television,

One of the poems that remained particularly memorable was his warning about the dangers of children engaging in street trading. It goes thus:

Gbogbo abiyamo pata, e je ka si rawa leti

Gbogbo alagbato pata, e je ka jo sapero

Se omo ti ko ti dagba to eniti da oja ta, lo gbe ‘gba lori ko maa kiri worobo

Lomo o si mogba ti onimoto nbo

Gbe bisiki wa lawe gbo, lomo ba fo sona lo b abo senu irin

Oro yi di ikaya, o di howu howu

E maa taja loju ona mo, tori moto o mo enikan. Ogun o nifi eran wa yi lele

The power of artists like Ogogo and Pa Ogundepo lay not only in their talent but also in the worlds that produced them. They emerged from traditions in which young performers could learn directly from masters; where oríkì, ràárà and ìjálá were not simply subjects for academic discussion but living art forms.

Barrister belonged to that wider world too. His decision to celebrate actors on ‘Precision’ was more than a musician casually mentioning famous names. It reflected the interconnectedness of the Yoruba creative tradition. The musician could celebrate the actor because they drew from many of the same cultural wells: language, praise poetry, oral history and performance.

Today, however, those wells appear to be producing fewer practitioners with the same depth of grounding. There are still artists keeping the traditions alive. Ibrahim Chatta, for example, in movies, and Akeem Lasisi in ìjálá,.

But the question raised by the deaths of Ogogo and Pa Alabi Ogundepo is larger than whether a few talented individuals can continue the work.

The more urgent question is whether we are still creating the conditions that produced artists like them. Who is teaching young people the intricacies of ìjálá and ràárà? Are our creative institutions preserving these art forms as living traditions, or are we waiting until their talented practitioners die before rediscovering what they represented?

Ogogo and Pa Alabi Ogundepo belonged to different generations and travelled different artistic paths. One became a household name through cinema; the other remained more closely associated with poetry, chanting and broadcasting. Yet both represented a level of artistic grounding that connected contemporary entertainment to older Yoruba traditions.

Their deaths should force us to ask a more difficult question: not simply whether another Ogogo or another Ogundepo will emerge, but whether we are still building cultural institutions capable of producing them.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio has begun making a fresh case for President Bola Tinubu’s re-election in 2027, urging Northern youths to support the administration’s economic reforms and policy continuity.

Akpabio made the appeal on Saturday while receiving a high-level delegation of the Northern Ethnic Groups Assembly in Abuja.

He said the reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration, including fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange reforms, were painful but necessary measures to reposition the economy.

According to him, the policies have now crossed a critical threshold and are beginning to produce tangible benefits for Nigerians.

‘I stand before you not merely as a politician, but as a public servant committed to the prosperity of our nation, and particularly this vital region,’ Akpabio told the youth leaders.

‘The reforms initiated by President Tinubu are not abstract theories; they are concrete, courageous actions designed to dismantle long-standing structural bottlenecks and unlock Nigeria’s vast potential.’

The Senate President said the removal of the fuel subsidy and efforts to stabilise the foreign exchange market were necessary steps towards achieving fiscal sustainability.

He acknowledged that the measures initially imposed difficulties on Nigerians but argued that they were required to redirect government resources to critical sectors.

‘While these measures initially posed challenges, they were the surgical procedures needed to redirect resources into healthcare, education, and infrastructure,’ he said.

Akpabio also claimed that the reforms were producing early positive indicators, including improved revenue collection, increased investor confidence, and renewed interest from international partners.

He urged Northern youths to become active participants in governance rather than waiting for the future before taking responsibility.

‘You are architects of today, not just leaders of tomorrow,’ he told the delegation.

He said the 10th National Assembly was prioritising reforms aimed at strengthening transparency, accountability and the rule of law.

‘Your innovation and engagement are the lifeblood of these reforms,’ Akpabio said.

‘We urge you to be critical consumers of information and to engage in constructive dialogue.’

The Senate President’s comments come as political activities ahead of the 2027 general elections continue to gather momentum across the country.

His appeal also places policy continuity at the centre of the argument for another Tinubu term.

Akpabio argued that abandoning the current reform programme before its consolidation could undermine the gains being recorded.

On his part, The group’s spokesperson of the Northern Ethnic Groups Assembly, Alhaji Ibrahim Dan-Musa, commended Akpabio for what he described as efforts to strengthen political understanding between the North and South.

‘We commend the Senate President for his accessibility and his unwavering dedication to the Nigerian project,’ Dan-Musa said.

‘His proactive engagement has rebuilt vital bridges of trust. He has proven that true national leadership transcends ethnic and geographical boundaries.’

The coalition also pledged to mobilise at the grassroots to educate Nigerians on what it described as the long-term benefits of the Federal Government’s economic policies.

Dan-Musa said national unity must remain above regional demands and sectional interests.

‘National unity is the ultimate anchor of our collective survival.

‘No regional sentiment can take precedence over the sovereignty and peace of the Federal Republic of Nigeria’, he said.

Meanwhile, the assembly identified three key areas for its political engagement ahead of 2027.

They include continuous consultation with Northern youth structures, grassroots enlightenment on federal fiscal policies and an uncompromising commitment to national cohesion.

The coalition said federal leadership must maintain mutual respect and transparent consultation with Northern youth organisations.

It also pledged to embark on awareness campaigns aimed at explaining the government’s economic policies to rural communities.

The group said such engagement was necessary to address misinformation and help Nigerians understand the implications of the reforms.