Category: The Nation – Nigeria

The Delta Assembly has imposed a six-month suspension on Rector of Delta State Polytechnic, Ogwashi-Uku, Professor Emmanuel Achuenu.

This suspension was attributed to serious allegations of financial recklessness, misappropriation of funds, and gross administrative misconduct.

Also, the institution’s Bursar has been suspended for six months due to his alleged involvement in the financial irregularities identified during the Assembly’s investigation.

This decision was reached after the Assembly reviewed a report from a parliamentary investigative committee specifically tasked with probing the financial and administrative practices of the polytechnic.

Delta Speaker Dennis Guwor highlighted the findings of the investigation, which indicated ‘multiple instances of unauthorised expenditures and administrative lapses’ occurring during Professor Achuenu’s tenure.

Lawmakers characterised his actions as a ‘flagrant abuse of office’ and a significant violation of regulations that govern public tertiary institutions.

The suspensions, they said, were to restore accountability and integrity within the institution’s administration while the investigations continue.

According to the committee’s findings, the Rector allegedly disregarded the directives of the Governing Council and violated established financial procedures in managing the institution’s resources.

In its resolution, the Assembly upheld the six-month suspension earlier imposed by the Governing Council, noting that the move was necessary to reinforce accountability and discipline within the institution.

The Assembly also directed the Delta State Ministry of Higher Education to supervise the polytechnic’s affairs during the suspension period to ensure transparency, stability, and adherence to due process.

Lawmakers reaffirmed the Assembly’s zero tolerance for financial mismanagement in public institutions, emphasising that the decision was aimed at restoring integrity and public confidence in the state’s education system.

Experts, clergymen and activists will brainstorm on challenges confronting women in business at ‘Influence Her Conference’ in Lagos, tomorrow.

The event, at Oriental Hotel, Lekki, is organised by a group, ‘Thriving Business Fellowship,’ led by Mayokun Oreofe, a priest.

Its theme is :’Grow.’

Speakers include Dr Sam Adeyemi, a globally respected leadership voice and strategic thinker, who will deliver the ‘opening keynote;’ Tara Fela-Durotoye, founder of House of Tara International; Dr. Niyi Adesanya, chief executive of the FifthGear Plus Consulting; Morenike Molehin, founder and creative director of Oak and Teak Interiors; and Seye Olurotimi, founder of MSME Africa and lead consultant of CedarTribe.

Thriving Business Women Fellowship has been supporting women who are building, growing, creating value, serving communities, and pushing through limitations, often with little support.

Convener, Oreofe, lamented that while women are not short of ideas, brilliance and drive, they lack support, structure, and room to truly grow.

‘This is why ‘InfluenceHER Conference’ was born; to help women move from trying to grow to actually scaling sustainably,’ she told reporters in Lagos.

Oreofe said in Nigeria today, while women-run businesses make up over 40 per cent of Medium and Small Scale Enterprises, only a small percentage grow into the level of structure, visibility, and financial backing required for real expansion.

She added: ‘Across Africa, the trend is the same – women lead the majority of micro-enterprises, yet still receive less than 10 per cent of available growth funding.

‘The issue is not effort; the issue is access.

Our maiden edition carries the theme, GROW, because growth is what converts talent into capacity, capacity into economic relevance, and economic relevance into influence.’

Oreofe listed the anticipated gains, including practical knowledge, empowerment, confidence building and mindset shift, visibility and positioning, and connection to an ecosystem that makes scaling possible.

She thanked Wema Bank, through their women-focused product, Sara by Wema, who have supported the movement by enabling access for women who might otherwise have been unable to participate.

In her view, ‘this is the model of partnership that truly lifts women.’

Oreofe also thanked other supporters -Studio 24, Blooms Soft Furnishing and Gifts, Skyprint, Ubana Grill House, Deol Events, Posh Homewares, Danish Bakery, and Green Essence – brands that are actively contributing to the ecosystem women need in order to scale.

She disclosed that the Bank of Industry will be present with their women-focused product as part of our empowerment marketplace – giving women visibility on funding pathways that can support business growth.

Oreofe said: ‘This conference is not just a one-day gathering – it is a support system, a growth environment, and an ecosystem where women can rise and remain visible, not just inspired.

‘InfluenceHER is for every woman who is building – a business, a platform, or a vision – and needs the right structure, exposure, and community to enter her next level. I am also pleased to say that during this conference, we will be unveiling the InfluenceHER Institute – a leadership institute designed to further equip women for growth and influence.’

She added: ‘Because when a woman grows, everything around her grows – her enterprise, her family, her community, and ultimately, her economy.’

About 50 million Nigerians are believed to have mental health challenges, going by latest records from this year’s World Mental Health Day celebration on October 10. This is a frightening number because it means about one in every 4 or 5 persons is down upstairs. This number is about 22.73 percent of Nigeria’s 220 million population estimate by the United Nations. The ratio of persons in depression to persons who appear to be in control of themselves is likely to rise, going by assumptions that hospital data may have left out more than 20 percent of challenged persons. Even more worrisome is the observation that healing can be a mirage, that some hospital patients relapse one or two times in one year that more cases of depression are pouring into the wards and that there are not enough doctors and other medical staff, psychologists and psychotherapists to cope with the brimming over. Hospital beds are not guaranteed even in serious emergencies. Boarded patients may be prematurely discharged to pave way for patients with doctor or management connections. The churches and other establishments are coming to the aid of society with rehabilitation centers, but behind their goals is the profit motive. In the rehabilitation centres of the churches, the aim is largely to win souls for Christ. But as we shall see in the unfolding text, their proselytization does not address the root cause of DEPRESSION or POSSESION, which is the need to feed the body with THE RIGHT KINDS OF FOODS AND DRINKS and to RECOMPOSE THE BLOOD for more vibrant energy or radiation that will provide the soul or spirit they are trying to enliven a bridge to the brain and intellect and, therefore, absolute, effective control of the body. I do not wish to speak about the living conditions of some rehabilitation centres. Feeding is poorer than in the prisons or correctional centres, as prisons are now called to give them a human face outdoor, even if they are dehumanising within. I have heard of rehabilitation centres where boarded patients over crowd in rooms, have no bed, matress, mats or cover cloth. In their complexion and physical look, they are like living corpses exhumed from dunghills, almost skeletal and identifiable only by their voices. Between last year and this year, there would appear to be no significant advancement in the frontiers of mental health medicine abroad and in Nigeria. Conceptions or what we know about mental health are still rigid. Psychiatric doctors still prescribe dangerous drugs with terrible side effects, some of which may be life threatening apart from causing cancer. Some of these drugs are fluoxetine, sertraline, citralopram, valporic acid, lithium, lamotrigine, olanzapine, risperidone, quetiapine, benzodiazepines, alprazolam, Clonazepam and buspirone .

Space will not permit a discussion of how each one works, or of the negative side effects it introduces into the patient’s health matrix, and the new diseases these side effects impact on the body. There is hardly any patient who does not talk about them, who does not hate them, and who does not struggle to abandon them. That is why cases of relapse are many and, in some situations, followed up with suicide, in the erroneous belief that killing oneself takes away all problems one is fleeing from.

At a psychiatric hospital in Lagos a few years ago, many of the patients in a male ward sought premature discharge en Bloc. Wise counsel suggested they be allowed to go, perhaps to prevent a violent escape.

Some side effects of antidepressant drugs are excessive weight gain, slurry tongue, tremors, estrogen dominance in men which causes them to grow breasts, hormonal imbalances which subdue libido and may cause infertility, gastrointestinal issues, syndrome x (large abdominal bulge) which is a risk factor in hypertension, diabetes, liver and kidney disease, heart disease and heart failure and strokes, among others. Thyroid gland and kidney impact cannot be ruled out as well. That means health problems associated with thyroid gland disturbances may occur and, in the case of impacted kidneys, the bone marrow may become unable to produce enough red blood cells causing pernicious anaemia. So are metabolic changes, obesity and other amorphous shapes, drowsiness and sleepiness which can cause vegetable existence, dependence risk, withdrawal symptoms, and lack of competitive spirit, among others.

Depression, not lunacy

When many persons are told a neighbour is in hospital for mental health care, all they think about is lunacy. From the government, psychiatrists, parents, politicians, neighbourhood leaders right to the medical lay person in the street, and even persons in depression and the possesed themselves are perplexed about what is going on. Some commentators put it all down to drug or psychotic substance abuse. Others point accusing fingers at a mismanaged economy and poverty and the hurt or injuries they inflict on the mind, since not all cases are outcomes of drug or psychotic substance abuse. I have been aware of this since 1977 during my national youth service in Calabar when I paid my first visit ever to a psychiatric hospital. My NYSC primary assignment included visits to corps members in depression and boarded at the hospital. Since then, I have been close to some families who are distressed by one or more members held down by depression or possesion. Always, I found that, once the ailing persons stabilised on pharmaceutical psychiatry, they fared much better on nutrition psychiatry and psycho therapy. So close am I to many persons and families in these experiences that I will offend many of my acquaintances if I go beyond surface description of their events and experiences. Nevertheless, I feel obliged to mention, even if superficially, some experiences which always touch my heart.

The first concerns a young woman who broke down after all her siblings had become married and left home. She would suddenly begin to scream at night that snakes were crawling all over her room. Her mother would rush in but will find no snake. She would spend the rest of the night peacefully in her mother’s room. This is telling a story which many psychiatrists and psychologists cannot easily decipher. I will explain it in subsequent parts of this column. Nevertheless, I will give a hint here. That hint is about something present in the mother which is not present in her and subdued something in the environment which was troubling her. Any inciteful Christian may easily pick up the story line from here. Did the legion of demons which assailed a man thought to be a lunatic not abandon him and flee into nearby swine when the Lord Jesus approached their victim? As we shall find out later in the course of this discussion, the intervening force was in the BLOOD COMPOSITION and in the radiation of the well composed blood of the Lord Jesus. It is also a secret of healing by touch during which power is transferred from the healthy person to the sick person as though from a functional and charging car battery jump starting a weak one. If we pay more attention to the scriptures, was the woman with the issue of blood not healed when she touched the garment of the Lord Jesus which was suffused with His Radiation? The scriptures also inform us that maidens stayed with aging kings to prolong their lives. Hematologists (blood doctors) and psychiatrists may discover in future that it was the radiation from the ANIMISTIC energy and blood of youths which suffused the bed chamber of the kings. Today, it has been proven that live plants give off RADIATIONS which may aid the recovery of sick persons. Does this have anything to do with the European culture in which bouquets of live flowers are given as get-well presents to sick persons? I cannot easily forget the scramble for rose flowers placed in altars during serious spiritual festivals. The rose flowers, on their own suffused with healing radiations are known to absorb alter RADIATIONS. When placed in a room, their capacity to emit RADIATIONS may subsist for more than one year. However, no radiation on earth surpasses the radiation of well composed blood. Therefore, composing and recomposing of blood through the diet and spiritual (not religious) activity is the duty of everyone during his or her life on earth.

To continue this young woman’s story, she stabilised for a while. Later on, she was taken to a psychiatric home, perhaps to save the mother’s health from erosion. It was a counter productive effort. The psychiatric home was careless with security and its patient walked out. into the world till this day. She may have been upset by the drugs. The effects on her family cannot be described here.

The second case is that of the first child of his parents who broke down because two of his younger siblings gained admission to higher institutions and he did not. His mother is an illustrious woman. Everywhere he went, she followed him in spirit. He, too, rejected anti depressant drugs. He even left Nigeria for a neighbouring African country to be free of her and his siblings. About three countries away, he was attacked by robbers who abandoned him in a state of coma. Good Samaritans took him to a Catholic hospital where humane doctors and nurses took his case over without financial reward. When he came round and the doctors learned he was a Nigerian, they raised money for him to return home. His mother almost jumped out of her skin one morning when she went to answer a knock on the door and stood face to face before her son who had been missing for months. He looked unkept from head to toe. She thought he had returned to kill her. The next move of the young man was shocking to her. He went down on all fours in prostration, appealing for forgiveness. In the dysperception of depression which presents white as black to the sufferer, he had seen his mother as a witch who preferred his siblings to him. Experience and holistic medical care which involved not only pharmaceuticals but love of the spirit revived him. We would read later in the other part of this column how doctors and psychologists can use nutrition, even water, love and knowledge of the spirit, to recompose the blood and heal depression and possesion without resort to killing anti depressants.

If, again, I may give a hint here, the human body is made up of about 70 to 75 percent water and the blood almost 90 percent water. Dr. Samora Emoto of Japan has shown that, in most samples of water, the structural arrangement of water molecules is unnatural, and the unnaturalness can be impacted on them by the spoken and written human word and by music. He also showed that certain spoken words and written words beautifully rearranged the ugly structures and forms of denatured water samples. This is a hint which psychiatrists and clinical psychologists and nutritionists may wish to explore by incorporating into their practice Dr Emoto’s work which is on the internet, if, seriously, they wish to help persons in depression and POSSESED persons and are not merely interested in festering the nests of big pharmacy. Nutritionists, too, can explore on the internet the work of Semyor Kirlian who discovered a way to measure how much living power exists in the food we eat in the course of its journey from the farm to our dining table. Since the food will end up in the blood and since how vigorous or weak the blood is will determine if a person will slide into depression or not, it is important to pay serious attention to nutrition when we attempt to heal depression and possesion cases. However, this is not the case, going by the standards of Semyor Kirlian, in our psychiatric hospitals and rehabilitation centres. The tendency is to believe in, and to rely largely on DRUGS AND INJECTIONS and not on.THE RIGHT KINDS OF FOOD AND DRINKS and herbs as was recommended to humanity in the 1920s and 1930s. I will speak elaborately on this in the second part of this article.

The reunion of mother and son mentioned in this second case has been a beautiful story ever since.he has married and is now a proud father of three children. His mother offers counselling services to parents who are grappling with the traumas of children in depression.

The third case got me to write this column. As I write, I have just made a mother in her seventies to visit her son who is about half her age. His challenges began with hallucination about 16 years ago in junior secondary school. This could very well have been an astral or ethereal experience. Unfortunately, no one around him knew about such things. I suspected either experience because everyone I spoke with about him, including the subject himself, ruled out any case of substance abuse, and because, at 24, I had my first OUT OF BODY EXPERIENCE (OBE) which no one could explain to me until the age of 27, three years later. Only psychiatrists and other brain doctors such as Dr. Abayomi Aiyesimoju, a neurologist, who are not intellectual in their practice of mental health medicine will understand and appreciate what I am saying. By ‘intellectual,’ I do not necessarily mean ‘academic’ or ‘erudition’. Intellectual here means delimiting one’s receptive capacity to only what the human brain can fathom, forgetting that the brain is limited to earthly conceptions of time and space, being of dust itself and cannot perceive existence and life beyond the earthly realm. The young man I am discussing had been looking up to me as a father for a life-line in about 10 years of our acquaintanceship since his mother and siblings connected us. They and his doctors have not allowed him go off these debilitating drugs for 16 years. Then, he was a university student. He is very versatile today in nutrition psychiatry. My intervention this week was to get his family to let him try nutrition for his condition as I noticed that anything short of this may drive him around the bend. Persons in depression do not discuss suicide for nothing.

The third case in reference is assailed by many of the side effects of psychiatric drugs mentioned above. However, in Europe and America from where these drugs were introduced to Nigeria, patients have the right to reject and discontinue anti depressant treatment. Health care providers respect their autonomy in medical decision making. Doctors may be penalised for negligence or malpractice if they fail to properly inform patients about potential risks and side effects.

As stated above, many persons reduce a variety of mental health questions to lunacy and stigmatise the challenged persons as such. For the avoidance of doubt, the following, according to an enlightened opinion on this subject is a number of challenges that may fit into the description of mental health:

‘DEPRESSION (Persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness.),

ANXIETY (Excessive worry, fear, or anxiety that interferes with daily life.:)

INSOMNIA(Difficulty sleeping or staying asleep.)

MEMORY LOSS ( Difficulty remembering recent events or learning new information) (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease, dementia).

ANGER ISSUES: (Difficulty managing anger, leading to conflicts or aggressive behavior.)

FEAR OR PHOBIA ( Excessive or irrational fear of specific objects, situations, or activities.)

AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER ASD: (Neurodevelopmental disorder affecting social interaction, communication, and behaviour.)

BIPOLAR DISORDER: (Mood swings ranging from manic highs to depressive lows.)

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD): (Symptoms following a traumatic event, such as flashbacks, anxiety, or avoidance).

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (Recurring, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviours) (compulsions).

ATTENTION DEFICIT HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER (ADHD): (Difficulty with attention, impulse control, and hyperactivity).

SCHIZOPHRENIA (Disrupted thought processes, perceptions, and emotions).

EATING DISORDERS: (Abnormal eating patterns, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, or binge eating disorder).

SUBSTANCE USE DISORDER (Dependence on or addiction to substances like drugs or alcohol.)

PANIC DISORDER: (Recurring panic attacks, which are intense episodes of fear or discomfort.)

SOCIAL ANXIETY DISORDER ( Fear or anxiety in social situations).

BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER (Difficulty regulating emotions, leading to unstable relationships and impulsive behaviour.)

TRAUMA: (Emotional or psychological distress following a traumatic event.)

DEMENTIA: (Cognitive decline affecting memory, thinking, and daily life.)

CHRONIC STRESS: (Ongoing stress that can impact mental and physical health.)

Memory loss can be a symptom of various conditions, including dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. Anger may arise from anxiety, depression, or trauma. Autism, a neurological disorder inhibits communication by walking in the OVERSELF’.

How many of us, from the list above, do not have a mental health challenge or the other? Is it the man or woman who cannot easily sleep or sustain deep sleep to stage 4 or rapid eye movement (REM) sleep?

Is it the man or woman who easily forgets where he or she kept the house or car key five minutes earlier?

Is it the man or woman who hates to eat, who vomits on eating? Is it the man or woman who cannot control his temper and easily gets angry? Is it the man or woman who is hyperactive and, in addition, suffers from attention deficit to the point that he or she has become what is termed a scatterbrain? Is it the man or woman who is afraid of a crowd or cannot easily breathe in a bus or small enclosures such as a toilet room? The list is unending.

The people of Onitsha South Local Government Area of Anambra State have donated N20 million to support the re-election campaign of Governor Chukwuma Soludo.

The cheque was presented during a solidarity rally in Onitsha, where community leaders and residents reaffirmed their confidence in the governor’s leadership and expressed their commitment to ensuring his victory in the November 8, 2025 governorship election.

Speaking at the event, President-General of Fegge, Onitsha, Okwudili Nwankwo, commended Governor Soludo’s transformative policies and developmental strides.

‘Under Governor Soludo, we have seen remarkable changes, particularly with initiatives like the ‘One Youth, Two Skills’ programme,’ Nwankwo said.

‘This has empowered many of our youths and equipped them with valuable skills for a brighter future.’

Another community leader, Chibuike Ugo, praised the administration’s social welfare programs, noting their impact on families in the area.

‘Free education, free antenatal care, and delivery services have made a significant difference in our community,’ he said.

‘These programs are not just policies-they are lifelines for our families.’

Franklin Onyeke added that residents were united in their support for the governor’s re-election bid.

‘As we pray for Governor Soludo’s victory on November 8, 2025, we remain steadfast in our belief that he will continue to lead Anambra toward greatness,’ he said.

Other speakers, including Okwudili Chiamaka and Celestine Osuji, pledged to mobilize voters across the local government area.

‘Our voices will be heard,’ they declared. ‘Together, we will ensure that our governor is re-elected to continue this great work.’

In his response, Governor Chukwuma Soludo expressed gratitude to the people of Onitsha South for their show of solidarity and financial support.

Describing his re-election campaign as ‘a divine project and a mass movement,’ Soludo said: ‘This is a campaign like no other in our history. I am humbled and deeply appreciative of your unwavering support.’

The governor highlighted the achievements of his administration, especially within Onitsha South, including the establishment of a specialist general hospital in Fegge and significant improvements in public schools, among other initiatives.

He assured the people that more developmental projects would follow if given the opportunity to serve a second term.

Life as a ‘chosen pawn’ is no walk in the park. Your heart is thick with repentance, but your penance has no audience. Perhaps because your chosen idols have counted you as part of the sacrifice.

Your date with epiphany begins with promise. Pardon the recap in real time. On January 1st, the Year of Retribution, at precisely 8:40 am, you are ushered into a media parley at the ‘captured’ State House in Abuja. You have rehearsed ‘appreciable’ questions for the occupying force’s spokesman and the Commander of the counter-insurgency, aka Operation Chosen Lion.

Your wit is honed to impress, and your conscience, neatly folded like a newspaper back copy. But few hours into the propaganda parley, you are briefed that resistance fighters had breached the perimeters of the north central’s open-air prison. You are told they are being crushed and pushed back.

You applaud the newly constituted God’s Chosen Army for its daring and professionalism, stressing that Nigeria’s former military ‘would have caved and taken to their heels.’

The Commander beams appreciatively at you – glorying in your impassioned sycophancy – while your colleagues rue their inability to beat you to the butt-lick and crawl. Eventually, you are discharged with a handsome reimbursement for your time.

Sometime between your take-off and ascent to the FCT skyline, you learn that God’s Chosen forces are battling resistance fighters close to your residential district in Lagos. But you can neither call nor text, in compliance with aviation rules.

Instantly, you become hysterical, wondering if your home has been caught in the carnage. As your plane descends astride the southwest perimeters of Nigeria’s open-air prison, you become anxious about the fate of your family amid the onslaught. But you’ve been assured, after all, that you would always be spared any of God’s Chosen military assault, given your relocation outside the internment camps.

As you get closer to your neighbourhood, you are turned back by God’s Chosen special forces combing through for fleeing rebels. In your hysteria, you receive a call from your wife’s phone. ‘Thank God, they made it out before the siege,’ you mutter. You are relieved to hear your seven-year-old daughter at the end of the line.

But she is pleading over the phone for you to come rescue her. You hear shots being fired, drowning out your daughter’s screams. And then, silence.

You hear nothing of your family until two weeks later, following the withdrawal of God’s Chosen forces from the area. Your daughter’s body was found alongside five others: your wife and four other daughters, inside your family car, a Kia Picanto.

Satellite images reveal how they were targeted by heavy artillery and run over by God’s Chosen army tanks. Your family car got riddled by exactly 335 bullets, and you can barely recognise your seven-year-old daughter, her sisters and your wife, from their severely mangled corpses.

In your grief, you recall your mockery of the sad fate of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, Hind Rajab. On January 29, 2024, in Gaza City, Hind Rajab pleaded over the phone for emergency workers to rescue her from a car riddled with bullets. Her body was found two weeks later, on February 10, 2024, alongside the bodies of six of her family members in the car they drove to flee their neighbourhood as Israeli forces invaded.

Picture your daughter in the mangled carcass of Hind Rijab. Picture her as the bloody carcass of each murdered Palestinian newborn and toddler. Suddenly, it’s not so witty or ‘touche’ anymore to write, ‘Play stupid games, win stupid prizes’ in response to social media outrage to the genocide in Gaza. ‘How about October 7?’ now resonates like a dumb riposte.

You realise how dubious it was of you to write the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from October 7. Yet, your grief manifests as ghosts of your past hypocrisies. Each bullet in each of your family members resonates as a headline that once mocked the suffering of others. The irony is pungent, the poetry unbearable.

You had gone to report on ‘order’ as directed by God’s Chosen leadership, and broadcast ‘balance’ effected through carpet-bombs. You drafted your editorial masterpiece right before you left the God’s Chosen media parley, telling your fellow Nigerians that the occupying force was grossly misunderstood; that their tanks were moral instruments deployed in a siege against anarchists masquerading as resistance fighters.

You quoted the scriptures to justify bombardments, as though God moonlighted as a munitions dealer. In your voice, objectivity becomes fiction, crafted according to the designs of those who rewrite history with the blood of others. It isn’t true if it’s not just. And justice requires choosing sides; always against annihilation.

Now, faced with your family’s execution, your knees collapse. As you grieve, you see your colleagues still live-tweeting God’s Chosen propaganda and competing for soundbites. Their eyes avoid yours. They will file their reports and sleep. And you, broken father, will write one last column, perhaps a confession or a curse. But it will come too late for your daughter.

Now, you attempt the literature of rebellion, but your voice has lost its vigour, like a redundant hyperbole in a rant against God’s Chosen. Eventually, you collapse in the wreckage of your own rhetoric, your press badge dangling like a noose of your own design.

It takes a special kind of maleficence, and insolence perhaps, to rejoice at the murder of infants. Those who justify sniper bullets in the head of a three-year-old abroad may welcome sniper bullets in the head of their child or grandchild. Karma comes full circle, always.

You find that, not even a swift recourse to frantic remorse, could make heaven spare you your just deserts. You are accountable for your secret lusts and espoused chaos. The goodness you espouse will make you; the evil you applaud will unmake you.

Forget Deir Yassin, Sabra, Shatila, Jenin, Khan Younis. Forget the siege, the deathly checkpoints, and the snipers who target children. Forget the journalists who got buried with their cameras alongside their families. Forget starvation, too, because remembrance is rebellion.

And now, in the same logic of convenience, you will forget your heartfelt losses as you parrot God’s Chosen phrases: ‘security operation,’ ‘neutralised threats,’ and ‘collateral damage.’ You will sanitise massacre into lexicon as your coloniser’s grammar becomes your creed, and your craft, once meant to awaken, now anesthetises.

Gaza was an experiment. The world watched it burn and called it geopolitics. It watched children being vaporised and called it defence. It watched truth die and called it complexity.

The same logic is rehearsing for its Nigerian debut. Every dollar grant that demands ideological loyalty and silence from your newsroom prepares you for future occupation. Every journalist who flatters tyranny abroad must prepare to relive it soon in his native dialect.

And when the performance begins, and the skies darken with imported drones and a colonist pall, both your patriotism and humanity will be tested.

Every God’s Chosen pawn has a price. What’s yours? A dollar grant? A travel visa? Or an opportunity to relocate your family abroad?

These days, the Nigerian newsroom objectively debates everything but the daily savagery depicted in Gaza. Journalists fear the rancour that may arise. But, I want to say to dear colleagues, in the poetic tenor of Stephanie Hollington-Sawyer, can we not be sad together at the descent of humanity? Can we not grieve the death of innocents? Can we not at least mourn together?

Students at the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) Enugu Campus have protested what they described as an unjustified N30,000 ‘development levy’ imposed on them by the school authorities.

The protest, which began from the Health Science Students Association (HESSA), drew attention across the campus as students voiced their frustration over the fee that was made compulsory before they could sit for their exams. According to the students, the levy was not only unexpected but also lacked a clear explanation from the administration.

The protest took place mainly at the UNEC main gate after several attempts at dialogue with the deans and provost failed to yield results.

Before taking to the streets, departmental stakeholders had held a series of meetings with the school authorities to seek clarification on the purpose of the levy. Despite those efforts, the explanations given were vague and unsatisfactory. The students were particularly angered by the condition that they would not be allowed to write their exams unless they paid the N30,000 fee.

The development levy was introduced around August, and students from various levels were affected. With the regular school fees already standing at about N104,900, many students questioned why such an additional payment was necessary, especially when development charges were already included in their existing fees.

While the demonstration was coordinated by HESSA, students from different faculties joined to show solidarity. The protest eventually pushed the school administration to suspend the payment temporarily.

A memo from the school later confirmed that examinations would proceed without students being required to pay the fee for now.

One student who spoke anonymously said: ‘I just don’t agree with the payment. We already pay for manual registration of our college courses and other charges. Adding this so-called development fee makes no sense. It feels like an attempt to extort students.’

Although the protest has eased tensions on campus, many students remain skeptical about what might come next. For now, exams are set to continue, but the larger question of transparency in student levies still hangs in the air.

The Senate yesterday called for a major shift in electoral jurisprudence.

It urged that the burden of proof in election petitions should rest on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) rather than candidates.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio made this call during deliberations on amendments to the Electoral Act 2022.

Akpabio said INEC, as the body that conducts and supervises elections, must be made to account for the legality and transparency of its processes whenever disputes arise.

He said: ‘It is wrong to assume that whatever INEC does is perfect. INEC should be held accountable because it controls electoral materials and logistics.

‘Therefore, it should bear the responsibility in court to prove that its actions were lawful and in line with the will of the people.’

Akpabio, who presided over the session, praised the steady progress made in the electoral system but admitted that perfection remains work in progress.

‘We are improving, but we are not yet perfect,’ he said. ‘We will do our best to craft amendments that will bring us closer to achieving credible, transparent, and violence-free elections.’

Akpabio added: ‘We must continue to discuss until we get a near perfect Electoral Act for the country for the 2027 elections and I know that God will guide us. I have taken cognizance of most of the submissions of people that sometimes believe strongly that it does not have much responsibilities when it comes to electoral matters because it is as that whatever INEC does is perfect.

‘So this time around, the INEC must be held responsible because they are the ones that have the electoral materials and they are the ones that are in charge of logistics.

‘So we must give them some responsibilities in court to prove that yes, indeed their actions were legal and their actions were in tandem with the will of the people.

‘I must also commend Nigeria for the improvements in the Electoral Act that in Africa were even the first to submit the presidential electoral victory even before the announcement of the final elections results and if other countries follow suit, then the elections in Africa would have been fantastic.

‘But we have had improvements upon improvements, but we think we are not yet there. It’s not yet perfect and therefore we’ll do our best to ensure that we craft the kind of amendments that will help us to almost get to the perfect level.’

The plenary also featured extensive debate on proposals to reform the Electoral Act ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Senators across party lines supported strengthening technology-based voting systems and ensuring that election results truly reflect the will of the people.

Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) said democracy thrives when citizens’ votes count. ‘Since 1999, we have continued to amend the Electoral Act to bring power to the people. This current amendment is another opportunity to address gaps, especially regarding BVAS and real-time result transmission,’ he said.

Senator Mohammed Adamu Aliero, said the urgent task before the National Assembly

is to look at all the areas of inconsistencies and irregularities in the Electoral Act of 2022 and remove them.

He said: ‘For example, we were in a haste to pass the Electoral Act in 2022 and we shot ourselves in the foot by removing senators, members of the House of Representatives, governors and deputy governors, state assembly members, elected officials from being members of the delegates.

‘I think it was a very important omission and we should try as much as possible to bring all elected members into the delegate list.’

Senator Adams Oshiomhole (Edo North) lamented the prevalence of violence in elections, warning that it threatens democracy.

‘We cannot continue treating elections like war. Politicians arm poor youths, and after elections, the weapons remain in circulation, fueling crime,’ he said.

Oshiomhole also urged the Senate to retain separate days for national and state elections to avoid chaos and allow security agencies to better manage the process.

Former Bayelsa Governor, Senator Henry Seriake Dickson (Bayelsa West), backed Akpabio’s call for INEC accountability. He argued that shifting the evidential burden to the electoral umpire would strengthen confidence in the process.

‘One of our most urgent reforms should be to move the burden of proof from the candidate to INEC. It is INEC that conducts elections and keeps the materials; it must therefore show that its conduct was lawful,’ Dickson argued.

Senator Garba Musa Maidoki (Kebbi South) supported the proposal and condemned the high cost of obtaining election materials from INEC.

‘Getting certified true copies of election results sometimes costs up to ?1.5billion,’ he lamented.

He also called for diaspora voting, claiming that Nigerians abroad contribute more to the economy through remittances than crude oil revenue.

Replying, Akpabio said diaspora Nigerians remain part of the country’s democratic constituency and should be included in future reforms.

Senator Ekong Sampson (Akwa Ibom South) emphasised that electoral credibility depends on human integrity rather than laws alone.

‘Elections are not conducted by ghosts. Our laws are strong, but enforcement is weak. We must strengthen sanctions for violations and ensure that operators of the system act as trustees of the people’s mandate,’ he said.

Earlier, the Senate read three correspondences from President Bola Ahmed Tinubu seeking confirmation of nominees to the boards of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) and the Universal Service Provision Fund (USPF), as well as the nomination of Dr. Bernard Mohammed Doro as Minister.

Both communications were referred to the Senate Committee on Communications and the Committee of the Whole respectively for consideration.

The Senate also suspended Thursday’s plenary to enable members of the Committee on the Review of the Constitution to attend a joint retreat with their counterparts from the House of Representatives in Lagos.

Akpabio reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment to delivering a more credible electoral framework.

‘We must close loopholes and strengthen our laws so that Nigerians can trust the process and our democracy can truly reflect the will of the people,’ he said.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will screen all members contesting the various offices at the forthcoming National Convention of the party on Tuesday, October 28 at the Legacy House in Abuja.

Chairman of the National Convention Organising Committee Governor Ahmadu Fintiri announced this in a statement on Thursday.

The statement reads: ‘The screening of all aspirants for various National Offices in the 2025 PDP Elective National Convention has been scheduled for Tuesday, 28th October, 2025.

‘The Screening is to hold at the National Convention Organising Committee (NCOC) Secretariat Conference Hall, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja at 2pm while the Screening Appeal has been slated for Thursday, 30th October, 2025

‘To this effect, Monday, 27th October, 2025 has been approved as the last date for the submission of already completed Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms by all aspirants to the NCOC Secretariat.

‘All aspirants, critical stakeholders and Party members should note the dates and be guided accordingly.’

Gunmen have abducted a nursing mother, her husband, and two other women in Ndegwu community, Umunwoha, Owerri West Local Government Area of Imo State, on Wednesday.

One of the female victims, who later escaped from the abductors, disclosed that the hoodlums suspected to be herdsmen wore military camouflage, armed with an AK 47 riffle, besieged their shop located close to the farmland of the community at about 8 pm, shot sporadically before whisking them away.

According to the witness, as they dragged the four abducted individuals into a nearby bush, she managed to escape and ran while raising the alarm.

‘When they came, we initially thought they were military men. They approached us as if they wanted to buy something, but before we could understand what was happening, they pulled out their guns and ordered us to follow them. I mustered the courage to run into a nearby farmland. They even shot at me, but thankfully, I was not hit,’ she stated.

Further narrating her experience, the female victim, who wished to remain anonymous, said the abductors later released the nursing mother and took her husband away along with their neighbour, known only as Odinaka.

‘But the gunmen later released one of the victims after her husband abducted alongside with her pleaded they should release his wife because she’s nursing a baby.’

While the gunmen released the nursing mother, they took the husband and Odinaka to their hideout.

Efforts by a combined team of vigilantes from the community and neighboring areas to find them have so far been unsuccessful.

The Police Public Relations Officer, Henry Okoye, was yet to respond to the incident.

Paddy Adenuga, son of billionaire businessman Dr. Mike Adenuga, has announced engagement to his partner.

In a social media post on Tuesday, Adenuga shared a photo with a caption expressing gratitude to God for blessing him with forever love.

‘My faith in God never wavered.. and in return He blessed me with YOU. My forever love,’ he captioned the post.

The announcement has sparked widespread congratulations and well-wishes from friends, family, and fans.

Adenuga’s fiancée has not been publicly identified and details about the upcoming wedding are yet to be disclosed.