When I wrote about the oar and the oracle just last week, I had convinced myself that rowing was the only honest posture for a Nigerian in these times. The roaring, I said, is for those who have already arrived. The rowing is for the rest of us. But even as I pressed my oar against the current, the oracle-that ancient voice of truth and foresight-has been unusually talkative. And what it has been saying this past week is enough to make a lazy man to sit up, adjust his agbada, and ask, ‘ina ruwa, ina kogi…? Where is the water, and where is the river?’
Let me tell you what the oracle has whispered.
First, the earth itself seems restless. In Kebbi state, 10 police officers lost their lives in a clash with bandits, with at least 17 of the attackers also killed . In Niger state, nine bodies were recovered from a bush along the Wawa-Lumma road, victims of suspected bandit attacks. The oracle speaks of blood soaking the soil, and the water we row on grows redder by the day. The old men used to say that when the river runs red, the fish either learn to swim faster or they die. We seem to be learning neither.
But it is not just the sound of gunfire that fills the air. There is also the sound of politics-that peculiar Nigerian music that plays on a loop, sometimes a symphony, sometimes a cacophony. This week, a group calling itself Working People United (WoPU) has defied the Nigeria Labour Congress, insisting that workers have the constitutional right to support President Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027 without seeking permission from labour leaders. The NLC had directed affiliates to boycott WoPU’s inauguration. WoPU replied with Section 40 of the 1999 Constitution, waving it like a charm against evil spirits. And I sit here thinking: Ina ma’aikata? Where are the workers in all this? Are they rowing, or are they being rowed?
This is the part that fascinates me-and also grieves me. On one hand, the oracle shows us civil society organisations backing the revenue reforms of Dr Zacch Adedeji, Chairman of the Nigeria Revenue Service, and shelving planned protests. They point to monthly allocations rising from about N700 billion in 2023 to approximately N4.5 trillion. They speak of over one million students benefiting from the student loan scheme, with more than N303 billion disbursed. These are not small things. The river is flowing, albeit in directions we did not expect. On the other hand, the Take It Back Movement protested in Abuja and Lagos, demanding action on hardship and insecurity, with activist Omoyele Sowore declaring that ‘revolution is necessary and imminent’. The oracle does not take sides; it merely presents the facts and invites us to choose our oar.
And then there is the matter of the coup plot-alleged, denied, and now the subject of hushed conversations in the corridors of power. A military colonel accused of plotting against President Tinubu has reportedly claimed his actions were motivated by patriotism, arguing that Nigeria was ‘almost at the point of collapse’. Whether true or not, the whisper alone is enough to make the river tremble. The oracles of old did not just predict the future; they warned of the consequences of ignoring the present. This is that warning.
Meanwhile, the geopolitical realignments are not slowing down. The withdrawal of French troops from the Sahel, the emergence of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), and the expansion of Russian influence have drastically altered West Africa’s power structure. Nigeria, as chair of ECOWAS, faced the Herculean challenge of leading a more divided region. The France dilemma-that awkward dance between our historical suspicions and President Tinubu’s cozy rapport with Macron-has now become a full-blown geopolitical tango. The oracle whispers that the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline could be Nigeria’s strategic card to play, but only if we stop rowing in circles long enough to play it .
The oracle says: Africa’s past is not the point. The point is what you do with your present. We are in the rowing 20s, but rowing without direction is just exhaustion. Rowing without understanding the currents is just drowning slowly. The oracle has spoken this week-through blood, through protests, through politics, through geopolitics. The question is: are we listening, or are we too busy rowing to hear?
I think of this instructive Hausa saying, ‘Kowa ya san inda ruwa ya kai sai ya tsaya’-everyone knows where the water has reached and must stop. But this week, the water has reached everywhere. It is in Kebbi, in Niger, in Abuja, in Lagos, in the Sahel. And we are still rowing. Perhaps the oracle’s message is this: rowing is necessary, but rowing blindly is a sin. Row with your eyes open. Row with your ears open. Row as though your life depends on it-because it does.