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Leading voices will reimagine African and Afro-diasporic archives as dynamic, contested, and future-shaping spaces at the Re:assemblages symposium in November.

THE Re:assemblages Symposium, a landmark gathering of artists, archivists, curators, publishers, and cultural practitioners, will take place on November 4 and 5 at Alliance Française, Ikoyi, during Lagos Art Week 2025.

Organised by the Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation and the Yinka Shonibare Foundation (Y.S.F.), the symposium will bring together leading voices to collectively reimagine African and Afro-diasporic archives as dynamic, contested, and future-shaping spaces.

The event also marks the launch of the second phase of Re:assemblages (2025-26), a two-year programme aiming to reimagine the role of archives in shaping African and global art histories.

The organisers have designed the symposium to be an interactive experience, with opportunities for dialogue and exchange. They explained in a statement that it was developed in response to the Picton Archive-a collection of rare African-published journals, magazines, and manuscripts held at G.A.S.-the programme reframes archives not as static repositories, but as dynamic infrastructures for research, cultural production, and exchange.

They said that a second symposium, scheduled for autumn 2026, ‘will extend these conversations by developing a toolkit of adaptive archival practices.’

The seminar will unfold across four conceptual strands: Ecotones, The Short Century, Annotations, and The Living Archive, each offering unique insights and perspectives.

‘Ecotones trace transitional zones where ecologies, communities, and knowledge systems intersect. The symposium explores these intersections through presentations and workshops that envision Afro-ecotones across the Atlantic, Indian, and Pacific Oceans.

‘The Short Century revisits 1945-1994 as a catalytic era of African independence and cultural production, revisiting the seminal exhibition on The Short Century: Independence and Liberation Movements in Africa, 1945-1994 curated by OkwuiEwenzor.

‘Annotations probe margins, silences, and archival absences through experimental literary and Performative strategies, bringing to light hidden narratives and alternative epistemologies.

‘The Living Archive reimagines archives and libraries as active, artist-led, community-centred sites of care, restitution, and creative transformation. Through performances, readings, panels, and workshops, the symposium asks how archives can be regenerated as socially and politically vital spaces.’

The symposium will also serve as the inaugural public gathering of the African Arts Libraries Lab (AAL Lab), a new network convened by G.A.S. and Y.S.F. that unites a dynamic group of African arts libraries and publishers across cities, including Lagos, Dakar, Marrakesh, Cairo, Nairobi, Cape Town, and Limbe.

Through its Affiliate Network, the Lab engages with global institutions that hold significant African and Afro-Diasporic collections. Each AAL Lab public convening will culminate in a micro-publication documenting its outcomes and contributing to the Archive Futures Repository. This dynamic digital resource advances new, African-led models of archival stewardship and activation.

Commenting, Yinka Shonibare, founder of G.A.S. and Y.S.F., said: ‘The inaugural Re: assemblages Symposium in Lagos is a vital step toward building African-led frameworks for the future of archives. These collections are not relics of the past but living spaces that continue to shape our shared histories and futures.’

Symposium curator Naima Hassan added: ‘The symposium acknowledges the urgency of engaging African and Afro-diasporic art archives spanning text, image, oral tradition, and performance and asks: what encounters arise within these spaces, and how might they transform our understanding of the archive itself?’

Samantha Russell coordinates the symposium with thematic contributions from Maryam Kazeem, Ann Marie Peña, and Jonn Gale.

The Terra Foundation for American Art, Afreximbank’s Art Program, The Osahon Okunbo Foundation (TOOF), Bank of America, and Bookcraft Africa are supporters of the Re: assemblages Symposium, which opens with a roundtable on ‘How will we share this earth?’ on November 4.

MisslaLibsekal, Janine Francois, Ala Praxis, and Eve Oishi will explore Afro-Ecotones across oceans, beginning with a site-specific reading of Lagos’ lagoon as an ecotonal site of ecological care, memory, and resistance at the session.

The first panel discussion, ‘Destabilising the Archive’ featuring Ore Disu of the Museum of West African Arts, Benin, Samba Yonga of Women’s History Museum of Zambia and Amanda Maples of the New Orleans Museum of Art, will rethink restitution as a process, positioning archives as porous, unstable, and alive.

The second panel, ‘The Living Archive: Propositions for Collections into the Future’, will see Ann Marie Peña chairing a conversation with Michelle Jacques, Azu Nwagbogu and Jago Cooper on how artists and institutions activate archives as participatory, socially responsive spaces.

The day’s final panel, ‘Rematriating the Archive’, will feature Cheryl Finley leading a discussion with Sylvia Arthur, Aisha Augie, and Jareh Das on women-led strategies for regenerating archives through oral traditions, FESTAC ’77, and the legacy of Ladi Kwali.

A screening of Olukemi Lijadu’s ‘Sister, Sister’, a moving portrait of the Lijadu Sisters, reimagining music, memory, and devotion as a living archive, will wrap up activities on the first day.

The second day promises to be just as enjoyable as the first. Highlights include ‘Annotations in Four Acts’, which features Naima Hassan, Maryam Kazeem, Robyn Simpson, and Ufuoma Ogbemudje reading from a new publication on FESTAC ’77 and pan-African festivals, tracing archival fragments and their afterlives.

There will also be a discussion on ‘Curatorial History and African Archives’ where Serubiri Moses, Tumelo Mosaka, and Kemi Ilesanmi highlight the transformative role of African curators, tracing strategies of mobility, mentorship, and institution building across global art networks.

No fewer than 2,217 medical cases and 35 surgical operations were conducted during the second phase of the medical outreach organised by the Deputy Speaker of the Benue State House of Assembly, Hon. Lami Danladi-Ogenyi.

The medical outreach, held under the Lami Medical Outreach Foundation, took place during the week at the Primary Healthcare Centre, Ukwonyo-Utonkon, in Ado Local Government Area.

According to a statement by the Press Secretary to the Deputy Speaker, Agbaji Samuel Atsonwu, the medical outreach formed part of her constituency project.

He said the Deputy Speaker assembled a team of highly skilled surgeons and medical professionals who provided free healthcare services to residents of the community.

The Deputy Speaker’s media aide noted that the surgical operations were carried out on patients with hernia, hydrocelectomies, appendectomy, lipoma excisions, and the removal of abnormal growths and lumps – all aimed at alleviating pain and improving patients’ quality of life.

Aside from the surgeries, the media aide further stated that over two thousand residents of the local government benefited from medical consultations, treatment of common ailments, health screenings, and medications, which included malaria, typhoid, hepatitis, VDRL, HVS, and H. pylori (ulcer), as well as blood pressure monitoring and blood glucose testing. All diagnosed cases were managed and treated effectively.

According to the statement, ‘At the ophthalmology unit, hundreds of residents with varying degrees of eye problems were examined using modern diagnostic machines. Many received drugs and medicated lenses, while others were given professional advice and referrals for further optical surgeries where necessary.

‘The beneficiaries and the entire Ufia community expressed profound gratitude, describing the outreach as historic and a beacon of hope for the people of Ado. They offered heartfelt prayers for the Deputy Speaker, commending her compassion and commitment to addressing critical healthcare needs in the local government and beyond.

‘It is important to note that the successful conclusion of the Ukwonyo-Utonkon phase marks only the beginning, as the medical team will continue the outreach in other parts of Ado to ensure every resident has access to these life-saving services.’

AS a paradigm for the contemporary travails of free thought and freedom of worship, the ongoing saga of Yahaya Sharif-Aminu would be infuriating if it were not so depressing. The Nigerian musician, an adherent of the Tijaniyya Sufi Islamic order, has been running the legal gauntlet since he was first arrested in March 2020 for circulating via WhatsApp audio messages that apparently elevated Ibrahim Niasse, a Tijaniyya Muslim brotherhood Imam, above the prophet Muhammad.

Even before his August 2020 arraignment before a Kano State Upper-Sharia Court, which eventually found him guilty of ‘insulting the religious creed’ contrary to the relevant section of the Kano State Sharia Penal Code Law (2000) and accordingly sentenced him to death by hanging, Sharif-Aminu was a dead man walking. Prior to his arrest by members of Hisbah, the state’s Islamic morality police, his family home had been razed to the ground by an incensed mob. From this standpoint, Sharif-Aminu’s fate was already sealed and his eventual conviction after a closed trial that was riddled with ‘serious procedural flaws,’ a mere formality.

It was on account of these irregularities, among them the fact that Sharif-Aminu lacked legal representation that, in January 2021, a higher court overturned his conviction and ordered a retrial. In August 2022, the Kano State Appeals Court affirmed the retrial order, following which, in November 2022, Sharif-Aminu, unhappy at the appellate court’s decision to allow a retrial, decided to take his case to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, praying the apex court ‘not only to free him, but also to declare Kano State’s death penalty blasphemy law unconstitutional.’

Africa in Transition

Ordinarily, then, last week’s ruling by the same court granting Sharif- Aminu’s lawyers ‘permission to file an appeal outside the legally prescribed timeframe’ bodes well for him, until you consider the following statement by Lamido Abba Sorondinki, counsel for the Kano State government, in defense of the original verdict: ‘This applicant made blasphemous statements against the Holy Prophet, which the government of Kano State will not condone. If the Supreme Court upholds the lower court’s decision, we will execute him publicly.’ As if to avoid being misunderstood, he would go on to add: ‘Anybody that has uttered any word that touches the integrity of the holy prophet, we’ll punish him.’

We are afforded no other interpretation here. Mr. Sorondinki is daring his country’s ultimate legal arbiters: find in favor of Mr. Sharif-Aminu or watch us execute him. In other words, anything other than granting Sharif-Aminu’s prayer to free him-an outcome that is not guaranteed-and he is as good as dead.

Mr. Sorondinki’s statement, embarrassing and careless enough for a lawyer, never mind the appointed counsel for a whole state, is a reminder of everything that is wrong with the blasphemy charge originally preferred against Mr. Sharif-Aminu: the utter ridiculousness of it, and the reason why blasphemy laws have, for all intents and purposes, become a legal relic in most modern countries. Suppose, for the sake of argument, that the songs allegedly circulated by Mr. Sharif-Aminu via WhatsApp did indeed elevate Ibrahim Niasse over the prophet Muhammad; should that be enough to warrant or justify Mr. Sharif-Aminu’s execution? In a world of almost inexorable virality, are we also going to ferret out every individual who listened to, overheard, or came in contact with those songs one way or another and have them all executed? How many people are we allowed to kill simply for being exposed to an idea, image, or in this case, sound, that we disapprove of?

The difficulty in adducing justifiable answers to these questions, particularly under modern conditions where individuals living in close proximity and continuous interaction are bound to have not only different taboos, but conflicting conceptions and hierarchies of the sacred, is one of the many reasons why, over time, many Western societies have decided that prosecuting people for blasphemy is a fool’s errand. (Just to be clear, the modern idea is not that nothing is sacred; the modern idea is that you are not allowed to sacrifice the lives of others to propitiate your own idols.) The historical advance of reason has done the rest.

To say that progress in this regard has been uneven is an understatement. Nigeria is currently one of seven countries worldwide (the others are Afghanistan, Iran, Mauritania, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Somalia) where blasphemy is punishable by death. According to Humanists International, at least eighty-nine countries continue to have blasphemy laws in their statutes. The United States International Commission on Religious Freedom pegs the number at seventy-one.

The variation in estimate does nothing to mitigate the seriousness of the problem, for as the situation in Muslim-majority northern Nigeria amply illustrates, blasphemy laws would be impossible without the prior popularity and acceptance of what Danish legal scholar Jacob Mchangama calls ‘the Fanatic’s Veto.’ This is the idea that perceived blasphemy against the person of the prophet Muhammad warrants a sentence of death executable by the same individual or group of individuals who leveled the accusation. In this way, blasphemy violence sprouts from and authorizes a condition of permanent fatwa in which ordinary citizens are permitted to instigate violence against their fellow citizens in retaliation for real and perceived slights. Under such circumstances, it is impossible to think and speak freely.

This conservative temper contextualizes the Kano State counsel’s open threat to go after anyone who ‘touches the integrity of the holy prophet.’ Mr. Sorondinki’s unfortunate words echo those of another Kano State dignitary, former State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje who, back in August 2020, promised to ‘waste no time in signing the warrant for the execution of the man who blasphemed.’ At the time, both the Kano State chapter of the Nigerian Bar Association and the Muslim Lawyers Association of Nigeria expressed support for Mr. Ganduje’s position. Several Islamic clerics urged him to ‘do the right thing and not be distracted by activities of human right organizations.’

Not only does this explain the spike in blasphemy violence across northern Nigeria, it clarifies why no one is ever prosecuted for such violence and, most crucially, why, according to Amnesty International, ‘government officials rarely publicly condemn mob violence for blasphemy.’ Official silence operates more or less as a license to kill.

Various international human and religious rights organizations have repeatedly called for Mr. Sharif-Aminu’s release. Unusual for the institution, the European Parliament has twice adopted an urgency resolution exhorting the Nigerian authorities to ‘immediately and unconditionally’ release him. The leading defense counsel in the case, human rights lawyer Kola Alapinni, has argued that Sharia-based blasphemy laws across northern Nigeria violate the country’s secular constitution. Yet, if anything is clear from the statements of the authorities in Kano State, it is that they are merely going through the legal motions and would have Mr. Sharif-Aminu executed yesterday if they could.

The United States should put pressure on the Nigerian authorities to do the right thing and set Mr. Sharif-Aminu free. The offense for which he is being tried and has unjustly spent five years in detention has no place in a free society. It is the hallmark of inhumanity, and one that every decent nation has rightly disavowed.

Some grassroots leaders in the OBIdient Movement’s Lagos chapter have turned their criticism towards Dr Yunusa Tanko, the national coordinator, accusing him of backing a disputed list for the state’s leadership council.

The pushback came in a statement released at the weekend by Obiasogu David and Hon. Bamidele Akpata, representing support groups, the Central Organising Committee, and other stakeholders.

They rejected a circulating list for the State Coordinating Council, saying it was allegedly put together without their input by a group of politicians close to Tanko.

‘The purported list of the Obidient Movement State Coordinating Council for Lagos state, now making the rounds, hit us with rude marvel. This isn’t because we lacked knowledge of and were not actively involved in the process of revamping and structuring the Obidient movement in Lagos state, which has been running for months.

‘But the eventual decision and choice of the leadership for the movement in the state were totally abrupt and surreptitious, and the source of the list and some of the names enlisted are unknown to any active Obidient in the state.

‘To give it a befitting context, a set of position-seeking political actors, for intents that raise doubts, met and drew up a list, wherein they shared positions with loyalists, branded it ‘State Coordinating Council’ and imposed on the ObidientMovement in the state.

‘Such a move slaps us, as well as every concerned and active member of the Obidient movement in the state, with sharp, irksome shock, especially considering its covert and manipulative manner.

‘Our unequivocal stand is that of utter disregard and rejection of the purported list. We resolve to ensure that the Obidient Movement, for which we laboured to pioneer and build in the state since March 2022, must not derail from its core principles of integrity, truth, democracy, transparency, and populism, the virtues our leader, Peter Obi, espouses.

‘We must, also, reiterate that the movement in the state is not a political structure for any politician to hire or hijack for self-aggrandisement or to further their political agenda.

‘We are a people-driven movement, built on sacrifice, resilience, and the conviction to rescue Nigeria and Lagos from decades of failed leadership. Therefore, it is imperative that the decisions and activities of the movement, especially a vital one as forming the leadership of the movement at any level, must be subject to and co-opt the core principles of the movement.

‘In view of this, we insist that the leadership of the movement must be constituted through wide consultation and popular consent of the active stakeholders of the movement, a process that is devoid of political gimmicks and the interference of self-willed politicians.

‘Such leaders of the movement must embody the values and qualities of leadership, be active members of the movement from the founding times, and above all, must be chosen by active stakeholders of the movement, especially the Obidient support groups.

‘We call on those who shared the purported list to withdraw it immediately. The national leadership of the Obidient movement must, as a matter of urgency, call for a meeting with stakeholders of the movement in the state to discuss progress’.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has fired a salvo at Nigeria’s 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, issuing a seven-day ultimatum to publicly account for the spending of an estimated N14 trillion collected as fuel subsidy savings.

The organisation also threatened to institute legal proceedings should the state governors and the FCT Minister fail to comply with the demand for transparency.

The N14 trillion represents a portion of the increased Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) funds shared among the three tiers of government since the removal of the petrol subsidy in mid-2023.

According to SERAP, the FAAC distribution for 2024 alone surged to N28.78 trillion, a 79 per cent jump from the previous year, with state governments’ allocations rising by 45.5 per cent to N5.22 trillion.

In a Freedom of Information (FoI) request dated October 4, 2025, and signed by SERAP Deputy Director Kolawole Oluwadare, the group insisted that the savings must be spent solely for the benefit of poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

Failure to do so, SERAP warned, ‘would result in a morally repugnant result of double jeopardy on these Nigerians.’

SERAP urged public officials to invite anti-graft agencies – the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) – to track and monitor spending, ensuring that the money is not diverted into private pockets.

The human rights group also expressed concern over the alleged mismanagement of the funds, stating that the spending details have been mostly shrouded in secrecy.

‘We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter.

‘If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your state and the FCT to comply with our request in the public interest,’ the group added.

The earliest example of personal rule gone awry in the world was given in the biblical account of Eli, the prophet. Personal rule has become prevalent in Africa and other Third World countries. In the account, Eli was High Priest and Judge of Israel in the city of Shiloh. Kindhearted to the troubled and oppressed, the prophet’s renown for kindness became weightier in the narrative of his comforting words to Hannah, one of the hitherto barren wives of Elkanah. When Hannah eventually gave birth to a son named Samuel, Eli extended his affable disposition to Samuel’s upbringing at the tabernacle. Powerful man of God that he was, Eli was however irredeemably lax in the upbringing of his two children, Hophni and Phinehas, who served as priests at the tabernacle. The children were corrupt, wicked, greedy and morally bankrupt. They abused their father’s priestly office and authority at the sanctuary.

Hophni and Phinehas deployed their positions for personal gains and in the process were embroiled in acts of adultery with women who served in the sanctuary. Again, whenever sacrificial offerings of meat were being offered to God, even before the fat was burned, Eli’s sons stormed the venue, forcefully appropriating the best portions of the meats for themselves. In Israel of the time, this was a profound contempt for God’s law and a grave sin. Eli’s rebuke of his sons was tepid and weak.

In His wrath against this selfish use of personal rule, God’s judgment on Eli was fierce. Hophni and Phinehas were both killed in battle. When he heard the news, Eli fell headlong from his chair and died. Worse still, his lineage was forever de-linked from priestly reign.

Léopold Sédar Senghor, Senegal’s first president from 1960 to 1980, co-founder of the Negritude movement, poet and cultural theorist, gave an apt definition of personal rule. According to him, it ‘is not. the art of governing the State for the public welfare in the general framework of laws and regulations. It is (a) question of politician politics: the struggle. to place well oneself, one’s relatives, and one’s clients in the cursus honorum, that is, the race for (benefits).’

Personal rule, otherwise known as presidential monarchy, is a plague in Africa. It is another variant of despotism. It operates where institutions are replaced with persons and systems with individuals. Arising from another plague called the Big Man syndrome, the state is ruled by a strong man who informally distributes offices to friends, relatives and associates, according to the dictates of his whims. The state is then informally captured by patronage and a distribution network of spoils of office. Individuals who are not formally recognized take over the formal functions of the state. What we then have is widespread corruption, impunity and abuse. This leads to the atrophy of public institutions, thus severely limiting the ability of public officials to make policies in the general interest of the people.

In Nigeria’s 65 years of self-rule, either under military or civilian, personal rule has been very prevalent. In it, government is run like a monarchy or, in the lingo of lawyers, as chattels personal. Personal rule has little or no demarcation of private and public domains, or even purses. Apart from giving official responsibilities to cronies and family members, being a relative of the Big Man opens doors, vaults and commands attention.

The first publicly known instance of the familial brand of personal rule in Nigeria was under General Sani Abacha. Before him, little was known in the interface of the families of military despot leaders and the public. For instance, little was known about the excesses of families of Yakubu Gowon, Murtala Muhammed, Olusegun Obasanjo, Shehu Shagari or even Ibrahim Babangida. Under Abacha, however, familial impunity reigned. It came in the form of usage of Nigeria’s presidential aircraft by children of the military leader.

On January 17, 1996, for instance, Ibrahim, son of the late despot, was on a jolly ride in the Nigerian Air Force presidential Falcon jet. He was headed to a party and private family engagement in Kano. Lagos being his departure, he was flying with 14 other friends, including his Yoruba girlfriend, Funmi; Bello, younger brother of Aliko Dangote; and a wealthy young man called Dan Princewill. The jet was almost landing in Kano when it mysteriously exploded mid-air, swallowing all and their dreams.

Obasanjo was particularly loath to this deployment of public assets for personal use. So also were there no public examples of such deployment during Umaru Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan’s time in office. Perhaps taking a cue from their parents’ personal rule disposition, children of successive Nigerian presidents have made this a pastime. Deploying public assets and office for private advantage resurfaced in 2020. Late President Muhammadu Buhari’s daughter, Hanan, flew the presidential jet on a private photography trip to Bauchi State. By convention, only the president of Nigeria, the First Lady, Vice-President, Senate President, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of Nigeria, ex-presidents and a presidential delegation are authorized to use the presidential jet. The convention does not grant the president any powers to transfer his right of usage of the presidential jet to any of his children.

Following in these footsteps, in October 2023, First Son, Seyi Tinubu, flew the presidential aircraft to attend polo games in Kano State. Before him, children and spouses of Nigerian leaders and top government officials who should have no business with the aircraft had become forerunners of this aberration. This provoked the question: is this an endemic problem that should bother us as a people, or is it a mere frivolity that we have allowed to detain us over time? Why do Nigerian public officials always fail to see the divide between the public and the private?

Of particular interest have been the two children of the current Nigerian president, Seyi and Folasade Tinubu-Ojo. In a May 4, 2025 piece entitled Tinubu’s Ajantala Son, I articulated how, if indeed all those democratic flowery words ascribed to the Nigerian president are not cosmetic, Seyi Tinubu must be a pain in the neck of his father, as he is to responsible parenting. I wrote, ‘In Nigeria’s history, I am not aware of any president’s child who has threatened public peace, public decency and the public space as Seyi. His name has come out in every socially distasteful national issue.’ I also wrote further: ‘You will recollect that this same young man was one who, but for his father’s peremptory scold, would probably have been attending Executive Council meetings with ministers. Seyi has no precis in illicit behaviour, so much that he outperforms himself in irresponsible public acts. He is reputed to have nominated ministers and behaves in socially anomalous manner that baffles. He causes so much stir with his long convoys of glittering automobiles and is chaperoned to occasions by Nigerian security apparatuses.’

Around the time when he paid ‘official visits’ to northern states early this year to donate billions of Naira to victims of Nigeria’s social malady, an allegation by the NANS President that Seyi ordered him tortured, beaten and his nude pictures taken for his voyeuristic pleasure took over the stratosphere. There are allegations that he will be put forth as the next governor of Lagos State. I do not see any ooze from Seyi’s mind that justifies a mental fit for this task. In personal rules where there is no distinction between public and private purses of state runners, the question people ask is, where do the billions Seyi spends come from?

The president’s daughter, Tinubu-Ojo, who christened herself ‘Iyaloja-General of Nigeria’-whatever that means-is another sore thumb pointing at the evil of deploying personal rule for familial advantage. The eldest daughter of Nigeria’s president, from inception of her father’s presidency in 2023, Tinubu-Ojo has positioned herself as ‘godmother’ of Nigerian open-air markets. Immediately her father came into office, in a baffling manifestation of an inflated hubris, she was said to have updated her Twitter bio with the title, ‘First Daughter of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (FRN).’ She thereafter sent tongues wagging when a viral video of hers, with Nigerian flags flying behind her, positioned her as addressing what looked like a national broadcast. It was seen as pointing at a desire to appropriate all the perks from her father’s presidency.

Capitalizing on the low capacity to stick to rules that is Nigeria, Folasade catapulted herself from Lagos market headship where she made herself Iyaloja. That position was appropriated by her after the passage of Mama Abibatu Mogaji who occupied the same position. After this, she then made herself the market godmother of the whole of Nigeria. She was apparently yielding to an earlier call for a Hobbesian flee after power by her father in that famous counsel, to ‘fight for it, grab it, snatch it and run with it.’ Folasade has made a pastime of positioning her representatives in various markets across Nigeria. The ultimate aim, it is said, is to protect her personal financial interests. In a Nigeria where genuflection before public office is widespread and public officials are like gods, the president’s daughter, with the panoply of power and wealth at her disposal, is dreaded and worshiped.

Edo State, it will seem, will prove a fatal limitation of this hubris. In 2024, Folasade was said to have begun an attempt to impose an ‘Iyaloja of Edo State markets’ on the ancient city of Benin. Last Tuesday when she visited the palace of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, the president’s daughter however met her match in the impregnable culture of the Edo people. She must have assumed that, like other states, Edo palace bows before ineptitude dressed in the garment of political power. Either out of stiff-necked resistance or inability to mentally penetrate, appreciate and understand the ancient culture of the Benin, the president’s daughter had continued in her imposition gambit which seems to have become a familial trait. At the palace, she told Oba Ewuare II that a Pastor Josephine Ivbazebule would be her surrogate for all markets in Edo State.

After she was done talking, the palace taught her a lesson with words that were harmless on the surface but lacerating in deed. Not only was she taught that she couldn’t recreate her power drunkenness in Edo, she was told in plain terms that the cultural and historical foundations of market leadership in Edo State were far different from what obtains elsewhere in the country. Speaking through an interpreter as he does whenever he considers it demeaning to exchange verbal reply with a guest, Oba Ewuare told Folasade that in Benin culture, market leadership is not a political creation nor is it an external imposition. It is the product of tradition and is under the suzerainty of the Oba of Benin.

If Nigeria’s No. 1 citizen is not embarrassed by the activities of his children, parents all over the world are. The Yoruba, deploring this grotty descent in character of the First Family, say when an elephant trumpets, its child should not too. They also counsel that if one’s barn posts a bountiful yam harvest, a wise man would cover it from prying eyes.

Apart from the raw power to browbeat and be kowtowed to, as well as illicit funds and majesty associated with being the president’s children, Nigerians will be glad to harvest what these ones’ parents planted inside their skulls for national benefit. Certainly not the cunning that produces quick wealth and unearned advantage. Folasade Tinubu-Ojo could have earned more umbrage from the people of Edo State for her audacity if not for the decency of the palace. Let the little darts from the Bini palace remind the president’s daughters that it is the overripe orange that invites the throwing of stones.

The Nigerian Army has dismissed as false and misleading a recent online publication that claimed bandits overran troops and seized six General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs) along with over 30,000 rounds of ammunition in Obanla, Kwara State.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Deputy Director of Army Public Relations, 2 Division of the Nigerian Army, Lieutenant Colonel Polycarp Omiye, described the claims as sensational and clarified that troops of 148 Battalion (Rear), while conducting ongoing clearance operations across Kogi and Kwara states, have continued to record significant operational successes.

He stated:

*’In a recent engagement, the troops mounted a strong blocking position along the Kwara-Ekiti border axis, where they neutralised two armed bandits and recovered two brand-new AK-47 rifles.

‘At no time were Army positions overrun, nor was any cache of weapons or ammunition lost to criminal elements, as mischievously reported by the online platform.

‘The publication is a fabrication intended to mislead the public and undermine the morale of gallant troops who are diligently working to restore peace and stability in the region.

‘The Nigerian Army remains committed to ensuring that all forms of criminality are decisively addressed across the country. Members of the public are therefore urged to disregard the false report and continue supporting the military with timely and credible information to aid ongoing operations.’*

He added that the Nigerian Army also reiterates its readiness to sustain the tempo of operations until all criminal networks in Kogi, Kwara, and adjoining states are dismantled.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, has told the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Nentawe Yilwatda, to take solace in the fact that his late mother, Mama Lydia Yilwatda Goshwe, chose the right time to die.

Akpabio stated this on Saturday at the burial service of Mama Lydia in Jos, the Plateau State capital.

Mama Lydia, mother of the APC national chairman, died in August at the age of 83.

Her burial was attended by top government officials, political leaders, and dignitaries from across the country.

In his condolence message, Akpabio said the family should find comfort in the legacy Mama Lydia left behind and the impact she made in the lives of others.

He said, ‘To our dear Mama, goodbye from all of us. Goodbye from Nigeria. To our National Chairman, be consoled in the knowledge that your mother chose the right time to depart, a time when her legacy continues to speak through you and through all the lives she touched.’

The Senate President also used the occasion to commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for unifying and bringing together people from different faiths, regions and political divides.

Akpabio stated, ‘All former Governors of Plateau State are here today, irrespective of political party. The Governor of Plateau State, working closely with our National Chairman, has received you warmly, and the people of Plateau have shown tremendous affection and excitement at your visit.

‘As a politician, I observed the turnout from the airport to this venue; thousands of Plateau citizens lined the streets, waving and cheering. That alone speaks louder than any words: Mr President, you have touched the hearts of the people of the Plateau.

‘This service today is a powerful reflection of unity, faith, and leadership, and it shows that God has truly registered your presence.’

Men of the Ondo State Police Command have arrested one Bolaji Oluwasetire, a resident of the Osoro area in Ore, for allegedly assaulting a six-year-old girl in the Odigbo Local Government Area of the state.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, Olayinka Ayanlade, who disclosed this in a statement, said the suspect was caught in the act while forcing the minor to rub his genitals with her hands.

According to Ayanlade, the victim’s father, Kolawole Joseph, reported the incident to the Ore Police Division, after which the suspect was immediately apprehended.

He said, ‘Acting swiftly on the report, detectives from the Gender Desk Office, Ore Divisional Headquarters, were dispatched to the scene where the suspect was arrested and taken into custody for interrogation.’

The police spokesperson further explained that while in custody, the suspect reportedly began vomiting a greenish substance. Upon interrogation, he allegedly confessed to ingesting herbicide in a desperate attempt to evade justice for his shameful and criminal act.

Ayanlade said the suspect was promptly rushed to the General Hospital, Ore, where he is currently receiving medical treatment under police watch.

He assured that the minor is safe and that her family is receiving necessary support from relevant authorities, while investigations continue.

The spokesperson reiterated the Command’s zero tolerance for sexual and gender-based violence, adding that the State Commissioner of Police, Adebowale Lawal, has vowed that no offender will escape justice under his leadership.

The Command also urged parents, guardians, and community leaders to remain vigilant and to promptly report any suspected cases of abuse, stressing that Ondo State would never be a safe haven for sexual predators.

Ayanlade said, ‘Ondo State will never be a safe haven for sexual predators. Perpetrators of sexual and gender-based violence will be hunted down, arrested, and decisively prosecuted. There will be no hiding place for offenders.’

Nollywood actress Laide Bakare has issued a public apology after disclosing that she was the one who first introduced her daughter, Similoluwa, to clubbing and alcohol at the age of 17.

In a recent interview, the actress admitted that she personally gave her daughter her first club experience and even her first alcoholic drink.

‘In fact, I’m the first person that will bring her to a club. That was her first club experience ever. And I like the fact that, in her memory, her very first alcoholic drink and clubbing was through me,’ Laide said.

Following the backlash that trailed her comment, Laide in a video shared online, apologised for the statement, describing it as a slip of tongue.

‘I didn’t know I said it. The video was sent to me where I said it but it was a slip of tongue. Such never happened. I didn’t introduce her to alcohol at all. I will never do that. The little girl (Similoluwa) felt bad as well. She doesn’t like to be put out there as a teenage girl abusing alcohol at a young age.

I am using the video to say sorry Simi, sorry parents that feel like I was wrong with that step. Please forgive me for the blunder,’ she said.

Tribune Online earlier reported that Laide Bakare, in a viral video, claimed she took her daughter to the club for the first time and allowed her to take alcohol even at age 17.