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One has over the decades discovered that any set of people, community or country who hates the bitter truth live to suffer for it. That perhaps, explains why yours truly has kept emphasising the critical, yet deliberately foisted fratricidal factors that have cumulatively acted as the enemies to the variant of democracy that we currently practise here in Nigeria. One of the most painful of that is the conduct of fraudulent elections through which humongous state funds are wantonly wasted at the end of which those who are not the choices of the electorate are foisted on the people, to who they have no iota of allegiance. Ordinarily, free, fair and credible elections are supposed to be the strong and solid foundation on which to erect the house of democracy. But when the wrong politicians mount the pedestal of power, the consequences are dire on the pauperized populace.

Such a sad situation of having politicians who are not the true representatives of the people leads to personalization of political power. That is more so by some egocentric and self-righteous political helmsmen, who erroneously believe that the instrument of power they wield is meant to satisfy the self, rather than the state. They brazenly step over the constitution which should be the ground norm through acts of infamy that satisfy their choice or that of so called friends, not minding the consequences on the people they were elected or selected to serve.

Added to this is the siphoning of state funds through several odious antics for self aggrandizement, or to satiate the gargantuan greed of members of their family, with scarce regards to the rule of law. With such an oddity in place the led majority are left to groan and grind in preventable poverty, yet some policy makers keep chasing the shadows of self righteousness at the expense of the people’s pains. And it hurts those with conscience because Nigeria is so naturally endowed with oil and gas, solid minerals, fertile fields for agricultural development, places od scenic splendor as tourist attractions and of course, the best of brains that we have no reason whatsoever to languish in the pit of poverty, if not for the recurring ugly decimal of successive poor leadership.

One other querulous issue is that of ethno-religious sentiment. Going by the choice of people of one ethnic group holding plum political positions, against the federal character principle as we have witnessed over the past decade degrades us as a people -like it or not. In fact, that brings up an all-important question.

Have you ever wondered, like my humble self, just how our crop of patriotic founding fathers would feel, should they be brought back to life to see the Nigeria of today?

Imagine if the likes of Herbert Macaulay, Sir Adeyemo Alakija, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, Prof. EyoIta, Margaret Ekpo (all of the blessed memory) returning to witness the Nigeria of the 21st Century still bitterly enmeshed in ethno-centric and religious divides. Try and also imagine Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Adeleke Adedoyin, Adeniyi Jones, Eric Moore, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Abubakar Dipcharima, Aminu Kano (of the blessed memory) returning to a Nigeria steeped in preventable poverty, mass youth unemployment, insecurity, kidnapping and sundry crimes!

Certainly, these heroes of the struggle for Nigeria’s political independence would ask what has made the difference between countries such as India, Malaysia, Indonesia and Nigeria, whose independence came within the same decade or two, if not quality leadership, or the absence of it. They would cringe at the crying shame of a people still struggling for economic survival in the midst of the vast natural resources, 65 years after political independence.

They would wonder just how, like the prodigal son, our successive political leaders have squandered huge revenues from our God-given oil and gas, solid minerals, agricultural and tourism potentials and ask our leaders to explain why we are currently trapped in state and federal government debts running into trillion of Naira. The likes of Michael Imoudu, T.A Bankole, A. A. Adio-Moses,M.A. Tokunbo and T.A. Songonuga, who once ran the affairs of the Nigerian Trade Union Congress would even ask our state governors to explain just how it has become difficult to pay a minimum wage of N70,000 at a time our lawmakers cruise around in luxury automobiles, with some state governors boasting of private jets; flying over children studying under trees in their long-forgotten states! So, what is the best way forward? That is the million-naira question.

The answer, my dear reader, is to read the HANDWRITING ON THE WALL, as it was back in the Biblical times. But some of our political helmsmen, with self-serving and greed-driven agendas, rather than nationalistic principles have blatantly refused to read it.The call for the holistic restructuring of Nigeria has reached a nerve-shredding crescendo, reverberating across the national space. But some have obstinately turned deaf ears to it, or heed its clarion toll.

So, we caution, as we have to do under trying times such as this, out of sheer patriotic fervor, that Nigeria can no longer be run the way it is being run against the ethos of equity and justice. Nigeria can no longer be ruled by the tools of treachery, the weapons of witch-hunt and the cudgels of coercion, worse still under a democratic dispensation. Recent signs in the political horizon are scary enough. This was my position some six years ago, under the then President Muhammadu Buhari. But are we any better today?

To begin with, not a few observers of the polity would agree that Nigerians have not been as divided along ethnic and religious cleavages as we found ourselves eight years ago. For instance, while some concerned Nigerians had expected President Buhari to be guided by the noble mantra of nationalism and give out political appointments to guarantee ethnic equity, that of his first term were obviously skewed in favour of the North and his political acolytes. The question again is that is much different as at 2025?

Lest we forget, barely five months of Buhari’s second term, the issue of which of the geo-political zones to produce the 2023 presidency took precedence over how to pull Nigeria out of the ignoble status of the world’s poverty capital. Or, how to get the army of our job-seeking youth running into millions out of the violent streets. There were then posters of the then Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai adorning, the walls of some cities as he reportedly geared up for the plum political post. Both Babachir Lawal and Ahmed Yerima of the Arewa Youth group were making it loud and clear that the North was not about to hand over the presidential baton to any other section of the country in the next dispensation. That was back in 2015, some ten odd years ago. But is the situation any different as at this day?

The current wave of mass distraction is fixated on the obvious determination of the Bola Tinubu-led government to keep holding on to power against the political angling of the ADC party. Meanwhile, hunger, high inflation, youth unemployment, insecurity remain the daily travails rather than the exception. So, the call for an holistic restructuring of the country resonates.

Let us therefore, listen to the voices of reason. According to the then President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Nnia Nwodo, restructuring Nigeria is the answer to the waves of agitations currently hitting across Nigeria. At a lecture titled: ‘Restructuring Nigeria: Decentralisation for National Cohesion’ delivered in 2017 at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House in London, Nwodo said, ‘Our present constitution is not autochthonous. It was not written by the people of Nigeria. It was not approved in a national referendum. In jurisprudence, its effectiveness will score a very low grade on account of its unacceptability’.

Interestingly, back then and in a similar tone, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the then National Leader of the All Progressives Congress, stated thus in 2017: ‘We all lined up to call ourselves Nigerians without gathering to discuss what it meant, so Nigerians should not condemn but listen and understand the agitations by the Indigenous People of Biafra.’ He however, warned against any attempt to split the country. Now, that he is the president of the country, we humbly remind him to do the needful. Restructuring remains the best way forward.

THE Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC) has reiterated its commitment to relentless anti-piracy operations nationwide, despite violent and unprovoked attacks on its officials.

It condemned a September 25, 2025, attack on its officers and personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), who were providing security support during an anti-piracy operation at Sabo Market, Sagamu, Ogun State.

The Commission disclosed that its enforcement team was ambushed shortly after identifying and impounding pirated books found in an unmarked shop in the market, but that it would not relent in executing its constitutionally mandated role.

NCC’s Director General, Dr John Asein, commended officers of both agencies for their restraint in the face of provocation and saluted their gallantry and unwavering commitment to the renewed campaign against copyright piracy and other activities that threaten Nigeria’s creative industries.

He promised that ‘working with relevant authorities and the market executives, the Commission will ensure that those behind this brazen attack are identified and brought to book. In addition to other offences, it is also an offence under the Copyright Act to obstruct, hinder, assault, or impede a Copyright Officer in the lawful performance of his duties or in the exercise of powers conferred by the Act.’

Dr Asein further reaffirmed that the NCC remained resolute in its mission to stem copyright piracy and ensure that Nigerian creators enjoy the full benefits of their intellectual labour.

‘We will not relent in fulfilling our statutory mandate, particularly at this time when the Federal Government is prioritising the creative and copyright-based industries for employment generation, wealth creation, and national development.’

He requested that all stakeholders join forces with the NCC in the fight against copyright piracy.

Bauchi State Governor, Senator Bala Abdulkadir Mohammed, has reaffirmed his total loyalty to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its leadership, saying no political party can match the PDP.

The Governor made this known on Sunday while receiving the newly elected Executive Council of the PDP North-East Zone at the Government House, Bauchi. He said efforts to rebuild the PDP into a strong opposition party were steadily gaining ground.

Governor Mohammed assured the new zonal executives of his continued support for all initiatives aimed at uniting party members, in line with the leadership’s vision for the region.

He also restated his commitment to the PDP’s ideals and to working with the party’s leadership at all levels across the country. According to him, his administration will keep prioritizing development and progress in Bauchi State and the North-East.

The new PDP Zonal Executive members commended the Governor for his leadership and expressed confidence in his ability to drive growth within the state and the region.

They reaffirmed their loyalty to the party and promised to work together to reposition the PDP for future electoral victories.

Led by the Zonal Chairman, Babamgida Modibbo Aliyu, the delegation thanked the Governor for hosting the meeting and for his consistent support to the party.

The new executives also passed a vote of confidence in Governor Bala Mohammed’s leadership, praising his ability to unite people and promote development in the state.

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.