Columns
We’re SARS from our mother’s womb *Speak to your children now!
Have you ever had a heart to heart conversation with your children? I mean, sitting down to laugh and play and allow them to open up to you. I had that experience on Friday, October 23, 2020.
Should I say, this was the good side the current lockdown that started since Wednesday, October 21 offered me and my family – opportunity to unravel – to discover each other in a uniquely profound way?
In many ways, yes! For the first time we really had the type of conversation we never had before since they were born – two of my daughters – one 17 and the other, 14. My God, what these two lasses bottled up in their young and tender hearts and had been carrying for years without their mother and me knowing – for all the care and interest we thought we’d taken. I discovered that to try to get everything might be as difficult of going into a deep ocean to try and identify all you could find beneath it. Impossible you might say!
But that’s probably what those little children have ensconced in the cavity of their tender hearts. Loads and loads of secrets you may never know, even as they smile up and pretend that they know nothing.
I had a little glean into that ocean and what I discovered, has kept me very uncomfortable. But it also tells me a lot about the society and why we are probably why we are what we are and where we are as a people. After that, I began to have the full idea of where our SARS began and why we may never truly eradicate the SARS in us. For, we are, in essence, SARS unto ourselves.
How did it all begin, we were all together in my room laughing and chatting over many things, watching some of the videos emanating from the various dimension of the #EndSARS protests that have now turned into riots.
Apparently inebriated on the spirit of the moment, we delved into their days in the boarding schools. My first daughter, now 17, who is awaiting to write her post Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME), was pulled out of Queens College while she was at in her Senior Secondary School (SSS). The second one was also pulled out from Nigerian Navy Secondary School, Ojo. I’m naming these schools because they are still standing and might therefore wish to take interest into the revelation of what might be happening under their noses, assuming they are not aware.
For starters, my first daughter got admission into Federal Government Girls College (FGGC), Shagamu, but was moved unilaterally for inexplicable reason to Federal Government Girls College Effon Alaiye, in Ekiti State. In protest, after a futile effort, I contacted my friend, the late Senator Uche Chukwumerije, then Chairman Senate Committee on Education, who ask me to make a choice of any Unity school within Lagos. The choice was between Federal Government College Ijanikin and Queens College Lagos. I chose Queens College for obvious reason(s).
Did I ever know that I was practically putting her in hell? Those hellish experiences came out pouring out like a broken water pipe on Friday. Did you know that your daughter could be going through such hell now without telling you? Did you know what those children go through and are not telling you? I got to hear and know and nearly wept.
Are you aware that your child, yes, that your tender child that you pamper and shield from doing some menial jobs at home, lest she broke into pieces like a chinaware is in fact doing some prison work in school? Do you know that they could be woken up as early as 5am to go and start fetching water for her seniors? Yes! That your 10-year-old daughter? Do you know that she could stand there for hours on end with about five different buckets that must be delivered to her seniors before she could fetch her own? And there were injunctions. If the water dropped on the floor while she was delivering it, they would ask her to return back to the tap and refill the bucket? Did you know all these about your child?
Okay, don’t take anybody’s words for it. When next you visit, ask to use any of their toilet facilities in the schools. That might give you an inkling into the larger picture, especially in the hostels.
I could understand it during our time because I was already 13 when I went into secondary school and at that age, could withstand some of the tough tasks. Besides, I was also a toughie myself, coming from Ajegunle. But even at that I never saw it, because my school was all day and punishment by seniors was near non-existent.
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In the case of my daughter, she was just nine years. We withdrew her at 13 in SS2, because we were disappointed with her academic output and returned her to the private school where she did her nursery and primary schools, having gotten wiser about the illusion of Unity Schools.
Until now, my daughter never told me that they actually did the job of nightsoiling – onyeburu nsi, agbaekpo – evacuation of faeces. She told me how they were forced to pound the faeces in the toilet basins to make them soft enough to be flushed. This job they did with mopsticks. That is after scooping the ones on the floor, with all the maggots, shitty water and dirt. I wept inside, even though I was smiling. Then I began to understand more about SARS.
What about feeding? My daughter narrated to me how she could go for days without food, real food that is, because she couldn’t eat what she was served, how on her first day in school, she could not eat her beans and yam porridge because she saw broomsticks inside.
But hear this! They once had a very good meal, even better than what she used to eat at home including sizable chicken in their food. Why, a top government official had announced that he was visiting the school. They even had ice cream to boot! You see! But the said official eventually did not come. That was the only time my daughter had good food throughout her stay.
Now, if you didn’t know, during our time QC, as was popularly known, was way out of our class. It was unarguably the most prestigious female secondary school in Lagos, if not the entire country. That was why I didn’t hesitate when Chukwumerije mentioned it to me. I was chasing reputation. And I was not alone. Even in the middle of admission term, long after the process had ended, many were still bringing their children, because everyone wanted their children in the school.
I was lucky that I acceded to the mother’s decision to withdraw at the time we did, a year before the outbreak of the outbreak that nearly devastated the school and left some of the students dead.
The story of my second daughter at the Navy School, was no different from what her elder sister told. In fact, I was always wondering why she always looked sickly each time. In her own account, she told me that her first shock, was when one of the senior students on her first day in the hostel, asked her to colour her (senior’s) cup. She was asked to colour the cup brown. She didn’t understand until she was told to bring her provisions. You know what, the senior students don’t ask, they take. So, we were now buying provisions each time until we now learnt to keep them with one of the school teachers to secure for her.
Like her elder sister, she was subjected to the torture of being woken up at odd hours and made to fetch water, pound faeces and other odd jobs for the senior students at the pain of intense beating at the slightest resistance.
My daughter told me of how some of the senior students became so emboldened and practically went overboard to lock one of their juniors in a metal box.
These are apart from the lesser problems of having her beddings – mattresses, bedspreads, uniforms, pants and bra either stolen or forcefully taken away.
Daddy! Do you know that sometimes I had to hold going to toilet for two weeks and even more? That most times I don’t eat? Do you know that’s why I was always crying whenever I wanted to go back to school?
Now, why didn’t you report all these to your teachers, I continued to ask them. If you report and they are punished, are you not going to come back to the hostel? They will beat you the more.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” I interjected constantly? But it’s the same thing. They will still beat me. They can beat you with anything. So we had to bear it. It’s not easy to report.
But don’t get it twisted. It is generally not the fault of the school administrators, at least not in everything. The blame for poor feeding and lack of regular checks on the environment like the toilet facilities could be heaped on the school authority, but that of intimidation and punishment, are entirely the by-product of fear.
Though I mentioned two schools, I’m told that it is a general phenomenon in boarding schools, especially those schools we struggle to put our children, because of old reputation. Even my wife confirmed this much, because, unlike me who ate palm kernel, she grew up with butter and attended boarding school. I’m also aware that the situation is not different in our universities. But while you are dealing with adults in the universities, what do you say about children, most of whom still carry the damp patches of the birth fluids on their heads?
I write this today because not was I so shocked that I never got to know this truth even after priding myself with some clairvoyance prowess, but because there are so many out there who think they know their children, but are, like me, swimming in an ocean of ignorance.
I have also been specific mentioning the names of the schools and circumstances so that people don’t take this as fiction. Perhaps, the management of these institutions, government officials and other strategic stakeholders, may begin to change strategies – pay unscheduled visits to these schools at auspicious times. That may help.
To parents: Are you still wondering where the SARS starts? Talk to that your child today. Find a way of taking a peek in that locked closet of her heart. You will be surprised how much SARS you might find.
Posted by Editor | 25 October 2020, 12:53pm
Have you been watching the drama happening in ADC? I have, and I have been thoroughly amused doing so. Have you been following the television appearances of Rotimi Amaechi recently? Did you see how the former Governor of Rivers State had been vibrating, assuring of his victory at the party’s presidential primaries?
Did you hear him boasting how he was going to vanquish Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President and now the presidential candidate of the party, indicating that ADC members would prefer him over the seventh-time election-contesting Nigerian record holder, because of his (Amaechi’s) records?
Did you see the vehemence with which he warned that television host, to “stop that nonsense,” for suggesting that he could end up as the VP candidate to the same Atiku? Did you see how he rolled his bulging eyes and how angry he sounded?
Did you read the statement of the former Minister of Transportation, rejecting the outcome of the ADC presidential primaries, even before it was finally announced on Wednesday.
Now, pan the camera to the Abuja home of the same Amaechi – by the way – I could swear the ambiance could compete with the palace of the Sultan of Brunei – how did he do it – but how could I forget his wife is a money-minting machine!
Did you see the selfsame man with Atiku? Did you notice the difference? Did you notice the robustness, the comicalness? Did you watch the chumminess and the camaraderie? What meaning did you read into it? You actually have to be an initiate to correctly read everything perfectly.
Just wait for a few days to hear the announcement. I won’t be the one to tell you that the huffing and puffing, the air-punching and the table-banging is all for one thing – the VP position.
For those who had advocated that Obi stayed back and contested with Atiku, it would have been a fatal gambit. He would have come a distant third in the contest, competing with Mohammed Hayatu-Deen. Not because it will be so by the desires of the members, but the goons, wanted it so and would have made it so.
Even the position of the VP which hitherto had been bandied as his for the asking, would have eluded him. Amaechi was there to pick it up.
You heard Dele Momodu an accomplice in that plot telling you that Amaechi was more experienced than Obi in that interview with Charles Aniagolu on ARISE NEWS Television’s Prime Time.
It was all figured out. If Peter Obi had fallen to the plot he would have been the greatest political mugu of the century. He would have rubbished the rock-strong foundation on which his profile was built and stands today – as businessman and politician.
Indeed the plot appeared skewed towards not only making him wave goodbye to politics forever, but caast a huge slur on his exhilarating credentials that account to his being celebrated as one of the most successful Nigerian business tycoons today.
Only a few seconds and the trap would have snapped. Had he waited a few days more in that ADC environment, it would have been over. He would have been trapped in the odd situation of point of no return.
By now he would have become an object of mockery and an item of sport for his enemies. Tons of them would be having a bellyful of laughter over his ordeal by now – had he wasted a second more.
But having that laugh would mean that the eagle has lost its lustre. Obi isn’t Obi just by name. Now, here is the Obi they wanted to trick into a trap. Still in his early 20s, he drove three cars he bought with his own money before graduating from the university.
First year – a Volkswagen Beetle (today’s Venza) – second year a Peugeot 505 (today’s Prado) – third year – a BMW (Today’s Maybach). Now think of yourself as a student then. Think of your children that are students today. That would bring you closer to the persona in question.
It didn’t end there. Still as an undergraduate, he owned the supermarket on campus. There was more. He built residential houses and became a landlord to students and locals in the university community – one of them, said to be Abubakar Sa’ad, the current Sultan of Sokoto, who was then a military officer.
De hear o! This same Obi, was among the 1,000-ONLY, UK customers the American Express Bank gave their Platinum Cards. You know what that means. In the whole of the UK – including oyibo people of all nationalities doing business.
Before his 33rd birthday, this Obi, had become Chairman of a commercial bank and director of other blue-chip companies. At the same age when his colleagues still clutch files in their armpits in pursuit of jobs, he was already heading a conglomerate of firms dealing with supplies and distribution of goods.
So, add all these up! Imagine the number of intriguing situations he must have dealt with in this long journey. Imagine the boardroom politics. Imaging the various business tricks he must have survived.
In politics, this same Obi practically cut off the head of the political monster prowling Anambra for years.
Before his arrival, the whole of the state was one huge conflagration and cataclysm. Elements sponsored by patrons of evil had razing down structures including the Government House of governor’s residence. Anambra was all chaos – a huge bedlam!
But all these Obi faced and conquered, arresting the tempest, quietening the tide and smoothening the waves – not without battles – there was a deluge of them – but with willpower, wisdom, tenacity, consistency, and above all – courage.
He battled the electoral heist that stole his original mandate, won, then impeachment, triumphed, then abrupt tenure termination, challenged it and returned to power – battled entrenched interests in the labour unions – teachers, doctors, workers – et al – prevailed and handed down a new Anambra sitting on the foundation of sobriety and good behaviour.
Now this was the man they wanted to trick. Obi’s case would have been that of the late John Chukwu, the hero in the tragicomedy, Isubru Ekperi – described as the crab which swam across the mighty ocean, but fell in the woman’s pot of soup.
Had Obi, stayed in ADC to contest against Atiku, his fate would have mimicked Okonkwo in Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, whom for fear of being thought weak, destroyed his own destiny by killing Ikemefuna and ended up committing suicide! But providence was on his side;
Thankfully, he did not. And today, NDC provides a new horizon. Nigerians are being provided the opportunity of a new country, that could rise from the ashes of the old order – a clean break from the past – a new hope of awakening the sleeping giant!
The Tiny Voice!
By Sunny Igboanugo
On Wednesday, April 22, 2026, Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s 14th leader and the fourth elected President was at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on a visit to President Bola Tinubu. Nobody knew the content of that visit because discussions were conducted closed doors.
However, knowing Tinubu, would anything concerning him ever be free of politics, especially given the nuances of the season? Would the snake ever give birth to a creature that is short?
Naturally, as it is wont with Nigeria where one event takes over from the other in quick successions, the Jonathan visit, naturally disappeared – buried inside the reservoir of public consciousness.
But then, things have begun to unfold that people are not only now returning to that April visit, but are taking notes as well as connecting the dots.
Nothing yet seems definite, except in the realm of the popular local saying that when a witch cries at night and the baby dies in the morning, the people know where to look.
Indeed, the droppings of the caterpillar on the ground is making people look up to the tree to see if they are actually eating the green leaves on them. Naturally, events around the 14th President, do not look ordinary – at least not that ordinary to escape more than a scant public scrutiny.
So, when on Thursday May 7, 2026 youths stormed the Abuja office of the ex-President urging him to run for the office he left in 2015, after his historic defeat by Muhammadu Buhari, it elicited a deeper interest from the previous attempts. Yes! It wasn’t the first time Nigerians would be making the pitch. Several groups had tried in the past, even as far back as the 2023 elections.
So, the attempt three weeks ago, was not new. But, this time, eyebrows were raised all the same because it seemed to conduce more intriguing interpretations. Therefore, instead of mere passing interests, Nigerians are now interrogating deeply, putting two and two together.
How much did the former President know about that visit? Did those youths ambush him or was he in the know that such a visit would take place? Was it what is known here as an arrangee – a well-crafted political facade?
Then came the angle of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). A long time ago, when speculations were rife that Peter Obi, was being courted by the former ruling party to return and run for the 2027 presidential election on its platform, Jerry Gana, a stalwart of the party had served notice that they even had a more seducing and deliverable option. It turned out to be Jonathan.
So, long before the Nyesom Wike devastating blow on the party that has kept it in its prostrate state, Jonathan had been on the cards as the number one option for the party. Therefore, it follows that the current steps the party is taking to draft him in, to run as its candidate in the election, is normal. But is it?
The argument in PDP quarters for the Jonathan choice is because he is the only one constitutionally barred from contesting a second term, he is the most fitted to satisfy all shades of political interests in Nigeria today, especially the North eager to return to power. Quite scintillating.
But seducing as this appears, there is a hugely compelling argument against the move. A groundswell of analysts swear that the ex-President is being pushed into the ring as an instrument to stop Peter Obi, the current moving train threatening to crush the ambition of Tinubu to remain in office beyond 2027. In other words, the sole reason is to play the spoiler role.
Supposing this is the reason. Then what is before us is more fatal than critical. This is the same Jonathan whose singular act of calling Buhari that morning on March 31, 2015 to concede defeat, suddenly catapulted him to a global democratic icon – the same that hops into presidential planes to other countries in Africa to straighten crooked democratic roads.
Now, would the same Jonathan swear with his church mind that Tinubu’s model of democracy is what he would prescribe even for an enemy country, let alone Nigeria? What aspect of the country has Tinubu not damaged. So, what would make him a Tinubu’s ally in the further destruction of Nigeria, if he truly loves the country?
This was the same Jonathan who swore that his ambition was not worth the blood of any Nigerian. Is he not aware that the land on which he’s standing is already soaked with the blood of the same citizens by the sheer butchery that is happening daily in the country under the nose of the most underwhelming President yet? Isn’t this the issue now?
Indeed, not a few people have argued that Jonathan should be in the forefront of the Obi project. For one, Obi was once his appointee apart from being a sworn ally. So, he would be in a position to ascertain his true qualities first hand and confirm that he’s the only one among the lot that could fix the country. Even an imbecile knows that Obi would create the clean break from the past that Nigeria needs today to build the future everyone desires.
Besides, he Jonathan, if anything is substantially part of the reason the South East is in its current state at the moment, the level of support the area gave him throughout his tenure is part of the reason the late Buhari increased his hatred for the Igbo a million times more – a phenomenon he transferred through the APC to Tinubu – and which the current President has been unable to extricate himself from.
Okay, is the former President not aware that the position Tinubu is sitting on today belongs to the South East – the zone that took him like one of them that they even gave him an Igbo name – Ebele. If everyone else shortchanges Ndigbo, would he also join, given the foregoing? What manner of ingratitude would that be?
O yes! He has had his Villa meeting. PDP has adopted him as their candidate. Even the legal barrier that would have stopped him, was cleared on Monday when Justice Peter Lifu of the Federal High Court, Abuja, handed him the all-clear sign. He has told the world that he is consulting. While at it, hopefully, more people would tell him the home truth.
Fortunately, he was the one who said it is easy to wake someone that is actually asleep than someone pretending to be asleep. Regrettably, by his silence since the obscene drama began, it appears he prefers the latter. Therefore, his action would not derive from ignorance.
If he finally bites at the apple, it wouldn’t be because he didn’t know how much Tinubu has messed up Nigeria and the implication of reinforcing him with another four years.
His complicity wouldn’t mean that he doesn’t know what to do to reverse the trend. It would only mean that personal interest has taken the better part of him and not the love of the country.
If he deliberately makes that choice, with both eyes open, then he’s welcome in the hall of infamy rather than honour. Fortunately, there is still a window to prove that the foregoing was a mere political nightmare and not reality. But otherwise, it would be apposite for Nigerians to say in unison – GOODLUCK?
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
Option A4, occupies a central place in Nigeria’s democratic development. That unique election model developed and introduced in the Nigerian electoral process by Humphrey Nwosu, the late Professor of Political Science, has become a symbol mounted on a standard and raised high above the sky.
It is Nigeria’s mimic of that biblical golden serpent to which both the nation and its citizens look up at and derive instant succour – much like a balm to their heavily-lacerated democratic soul – a wonder device, that once mesmerised the world.
Yes! Anytime Nigerians want to serenade their democratic spirit with the allure of sweetness, they take a recourse to that unique event that happened more than three decades ago, on June 12, 1993. They reminisce on the purity of the process and beauty of the outcome.
Like the saying that precious things come in simple packages, Option A4, was not only as simple as simplicity itself, but was as powerful as the most impactive dynamite – simple enough to break all barriers of ignorance and powerful enough to destroy all electoral bad behaviours defacing the beautiful perspective of democracy.
Here is the process. Voters converge on a location at approved time, get accredited, queue behind preferred candidates, get counted and the votes recorded in approved result sheets. Finish! No ballot-snatching, no ballot-stuffing, no quarrel, no thuggery, no blood on the floor.
Even the issue of proper voting that lead to void votes is eradicated by the process. The electorates need no education on how to vote properly. The issue of thumb-printing in the wrong space or double-voting is taken care of.
Today, in Nigeria, June 12 is designated as Democracy Day, based on the outcome of that election. It was so seamless and produced such a perfect result that the product – Moshood Kashimawo Olawale (MKO) Abiola was never challenged on the inviolability, but on the other ideas the military government in power then had.
But did you see the same Option A4 put to test under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu? Did you watch the primaries of the All Progressive Congress (APC), at various stages, including the one that produced the President as candidate of the party in the 2027 presidential election? If you did, you would understand where your country is currently and where it is headed.
How could anyone have the mindset to deface such a beauty, let alone design a mechanism to destroy it, given its centrality as the bastion of Nigerian democratic commemorations? How could anyone be so wicked as to destroy the most beautiful Nigerian democratic ornament?
It is like pulling the original of Monalisa or the best of Bini Bronze from their protective encasements and smashing them on the floor. It takes a mindset that has scant regard for beauty – a destructive spirit to do so.
But see how easily they did it! See how simple it was for them. It was as easy as jumping from 10 to 1,000 in a simple counting process a primary school child could do.
Did you see the smiles on their faces to indicate how much fun they had supervising the putrid, outlandish and parlous construct – like the lurid expression of a rapist seeking to satiate his lust? Clearly, it did not matter to them the danger they’re putting themselves and future generations – comprising their children and grandchildren, Tragedy!
But what is it that Tinubu and his co-travellers have not destroyed since happening on Nigeria? What pain have they not wrought on the polity? Is it the economy? Think of those rich Nigerians alighting from their fancy cars and jumping into the Lagos Lagoon.
Is it security? Reminisce on the last moments of General Sani Uba, as he watched the approach of the terrorists while crouching on his knees in the forest, having lost the vain hope that his country would save him.
Think of the Oyo school teacher in that final moment as he waited for the impact of that sharp knife on his bare throat, while being slaughtered like a goat at the abattoir. Think of Zamfara, think of Sokoto, think of Kwara, think of Anambra – add to the list – think Nigeria.
Yet, the APC foot-soldiers – including a Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives – a leader in the legislature – the most important institution of democracy – clowned, jested and had fun.
For them, the rest of the country doesn’t matter. All that matters is Tinubu’s happiness. And the master-strategist, the democratic doyen, the June 12-NADECO icon, was all and about, grinning from ear to ear and lapping everything up.
With economy destroyed from day-one with the impulsive, brainwave – subsidy is gone declaration – with security in tatters that school children, now scurry and scamper in different directions like scared rodents, at the slightest sight of strange faces for fear of being the next kidnap victims – with the national fibric almost giving way from the consistent and unrelenting pressure in running the most nepotistic administration – far worse than the days of the late Muhammadu Buhari, thought to be the worst at a time – what else remains of Nigeria?
Before now, I had grieved that Tinubu deliberately left out Humphery Nwosu in that outlandish June 12 struggle honourees list, when he ought to be the numero uno. I had hoped however that someday, someone more amenable than Tinubu would do the needful. But what hope is there now that Tinubu and his men are tightening the noose on Nigerian democracy? Now this!
The worst part is not that the APC goons committed this heinous atrocity, but in the manner they did. They enjoyed the process. Only mindless characters such as mafia kingpins we watch in movies, take pleasure in inflicting pains. That we now watch such playing out in real life is not only disturbing, it is THE TRAGEDY!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice!
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