Columns
Dangote fuel: Nigeria will get mercy when they deserve it!
Published
5 months agoon

By Sunny Igboanugo
Dangote, NNPC: Too early to cry, too late to beg Tinubu
Greed is one of the most debilitating diseases a man could suffer, if not the most devastating. Now, let me tell you about greed. In fact, let me cite an example of how destructive the demon of greed could be both to the person that becomes a victim by coming under its grips and the society that shares as a victim.
Did you know about Pablo Escobar? Full name: Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria! He was not only the most notorious drug baron in Columbia, if not world history, but the richest criminal of global reckon, amassing, before his death in 1993, more than $30billion from the production and sale of hard drugs. In today’s rating, the raking of the infamous drug-lord, founder of the Medellin Cartel, has been put at well over $70billion.
Now, imagine if he were still alive. His earnings must have hit trillions of dollars. But never doubt that he would not only have remained in that business, but would have continued to accumulate more, regardless the havoc of his wicked enterprise. Why? Simple – the spirit of money. Irrespective the amount of money he must have amassed, he would still be in it. After all, he was, until he was finally caged by the law and died as a result.
In fact, one account quoted Roberto Escobar, accountant to the late kingpin, as saying the gang spent $2,500 a month for buying rubber bands to wrap his stacks of cash alone. Just imagine that. You’re talking about more than N5million in today’s equivalent. Mind you, we’re not talking about electronics or garments – those tiny rubber used in binding money – $2,500 worth monthly. Damn! That must be truckloads of bags of the stuff. Just to bind money! Yet, he never stopped. That is the disease of greed.
It is as contagions as the substance Escobar and his gang sold – more intoxicating than the hardest liquor – more deleterious than cancer – and more dangerous than the worst crime. It steals the soul from the victim and replaces it with stone or something more innate and more lifeless. It turns human beings into monsters – merciless beasts that kill and destroy without pity.
Now, take a sample of how beastly Escobar was. I’ll start with what he did to those who opposed him. A judge, was said to have given a judgement against him in court. Guess what he did? The judge was kidnapped by his henchmen and brought before him. After the personal encounter, the unfortunate jurist, one in many of his victims, was taken into a helicopter and flown high enough and let off in the middle of the city, head-first, so that when he crashed on the hard ground, the mess made by the brain that splashed on the ground, decorated the road like a paint. That was to teach others to be more prudent with their ideas.
That was just one part. There were other more blood-chilling stories. Though an outlaw himself, he was said to be merciless against those who went against the rules, particularly pinching his money. Ordinarily, you became stupendously rich by working in his well-knit organisation. But that was until you got itchy fingers. Then, you were taught a practical lesson of the difference in his diametrically opposing world – of maximum pleasure and agonising pains.
For it was said of him that stealing from his vast wealth was the greatest sin in his empire. The consequences, was in fact, worse than attempting to double-cross him. You could picture what such punishment would be! Horrible death! Hanging could the most merciful. Otherwise, you could be fed alive to one of his pet pythons, thrown into the crocodile-infested ponds to be feasted upon, fried in a drum of boiling oil or simply burnt alive on a stake.
Now, does it offend your sensibilities to situate or comprehend that such a man could be so brutal against those who tried to pay him back in his own coins – the same measure he was using in cheating the system and destroying the society? An irony and contradiction in terms, you might say!
Then I say, my compatriots – that is the same way you cannot make sense of what is happening in your country, Nigeria today. It made no sense to you yesterday, it is not making sense today and it will not make sense tomorrow. That, of course is because you don’t belong to their world – a dusky world, where everything is conducted in pitch-black darkness – a soulless world controlled by the demon of greed.
So, this Monday morning, September 16, 2024, when Rufai Oseni, a popular voice on national affairs and one of the anchors of The Morning Show, a breakfast programme on Arise News Television, after doing what he knows how to do best – dissecting the issue of Nigeria in the clearest terms – for the umpteenth time, concluded by appealing to the conscience of the powers that be in Nigeria – those responsible for the current excruciating suffering in the country – to soften their legs on the pedal, reduce the speed and slow down the galloping vehicle with which they are driving the collective fate of Nigerians down the slopy hill, the question, I asked myself was, did he understand?
For emphasis, he had tried logic, remonstrating that the money they were amassing today, would be useless to them at death and behind them. He emphasised that their children would squander the same accumulated wealth by wasting them on mundane fancies, only for things to return to the basics. Yes! The same children would be left groping for survival, simply because they made no meaningful contributions in creating the wealth. Touching and convincing argument to make, you’d suppose.
His words: “Have mercy! Have mercy on Nigerians. Stop the stealing, reduce the corruption. The hardship is too much. Nigerians are dying of poverty, hunger and disease.” With a glint in his eyes, he pled again: “Have mercy! Stop killing Nigerians!” Who was he addressing? That was the question I asked myself.
It was akin to that scene in the court of Venice in Shakespeare’s epic – The Merchant of Venice – where Portia pleaded with Shylock, the Jewish merchant to have mercy and spare the life of Antonio, but which was ignored because he (Shylock), wanted nothing outside having his pound of flesh, to satisfy his urge for vengeance for past wrongdoing for which he bore years of grudge.
In the same TV show on Monday, Ojy Okpe, the face of What’s Trending, a segment of the programme, played a trending video in the social media of a Nigerian mother going by the tag – the _victorious_chisom, passionately begging President Bola Tinubu and wife, Oluremi, to have mercy on her and her children.
“Dear President,” she began, “the hardship is telling on us, especially we, widows, like me. I’m a widow of two children who are still toddlers. I became a widow, Your Excellency Sir, because of the insecurity in Nigeria. My late husband was kidnapped in 2022 and was killed, despite paying ransom. Your Excellency, I’m law-abiding, I’m hardworking. And despite being a widow whose children were made fatherless due to insecurity, I still keep pushing. I still live in Nigeria. I still stay and live in Nigeria.
“My dear President, please I’m begging, the hardship is too much, the hardship is telling on us. Many young widows are suffering. Please pity us. Have mercy on us. Dear First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, please, you’re a mother and you’re a wife and I know and I believe you know what we are going through, especially young widows like us.”
Then, the clincher: “At this point, I’m fed up. I’m tired. I can’t take it any longer!” That was how she ended. The rest of her sad story was told by tiny droplets of tears lurking at the corners of both eyes, refusing to flow down. Who knows how long she had been crying for the tears to have become that tiny that you’d have to look hard enough to observe them?
If you had watched as I did, I’m sure you heard clearly, when Reuben Abati, another anchor in the programme, stated the obvious in his concluding comments. “She spoke for the rest of us,” he had said. No! She didn’t! She rather spoke for the millions of voiceless families that are worse than her – mothers dying in silence, who have no access to phones, not to talk about data or media space to post the littlest snippets of their anguish.
She spoke for families who have buried one or two of their children due to lack of money to buy cheap medicines to treat common malaria – millions of others who go to bed with empty stomachs and have done so for days and weeks on end and millions more who are waiting to be swallowed up by the elements.
If I were close to that woman, I would have asked her to save her breath, wipe her tears and wait for the appropriate time, because that moment is coming when she would need them. Surely, by that time, nobody would need to tell her it is time to cry. But not now that petrol is still selling at N1,000. No! After all, it is still cheaper than the price in Togo and Benin Republic. Didn’t IMF say so? Aren’t they the masters we listen to? They said Nigeria is still selling cheaper than other countries. Why? Why should it be cheaper when we need all the money to keep the Villa comfortable? Or don’t they know that in there is where we have “Thinking People” – whose brains are sharper than Socrates and Aristotle put together – the reason they’re taking such BOLD decisions to redeem years of mess? These Nigerians self! Did they think that deep thinking is conducted under inclement weather? No! Such thinking need the coziest environments such as diamond-encrusted chairs and ornamental beds inside the bellies of N5billion yachts to conduct.
That said, she should therefore await the time she can no longer afford data or must have sold her phone and other belongings and found a space with her children in the cold streets, if not a worse situation. The road she is currently trodding would surely lead her to her destination where she would find the right corners to cry at the appropriate time, assuming she could muster the strength to shed tears at that point. Of course, she would not be alone there. That’s for sure. She would have company – plenty!
As for her appeal to Tinubu, what mercy does she want the President and family to show? Is Tinubu the cause of her situation? Didn’t he meet a bad economy, inherited from Muhammadu Buhari, his predecessor? Come to think of it, didn’t he alert the nation early enough that he would continue Buhari’s “legacies,” where he stopped? If Buhari flogged them with koboko and he’s now flogging them with snakes and scorpions, what crime did he commit? Isn’t that the idea of promise kept?
These Nigerians self! Didn’t the woman hear him tell his China host that he’s a “reformer?” How else are reforms conducted? What else is reform than spending money like it is going out of fashion – buying new Presidential planes, acquiring new yachts, exotic cars for himself, renovating mansions and putting other facilities in place for pleasuring himself and those now “serving” the country? Didn’t she hear him say subsidy is gone? Did he have water in his mouth when he said so last year or was his voice not audible enough?
Coming to the issue everyone is complaining about, was he the one that employed the people at the NNPCL or did they see him around Dangote? Why should he demand anything from them? Do they want to knock his head together with those voracious, avaricious and powerful members of the Vested Interest Club that have dared his predecessors to move against them?
Is it this Presidency that he crossed seven rivers and seven forest to get, confronting all the elements in the wilderness to boot, that these troublesome Nigerians now want him to fritter away by leading him to confront such monstrous behemoth with bare hands. Ko le wek! E no go work for them! If the woman wants mercy, let her direct her tears to the appropriate quarters. Why does she want to stain his clothes with her tears? Why should anyone blame him for the pervading greed that has been there even when he was still hustling in Chicago – whose origin is as old as Nigeria itself?
Even the legendary Fela sang about it – the N2.8billion, missing oil money! What was the verdict of Justice Ayo Irikefe? Didn’t he look into his crystal ball and declare that no oil money was missing. So, kini big deal? If the problem was not dealt with in 1979, how could he, Tinubu fix it now? In fact, why should he?
Besides, how many times and for how long would he continue to sing it like a song that Nigeria under him is like a woman in labour who must bear the pangs of it no matter how long it lasts? What’s with Nigeria about impatience? Even if the woman dies, what about it? She wouldn’t be the first. Many other women have died and many others waiting to die. Right now, even when some are reeling under the pangs of childbirth, many are at this minute enjoying the pleasure – and asking for more – that would make them visit the labour room tomorrow to bear the same pain.
Come to think of it, what did they contribute to his road to the Villa? Didn’t they hear him recount how he snatched, grabbed and ran with power? Did they think he would go through all that and not enjoy his prize to the fullest?
Did they think a world-class accountant with enough sharp memories to be able to last him a lifetime – that goes to bed with figures, forgets easily? Did they think he didn’t hear the trolls and catcalls during those days of Bala-blu-bulaba? They were laughing then and calling him names. Who’s laughing now?
What were they thinking he alluded to when on the night of March 1, 2023, after Mahmoud Yakubu, the INEC chairman declared him winner of the presidential election he told them – I hear you! Loud and clear?! This is surely payback time to them for their move through their “votes” or lack of it. O! How they would – in full!
Did they think that his memory is so short as to forget the favours – such as losing Lagos and Abuja? What if the courts had not come to his rescue? What if those judges had believed Peter Obi that 25 per cent votes in Abuja is like the Use of English in JAMB – a compulsory subject each student must pass or Atiku Abubakar, who insisted he was nowhere near Chicago State University, not to talk about possessing their certificate?
Next time they should know how to cast their votes. You get mercy when you deserve it. Yes! Nyesom Wike, his henchman in the FCT has promised Abuja will never happen again. Lagos, was an error too that the MC Oluomo and other leg-men have since corrected! Maybe when these people learn to cooperate and stop voting nonsense! May be then, “Sister Mercy” might have returned from the market! But for now, she’s still on her journey yet. Her heading home would either be in 2027 or 2031. That is a long time to start shedding tears now!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice

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By Sunny Igboanugo
Let me start this story with a digression. All the same it’ll be relevant and tied to the main import of the subject matter. It happened some decades back. Then yours truly was the Correspondent of The Guardian in Enugu. But I was quite influential – as influential as journalists in those days were – a small man in a powerful garb. Working with The Flagship of Nigerian journalism made you even more so – an important man. Its identity opened steel doors and elevated you to sit at table with the high and mighty, who not only respect you, but fear you too.
But much as I operated at that top level, again to emphasise, not by my power, but on the wings of that powerful medium, I didn’t entertain myself with the seducing thought that I had arrived at the port of destination for the Nigerian big man. I still recognised where I truly belonged. That place was with the people
So, I could safely say I was at the centre of activities, not only in that state, but even much of the South East in general given the strategic place of Enugu. In fact, my office at Number 23 Edinburgh Road, was the accurate example of what the late Igwe Osita Agwuna depicted to be the picture of palace of a true king. Such a palace, he said should never be surrounded with a wall, to enable both humans and spirits have free ingress in and egress out.
I remember the likes of Asisi Asobie, the President of Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), who used it as their war room to plot their battles with Umoru Gomwalk, then Sole Administrator of the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) – one of the many outlandish features of the Sani Abacha junta, arguably, Nigeria’s most despotic and brutal military leader.
Politicians, visiting and resident, professionals, visiting and resident – all manner of people strolled in, individually either to meet and greet or engage in other businesses. Labour leaders, students and their leaders, injured citizenry – everyone came to meet and greet, lay their complaints, submit their petitions or engage in other businesses.
That is how I came across the story I’m about to narrate now. Sometime within this period, Enugu was awash with some of the most bizarre tales, ever conceived and contemplated by human mind. It was a period of mindless police brutality. It came in different forms, shapes and sizes. Many of them came to my table as victims sought solutions.
In one instance, one of my cousins came to my office one afternoon, highly agitated. What was the problem? A squad of policemen swooped on their compound the previous night and picked up two of his elder brothers, he narrated, tears welling up. What did they do? Nothing! Police just sighted them sitting idly in front of their house and dragged them into their vehicle and sped off.
Immediately, I ascertained where they were being detained, I set off. At the Abakpa police station, the DPO, put up the usual deadpan no-nonsense expression – their entry point for business. His story was that my cousins were raided at a “dark spot,” where they were smoking Igbo. For evidence, he called on one of his men to bring the “exhibit.” Soon an empty can of shoe polish was produced. Opening it, the DPO displayed stubs of wrapped, half-finished hemps.
Of course, I wasn’t a novice. I understood the picture clearly and what he was driving at. But I was also prepared. I betrayed no emotions. In my mind I was already calculating the number of times the same exhibit would have been on display in so many other cases. So, my next line was to ask what would be the next step.
Can I take them on bail? That was my next move as I decided to play along. I knew what to expect toeing this line, having been a customer in terms of how many times I intervened in other similar cases. I could see the self-induced anger. I wasn’t showing the right attitude expected of one whose wards were criminals. After all he had shown me the evidence in the stubs of Indian hemps, which was supposed to convince me to that effect. I was too relaxed and confident instead of being scared, diffident and panicky.
I watched him flare up and go into self-induced rage. As he vibrated on top of his voice, almost accusing me of being their patron in crime, I just stood up and walked out of his office. The unschooled would have started begging. That pretended anger was supposed not only to cow, but to deflate me and set me on for the next thing – negotiation.
I simply went upstairs to see the Area Commander who was a friend of the media and particularly my personal buddy. After giving me the usual chummy welcome, he simply burst into hearty laughter halfway into my narration of the encounter downstairs. You no tell am who you be? I knew and my friend knew that I understood everything. There had been so many debates and encounters between us about the subject matter for him not to understand where I was coming from.
He simply put a call to the supposed angry DPO and invited him to the party? I could see the shock in his eyes as he walked into the office to witness the hearty, convivial atmosphere between the man he had just walked out of his office and his boss. You no know Sunny from the powerful Guardian? Sunny is our friend o. Na him dey help us fight crime now!
That did it. I not only left that office with my cousins, the supposed criminals much later, I left as a friend of the same man, who had almost called me a patron of criminals just some hours earlier. There was no need for us to push the subject. All of us knew that no crime was committed. I agreed with my new friend that profiling was part of crime-fighting – his drift and excuse for his previous action. I also agreed on the enormity of crime and the need to employ peculiar solutions in peculiar circumstances to fight crimes. I just had to agree – just for peace to reign.
Each of us knew the true story. He knew I didn’t believe him. It would have been a different story if I wasn’t from the powerful Guardian, with a friend upstairs. With someone else, that allegation could have stood and those “exhibits” in the shoe polish can would have counted. In fact, it could have graduated from smoking Igbo to armed robbery or any other imaginable crimes, for which those my cousins could have added to the list of Awaiting Trial Mates in some prison somewhere if they failed to do the needful.
Those exhibits stood in so many other numerous cases as proofs against several victims that were so unlucky at that time. The case I just narrated, is one of the countless other cases that came in different shapes and forms at that time. Imagine a case in which policemen would hire a commercial bus, arrive at a bus-stop and pick passenger, only to discharge them at police stations as criminals.
Those who could not afford the prescribed amount – N500, N1,000 or N5,000, depending on the going price for the day imposed as bail fees, simply became true criminals and were detained permanently. Nobody even had the heart for pity to free anyone – you’re just a commodity – too bad if you had no money – your fault, not theirs.
I won’t be surprised if many of them are still in prison till date, victims of trumped-up charges. It was when I was so inundated with multiple complaints in this regard that I upped the ante. One day I decided to see the police commissioner. Unlike the Area Commander, the CP was not truly a friend, but unlike the DPO, he was also not uncouth or unfriendly either.
In the paper I filled, I had deliberately tagged my purpose for the visit: Police Brutality in Enugu. It was after a long back and forth, questions and answers, arguments and counters, that the police boss, told me what I’m about to share with you now, my compatriots, which I believe is quite germane in what we are contending with as a country today, at this moment – evidence!
Here is what he said. Hope you have the heart to contain it. Laugh or cry, if you would! “If you truly want to be a patriotic citizen, there is only one way to help the police,” he said. I waited. Then the bombshell. “If you see any policeman bullying anybody taking bribe or engaging in any fraud, drag him to me and see if I won’t punish him.”
I simply stood up, looked hard into his face and walked out. Of course, I took in the smirk in his face and the smile playing at the corners of his lips. They spoke more than words. They were signs of triumphant expression. He believed that he had won the argument and defeated me, his opponent. Now imagine me, an ordinary, bloody civilian dragging a policeman with a gun, probably high on something, by his trousers to his boss to prove that was taking bribe. Tell me the difference between that and jumping from the last floor of Dubai’s Burj Khalifa.
This is the case of Dele Farotimi today. The mantra in certain quarters since the palaver with the fiery activist erupted on December 3, when he was spirited away from his office in Lekki part of Lagos, is that he must prove his case that the Nigerian judiciary as an institution is rotten. Many of those elevating this mantra to a deafening din, know that the institution is as rotten as the bloated stomach of a dead dog. Yet, they sing along.
They pretend they didn’t hear Ahmed Bulkachuwa – that Senator who regaled the whole world through the Senate chambers during the 2023 valedictory session about how he “encroached on the freedom and independence” of his wife. They pretend they did not understand that the man was simply relating his hand in making his wife, a judge, who later rose to preside over the Court of Appeal to bend backwards to skew justice, just to “help” his colleagues.
They probably did not hear Rochas Okorocha, another Senator, who also pled with Godswill Akpabio and Ahmed Lawn at the same forum to teach him the magic that made them return to the Red Chambers. They’re probably struck with Mongolian Idiocy Syndrome, not to know what the ex-Imo governor and their colleague was driving at was pointing to the manifest corruption in the judiciary – the same crime for which Farotimi now his neck on the guillotine.
Recall that Akpabio, now Senate President and Lawan, each contested against President Bola Tinubu in the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the National Assembly and against the backdrop of a clear law barring them from contesting any other election within the same election period, returned to contest for the same chambers. Has anyone explained that magic Okorocha, Senator from Imo State sought yet?
Less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court verdict on the 2023 presidential election, Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammed, only next in command to then Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Ayo Ariwoola, captured almost the same thing Dele did, only that he did not mean it when he said that the judiciary leadership stank, but was only saying that it didn’t smell roses. So, they are in search of evidence.
Just like that police boss that demanded of me to drag corrupt policemen to him before he could take the required action to save the citizens of Enugu from their nightmare, Farotimi’s adversaries, many of them the lawyers through whom the massive corruption in the judiciary has been caried out are also searching for the same thing – Proof! They, like the Enugu police boss know what they seek is almost impossible.
They know the only way Farotimi could prove the rot is to perhaps round up the culprits at the crime scene. In other words, they want him to drag the corrupt, bribe-taking policemen to that police boss. How would he do that? You could always also recognise the same triumphant smirk, mimicking that police boss as I left his office in utter disgust as they demand of the same EVIDENCE, today. Just like that day!
Well, by their standard and prediction, Dele’s day with the jailor is assured. But by the time Dele walks into the jail house, chained arms and legs, because he had no evidence, the mantra of these antagonists would have been complete. So, their joy. But to many others, the clanging sound of the chains would also be a reminder that Nelson Mandela and many other global greats, also walked this path, heads unbowed.
Interestingly, many of those who cheered and jeered to the melody from the chains, as he took that walk to Roben Island, in South Africa, also lined up to witness a different melody as the same man waltzed through the same path, 21 years after, this time, without the chains – the melody of thunderous ovations and the clatter of excitedly eager tongues. Though some of them were denied the chance of witnessing it, their children represented them. Only this time, they watched with heads, bowed!
So, it might be with Dele Farotimi. Those who cheer and jeer today in triumphalism, should not be quick to forget that even in Nigeria, there are a surfeit of examples to authenticate that inscription on the body of that lorry labouring through the ditches on Lagos-Benin expressway – No Condition is Permanent. So might it be with Dele. The irony of life!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
Columns
Farotimi: Has Obi-bashing replaced Sowore’s Ekiti, London mega protests?
Published
2 months agoon
December 11, 2024
Sowore is putting every spin to turn the table against Peter Obi using the Farotimi case. He wants to exploit it to gain cheap political popularity.
In his little mind, he believes Obi is his albatross and once he’s out of the way he’ll be the natural replacement and most probably inherit the massive support of the Obidents.
Such asinine childishness. So, he’s worked very hard at it, introducing all manner of innuendos and direct attacks in his attempt to skew the minds of the people.
Imagine his suggestion that the reason the Ekiti Court delayed granting bail to Farotimi is because Obi visited Afe Babalola “to beg.” Of course, he failed to provide the “HOW” of such a spurious position.
Like Reno Omokri, his half-self, he believes his audience should either take his word for it or figure the rest out for themselves. But the bottomline, is that Obi must go as a sellout to be replaced by Sowore the Rock of Gibraltar. He wants to take over.
Like many of his ilk, he fails to understand that Obi is what he is because of a single element – sincerity. The people who believe in and follow him know that he doesn’t lie or attempt to deceive them.
Unlike Sowore and Reno his half-self whose every public move is laced with subterfuge, half-truth, outright lies and deceit, Obi’s followers can predict that his intentions are pure and genuine even if they don’t agree with the method.
Of course, being human, there’s no way he’ll get it right in all cases and all the time. So, that margin of error must be allowed, not as a way of betrayal but a natural human failing.
Take the case in question. Farotimi was so supportive and inebriated in the Obi project that he became one of his campaign spokesmen.
Till his current ordeal, he still professed his belief in the Obi idea of a New Nigeria. He has given countless reasons for this choice including why he dumped the same Sowore and embrace the Obi project.
On the other hand, Afe Babalola is also believed to be his (Obi’s) supporter as well, though apparently not as virulently as Farotimi, which invariably qualifies him as an ally in the New Nigeria project.
So, in Sowore’s infantile mind, it’ll be wrong for Obi to troubleshoot in a situation in which two of his allies in the same project are in dispute regardless what’s in issue?
In other words, not plunging into blind support for one party over the other is the harakiri Obi has committed – that Obi should have either drawn his bayonet and driven it though the heart of the legal luminary to show his solidarity or taken newspaper adverts to castigate him?
So, today, if Farotimi also takes on Ayo Adebanjo, the Leader of Afenifere, who staked everything including his high position of Yoruba leadership to support an Igbo man, perhaps over a church dispute between them, Obi should abandon every other option and join in the roforofo fight?
To prove what, please? On the other hand if Farotimi institutes a legal case against Obasanjo another of Obi’s allies, over personal wrongdoing as President, Obi should just key-in or else risk a fatal fate?
Even Farotimi will be a huge disappointment to think in that direction. From the look of things, Sowore is projecting that the first thing Farotimi would do on regaining freedom is to call a press conference to tear Obi apart as a traitor and announce the withdrawal of his support.
Well, we shall watch him do that and see where it leads. Let’s see how many Nigerians will join him if he says that Obi is no longer his model for taking Nigeria out of the woods and that it’s Sowore henceforth.
Of course, the Farotimi Nigerians know is a wise man who knows the difference between white and black and who is fake between Obi and Sowore.
He knows why Ijebu garri is so sought after unlike the other makes. If he changes his mind because of the propaganda by people like Sowore, it means he’s simply not what many think of him.
To begin with, where is the Mother of all Protests Sowore promised? Has he mobilised it yet? December 10 is come and gone without as much as a whimper anywhere in Nigeria, not to talk about the US and UK where the world is supposed to see rising dusts from human feet.
That’s how to determine fakery from the real, how to separate the grain from the chaff. That’s how to also know who’s serious and who’s a noisemaker.
Obi never hid where he stood on the matter. He was among the first to lash out against the authorities on the method of Farotimi’s arrest and demand his release. That should serve.
As for Sowore, the joke is on him. He would have to prove that he’s not even a mole camouflaging as activist as many suspect. Nigerians are not all fools yet.
Certainly, they know their docility has not gotten to the level they’ll be led by the nose and start looking in the direction of a Sowore as a replacement for Peter Obi. Their mumu will get to a head the day they start considering that.
Dele Farotimi himself knows the difference between a lizard and crocodile, butterfly and bird. Not a million Sowores are likely to change that.
Of course, nothing suggests that Sowore is not intelligent enough to realise that the only workable way to the kind of society he claims to be crusading for is to team up with Peter Obi, who has proven even to his worst enemies that he’s not only a man of premium character but equipped with the right tools to fix Nigeria.
So, not doing so, shows he’s either a willing tool in the hands of the people he daily accuses or is himself afflicted with the same disease of selfishness and greed, and to mimic them when he sees the opportunity, which is bad enough.
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
Columns
Ajofia in Lagos: One day, Ndigbo will offend ‘Yoruba culture’ by breathing same air
Published
2 months agoon
December 10, 2024
By Sunny Igboanugo
When I first saw the video of one young man on WhatsApp gleefully announcing that the Commissioner of Police in Lagos had barred Ajofia Nnewi masquerade from coming into the state, my immediate reaction was incredulity. This is not possible, I said to myself. But then…! I remembered that this is a new Lagos.
Yes! This is a completely new Lagos – the Lagos of the All Progressives Congress (APC), where Ndigbo have been confined to a special place – mimicking the Jews in Nazi Germany – targeted before the World War and became the sacrificial animals during its pendency to the extent that six million of them were fed into the gas chamber.
Nobody knows how long the current onslaught will last. But surely, for as long as the APC remains in power in the state and continues to draw the type of strength it is currently enjoying from the national level, there is every reason to fear. Much of what is happening is beyond mere hatred for Ndigbo per se, but a deliberate political strategy and the only way not only the party, but its patrons could survive in power.
So, instead of dismissing it totally, as I would ordinarily have done some 10 years ago, in the old Lagos, before the current blitzkrieg, I sought to first authenticate the story. I began the search and discovered that the source was sequel to a video in The Yoruba Times, quoting a supposed “traditional Igbo man,” as saying that the dreaded masquerade was “making its way into Lagos.”
I don’t know when the said platform being quoted published the original story under reference or when the entire saga started. But the story I found through my perusing the internet, titled: Police bar Igbo masquerade from entering Yoruba indigenous land of Lagos, citing cultural sensitivity, security concerns, published on December 05, 2024, went thus: “The Lagos State Police Commissioner, CP Ishola Olarewaju Olawale, has prohibited the Ajofia Nnewi Masquerade from entering Lagos for the Igbo Festival, citing concerns over public safety and potential breach of peace.
“This decision was made during a meeting between Igbo stakeholders in Lagos and the police commissioner. Recall, The Yoruba Times reported a video of a traditional Igbo man who said the masquerade, Ajofia Nnewi, is making its way to Lagos December 12, 2024.
“The Ajofia Nnewi Masquerade, notoriously referred to as the “Evil Forest,” holds significant cultural and traditional value in Igbo society. However, its proposed appearance in Lagos has been met with strong opposition from various Yoruba communities in the state, who have expressed concerns and reservations about its presence.
“CP Olawale explained that residents, including indigenes, were uncomfortable with the masquerade’s presence in Lagos after a group boasted about unleashing mayhem. He played a video recording of the masquerade performing rituals, which raised suspicions about their intentions.
“The police commissioner emphasized that every tribe has its own masquerade, operating within their tribe, and that Ajofia is an Igbo masquerade that should not come to Lagos State, which is another tribe.
“Eze Nwachukwu, responding on behalf of Ndigbo, thanked the CP for the meeting and acknowledged the message. Despite Eze Nwachukwu emphasis on peaceful nature of the festival featuring the Ajofia Nnewi Masquerade in Lagos, indigenous people of the state have expressed strong objections to its appearance, citing concerns that it could pose a risk to individuals who are unfamiliar with the traditional significance and cultural context of the masquerade.
“According to report, In Igbo mythology, the Ajofia Nnewi Masquerade is believed to possess spiritual powers, which can be unsettling for those who do not understand or share the same cultural beliefs. Furthermore, the masquerade’s name, “Evil Forest,” evokes a sense of mystery and foreboding, which can be intimidating to those who are unfamiliar with its cultural significance.
“The Ajofia Nnewi Masquerade is traditionally not performed in front of women, which can create an air of mystery and exclusivity around the masquerade. The masquerade’s performances often involve elaborate rituals and ceremonies, which can be perceived as “dangerous” or “-threatening” by those who do not understand their cultural context.”
I still don’t understand the story. None of the basic questions someone not conversant with it would ask was answered. What is the event the Ajofia is supposed to attend on December 12, by whom and for whom? Those details were not provided either.
But on the other hand, I ask myself, would the purveyors actually go to the extent of using the name of the Commissioner of police to concoct such a tale assuming if it is false? Therein lies my confusion. But the authenticity or otherwise of the story is not really the important issue. What is, is the spirit behind it.
That is where I shall concentrate. Pray! When has Lagos transformed into such a provincial, straight-jacket, air-tight environment that residents, particularly the non-Yoruba and more particularly the Igbo ethnic community, now have to watch their every step and all utterances in order not offend their “benevolent, gracious and accommodating” hosts? Do they need a special approval in matters of like this?
When has Lagos left the realm of an open, robust, thriving, global entity, which like the iroko tree, inhabits all manner of animals acting in their true, natural and undiluted characters, to conduce an ecosystem of individual and interdependent firmament?
When have Accra, Cairo, Abidjan, Nairobi, Johannesburg, and other cities across Africa, with which Lagos used to sit at the table left it behind for it to grovel for crumps underneath, by being led to assume this stiff, clumsy and insipid toga? Is this the idea of a mega-city or has that idea been abandoned? Pray! When has Lagos become a city for the Yoruba and no longer a potpourri, melting pot of Nigerian – nay global space?
At what point did it lose its original texture? How long will it last and who stands to gain in the end if the current patrons succeed in this backward agenda? Now, let me tell you more about Lagos, with this Ajofia issue in mind. I have the authority to say so, because I saw Lagos with my own eyes, as a child and now an adult.
There have been numerous Ajofias that bestrode the streets of Lagos with residents – young and old – Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Bini, Efik, Idoma, et al, trooping out in excitement to applaud and celebrate. I say so, because I was one of those who were in those streets. There was one as tall as a tree, taller than Ajofia, said to have come from Kwale, a community in Delta State. There was one of Ijaw origin. I saw a dangerous one from Igala in Kogi, said to be very dangerous. We all saw them here in Lagos.
So many Ajofias, have performed at Tafawa Belewa Square, the centre of Lagos. So many have done so at the National Stadium, at the National Theatre, now The Wole Soyinka Centre for Culture and the Creative Arts. So many have done so at less fanciful big arenas. They had done so in the presence, sponsorship and excitement of the leaders of Lagos, some of whom are still alive and in authority today. I say so because I’m a witness.
In other words, I can authoritatively say that Ajofia coming to Lagos is not something new. What is, is that Lagos is gradually transforming into something else. A tiny group of people obviously enjoying a lavish endorsement of high authority and boasting same, have seized the space, making their own rules, In those rules Ndigbo have become sworn targets, some sort of guinea pigs for a nihilistic agenda.
This group, I’m not afraid to say, is tiny and infinitesimal. But it is highly dangerous. They neither represent the original or present Lagos, nor the Yoruba. Mostly those the train has left behind, they find accommodation under a fertile ground of the APC in the state. Between them is a symbiotic relationship where they become footsoldiers for the APC, which now finds them as convenient and willing tools – foot-soldiers in the quest to remain in power, in return for all manner of favours, including the alluring dream of possible seizure of Igbo properties and businesses in future.
To underscore this fact of its political nature, this new, but dangerous trend, no doubt came to the fore in the run to the 2015 general elections, when the Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akiolu, threatened to drown the Igbo in the Lagos Lagoon, if they failed to key into the APC agenda of continuing in power. That was the first time Ndigbo were mentioned by name openly.
Now, there has been numerous interpretations – one of which was that Kabiesi, was simply entertaining himself with his friends – the Igbo, as monarchs are wont. After all, a king is permitted such pastime – a king does as he wishes – is a popular. But the danger therein is that many seem to have taken it to heart upped the ante to what it is now.
Suddenly, a new phenomenon under the cloak of “Yoruba culture” is now being used to adorn what is clearly a political agenda. In subsequent elections, that “joke” from Kabiesi, has become the anthem of a certain established mindset. Last year, in the run to the general elections, videos and audios of Ndigbo being invited, where they were warned that it is offensive to think or act independently of their host, who have been so “generous” and “accommodating” to them.
There is an “accommodating spirit” to which everyone of them must obey as a sign of “respect” in return for this kindness. Mind you, this injunction doesn’t apply to any other ethnic group. The Hausas with an appreciable size, almost as large as the Igbo are exempted from the same injunction for obvious reason.
Now, what is that respect? Simple answer! Vote the APC. That is the only way to live and operate in Lagos. Of course, the consequences of not obeying that injunction have since resonated in the weeping, wailing, mourning and grinding of the teeth at the Alaba International Market, Ladipo Auto Spare Parts Market, Balogun Market and many other places where the Igbo reside or conduct their businesses, in the last few months. The Ajofia Nnewi story, could only be a further escalation of the sad trend to press home the point.
Unfortunately, though sad on all sides, based on the possible outcome now and in the future, these tiny patrons of the evil agenda do not seem to realise that they are backing the wrong horse. Their choice of the Igbo, makes the plot a futile dream and a lost battle. If only they could allow a little bit of history to guide them.
Now, even if they manage to recreate the Rwanda scenario by either annihilating the entire Igbo or chasing them out of Lagos; even if they succeed in taking over those thriving businesses, the edifices at ASPANDA, Alaba, Ladipo and Balogun; even if they seize all the beautiful houses and everything Ndigbo own in Lagos, which serves as the major attractions to many of those in this sustained plot, what next?
That is the question? Haven’t Ndigbo been annihilated before? Haven’t their properties been seized before? What’s the result today? How long would those businesses last before those hoping to seize them blow the proceeds? How far would the edifices last in their hands before they become decrepit and useless for lack of ideas and resources to maintain them?
Okay, assuming, but not conceding the possibility of Ndigbo not voting in Lagos again, because if offends “Yoruba culture,” does it guarantee the retention and sustenance of the APC forever as they desire. Of course the answer is obvious – Nada! Was it Ndigbo that made the party lose so woefully in the presidential election of last year, before the resort to a new strategy?
Yes! Take Ndigbo out of the equation totally, the APC will still lose in a free and fair election in Lagos and elsewhere, as they have been losing for several years now. The reason, is also not farfetched. Elections are a function of the mind. Voters naturally get weary of going in one direction.
The relay race between dominant parties in many climes where votes are rarely manipulated gives impetus to this factor. Just a few days ago in Ghana, the National Democratic Congress (NDC), has just won power back from the National Patriotic Party (NPP). A few weeks earlier in the US, it was the Republicans that displaced the Democrats through Donald Trump. African National Congress (ANC), in South Africa is fast losing grip of power despite its historic place in the country.
It is only in countries like Nigeria that people express such “love” for their oppressors such that they had to endure such immense pains in the 16-years of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Not until Barak Obama and his same-sex-loving government came to their rescue, Nigerians would probably have continued to “vote” the party till date and even till the 100 years its leaders had predicted it would be in power.
Bottomline: Enough of the scapegoating! For this is what all the Ajofia story is all about. There should be a limit to targeting a people. Someone must quench this appetite of the APC, lest the world would be dealing with another sad story.
Even in the #EndSARS violence that engulfed the entire Nigeria in 2020, some people still found a way to try and pin the Lagos edition on Ndigbo. Apart from the burning of the BRT buses, they were accused of invading the Iga Idunganran palace of the Oba. But for the intervention of some “right-thinking” leaders, aided by video evidence clearly contradicting the false narrative, who knows what would have come out of that ugly episode.
No doubt many are still at work pushing the envelope. But it won’t change anything in a people who by all standards and on all accounts are the only visibly True Nigerians. Furthermore, let a thousand Bayo Onanugas rise to warn Ndigbo to steer clear, let ten thousand more MC Oluomos prevent them from voting, APC in Lagos is on a slaughter slab already, as a natural course of action.
Ajofia Nnewi has traversed the farthest end of the earth. It has performed in Europe and America. No doubt it is quite fearsome. Yet it is an entertaining masquerade. It is not even the biggest or most dreaded Igbo masquerade. There is the Ijele, known for its majesty and beauty. There is the Okwomma and Mgbadike, depicting valour and strength.
Though hitherto restricted to their original Igbo domains, today, they have become global symbols of national culture, exported beyond Nigeria for tourism and theatre. Even Flavour Nabania, Nigeria’s iconic singer, invites masquerades on stage during his performance in Nigeria and abroad without offending anyone’s culture.
So, the APC goons in Lagos, cannot stop their dwindling fortunes by targeting Ndigbo. They have blamed them for the Ogunpa River overflowing its banks and for the flooding in Lekki. Ndigbo have been blamed for their wives not conceiving or failure to get erection in the other room. Soon, they will make it an offence for Ndigbo to breathe the same air with them, because doing so, would contaminate the “Lagos culture.”
Sad enough the plot instead of being confined in its proper place in Lagos APC, is being packaged and sold as a Yoruba agenda. No. Check again. There is no other Yorubaland exhibiting this trend. Many Yoruba compatriots, practically flinch at the idea. They see it as a total anathema and offensive to the true, open boisterous Omoluabi spirit their people have popularised over time.
Sadder day will come the day the evil plotters successful sell that package. That will be the tragedy. Luckily however, Nigerian history has proven that every political situation no matter how odious has a shelf life. The APC will not be different. Its expiration may it not be too far. In fact, it looks closer than farther. Then, Lagos will return to what it used to be – Eko pabere rara – Lagos doesn’t take nonsense at all!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo and I’m The Tiny Voice!
News Editor:
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February 14, 2025 6:04 am



February 14, 2025 6:04 am

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