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Ajofia in Lagos: One day, Ndigbo will offend ‘Yoruba culture’ by breathing same air
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!
By Sunny Igboanugo
For many citizens and outsiders watching events in Nigeria, hear me. Don’t dismiss with the wave of the hand the threat of Monday Okpebholo, Governor of Edo State. Never ignore an iti-boribo or dare his raised fist – you’re making a fatal error.
What’s iti-boribo? I’ll explain shortly. Iti is lighter. But Iti-boribo is the extreme form of daftness – I mean, mental density – dull-wittedness – intellectual vacuity – rational-vapidity, phrenic-blandness – a blank mind, incapable of logic or objective thoughts – an intellectual mistake!
In most cases, it’s a dangerous state of being. But in others, it is very useful. It only depends on the circumstances. Take your mind back to those days in schools. I don’t know what happens in today’s age of the internet, social media and computers, those in our days when schooling was a bitter-sweet experience – without school-runs, school buses and children confronted all manner of elements on their ways to and from schools.
The imprimatur of iti-boribo was everywhere, in different shapes and sizes. Think of your individual samples, experiences and your own versions. Let me attempt one or two myself.
There was one called Kpoti in my primary school! That was his generic name, in school and community. It’s difficult to remember his real name. On this particular day, a sudden uproar halted all activities. Even we the “infants” already enjoying our recess had to pause to the noise from the “Primary,” our seniors still in session.
Kpoti, the archetypal iti-boribo – the highest level of the term, had on this day, delivered a grand performance of his iti-boriborism. The English teacher, had asked him to make a sentence with children.
Looking over the classroom wall, which some of us saw as the biblical wall of Jerico, but which he towered over, he delivered the thunder – “The Children are wuharing na field.” Nwughari in Igbo meant group movement like in a market. In this instance, it was the onomatopoeic expression of the children are playing in the field. That was the end of the day’s class. The teacher couldn’t take it any longer. It was the height of daftness – a class performance that resonated beyond the school and till date, still resonates in many quarters.
But the outside, Kpoti was a critical member of the society. He was quite prolific in many other ways. An excellent climber of palm trees, a strongman on the football pitch and outside it, the protector of the school team.
Trust Kpoti with the womenfolk, who he helped in harvesting their palm fruits and tilled their farmlands in addition to other village duties the English language teacher could never dare. Without Kpoti, the football team, would be disembowelled and stripped of the guts. Confronting opponents especially in other communities proved problematic. Who dared engage in any physical fight with the team or its supporters, with Kpoti around? He was the Goliath that protected everyone.
So, intellectualism or lack of it, did not diminish his total worth eventually. In fact, because he built his own formation of brutes that terrorised his environment, he was both feared and respected, such that even the brightest of the pupils simply paid homage to be admitted into his protective wings.
Take another example, Julie. She was the female replica of Kpoti. Also a pupil, but well-established in her own right as an iti-boribo. On this evening, after the close of school, when many of us brought wares to the market for our mothers and later descended on the mango trees surrounding our school.
Unbeknownst to us, while plucking the ripe mangoes, our school vice headmaster was somewhere watching. He later chanced on us and matched us into one of the classrooms. The implication wasn’t lost on anyone. We were still kneeling down awaiting the stings of his trademark akpuruekwe on our backs when Julie did the unthinkable. With an acrobatic, Olympic-style back-flip, she scaled this same classroom wall with a dexterity that would put many athletic high-jumpers to shame and make them gasp with envy.
As she sprinted down the field with the speed sure to leave world sprint record holders green with envy, even the teacher, couldn’t hold back. His symbolic stern mien dissolved into throaty laughter and in the end, all of us were let off the hook as a result.
Now you see that iti-boribo, have their uses. In most cases, whatever they lose in terms of intellectual acuity are compensated in many other ways. In the military, for instance, some of them get to the top of their career by making up what they lost in brainwork with sheer gift of courage and skills of field-battle.
But it is a different kettle of fish to assign them with tasks that require intellectual exercises. That becomes an albatross and, in most cases, not only counterproductive, but signal clear danger to the society. That seems to be the case in this Okpebholo outing.
Who wouldn’t recall how for months on end, the anchors of The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS, laboured to bring him as a candidate to discuss his programmes as governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the September 21, 2024 election. It never happened. His handlers explained it away that he was too busy with his campaigns to engage the media.
But not a few knew swore that he had mortal fear of the media they would expose him as the Kpoti of Edo State. Well, he has since became and the world is now witnessing the outcome.
First was the presentation of the state budget, last year. Ordinary N605billion that a kindergarten child could 20 minutes of labouring without success. In the end, he simply jumped it. Yet, the budget was approved.
Don’t even question what business a governor of that quality of education has with such a high office. The joke would be on you. It means you don’t know the Nigeria of today and the makeup of its leadership under the APC.
Have you seen the West African Examination Council (WAEC) result he supposedly sat for and obtained at the age of 36 years? Add that to the picture.
But then, it comes handy at this time. Surely, you don’t believe becoming the numero uno in a state like Edo, one of the intellectual bases of Nigeria is by chance. Ask yourself why? Kpoti was never useless. Same here. Those who made him governor, know exactly what they were looking for.
They know that Edo State, is the headquarters of the Obidient Movement – the group of Nigerian youths determined to making Peter Obi President as way of achieving the New Nigeria or their dream. If they must be stopped, there’s only one way – to deploy a Kpoti. They’ve since found one.
In The Godfather – that classic by Mario Puzo – Luca Brasi one of the characters, was depicted as 100 per cent loyal to Don Coleone because he believed there was no life outside him. He lived for nothing else, completely deadened to other societal stimuli that he practically threw the baby fathered by him into a furnace.
The Okpebholo I see would not hesitate to throw Nigeria into the furnace to please his patrons. You heard him boast delivery of 100 per cent Edo votes to APC in 2027. How is he going to achieve this if not go for broke and take no prisoners?
Else what is Obi’s offence? Why would a governor, who ought to roll out the drum to celebrate a philanthropist kind enough to donate a whopping N15million to an institution be the one to shoot the gesture down, when he ought to be harvesting the act as a point of contact for more philanthropy, if anything, to lessen the burden on his shoulders as governor?
Of course, the answer is obvious. The ululations you heard from those students at the School of Nursing, as they sang and danced in praises of Obi, was like a hot spear piercing his heart. He couldn’t simply stand it.
That is why he must not be ignored. In fact, those equating Okpebholo’s comments with that of Hyacinth Alia of Benue, who also refused Obi entry to the camp of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in his state, may be comparing oranges and apples. Alia is not a Kpoti. He’s not an iti-boribo. He knows the consequences of hurting anyone, not the least, a politically exposed person like Obi.
On the contrary, this can’t be said of the Edo New Sheriff in Town (NSIT). For him, there’s definitely no fallback position. Even he, himself, would not believe his senses about becoming a governor. So, to those who made it possible, he owes nothing but total loyalty and dedication – the type Luca Brasi gave to Don Coleone!
He would do the unthinkable, if he felt it was necessary. He would do it and leave the rest to the likes of Adams Oshiohmole and Kassim Afegbua to do the explaining. After all, they not only have the key, but the full explanation of how he became governor.
Besides, by the time you’re reading this, Nyesom Wike, must have been holding court at the Dennis Osadebey House in Benin. Figure that in, and the picture become clearer as to why not only, Obi, but Nigerians entirely should be apprehensive.
I repeat, it will be a fatal error to believe that Okpebholo’s was just engaged in political talks. He’s definitely not making an empty threat. He has told anyone that cared that he was not joking that Obi must not venture into the state without his approval. It’s left to you to ascertain if such approval would ever be given in the first place.
Okpebholo, like the bird dancing in the middle of the road, which has its drummers in the bush, also has the godfathers goading him on. And like the child sent by his father to steal, he will break the door with his feet, fearing no consequences.
Instead of daring him to act, he must be stopped from acting. When a Luca Brasi is sent on a mission, he doesn’t leave it unaccomplished. He either does it or dies trying. And when he raises a weapon, don’t dare him. He’ll use it. Don’t dare Okpebholo. Iti-boribo ajoka!
So, Daddy Freeze as an Honest Bunch anchor, claimed that Peter Obi was MD of NPA under Sani Abacha. What sort of human beings do we have in Nigeria these days?
Pray! Is it that he doesn’t know or ought to not know, who the MD of NPA was, at any point, which is supposed to be a public record? And you’re hosting such an influential platform? What a disgrace!
What is he doing there? Why not concentrate on feasting on the ignorance of Nigerians that populate that his regular show? I thought he was already making a kill there with the type of wealth I see him flaunting – in expensive cars and exotic wristwatches, mimicking the likes of Dino Melaye? Oh! I forget that for Nigerians, money can never be enough.
But why go to such show like the Honest Bunch, which has managed to keep some measures of level-headedness as one of the prime podcasts shows in Nigeria today? Is it to disfigure or pollute it? And why would the management, which was so sensitive as to expel Nedu, the man Daddy Freeze took over from, over what appears an honest mistake, in order to maintain its integrity, keep him a minute longer having committed such a fatal sacrilege, obviously in order to please someone somewhere?
Imagine Peter Obi, as MD of NPA – Nigeria Ports Authority. He didn’t even retain the ugly lies other goons like him have been telling and retelling for years now, in attempt to pin something on Obi, albeit unsuccessfully. He had to take his own a nudge higher by claiming that he was an MD – Managing Director! DAMN!
And to try to couch it with the usual lullaby to serenade his audience – a gambit the growing members of his club like that other one that calls himself Seyi Law, usually throw up to try and hoodwink Nigerians – I’ve no problem with Peter Obi, I like Peter Obi, but I can’t bring myself to think that he once worked with Abacha – he was once the Managing Director of NPA! What a shame!
He even accused Obi of being responsible for the toxic fuel that was once brought into Nigeria under the same Abacha, claiming that there was no way he, as the head of the NPA then, could pass the integrity question.
Here is part of his exact words: “My greatest criticism of Obi – I love him as a person – I think he’s brilliant, but I can’t divorce him from the fact that he worked hand in hand with Abacha. He was the MD of the (National) Ports Authority under a regime like General Sani Abacha’s regime. We know that in this world, corruption of a country starts at its ports.
“How can we have this great, fantastic political leader, who is a saint today, but worked with General Abacha?… There is no way we can divorce this Abacha – you cannot be a head of ports and you tell me…” Such crawling ignorance! All in a bid to achieve what?
Meanwhile, what’s his own record that he feels, qualifies him to clean Peter Obi’s shoes in terms of integrity? Is it not the same man a court in Port Harcourt once ordered to pay N5millon to his fellow man, as fine for committing adultery with his wife and coveting the same woman as his own wife? Was he not the same man that travelled to the UK to dine and wine with Hushpuppy, a criminal convict, currently serving jail term in the US?
So, parading this awful moral travesty, he still finds it in his own head to stand in judgement over other people on matters of integrity – no less a person as clean as whistle, such as Peter Obi – the only known politician in Nigeria who has dared anybody including those in authority to scrutinise his record on the pain of resigning his political aspiration if anything could be found to indict him! What a world – a Nigerian world!
If I didn’t see the video myself, I wouldn’t have believed that the man who I thought was highly intelligent, the way he carries on, and coming from a family of intellectual parantage, would fall into such a trap. But here was he, displaying such a disgraceful outing. I ask again, what is he still doing there in the Honest Bunch? Did Nedu’s error equal the fatal hara-kiri he just committed to be thrown out?
Naturally, his own programme on social media fits into his persona, because there, morality takes the backseat. Nobody talks about morals at strip clubs or of a musician having women’s underwear thrown at them while performing on stage. If he even stopped at restating this particular lie that Peter Obi worked with Abacha and left it at that, it would have been acceptable. But standing on an apparent high-ground to suggest that he doesn’t like him because he did, is like a prostitute complaining that her colleague snatched her customer. Quo warranto?
I hope Daddy Freeze actually appealed that case and got a reprieve from a higher court. Because if he didn’t, the implications are grave. It means he cannot sue anyone for libel because there won’t be any integrity to protect. It also means he cannot stand surety for anybody. All that is required, if he did, is for his traducer to raise the issue of that judgement and the document he signed becomes as worthless as a toilet paper. I hope someone, particularly his lawyers have adverted his mind to this. They should, if they hadn’t.
My advice: Aburo, Daddy Freeze, keep your support about Obi! Balogun market doesn’t recognise that one trader did not come to the market. You’re permitted, like Reno Omokri and Seyi law, et al, to trend with his name and make plenty dollars doing so. But you have to device other reasons like others have done for doing so. Never you go moral. Because that is the department where you score zero – bankrupt, I mean.
Indeed, your own case is even worse on this score, because unlike you, Reno Omokri and Seyi Law, are not on record to have been found guilty of such grave malfeasance as you were once recorded. So, if it happens that anyone had approached you to feast on Obi – if they had not done so, it is a matter of time before they come knocking – and supposing that is indeed what you’re angling for – never you wax moral. Find another reason. That way, you can chop the money they paid you jejee? I na acha ka utu ocha!
My name is Sunny Igboanugo, I’m The Tiny Voice
By Sunny Igboanugo
This Reuben Abati sef! What was he trying to say again this morning on Arise? After the 2023 presidential election, when Nigerians were bemoaning their fate as the courts were churning out one bizarre, funny and outlandish verdict after the other – judgements without justice in support of the obvious heist – he took it as his remit to pour cold water on the righteous indignation pervading the land.
He chose a time of general anger, moral outrage, weeping, wailing, mourning and gnashing of the teeth trailing the official endorsement of the political larceny that had just happened to people to deliver his notorious declaration – Public opinion is kilometres and kilometres away from law.
Such insensitive, if not thoughtless move, as he sought to paper over a serious injury to the essence of decency and heavy blow to public good and integrity of democratic ethos, rankled at that time as it still does today. It was akin to adding salt to injury to a grieving community.
As many asked then, what then is the essence of law if it defeats or is glaringly antithetical to public opinion? From whence did the dictum – justice must not only be done, but seen to be done derive from if public opinion is not part of the context?
I remember the treatise of Justice Obiora Nwazota, former Chief Judge of Anambra State, when he dissected the issue of public opinion in relations to the phrase – right-thinking members of the society – and how he concluded that the term did not suggest fish mongers at Ose Okwodu market must be the ones to decide. Anyone with little education or tiny matter in his brain, ought to discern between the shape of the letter ‘B’ and the footprint of a cow!
So, on Thursday, when Vice President Kashim Shettima, took to the podium to make a profound statement, in one of the rarest outings on the nation’s political scenes in recent times, to the fact that No President in Nigeria has the powers to Remove a councillor, not to talk of a governor, his audience heard him loud and clear.
Now, Shettima, has been on the political scene for much of the 25 years the current experience has lasted. Before becoming VP, he was a commissioner in Borno State, from where he rose to the seat of governor and then Senator. Is this the same man that would mount the podium to speak on such a sensitive matter at a time the State of Emergency is still a live-issue, and you say he is not referring to the same matter?
It means the VP must be a political daft – which he obviously is not – not to know, or at least suspect the interpretation the public would attach to such a comment at a time like this, given the prevailing circumstances and arguments on the matter.
Pray! How does the constitutional interpretation of Removal and or Suspension become the issue or dominate the debate when Sim Fubara, has remained out of office as governor and democratic institutions in the state out in the cold as a result of the emergency rule in Rivers State? Is that not the bottomline here instead of the fine grains of law?
What law is Abati trying to teach us, dan Allah, e jowo, biko nu? We may not all be lawyers, but as Nwazota, said, we are not all fish-mongers as well. We are capable of discerning a common issue and determining what someone says. We understand KS, very well and know that he said what he meant and meant what he said.
If anything, this is a man, whose job is currently at stake and has remained subject of intense speculations. Would it not be more apposite to interpret his outing as loud coughing to draw attention to himself and indicate that he is still very much around and perhaps warn those toying with the funny idea of seeking his leg for pepper-soup to be wise and more prudent?
I’m particularly enchanted by Abati’s immense intellectual prowess. It literally puts me in my rightful place as “uneducated” and “unlearned” – his usual terms for dismissing people like us. In fact, each time I listen to him, I seem to regret that half of my school hours were wasted fighting in the streets or plucking mangoes than being in the classroom. He is one of the major reasons I never miss watching The Morning Show on ARISE NEWS, each day, if I could help it.
But even at that we cannot be detained permanently by inability to measure up to his scholarly attainments or deceived all the time by legal masturbations in a matter that is as straightforward as the statement of the VP. You can only tell a blind man that there is no oil in the soup and not that there is no salt.
I don’t know whether his outing on Friday is intentional or inadvertent. But whatever it is, may I plead with Reuben Abati, my brother and compatriot to apply brake and add hydraulic. To him I say, this day borrowing from Fela Anikulapo Kuti – Teacher Don’t Teach Me Nonsense! _ The Tiny Voice
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