News
Sani to Youths: Drop content creation and get involved in politics!
Former Kaduna Central Senator Shehu Sani has challenged Nigerian youths to actively participate in politics rather than limiting themselves to content creation and social media influence if they truly desire national transformation.
Speaking at an event over the weekend, Sani acknowledged the achievements recorded in various sectors but emphasized that restoring peace and stability remains Nigeria’s most pressing challenge.
“There have been achievements in a number of areas, but what remains a problem to us is how can we silence the gun so that we can have peace and stability in our country. Young people of today, you have your positives and you have your negatives,” Sani stated.
READ ALSO: El-Rufai, you lack basic knowledge of what democracy is – Shehu Sani
The former lawmaker commended the current generation for their creativity and cultural exports, citing recent successes in the entertainment and sports sectors.
“The positive aspect of your generation is that you are full of energy and creativity. In our days, we listen to foreign music, but in your generation, you have been able to develop and export our culture and our music to the stage of the world to the point that it gives us pride when we see the likes of Thames, Debedo and Bonobo winning Grammys when it wasn’t possible for our generation to do that. It gives us joy to see how you are able to compete with young people outside of this country,” he said.
He expressed particular admiration for the Super Falcons’ recent performances despite limited facilities.
“I was highly impressed. If you see the training facilities of Thames from Morocco, from Algeria, from Tunisia, the training facilities for their sportsmen and women, you will wonder how the Falcons were able to beat them. This shows that with more for Nigerians, we can achieve more,” Sani noted.
However, the former senator criticized the younger generation for lacking the political ambition that characterized previous generations of Nigerian leaders.
“The negative aspect of your own generation is that what do you need to know? The leaders of Nigeria’s first republic became leaders in their 20s and 30s. The leaders of Nigeria’s second republic became leaders in their 20s and 30s. The leaders of Nigeria’s aborted third republic and this republic became leaders in their 20s, 30s and early 40s,” he observed.
He pointed out that many of today’s political leaders began their journeys as young people in 1999.
“Most of the people you see today, whether they are presidents, they are governors, they are ministers, they are senators, in 1999 they were all looking like you and they were of your age mix. But they had vision and they were determined to take over power whether for themselves or for what they claimed to be. As such, they entered the ring of politics with all its troubles and storms and they took over power,” Sani explained.
Drawing a stark contrast with contemporary youth engagement, he added: “Today, many of you who were their age mate in 1999 are content creators and social media influencers. That cannot change a nation. That cannot shape the nation in line and in your own dream.”
Sani emphasized the necessity of direct political involvement for meaningful change.
“It’s not possible. You have to be involved. In the 90s, I’ve been a senator and I will still return back to the senate,” he said.
Sharing his personal political journey, the former senator recalled: “As of 1999, we couldn’t contest the senate because our age is not up to the age of people who can contest elections. But we are determined. We contested and lost, contested and lost, and remained resilient until we took over the seat.”
He urged young Nigerians aspiring for national transformation to embrace political participation.
“So, for those of you who want the nation of your dream, you have to get involved. There’s no way you can change this country if you don’t participate in politics. In the 90s, when Nigeria was under military rule, some of us organised ourselves and started civil rights organisations that resisted and demanded for the return of democracy in Nigeria,” Sani recounted.
Reflecting on the sacrifices made by his generation, he revealed: “Some of us were forced to exile, some lost their lives, and people like me spent many years in prison. When we came out of prison in 1998 and Nigeria was transiting to civil rule, we said, what do we do? We are just out of prison. Because for me, I didn’t spend much here. I spent only four years in prison.”
The echoes of the drums rolled out to celebrate the rescue of the 44 teachers and students, kidnapped from some schools in Oyo State, after 56 days in the bush, would surely be disrupted abruptly, with the divergent echoes of a fresh abduction, this time coming from Kogi State.
Reports indicate that the gunmen, struck on Tuesday at the Government Secondary School, Odo-Ekina, in Dekina Local Government Area of the state, abducting four students, the school principal and a National Examinations Council (NECO) ad hoc staff member.
Authorities of the Kogi State Police Command, who immediately unleashed their operatives in hot pursuit of the abductors, said the attack occurred at about 5:25 p.m. while the students were writing their NECO examination.
Saliu Oyiza Afusat, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) and spokesman of the command, said a combined team of police personnel and other security agencies has launched a search-and-rescue operation following the incident.
Informing that one of the students was actually rescued immediately, she said efforts were ongoing to secure the release of the remaining victims and apprehend the attackers, adding that Naziru Bello Kankarofi, the state Commissioner of Police, alongside the Brigade Commander and the State Security Adviser to the Governor, Commodore Jerry Omodara (Rtd), were already on the way to the scene for an on-the-spot assessment.
Oil prices are expected to go down now with the announcement of Donald Trump, US President that he will no longer impose a 20 percent “safe passage” fee on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz.
The POTUS, hinged his reversal of the decision on the intervention from some Gulf countries, who pleaded with him not to toe the line due to the massive economic impact the decision would make on the region.
Indeed, oil prices had shot up immediately Trump announced the new levy on Monday while declaring the US ‘the guardians of the Hormuz strait,’ a measure which he said was to pay for the cost of guarding the volatile area in order keep supply of oil flowing.
Reports said that Gulf allies of the US worked frantically to get Trump on the phone in time to talk him out of the idea altogether, while a flurry of appeals came from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Qatar.
In response, the POTUS, posting on his Truth Social platform, wrote: “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States.”
Trump, who said the investments would be “MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” added that the deals would see factories, plants, and equipment pour into the US at “Historic levels.”
The Gulf nations have committed to invest trillions of dollars in the US, though it remains unclear how much of that they will actually spend over the next several years.
Meanwhile, the US continues to bomb Iran in what appears to be a resumption of active conflict between both countries, despite an ongoing roadmap to end the conflict.
Reports say operatives of the Osun State Police Command, and those of the Department of State Services (DSS) had tracking the trail of Adeniyi Adeyemi, controversial Director General of the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council (PFIPC), for weeks, before he was eventually pulled out of his hole on Tuesday.
However, the duo, were said to have pulled back after failing to track him through his mobile phones, which he had reportedly switched off for about two days, making it difficult to locate him, leaving the stage for the members of the Police Intelligence Response Team (PI-RT) led by Moses Lohor, a Chief Superintendent of Police (CSP).
Lohor, said to have previously served as the Commander of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad of Osun State, and reported to have been involved in high-profile security operations and controversies, after taken over fielded his men to pick up signals from their well-oiled signal networks.
Regarded by many Osun residents as one of the key security officers who contributed significantly to the peace and stability enjoyed in Ilesa and other parts of the state during his tenure, he was said to have relied on his contacts before his transfer out of the state, said to have raised concerns from the public about the security situation he would be leaving behind.
His exit from the state was said to be hinged on an incident in 2024, in which he allegedly shot one Iyanda Alowonle, then Chairman of Osun State Motor Transport System, in the stomach at the police station in the state prompting an order for his arrest by then Inspector General of Police (IGP).
His effort was said to have paid off when he successfully tracked down the controversial PFIPC, boss, who was seen on Tuesday evening, in a shot video on social media undergoing interrogation, and eventually handed him over to Ibrahim Gotan, Commissioner of Police in the state.
The PUNCH quoted one of the sources as saying: “The arrest (of Adeyemi) took place on Tuesday morning by the IRT squad, who immediately moved him to Abuja. After he was arrested, he was taken to Ibadan and from there to Abuja.”
-
News5 days agoBREAKING: Mystery death! *Female student dies a day after arriving Umahi’s home!
-
News5 days agoDon’t jump to conclusion! *Umahi speaks on mysterious death of female students!
-
News3 weeks agoBREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism
-
News2 weeks agoBREAKING: EX-SSG mowed down by gunmen! *He resisted being kidnapped – driver
-
News4 weeks agoTwo hours after Igboho’s ‘red-eyes’ to ‘Fulani’ leaders, gunmen free kidnap victims!
-
News3 weeks agoAbductors of Oyo teachers panicking, freedom coming for victims soon!
-
News1 day agoBREAKING: Terrorists strikes another school! *Kidnap principal, students, NECO official!
-
News3 weeks agoChicagogate: Nigerians return to court! *Move to stop Tinubu from 2027 polls