Followers
Obi, Atiku United in the Cause
10TH Senate Leadership: My Appeal To PDP Senators
By Bolaji O. Akinyemi.
Since the beginning of this Republic in 1999, the preference for People's Democratic Party by the people of South Eastern Nigeria has been proven time and time again!
Their rejection of APC's Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 was almost total which invented the 95% 5% political formula. It denied the Region of Senate Presidency because the region practically had no representation in 8th Senate. If not for bigandry of power, 2019 would have followed the pattern of 2015!
Opposition is the grace that beautifies democracy. Its dynamism saw APC to power. No one can take it away from APC. They provided the most informed opposition laced with media propaganda to push PDP out of power!
Reflecting on the Attempt by PDP led administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to remove petroleum subsidies and how the then National Leader of ACN and Now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu provided inspirational leadership to tackle PDP on its betrayal of people's contract from which PDP never recovered, is of essence to all PDP Senators to guarantee the survival of Nigeria as one, united country and at finding the way forward for their party to come back to power in the future!
Successful removal of subsidy practically on the first day of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in office shows the impotence of opposition politics in Nigeria presently.
The docility of PDP as the leading opposition party since the advent of APC to power in 2015 is very disturbing! In fact, some political pundits are of the opinion that the PDP is too elitist to play the role of opposition while some APC top brass believe the most opposition recently have come from the so called Obidients.
Some other individuals have provided better opposition to APC administration than PDP as a political party!
This doesn't augur well for the development of democracy and its institutions. PDP therefore owe it a duty to democracy; having the leading number of opposition Senators, a trust the electorate has conferred on them to hold sacred this responsibility. Will they let it slip to LP or get on the game to provide opposition; galvanise LP, APGA, NNPP and others in the Senate for the sake of protecting Democracy!
Inevitably, positioning for proactive and pragmatic opposition is more importantly for all PDP Senators now and they should make that their primary responsibility!
PDP Senators should put in context the solo effort of BAT in the regionalized pump price of PMS against what is available in OPEC nations.
Making a case for this administration as far as subsidy is concerned is double speaking and no man of conscience should have a part in that.
This subsidy removal is a remote assurance of a successful tenure. To hail any successful outcome of this Government at the end of 4 years with the luxury of subsidy removal allowed her which was denied others will be unfair. Let this be on record.
The future of PDP as a party hangs in the balance, the side to which this will tilt is entirely up to PDP Members in the National Assembly, they either trade their personal aggrandizement for the future of their party, or eat up their political careers through blind pursuit of avarice.
My interpretation of the body language of the judiciary through the ongoing election petition suggests a judiciary system functioning from a bat right side pocket.
Letting BAT have his way at putting the NASS in his left pocket through interfering in the politics of who and who emerges as their leaders will prove to be a costly mistake if ever allowed to happen!
Sentiments are snares in politics, but could be an effective ace at pushing odds through, in any political engagement if employed by strategy.
I stand to be corrected, it appears to me that the new Government is already showing signs of authoritarianism which if not checked will end our democratic experience in a one party system or end it finally.
It will be a disservice to Nigerians and to democracy if the Government is allowed to successfully edge us towards the path of a failed democracy.
The choice of Akpabio by BAT is hinged on the contract that saw him step down for BAT.
While it is okay for BAT to reward Akpabio, should it be with a decision that is exclusively the right of 108 members of the Senate to make?
It is quite considerate for APC to zone the Senate Presidency to the South East or South South, but micro Zoning it Akpabio is nothing other than exhibiting impunity of power over the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and taking every single Senator elected by the people for granted!
My trip to Umuahia to witness the inauguration of Dr Alex Otti as the Executive Governor of Abia state brought me face to face with the reality of the need to immediately and deliberately integrate the region into national structure of Government in the interest of giving the people of South East the opportunity to see prospects in one, big and united Nigeria.
I cared less where goes the Senate Presidency provided it's not tied to the apron of BAT led presidency, but not after my historical trip to Umuahia. The vortex of political conflagration in the region is capable of destroying our dream of one united Nigeria.
I will write of my experience in an article to be titled, "Biafra; a Republic within Republic", but for now, let me present to the PDP Senators the urgent need to reassure that region and suck them in. The military occupation of the South East is embarrassing to the spirit of democracy, which abhors a police state, not to speak about militarization of social and public space.
The event of Otti's inauguration was a flicker of hope to democracy. My road trip from Lagos to Umuahia was like travelling through a region at war to see the enthronment of democracy. The crowd at the stadium was unprecedented. All gates to the stadium were shut few hours into the programme to prevent the sea of heads on all the streets leading to the stadium, from gaining access, which of course could cause a stampede.
The crowd were however content with being around the venue and remained on the streets till the event was over! A big endorsement for the people's Government and their Governor. No doubt, Otti is who they voted for. And what they ordered, Democracy delivered!
Amazing however was waking up to the intimidation of the celebration of Biafra Day on Tuesday 30th of May. I was to leave Umuahia that day with my wife but couldn't because banks were closed and we were advised not to leave Umuahia for Owerri as we have to pass through Mbaise which is among pockets of communities in the South East hosting the minority IPOB sympathizers against the wishes of the majority for democratic participation in a one big and greater nation proven by what we witnessed at Otti's inauguration!
May I appeal to Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the 10th Assembly to put their country Nigeria first, and consider South East for Senate Presidency. This may be needed activation of a suck in process of the Republic within a Republic.
By Bolaji O. Akinyemi.
Since the beginning of this Republic in 1999, the preference for People's Democratic Party by the people of South Eastern Nigeria has been proven time and time again!
Their rejection of APC's Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 was almost total which invented the 95% 5% political formula. It denied the Region of Senate Presidency because the region practically had no representation in 8th Senate. If not for bigandry of power, 2019 would have followed the pattern of 2015!
Opposition is the grace that beautifies democracy. Its dynamism saw APC to power. No one can take it away from APC. They provided the most informed opposition laced with media propaganda to push PDP out of power!
Reflecting on the Attempt by PDP led administration of President Goodluck Jonathan to remove petroleum subsidies and how the then National Leader of ACN and Now President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu provided inspirational leadership to tackle PDP on its betrayal of people's contract from which PDP never recovered, is of essence to all PDP Senators to guarantee the survival of Nigeria as one, united country and at finding the way forward for their party to come back to power in the future!
Successful removal of subsidy practically on the first day of Bola Ahmed Tinubu in office shows the impotence of opposition politics in Nigeria presently.
The docility of PDP as the leading opposition party since the advent of APC to power in 2015 is very disturbing! In fact, some political pundits are of the opinion that the PDP is too elitist to play the role of opposition while some APC top brass believe the most opposition recently have come from the so called Obidients.
Some other individuals have provided better opposition to APC administration than PDP as a political party!
This doesn't augur well for the development of democracy and its institutions. PDP therefore owe it a duty to democracy; having the leading number of opposition Senators, a trust the electorate has conferred on them to hold sacred this responsibility. Will they let it slip to LP or get on the game to provide opposition; galvanise LP, APGA, NNPP and others in the Senate for the sake of protecting Democracy!
Inevitably, positioning for proactive and pragmatic opposition is more importantly for all PDP Senators now and they should make that their primary responsibility!
PDP Senators should put in context the solo effort of BAT in the regionalized pump price of PMS against what is available in OPEC nations.
Making a case for this administration as far as subsidy is concerned is double speaking and no man of conscience should have a part in that.
This subsidy removal is a remote assurance of a successful tenure. To hail any successful outcome of this Government at the end of 4 years with the luxury of subsidy removal allowed her which was denied others will be unfair. Let this be on record.
The future of PDP as a party hangs in the balance, the side to which this will tilt is entirely up to PDP Members in the National Assembly, they either trade their personal aggrandizement for the future of their party, or eat up their political careers through blind pursuit of avarice.
My interpretation of the body language of the judiciary through the ongoing election petition suggests a judiciary system functioning from a bat right side pocket.
Letting BAT have his way at putting the NASS in his left pocket through interfering in the politics of who and who emerges as their leaders will prove to be a costly mistake if ever allowed to happen!
Sentiments are snares in politics, but could be an effective ace at pushing odds through, in any political engagement if employed by strategy.
I stand to be corrected, it appears to me that the new Government is already showing signs of authoritarianism which if not checked will end our democratic experience in a one party system or end it finally.
It will be a disservice to Nigerians and to democracy if the Government is allowed to successfully edge us towards the path of a failed democracy.
The choice of Akpabio by BAT is hinged on the contract that saw him step down for BAT.
While it is okay for BAT to reward Akpabio, should it be with a decision that is exclusively the right of 108 members of the Senate to make?
It is quite considerate for APC to zone the Senate Presidency to the South East or South South, but micro Zoning it Akpabio is nothing other than exhibiting impunity of power over the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and taking every single Senator elected by the people for granted!
My trip to Umuahia to witness the inauguration of Dr Alex Otti as the Executive Governor of Abia state brought me face to face with the reality of the need to immediately and deliberately integrate the region into national structure of Government in the interest of giving the people of South East the opportunity to see prospects in one, big and united Nigeria.
I cared less where goes the Senate Presidency provided it's not tied to the apron of BAT led presidency, but not after my historical trip to Umuahia. The vortex of political conflagration in the region is capable of destroying our dream of one united Nigeria.
I will write of my experience in an article to be titled, "Biafra; a Republic within Republic", but for now, let me present to the PDP Senators the urgent need to reassure that region and suck them in. The military occupation of the South East is embarrassing to the spirit of democracy, which abhors a police state, not to speak about militarization of social and public space.
The event of Otti's inauguration was a flicker of hope to democracy. My road trip from Lagos to Umuahia was like travelling through a region at war to see the enthronment of democracy. The crowd at the stadium was unprecedented. All gates to the stadium were shut few hours into the programme to prevent the sea of heads on all the streets leading to the stadium, from gaining access, which of course could cause a stampede.
The crowd were however content with being around the venue and remained on the streets till the event was over! A big endorsement for the people's Government and their Governor. No doubt, Otti is who they voted for. And what they ordered, Democracy delivered!
Amazing however was waking up to the intimidation of the celebration of Biafra Day on Tuesday 30th of May. I was to leave Umuahia that day with my wife but couldn't because banks were closed and we were advised not to leave Umuahia for Owerri as we have to pass through Mbaise which is among pockets of communities in the South East hosting the minority IPOB sympathizers against the wishes of the majority for democratic participation in a one big and greater nation proven by what we witnessed at Otti's inauguration!
May I appeal to Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria to the 10th Assembly to put their country Nigeria first, and consider South East for Senate Presidency. This may be needed activation of a suck in process of the Republic within a Republic.
Labour Party: Lamidi Apapa's missing cap
Festus Adedayo
Turbulent anger of Obidients landed on Lamidi Apapa last week. By the time their anger petered out, Apapa had lost his cap to a God-knows-who. Esu Elegbara, the trickster deity of the Yoruba people, it will seem, lives in caps. Though most of the exploits of Esu exist in myths, Yoruba constructed a pantheon of beliefs that implicate the Esu as divisive and full of tricks. One of such, sauced in mythology, was translated into a very sobering track by ace Yoruba Awurebe musician, Alhaji Dauda Akanmu Adeeyo, popularly known as Dauda Epo Akara. Famous for his anecdotal offerings affixed to virtually all his songs, Adeeyo got this sobriquet, for which he was more known by than his actual name, while he was a pupil in primary school. His uniforms were always soaked in bean cake oil called Epo Akara.
The Ibadan maestro entitled the track under reference Itan Ore Meji – the tale of two friends – in a parent album he called My Mother. Like Epo Akara, in 1987, Donald Cosentino, a lecturer in the Folklore and Mythology Programme of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote an article for The Journal of American Folklore which he entitled Who Is That Fellow in the Many-Colored Cap? Transformations of Eshu in Old and New World Mythologies (Vol. 100, No. 397. Jul. - Sep., 1987). In it, he also situated the Esu as author of dissent, “an exponent of ceaseless rearrangements” and a dissembler. Esu, said Cosentino, is a counterpart to Ifa, who the Yoruba see as the Lord of Divination and through whom sacrifices and propitiations are made to God for peace in the world.
Epo Akara and Cosentino’s narratives are not dissimilar. The two of them began this folklore thus: There existed two friends who were so fond of each other and inseparable. They were objects of discussions by the whole village. In fact, sang Epo Akara, won ki ja, won kii ta – they never had a word of disagreement since they began their friendship from their infancy. So, one day, Esu swore to cause irreparable discord between them. The object he cast for that dissention was a cap. So the Esu sowed a multicolored cap, something in the mould of Dolly Parton’s coat of many colours. The colours, says Cosentino, have been “variously described as red and white; red, white and blue; or red, white, green, and black.”
Epo Akara, however, put the colours of the cap as white and black. So the Esu transformed himself into an irresistibly dressed, handsome young man in dainty Aso Oke and Sanyan cap. As the two friends sat in a foyer chattering, Esu walked between them and in the words of Cosentino, “put his pipe at the nape of his neck and hung his staff over his back.” As Esu walked past the two friends, in the rendering of the Awurebe musician, the first friend called the attention of his pal to the cap, which he said was black. Once he had money, the friend remarked, it would be his delight to buy it – bi mo ri’ru e, ma ra’kan, Balarabi, Wali Muhanmonda. The friend fired back, insisting that the cap was white and insulted the other friend by asking if he was blind – ab’oju re o ri’ran? Then, a very deadly brawl ensued between the duo as they came to blows.
While Epo Akara insisted that, having achieved his dissembling aim, Esu transformed himself into who he was and settled the quarrel, Consentino argued that the tiff came to a halt when the disputants were brought to court. In court, the scholar said, Esu confessed to his trick, boasting that "sowing dissension is my great delight." In the rendering of the Folklore and Mythology scholar, Esu then fled. As he fled, Esu lit fire along the way, mixing up all the possessions of fleeing townsfolk. He also tested and exposed friendships along the way, thereby creating and destroying wealth. He then laughed at the ignorance of the people about his innate destructive nature.
Nigeria’s Labour Party, (LP) it will seem, is where Esu Elegbara has made his temporary home now. Last week, the party’s internal tiff reached a cancerous level at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja. In the glare of the whole world, the timely intervention of police officers prevented miffed supporters of Peter Obi from skewering the flesh of the party’s Acting National Chairman, Apapa. Apapa and Julius Abure, hitherto suspended national chairman of the party, were embroiled in a leadership tussle. This led to blood-baiting hounds, suspected to be sympathetic to the Abure faction of the party, pouncing on Apapa. The wolves had prevented Apapa from addressing the press and shoved him dangerously off television cameras. In the process, one of them took off Apapa’s cap. He later took possession of it.
Speaking at a press conference after the attack, the 73-year old Apapa rained curses on the person who removed his cap. He had said: "My cap is here as you can see it. It was not burnt, and the boy who removed my cap will suffer it in his life. I saw him, he's a young chap. He'll never grow old by God's grace. He deserves it, you know why? I didn't use cutlass on him."
Were Apapa’s curses of Janus colour and texture as that of Adedara Arunralojaoba, Ijesaland’s – domiciled in Osun State – most evocative musician who sang Adamo music during his lifetime? Janus, you know, is the Egyptian binary god with two faces. Some installments away, I narrated this Adamo musician’s encounter with another musician, Ayinla Omowura, in Ilesa in the 1970s. Omowura’s drums began to get torn in subsequence as he set out to sing at a live gig where he and Adedara had been invited. In the words of Arunralojaoba, on arriving the bandstand to take over the evening belt of entertainment of invited audience, Omowura had been drunk to stupor with his assumed musical superiority. Speaking to Dele Adeyanju, a renowned broadcaster, in an interview, the Adamo musician had attributed the torn drums to God fighting his battle for him and not any traditional African spiritual attack. Adedara was known to have at one time been a member of the Ogboni fraternity. So, were the torn drums God’s own way of fighting for Adedara against his adversary, or the scenario was a product of metaphysical invocation?
The removal of Apapa’s cap reminds me of the same violence and indignity suffered by Chief Bola Ige, ex-governor of old Oyo State, in the hands of sponsored miscreants like those hooligans in the LP. It was at the height of the intra-party sabre-rattling of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). At a ceremony held on Saturday December 15, 2001 where Olusegun Obasanjo’s late wife, Stella, was conferred with a chieftaincy title by the Ooni of Ife, wolves suspected to be in the herd of Iyiola Omisore, erstwhile Deputy Governor of Osun State, pounced on Ige in similar cavalier but blood-baiting manner Apapa was to witness almost 22 years after. They seized the cap of the man, known as Arole Awolowo – Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s heir – caps which, unlike Apapa’s, he was never to set eyes upon again.
Five days before this, an attempt to impeach Omisore was held at the Osun State House of Assembly. Odunayo Olagbaju, believed to be one of Omisore’s Rottweilers, was at the forefront of the disruption of the impeachment proceedings. Allegations were rife that Olagbaju was also the coordinator of the violent seizure of Ige’s cap. Four days after the attack on Ige, Olagbaju was mysteriously assassinated in Ile-Ife. Exactly four days after Olagbaju’s assassination, Ige was also taken out in what appeared like cult-like revenge killings. Today, Omisore is Southwest progressives’ highest-ranking national official, representing the Yorubaland which venerated Ige as an avatar.
Beyond their ethno-cultural implications as significant aspect of dressing and fashion, caps also have mythic qualities among the Yoruba especially. Aside caps’ aesthetic and symbolic elaboration of the body, they are also seen as weapon in the hands of Esu. The cap perhaps gained that relevance due to the renowned place that the head has in African epistemology. The head receives special aesthetic attention as a result of its spiritual and biological importance. Among the Yoruba, the head, called Ori, is a site of spiritual intuition and destiny. It is as well a harbinger of a man’s reflective spark of human consciousness. It is an Orisa, or god, of its own and is not only venerated but worshipped. To acquire a balanced character – iwa-pele – the Yoruba believe that the individual, working in tandem with this Orisa, can achieve this desirable personality. When he does, the individual then receives an alignment with his Ori, the divine self. People whose destinies are skewed are advised to worship their Ori whose variant among the Igbo is chi. So, when a cap, the decorative ornament of the head, is rudely removed as was done to Ige and Apapa, Yoruba see it as bad omen, symbolizing a rude yank-off of the human person.
Immediately after the seizure of Ige’s cap, some knowledgeable elders in sorcery and witchcraft opined that there existed causality between the cap’s removal and his eventual killing. For a people who use metaphysics as human agency to explain what the common eyes cannot penetrate, when Ige eventually died, the narrative of the connect between the removed cap and his death took front burner. So, in the seizure of Apapa’s cap, was Esu Elegbara on the usual roller-coaster of his famous trickster prowess, or does the act just symbolize a fatality to either Apapa, the Labour Party or the boy who bit the bullet by removing the cap?
The chief accusation against Apapa is that he is the Esu Elegbara in the Labour Party who this destructive god lent his heart for a fee. As Epo Akara and Cosentino narrated in their works, could Apapa be the modern or Nigeria’s political party version of the trickster deity, who is sowing dissention in the party? Ask those who are ranged against him to explain why, they will tell you that Apapa has received humongous bribe from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to act as the Judas within the party. On an Arise television interview last week, Apapa asked those who leveled such allegations to provide evidence. Again, in his insular trickery, I saw Esu Elegbara laughing rambunctiously. Do those who give bribes leave traces? Should those who also leveled such allegation against this old man sincerely do this without providing evidence? Are they themselves the Esu, being on the payroll of Abure, to ensure that Apapa is fought to a standstill?
Precedent is however on the side of those who accuse Apapa of acting the script of the APC. Nigerian politics is so enmeshed in indignity and amorality that virtually all those who engage in it possess scarred souls like the devil’s. They even tell you that politics and morality are in perpetual enmity. If you observe, the highest fusillade of attacks, both judicial and verbal, from the APC to any party, is towards the Labour Party. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its commissars receive scant attention of that party. It must believe that that party is already mortally wounded. APC, peopled by a commune of scavengers, vultures and deadly hit-men, will logically rent an Apapa for a dissembling assignment. It is because the If I must hanker a guess, it must be because the LP poses the greatest social threat to the legitimacy that APC needs, not necessarily during the current judicial process but after it. Thus, employing an Esu Elegbara within the fold of the LP for this dirty job is a politically wise decision for a party whose men, in the name of politics, will kill their mother and rope their father for the murder without batting an eyelid.
Esu Elegbara seems to be on the trail of the Labour Party and is not relenting yet. At the tail end of last week, until the clarification given by the court, the Federal High Court in Kano was reported to have declared the votes polled by the Abia State governor-elect, Alex Otti, Labour Party’s only state governor in the last general election, as wasted. It however reportedly refrained from nullifying the certificate of return issued by INEC to the governor-elect. A newspaper later on published the clarification of the court, stating that it denied annulling the election of the governor-elect.
If you think it is only in LP that Esu Elegbara wrecks its havocs, you are mistaken. In the PDP, he began his life-sworn disruption and destruction, as they say, as a pre-election cancer. By the time Atiku Abubakar and his party realized that Esu was in cahoots with the party, Elegbara had destroyed all the cells within the body of the party, finally and permanently retiring the Adamawa-born politician from his serial quest for the Nigerian presidency.
Elegbara, it will seem, is on his way to the APC as we speak. From reports, the party is on its way to a political liaison with Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, New Nigerian People’s Party (NPP’s) presidential candidate. President-elect, Bola Tinubu, was reported to have met the NPP boss for political talks in Paris last Monday. There is the need for enough senators to complete the circus of a pliable National Assembly. I imagine the mind of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kano State governor, at the moment. The Nigerian politician, in pursuing his persuasion that politics and morality are not friends, devised what is labeled a “no permanent friends, no permanent foes” lexicographic feature of politics. But, must politicians be indistinguishable from serial adulterers? Esu Elegbara must be somewhere now, devising his next trickery. Will he wear Ganduje like an apparel?
Festus Adedayo
Turbulent anger of Obidients landed on Lamidi Apapa last week. By the time their anger petered out, Apapa had lost his cap to a God-knows-who. Esu Elegbara, the trickster deity of the Yoruba people, it will seem, lives in caps. Though most of the exploits of Esu exist in myths, Yoruba constructed a pantheon of beliefs that implicate the Esu as divisive and full of tricks. One of such, sauced in mythology, was translated into a very sobering track by ace Yoruba Awurebe musician, Alhaji Dauda Akanmu Adeeyo, popularly known as Dauda Epo Akara. Famous for his anecdotal offerings affixed to virtually all his songs, Adeeyo got this sobriquet, for which he was more known by than his actual name, while he was a pupil in primary school. His uniforms were always soaked in bean cake oil called Epo Akara.
The Ibadan maestro entitled the track under reference Itan Ore Meji – the tale of two friends – in a parent album he called My Mother. Like Epo Akara, in 1987, Donald Cosentino, a lecturer in the Folklore and Mythology Programme of the University of California, Los Angeles, wrote an article for The Journal of American Folklore which he entitled Who Is That Fellow in the Many-Colored Cap? Transformations of Eshu in Old and New World Mythologies (Vol. 100, No. 397. Jul. - Sep., 1987). In it, he also situated the Esu as author of dissent, “an exponent of ceaseless rearrangements” and a dissembler. Esu, said Cosentino, is a counterpart to Ifa, who the Yoruba see as the Lord of Divination and through whom sacrifices and propitiations are made to God for peace in the world.
Epo Akara and Cosentino’s narratives are not dissimilar. The two of them began this folklore thus: There existed two friends who were so fond of each other and inseparable. They were objects of discussions by the whole village. In fact, sang Epo Akara, won ki ja, won kii ta – they never had a word of disagreement since they began their friendship from their infancy. So, one day, Esu swore to cause irreparable discord between them. The object he cast for that dissention was a cap. So the Esu sowed a multicolored cap, something in the mould of Dolly Parton’s coat of many colours. The colours, says Cosentino, have been “variously described as red and white; red, white and blue; or red, white, green, and black.”
Epo Akara, however, put the colours of the cap as white and black. So the Esu transformed himself into an irresistibly dressed, handsome young man in dainty Aso Oke and Sanyan cap. As the two friends sat in a foyer chattering, Esu walked between them and in the words of Cosentino, “put his pipe at the nape of his neck and hung his staff over his back.” As Esu walked past the two friends, in the rendering of the Awurebe musician, the first friend called the attention of his pal to the cap, which he said was black. Once he had money, the friend remarked, it would be his delight to buy it – bi mo ri’ru e, ma ra’kan, Balarabi, Wali Muhanmonda. The friend fired back, insisting that the cap was white and insulted the other friend by asking if he was blind – ab’oju re o ri’ran? Then, a very deadly brawl ensued between the duo as they came to blows.
While Epo Akara insisted that, having achieved his dissembling aim, Esu transformed himself into who he was and settled the quarrel, Consentino argued that the tiff came to a halt when the disputants were brought to court. In court, the scholar said, Esu confessed to his trick, boasting that "sowing dissension is my great delight." In the rendering of the Folklore and Mythology scholar, Esu then fled. As he fled, Esu lit fire along the way, mixing up all the possessions of fleeing townsfolk. He also tested and exposed friendships along the way, thereby creating and destroying wealth. He then laughed at the ignorance of the people about his innate destructive nature.
Nigeria’s Labour Party, (LP) it will seem, is where Esu Elegbara has made his temporary home now. Last week, the party’s internal tiff reached a cancerous level at the Presidential Election Petition Court in Abuja. In the glare of the whole world, the timely intervention of police officers prevented miffed supporters of Peter Obi from skewering the flesh of the party’s Acting National Chairman, Apapa. Apapa and Julius Abure, hitherto suspended national chairman of the party, were embroiled in a leadership tussle. This led to blood-baiting hounds, suspected to be sympathetic to the Abure faction of the party, pouncing on Apapa. The wolves had prevented Apapa from addressing the press and shoved him dangerously off television cameras. In the process, one of them took off Apapa’s cap. He later took possession of it.
Speaking at a press conference after the attack, the 73-year old Apapa rained curses on the person who removed his cap. He had said: "My cap is here as you can see it. It was not burnt, and the boy who removed my cap will suffer it in his life. I saw him, he's a young chap. He'll never grow old by God's grace. He deserves it, you know why? I didn't use cutlass on him."
Were Apapa’s curses of Janus colour and texture as that of Adedara Arunralojaoba, Ijesaland’s – domiciled in Osun State – most evocative musician who sang Adamo music during his lifetime? Janus, you know, is the Egyptian binary god with two faces. Some installments away, I narrated this Adamo musician’s encounter with another musician, Ayinla Omowura, in Ilesa in the 1970s. Omowura’s drums began to get torn in subsequence as he set out to sing at a live gig where he and Adedara had been invited. In the words of Arunralojaoba, on arriving the bandstand to take over the evening belt of entertainment of invited audience, Omowura had been drunk to stupor with his assumed musical superiority. Speaking to Dele Adeyanju, a renowned broadcaster, in an interview, the Adamo musician had attributed the torn drums to God fighting his battle for him and not any traditional African spiritual attack. Adedara was known to have at one time been a member of the Ogboni fraternity. So, were the torn drums God’s own way of fighting for Adedara against his adversary, or the scenario was a product of metaphysical invocation?
The removal of Apapa’s cap reminds me of the same violence and indignity suffered by Chief Bola Ige, ex-governor of old Oyo State, in the hands of sponsored miscreants like those hooligans in the LP. It was at the height of the intra-party sabre-rattling of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). At a ceremony held on Saturday December 15, 2001 where Olusegun Obasanjo’s late wife, Stella, was conferred with a chieftaincy title by the Ooni of Ife, wolves suspected to be in the herd of Iyiola Omisore, erstwhile Deputy Governor of Osun State, pounced on Ige in similar cavalier but blood-baiting manner Apapa was to witness almost 22 years after. They seized the cap of the man, known as Arole Awolowo – Chief Obafemi Awolowo’s heir – caps which, unlike Apapa’s, he was never to set eyes upon again.
Five days before this, an attempt to impeach Omisore was held at the Osun State House of Assembly. Odunayo Olagbaju, believed to be one of Omisore’s Rottweilers, was at the forefront of the disruption of the impeachment proceedings. Allegations were rife that Olagbaju was also the coordinator of the violent seizure of Ige’s cap. Four days after the attack on Ige, Olagbaju was mysteriously assassinated in Ile-Ife. Exactly four days after Olagbaju’s assassination, Ige was also taken out in what appeared like cult-like revenge killings. Today, Omisore is Southwest progressives’ highest-ranking national official, representing the Yorubaland which venerated Ige as an avatar.
Beyond their ethno-cultural implications as significant aspect of dressing and fashion, caps also have mythic qualities among the Yoruba especially. Aside caps’ aesthetic and symbolic elaboration of the body, they are also seen as weapon in the hands of Esu. The cap perhaps gained that relevance due to the renowned place that the head has in African epistemology. The head receives special aesthetic attention as a result of its spiritual and biological importance. Among the Yoruba, the head, called Ori, is a site of spiritual intuition and destiny. It is as well a harbinger of a man’s reflective spark of human consciousness. It is an Orisa, or god, of its own and is not only venerated but worshipped. To acquire a balanced character – iwa-pele – the Yoruba believe that the individual, working in tandem with this Orisa, can achieve this desirable personality. When he does, the individual then receives an alignment with his Ori, the divine self. People whose destinies are skewed are advised to worship their Ori whose variant among the Igbo is chi. So, when a cap, the decorative ornament of the head, is rudely removed as was done to Ige and Apapa, Yoruba see it as bad omen, symbolizing a rude yank-off of the human person.
Immediately after the seizure of Ige’s cap, some knowledgeable elders in sorcery and witchcraft opined that there existed causality between the cap’s removal and his eventual killing. For a people who use metaphysics as human agency to explain what the common eyes cannot penetrate, when Ige eventually died, the narrative of the connect between the removed cap and his death took front burner. So, in the seizure of Apapa’s cap, was Esu Elegbara on the usual roller-coaster of his famous trickster prowess, or does the act just symbolize a fatality to either Apapa, the Labour Party or the boy who bit the bullet by removing the cap?
The chief accusation against Apapa is that he is the Esu Elegbara in the Labour Party who this destructive god lent his heart for a fee. As Epo Akara and Cosentino narrated in their works, could Apapa be the modern or Nigeria’s political party version of the trickster deity, who is sowing dissention in the party? Ask those who are ranged against him to explain why, they will tell you that Apapa has received humongous bribe from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to act as the Judas within the party. On an Arise television interview last week, Apapa asked those who leveled such allegations to provide evidence. Again, in his insular trickery, I saw Esu Elegbara laughing rambunctiously. Do those who give bribes leave traces? Should those who also leveled such allegation against this old man sincerely do this without providing evidence? Are they themselves the Esu, being on the payroll of Abure, to ensure that Apapa is fought to a standstill?
Precedent is however on the side of those who accuse Apapa of acting the script of the APC. Nigerian politics is so enmeshed in indignity and amorality that virtually all those who engage in it possess scarred souls like the devil’s. They even tell you that politics and morality are in perpetual enmity. If you observe, the highest fusillade of attacks, both judicial and verbal, from the APC to any party, is towards the Labour Party. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its commissars receive scant attention of that party. It must believe that that party is already mortally wounded. APC, peopled by a commune of scavengers, vultures and deadly hit-men, will logically rent an Apapa for a dissembling assignment. It is because the If I must hanker a guess, it must be because the LP poses the greatest social threat to the legitimacy that APC needs, not necessarily during the current judicial process but after it. Thus, employing an Esu Elegbara within the fold of the LP for this dirty job is a politically wise decision for a party whose men, in the name of politics, will kill their mother and rope their father for the murder without batting an eyelid.
Esu Elegbara seems to be on the trail of the Labour Party and is not relenting yet. At the tail end of last week, until the clarification given by the court, the Federal High Court in Kano was reported to have declared the votes polled by the Abia State governor-elect, Alex Otti, Labour Party’s only state governor in the last general election, as wasted. It however reportedly refrained from nullifying the certificate of return issued by INEC to the governor-elect. A newspaper later on published the clarification of the court, stating that it denied annulling the election of the governor-elect.
If you think it is only in LP that Esu Elegbara wrecks its havocs, you are mistaken. In the PDP, he began his life-sworn disruption and destruction, as they say, as a pre-election cancer. By the time Atiku Abubakar and his party realized that Esu was in cahoots with the party, Elegbara had destroyed all the cells within the body of the party, finally and permanently retiring the Adamawa-born politician from his serial quest for the Nigerian presidency.
Elegbara, it will seem, is on his way to the APC as we speak. From reports, the party is on its way to a political liaison with Musa Rabiu Kwankwaso, New Nigerian People’s Party (NPP’s) presidential candidate. President-elect, Bola Tinubu, was reported to have met the NPP boss for political talks in Paris last Monday. There is the need for enough senators to complete the circus of a pliable National Assembly. I imagine the mind of Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Kano State governor, at the moment. The Nigerian politician, in pursuing his persuasion that politics and morality are not friends, devised what is labeled a “no permanent friends, no permanent foes” lexicographic feature of politics. But, must politicians be indistinguishable from serial adulterers? Esu Elegbara must be somewhere now, devising his next trickery. Will he wear Ganduje like an apparel?
TINUBU'S PRESIDENCY: WIKE AND WHAT SOUTH EAST APC LEADERS SHOULDN'T WAIT TO BE TOLD
Latest News Plus May 13, 2023 No comments
TINUBU'S PRESIDENCY: WIKE AND WHAT SOUTH EAST APC LEADERS SHOULDN'T WAIT TO BE TOLD
By Sam Onwuemeodo
I have chosen to begin with Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor. And for obvious reasons.
The previous week, the President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu was in Portharcourt, Rivers State. He was there on the invitation of Wike. He was invited to commission projects. And he did.
ln doing that, he was quoted to have said that, he owed Wike nothing. And some people began to celebrate that. Some people believed that. They took Tinubu's comment to the bank. They went home with it. And l hasten to say this.
lf there's one Nigerian Tinubu owes a lot, that's Wike. Nyesom Wike. Aside keeping his Party, PDP, and it's candidate, Atiku Abubakar on their toes all through, he delivered Rivers State to Tinubu and his APC. I am talking about the INEC declared results for Rivers . INEC's own results.
Wike, a pdp governor, ensured that APC or Tinubu was declared winner in his State. ln Wike's Rivers, Tinubu got 231, 591 votes. His own party, PDP, got 88, 468 votes and the Labour Party, 175, 071 votes. lf there's one man who has a lot of claims to make in Tinubu's presidency, that man is Wike. There is nothing he wants in BAT's government that he would not get. Don't believe me. But mark my words. He destroyed PDP for Tinubu to navigate. So, paying Wike's Rivers, the money spent on federal projects in the State would be one of the easiest things Tinubu would do as President.
Unlike Wike , those who should be worried about the direction Tinubu's presidency will be going are the leaders of the APC in the South East. Already, Tinubu's body language isn't encouraging. I am not writing that they should believe me , but letting them know the fate that awaits them in BAT's Presidency. Like l said, they should not wait to be told that Tinubu and his Presidency won't have anything tangible in store for them.
For Tinubu, his Presidency and his close associates , all the leaders of APC in the South East are OBIDIENTS. This is the mindset of Tinubu and his own emerging cabal. lt's written all over them. And there seems to be nothing anybody can do to help the situation.
The only prayer point left for APC leaders in the South East is that , the election of Tinubu should be annulled or be nullified by the Tribunal. But if the Tribunal confirms or authenticates his election, then, there is every reason to worry by APC leaders in the South East. Some of them, going to the Defence House and taking photographs with him, won't change anything.
Tinubu didn't hide his disdain for the South East. He began early enough to show that. He first settled for a fellow Muslim as Vice- Presidential candidate, believing that Heaven wouldn't fall. And he was right. Heaven didn't fall. And he did it, knowing that the South East could be adjudged the " soul" of Christianity in Nigeria. l am painting a picture. But see the major issues.
At a time, the discussion or the debate in the APC was that, the South should produce the Presidential candidate of the Party and by extension , Muhammadu Buhari's successor, Ahmed Lawan came on board with a bang. And who were in the forefront of the Lawan's project?. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodinma. And they were overtly serious about it. They bought Lawan's nomination forms and displayed them for all and sundry to see, on the screens of national televisions. l do not know who drafted each other into the Lawan venture. Whether Kalu drafted the lmo Governor or vice versa.
lf there was a major threat to Tinubu's aspiration for the Presidential ticket of the APC, it was that Ahmed Lawan's entry. That man's case. And our own people were the pilots. The architects. On the TV screens, the Yobe State Governor, Mala Buni, Lawan's own governor was behind. At the back of Kalu and governor Uzodinma. l am still painting a picture. They didn't support Tinubu. They didn't support Rochas Okorocha or Ogbonnaya Onu or Emeka Nwajiuba or David Umahi. But Lawan from the North. Continue reading my lips correctly.
Then, the Concensus issue. Lawan was announced the consensus Presidential candidate of the party by the Abdullahi Adamu led NWC . lf that had worked out as planned, Tinubu's ambition would have been submerged or destroyed at that point. His group fought back. l want you to grab something here. Something "ominous". Something not palatable at all. Something "imirimious". Do you understand?
Then, the Presidential primary proper. The South East delegates voted for Lawan, from all indications. And not Tinubu. Not Okorocha. Not Nwajiuba. Not Onu or Umahi. They went for the Yobe man, Lawan. After Yobe, you get Borno State. l had been there. That was in 2004. l had gone for the Turbanning of Emir of Damaturu, Alhaji Shehu Hashimi 11 lbn Umar El-kanemi. The rest became history.
Ahmed Lawan for presidency project was the biggest threat Tinubu's ambition had, before the INEC conducted election. Buhari's cabal also led Nwajiuba to go to court , asking that Tinubu should be disqualified and announce him APC candidate. Buhari's deceitful cabal.
For the February 25, 2023 Presidential election, the leaders of APC in the South East were helpless. Nigerians, including the South East people, opted or settled for Peter Obi of the Labour Party. But Tinubu and his already existing cabal won't look at it from that perspective. They seem to have made up their minds. For them, APC leaders in the zone were all Obidients or "lPOB".
ln Anambra, for instance, APC ( Tinubu), had 5, 111 votes. PDP (Atiku), 9,036 votes. Labour party ( Obi), 584, 621 votes. ln Ebonyi, APC, 42, 402 votes. PDP, 13, 503 votes. Labour party, 259, 738 votes. ln Enugu State, APC, 4, 772 votes. PDP, 15, 749 votes. Labour Party, 428,640 votes. ln Abia, APC, 8, 914, PDP, 22, 676 and Labour Party, 327, 095. ln lmo , APC, 66, 406 votes, PDP, 30, 234 votes and the Labour party, 360, 495 votes. Don't forget. These're Mahmood Yakubu's INEC declared results.
Looking at these figures, one would be forced to agree or believe that the issue is not what anybody thinks should be Tinubu's right actions, but what will be the case with regard to South East APC leaders in Tinubu's presidency.
That is the problem with Orji Uzor Kalu and Osita lzunaso's aspirations for the position of Senate president. Otherwise, having denied the South East the position of President most patriotic Nigerians had believed should be their turn , and having also denied them the office of Vice president, the most appropriate thing to do now is to concede the office of Senate president to them. But for the reasons l had earlier mentioned, that has become a tall dream. They would never live to see that happen.
They have gone to South South. Akwa lbom State in Particular. And their choice is Godswill Akpabio. At the primary, he withdrew for Tinubu. ln the election, APC had 160, 620 votes. More than what Tinubu got in the whole of South East. That's the politics behind their choice of Akpabio. They won't tell you this.
For the South East and APC leaders in the zone in Particular, they should not expect much from Tinubu and his Presidency. No great expectations. Like I had intoned , the politics has begun. And only those with foresight or " four-sights" would understand better . Would be able to read the handwriting on the wall and interpret it. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, URPHARSIN.
There is already a gang up. While the lmo Governor was at "war" with Joe Ajaero of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in lmo , the kano State Governor of APC extraction, Alhaji Ganduje, was rolling out red carpets in kano for the same Ajaero. The same period. And he gave him the Chieftaincy Title of Sarkin Yakin, meaning, Workers' warrior.
Even when Tinubu might not remember some of these incidents, those who have his ears would always remind him of all these. And there is no difference between him and Buhari in terms of being easy prey in the hands of wicked cabal. Even, Tinubu's own cabal may be worst than Buhari's own cabal. The signs are everywhere. l hope you're reading between the lines. There is " fire in the Soweto".
This whole thing is also a wake-up call for Governor Uzodinma, especially in his bid for second tenure . Yes, APC governor. The worst opposition to his second term bid may not come from within, but from "without". Outside. Don't say l told you. Do not quote me. Do not quote Sam. Onwuemeodo. Caveat emptor. Disclaimer. l am only guessing. lmagining things. Which can't be located or situated. . On your "marks". Ready....go!!!. The expected heat may be imported. External heat. Perhaps, from the barbeach or zuma rock. Do you understand?
The Lagos State Government had, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, arraigned Eze Ndigbo in Ajao Estate Lagos, Fredrick Nwajagu, on terrorism charges. And he has been remanded in prison custody. The man was quoted to have said that, if the attacks on the lgbos and their properties in Lagos continue, he might invite IPOB. That was a conditional statement. He didn't invite IPOB. But he's already in prison. And those who attacked, killed and maimed lgbos during the elections in Lagos walked away free and still walking freely . l am still painting a picture. What to expect from BAT's Presidency.
The Chief of Army Staff , Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya on Friday , May 5, 2023, had had reason or reasons to threaten to crack down on potential threats to Tinubu's inauguration on May 29.
ln doing that, Gen. Yahaya warned the "lndigenous People of Biafra , IPOB, Eastern Security Network, ESN and other fringe groups not to test the will of the military ". He specifically mentioned IPOB and ESN and described similar groups in other parts of the country as " fringe groups". Are you following?. What to expect.
Even when l have never read where IPOB had threatened to frustrate or prevent the inauguration of Tinubu as President on May 29. The man singled out IPOB and ESN, and left other related groups in other parts of the country.
That's the nature of the on-going blackmail against the South East and the people of the area. There is nothing to show or believe that Tinubu's presidency would be different from that of " Bubu", with regard to the fate of the South East.
With the prevailing circumstances and for Tinubu's presidency, APC leaders in the South East or the South East people in general, are all Obidients. Or, IPOB. Depending on which of the words they would prefer to use at any given time. That's their mindset. That's their belief. Nobody should wait to be told all these.
Orji Uzor Kalu had thought that, talking against Obi's Presidential bid or the corporate aspiration of the South East people to produce the President of the Country this time, would make them to bring him in or take him into confidence or forget his role in the Lawan for President venture. But he has seen that, that's not the case. They are also holding him in contempt. He has seen that the sound of bitter kola in the mouth does not reflect the taste. At all. At all, at all.
The only consolation is that, if the South East people survived Buhari's eight years of negligence and gross disregard, they would also survive Tinubu and whatever he comes up with. Necessity has always remained the mother of invention. The earlier this situation is understood, the better.
Nevertheless, we shall continue to clap for Jesus. And there is nothing anybody can do about it.
By Sam Onwuemeodo
I have chosen to begin with Nyesom Wike, the Rivers State Governor. And for obvious reasons.
The previous week, the President-elect, Senator Bola Tinubu was in Portharcourt, Rivers State. He was there on the invitation of Wike. He was invited to commission projects. And he did.
ln doing that, he was quoted to have said that, he owed Wike nothing. And some people began to celebrate that. Some people believed that. They took Tinubu's comment to the bank. They went home with it. And l hasten to say this.
lf there's one Nigerian Tinubu owes a lot, that's Wike. Nyesom Wike. Aside keeping his Party, PDP, and it's candidate, Atiku Abubakar on their toes all through, he delivered Rivers State to Tinubu and his APC. I am talking about the INEC declared results for Rivers . INEC's own results.
Wike, a pdp governor, ensured that APC or Tinubu was declared winner in his State. ln Wike's Rivers, Tinubu got 231, 591 votes. His own party, PDP, got 88, 468 votes and the Labour Party, 175, 071 votes. lf there's one man who has a lot of claims to make in Tinubu's presidency, that man is Wike. There is nothing he wants in BAT's government that he would not get. Don't believe me. But mark my words. He destroyed PDP for Tinubu to navigate. So, paying Wike's Rivers, the money spent on federal projects in the State would be one of the easiest things Tinubu would do as President.
Unlike Wike , those who should be worried about the direction Tinubu's presidency will be going are the leaders of the APC in the South East. Already, Tinubu's body language isn't encouraging. I am not writing that they should believe me , but letting them know the fate that awaits them in BAT's Presidency. Like l said, they should not wait to be told that Tinubu and his Presidency won't have anything tangible in store for them.
For Tinubu, his Presidency and his close associates , all the leaders of APC in the South East are OBIDIENTS. This is the mindset of Tinubu and his own emerging cabal. lt's written all over them. And there seems to be nothing anybody can do to help the situation.
The only prayer point left for APC leaders in the South East is that , the election of Tinubu should be annulled or be nullified by the Tribunal. But if the Tribunal confirms or authenticates his election, then, there is every reason to worry by APC leaders in the South East. Some of them, going to the Defence House and taking photographs with him, won't change anything.
Tinubu didn't hide his disdain for the South East. He began early enough to show that. He first settled for a fellow Muslim as Vice- Presidential candidate, believing that Heaven wouldn't fall. And he was right. Heaven didn't fall. And he did it, knowing that the South East could be adjudged the " soul" of Christianity in Nigeria. l am painting a picture. But see the major issues.
At a time, the discussion or the debate in the APC was that, the South should produce the Presidential candidate of the Party and by extension , Muhammadu Buhari's successor, Ahmed Lawan came on board with a bang. And who were in the forefront of the Lawan's project?. Senator Orji Uzor Kalu and His Excellency, Governor Hope Uzodinma. And they were overtly serious about it. They bought Lawan's nomination forms and displayed them for all and sundry to see, on the screens of national televisions. l do not know who drafted each other into the Lawan venture. Whether Kalu drafted the lmo Governor or vice versa.
lf there was a major threat to Tinubu's aspiration for the Presidential ticket of the APC, it was that Ahmed Lawan's entry. That man's case. And our own people were the pilots. The architects. On the TV screens, the Yobe State Governor, Mala Buni, Lawan's own governor was behind. At the back of Kalu and governor Uzodinma. l am still painting a picture. They didn't support Tinubu. They didn't support Rochas Okorocha or Ogbonnaya Onu or Emeka Nwajiuba or David Umahi. But Lawan from the North. Continue reading my lips correctly.
Then, the Concensus issue. Lawan was announced the consensus Presidential candidate of the party by the Abdullahi Adamu led NWC . lf that had worked out as planned, Tinubu's ambition would have been submerged or destroyed at that point. His group fought back. l want you to grab something here. Something "ominous". Something not palatable at all. Something "imirimious". Do you understand?
Then, the Presidential primary proper. The South East delegates voted for Lawan, from all indications. And not Tinubu. Not Okorocha. Not Nwajiuba. Not Onu or Umahi. They went for the Yobe man, Lawan. After Yobe, you get Borno State. l had been there. That was in 2004. l had gone for the Turbanning of Emir of Damaturu, Alhaji Shehu Hashimi 11 lbn Umar El-kanemi. The rest became history.
Ahmed Lawan for presidency project was the biggest threat Tinubu's ambition had, before the INEC conducted election. Buhari's cabal also led Nwajiuba to go to court , asking that Tinubu should be disqualified and announce him APC candidate. Buhari's deceitful cabal.
For the February 25, 2023 Presidential election, the leaders of APC in the South East were helpless. Nigerians, including the South East people, opted or settled for Peter Obi of the Labour Party. But Tinubu and his already existing cabal won't look at it from that perspective. They seem to have made up their minds. For them, APC leaders in the zone were all Obidients or "lPOB".
ln Anambra, for instance, APC ( Tinubu), had 5, 111 votes. PDP (Atiku), 9,036 votes. Labour party ( Obi), 584, 621 votes. ln Ebonyi, APC, 42, 402 votes. PDP, 13, 503 votes. Labour party, 259, 738 votes. ln Enugu State, APC, 4, 772 votes. PDP, 15, 749 votes. Labour Party, 428,640 votes. ln Abia, APC, 8, 914, PDP, 22, 676 and Labour Party, 327, 095. ln lmo , APC, 66, 406 votes, PDP, 30, 234 votes and the Labour party, 360, 495 votes. Don't forget. These're Mahmood Yakubu's INEC declared results.
Looking at these figures, one would be forced to agree or believe that the issue is not what anybody thinks should be Tinubu's right actions, but what will be the case with regard to South East APC leaders in Tinubu's presidency.
That is the problem with Orji Uzor Kalu and Osita lzunaso's aspirations for the position of Senate president. Otherwise, having denied the South East the position of President most patriotic Nigerians had believed should be their turn , and having also denied them the office of Vice president, the most appropriate thing to do now is to concede the office of Senate president to them. But for the reasons l had earlier mentioned, that has become a tall dream. They would never live to see that happen.
They have gone to South South. Akwa lbom State in Particular. And their choice is Godswill Akpabio. At the primary, he withdrew for Tinubu. ln the election, APC had 160, 620 votes. More than what Tinubu got in the whole of South East. That's the politics behind their choice of Akpabio. They won't tell you this.
For the South East and APC leaders in the zone in Particular, they should not expect much from Tinubu and his Presidency. No great expectations. Like I had intoned , the politics has begun. And only those with foresight or " four-sights" would understand better . Would be able to read the handwriting on the wall and interpret it. MENE, MENE, TEKEL, URPHARSIN.
There is already a gang up. While the lmo Governor was at "war" with Joe Ajaero of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, in lmo , the kano State Governor of APC extraction, Alhaji Ganduje, was rolling out red carpets in kano for the same Ajaero. The same period. And he gave him the Chieftaincy Title of Sarkin Yakin, meaning, Workers' warrior.
Even when Tinubu might not remember some of these incidents, those who have his ears would always remind him of all these. And there is no difference between him and Buhari in terms of being easy prey in the hands of wicked cabal. Even, Tinubu's own cabal may be worst than Buhari's own cabal. The signs are everywhere. l hope you're reading between the lines. There is " fire in the Soweto".
This whole thing is also a wake-up call for Governor Uzodinma, especially in his bid for second tenure . Yes, APC governor. The worst opposition to his second term bid may not come from within, but from "without". Outside. Don't say l told you. Do not quote me. Do not quote Sam. Onwuemeodo. Caveat emptor. Disclaimer. l am only guessing. lmagining things. Which can't be located or situated. . On your "marks". Ready....go!!!. The expected heat may be imported. External heat. Perhaps, from the barbeach or zuma rock. Do you understand?
The Lagos State Government had, on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, arraigned Eze Ndigbo in Ajao Estate Lagos, Fredrick Nwajagu, on terrorism charges. And he has been remanded in prison custody. The man was quoted to have said that, if the attacks on the lgbos and their properties in Lagos continue, he might invite IPOB. That was a conditional statement. He didn't invite IPOB. But he's already in prison. And those who attacked, killed and maimed lgbos during the elections in Lagos walked away free and still walking freely . l am still painting a picture. What to expect from BAT's Presidency.
The Chief of Army Staff , Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya on Friday , May 5, 2023, had had reason or reasons to threaten to crack down on potential threats to Tinubu's inauguration on May 29.
ln doing that, Gen. Yahaya warned the "lndigenous People of Biafra , IPOB, Eastern Security Network, ESN and other fringe groups not to test the will of the military ". He specifically mentioned IPOB and ESN and described similar groups in other parts of the country as " fringe groups". Are you following?. What to expect.
Even when l have never read where IPOB had threatened to frustrate or prevent the inauguration of Tinubu as President on May 29. The man singled out IPOB and ESN, and left other related groups in other parts of the country.
That's the nature of the on-going blackmail against the South East and the people of the area. There is nothing to show or believe that Tinubu's presidency would be different from that of " Bubu", with regard to the fate of the South East.
With the prevailing circumstances and for Tinubu's presidency, APC leaders in the South East or the South East people in general, are all Obidients. Or, IPOB. Depending on which of the words they would prefer to use at any given time. That's their mindset. That's their belief. Nobody should wait to be told all these.
Orji Uzor Kalu had thought that, talking against Obi's Presidential bid or the corporate aspiration of the South East people to produce the President of the Country this time, would make them to bring him in or take him into confidence or forget his role in the Lawan for President venture. But he has seen that, that's not the case. They are also holding him in contempt. He has seen that the sound of bitter kola in the mouth does not reflect the taste. At all. At all, at all.
The only consolation is that, if the South East people survived Buhari's eight years of negligence and gross disregard, they would also survive Tinubu and whatever he comes up with. Necessity has always remained the mother of invention. The earlier this situation is understood, the better.
Nevertheless, we shall continue to clap for Jesus. And there is nothing anybody can do about it.
STATEMENT : Sadiq Atayese led Oyo Labour Party defrauds 3000 PDP back up polling agents
Latest News Plus April 20, 2023 No comments
STATEMENT : Sadiq Atayese led Oyo Labour Party defrauds 3000 PDP back up polling agents
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Atayese |
Before publishing the above statement, LP chairman in Oyo State honourable Sadiq Atayese was contacted on WhatsApp on his Verified numbers 07088956726 / 08033001036.
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Atayese |
Before publishing the above statement, LP chairman in Oyo State honourable Sadiq Atayese was contacted on WhatsApp on his Verified numbers 07088956726 / 08033001036.
Presidential Election : This was done against LP in Kogi State (Video)
Latest News Plus March 17, 2023 No comments
Presidential Election : This was done against LP in Kogi State (Video)
BREAKING NEWS: Chief Bode George, many key PDP Stakeholders officially endorsed LP Gubernatorial Candidate GRV for Lagos State (Video)
Latest News Plus March 17, 2023 No comments
BREAKING NEWS: Chief Bode George, many key PDP Stakeholders officially endorsed LP Gubernatorial Candidate GRV for Lagos State (Video)
Chief Bode George and many key PDP Stakeholders has officially endorsed GRV. LP Road to victory in Lagos State is now officially sealed.
#POSTERSPEAKS ; Join Hon Paul Alagbe of LP, Others on The Radio Nigeria Ogo-Ilu FM
Latest News Plus January 21, 2023 No comments
Honourable Paul Alagbe is the Labour Party's Candidate for Ogbomoso North State constituency for Oyo State House of Assembly.
#2023ELECTION: APC CAME LATE TO THE 2023 PARTY AND ARE NOW LABOURING TO DEATH
Latest News Plus December 17, 2022 No comments
#2023ELECTION: APC CAME LATE TO THE 2023 PARTY AND ARE NOW LABOURING TO DEATH
By Great Imo Jonathan
One of the supporters of APC incoherent candidate said this morning that Obidients are no longer on the street after their noise. He suggested that they have burnt out.
What he didn't realize is that from the moment APC said Obidients were four people in a room tweeting, they instigated the already charged Obidients to the street and thereafter the conscientization of people across Nigeria happened.
Even if Peter Obi decides not to campaign again it doesn't matter. Because Peter Obi and Datti Yusuf are already the choice of Nigerians and are itched in the hearts and minds of Nigerians.
Obidients have long concluded their rallies, what is going on now is the Labour Party rallies.
Peter Obi's campaign is amorphous and multidimensional, APC and other political parties are focusing on labour party being the platform that Peter Obi is running on without realizing that the majority of Peter Obi's supporters are not labour party members; some are members of other political parties and some don't belong to any political party.
APC and other parties are existing in their own bubbles, beyond their members they can hardly convince Nigerians now. They are spending billions and sweat gathering their members and hired attendees to rallies without realizing that they are talking to themselves alone. Nigerians are not listening to them. At best some of their members will vote for them but other Nigerians are united in the Peter Obi and Datti Yusuf ticket and it is beyond any political party.
Whilst APC and their bulablu rambling certificate forger Candidate who was rushed out of mina is labouring to death Nigerians have long settled for the next president of Nigeria Mr. Peter Obi. There is no burning out, APC came late to the party because the case was long settled.
The hearts are already made up, APC is just hawking their expired product when the market has already closed.
APC people are late comers, the decision was long made by Nigerians and action is being awaited. Nduka Obiagbena will keep them sweating until Labour Party victory day.
APC is encouraged to continue their Labour to death because they have to spend their looted funds as many of those around them now just want a share of the loot and then join other Nigerians for the New Nigeria Project that will commence on February 25, 2023.
A New Nigeria Is Possiblei With Peter Obi
#VoteObiandDatti
#VoteLabourParty
#VoteLP
Great Imo Jonathan
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A1 PREMIER MODEL ACADEMY LTD, OSOGBO OSUN STATE
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By Great Imo Jonathan
One of the supporters of APC incoherent candidate said this morning that Obidients are no longer on the street after their noise. He suggested that they have burnt out.
What he didn't realize is that from the moment APC said Obidients were four people in a room tweeting, they instigated the already charged Obidients to the street and thereafter the conscientization of people across Nigeria happened.
Even if Peter Obi decides not to campaign again it doesn't matter. Because Peter Obi and Datti Yusuf are already the choice of Nigerians and are itched in the hearts and minds of Nigerians.
Obidients have long concluded their rallies, what is going on now is the Labour Party rallies.
Peter Obi's campaign is amorphous and multidimensional, APC and other political parties are focusing on labour party being the platform that Peter Obi is running on without realizing that the majority of Peter Obi's supporters are not labour party members; some are members of other political parties and some don't belong to any political party.
APC and other parties are existing in their own bubbles, beyond their members they can hardly convince Nigerians now. They are spending billions and sweat gathering their members and hired attendees to rallies without realizing that they are talking to themselves alone. Nigerians are not listening to them. At best some of their members will vote for them but other Nigerians are united in the Peter Obi and Datti Yusuf ticket and it is beyond any political party.
Whilst APC and their bulablu rambling certificate forger Candidate who was rushed out of mina is labouring to death Nigerians have long settled for the next president of Nigeria Mr. Peter Obi. There is no burning out, APC came late to the party because the case was long settled.
The hearts are already made up, APC is just hawking their expired product when the market has already closed.
APC people are late comers, the decision was long made by Nigerians and action is being awaited. Nduka Obiagbena will keep them sweating until Labour Party victory day.
APC is encouraged to continue their Labour to death because they have to spend their looted funds as many of those around them now just want a share of the loot and then join other Nigerians for the New Nigeria Project that will commence on February 25, 2023.
A New Nigeria Is Possiblei With Peter Obi
#VoteObiandDatti
#VoteLabourParty
#VoteLP
Great Imo Jonathan
SPONSORED ADS 👇👇
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A1 PREMIER MODEL ACADEMY LTD, OSOGBO OSUN STATE
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#2023Election: Let Atiku Answer this Question and stop his useless campaigns
Latest News Plus December 11, 2022 No comments
#2023Election: Let Atiku Answer this Question and stop his useless campaigns
*👆🏽An intelligent Nigerian youth slammed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with a difficult question, quoting the former President Olusegun Obasanjo's recommendations about his personality in his book, "My Watch", Pages 31-32.*
*This is what the former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote about Atiku 👇*
"What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest."
The smart youth placed Atiku in a very tight corner by asking him;
"If you're an employer, and someone came with such a bad recommendation your principal wrote about you, will you go ahead to employ the person in your company?
I feel bad for Nigeria!
We're ignorant of truths contained in books, perhaps because we don't read books.
How can we employ such a person with a terrible written submission from his former manager to be our President?
*God forbid Mr. Corruption!
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VOTE LP in the upcoming General Elections in Nigeria
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*👆🏽An intelligent Nigerian youth slammed Alhaji Atiku Abubakar with a difficult question, quoting the former President Olusegun Obasanjo's recommendations about his personality in his book, "My Watch", Pages 31-32.*
*This is what the former President Olusegun Obasanjo wrote about Atiku 👇*
"What I did not know, which came out glaringly later, was his parental background which was somewhat shadowy, his propensity to corruption, his tendency to disloyalty, his inability to say and stick to the truth all the time,a propensity for poor judgment, his belief and reliance on marabouts , his lack of transparency, his trust in money to buy his way out on all issues and his readiness to sacrifice morality, integrity, propriety truth and national interest for self and selfish interest."
The smart youth placed Atiku in a very tight corner by asking him;
"If you're an employer, and someone came with such a bad recommendation your principal wrote about you, will you go ahead to employ the person in your company?
I feel bad for Nigeria!
We're ignorant of truths contained in books, perhaps because we don't read books.
How can we employ such a person with a terrible written submission from his former manager to be our President?
*God forbid Mr. Corruption!
SPONSORED ADS 👇👇
VOTE LP in the upcoming General Elections in Nigeria
SPONSORED ADS 👇👇