We need legislation to eradicate rituals, cannibalism - Erelu Lola Ayonrinde -Raises posers on Oba Funso Adeolu’s corpse

Erelu Tunwase AyonrindeErelu Tunwase of Ode-Remo, Chief Lola Ayonrinde, who is the Otun Iyalode of Shomolu and Lagos District, and also the Yeye Akinrogun of Ikeji-Ile Ijesa was twice Mayor of the London Borough of Wandsworth. She talks to AYO-LAWAL GBENOBA on her campaign against human sacrifice and cannibalism in Nigeria. Excerpts:

WHAT is your campaign all about?
The ‘Say No To Cannibalism In Nigeria’ campaign is aimed towards eradicating the ancient and obnoxious practice of mutilating the bodies of traditional rulers after death. The rituals and sacrifices parts of the body of a dead king, especially in Western Nigeria, are used for are barbaric and a disgrace to the country in this 21st century. The movement is out to stop these evil practices which are not in consonant with the will of God and against the fundamental human rights of the affected traditional rulers. When a king dies, they say they have to give his heart to his successor on the throne to eat. They explained that it will make the new king strong and courageous but, is that not deceit? How can eating somebody’s flesh give courage to another person? They mutilate the remains of these kings and engage in fetish and obnoxious activities which add no value to anybody or the society in general.


Why do you need to feed an incoming royal father with the heart of a dead one? This cannibalism started with Christopher Colombus who believed that when a king ate the heart, or some other parts of a dead ruler, some major attributes of the dead was transferred to the new king. This is sheer cannibalism and has no place with God. And, I want the chiefs, the traditional rulers themselves and other stakeholders to know that any tradition that does not recognise God is doomed. The government must put a stop to this cannibalism going on in some parts of Nigeria because, it is even against the constitution of Nigeria. Section 38 subsection 1 of the Nigerian constitution gives every citizen the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, while section 17 subsection 26 declares that the sanctity of the human person shall be recognised and human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced. Where is the sanctity of the human person in all these? Where is human dignity?


What motivated this campaign?
I was very close to the late Alaye of Ode-Remo, Oba Funso Adeolu, the popular Chief Eleyinmi of the rested Village Headmaster soap opera. Few months after his death on August 21, 2008, he started appearing to me and I had months of traumatic haunting. In his lifetime, Oba Adeolu was a Christian and he made it known that he did not partake in anything fetish during his installation as king. He explicitly, several times, demanded that when death came calling, his corpse should be handed over to his family so that he could be given a proper Christian burial. However, his corpse was not released to the family. After his death, he appeared to me several times, and kept telling me about many things. He said his corpse was handed over to the ‘odis’ (slaves) who treated it like that of a criminal. They took bits and pieces of his remains for their own use while some parts were distributed to the four corners of the town.


It was while going round that I discovered what happened and[b] I met some chiefs who confessed what happened but asked me to forget it because there was nothing we could do about it. [/b]

All the ‘odus’ of Ifa do not approve using human beings as sacrifice, the constitution does not approve and to crown it all, God Almighty frowns at this practice, they are doing it to appease whom? Some of the kings today are enlightened and those who are born again Christians, like Oba Adeolu, are renouncing these things. So, why hold on to an obnoxious and barbaric act? Oba Adeolu believed he would be given a decent burial and that is why his ghost has refused to rest. Even in Ijebuland, these things were abolished years ago and Ijebuland under the Awujale agreed they would bury kings according to their religion.


So, how do you hope to stop the practice?
We are canvassing that our traditional rulers should be buried whole, without being mutilated and it should be in the open. There is secrecy because of the evils attached. It is untenable scientifically that the heart is eaten for so and so reasons. To start with, let us have the installation of kings in the open, no aspect of the installation should be shrouded in secrecy. It should be a celebration of our culture so, why should it be shrouded in secrecy? When everything becomes transparent, it will even help younger ones to know more about our culture and we will be able to restore some of our societal values. Why should obas be laid to rest in a paganic manner? If a governor gives staff of office to a king, giving him recognition and authority, that king is under the governor so, why should the government condone barbarism in this age? The ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs should do something about this, if not, the government is endorsing cannibalism. True that some of the kings went through these rituals during installation but those who opted out should be given that grace of opting out of the rituals in death. They should be buried according to their faith. The practice is a disgrace to the whole of South West because it is common there.


We are appealing to the traditional rulers who were installed through cannibalism to renounce it publicly and declare they don’t want their hearts to be eaten or other parts of their bodies to be used for any form of ritual. Abolition of slave trade took place years ago. So, why do we still have some people in Ode calling themselves slaves (‘odis’)? We need legislation to stop the barbaric act and we are appealing to our lawmakers to rise up to this task of eradicating cannibalism in Nigeria. There should be a law backing a king to opt out of fetish installation and burial and it should become an offence for anyone to tamper with the remains of a king, for whatever purpose, or to give the body to the ‘odi’ for rituals. The penalty should be without an option of fine so that the perpetrators would know how grave the offence is. The ‘odi’ in Ode can be given money to buy goat, ram, cow, or whatever they need for sacrifice, if they must, but there must be total abolition of human sacrifice in the country. Efforts are being made by some Ogun State traditional rulers to stop it but some feel the fetish practice must be protected. The government must detach itself from it.


Internationally, human sacrifice, cannibalism, witchcraft and sorcery are illegal so, why should it be done with impunity in Nigeria, a country that is known as the giant of Africa? Infact, politicians should begin to include the abolition of cannibalism in their campaign programmes, and party manifestos by 2010.


What efforts have you made so far to network and get people involved?
We give glory to Almighty God. I have spoken to so many kings who secretly don’t want it and we are telling them that they should make an open declaration against these evil practices. The campaign would be boosted if they do because people believe they all knew and agreed to these evil practices before being installed. We now call on the royal fathers again, in the name of Almighty God, to declare publicly that they don’t want these fetish practices to continue. I have carried the campaign to the international level so that Nigerians of affluence who are in diaspora would lobby the lawmakers and get a legal backing for the campaign to eradicate human sacrifice and cannibalism in Nigeria. A number of international media like the BBC have aired my interview on the campaign and some Nigerian people abroad are involved in the lobbying for a legislation to stop the obnoxious practices.


We call on the ‘oluwos’ and ‘odis’ in Ode to review the entrenched ill that has no value to the society. We appeal to them to accept cows and goats and allow our royal fathers to be buried according to their beliefs. Then, it was about time that the royal fathers are constituted into the House of Royals, like the House of Lords, so that they would have more power, say and patnership in governance. This would help them to contribute meaningfully to issues affecting them and the society at large.

Yorubas are the Problem with Nigeria - By Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

http://elombah.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&catid=57%3Asanusi-lamido-sanusi&id=868%3Ayorubas-are-the-problem-with-nigeria-by-sanusi-lamido-sanusi&Itemid=65

In sum, the Yoruba political leadership, as mentioned by Balarabe Musa, has shown itself over the years to be incapable of rising above narrow tribal interests and reciprocating goodwill from other sections of the country by treating other groups with respect. Practically every crisis in Nigeria since independence has its roots in this attitude.

i. The Yoruba elite and area-boy politics;
ii. Igbo marginalisation and the responsible limits of retribution; and
iii. The Yoruba Factor and "Area-boy" Politics.

See also The Adulteress' Diary by Lamido Sanusi

My views on the Yoruba political leadership have been thoroughly articulated in some of my writings, prime among which was " Afenifere: Syllabus of Errors" published by This Day (The Sunday Newspaper) on Sept 27, 1998. There was also an earlier publication in the weekly Trust entitled " The Igbo, the Yoruba and History" (Aug. 21, 1998).
In sum, the Yoruba political leadership, as mentioned by Balarabe Musa, has shown itself over the years to be incapable of rising above narrow tribal interests and reciprocating goodwill from other sections of the country by treating other groups with respect. Practically every crisis in Nigeria since independence has its roots in this attitude.
The Yoruba elite were the first, in 1962, to attempt a violent overthrow of an elected government in this country. In 1966, it was the violence in the West which provided an avenue for the putsch of 15th January. After Chief Awolowo lost to Shagari in 1983 elections, it was the discontent and bad publicity in the South-West which led to the Buhari intervention.
When Buhari jailed UPN governors like Ige and Onabanjo, the South-Western press castigated that good government and provided the right mood for IBB to take over power. As soon as IBB cleared UPN governors of charges against them in a politically motivated retrial, he became the darling of the South-West. When IBB annulled the primaries in which Adamu Ciroma and Shehu Yar Adua emerged as presidential candidates in the NRC and SDP, he was hailed by the South-West. When the same man annulled the June 12, 1993 elections in which Abiola was the front-runner, the South-West now became defenders of democracy.

When it seemed Sani Abacha was sympathetic to Abiola, the South-West supported his take-over. He was in fact invited by a prominent NADECO member to take over in a published letter shortly before the event. Even though Abiola had won the elections in the North, the North was blamed for its annulment. When Abdulsalam Abubakar started his transition, the Yoruba political leadership through NADECO presented a memorandum on a Government of National Unity that showed complete disrespect for the intelligence and liberties of other Nigerians.


Subsequently, they formed a tribal party which failed to meet minimum requirements for registration, but was registered all the same to avoid the violence that was bound to follow non-registration, given the area-boy mentality of South-West politicians. Having rejected an Obasanjo candidacy and challenged the election as a fraud in court, we now find a leading member of the AD in the government, a daughter of an Afenifere leader as Minister of State, and Awolowo´s daughter as Ambassador, all appointed by a man who won the election through fraud.

Meanwhile, nothing has been negotiated for the children of Abiola, the focus of Yoruba political activity. In return for these favours, the AD solidly voted for Evan Enwerem as Senate President. This is a man who participated in the two-million- man March for Abacha´s self-succession. He also is reputed to have hosted a meeting of governors during IBB´s transition, demanding that June 12 elections should never be de-annulled and threatening that the East would go to war if this was done. When Ibrahim Salisu Buhari was accused of swearing to a false affidavit, the Yoruba political elite correctly took up the gauntlet for his resignation.

When an AD governor, Bola Tinubu, swears to a false affidavit that he attended an Ivy League University which he did not attend, we hear excuses.

For so many years, the Yoruba have inundated this country with stories of being marginalised and of a civil service dominated by northerners through quota system. The Federal Character Commission has recently released a report which shows that the South-West accounts for 27.8% of civil servants in the range GL08 to GL14 and a full 29.5% of GL 15 and above. One zone out of six zones controls a full 30% of the civil service leaving the other five zones to share the remaining 70%. We find the same story in the economy, in academia, in parastatals.

Yet in spite of being so dominant, the Yoruba complained and complained of marginalization. Of recent, in recognition of the trauma which hit the South-West after June 12, the rest of the country forced everyone out of the race to ensure that a South-Westerner emerged, often against the best advice of political activists.

Instead of leading a path of reconciliation and strong appreciation, the Yoruba have embarked on short-sighted triumphalism, threatening other "nationalities" that they ( who after all lost the election) will protect Obasanjo ( who was forced on them). No less a person than Bola Ige has made such utterances.

To further show that they were in charge, they led a cult into the Hausa area of Sagamu, murdered a Hausa woman and nothing happened. In the violence that followed, they killed several Hausa residents, with Yoruba leaders like Segun Osoba, reminding Nigerians of the need to respect the culture of their host communities. This would have continued were it not for the people of Kano who showed that they could also create their own Oro who would only be appeased through the shedding of innocent Yoruba blood.

I say all this, to support Balarabe Musa´s statement, that the greatest problem to nation-building in Nigeria are the Yoruba Bourgeoisie. I say this also to underscore my point that until they change this attitude, no conference can solve the problems of Nigeria. We cannot move forward if the leadership of one of the largest ethnic groups continues to operate, not like statesmen, but like common area boys.

iii.The Igbo Factor and the Reasonable Limits of Retribution.

The Igbo people of Nigeria have made a mark in the history of this nation. They led the first successful military coup which eliminated the Military and Political leaders of other regions while letting off Igbo leaders. Nwafor Orizu, then Senate President, in consultation with President Azikiwe, subverted the constitution and handed over power to Aguiyi-Ironsi. Subsequent developments, including attempts at humiliating other peoples, led to the counter-coup and later the civil war. The Igbos themselves must acknowledge that they have a large part of the blame for shattering the unity of this country.

Having said that, this nation must realise that Igbos have more than paid for their foolishness. They have been defeated in war, rendered paupers by monetary policy fiat, their properties declared abandoned and confiscated, kept out of strategic public sector appointments and deprived of public services. The rest of the country forced them to remain in Nigeria and has continued to deny them equity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have conspired to keep the Igbo out of the scheme of things. In the recent transition when the Igbo solidly supported the PDP in the hope of an Ekwueme presidency, the North and South-West treated this as a Biafra agenda. Every rule set for the primaries, every gentleman´s agreement was set aside to ensure that Obasanjo, not Ekwueme emerged as the candidate. Things went as far as getting the Federal Government to hurriedly gazette a pardon. Now, with this government, the marginalistion of the Igbo is more complete than ever before. The Igbos have taken all these quietly because, they reason, they brought it upon themselves. But the nation is sitting on a time-bomb.

After the First World War, the victors treated Germany with the same contempt Nigeria is treating Igbos. Two decades later, there was a Second World War, far costlier than the first. Germany was again defeated, but this time, they won a more honourable peace. Our present political leaders have no sense of History. There is a new Igbo man, who was not born in 1966 and neither knows nor cares about Nzeogwu and Ojukwu. There are Igbo men on the street who were never Biafrans. They were born Nigerians, are Nigerians, but suffer because of actions of earlier generations. They will soon decide that it is better to fight their own war, and may be find an honourable peace, than to remain in this contemptible state in perpetuity.

The Northern Bourgeoisie and the Yoruba Bourgeoisie have exacted their pound of flesh from the Igbos. For one Sardauna, one Tafawa Balewa, one Akintola and one Okotie-Eboh, hundreds of thousands have died and suffered.

If this issue is not addressed immediately, no conference will solve Nigeria´s problems.


By Sanusi Lamido Sanusi

mekuslogan: We need legislation to eradicate rituals, cannibalism - Erelu Lola Ayonrinde -Raises posers on Oba Funso Adeolu’s corpse

Erelu Tunwase AyonrindeErelu Tunwase of Ode-Remo, Chief Lola Ayonrinde, who is the Otun Iyalode of Shomolu and Lagos District, and also the Yeye Akinrogun of Ikeji-Ile Ijesa was twice Mayor of the London Borough of Wandsworth. She talks to AYO-LAWAL GBENOBA on her campaign against human sacrifice and cannibalism in Nigeria. Excerpts:

WHAT is your campaign all about?
The ‘Say No To Cannibalism In Nigeria’ campaign is aimed towards eradicating the ancient and obnoxious practice of mutilating the bodies of traditional rulers after death. The rituals and sacrifices parts of the body of a dead king, especially in Western Nigeria, are used for are barbaric and a disgrace to the country in this 21st century. The movement is out to stop these evil practices which are not in consonant with the will of God and against the fundamental human rights of the affected traditional rulers. When a king dies, they say they have to give his heart to his successor on the throne to eat. They explained that it will make the new king strong and courageous but, is that not deceit? How can eating somebody’s flesh give courage to another person? They mutilate the remains of these kings and engage in fetish and obnoxious activities which add no value to anybody or the society in general.


Why do you need to feed an incoming royal father with the heart of a dead one? This cannibalism started with Christopher Colombus who believed that when a king ate the heart, or some other parts of a dead ruler, some major attributes of the dead was transferred to the new king. This is sheer cannibalism and has no place with God. And, I want the chiefs, the traditional rulers themselves and other stakeholders to know that any tradition that does not recognise God is doomed. The government must put a stop to this cannibalism going on in some parts of Nigeria because, it is even against the constitution of Nigeria. Section 38 subsection 1 of the Nigerian constitution gives every citizen the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, while section 17 subsection 26 declares that the sanctity of the human person shall be recognised and human dignity shall be maintained and enhanced. Where is the sanctity of the human person in all these? Where is human dignity?


What motivated this campaign?
I was very close to the late Alaye of Ode-Remo, Oba Funso Adeolu, the popular Chief Eleyinmi of the rested Village Headmaster soap opera. Few months after his death on August 21, 2008, he started appearing to me and I had months of traumatic haunting. In his lifetime, Oba Adeolu was a Christian and he made it known that he did not partake in anything fetish during his installation as king. He explicitly, several times, demanded that when death came calling, his corpse should be handed over to his family so that he could be given a proper Christian burial. However, his corpse was not released to the family. After his death, he appeared to me several times, and kept telling me about many things. He said his corpse was handed over to the ‘odis’ (slaves) who treated it like that of a criminal. They took bits and pieces of his remains for their own use while some parts were distributed to the four corners of the town.


It was while going round that I discovered what happened and[b] I met some chiefs who confessed what happened but asked me to forget it because there was nothing we could do about it. [/b]

All the ‘odus’ of Ifa do not approve using human beings as sacrifice, the constitution does not approve and to crown it all, God Almighty frowns at this practice, they are doing it to appease whom? Some of the kings today are enlightened and those who are born again Christians, like Oba Adeolu, are renouncing these things. So, why hold on to an obnoxious and barbaric act? Oba Adeolu believed he would be given a decent burial and that is why his ghost has refused to rest. Even in Ijebuland, these things were abolished years ago and Ijebuland under the Awujale agreed they would bury kings according to their religion.


So, how do you hope to stop the practice?
We are canvassing that our traditional rulers should be buried whole, without being mutilated and it should be in the open. There is secrecy because of the evils attached. It is untenable scientifically that the heart is eaten for so and so reasons. To start with, let us have the installation of kings in the open, no aspect of the installation should be shrouded in secrecy. It should be a celebration of our culture so, why should it be shrouded in secrecy? When everything becomes transparent, it will even help younger ones to know more about our culture and we will be able to restore some of our societal values. Why should obas be laid to rest in a paganic manner? If a governor gives staff of office to a king, giving him recognition and authority, that king is under the governor so, why should the government condone barbarism in this age? The ministry of local government and chieftaincy affairs should do something about this, if not, the government is endorsing cannibalism. True that some of the kings went through these rituals during installation but those who opted out should be given that grace of opting out of the rituals in death. They should be buried according to their faith. The practice is a disgrace to the whole of South West because it is common there.


We are appealing to the traditional rulers who were installed through cannibalism to renounce it publicly and declare they don’t want their hearts to be eaten or other parts of their bodies to be used for any form of ritual. Abolition of slave trade took place years ago. So, why do we still have some people in Ode calling themselves slaves (‘odis’)? We need legislation to stop the barbaric act and we are appealing to our lawmakers to rise up to this task of eradicating cannibalism in Nigeria. There should be a law backing a king to opt out of fetish installation and burial and it should become an offence for anyone to tamper with the remains of a king, for whatever purpose, or to give the body to the ‘odi’ for rituals. The penalty should be without an option of fine so that the perpetrators would know how grave the offence is. The ‘odi’ in Ode can be given money to buy goat, ram, cow, or whatever they need for sacrifice, if they must, but there must be total abolition of human sacrifice in the country. Efforts are being made by some Ogun State traditional rulers to stop it but some feel the fetish practice must be protected. The government must detach itself from it.


Internationally, human sacrifice, cannibalism, witchcraft and sorcery are illegal so, why should it be done with impunity in Nigeria, a country that is known as the giant of Africa? Infact, politicians should begin to include the abolition of cannibalism in their campaign programmes, and party manifestos by 2010.


What efforts have you made so far to network and get people involved?
We give glory to Almighty God. I have spoken to so many kings who secretly don’t want it and we are telling them that they should make an open declaration against these evil practices. The campaign would be boosted if they do because people believe they all knew and agreed to these evil practices before being installed. We now call on the royal fathers again, in the name of Almighty God, to declare publicly that they don’t want these fetish practices to continue. I have carried the campaign to the international level so that Nigerians of affluence who are in diaspora would lobby the lawmakers and get a legal backing for the campaign to eradicate human sacrifice and cannibalism in Nigeria. A number of international media like the BBC have aired my interview on the campaign and some Nigerian people abroad are involved in the lobbying for a legislation to stop the obnoxious practices.


We call on the ‘oluwos’ and ‘odis’ in Ode to review the entrenched ill that has no value to the society. We appeal to them to accept cows and goats and allow our royal fathers to be buried according to their beliefs. Then, it was about time that the royal fathers are constituted into the House of Royals, like the House of Lords, so that they would have more power, say and patnership in governance. This would help them to contribute meaningfully to issues affecting them and the society at large.

disgusting

http://actioncongressnigeria.org/2011/11/28/why-we-can%E2%80%99t-tax-osun-people-by-aregbesola/

Home » News Articles » Why We Can’t tax Osun People, by Aregbesola
Nov 28, 2011 No Comments ›› ACN (ji)

Osun State Governor Rauf Aregbesola at the weekend explained why his administration has refused to tax the people.

Aregbesola said his people are very poor and tax would be an unnecessary burden on them.

He spoke at the Banquet Hall of the State House in Osogbo, the state capital, during a dinner with representatives of various financial institutions.

The dinner was part of activities marking the one year anniversary of the Aregbesola administration in office.

The governor urged the institutions to assist in eradicating poverty in the state, assuring them of security and a business friendly environment.

He solicited for funds to finance capital projects and programmes that would improve the state’s economy.

Aregbesola said: “I am in Osun State to eradicate poverty. If you are talking about naked poverty, it is here in the state. We can not tax anybody here because we do not want them to die.

“Are we going to tax people waiting to die? We were able to save 13 million in the last year, not through tax, but by blocking leakages in the system. So you bankers have no choice than to help us deliver good governance to the people. We need your support to eradicate poverty.

“I am amused about the uninformed comments of our predecessor in office about the finances of the state. They are confused and cannot comprehend what we are doing because they are not financially literate.

“We have the vision, passion and action. I am here to change the fate of the black man through the various programmes and projects of our unusual and unconventional government.

“My predecessor left the state’s account in a bad state. We met a suffocating loan of N18.3 billion, which the Olagunsoye Oyinlola administration secured in an unprofessional manner.

“But within a year in office, my administration was able to increase the Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) of the state from N300 million to N600 million and pay the loan through the access of N25 million bond from the bank, with the monthly servicing of less than N100 million, instead of the N800 million used to service the former loan.”

The governor said his administration does not wait for the federal allocation before it pays its workers, adding that any state waiting for it is doomed.

He said states rejected the October allocation because of President Goodluck Jonathan’s decision to deduct some amount from it for the creation of Sovereign Wealth.

Aregbesola said nobody has the right to deduct from any state’s allocation without the governor’s consent.

He advised state governments to exploit other avenues for generating revenue.

Commissioner for Finance, Economic Planning and Budgeting, Dr. wale Bolorunduro said the government plans to increase the IGR to N1 billion next year.

On incessant bank robberies in the state, Bolorunduro said the government has collaborated with security agencies to forestall a recurrence. He said the governor has ordered for five Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs) and established a security trust fund to combat the menace.

Many of the bank executives acknowledged the governor’s passion for development and promised to support his administration.

They include: Ayo Abina, Skye Bank; Elias Akenzua, Zenith Bank; Akinleye Ogunleye, Diamond Bank; and Boyin Oladokun, Unity Bank.

Emerging trend of social almajiri in Yorubaland
By Hakeem Jamiu

There is a social malaise which is gradually creeping into the lexicon of Yorubaland and this is the ugly spectre of hungry children begging for food and alms at social events. Older women are equally not left out in this ugly but strange practice in Yorubaland. It is strange in Yorubaland because the concept of almajiri which simply means street urchin is common in the Northern part of the country. Yorubas use to refer derisively to anybody soliciting for arms in Yorubaland in the olden days as almajiri. The almajiri of the North are usually children between the age bracket of 7 and 20 in most cases. Almajiris are so desperate for food that any unsuspecting visitor to the Northern part of the country who goes to a restaurant to eat but mistakenly left his food to wash his hands is likely to lose such to waiting almajiris before he comes back for the food.





advertisement












I first noticed this ugly trend at a ceremony I attended a few months ago at Ayetoro Ekiti. Elderly and middle aged able bodied women from Kwara, Osun and Oyo states invaded the burial ceremony uninvited and were embarrassing guests who refused to give them money. Also noticeable were children with their begging bowls who thronged the venue of the ceremony soliciting for left over food and alms. The children were a pitiable sight. Poverty was clearly written on their faces. I have attended many social functions after that and the same trend was noticeable. But I became worried a few days ago, when I attended the burial ceremony of a friend's father in Ilesha , Osun State . They came in various groups and employ different methods in soliciting for alms. There were the elderly women who were busy harassing guests in the name of praise singing and would not leave until you part with money, there were the men with their public address system which they use in praise singing but which is disturbance and yet, there were Yoruba children in the mould of almajiris with their begging bowls scrambling for left-over and at the same time soliciting for alms.


Fellow guests on my table at the event who were also journalists expressed their concern in unison about the growing trend of almajiri of various categories in Yorubaland. They all agreed that it has become a social problem. We started discussing and realised that the culture of begging in the mould of almajiris is alien to Yoruba culture. In those days before the advent of the British, the Yorubas are a proud people known for their hard work and industry. They practiced hoe agriculture and were well known as traders and for their crafts. Yoruba artists have produced masterpieces of woodcarving and bronze casting, some of which date from as early as the 13th century. Many of Nigeria 's best-known artists and writers are Yoruba. Other occupation of the Yorubas at that time were drumming and masquerading which would now be called showbiz. They engage in all the foregoing occupation but a Yoruba man or woman (able bodied) would not beg for alms as it is considered shameful and something akin to a curse. The Yorubas cherish their oriki (folklore) which is a poetic version of eulogizing the exploits of their progenitors which is an incentive for them to excel and even surpass their progenitors. The Yorubas have harsh words for lazy people. Such people are objects of ridicule and butt of jokes in the society. With this background, it is understandable why we became worried with the array of beggars at the Ilesha ceremony.


After leaving the party, I reflected on the scenario of the almajiris in Ilesha and I was able to draw a relationship between Political almajiris and social almajiris. I discovered that social almajiri had its root in the advent of the politics of do -or-die introduced into the political lexicon of Yorubaland by apostles of mainstream politics especially ex-President Obasanjo. The grand Patron of political almajiris who recently passed away was Chief Lamidi Adedibu. Many have argued that his dath has led to the profilration of almajiris in Yorubaland. This is because those he hitherto dole handouts to must look for other means of survival since he is no more. These political almajiris are ready to exchange their mothers for few coins. A new political class of men without integrity and anything goes was created and they became political almajiris who survive on crumbs from their masters. They would rig, kill, maim and do all sort of things to acquire political power. With the ascension of these men in power, good governance became a thing of the past. Our collective patrimony was squandered by these political almajiris. Nigeria has never been so blessed with petro dollar with oil selling for $156 dollars per barrel but Nigeria has never been so poor with a chunk of the population living below poverty line. So versions of the political almajiris are the social almajiris that now invade ceremonies in Yorubaland. With these children begging for alms, a ready made market for thuggery and other social vices is assured. The activities of the beggars are not limited to parties. At bus stops in our cities, it is a common sight to see women most of who are still in their mid thirties, who would strap a baby at their backs and approach men with stories of despair to solicit for alms. Many of them would end up in bed with such men. This is another brand of alamajiri and these are Yoruba women. A violent version of almajiri but which is gradually being tackled in Lagos is the 'Area Boys' syndrome. These are Yoruba street urchins who are semi- armed robbers.


The underlying factor in this new trend is failure of the Nigerian State on one part and the laziness on the part of these women. Most of them don't want to work, In those days, when everybody's occupation was farming you dare not beg. You must find something to do. But these days, our women and children are too lazy. It is either they steal or beg. In most cases a mother and child become almajiris at social events. So the question now is can a Yoruba man now refer derisively to a Hausa beggar as almajiri when we have many of them now in Yorubaland? The answer is no! This trend must be arrested before it goes out of hand. The almajiris in the North these days engage in novel forms of drug abuse like sniffing of gutter water to get intoxicated, sniffing of adhesives and other drugs so that they are ever ready to unleash terror on the rest of the society whenever they are called upon to do so by the political wing of almajiris. I strongly recommend that guests at public functions must stop encouraging almajiris by giving them money.


But can government which itself owns the political wing of almajiris arrest this trend? Time will tell.

Awolowo Really Commited Suicide

New York[RR] Nigeria–Reports reaching our information desk says that late Chief Obafemi Awolowo committed Suicide just as he was about to celebrate his golden jubilee.

According to sources, then Action Group [AG] heavyweight, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo learned of a possibility of military court martial against an insurrection he was engineering alongside his political associates when he realized that Ibrahim Babangida wanted to become a life military president in Nigeria-state.

This is breaking News… RR is investigating this report…stand-by…

Read additional reports on this bombshell revelation on Awo’s suicide mission, including truths, lies and secrecy surrounding it, written by Abdulmunini Adeku at NigerianFinancialtimes:

Twenty –three years after he suddenly was reported dead of natural cause and two years shy of his golden jubilee , facts are now emerging on the reasons that led to First and Second Republic political heavyweight ,Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo committing suicide.

It was learned that he did it to stem the tide of a possible military court martial into an insurrection he was planning to lead alongside his political associates at the time when it became evident that then Military President ,General Ibrahim Babangida was intending staying in power forever.
In a no-hold barred interview with FS Online recently,a grass root politician ,Mr Adebayo Adeyinka who lives within the College Road at Ifako-Ijaiye axis in Ogba ,a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria was livid with rage when he learned that a key politician connected to the issue was denying the incident.
He revealed that Chief Awolowo wanted to lead some kind of guerilla warfare or militant campaign against the government of President Babangida so that he can be overthrown through a popular or people -led putsch.
According to him , the Elder Statesman summoned a meeting of his core loyalists over the issue and this was even filmed so as to strengthen the extent of commitment of each of the politician that attended the meeting,
He pointed out that however unknown to all of those who were privy to this meeting and clarion call , Chief Lateef Kayode Jakande ,Former Executive Governor of Lagos State had a different plan as he betrayed them to the military .
He Said:’ But unknown to them , Chief Jakande was planning to betray them, he went to President Ibrahim Babangida and promptly showed him the tape
“Papa Awolowo was invited for a meeting with President Ibrahim Babangida who was then staying at Dodan Barracks which was the seat of power as at then and the truth of his clandestine meetings was revealed to him by the gap –toothed General
“He gave Papa some options and that was for him to be ready to face a court martial , be ready to go to a prison or better still go on exile
“At this stage Papa felt instead of allowing some ambitious khaki boy to mess him up he should just pack it in and call it a day ,so Chief Awolowo decide to commit suicide so as to save himself from the ignominy of going to prison for the second time in his lifetime .
“But before he did this he called his core loyalists for a meeting ,before then he had called up Late Chief Bola Ige [Cicero],since the latter had a very strong understanding of the Hausa Language having had his formative years as a young man in Kaduna but discovered that the late Esa-Oke strongman was innocent after he was interrogated by Papa
“He called others for enquiries while asking them to tender the video cassettes of the meeting they all attended to discuss the plans to topple President Babangida for examination ,at this juncture Chief Jakande developed a cold feet as he could not produce his own copy of the video which was freely distributed to all that was present at the meeting previously before the betrayal and that was how the cat was let out of the bag
“So he cursed him at this point and pointed out that he will never have any form of relevance politically as far as Nigeria was concerned and till today members of the Awolowo Dynasty avoids him like a plague.
“I was their when the letter he wrote to the family to beg them for forgiveness over the unfortunate incident was read in the presence of all present ,if he continues to deny I am ready to confront him publicly again on the same issue as I can even remember that elders asked him to go to the grave of the late sage to plead for forgiveness
“When he was questioned he lied that the National Security Organization now State Security Services had visited his house to check on him and in the process took the tape in question but” Awoists” knew that this was a very weak argument as he did not inform their political group of this development before their enquiry on the subject
“That was how Senator Abraham Adesanya assumed the leadership of the Awolowo camp of Yoruba politics after the demise of the man ,he was not even so close to Awolowo during his lifetime like Chief Jakande and that was why many called him Baba Kekere on account of this cosy relationship
“Before he gave up the ghost , he said his prayers and then took the poison which killed him almost immediately but the public was not fully aware as they were given a different account of what happened.
“We were simply told that he died while he was brushing his teeth in his bathroom at his Park Lane,Apapa residence here in Lagos
“He was stupendously wealthy during his lifetime, infact there is know company at Oba Akran in Ikeja ,Lagos where he does not have at least a five percent equity, Dideolu Court in Ogba alone cannot be valued at less than N10 Billion ,that was the place that he had in mind to be his Seat of power if he was elected as Nigeria’s President.
‘He owned Shonibare Estate but the man he was using as a front and who later went to prison over some issues which Awolowo himself was privy to eventually laid claim to the estate.
“He got all of this wealth due to a great measure of goodwill and tax waivers he gave to investors whenever they come to establish their business.
“Anytime you buy a bottle of Coca-Cola you are enriching the Awolowo Dynasty ,go to Ijebu Ikenne and you will discover that the price of a bag cement there is different from other parts of the nation due to the subsidy that the citizens enjoy on account of Awolowo who was their son and I hope you know that West African Portland Cement is in Ewekoro and not Ikenne.
“On account of this great betrayal Awolowo family members regard the “Awoist” as a group people should deal with using a long spoon till this day and this explains why when The Peoples Democratic Party Government gave some of them political appointment lately they accepted it without thinking twice.
“Dr Tokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu was made an Ambassador by Former President Olusegun Obasanjo while , Mr Segun Awolowo Jnr was given a plum job at the Federal Capital Territory in Abuja as a Secretary.
“Recently when Afenifere was disintegrating Mama out of concern for her husband’s legacies decided to call a truce because as she puts it then, she did not know what she was going to tell her husband the day they meet in heaven
“He made Sijuwade rich , because he was his business associate and in fact some of us held very strong views that he was one of his fronts and later the same man became the Ooni of Ife”he added
Mr Adebayo Adeyinka recalled his several years of following grass root politics right from the days of Action Group to the Unity Party of Nigerian era in the second republic but now lamented that he had since lost all interest in partisan politics due to the massive corruption in our polity.
He listed such blue chips like Dunlop Nigeria Plc ,Guinness Nigeria Plc, Neimeth Pharmaceutical Nigeria Plc ,May and Baker Nigeria Plc ,Vitafoam Nigeria Plc ,Wahum Nigeria Limited ,CAP Nigeria Plc , International Paints of West Africa [IPWA], Berger Paints Nigeria Plc ,Berec Nigeria Limited ,Kabelmetal, Nigeria Bottling Company Plc ,Leventis Nigera Plc ,West African Portland Cement Company,[Lafarge ],Wema Bank Nigeria Plc, Scoa Nigeria Plc ,CFAO Nigeria Plc, Cadbury Nigeria Plc ,Wemaboard Estates, Odu’A Group, Livestock Feeds Nigeria Plc , Nigerian Breweries Plc as places the Awolowo family have commercial interest to mention just a few.
Apart from this stocks analysts believe that the most visible of his investment ,The Nigerian Tribune Newspapers cannot be valued at less than N100billion today in terms of brand evaluation as Thisday Newspapers was valued by the Owner ,.Mr Nduka Obaigbena at N200 Billion recently during a media chart while celebrating his fiftieth birthday sometimes last year.
Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo was a leader who believed that the state should channel Nigeria’s resources into education and state –led infrastructural development.
At his own expense albeit controversially ,he introduced the free primary education for all of the Western Region ,he equally established the first television service in Africa in 1959 and expanded electrification projects in the region using the proceeds from the highly lucrative Cocoa export industry.
The Cocoa House in Ibadan regarded by many as one of the major landmarks of Nigeria’s architectural history was built as a result of his economic blueprint which was targeted towards the emancipation of his people from poverty
He built the first stadium in West Africa , the Liberty Stadium ,Ibadan and he coined the name “Naira “for Nigeria’s official currency ,it was previously called Nigerian Pounds.
During the 1970’s ,he was very critical of Nigeria’s military expenditure insisting that more should be spent on development
He ran a free health care programme for children up till the age of eighteen years .
On his death on the 9th of May,1987 as a mark of respect for his legacies ,The University Of Ile-Ife which ironically he helped to build as Premier of the Old Western Nigeria was re-named in his honour as part of a post humous celebration of his life and times.
His portraits adorn public places in Nigeria especially in his native Yoruba land where he is seen as an icon.
His picture also adorn Nigeria’s one hundred naira note.
He has been described surprisingly by some of his greatest critics and even political opponents as probably the Best President Nigeria never had.
He struck a chord with the womenfolk during his lifetime when in a rare show of public affection for his wife of several years, Chief Mrs Hannah Dideolu Awolowo told the world that the woman was his jewel of inestimable value.
How right or prophetic he was because his wife has continued to strengthen the mileage of the husband’s name even in death.
During an exclusive interview with FS Online at his Ilupeju home in Lagos last year, Chief Lateef Jakande upon being probed with questions over his relationship with Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo on account of what feelers were suggesting had denied that they had a bad relationship shortly before his death.
He insisted that those that said that they had any problems between them prior to Chief Awolowo’s death were not been honest as they were all telling lies.http://www.republicreport.com/how-awolowo-committed-suicide-written-by-abdulmunini-adeku/

Under Jonathan, S/West now minorities – Akintola (SAN)
Our Reporter September 25, 2012 18 Comments »
Under Jonathan, S/West, N/West now minorities – Akintola (SAN)

From TAIWO AMODU, Abuja

A legal practitioner, Chief Adeniyi Akintola (SAN), has admonished politicians from the South-west and North-west geo-political zones in the country to bury mutual ethnic suspicionso as to take their rightful place in the amalgam, Nigeria. In this interview with Daily Sun in Abuja, he frowns at what he perceives as the marginalisation of the two major zones in the country under the Dr Goodluck Jonathan administration.

Excerpts:

The President, at the NBA conference, said he appeared to be the most vilified president but he gave assurance that ultimately, Nigerians would see him as someone they would adore most. Do you see him walk the talk?

No, certainly not, because morning shows the day. There is the principle of law that we lawyers like so much: that you cannot give what you don’t have. He doesn’t have what it takes to turn anything around. So, he should forget it. Quite a lot of us, including my humble self, had thought he would make the difference, we had high hopes from him but so far, so bad.

At that forum he also said the country had experienced a lot of distortions and enormous challenges ever before he came on board and all the blames were being heaped on him…

(cuts in) That he uttered that statement, he should subject it to empirical analyses. Why did he vie for the position in the first place? Things are so bad, you have to go and correct them, not to aggravate them. There is a saying in Yoruba that, God, if you cannot help my position, leave me as I am. You ask yourself, what we were in 2010 and where you are now as a Nigerian. Unless you are a thief, unless you are in government.

Even within the South-south zone, they are now having dichotomy, it means something is wrong. You have security challenge at your disposal, very grievous one but you are sitting down there in the Villa. Every community in the world has set of people we call the gatekeepers, there is no community in the world that doesn’t have gatekeepers. Our President doesn’t know the gatekeeper of any town in this country.

The gatekeepers aren’t the ministers and senators you see around in Abuja. Tell me, for example, when you talk of commanding the respect of the people and enjoying their support, can all the 18 senators from the North-west, are they up to one Sultan of Sokoto? You are from Oyo State, all the three senators from the state, are they up to one Arisekola? If I may ask, all the 18 senators from South-west, are they up to one Bola Tinubu? My brothers, these are the gatekeepers! We don’t even have these charismatic people in the Federal Executive Council, we don’t have them. So, the man must appreciate the fact that he doesn’t know the political arithmetic of Nigeria.

He is having security challenge from the North and the South-west is crying of marginalisation and yet, he isn’t doing anything. But the comments have always been that the South-west didn’t vote for PDP? But should that be the reason? Didn’t they vote for him? Who are the people that made it possible for him to even become acting president in the first place? If that is the position, it is rather unfortunate.

Well, talking about marginalisation, you were one of the facilitators of the Yoruba Assembly, which met and made some resolutions. How feasible are these against the background of the fact that the North is already wary of this?

The North? Yes, you see, that’s the beauty of federalism. Every component part ought to be allowed to develop at its own pace and ventilate its ideas. You don’t expect the North, to swallow the position of the South- west, hook, line and sinker; you don’t expect the South-west to swallow whatever the North wants, hook line and sinker. You see, in a federation you desire union because you only surrender part of your freedom to the centre. It isn’t a master-servant relationship thing.

The North has its reasons for taking its positions and you have to look at the historical and religious background. For instance, where I come from in the West, religion is a non-issue. In fact, the only thing you can do to ruin yourself socially and politically, economically in the West is to carry religion on your head. It is a non issue. But to an average Northerner it is an issue. So, we are bound to have our differences.

Don’t forget that in Nigeria today, the South-west is the only region that has land and sea borders, no other region does. So, naturally, they will be wary of our position. We are saying let us recognise our differences and respect it. The far North is landlocked, no access to the sea; the South-south has access to the sea, no lands border; the South- east is landlocked on all sides. That is a reality you must appreciate. Even within the South-west region, the differences are there. Like I did emphasise on that day, some states in the South-west are landlocked, some have access to the sea and to land border, some have access only to land border, no access to the sea. So, you must appreciate all these.

When you look at the North and the South-west, there isn’t much difference. If there is any difference between the North and the South, it is ego. Remove ego, there is no reason they should be bickering between the two regions.

But there is mutual distrust on political issues

Borne out of ego and because of this mutual distrust, the two regions have suddenly found themselves to be minorities, in a country where they control over 60 per cent of the population. Look at it this way: If the two zones alone control over s60 per cent of the population, don’t forget that the same North-west, have their kiths and kin in North-east, they have in North-central. The South- west too, have their kiths and kin in North-central and South-south. So, by the time you add all these together…. If only they will remove this mutual suspicion, borne out of ego, there is no reason they should be the one crying of marginalisation. At least, a minority has been tested now and we have seen the result.

A forum of leaders from South-south, the South-south Assembly, recently passed a resolution: that in 2015, President Jonathan must have a second term. What is your take on this?

It mustn’t be a matter of must; they are entitled to it and the rest of the country are also entitled to either accept or reject. It is a democracy, a game of numbers, from here to the United States. Every fool knows that once you get the votes of New York, California, Texas, you are home and dry. You only need some spread. Ditto in Nigeria. If you can get the votes of Lagos and Kano States, you are home and dry, you only need some geographical spread – 25 per cent. Nigeria is such a large country that you can become the president of this country by not winning election in 12 states – by not having anything from 12 states, you still win – and you have majority lawful votes. If you can get Lagos and Kano States, you only need to be looking for 25 per cent all over the place and you will be home and dry.

So, if they think they can make anybody President by threat, by intimidation… they should be told that they don’t have monopoly of violence. I think the Yoruba made that clear; nobody has monopoly of violence. That some people are being mild in their approach to issues doesn’t mean that they are fools.

http://sunnewsonline.com/new/politics/under-jonathan-swest-nwest-now-minorities-akintola-san/

https://www.nairaland.com/144715/amala-politics-arisekola-alao-replaces-adedibu

Amala Politics; Arisekola-alao Replaces Adedibu.

Scores of hangers-on, trooping daily to have free foods and monetary gifts to the home of the late chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, have deserted the Molete, Ibadan, residence of the deceased politician.

Investigations by our correspondent on Friday and Saturday revealed that the era of free food for the multitude on the bill of the late politician appeared to be over, barely 10 days after his death.

The people might, however, take refuge in the residence of the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Azeez Arisekola-Alao, at Ikolaba as a crowd was sighted at the entrance of his home on Saturday and Sunday.

It was learnt that the people, mostly women and youths, were hanging around the expansive gate of the businessman’s expecting some financial gifts.

[size=20pt]dammm take it easy na [/size]

Arisekola, please don't open the gate
By Reuben Abati

ONE of the challenges arising from the recent death of Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, the self-styled Godfather of Oyo State politics, speaks to the troubled dynamics of social and class relations in Nigeria as indicated by the present circumstances of the hordes of hangers-on who flocked to his home on a daily basis. Now with Adedibu dead, this strong army of poor people appears defeated. In his lifetime, Alhaji Adedibu provided free food for the masses: everyday, a cow was slaughtered in his compound, soup was prepared and yam flour delicacies were rolled off a busy kitchen line. Anyone who felt the pangs of hunger could stop by and have a meal.

The money that Adedibu had collected from his clients in positions of power and authority, he gave a part of it to the poor, to pay their children's school fees and to attend to their other needs. Even if this was a self-serving method of gaining political relevance and popularity at the grassroots level, Adedibu sustained this twice-a-day free meal programme till the end. And this was the source of his reputation as a philanthropist, his appelation as Alaafin Molete and the description of his brand of politics as "amala politics". Every day of the year, a crowd gathered at his doorstep.

But since his death on June 11, that crowd of hungry men and women looking for food as fuel, has thinned out. The hungry mouths kept converging for a few days after the burial, but when they noticed that Adedibu's 19 children had resolved to close the kitchen, tie up the bags of yam flour, and sanitise the compound and put an end to their father's politics of food, the crowd had to disperse. Indeed, one of Adedibu's children speaking for the family had declared, clearly, that there will be no more free food for the poor in Adedibu's household.

The people were advised to "find their level." The children are not willing to step into their father's shoes. Amala politics is over. It is finished. Its author and exponent is dead; that chapter is closed. And so today, Adedibu's once busy compound has become quiet: no more drummers waking up the Alaafin and serenading him with praise-chants, no more thugs hanging by the gate providing protection for the Godfather; the women who used to cook all day in the kitchen have folded their bulbous wrappers and have hit the road in search of new patrons.

But since as they say, "nature abhors a vacuum", and the stomach is a god that can only be propitiated with food, the courtiers of Adedibu's palace have had to go in search of a new patron who can take care of their needs. And it is to the home of Alhaji Azeez Arisekola-Alao, that they have turned their gaze. Arisekola is another prominent Ibadan citizen, a notable Nigerian businessman, the Aare Musulumi of Yorubaland (the generalissimo of the islamic faith in Yorubaland), and in a much quieter way, also a philanthropist. Besides, the late Adedibu reportedly chose Arisekola as the administrator of his estate and executor of his will.

In their simple understanding, the amala crowd may have concluded that this literally means Alhaji Arisekola is Adedibu's anointed successor and the man to inherit his public and social obligations. Last Saturday and Sunday, they gathered in front of his home at Ikolaba in Ibadan - women and youths looking for financial assistance and food. As reported in The Punch of June 23, 2008, p,10, "a 17-year old boy" wants Arisekola to feed him and pay his school fees. And a widow needs money to feed her children. But the gate to Arisekola's house was securely fastened. The hungry men and women at the gate were told by guards that "they were not instructed to open the gates for anybody without prior appoitment". Undeterred, the able-bodied men and women begging for money and food, returned on Sunday but the gates were still locked.

Adedibu may have opened his own gates for the hungry and the poor, but the scenario at Arisekola's house is closer to reality. There is a huge divide between the poor and the rich in Nigeria, standing within that divide are guards, gates, walls and barbed wires reaching the skies. In the home of every rich man, there is a crowd of beggars waiting to knock on the door, knocking on the gates, but the rich have learnt to keep the poor away. You can't barge in on them unless you have an appointment. They have guards, they have dogs that have been trained to keep intruders and poor - looking people away. Their homes are in isolated parts of the city not in open neighbourhoods like Adedibu's Molete. They have electronic surveillance, some of our rich men even have mini-police stations in their houses, complete with cells and uniformed police men who can charge you for tresspass and lock you up immediately. The only way the poor can gain entrance into those gilded cages where the rich live is as employees in the servants' quarters, or as armed robbers who break down the walls and force their way in with the help of guns. The reality is that the Nigerian rich are prisoners of their wealth. They cannot enjoy it because they are constantly afraid that the poor, looking for food and free money, may tear down the walls.

Can anybody blame Alhaji Arisekola-Alao for locking up his gates and instructing his guards to shut out uninvited and unwanted guests? The man may have been Adedibu's friend in his lifetime, but he is not a politician. He is a businessman. And he probably doesn't like the idea of poor people messing up his well-manicured lawns and polluting his abode with their body odour. Nobody should be surprised if Alhaji Arisekola recruits armed guards to beef up security at his home or if he seeks police protection, and puts up a sign: "Intruders and tresspassers will be shot on sight, Be warned." With their desperation since their patron died, the Amala crowd of Ibadan has now helped to advertise a seemingly positive value of Adedibu's peculiar mess. But this is a comment on the state of the Nigerian society.

There is a growing crowd of poor people out there which feels shut out of the Nigerian system. The crowd exists nationwide, not just in Ibadan. Its members are worst hit by the failure of the Nigerian economy, the specter of galloping inflation, unemployment and the sheer incompetence and ineffectuality of government at all levels. It is government that should be blamed.

The blame belongs to the leaders at all levels who loot the treasury and years after the fact, claim innocence. The villains are those in the positions of authority who fail the people only to erect walls around their homes. It is so comical seeing the Nigerian rich not being able to enjoy their wealth: at the root of this is the failure of enlightenment on their part; in other societies, both the rich and governments help to create a welfare society so the fears of the poor may be addressed. It is so pitiable seeing that many Nigerians, living on less than one dollar per day, face the indignity of having to go to another man's home to beg for food.

The greater danger is that whoever provides that food can use the poor for any purpose at all, and this was the gap that a man like Adedibu took advantage of. He was in that sense as much a creation of the imperfections of the Nigerian state as those he fed were victims. Also in this plane are the boys turned militants in the Niger Delta who are being used by Adedibu-like figures to wage war against Nigeria; also here are the almajiris of the Northern parts who can be asked to go out and cause mayhem by an influential master, whose purposes may not be noble. Perhaps when the rich can no longer sleep in their homes, when their gates and guards and their bullet proof cars can no longer protect them, Nigeria will be forced to address the crisis of poverty not as effect, but as the root-cause of much that is wrong with our politics and society.

In the Adedibu case, a Kano-based cleric, Alhaji Muyideen Ajani Bello, delivering a sermon at the eight-day fidau prayer session for the late Adedibu had advised the rich men and women in Ibadan and Adedibu's children "to open their gates for the jobless, downtrodden masses and feed them." He said: "if you are not careful, armed robbers will increase in Ibadan. Once those that are feeding in Adedibu's house realise that there is nowhere for them to feed again, they will go out and rob houses. For you to avert this situation, be ready to feed these hoodlums and the jobless. Open your houses for people to come and eat, if not armed robbers will begin to burgle your houses." Why should anybody feed others if this were a well-organised society? Many of the people looking for food are not physically challenged ( even if they were?), many of them are educated or are skilful in some ways. They need jobs and opportunities, and guarantees that anyone who is willing to work will find something to do. The true challenge is in turning Nigeria into a land of opportunities where human dignity can be assured.

Nigerians also need a social security system that caters for both the vulnerable and the privileged and raises the quality of life. Because many hungry mouths exist, to be exploited and used for political purposes, that is why there has been so much unedifying talk about Adedibu's likely successors. Institutions of state would still have to be strengthened to provide succour for the helpless, and to check the resort to criminality for either ideological or existential reasons. Leaders must stop stealing money and votes and focus on the people's welfare. It is the failure to do this that will produce the next Adedibu, and the effect on society would just be as bad as the menace of armed robbery that the cleric fears.

[size=15pt]dammm take it easy na [/size]

Reuben Abati: Ogun Villagers Robbed And Cannibalized Bellview 2005 Crash Corpses
Submit Comment | Print | Email

Monday, November 14, 2005 - By Reuben Abati


For the avoidance of doubt, Lisa is the village in Ogun State where an ill-fated Bellview aircraft crashed on October 22, resulting in the death of all the 117 persons on board. This tragic incident affected the entire country, as it brought out the humanity within us, but one aspect of it that deserves further exploration is the reaction of the people of Lisa to the tragedy and their circumstances since the accident occurred. I had pointed out on an earlier occasion that the accident gave the people of this hitherto unknown community an opportunity to bring their plight to the attention of government and to proclaim their seeming neglect over the years by the authorities. Before the accident the people of Lisa were untouched by the processes of social advancement in the shape of access to modern facilities and a good quality of life.

It took a plane crash in their backyard for government to start constructing a road through their community. Electricity is also being provided; and the village has been linked to the telecom network. The point about the neglect of rural Nigeria where incidentally, the majority of Nigerians live is apposite and cannot be overstated. But what should now be considered is the humanity of the people and the leaders of Lisa village. What is being reproduced in that village is a typical Nigerian story, a strong indication of how poverty has robbed the people of basic human values, driven them to desperation, cynicism and cruelty. One sad fact of our lives is that the average Nigerian is forever looking for profit, always looking for an opportunity to cheat the system. When he is in that mood, he suspends his own humanity or beliefs; he is motivated by a burning desire for momentary gain. He comes across as an unreasonable person; something in him or her suddenly changes, he is transported to a temple of human desire where all that matters is greed.

It is true that this descent to the animal level is a given illustration of the duality of the human nature, and the complexity of man. But here in Nigeria, especially in the context of the recent event, it says something far more fundamental about the fault lines in our land in relation to the human index. The lesson is that we still have to do a lot about values in our society, about the moral question and the building of a sense of citizenship and community. In making these declarations, I am reminded of the interesting example of the Pastor of a church who had gone to his daughter's school to ask that the teachers should help to make sure that the daughter passed her school cert exams. The pastor sounded as if he would not mind if this would require helping the poor girl to cheat in the exams. When the pastor was reminded that the school was a Christian School and would not encourage such practice, the man of God flared up: "Please keep Christianity out of this. We are talking about my daughter here, please!". The thoroughly scandalised listeners had to remind the church Pastor that he, a man of God should not talk like that. When Nigerians want anything at all, they place values in a state of suspended animation.

And so as persons trooped to Lisa village, weeping, helpless and worried, the people of that community saw in other people's grief, their own opportunity to make profit. Cab drivers and motorcyclists plying the route increased their fares. Young men in the village and the neighbourhood became pick-pockets. They moved near the mourners and removed their cell phones and wallets. They besieged the crash site and began to remove whatever valuables survived that dramatic destruction of lives and property. If they saw a severed hand lying on the ground and it happened to still have a wrist-watch on it, they picked up the hand and removed the wrist-watch. If they saw a cell phone or SIM card that had been thrown out of the plane as it nose-dived into mother-earth, they took that too and thanked their stars. The Ogun state Commissioner of Police AIG Tunji Alapinni has confirmed that the villagers swooped on the site of the crash and made great fortunes looting and grabbing before the rest of the country got to know the location of the missing aircraft. Some families who lost their dear ones in that incident have said that they are convinced that the people of Lisa removed human corpses from the scene of the crash. Their fear is that those mangled bodies may have been sold to ritualists. Sadly, we live in a country where people trade in virtually anything including human body parts.

But perhaps the more shocking development was the declaration by the village head of Lisa, Chief Sadiku Odugbemi, that his community will need a sum of N2 million to appease the gods to prevent the outbreak of an epidemic in the village, and to exorcise the ghosts of the victims of the crash who are reportedly disturbing the villagers. There have been reports of strange noises at night. Chief Odugbemi's request for N2 million attracted great attention. He has since issued a statement denying that he ever made such a request. But the Baale is lying. He made the case for a N2 million ritual grant at a press conference.

He also granted an interview to the Sunday Champion (October 30, p. 20) in which he was quoted as having said inter alia that: ", the government should provide a big cow and some reasonable amount of money for us in order to appease the gods of the land so that calamities and untimely deaths will not occur in the vicinity again. You see, this is very crucial, because we cannot run away from our tradition, the gods should be appeased because they are angry. The enormous corpses buried in our village can cause epidemics if we failed to appease the gods. Do you know how much the government is spending to appease Osun goddess every year? Here in the village we need to appease the gods of Oro and the big masquerade to protect the village from imminent epidemic". In these words, the village head had exposed the widespread nature of ignorance and superstition in our land. What is the connection between gods and the threat of an epidemic?

The village head was not asking for government assistance to provide necessary medical care for his people nor was he concerned about the protection of the environment, rather he was asking for N2 million to buy cows for the money-guzzling gods of his ancestors. He made this request out of the unmistaken conviction that Nigerian leaders also worship and support traditional gods, and that the state is too actively involved in religion. The issue however is not about Chief Odugbemi's faith, but his opportunism. He wanted to make millionaires out of the gods of his people! But the truth is that those gods if at all they exist, do not eat beef, nor do they spend money: the real gods of Lisa are the Baale and his cohorts who are seeing an opportunity for quick business in other people's misfortune. The cow that he requested for would end up in the pots of his wives and the wives of other chiefs. The Baale in council would share the two million naira with some amount of money going into the pockets of virtually very important chief including the abore and the apena!

It is important that the authorities refused to succumb to Chief Odugbemi's blackmail. Rather than give him the N2 million that he asked for, the man was arrested by the police and interrogated. Seven elders of Lisa, accused of having looted the property of the victims, were also arrested and detained. A Non-Governmental Organisation, Feed Nigeria Initiative (FENI) has condemned this response as an abuse of human rights. I don't think so. Nothing gives the village head and people of Lisa and the neighbouring villages the right or the powers to behave so badly. If it can be established that they looted the belongings of the victims or that they stole handsets and robbed the mourners, then the police should do its job and whoever is found guilty should be treated according to the relevant laws. The excuse that the people are poor and therefore desperate cannot be a sufficient excuse for any wrong-doing.

It is interesting that following government's reaction, the leaders of Lisa have had to modify their position. They have denied ever asking for two million. They still want to organise a feast for their gods but the money will no longer come from government. Every adult in the village has been asked to contribute a sum of N1, 000 each. This is fine, let the people who will share the cow pay for it. The people are also denying that they ever looted at the site of the crash, more than two weeks after the event, they are now showing concern about the tragedy. It is either the village head has actually been called to order or he has been given some money and advised to speak differently in public.

Without any doubt, the people of Lisa have been greatly affected by the crash that occurred in their village. It has changed their lives, possibly forever. They deserve sympathy and support. In particular, the issues that they have raised about the neglect of their community by successive governments should be addressed. They want potable water in their community, a good road, access to quality health care especially in the face of danger. Many of them saw Nigerian leaders for the first time in their lives. One of them was so excited seeing President Obasanjo in flesh and blood, he had to report his excitement to a newspaper reporter. Bellview Airline has dug boreholes for the people; the government is constructing a road through the village; there is a lot more that can be done. Beyond this episodic focus on Lisa village, the challenge that has been thrown up by the people of Lisa is the need for government to be brought closer to the people at all levels. In the eyes of a growing number of Nigerians, government is an abstraction which holds no meaning for the people.

The people of Lisa also need to be counselled. They had asked government to sponsor the feast that they are planning for their gods because they are aware that every year government spends money on Muslim and Christian pilgrimages to Mecca and Israel. Government constructs churches and mosques, and patronises herbalists and futurologists. Governors grant interviews and boast about the ritualists that assist them to hold on to power. And yet the Nigerian Constitution says the state shall have no religion. Because Nigerian leaders have politicised religion in the country, they are asked to worship all kinds of gods. Certainly, the people of Lisa must have heard about the gods and priests of Okija and how they have enjoyed government patronage and protection. They too want their own gods to get a share of "the national cake".

What they may not know is that the millionaire gods of Lisa are not the ones to be appeased. The real gods that should be appeased are the policy makers in the aviation sector and the field operators who have refused to do what is right; the gods that caused the crash at Lisa village can be found at the airport; they are in the air traffic control tower, in the offices around the place, all those men and women in uniform who play ludo with other lives. These are the gods to be appeased. And doing so would not require any N2 million; cows won't be needed as well. What is required is a "broom" in the hands of President Obasanjo and the courage to sweep all saboteurs out of the aviation industry. This is why there must be a thorough investigation of the Lisa plane crash.

bashr8: [size=15pt]dammm take it easy na [/size]

When yorugbas open up silly threads about Igbos, you don't beg them to take it easy. You aren't seen nothing yet.

As Prof. Afolabi Retires, What Fate Awaits South-West In Government?
By 247ureports
3727 Views
Posted In
Guest Articles
Tagged as
Related
LONDON, ENGLAND - SEPTEMBER 04: Loveline Obiji of Nigeria competes in the Women's -52 kg Powerlifting on day 6 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games at ExCel on September 4, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
Nigeria At 52: Few Gains, Many Pains – By Godday Odidi
PIX 21
CON: Well Deserved for Uduaghan – By Charles Ikedikwa Soeze
nigeria1
Whither Nigeria? – By Valentine Obienyem
Edo Flood
Between Nigerians And Inclement Weather – By Emmanuel Onwubiko

Prof Oladapo Afolabi

Probably worried that in the next few weeks the exit of Professor Oladapo Afolabi as the Head of Service of the Federation [HoS], will mean a total non accommodation of Yoruba Nation in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government as they would have been comprehensively relegated to the background in the political scheme of things; the Yoruba Council of Elders [YCE], stormed Aso-Rock to register their anger over the marginalization of Yoruba race to Mr. President. In response, President Jonathan assured them that he is working round the clock to correct the imbalance. An Internet site, RepublicReport.Com quoted President Jonathan thus: “the issue of federal character and position, especially those political offices, were quite worrisome to me, but we had to achieve political balancing and federal character. “That is why this thing you describe as zoning was to make sure that every zone should be represented in the one you describe as top six, but for some political reasons, it was not possible. But on my own, in terms of appointments, I tried to see that the way appointment was made, you will agree with me that the appointments we have made so far did not exclude any section.”

Though all agree that President Jonathan is not the architect of Yoruba nation marginalization in his administration but the onus is on him to ensure a balancing policy in the short and medium run to avoid the looming scandal of edge out- not seeing a single Yoruba man at the decision making level of his government. Thankfully, he had assured the delegation of YCE, led by the President of the Council, Gen. Adeyinka Adebayo (rtd), that any existing lapses in the distribution of positions and offices would be corrected to conform with the principles of Federal Character. Mr. President’s assurance here could be seen as frank and helpful. The consensus of Nigerians is that the Yoruba nation is very educated, sophisticated and useful to Nigeria growth generally and therefore should not be consigned to the fringe in the political scheme of things in the nation. Professor Afolabi’s retention is a classical example of Mr. President’s assurance here.

A brief roll call in geo-political appointments in the three [3] arms that constitute Federal Government, reveals the following: South-South produced the President and the Commander -in- Chief of the Armed Forces, the Senate Leader, the Chief of Staff in the Presidency. South-East went home with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Deputy Senate President and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representative. North on the other hand, corned the following posts: Vice President, Senate President, and Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of Court of Appeal, and the Chief Justice of the Federation. South-West has only the Head of Service of the Federation.

It is almost obvious that the next Head of Service of the Federation will not come from this heavily politically marginalized South-West, to cushion the looming scandal of comprehensive political exit of Yoruba in President Goodluck Jonathan’s government. If Professor Oladapo Afolabi’s successor will not come from South-West as we are sure of, it certainly follows that either of these blocks, South-South, South-East or North will have it. If this scenario plays itself out, what will be the political fate of South-West in the short and medium run, in the administration of President Jonathan in view of the obvious existing imbalance in the polity? How long will they have to wait for Mr. President reassurance on their quota in the federal character mix, in this circumstance?

Surely, President Goodluck Jonathan has a tricky task ahead of him as Professor Afolabi, an accomplished intellectual and astute reformer exits the exalted position of HoS in a couple of weeks. By the Civil Service Extant rule, Prof. is expected to leave; however on moral and political expediency ground now, where will his successor come from- which geo-political zone will produce the next head of service of the federation, in view of the fact that other geo-political zones have had a fair share in the distribution of offices in President Jonathan’s administration, from the point of view of federal character.

Only recently, President Jonathan, while trying to persuade the leaders of South-East to see reason with him on why the next Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party [PDP] should come from the North East, reminded them that the zone being considered has not got a single position to their credit. Even in considering the North-East for the post of Chairman of PDP, the Constitution of the party had to be sidestepped for equity sake. It is a well known fact that there is no law against peace, equity and stability, and the President as the giver of these, is at liberty to ensure its effect in practical terms.

Clearly then, President Goodluck Jonathan, could as well extend the tenure of Professor Oladapo Afolabi for two [2] years or more, to avoid a complete and comprehensive shot out of Yoruba race from the decision making arm of his administration which will be a negation of his government’s commitment to equity. The alternative is for Mr. President to search for Prof.’s replacement from South-West zone, but the problem here is that the fellow must be next to him in terms of civil service progression, it is clearly impossible. Thankfully, Prof’s intellectual ability couple with his reformist inclination will be a veritable asset in the ongoing merger of parastatals and agencies of government exercise. His retention as HoS will ensure intellectual fine-tuning and coordination of the final report of the committee set up for the merger purpose, in line with the transformation agenda of Jonathan’s administration, which must be based on zero tolerance for job loss at the end of the fusion implementation. In-fact, Professor Afolabi should supervise the final collapse of most of the Parastatals and Agencies into their parent Ministries as Head of Service, to avoid instability associated with massive job loss that may arise from rationalization in the end. It is in the light of all these that his tenure should be extended.

Emeka Oraetoka

Information Management Consultant & Researcher

Wrote in from Garki-Abuja

P.O.Box 18928

Royal Tussle In Oyo Deepens: Alaafin, Olubadan, Soun In Supremacy Battle
Leadership Editors's picture
Mon, 11/06/2012 - 4:58am | SAKIN BABALOLA

News
Metro

The simmering royal battle among first class traditional rulers in Oyo State over a permanent chairmanship position of the State Council of Obas persists as the kingpins trade tackle.

LEADERSHIP gathered that almost a year after the amendment of the former Act that conferred the status of permanent chairman of the Oyo State Council of Obas and Chiefs on the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, a new Act approving the rotation of the office has set the monarchs on collision course that may threaten the existing peace and unity among the monarchs.

Our correspondent exclusively gathered that the battle for supremacy is more pronounced among the Alaafin of Oyo, the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Samuel Odulana and the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jimoh Oyewumi.

Investigation revealed that the Olugbon of Orile Igbon, Oba Samuel Adegboyega Osunbade, who was also a permanent vice-chairman of the state Council of Obas has pitched tent with the Alaafin.

The new development that rotates the position was sequel to the amendment to the Chieftaincy Act by the administration of former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala, who was believed to have influenced the new Act to hit back at the Alaafin over political disagreement.

The Alaafin has for long enjoyed the position as permanent chairman but the tide changed when he fell out with Alao-Akala and allegedly catalysed his defeat at the poll making the governor and many lawmakers to lose out during the last elections.

In order to take his pound of flesh on Alaafin, the Act making him a permanent chairman was amended and assented to by Alao-Akala, which saw the Olubadan of Ibadan Iland emerging the next chairman and will serve in that capacity for four years with the Soun of Ogbomoso stepping in for another four years in office.

Findings also revealed that the Alaafin of Oyo recently boycotted the inaugural meeting of the council, the first to be held when Chief Abiola Ajimobi became the state governor and which was presided over by the new chairman, the Olubadan of Ibadan.

The Onipetu of Ijeru, Oba Sunday Oyediran who has a soft spot for Alaafin of Oyo caused a stir during the inaugural meeting presided over by the Olubadan when he challenged the Olubadan for allowing the newsmen to be present at the deliberation of the Council. After a prolonged verbal war, the Olubadan who accused Oba Oyediran of being an agent of Alaafin, was persuaded by high ranking Ibadan Chiefs including High Chief Omowale Kuye and Senator Lekan Balogun to let reporters leave the meeting.

Oba Adeyemi has since gone to the court to reclaim his old position, though Olubadan has declared that there has been no court ruling or order preventing him from being the chairman for the next four years.

The Olubadan added, “While it is true that the Alaafin of Oyo is in court to challenge this law, it is also true that this law is still in force despite the recent unlawful suspension of the council’s sitting by the incumbent administration of Governor Abiola Ajimobi as there is no court ruling or order suspending the sitting”.

The state government through its commissioner for local government and chieftaincy matters declined comment on the conflict. All the chiefs and monarchs in the zone declined to comment on the matter adding that it would soon be resolved by the court of law.

Alafin of Oyo

See person face. How come 99.5% of Yorubas are damn ugly?

Alaafin of Oyo to Ooni of Ife: Mind your own business
From Iyabo Lawal, Ibadan

THE Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi yesterday faulted some remarks allegedly made by the Ooni of Ife Oba Okunade Sijuade on the leadership crisis rocking the Oyo State traditional institution, saying his position on the matter is against historical facts.






Oba Adeyemi, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Fehintola Azeez which was made available to reporters in Ibadan also accused the Ife monarch of distorting history, urged him to restrict himself to issues within his domain.

The Alaafin who is currently locked in a supremacy battle between the Olubadan of Ibadan, Oba Samuel Odulana and the Soun of Ogbomoso, Oba Jimoh Oyewumi over the headship of the state traditional council said since the issue at hand had no bearing with Ile-Ife, Oba Sijuwade has no business with it.

Both Odulana and Oyewumi had been at loggerheads with the Alaafin over his permanent Chairmanship of the Obas council in the state.

The duo had called for rotation of the chairmanship position among the three leading Obas and has since boycotted the council meetings.

While the Ooni, in an interview at the Centenary birthday of the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, gave hard knocks to Oba Adeyemi over his stance on the matter and tacitly supported the Olubadan and Soun on their clamour for rotational chairmanship, Oba Adeyemi, in his statement, said the position of the Ooni on the matter is one sided and an invitation to anarchy.

On the claims by the Ooni that Oba Adeyemi was ruling over a 'dead empire,' the Alaafin reminded the royal father that as far back as 1938, while his position was listed as the first in the rank of first class Obas, the Ooni was listed as the fifth.

He said, "The Ooni, who is now claiming superiority over the Alaafin, as recent as 1938, was listed as the fifth in rank among the first class traditional rulers in Yorubaland, while the Alaafin was listed as the first".


http://odili.net/news/source/2009/feb/14/6.html

Police quiz Ondo monarch over attempted rape
August 6, 2012 by Sunday Aborisade

The Ondo State Police Command has interrogated the Olusupare of Supare Akoko in Akoko South West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Oba Kasali Adedeji, for allegedly attempting to rape a housewife in the town.

Our correspondent learnt that the monarch was questioned at Criminal Investigation Department on Saturday.

Adedeji, according to a source at the CID, explained details of what happened between him and the petitioner, Mrs Comfort Awogbami, on May 4, 2012.

The Public Relations Officer of the Command, Mr. Adeniran Aremu, confirmed the development in a telephone interview with our correspondent on Sunday.

He said, “It is true that Olusupare was invited on the strength of a petition against him.

“The Commissioner of Police referred the case to an appropriate quarter and the officer in charge asked the monarch some questions on the issue. The monarch had since been asked to go back to the palace but the case is under investigation.”

The petitioner is currently standing trial at the Supare Magistrate’s Court alongside the monarch’s wife, Sherifat Adedeji, for fighting in public.

The police had accused the duo of engaging in a conduct likely to cause breach of peace.

But Awogbami petitioned the Commissioner of Police alleging bias in the handling of the case by the Divisional Police Officer in charge of the town.

In the letter, a copy of which was sighted by our correspondent, Awogbamila alleged that the monarch attempted to rape her in his wife’s apartment.

She said, “The Kabiyesi had invited me to his wife’s apartment on the said date at about 8pm. On getting to that house, he was alone at home.

“He asked me if I ever knew my husband was having an affair with his wife, an allegation which I denied. He therefore informed me that he would like to do the same thing with me.

“Thinking he was only joking, the kabiyesi went on to hold me and assaulted me, stripped me naked until I raised the alarm which drew the attention of neighbours who came in to rescue me. His wife was not at home as that time.

“I fainted and was later admitted at the General Hospital, Iwaro-Oka, on that same night and was discharged the next day.”

Awogbamila said the case was reported at the police station but alleged that the DPO mounted pressure on her to drop the case.

She said she vowed to pursue the case to a logical conclusion.

However, she said she was surprised when she was arraigned before a magistrate’s court for fighting in public with the monarch’s wife.

Awogbami said, “I am making this passionate appeal to your (Commissioner of Police) office to come to my aid.

“Do not allow me to suffer this injustice in the hands of this kabiyesi who has also been threatening me through his agents.”

Awogbamila asked the police authorities to re-investigate the case and charge the monarch to court appropriately.

Festac Town suspected Yoruba ritual killers are graduates
August 5, 2012 by SAMUEL AWOYINFA and SEGUN OLATUNJI
Lagos CP, Umar Manko.

Lagos CP, Umar Manko.
| credits:



Police preliminary investigations into the background of the two suspected ritualists arrested in Festac Town, Lagos, two weeks ago, reveal that they are graduates. SAMUEL AWOYINFA and SEGUN OLATUNJI report



The two suspected ritual killers, Omotola Ajayi and Toyin Ajayi, arrested by police on Thursday, July 26, 2012 at their Third Avenue, B Close House 6, Festac Town, Lagos, are graduates.

According to information made available to our correspondent on Tuesday by the Police Public Relations Officer, Lagos Command, Mrs. Ngozi Braide, the duo graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and Lagos State University, respectively.

Omotola, 47, had told men of the Festac Town police station that he read Agricultural Science in FUNAAB, but the university disowned him; while Toyin, 30, read Mathematics/Statistics in LASU.

Contrary to media reports, apart from the decapitated body of a male victim found in their abode, bowls containing blood and sacks containing human parts were parts of exhibits retrieved by the police. Besides, Braide said, one dry and one fresh human skulls were also found in the building after the police conducted a thorough search on the said property, located in the neighbourhood of Nigerian Immigration Service (Passport) office.

When our correspondent visited Third Avenue, B Close on Wednesday, House 6 was deserted, as police had put it under lock and key. It was a twin-duplex, and weeds could be seen in the compound. The green colour on the building has almost lost its shine.

Braide said, “Both of them are graduates. The elder, Omotola, graduated from the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State, with B.Sc Agric Science, while Toyin graduated from LASU. He had a B.Sc in Mathematics/Statistics.

“It was the flies which invaded the windows and the stench coming from the building that made their neighbours alert the necessary authorities. First, they went to the Health Department, Amuwo Odofin Local Government to reported the case. It was the council officials who directed them to the police.”

Braide said the suspects had been transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department, Panti, Yaba, Lagos, where further investigations would continue.

She however, explained further, “It was when the policemen from Festac Town police station went to the scene that they arrested the elder brother while coming out of the compound, with a polythene bag.

“The polythene bag was searched and some human parts were found inside it. He was promptly arrested and the policemen carried out a thorough search on the building. They discovered a floating corpse in the bath closet whose head had been severed. The hands had also been cut off, while the feet were severed from the knees. Two severed human heads were also found there. One was dry and the other fresh.

“Besides, the policemen saw some sacks in a room which contained human parts. The interrogations will continue.”

Braide could not confirm if the suspects’ younger brother was one of the victims whose parts were retrieved from the house. Omotola is said to be a divorcee and a father of two, while Toyin had yet to get married. Landlords and residents of B Close, the neighbours of the suspects, were not ready to entertain any media interviews. But some of them who did craved anonymity.

A search for the chairman of ‘B Close’ Residents’ Association met a brick wall. Even a house said to be the chairman’s turned out to be where our correspondent got the rudest shock. A female occupant who peeped through the gate directed him to ‘A Close.’

However, a female resident who did not want her name in print said the two suspects were known in the neighbourhood and nobody suspected they were into such dastardly act.

She said, “The elder brother was always complaining that he was being owed for contracts he had executed for a state government. Both of them are well known in the neighbourhood.”

Another source said their mother used to live with them in that building until a period when she was no longer seen there.

The Chairman, Amuwo Odofin Local Government, Mr. Ayodele Adewale, told our correspondent that he was taken aback by the startling discovery. He said he was in the office when the security officer of the council called him and intimated him of the development.

He said, “Immediately, I went to the scene and I saw blood collected in bowls and a corpse and human parts. The policemen even said I would not be able to stand the horror of such a scene.

“From what I gathered from people at the scene, some said they were ritualists, some said they might have mental problems, while some said they could be cannibals. Some told me they beg neighbours for money to buy soft drinks. I think we don’t have to jump to hasty conclusion. The police would determine their real motive through interrogation.”

Adewale stated that he had always held multi-security council meetings in the local government, with members of the Police Force, Army, Navy, State Security Service, residents’ associations and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, among others, in attendance.

He added that he had held a stakeholders’ meeting with the people in Festac Town, where he told them of the need for residents to know their neighbours and to protect and secure their areas.

He stressed, “I have told them of the need for every Close to hold their meetings, maybe on the environmental sanitation days. They need to know their neighbours; through that, they could report neighbours whose behaviours are suspicious to the necessary authorities.”

The Chairman, Festac Town Landlords Association, Mr. Jola Ogunnusi, also echoed what Adewale said. He explained that he knew nothing about the two suspects other than what he had read in the newspapers on the incident.

He put it succinctly, “We have about five layers of meetings and they are block of flats meeting, meeting of close, zonal meeting, community meeting and central meeting. It is at the zonal level that representatives are sent to the central meeting.

“So, there was no way I could have known them. It is the chairman of the Close that could say something about them. Festac (Town) is divided into seven communities, only five are functioning now.”

However, it is only police investigations that could unravel the mystery behind the killing of their brother and those whose body parts were found.

When contacted on the telephone on Friday concerning the claim by Toyin that he graduated from LASU, director, Centre for Information, Press and Public Relations of the institution, Dr. Sola Fosudo explained that students who had graduated are on their own.

He said, “He said he graduated from LASU? How has what has happened concerned the institution? Anyone who had graduated from the institution is responsible for his or her actions.”

On his own part, FUNAAB director of Public Relations, Mr. Lasun Somoye said after a search was done on Omotola’s name both manually and electronically, his name did not appear in the record of students.

He said on the telephone,” We did a search on the name both manually and electronically, but we did not locate the name in our record.”

In response to OP, I bring to you a far worse atrocities of Alaigbo documented and reported over the years and which in the 21st century is still very much an accepted way of life. We are in 2012, I want you to notice the date in the opening.

INTRODUCTION

On November 15, 1957 , during colonial Nigerian time,  a group of Nigerian policemen from the Criminal and Investigation Department (CID) of Northern Nigeria and Lagos surreptitiously descended on Abakaliki, Eastern Nigeria , posing as ordinary people.  They were trying to find out about the murder of one lady called Nwamgbo Igbeagu, the first among more than one-hundred wives of one prominent , local chief,  64-year-old Nwiboko Obodo.  Originally the key-holder of monies kept in hundreds of safes in Obodo's care by various people in the society, Nwamgbo had not only aroused the suspicion of her husband when some of the money got stolen, but was also suspect when Obodo's son Sunday by another woman died mysteriously.    A tribunal under the superintendence of Nwiboki found Nwamgbo guilty. However, the traditional executioners, unwilling to carry out the capital punishment because "We cannot take the life of our dear chief", were relieved by Obodo himself, who strangled his own wife with a bicycle chain.

It was this heinous act - reported by Nwamgbo's mother who had reported her daughter to be missing - that brought the CID into Abakaliki six-months later, with one Mr. Anoruo posing to Obodo as a medicine-man able to prevent the police from arresting Obodo.

On February 28, 1958 , Anoruo arrested Obodo and seven members of what turned out to be the Odozi Obodo Society.  It turned out that Nwaegbo's murder was the mere tip of an ice-berg:  flaunting several "juju houses",  the Odozi Obodo Society had terrorized Abakaliki and the environs for nine years, allegedly killing as many as 400 people in the guise of exacting punishment for sundry evil deeds of those people.  Nwobiko's Odozi Obodo Society was allegedly the "watchdogs" of Abakiliki,  to "safeguard [its] peace and morals.  It punished severely any person who stole, committed adultery or was guilty of any anti-social activities."  Chief Obodo had naturally became rich in the process.

A few months after their arrest, the criminals were sentenced to death by hanging, and after exhausting their appeals, were hanged by their necks until their death in about June 1959.

So ended one phase of the Odozi Obodo Society.....until these latest murderous discoveries of the Ogwugwu Shrines of Okija.


CORPSES EVERYWHERE AT THE SHRINES AT OKIJA

I shall spare the reader the  gory details, but the brief sketch is as follows:  on August 5, 2004, Nigerians woke up to the horrid news that the Nigerian Police had recovered as many as 20 human skulls,  50 corpses, some still fresh and headless and in their coffins. Thirty suspects were also arrested including the priests of two of the shrines - Ogwugwu Isiula and Ogwugwu Akpu.. [Other shrines are Ogwugwu Mmili,  Ogwugwu Apunama, Ogwugwu Ahaya Afa, Ogwugwu Idigo and Ogwugwu Idimgo in various hamlets strewn around Abakaliki.]  The 80-man-strong police  operation led by the Commander of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in the state, CSP Mr. Gabriel Haruna and the state commissioner of police, Mr. Felix Ogbaudu.  The case blew open at the specific instance of a modern-day Anoruo, but this time not a policeman but a Hare Krishna convert posing as a medicine-man:  Chukwumezie Igwe of Umuhu Village , Okija.

May God bless him and protect him.  [Amen.]


THE OTHER SIDE – ARGUMENT FOR TRADITIONAL RELIGION

 The general reaction of people in Nigeria and the world who have read the Okija story and seen the pictures has been one of profound horror.   For example, the Senate President, Adolphus Wabara, himself of Eastern Igbo stock,  has endorsed the raid on Okija shrines asking Ndigbo to rise against shrine worshiping.   Nevertheless, there have also been some  talk of defence of traditional religion, the most prominent (and shocking to this writer) being from one ex-Colonel Chief Joseph Oseloka G. Achuzia, Secretary-General of the pan-Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze. Hopefully speaking for himself and not for the respectable group,  Achuzia, of Western Igbo stock,  dismissed the police raid as “ridiculous” and stating that  “worshipping at shrines is not a new thing in Nigeria .”  

According to newspaper reports, Achuzia  [a former Biafran military commander with the aliases “ Hannibal ” and  “Air Raid” for exploits in the Midwest and later Okigwe inside Biafra ]  stated as follows:

QUOTE

 He said the issue portrayed the Igbo as cannibals, alleging that the police were out to rubbish the Igbo.

"Unless the police have no other job to do, then they can go on making further discoveries on things that are in consonance with ancient history. Everybody in Igboland and Nigeria knows about the existence of shrines everywhere. Go to Hausaland, go to Yorubaland, go to every part of Nigeria , there exists one shrine or another. These things are part of Nigerian tradition. So, unmasking one in Ihiala is not new. These skulls have been there long ago, and I do not see anything new about it except that the police want to portray the Igbo as cannibals. But this is not what the police should be involved in.

UNQUOTE

At one level of analysis, Achuzia speaks for many people: on the one hand, the traditionalists, who see nothing wrong with swift justice rendered within traditional religion, and on the other hand,  the genuinely non-pagan adherents of different faiths, who see the occasion as an opportunity to blow the lead off the hypocrisy which is practiced by the syncretic adherents of their own religion.  The latter worship Allah on Friday and Jesus Christ on Sunday, and then crawl to the caves of Ogwugwu Isiala and other favored shrines on other days to swear oaths and drink hemlock potions before babbling “dibias” and “babalawos.”


At another level, he is wrong:  whatever we wish to say, in modern days, tradition has its limits.


THE  LIMITS OF TRADITION – A PERSONAL VIEW

Much as I respect many aspects of tradition and local mores, particularly as they relate with respect for fellow men,  there MUST be a limit, and that limit stops at LEGAL and  CAPITAL issues:  matters of LAW and matters of DEATH.  These two aspects are inter-twined, actually.

With respect to LAW, yes, I am in support of CUSTOMARY LAW as agreed to be locally enforced by the participants,  provided the usual steps of appraising the defendant of his alleged crime,  confronting him with his accusers, giving him or her an opportunity to defend himself or herself, and exerting predictable and appropriate - not cruel, disproportionately unusual and capricious punishment.  The caveats however must be as follows:


(1) it must not include capital punishment;  that must be left to the CONSENSUALLY AGREED LAW OF THE LAND;  is that not why we are vexed about Sharia (and the amputation of hands) and its threats of capital punishment for adultery and the like?


(2)  every case, particularly those involving capital punishment, must be APPEALABLE to a higher court - and again particularly those involving capital punishment -  including  to the highest court of the land: the Supreme Court, unless it declines to hear the case.


OF DEITIES AND HUMAN BEINGS

There are many reasons for these caveats:  All these practices that involve both DEITIES and HUMAN BEINGS (as dibias and babalawos, etc.) are fraught with DANGERS of HUMAN FRAILTIES and subject to abuse.  Like the modern polygraph test, it depends on who is applying a legal test and to who it is being applied.  Suppose the potion drinker is so frightened that he dies of a heart attack contemplating a wrong outcome, even if he is innocent?  Suppose the "dibia" favors one of the two "contestants" and unrighteously mixes different potions, killing the innocent one?  Suppose even the questions asked are wrongly framed - and hence wrongly answered to?

 
There can be so many "supposes..."

 

So, the greatest “crimes” against humanity here are three-fold:

 

(1)  to the victims, while they were living.  Justice could have been miscarried.

 
(2)  to the dead victims: if their corpses are so mistreated by being exposed to the elements and the like, then justice to the dead is ALWAYS miscarried.   If in fact the tradition of a particular place is not to bury such "bad" people in their forests, then who knows whether there are some more "tolerant" places in Nigeria or elsewhere who might accept to bury these bodies with dignity?  After all, the world now extends beyond Okija.

 

(3)  to those who do not come from this area, but who, with the world being told that such terrible things are happening in " NIGERIA ", assign all of Nigeria to such barbarous deeds.  Yes,  I consider them barbarous, no matter what anybody says, even if they don’t agree, which they have every right not to.

 

Here is the point:  If Okija, or Anambra State, or Igboland were one country of its own - let us call it, for the sake of argument "Biafra" -  and such barbarous acts were carried out, then it would be announced to the world that "Thousands of headless, unburied corpses were found in shrines at  Okija, Biafra" .  Achuzia and the rest of his co-defendants of tradition could then defend the practice as being the ridder of evils in their country.  Fine.   But for me to be in the same COUNTRY where such barbarous acts are being carried,  and to have them hailed when I so FUNDAMENTALLY disagree with them, is violent to every instinct in me.  I oppose it with tremendous vehemence.  It is with that same feeling that I oppose not Sharia but Sharia’s imposition of deadly punishment to victims in Nigeria . 

 

In the very recent and apt words of Achuzia himself, “We are either one country – or no country.”  And to amplify his statement: “We are either one country – or many countries.”

 
EPILOGUE

 

I hope and I trust that full justice will be carried out against all of those who engaged in murderous acts in Okija and environs, like was done to those in the Odozi Obodo Society.  One hopes that the major crime-busting witness – Maazi Chukwumezie Igwe of Umuhu Village – will be adequately protected to give outstanding testimony against any perpetrators

Home » News & Reports » Reports
News and Reports
June 12: Why Ooni Betrayed MKOAbiola-TheNEWS
Posted: July 15, 2010 - 01:00

The Ooni of Ife, Oba Okunade Sijuade’s role in the aftermath of the annulment of the 1993 presidential election is widely thought to have been less than noble. In Awujale, the recently released autobiography of Oba Sikiru Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland, Sijuade’s connivance with those who annulled the election is brought into sharp focus

His position as the most revered traditional ruler in Yorubaland has not innoculated Oba Okunade Sijuade Olubuse 11, the Ooni of Ife, from public scorn. Since 1993, much of the mystique around him has been eroded, largely through the carnage sparked by the controversial annulment of the 1993 presidential election, aka June 12. Oba Sijuade came out of the annulment saga with grave reputational injuries from which he is yet to, and may not, recover, given the decision of Oba Sikiru Kayode Adetona, the Awujale of Ijebuland, to re-invite public attention to Sijuwade’s role in one of the most grotesque episodes in Yoruba and Nigerian history.

The medium chosen by Oba Adetona is Awujale, his recently released autobiography, in which the 11th chapter is dedicated to the annulment and the struggle for the de-annulment of the election won by the late Chief M.K.O Abiola.

In Awujale, Adetona presents what can hardly be described as a worm’s eye view. And in the book, the Ooni does not come out smelling like roses. As one of the most prominent Yoruba traditional rulers, Adetona was regularly invited to meetings with General Ibrahim Babangida, the military president that annulled the election and installed an Interim National Government, ING, headed by Chief Ernest Shonekan.

As the widespread anger provoked by the annulment and Babangida’s ING contraption raged, the former military president hoped to limit the damage to his reputation and that of his government, appealing to leaders from all the country’s geo-political zones, especially the South-West, which felt wounded because of Abiola.

For one of those meetings in Abuja, writes Adetona in Awujale, he arrived on a Thursday. The meeting was to hold the next day. While in his hotel room on the day of arrival, Adetona called the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, to say that there was a need for a meeting of Yoruba traditional rulers, where they could arrive at a common position to be presented at the next day’s meeting with Babangida. Adeyemi agreed. Adetona then suggested that there was also a need to inform the Ooni and asked Adeyemi to accompany him to Sijuwade’s room.

Adeyemi, however, was not keen because of the rivalry, over superiority, between him and the Ooni. Eventually, he gave in. The late Oba Adeyinka Oyekan, Oba of Lagos, was also informed. He agreed that a meeting was required, but refused to accompany them to the Ooni’s suite. However, he said he would support whatever position the meeting adopted.

In the Ooni’s suite, Adetona and Adeyemi met the Ife monarch dining with Alhaji Ado Bayero, Emir of Kano. Another Yoruba monarch, Oba Frederick Aroloye, the Owa of Idanre, writes Adetona, sat in a corner. When the two dining monarchs finished their meals, they went into the Ooni’s room for a discussion, after which the Ooni came out to meet Adetona and Adeyemi.

“When we told the Ooni the purpose of our meeting, he said he had met the Northern Emirs. Their position was the same as ours. We asked how and he said that they wanted a fresh meeting to be called of the Council of State along with us. The Council of State, as enshrined in the constitution, has powers to advise the President,” Adetona writes.

But what the Northern traditional rulers wanted was not exactly what the Yoruba monarchs wanted.

“Our mandate from the Yorubas was that the election had been concluded and our son was clearly the winner. So, all we wanted was that they should just simply release the results,” the author explains.

Adetona then insisted that if a Council of State meeting was to be called, it should be for the purpose of ensuring that the election was de-annulled and the wish of the people respected. The Ooni agreed. But the Alaafin, writes Adetona, said there was no need for another meeting because the key members of the Council had already expressed their opposition to the annulment.

When Adetona and the Alaafin left the Ooni, they went to discuss seating arrangements for the next day’s meeting with the other Yoruba traditional rulers. Apparently suspicious that the Ooni could switch positions, the monarchs agreed that they would sit in a way that would ensure that the Ife monarch was hemmed between two of them “so as to forestall any wavering of position.”

The planned sitting arrangement was foiled. As the traditional rulers walked into the venue of the meeting, they found seats that bore each attendee’s name. Babangida came in, explained the position of the government and sought reactions from his audience. The first came from Ibrahim Dasuki, then Sultan of Sokoto, who said very little apart from accusing the government of using traditional rulers to quell crises brought upon the nation by the government itself.

He suggested that Babangida should invite members of the Council of State to join the traditional rulers in the discussion of the annulment. The Ooni was the next to speak and presented the position of the Yoruba obas: declaration of Abiola as the winner.

It was something the meeting had not expected. “You could have heard a pin drop,” writes Adetona. Next was Bayero, who expressed no opposition to what the Ooni said, but called for a fresh Council of State meeting. After him spoke the Oba of Benin, who condemned the annulment and rejected calls for a Council of State meeting.

The natural rulers continued turning the heat on Babangida. According to Adetona, Gbong Gwon Jos, the late Chief Fom Bot, told the meeting that he could not return to his domain if Babangida did not to de-annul the election, as his subjects had demanded, and asked the former president to find accommodation for him in Abuja. A traditional ruler from the South-East, Adetona writes, was more dramatic, telling Babangida to quit as president. “Please go. Please go,” he shouted.

Then Babangida cut in, explaining that the decision to annul or de-annul was not solely his, but that of the military heirachy. He kept on calling on others to speak, but the obas observed that he was calling only people who sat to his right. The obas sat to his left. This drew a protest from the Alaafin, who Babangida was forced to ask to speak.

The Oyo monarch insisted that another Council of State meeting was needless because the late Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, a member, was out of the country, while some other key members had expressed their disapproval of the annulment in the media. Other traditional rulers told Babangida that he should save the country from a huge crisis by respecting the wishes of Nigerians.

Then, Babangida attempted one more throw of the dice. In a somewhat emotional tone, he told the meeting how close he and Abiola were. His government, he added, had paid Abiola hefty debts owed him by previous regimes. The sum, Babangida said, was about $600million. The scent of money scrambled a particular royal head–the Ooni’s.

“When he heard this piece of information, the Ooni became angry and said something to the effect that if Babangida paid him (Ooni) that much, he would be living on the Island of Capri in Italy,” Adetona writes.

Sijuade then got up to go to the toilet. Adetona followed, spewing criticisms at his fellow oba for going against what the Yoruba traditional rulers had agreed on. After the meeting, watched by Uche Chukwumerije, Information Secretary in the Interim National Government, the Ooni told journalists that he was in support of Babangida’s position that a fresh election should be held and that the obas should return to their domains and tell their people to prepare for the election.

Adetona thought he had not heard Ooni right. “To assure myself that what I heard was true, I invited one of the reporters, who was there when the Ooni was speaking to my room. This was a reporter from The Nigerian Tribune. Fortunately, the Alaafin was with me when the reporter played the tape for us. We were stunned,” the Awujale writes.

From his hotel room, the Ooni called Adetona on the intercom and announced gleefully that he had told the world (through the media) of the Yoruba position. Adetona replied that he was not sure that Sijuwade’s claim was correct. Adetona, accompanied by the Alaafin and the reporter, went over to Sijuade’s room. The Ooni repeated his claim that he presented the Yoruba position to the press.

He was instantly put to shame, when the reporter was asked to play his tape, which contained the opposite of Ooni’s claim. Adetona and the Alaafin then pressured Ooni into granting another interview, restating the position of the Yoruba. He did and the reporter was asked to take the interview to media houses for publication the next day. The interview was published by newspapers the next day, but Chukwumerije had caused the first interview to be used on the network news of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA.

In the book, the Awujale was unsparing in his attack on former Nigerian leader, Olusegun Obasanjo. He described him as a Judas, “who would betray his people,” who lacks credibility and squandered “the enormous goodwill,” which he carried into office “with a performance that left him with a second term short of tangible achievements.”

Oba Adetona recalled an event on 24 July 2002, the late Abraham Adesanya’s 80th birthday in Ijebu-Igbo, Ogun State, when in a ride with Obasanjo to a makeshift helipad he told Obasanjo how disappointed he had become over Obasanjo’s pussy-footing on the issue of federalism. “This was the dividing line for me in our relationship,” Awujale recalled and

Adesanya’s birthday presented an opportunity for him to tell Obasanjo how he felt about him, when they rode together in a Mercedes Benz limousine, with former Ogun governor, Olusegun Osoba, as witness. “It was going to be a short trip but I had something to say and so it had to be said quickly enough while the three of us shared some privacy. I said there was a time when I had trusted Obasanjo so much so that I could swear by his name, but that the trust was now gone. Obasanjo asked why. I answered that Obasanjo was no longer credible.” The Oba recalled further in the book, that at another time when he visited Obasanjo in Aso Rock, Obasanjo revisited their earlier conversation during which he told the Awujale, accusatorily, that he painted him a Judas. Awujale reconfirmed the labeling according to his account.

“I told him that I not only remembered but still maintained that he was a Judas who would betray his people…I had no qualms about speaking plainly to him. In high office, people who surround leaders tend to skirt around the truth,” Awujale wrote.

The Awujale was clearly not impressed by Obasanjo’s tenure as Nigeria’s leader. ‘‘Eight years in office was ample time to put electricity on a very strong footing. Eight years was enough to put down a strong foot against corruption and make a clear difference. Eight years was adequate for orderliness and the rule of law to triumph in every facet of our society. These were the basis upon which I gave my support for the office,” he submitted.

lol youre own type of tribalism is pitiful feuled by jealousy, anger AND joblessness MAINLY JOBLESSNESS. no really i cant imagine a GROWN MAN sitting on the internet looking up tribalistic articles.

even me as immature as i am- dont give two FUQS about what other tribes say or do in naija.

When i say Im from the SW- I'm really from the SW doesnt matter how good or bad outside people are doing- i can careless.

as an igboman- if ure truly a THOROUGH igboman you should focus more on good igbo issues that make youre region better than other instead of focusing on yoruba.

its like an obsession of yours. like do you google search "yoruba" and pick what ever is negative about them?

Are Most Yoruba Leaders Ex-convicts? by nwabobo: 11:17pm On Mar 15
Check out the following stat. from our Oduduwa republic.

Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo: Ex convict

Olusegun Aremu Obasanjo: Ex convict

Bola Tinubu: Ex convict

Olabode George: Ex convict

Donaldson Oladipo Diya (the weeping general): Ex convict

Abdulkarim Adisa: Ex convict

Tajudeen Olanrewaju: Ex convict

Moshood K Abiola: Died in Detention!*****

Responding to mekus last post,

Have you read the background of Arthur Nzeribe?

I would take the accusation of Ooni or anyone else betraying Abiola a 1000 times and be guilty of it than do what Nzeribe did to millions of Igbo. He supplied the arms and guns and weaponry that Nigerian Army used to kill Ibos. He contracted and supplied arms to Nigerian Army during, ....not before but.....during the war.

Big violation of social relationships on a scale of a million to what you accuse Yoruba leders doing to Abiola.

Dudu_Negro: Responding to mekus last post,

Have you read the background of Arthur Nzeribe?

I would take the accusation of Ooni or anyone else betraying Abiola a 1000 times and be guilty of it than do what Nzeribe did to millions of Igbo. He supplied the arms and guns and weaponry that Nigerian Army used to kill Ibos. He contracted and supplied arms to Nigerian Army during, ....not before but.....during the war.

Big violation of social relationships on a scale of a million to what you accuse Yoruba leders doing to Abiola.

Please tell me the Igbo man that Nzeribe betrayed. I am okay with Nzeribe helping to deal a blow on MKO (Yoruba)
Yoruba Obas (not Igbo Igwes or Ezes) betrayed MKO

yawn

mekuslogan:

Please tell me the Igbo man that Nzeribe betrayed. I am okay with Nzeribe helping to deal a blow on MKO (Yoruba)
Yoruba Obas (not Igbo Obas) betrayed MKO

Mumuslogan,

I said Nzeribe supplied the bullets that extinguished ibo lives you are asking for proof of his betrayal.

.......wait its coming. dont go anywhere you hear, the proof will come

What are the common denominators between Tafa Balogun and Sunday Ehindero?

Ritual Church: Founder's Body In Morgue 5 Years Later, Members Worship Skeleton by mama-gee(f): 10:10pm On May 15, 2010
Has the world eventually entered the “last days” as prophesied in the Bible, the holy book for Christians? Maybe, if the activities of some so-called Christians are anything to go by. According to II Timothy 3-7: “In the last days, perilous times shall come.

For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good.”

The holy book further states that in the last days, men would have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof and men will ever be learning, and will never be able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The story is hardly believable but it is true that about five years after the death of a pastor, members of his church still worship his skeleton because of their faith in the efficacy of his powers.
To members of the church, late Jacob Adebayo Oladele, who was the founder, Millennium Gospel Church (MGC), remains powerful even in death.

In February 2010, the police stormed the premises of MGC located at an abandoned aerodrome in a vast forest at Egbedore Local Government Area of Osun State, following a tip-off by the monarch of the town, Alayemoore of Ido-Osun, Oba Adedapo Adeniyi Sapoyoro. The monarch, who said the palace had been inundated with series of allegations of high-handedness and weird worship style of the church members, led a team alongside the police to the church where a purported skeleton of the church’s founder was recovered.

The police arrested 15 suspects while people of the town warned the church members never to return to the land, which belongs to the government. Sunday Sun gathered that five of the suspects are still standing trial at an Osogbo Magistrate Court. Members of the church however insist that they are not ritualists and never killed anybody or performed any ritual in the church.

One of those standing trial, Mrs Florence Oluwaloni Oladele, who is the deputy founder said: “We are not ritualists. We worship our Lord Jesus Christ like every Christian. The skeleton belongs to our founder. Truth shall prevail and we will be vindicated. This is a test of our faith and members should be steadfast and more prayerful.”

Head, Pathology Department at the Ladoke Akintola University of Technology Teaching Hospital (LAUTECHTH), Dr Akinwumi Komolafe, confirmed the presence of the skeleton in the morgue, but said the police did not present a request for tests to be carried out on the skeleton. He said the hospital authorities would keep the skeleton until it receives further directive from the police.

It was however gathered that some of the church members have been visiting the mortuary in order to worship the late founder who they described as their Messiah. “Before stopping them from coming to see the skeleton, some who came were practically worshipping the skeleton. They rolled on the ground, shouting his name, weeping, wailing and appealing to him to answer their prayers. They are fanatical about him and if care is not taken and the skeleton remains in the mortuary more than necessary, they may go wild and take steps to recover it. The mortuary needs more security,” a source at the hospital warned.?

When contacted, the Osun State Commissioner of Police, Solomon Olusegun, said the “case is in court.”
But a police source said: “The skeleton may soon be released to the members since nobody had come forward with a claim that his/her relation was missing.”

“Apart from the skeleton, police did not find any other human or animal part at the church. Initially, we were made to believe that more bodies were going to be recovered from the church like that of the infamous Okija Shrine. None was found apart from the skeleton. However, all theories pointed to the fact that the skeleton belongs to the church founder. You know how fanatical some people could be with living or dead founder of their faith.

“The skeleton will soon be released for burial. At least, the man should be allowed to rest in peace. We still appeal to people who may have contrary information about the church to volunteer it to the police.”
At press time, police authorities were in confusion over what to do with the skeleton even as the hospital management anxiously awaited the collection of late Adebayo’s skeleton for burial because according to them, “the mortuary is meant for dead bodies and not skeleton.

https://www.nairaland.com/446235/ritual-church-founders-body-morgue

Shuo!