Last week, President Muhammadu Buhari ordered the indefinite suspension of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation SGF, Mr David BABACHIR along side the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency NIA, Months after he was accused of gross abuse of office, stirring a media frenzy and prompting all kinds of reactions across boards.

Babachir is accused of abusing his office by awarding a contract for the clearing of site for IDPs to himself at a ridiculously huge sum of over 280 Million Naira without following due process.

This suspension is coming after the Attorney General of the federation had earlier given him a clean bill of clearance and the president had neglected the call by the Senate and other Nigerians for the SGF to be sacked as a manifest show of the President’s sincerity to the fight against corruption.

Many Nigerians had also called on Babachir to honorably vacate his seat until he is cleared of wrong doing, to no avail.

And just when most Nigerians had given up that the president would do anything about the case, the bomb shell dropped.

It further became most interesting because his suspension was lumped with that of the DG of NIA who is highly implicated in the finding of over Thirteen Billion Naira at a residential area in Ikoyi, in various currencies.

This has raised quite some questions.

First, while did the President wait for over four months before taking any proactive steps in addressing this glaring accusation against one f his personal aids? Could it be the case of reluctance at letting one of his dance to the tune of the music he dictates the tune?

Secondly, why is the SGF’s case not handled by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission EFCC, like every other case of financial impropriety, but is being handled by a special committee constituted by the President himself?

Could it be the case of all fingers been equal but others been more equal than others? Most of the people accused of financial crimes are...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/babachir-litmus-test-for-anti-graft-war/

I have just returned from Abuja travelling through the Kaduna airport. As we disembarked from the aircraft and moved towards the arrival section, I could hear an announcement being made. The diction of the announcer was clear. She didn’t sound like those On-Air-Personalities (OAP, they are called) who speak as if they have hot water on their tongues. Airport continuity announcers in Nigeria tend to imitate these OAPs.

This has been for me a great source of irritation. The last time I travelled from Lagos to Abuja, for example, I missed my flight because I just could not figure out what was being said. I was stranded because someone chose to speak fake English. The electronic boards at Nigerian airports where they are available, are unreliable and so, you invariably have to rely on those announcements.

The way I go round this sabotage is to keep asking people, or going to the departure gate to find out if the flight had been called or not. So, when I got to Kaduna and found a difference, I was glad that the bad habit at the Lagos and Abuja airports had not yet been exported to Kaduna. It was also the first time I would travel in that direction since the Abuja airport was shut down and traffic was diverted on March 8, to Kaduna, to allow the Federal Government repair the damaged runway in Abuja. Six weeks, they said it would take. I found myself in Kaduna five weeks later.

I met an upgraded Kaduna International Airport. The upgrade is not yet completed but I hope when the diverted traffic from Abuja disappears, the uncompleted parts of the airport will be sorted out and the airport can be put to better use, and not abandoned, and the investment would not be allowed to waste. At the arrival section, a group of persons reiterated the announcement that had been made as we arrived. “Free buses to Abuja are available, please join the buses outside to take you to Abuja, show your ticket and boarding pass please”. Another lady said: “if you want to travel by train, please join the buses outside to take you to the train station, it is free.” This got me curious.

It turned out that the Federal Government had indeed made arrangements to make life easier for persons who had to travel from the Kaduna airport to Abuja. I took a look at the buses. Chisco buses. Coaster buses. I also spoke with a few persons who had travelled through the Kaduna airport en route Abuja. The feedback was positive. I was told the bus ride takes about three hours, the train ride about one hour, twenty minutes. But one guy differed.

“I think,” he said, “it is better to charter a cab. If you take a cab, you can get to Abuja in about two hours. If you take the bus, you may have to wait for the bus to fill up, and then for security reasons, the drivers will not drive fast, if you are not careful, you could be on the road for four hours.”

“I guess security is more important than speed”, I said.
“But they will go and drop you at the Abuja airport, and you will spend another one hour getting to the town, and in that case, you will still have to take a cab and pay.”
“Why Abuja airport?”
“That is what they do”
“But come to think of it, is it possible they will go and drop people in front of their homes?”
“Well, I am a man in a hurry. Time is everything. I don’t take the bus or the train. I just take a cab and move.”
“What of the helicopter shuttle?”
“I am sorry I don’t know anything about that. It is better and cheaper to take a cab.”
“And how much is that?,” I asked.
“Between N25k and N30k. But you can also join with other people. If two other persons join you to take a cab, you’d end up paying at most N10k.”

“But is it not better to go with what government has provided, for security reasons?”
“There is no serious danger on the road, particularly if you travel during the day, and not wait till it gets dark. There are policemen and FRSC men keeping watch all the way to Abuja. You don’t have to worry about anything. I have been on this route every week since they shut down the Abuja airport.”

I had an appointment to keep in Abuja and time was not on my side. I could not afford a four-hour journey, so I embraced the guy’s advice, and took the cab option, and just as I had been told, the road to Abuja was safe and stress-free. I made it in good time and did not miss my appointment. On my way back, two days later, the trip was even smoother and faster. But I ended up not travelling after spending so much time at the airport. My return ticket was wrongly booked: instead of Kaduna to Lagos, I had a Lagos to Kaduna ticket! This turned out to be a blessing in disguise, though.

It gave me the opportunity to take a better look at the airport. At the VIP section, and elsewhere, the staff appeared polite and helpful, obviously delighted with their assignment. Free drinks, coffee and water, were offered at the VIP section. The missed flight also gave me the opportunity to spend more time with my friend and colleague, Umar Sani who lives in Kaduna. Umar Sani the Cat as I call him, is the Media Adviser to former Vice President Namadi Sambo.

I spent the night in his house, and as always we shared reminiscences. We exchanged views about the present and worries about the future. This was accompanied by day-long enjoyment of dollops of pounded yam, freshly prepared pepper soup with fish from Kogin Kaduna, delicious ram suya, and Hausa music from the old masters. One particular Hausa musician caught my attention, he actually sounded, beat by beat, like the late Yusuf Olatunji were it not for the difference in language.

But the night became darker when we received the news of the sudden and untimely death of Gordon Obua, our former colleague who served as Chief Security Officer to President Goodluck Jonathan. Obua, like many of the Jonathan boys, went through a lot in the last nearly two years. Umar Sani and I tried to reach many of our other colleagues. One said he was scared about tomorrow and what else would happen. Another said he was so sad, he just chose to go to bed.

The grief was deep and widespread; the shared emotion was touching. Everyone worked with the CSO. Nobody can access the President or any part of the Villa, without an encounter with the CSO and his team. The Presidential Villa is not an ordinary workplace, it is, every part of it, a security zone.
Our return journey to the airport the following morning was less excitable, marked as it was by unspoken thoughts and pregnant reflections. I made it to Lagos.

Looking back, the Federal Government and the Kaduna State Government, the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN), the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and other stakeholders who were involved in managing the process of diversion of traffic from the Abuja airport to Kaduna deserve our commendation. They have not done badly at all. The airport handled many flights daily, including international flights by Ethiopian airlines – the only foreign airline operating in Nigeria that embarked on...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/the-abuja-kaduna-airports-a-testimony/

What a relief! So, the Big Brother Naija reality television programme is finally over. It ended Sunday evening with 23-year old Efe Michael Ejemba, University of Jos graduate of Economics and singer winning the N25 million including a Sport utility vehicle at stake, with 57.6% of the votes from over 24 million voters across Africa. Warri, where Efe’s family lives, erupted in excitement. At the Multichoice viewing centre in Ikeja, Lagos, where Katung Aduwak took charge so brilliantly, there was a similar eruption of incandescent joy. I was relieved because for about 70 days, the Big Brother Naija show was a big distraction, crass capitalism at its most cynical edge, a source of unmanageable madness in homes and on the streets. Now that it is over, it is time for some honest frank talk for the attention of all stakeholders involved.

Let me start with the lessons, on a positive note, before delivering the blows. Lesson one: In a very instructive manner, the Big Brother Naija reality television show promoted the ideas of choice and people power at the heart of democracy. Televised across Africa, the viewers had the final say in determining who stayed in the house or left during eviction moments on Sundays. The votes were collated, audited and confirmed by Deloitte, a firm of auditors and thus, the viewer as the voter determined the outcomes. In that regard, a reality show of that sort promoted a consciousness of democracy, choice and influence and it further explained why the people from Nigeria to Cape Agulhas all the way up to the Mediterranean sea took fierce ownership of the programme. In a continent where power is the ultimate aphrodisiac and every access to power, fame and influence is seen as an opportunity to oppress and demean, whatever is done to promote a consciousness of choice and the civil society is laudable. Multichoice, thanks.

Lesson Two: in every business concept, perseverance pays. Multichoice has been running its Big Brother Naija and Big Brother Africa concepts for a number of years. Apparently, this year’s Big Brother Naija has been the most impactful, the most profitable and probably also, the most exciting. In one week, over 11 million persons voted to determine the eviction. In the final week of the programme, over 24 million persons voted – that is more than the total number of persons who voted in the Nigerian Presidential election in 2015. This year, Multichoice has made more money from the Big Brother franchise than it has ever done. The programme was sponsored by PayPorte, and with all the voting, and the money spent on recharge cards, Big Brother and Multichoice are the biggest winners. In the end, it is all about business and profit. Everybody has been used. In business, once you have a good, attractive product and you can capture the market, you can fool everybody and make profit. Multichoice, weh done – in Falz, the bad guy’s voice.



Lesson three: humility pays. At the end of the day, in the last week of the programme, the decision by the viewing public was a moral, sentimental one. The biggest star of the programme was, I don’t know what you think, TBOSS (real name: Tokunbo Idowu), half Nigerian, half-Romanian. She dominated the space with her Jezebelic antics, even got some of the male participants ousted by entrapping and outsmarting them with her sexual wiles. She projected herself as a sex object, the ultimate manipulator, the champion Delilah of the Big Brother Africa series. She even made a joke of the entire Big Brother concept by saying she didn’t need the money and if she won, she would spend it in two weeks to pay off debts, and in any case, she had men hitting on her, offering to take her on a ride in their private jets. She played the role of a female barracuda.

Given her looks and talents, she would have been a perfect winner. She would have looked good on the billboards. But she lost because of her arrogance. Attitude is everything: this is the lesson of TBOSS’s disgrace and humiliation. When she was sent out of the House as the second runner up, the viewing centre in Ikeja, Lagos, including Kemen whose nemesis she was, danced in joy. “They are taunting me?” she asked Ebuka, the anchor. No, sweetheart, they were making a far more serious statement about you. The melodramatic ending of Big Brother Naija 2017 is its only redeeming outcome. Bisola, the first runner up does not even have a degree but she showed talent and resolve, even if her whorish flirtation with Thin Tall Tony is so cheap and self-denigrating. Her One-Nigeria consolation prize is something big she should take seriously.

Efe won because of his humility. He is considered the poorest and the most needy of the contestants. Patrons of the programme chose to vote for the contestant who looked and sounded like he would need the money and the opportunity. They gave him a chance in life, although the organizers must ensure that going forward, the show does not become a poverty alleviation scheme. Bisola came second because she too looked like she needed help. Debbie Rise and Marvis also made the finals, but that was meant to be a great compliment to their good conduct, but they didn’t have enough support to make it to the top. TBOSS is the main star who lost. I hope she was taken out of South Africa with a private jet or maybe a submarine! Beauty is not everything, baby.

Lesson four: Marketing helps. Branding is everything. Propaganda is profitable. Packaging is nice. Big Brother Naija is nothing but marketing, branding, propaganda, and packaging. A reality show is supposed to be nothing but reality, virtual reality as it happens, but let no one deceive you, everything that happened in the 70 days of BBNaija was packaged, marketed, carefully branded and manipulated. Ebuka, the Big Brother, thumbs up, the scenic designers, kudos, the content developers, three hearty cheers, Multichoice, you guys are the smartest capitalists around, well done! The finale was a...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/bbnaija-television-as-madness-reuben-abati/

Finally, Big Brother Nigeria 2017 has come to an end. While it provided ample entertainment for some, there were a few others who tagged it immoral, and yet some others who saw it as a distraction from the unending economic down-spiral the nation is facing under its clueless president.

However anybody perceived it, Big Brother Nigeria, as a microcosm of the Nigerian society, shed some light on who we are as a nation.

There is of course the issue of hosting the show in South Africa,which reflects how much we do not trust our own systems (after all, even our president does not trust our hospitals). But above that, it revealed the fact that collectively, when it comes to determining winners in any process that involves voting, the best strategy is to embrace the “sob story strategy.” Efe knew this,and exploited it fully to his advantage.

Brilliant Efe must have sat down and learnt from the two greatest masters of the sob story strategy in Nigeria.

First there was Nigeria’s immediate past president, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan. Goodluck was the presidential aspirant whom in 2011 melted the heart of an entire country with the now famed story of having to go to school without shoes!Immediately, many identified with him as being representative of the collective sufferings of the nation.For a country where most of its citizens live below the poverty level, a lot of people identified with him as being a kindred spirit. While the poor saw him as a symbol of hope (if he can grow from having no shoes to being the president,they too can), the rich and middle class saw him as representative of their own grass-to-grace stories.At the polls, he trounced now President Muhammadu Buhari and emerged the president.

Fast forward to 2015,and Buhari had learnt his lesson.Appeal to the emotions of Nigerians and they queue up behind you, he realised. So what did the General do? He ensured that a picture of him having his breakfast with satchet milo and milk went viral! Add to that the fact that he lied that he did not even have enough money to buy his presidential nomination forms, and that he has mud houses in Daura, and Nigerians began to tremble with affection for the man! Suddenly, he was the poor man whom they have to rally behind and make president. The rest as they say, is history.

The performances of the two presidents discussed above have come to question our penchant for making voting decisions based on...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/big-brother-nigeria-efes-victory-and-nigerians-love-for-sob-stories/

Kogi born Senator and Most Vocal Senator in the hallowed Chamber, Dino Maleye is a man of the people. Yet his blind critics say he has no focus, a thug and a certificate forger despite having been cleared by the Vice-Chancellor of the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University.

I have read many uninformed and badly written articles about Dino Melaye by fifth columnists under the payroll of their pay masters in the past few weeks and I must say that while some of those articles were quite amusing, others are products of poor research.


The first and most important role of a legislator is law making. Dino has discharged this aspect of his duties with admiration and dexterity. Many who watch the Senate proceedings do so to see the finesse in Dino’s presentation and dedication to a great Nigeria.

Like a close friend of mine said: ‘’Dino could be blamed for forgetting he is no more an activist on the floor but a Senator." I agree with that theory. He still speaks with the passion and appropriation of an activist to right the wrong especially in a government that want to muzzle the National Assembly.


Just as philosophers would say, "the end justifies the means". Senator Dino Melaye has been the darling of the Senate. He has changed the demagogue style we used to know. He is physically versatile, intellectually mobile and mentally vigour-loaded. He is the champion of a generation, the voice of the Nigerian youth.

Dino Melaye represents a digital generation. He is setting his priorities right. He is touching lives. He is circulating among his people. He is aligning with the right blocs. He is surprisingly playing the game beyond everybody's imagination. He is winning souls and giving a ray of hope to many who see him as a role model.

Dinoism is an ideology that is fast spreading like wild fire. It is a movement of people who believe in Kogi and Nigeria, a movement of vibrant minds that want practical change, a movement abhorrent of corruption.


Dino has been able to present his certificates to the public domain but we expect, Mr Integrity, in the person of President Muhammadu Buhari to follow suit. As I write, the case of whether Dino graduated from the prestigious ABU has been put to rest but Buhari’s certificate controversy lingers on.

It is shameful that our dear president who rose to the position of a General in the Army hired thirteen high-priced Senior Advocates of Nigeria to defend him in a case brought to compel him to provide the certificate or proof that he has one.


Like Reno Omokri, former aide to Goodluck Jonathan said: “We should not treat Dino Melaye one way and President Muhammadu Buhari another way. If they think Dino Melaye is unfit to hold his senatorial seat because he did not graduate from university (which is untrue), then they should apply their logic to all political office holders no matter how high they are. If Dino must....

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/dino-melaye-a-man-of-the-people-amako-nneji/

It is a sign of the times, and a tragedy that the most popular Senator in the Nigerian National Assembly at this moment is not the person who has moved the most impactful motion, not a lawmaker who has proposed a thought-provoking bill, and certainly not any Senator who has given any impressive speech debating a matter of national importance. What we get, most of the time, in place of legislative responsibility, prudence, accountability and distinction is burlesque, farce, Japanese-styled Bungaku-Bunraku enactments, a dose of medieval commedia d’ell arte and an enormous supply of Yoruba Alarinjo with a bit of the Akata from Efik and Ibibioland. And the star in this comedy of errors that the Nigerian National Assembly has become is a gentleman called Dino Melaye. He is the perfect archetype of all that is wrong or right with the Nigerian legislature, a fine representation of contradictory binaries, and a lesson unto the rest of us.

I am not condemning Dino Melaye. I am in fact just about to say that we created a man like him, just as before him, we needed a Busari Adelakun, and a Lamidi Adedibu to show us the true character of Nigerian politics. And to those who think Dino Melaye is something of an aberration, I say to them that Dino Melaye is indeed a true picture of Nigerian politics. He is much smarter and far more politically savvy than those who condemn him.
His Wikipedia profile announces that his ambition is to be Nigeria’s President someday, may be he won’t become President, but he may suddenly show up in the future as something close to that high office. He is far more Nigerian than those who criticize or condemn him. He knows the system. He plays the system. He has the capacity to beat the system. Most people who get to the top in Nigeria beat the system, and when they do so, they flaunt their smartness in the people’s face. The pundits write their articles but nothing changes, because a man like Dino Melaye can get a whole Vice Chancellor of a University created under the Act to do his bidding, and a National Assembly to queue up behind him.

I read one piece in which the writer was wondering how on earth we ended up with a Dino Melaye in the National Assembly: A man like that whose brand raises too many questions. His school certificate result is not exactly impressive. His year of graduation from Ahmadu Bello University has been controversial, even with the sitting Vice Chancellor’s needless testimony. Nobody is sure whether a BA or a BSc is the appropriate description of a degree in Geography.

Dino’s name is allegedly missing in the University’s Graduation Year Brochure, an omission that nobody has been able to explain. There is an NYSC group photograph but he is just about the only person not properly dressed. Former classmates have confirmed that he was actually a university student and that he graduated, and the Vice Chancellor says he got a Third Class. Third Class!

I have never seen any student so proud of a Third Class like Dino Melaye. To celebrate his Third Class he wore to the National Assembly, a Doctoral candidate’s gown, and thus insulted the entire academic establishment. I have a Ph.D gown and the full robes of the Nigerian Academy of Letters, but no form of temporary insanity will make me wear either of both robes to a wedding party. Dino Melaye is a Nigerian Senator; nobody should be surprised if one of these days he wears his distinguished borrowed robes to a funeral just to convince everyone that he has a university degree.

No serious person advertises a Third Class degree, but Dino Melaye says on top of that, he has acquired six additional degrees, including certificates from Harvard and the London School of Economics! The lesson from this is that the certificates of everyone who aspires to lead Nigeria at any level must be carefully verified henceforth. Only God knows how many persons at the highest levels in Nigeria are parading certificates and qualifications that should form the subject of scrutiny. A nation that is led by the least educated and the most ignorant of its population is definitely in trouble.

In the United States, a man like Dino Melaye would probably never win an election. His former wife, Tokunbo accused him of battery and domestic violence and showed pictures to prove her point. Her short-lived successor made similar claims, spent six months and fled. There was another lady, one of those man-eating Nollywood girls who entertained us with her misery and the story of a child and DNA tests. If the wives and the baby mamas were wrong, Dino Melaye soon had a tiff with Senator Remi Tinubu and what he said about her menopausal status, we don’t have to repeat. He even went to the front of Remi Tinubu’s house in Lagos to pose for a photograph, daring her husband to do his worst. Senator Tinubu’s husband, the Jagaban of Borgu, Asiwaju of Lagos, former Governor of Lagos and national leader of the APC knew better. The last time Dino Melaye got into a duel, he came out of it with torn clothes, which he proudly advertised.

Dino Melaye poses as an anti-corruption crusader. He rides some of the most exotic cars in Nigeria, all labeled Dino 1 to 5 or whatever. He is loud, flamboyant, and unconventional. He can talk, which means he is articulate, he is fearless, he is also fiercely and stubbornly loyal to the incumbent Senate President Bukola Saraki. He can sing. He can dance. He obviously has no respect for women because he is a macho-man, an alpha male. He can also fight, and he considers journalists the scum of the earth.

That is why when Omoyele Sowore of Sahara Reporters digs into his past and qualifications, his immediate response is to say that he is being stalked and to go after the investigative journalist with everything that he can deploy. Melaye was elected as a Senator to make laws for good governance, but he has been busy acting like he is an awada kerikeri actor on loan to the National Assembly.

I am not condemning him. He won an election. In fact he has won many elections. The people who voted for him must see something in him. The man who represented Kogi West before him used to make useful contributions that made the headlines, he was respected for his informed interventions; there was never a time he wore torn clothes to the Red Chamber, but the people voted him out and elected Dino Melaye and since he started ruffling things up, nobody who voted for him has questioned him. You actually get the impression that Melaye is considered a hero in his Kogi West constituency. This should explain why he enjoys being the drama king of the National Assembly.

To politicians of his type, every kind of publicity is good publicity. It is better to be heard and known, for whatever reason, than to be unknown and unsung. In Melaye’s mind, he is obviously having fun. The kerfuffle over his academic qualification is probably as far as he is concerned, a joke, because afterall, he doesn’t need more than a secondary school certificate to be a member of the National Assembly. When we write about him, discuss his politics, interview him, project him in the media, we are actually promoting his politics and brand.

His kind of brand works in Nigeria. What was the value of Busari Adelakun’s politics or that of Lamidi Adedibu? But both men ended up being more prominent in their constituencies than other politicians of their time. Lamidi Adedibu, the exponent of Amala politics, was so powerful, when a certain Governor refused to pay him Godfather-rent, he got him removed from office and as they say, nothing happened. Adedibu derived his power from being close and loyal to a bigger man of power. He could sing too. And he could dance. And that is perhaps why Dino Melaye should be taken seriously when he breaks out into a song:
A je kun iya ni o je
A je kun iya ni o je
E ni ti o to ni na, to n dena de ni
A je kun iya ni oje

That song is now top of the charts in Nigeria today, with a remix and multiple parodies by other public figures. The only man who is probably yet to learn that song is Senator Ali Ndume, but it is a song that speaks to him directly and accounts for his six-month suspension from the Senate. It is also a song about power and dictatorship. There is nothing in it about values or fairness, or justice. It is a might-is-right composition, about the mighty punishing and oppressing the powerless. “A je kun iya” emphasizes the severity of punishment, “eni ti o to ni na” underscores the imbalance of weight, and the lack of equality in strength. It is a song of intimidation, threat and abuse, completely arrogant in tone and sense.

Dino Melaye knows how to taunt his critics. I visited his website: dinomelaye.com. There are nice photographs and links to other sites including his Facebook page, projecting him as a courageous and outspoken anti-corruption crusader and a political activist. We do not find any information about the...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/dino-melaye-the-making-of-a-brand-reuben-abati/

Dear Nigerian Youth,

Dino Melaye graduated from ABU in 1999 or 2000 which ever one Sowore tells you it’s true. Going by his year of graduation , Dino cannot be more than 47 years of age, at most.

If at 47 a man is a Senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, a position hitherto meant for old recycled millitary men, and ex governors, then from my own estimation, that man should be respected.

Irrespective of political affiliation, Dino Melaye has been the most consistent whistle Blower and anti corruption Campaigner in the National Assembly since the advent of Democracy .

In 2010, the 2nd Abuja Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Runway Contract awarded at the sum of N64 billion to Julius Berger was cancelled after Dino Melaye revealed the fraud that characterized the contract.

In the same year, the same Melaye and other members of the House of Reps revealed to Nigerians how the then Speaker Dimeji Bankole embezzled and misappropriated over $59 million between 2008 and 2009.He was beaten , his clothes torn and almost stripped on the floor of the House in the full glare of cameras. He was later suspended from the House. Some of us still remember what became of Dimeji Bankole. All these while, Dino was a member of the ruling party PDP.

Now as a member of the APC, Senator Dino Melaye has been a better and most vibrant opposition to his own party and the Presidency, more than all the PDP Senators put together. It was through Dino Melaye that Nigerians got to know about the “grasscutters” awarding contracts to themselves and embezzling the money in the Presidency while Buhari is busy writing memos and defending the stench of corruption and the deaths it has brought to the IDP Camps.

In all these , I cannot recall any corruption charge or allegation against Dino Melaye that we know of since he should naturally be a target because of his activism and brand of politics. Don’t get me wrong Dino Melaye is not a saint .

My fellow Nigerian Youth, instead for you to take a deep breath and find out how this young man has been able to survive the treacherous murky waters of Nigerian Politics, you join the band wagon of detractors and waste your internet bundle on Dino’s Certificates when you have a President who doesn’t have the minimum requirement and yet leading the...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/what-you-should-learn-from-dino-melaye-philip-oshiokpekhai/

News of the apparent suicidal death of a Nigerian physician who jumped off the Third Mainland Bridge, Lagos, has prompted a frenzy of causative speculations. Theories have ranged from depression to general national hardship – and many things in between. I submit that it is neither depression nor general national hardship; Nigerians are culturally wired to absorb hardship without going the deep end. Nigerians love life too much to voluntarily surrender it to hardship; they will rather drag on to their very last breath.

When the former first lady, Mrs. Patience Jonathan, declared, in what seemed and sounded palpably moronic, that she would rather kill herself than commit suicide, she was making a philosophically deep and culturally-rooted point. Her point was that she would have to endure and work herself to her bare bones rather than voluntarily surrender herself to death. Like I said, Nigerians have a consuming love for life. If Nigerians loved and cared for life a little less, the country would have been a better place, as they would have been able to confront their daily oppressors.

The brutal truth is that if Nigeria were a normal society, there should be many more suicidal deaths. And by normal society is meant one in which people treasure personal character, integrity, and earned dignity. In such a normal society, there is high premium on the metaphorical virtue of face, and people work hard to maintain their face through various measures of facework. In such a society, when face is lost, all is lost, and nothing is left – not even life.

In a normal society, when serious evidence mounts that a serving or ex-governor of a state has corruptly enriched himself even to a meagre degree, such a governor commits suicide. But in Nigeria, when such a governor is clearly and conclusively proven to have enriched himself to the tune of billions of commonwealth resources, that governor, rather than commit suicide, crosses over and takes shelter and refuge in the ruling party.

In a normal society, when a former governor is charged, tried, convicted, and sentenced by a foreign country for laundering his state’s fund into foreign banks, such a governor upon completion of his sentence, rather than shamefully return to his home country, commits suicide in that foreign country. In Nigeria, such a governor, who has laundered colossal billions of his taxpayers’ money into foreign banks, is granted full and unconditional state pardon by an equally corrupt president. And upon release and return to Nigeria, such a governor is treated to a hero’s welcome.

In a normal society, when pictures and other damning evidence of a randy pastor’s sexual escapades surface on social media, such a pastor takes a poison pill and sleeps eternally. In Nigeria, such a pastor, rather than do the needful, unleashes a volley of demonizing attacks on his accusers and her witnesses. In a normal society, when the director of a public pension fund is shown to have embezzled such pension fund, such a director commits suicide. In Nigeria, such a director who has embezzled billions of that fund, is made to pay a fine of a few millions even as he keeps the billions and lives his life as though nothing has happened.

In a normal society, when a school boat ride goes wrong and results in a clear case of a water accident, killing scores of kids and teachers, the minister of education chooses to commit suicide rather than live in shame. In Nigeria, when an immigration job recruitment scam results in a foreseeable stampede and the death of scores of young job seekers, the comptroller of immigration sees no reason to commit suicide. It does not matter to him that the reason for the carnage was because immigration authorities, to his knowledge and directive, illegally collected illegal job application fees from more victims than the job fair venue can contain.

In a normal society, if a building collapses, killing scores of occupants, because building code instructions were violated, whoever is responsible for such violation commits suicide. In Nigeria, when a pastor ignores building code violation warnings, and a church collapses, killing scores of worshippers, the pastor does not commit suicide; instead, like in a Subaru accident commercial, he lives. He even gets a public goodwill message from the Nigerian president, congratulating him and his wife for not being among the dead.

In a normal society, when it is revealed that lawmakers get together every month to give themselves pay raises, even as the masses are being crushed under the weight of sustained hardship, such lawmakers commit suicide in embarrassment. In Nigeria, when similar revelations are made of senators and congressmen giving themselves pay raises to the tune of millions, the Nigerian lawmakers respond to such revelations with even more pay raises for themselves. In a normal society, when pictures and videos surface of university lecturers sleeping with their students for grades, such lecturers commit suicide. In Nigeria, such lecturers become consultants to other lecturers with similar aspirations.

In a normal society, politicians are so afraid of sex tapes of themselves and mistresses that they commit suicide when such tapes are leaked into the public domain. In Nigeria, politicians desiring to sleep with young girls, first co-opt the services of a middle-woman who records such...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/death-on-mailand-would-not-nigerians-rather-kill-themselves-than-commit-suicide/

Though 20-somethings have been exposed to deeply rooted opinions, rigid morality, and sexual oppression, their energy has not yet calcified into the static energy systems that are the hallmark of most adults. Their youthful energy is still flowing, which can easily result in a case of mistaken sexual identity, energy, desire, or willingness.

It isn’t supple breasts or young vaginas that older men seek, but the surplus, untethered energy that provides a glimpse back into youth, vitality, and innocence long abandoned. Yes, the young ladies look like the answer to all that ails the older man—and sex appears to be the way to tap it. But it isn’t. Sex with the younger woman is a distraction from the real source of adult energy: wisdom and depth.

Youth, for the most part, have agility instead of wisdom and disrespect instead of depth. They love attention or a cause more than they do sex and don’t yet know the subtle nuances between absence and presence. Sure, they are frisky, but they are lousy in bed, while their energy is still titillating and tempting.

Male peers confusing energetic attraction for sexual attraction makes older women crazy. It has older men appear ridiculous and not lovable to them, just when they could use a good hug, because culture has seemingly turned a cold eye on all women of a certain age.

But only women of a certain age have the scars, dents, and wear that hone in on their uniqueness. Youth all look alike, offering a plug-and-play arousal to older men that appears much less risky than courting originality.
Breaking up

Paradise is a state of mind, not a location. One glimpse of the young couple in front of the neighboring hotel room revealed that today is the day he is breaking…

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/its-not-sex-older-men-want-from-younger-women/

A fortnight ago, I was in Ondo state to attend an event; that was the day the heavens chose to open up. The rainy season seems to have started early this year, and whenever it rains, even mother earth opens up to drink water from the skies, the heat wave of the dry season abates, a certain balance is restored to the environment, man, animal and nature are re-united in a silent cosmic communion. It didn’t just rain on this particular day.

It rained cats and dogs. On the first leg of the journey, I had travelled to Akure through the Ibadan-Ilesha route and I felt this was a particularly stressful road. By the time we got to Ikeji-Arakeji, my stomach was tied in knots. I was so distressed I felt I needed sleeping tablets to survive the rest of the journey. My limbs ached after more than five hours of a journey that had become a trial and error experiment on crazily damaged roads.

I resolved that I would not take that route back. I also sympathized with my friends from that part of the country who have to endure so much punishment to travel from Lagos or wherever to their homes in the Northern part of Yorubaland. Navigating one bump after another, jumping from one pothole into another and having to manage all the dangers that lie in wait on the long road to one’s destination is absolute nightmare. The Ife-Ilesha bypass, which used to be so smooth has become really bad, it has fallen into shameful disrepair, a signpost of poor maintenance and the poor quality of road construction, with the contractors, gaining more than the people in the long run.

I decided that the return journey would be through Ondo, Ore all the way to Ijebu Ode and further down. A straight line, we are all told, is a shorter distance between two points. I also felt we could save time having arrived at our destination, rather late. So, on the return leg of the journey we headed towards Ondo. And the rainfall began. It was so heavy it rained all the way from that axis down to Ibadan and Ore, and many houses in Ibadan, I later learnt, lost their aged, brownish, zinc roofs to the accompanying storm and turbulence. If you have ever travelled between Akure and Ore, you’d recall many parts of the road that are so bushy, the trees and shrubs cantilever onto the road. In places, trees even cast a shadow upon the road on both sides, evoking images and feelings of rustic naturalness. On this day, nature was no longer an aesthetic luxury, but a hindrance and a threat.

As the rains fell and the storms raged, many trees were uprooted and they fell across the road. The rainfall had disturbed visibility and slowed down our movement and as time passed, I became restless. I didn’t want us to travel at night, but we were already on our way back and it looked like nature was going to delay us. We eventually had to stop. Very heavy traffic had built up ahead and for a while, we kept wondering what the situation was all about.

In the midst of that rainfall, some people stepped out of their vehicles and started walking ahead to find out the cause of the gridlock. They soon returned one by one, in twos and threes, and as they did, some of them went to the boot of their vehicles and brought out machetes: shining, well-sharpened, glistening machetes. In a matter of minutes, more machetes had surfaced, with young, able men, wielding the machetes and moving forward in the direction of the source of the gridlock. Three trees had fallen across the road, with the branches turning the entire road into a wall.

About twenty minutes later, the men with the machetes began to return to their vehicles, soaked wet from head to toe, but looking excited and pleased. They had taken care of the nuisance of the fallen trees. With their machetes, they reduced the trees to moveable parts, severed the branches and created enough space for traffic to flow again. My driver was happy. He engaged some of the machete-wielding men in paced conversation and they assured him they had taken care of the problem. I watched as they returned their machetes to whence they took them from. Gradually, the traffic began to flow again. It continued to rain.

We got to Ondo, and moved towards the Ondo-Ore road, about two hours of travel time. We had done less than an hour when again we ran into another traffic gridlock. Again, trees had fallen across the road and blocked movement. I wondered aloud if we would ever get home.
“Oga, e ma worry. People will sort it out.”
“Are you sure?”
“Don’t worry.”
And just as had happened previously, drivers started opening up parts of their vehicles and brought out machetes. The bus driver directly in front of us walked briskly to the boot of the vehicle and pulled out about six machetes, which he gave out to some volunteers, and together they marched, along with other machete-wielding folks, towards the front as if they were going to war. I didn’t find it funny. I complained.

“Egunje, the way these people are bringing out machetes, this road is very dangerous. Look at how people are brandishing machetes.”
“E jo sir, e ma fi iyen sile. Leave that matter, Oga. If these people don’t carry machetes, we would still be stranded between Akure and Ondo. Which government is going to help anybody cut any tree in this forest? But with those machetes, we’d soon be free.”
“But a machete is a dangerous weapon.”

“But they have not used it to cut anybody’s flesh. They are using it to make the road motorable. May we not see something bad. What if somebody travels on this road at night and runs into a fallen tree on the road? People have learnt to protect themselves.”
“The police should not allow people to carry machetes.”
“It’s like you don’t know what is going on sir. People carry guns. They carry other things. Ilu le. Country hard.”

“So, all those checkpoints. The policemen don’t look out for dangerous weapons.”
“Police. Which police? Nigeria police? Well, if they had checked and seized all these machetes, we would probably end up sleeping in this jungle.”
“There are very serious security implications,” I said.
“There is nothing. When people travel on Nigerian roads regularly, they are prepared for anything, especially these motorists. They know all the dangers that lie ahead and they are tired of expecting government to perform any miracle.”

While we chatted, the volunteers again sorted out the problem. Four young men returning to their vehicles at the back, scratched the road with their machetes, and attempted a mock dance as they raised the machetes above their heads and crossed them mid-air. The traffic moved. Our journey continued. I was uncomfortable still with the number of machetes on the road.

We had two more such delays before we got to a village close to Ore, and at each point, the same story, but certainly not the same vehicles or motorists, but as it were, it was as if every vehicle or motorist was armed with machetes, to be called to service at the moment of need. I felt this was wrong. The least that either the state government or the Federal government, even the affected local governments can do is to clear any thick bush along this particular road, create necessary setbacks, make the shoulders of the road less of a hindrance, and trim or remove all trees cantilevering onto the road. The road between Akure and Ore is...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/travelling-dangerously-in-nigeria-reuben-abati/

Recently I got into series of arguments with some Nigerians on twitter on the cause(s) of the Nigerian predicament. It was easy to deduce from what people were saying that most people tend to blame whatever government that is incumbent in the country, for the Nigerian predicament. Myopic as we are, we never try to look beyond the present government in our analyses of the Nigerian situation. More nauseating is that past holders of office in the country always come out to criticize whatever government that is incumbent, as the cause of all the problems facing the country. Perhaps one would have easily waved off these nouveau politicians turned critics(as Dum Aminikpo rightly called them) if most of the young Nigerian activists did not suddenly jump on to their bandwagons. But the reality is that in Nigeria, we easily forget the past and are wont to always base every criticism of the Nigerian problem on the present administration. This to me, is wrong. I think that to really cure the Nigerian illness, we need to find out the source of our problems in order to effectively find a solution. As ndi Igbo will say; we need to find out where the rain began to beat us.And where did the rain really begin to beat us? To know where the rain began to beat us, we must first identify the Nigerian problem. My twitter foray somehow summed up this problem as corruption. I do not completely agree that the cause of the Nigerian predicament is corruption. Corruption, I agree is a problem in this country, but it is just a symptom of a larger problem. In any case, corruption is a global problem yet so many other countries have managed to develop despite the best efforts of corruption to impede their advancement. Even the almighty United States of America is a corrupt country yet she managed to be such a role model to many democracies the world over. Nigeria is a corrupt country I accept, but our problem is deeper than that. There are factors that occasioned the corruption in the country and these factors are the real causes of the Nigerian predicament.

Corruption manifests (and not exclusively in this manner)through people desiring to suck the state dry in order to enrich themselves and their own people. In Nigeria, it also manifests in the placement of people who are incompetent as the decision makers of the country. These have led to the country being stagnant because people are hell bent on personal enrichment and of course the compensation of people who are part of the caucus of the people who find themselves in positions of authority in either government or in other key companies or corporations. One thing is certain though, corruption is only a manifestation of a social situation created a long time ago in the country. It is this social situation that gave rise to corruption that I perceive as the point where the rain began to beat us.

I single out sectionalism (sectionalism being the favouritism of a certain group of people because they belong to or are affiliated somehow to people in positions of authority or ethnic group) and the Nigerian notion of “affluence as the source of respect” as the social situation that created the Nigerian predicament.

The Nigerian society operates on the framework of “who do you know”. Competence is almost never the criterion for the selection(and even election)of people who handle the affairs of the country. People are selected based on how close they are to the corridors of power. Their competence or incompetence is never an issue. This of course branches off to another very big anomaly in the Nigerian body polity: zoning. Positions of authority in government are zoned to particular ethnic groups under the excuse of proper representation of the country’s diverse ethnic groups. This leads to the appointment of say a mediocre Igbo man to head a government body where there is a more qualified Hausa man who could have used his wealth of experiences to advance the country.

Then there is the case of affluence being a source of respect for any individual. This may not be just a Nigerian problem, but it is blown out of proportions here. Respect and recognition is only given to the individual who is able to spend big: the individual who can boast of a lot of material possessions. Thus every Nigerian sees affluence as a very important key to a proper definition of who he or she is. This leads to the use of every means possible as a means of greasing one’s pockets. No Nigerian community appreciates a son/daughter who works/worked as a major decision maker and comes out without having amassed enough wealth to serve him, his people and indeed many generations to come. Positions of authorities are perceived as the iroko tree where one who climbs must bring down as many logs of firewood as possible.

With the two situations stated above already part of the Nigerian social fabric, corruption becomes second nature. It is my contention that these two issues are the major causes of corruption in Nigeria. Now, it is important that we try to go back and find out how these crept into our social fabric.

One may have to go back to a long time ago in our history to find out how we subconsciously became a society of people who value materialism more than other forms of achievements for even our forefathers are not exempt from this. Materialism has become a very important means of self definition such that all actions by us bear material gains as the sole goal. This affects even the courses we let our children study in school. While we may not be able to trace the origin of this problem, a realization of its malignant presence may help us to at least begin series of re-orientations in order to correct(even if partially) this problem. Granted, materialism is a human ill, but like everything else, we have blown it out of proportions in this country. Some form of moderation should be achieved and I believe solid re-orientation can help. Perhaps it is time we start celebrating people based on “solid personal achievements”. This is where the mass media and other bodies come into play.

I have left out sectionalism for the last because it is something we can trace to a more recent past. For this, I blame two classes of people: our colonial masters and our independence “heroes”.

Our colonial masters, because they consciously instilled in people from a certain part of the country the belief that they should use their numbers and a certain profession to dominate the country. This gave the ethnic group the belief that they are born leaders and thus should hold on to power. The several years of military rule and the eroding effects on the Nigerian body polity speak volumes of how much this affected the country’s development. It also created in the minds of the other ethnic groups, the need to fight for representation without recourse being made to competence. The colonial masters had strung together series of diverse groups and forced them to be one country. So when they subtly empowered a section of the group, the others felt like outsiders and thus had to fight for themselves. It was no longer a case of one nation, it had become a case of several nations co-habiting and fighting each other for dominance.

I blame the “heroes” of independence because they firmly instilled that sense of ethnicism in their people. The AC,NPC and NCNC were clearly ethnic parties and this showed how much the initial struggle was not about the growth of the Nigerian state but about ethnic tussles. In the final analysis, it was all for the individual gains of the “heroes”. I think that this is really where the rain began to beat us. When this happened, Nigeria was no longer a country with one dream, but a collection of ethnic groups fighting for ethnic hegemony.

The fight for ethnic hegemony by the three major ethnic groups in the country created the problem of the minorities. Every “minority” ethnic group thus realized that to be heard, they have to fight their...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/the-real-problem-with-nigeria/

Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Capital Territory (FCT), and Senator representing Kogi West, Dino Melaye has said that following the Senate’s rejection of the nomination of Mr. Ibrahim Magu as chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on two different occasions, his candidacy is considered lapsed.

He stated that President Muhammadu Buhari cannot validly re-nominate the same candidate again, and therefore advised the President to consider a fresh nominee who is qualified, in terms of experience, integrity, knowledge and temperament to lead the anti-graft agency.

Melaye while commenting on the debate in the media about whether Magu can continue to act as EFCC boss in spite of his failure to be confirmed by the Senate or if the President can renominate him, said there is a provision within the Senate rules which would not allow members consider Magu for the same position again.

This is against a submission made by chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay, who stated in a recent interview that the president can allow Magu continue to act as head of the EFCC until his tenure expires.

According to Sagay, “Since Nuhu Ribadu left, we have not had a man with such sterling qualities as Ibrahim Magu and whether they like it or not, Magu will be there until he completes his term under the law.”

But citing Order 131 of the Senate Rules, Melaye said after the rejection of Magu’s nomination, his candidacy is considered lapsed. Order 131 of the Senate Rule states that “nominations neither confirmed nor rejected during the session or within 21 working days in the case of Ministerial nominees shall be returned by the clerk to the National Assembly to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and shall not again be made to the Senate by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

The Senator who insisted that Magu did not impress anybody including those Senators who would have been sympathetic to his cause during the confirmation hearing in the Senate urged President Buhari to look for a replacement and avoid actions that may result in violation of the..

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/magu-can-never-be-efcc-chairman-again-senator-dino-maleye/

Emerging report revealed that the Economic And Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is secretly probing Senator Dino Melaye allegedly over the role he played in frustrating the bid to confirm the anti-graft agency boss, Ibrahim Magu in the senate, Ikenga Chronicles gathered.

This startling disclosure is coming few days after the senate rejected the confirmation of Magu the second time based on the indicting report of the Department Of State Security Service, DSS.

Announcing the EFCC’s secret probe, Dino Maleye tweeted:

“I have credible information that EFCC is trying to cook up allegations against me. Forensic check on all my accounts. I ready for una.”

Recall that few hours after, Magu failed to scale through the senate confirmation excersise, Dino took to his facebbok page to slam the EFCC boss for his unpreparedness to answer simple questions thrown at him.

‘’From my own personal perspective and as a well-trained & traveled Nigerian. My take is that the candidate (Ibrahim Magu) failed the interview with his inability to answer even to schedule duties.

‘’To come for a job screening/interview and can’t give any clear statistics on how much has been recovered and expected to be recovered is an assault on our intelligence. Among other questions he couldn’t answer. He seemed to have come grossly unprepared for a job interview and failed. Period. Focus should be on his ineptitude even more than the weighty security report. Magu failed the interview/Screening on many fronts!!! We must begin to become a meritorious society where competence will become our core values,’’ he wrote.

During, the screening, Magu, had subtly lashed out at Dino Melaye over his relaxed approach towards the anti-corruption fight lately.

Speaking on the floor of the senate during his confirmation screening, on Wednesday, the EFCC boss said the lawmaker used to be a friend of the commission and firm believer of the current drive against corruption until he became a Senator.

According to Magu, “Dino is my friend; we were fighting corruption together till he got to this house and abandoned us.”

At the end, the senate again refused to confirm Magu as substantive Chairman of the anti-graft agency.

On Friday, Sahara Reporters had tweeted that Dino Melaye and a PDP senator, representing FCT, Philips Aduda coordinated the collection of bribes to...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/exclusive-magus-confirmation-efcc-secretly-probes-senator-dino-maleye/

December last year, popular Nigerian musician Don Jazzy took the nation by surprise by giving a poor woman on Twitter N250, 000 to start a business after she pleaded for financial assistance.

Now, three months later, the woman has given an account of what she did with the gift money she received from the Mavin Records boss.

Don Jazzy is unlike a typical Nigerian politician who doesn’t see the need to help the poor, but rather prefers to steal from the poor masses who voted him/her into power.

A typical example is what happened recently, when the hope of the poorest and most vulnerable were dashed in pieces following an alleged hijack of the Federal Government’s monthly stipend meant for them.

The Presidency had announced the payment of the stipends to the poor through the Conditional Cash Transfer of its Social Investment Programmes.

Contrary to widespread belief that the N5,000 will be shared per person, the administrators of the scheme were observed giving N5,000 to an entire household while the a substantial part of the money was diverted to private pockets.

The situation got worse in Borno State as top politicians, including a prominent member of the Senate and a highly placed Presidency official from the state, disagreed openly over the beneficiary list.

Few persons were said to have collected the stipend shortly before payment was suspended following a ‘fight’ between the two politicians.

A cross-section of poor and homeless people in the state capital had said that only people with links to politicians were beneficiaries of the stipend.

One of them, Abdu Hassan, said, “It is for only people who are connected to influential politicians. I have no salary, no pension, nothing. When I heard of the policy, I was happy because I felt I would enjoy it, but unfortunately, it was...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/the-difference-between-greedy-nigerian-politicians-and-don-jazzy/

As someone who has been in that corridor recently, I do not share the view of those who insist that President Muhammadu Buhari’s recent 50-day medical vacation was mismanaged by his handlers, up to this point. I said this much during a recent interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today with Seun Okinbaloye.

In the face of the people’s rising and insatiable expectations, it is often an uphill task to balance so many considerations in a country that is so divided on all fronts. The duty of the President’s handlers is to prevent such unnecessary news that could destabilize the polity, or create a national security crisis.

The President occupies the most important office in a democracy such as ours because the people look up to that office and its occupier for strength, inspiration and confidence. When a President suddenly takes ill, the implications for politics, power play and national security are far-reaching. I have already dealt with the manner in which this is so, in an earlier article online, titled “From London to Abuja in 50 days: Buhari’s return”.

What is the general complaint? It is this: that the nature and the seriousness of whatever ails the President is deliberately shielded from the public. This has resulted in a lot of speculations, and anxiety. A Professor of Medicine, Femi Williams, became so concerned he began to diagnose the President’s ailment by just looking at commonplace photographs. His latest contribution is that looking at the President since he arrived, he seems to be suffering from anaemia.

I don’t know what branch of medicine allows professional doctors to do diagnosis based on ordinary photographs, but Professor Williams’ interest in the matter reflects the manner in which the general populace is curious about the health of the President. This can also be traced to the President Umaru Yar’Adua experience, who died long after the Presidency had kept the people in the dark and refused to respect Constitutional obligations – the outcome of which was a national crisis.

The people have the right to be inquisitive, but one of the things I learnt as Presidential Spokesperson interfacing with our country’s security agencies and agents (that is another complex and professional territory) is that there is a sharp line between the right to know and the need to know. As someone who needed information, I always insisted on the right to know, but the intelligence community on many occasions drew the blankets, and spoke about the need to know. Their argument as I understand it is that if the people are allowed to know everything then the state would be jeopardized, and national security subverted, but the grey boundary is this: whose security is more important in the long run, the people’s security or the security of power?

It would seem that if President Buhari’s handlers have committed any sin, it is that they were more concerned about the security of power and office. But I argued on Channels TV that this is nothing unusual, and has been the case in other jurisdictions in Europe and the United States. The most celebrated example is that of President Grover Cleveland of the United States, a case study on Presidential illness and the politics of power that is well reported in a book tilted “The President is A Sick Man” by Matthew Algeo. Cleveland, the 22nd and the 24th President of the United States, was one of the most popular politicians of his time. He was an orator who knew how to get the crowds excited. When he returned to power for a second time in 1893, he was regarded as a messiah of sorts.

He boasted about getting America out of recession, the first recession in American history, and setting the economy on a good path. He also boasted about dealing with corruption. He would fight corruption and run a transparent government! The people cheered. But then one morning, Cleveland discovered a swelling on the roof of his mouth. It got worse. It was diagnosed as cancer. He had just taken over power. Everyone looked up to him to do the magic. It was politically inexpedient to tell the public that Cleveland was down with cancer. But the cancer was benign. But the public could not even be so informed.

Cancer was a plague in those days as it is now. To undergo surgery, Cleveland’s handlers sold a dummy to the public that he was going on a vacation cruise, on a friend’s yacht for six days. A team of surgeons was put together and they performed the miracle of removing Cleveland’s cancer in 90 minutes while the yacht cruised on high seas. So important was power and Presidential appearance that they had to ensure the President’s trademark moustache was not tampered with in any way.

The President returned. Nobody knew what actually happened while he was on a cruise. He wasn’t seen in public for 4 weeks. But as in Nigeria, people talk, human beings are human beings, so the story leaked and one journalist E. J. Edwards leaked the story. The White House descended on him. He was dismissed as a writer of “fake news,” and a “disgrace to American journalism.” The truth came out about 12 years later, long after Cleveland was no longer President.

Several American Presidents died in office due to ill-health. William Harrison, of pneumonia, Zachary Taylor of cholera, Franklin Delano Roosevelt of heart disease, George Washington served two terms struggling with malaria, smallpox, tuberculosis, dysentery, before finally succumbing to epiglottitis. In 1919, Woodrow Wilson had stroke for the remaining part of his presidency. The left side of his body was paralyzed, he was blind in his left eye, and was bedridden for two years. By 1920, he had lost his memory and mental health. His wife, Edith Wilson took charge and all of that was hidden from the public.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt ran for President in 1932 on a wheelchair, which was conveniently downplayed by the press. By the time he ran for a fourth time in 1944, he had heart disease. Harry Truman, his Vice President didn’t see him for a whole year! Calvin Coolidge was known as the do-nothing President. After the death of his son, Calvin Jnr., he lost interest in the affairs of state and slept for 11 hours a day! In 1955, Dwight Eisenhower had a heart attack, an abdominal operation in 1956, and a stroke in 1957. John F. Kennedy took steroids twice a day to treat Addison’s disease.

Bob Woodward reports in his book, Veil, that after the 1981 assassination attempt, Ronald Reagan was only alert for one hour a day! George W. Bush transferred power to Dick Cheney twice to undergo colonoscopy surgeries. In France, in 1981, Francois Mitterrand, who had promised that he would run “an open Presidency”, suddenly discovered that he had prostate cancer, which had already spread to his bones. He called his doctor aside and told him, this must be treated as “state secret”. He spent the rest of his Presidency battling with prostate cancer.
Far from justifying Presidential illness, the salient point is that Presidents are human beings and their immune systems can also fail, but the politics of managing Presidential illness wherever has always been a matter of optics and power. Every President wants to be loved by his people. No President imagines that he would occupy the highest office in the land and be disliked by the same people who voted him into office. Many Presidents even consider themselves supermen, and even when they are ill, they still want to be loved. Human beings can fall ill at any time, but the lesson of the Yar’Adua experience and now, Buhari’s, whose...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/buharis-return-matters-arising-reuben-abati/

Over the past week, stories have flooded the media of numerous sexcapades purportedly involving the General Overseer of Omega Fire Ministries, Apostle Johnson Suleiman. First there was a Stephanie Otobo who has been providing graphic stories and images of her involvement with the Christian minister, then yesterday, another lady with the absurd name, Queen Esther popped up, claiming to have also had a relationship with Apostle Suleiman. All of these are of course being championed by Sahara Reporters.

Dial back a few weeks ago,Apostle Suleiman was in the news for threatening Fulani herdsmen. So much was somebody enraged that operatives of the Department of State Services (DSS) were sent to apprehend the preacher. Earlier, Audu Maikori had been arrested for also speaking out against the killings being perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen. To understand this properly, it is necessary to state that there is one man, who has been mostly riled about any “provocative” statements about the Fulani– the governor of a state in Northern Nigeria.

Now, this governor has been known to use Sahara Reporters consistently in his media propagandas. He has also said that in trying to neutralize Turai Yar’adua, he created the myth of a cabal in the media, and ran with it. It is therefore not a giant leap to connect the fact that the powers that be, seeing that using the DSS was going to cause a lot of problems in the polity as Christians will see it as a persecution, decided to resort to perfect game plan where they have a master strategist with and a willing and widely read media outfit. All that they needed to do was find a scandal big enough to bring Suleiman down. The sin of adultery was the most enticing, and in Ms. Otobo, they found a willing vessel!

While Apostle Suleiman continues to deny his involvement in the whole saga,one key question that one needs to ask is this; why did Stephanie Otobo suddenly decide to come out to destroy Apostle Suleiman’s reputation, just weeks after he angered the Fulani gods? Why not much later? Why not earlier? Coincidence? What has Ms. Otobo got to benefit from all of this? Peace of mind? Wouldn’t quietly confessing it to her God have given her that peace of mind? How would she benefit by making a media frenzy out of it? These are questions we should find answers to.

Apostle Johnson Suleiman is human of course and can sin, but let us not be so stupid not to see how conveniently timely Stephanie Otobo’s revelations have been.It all smells of a....

http://ikengachronicles.com/the-conspiracy-to-destroy-apostle-suleiman/

Dear Professor Osinbajo,

I reckon how occupied you are, and so this may not really be time for unnecessary niceties.

Anyway, guess you and Dolapo aren’t doing too badly though you looked to have shed some weight the last time I saw you both sing at your quiet birthday outing.

The work pressure could be consuming, and I am reminded of the double portfolio which you had borne since January 19. Guess you understand my drift. Not sure there are guarantees that your work load would be any less in the coming days.

Even President Muhammad Buhari admitted that much when he said you’ll continue to hold brief while he gains more strength after his now famous 50-day medical vacation in UK.

Sometimes, I really do wonder how you had borne the weight of the Nigerian challenge on that diminutive stature.

Did I hear you say, ‘na God?’ Not surprised, though. Our religiosity is infectious and has become some sort of balm. So true that one wonders if it has not made us prisoners and zombies of our own very existence.

How nice to have you accord some time to this private mail which has now gone public. Spare my impudence. It’s just that, in my desperation, I was willing to scale the fence because of the subject of this mail.

Did the title give you some jitters? I had a challenge myself trying to figure out how best to illustrate the dribbling thoughts in my head. It could have been a bit more sober, I agree, especially with the uncertainties clouding our national life.

Someone even suggested that I had been most insensitive when I broached the idea of this mail and its content. Why, he asked, should anyone habour thoughts that could breed resentments and dismember the presidency? Why seek to alter a largely harmonious working relationship, he queried? I was one of the many mischiefs the presidency had talked about, he said.

But my friend missed the point, dear Osinbajo. This is not about you, even though it’s about you! No, I wasn’t asking you to literarily run away from responsibilities, as the title of my mail may have suggested. Why would anyone do that? That would diminish your character and substance.

All the same, dear Prof, would you pretend not to have heard the whistle that sounded last Thursday? Yes, on that day, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) turned its whistle on Nigerians, an exercise some private citizens have found a rewarding past-time.

Many are reaping from the whistle-blowing game, and we hear that those who squealed on Andrew Yakubu, former NNPC boss, and Abdullahi Dikko of the Nigerian Customs may soon be smiling to the banks.

We have no reason to distrust Lai Mohammed who is Minister for Information and Culture on the matter of reward for the growing whistle-blowing community.

INEC’s broadcast is, no doubt, a clarion call, and l’m wondering how you received it. Did it ring too early? Did it come as a rude distraction as many have argued, given the enormity of...

READ MORE: http://ikengachronicles.com/thanks-inec-run-osinbajo-run/

A London based medical expert, Professor Femi Williams on Saturday disclosed that President Muhammadu Buhari is suffering from anaemia.

Speaking inclusively to The Nation Newspaper, the medical expert it was the anaemia that has been responsible for the blood transfusion which the president got during his medical vacation in the United Kingdom.

Recall that Buhari admitted on his return home on Friday that he had transfusion in London.

“We now have a pretty good idea of diagnosis, which is now comprehensive or good enough to say that the diagnosis of President Buhari’s illness is anaemia,” Williams said.

“You cannot be transfused if you don’t have anaemia,” he explained.

He also said that the anaemia could have been triggered by self–medication.

Professor Williams said it is imperative to know the possible causes of the anaemia.

He listed these as anaemia caused by self- medication, anaemia associated with cancer or anaemia due to blood loss from self- medication that “may affect the stomach and intestines as in aspirin toxicity.”

His words: “The negative clinical finding on the president that was published in The Nation on Feb 26, 2017 has been confirmed by the disclosure that the President was transfused with whole blood.

“In a previous photo of his hands prior to transfusion his nail beds were very pale indicative of clinical anaemia. The subsequent photograph of his hands that was analyzed showed that he was no longer clinically anaemic.”

“The clinical history given by Mr. President that for the past 18 months he had been lethargic and feeling tired prior to his vacation is consistent with tiredness due to anaemia.”

“Regaining his strength after transfusions that facilitated his return home suggests that the anaemia had been corrected successfully.”

“There is therefore a preliminary diagnosis of anaemia meaning insufficient blood in the circulation.”

“When this happens many organs including the brain, heart, liver, kidneys and lungs are starved of oxygen that is carried by blood to all parts of the body for efficient functioning of the person. Sudden loss of blood as in road traffic accidents could be fatal. In this case the anaemia has been insidious and gradual over time.”

Continuing, Prof Williams said: “The question that arises in the absence of information, which is understandable, is the cause of the anaemia.”

“The only information that can be gleaned from the President’s history on arrival is his admonition against self-medication. By so doing is he giving us some more relevant information that he had been told in London?”

“This is the first time that a President advises that all citizens should trust their doctors and refrain from self-medication. Is it possible that his anaemia is drug induced or drug related and that investigations in London revealed this? We do not know. If this is true common pain relieving drugs like Panadol may...

http://ikengachronicles.com/london-doctor-speaks-on-buharis-illness/

We’re not.

And it’s damaging us all to think like that.

I’m a sucker for what other people say. If someone tells me something about myself I’ll take it as fact and only later reevaluate whether or not it’s actually true. And I’ll feel all the emotions of the accusation before even considering that they might be wrong.

And when I’m thought of as a sex obsessed man who only wants to get laid it makes me feel like an unworthy piece of sh*t that needs to reassess his entire persona because he’s got it all oh-so-wrong.

But it’s not true. And I believe it’s not true for most men.

If we really care and are willing to stop the knee jerk accusations and assumptions that all men are a**holes then the first thing we need to do is listen.

What are we saying? What is behind the sex? What do we need?

Sure, we all need sex sometimes and that’s fine. But more often than not, at the times when men are written off as sex-obsessed, unfeeling robots we are actually seeking something much deeper.

We are needing love.

We are seeking intimacy. We are seeking trust. We are seeking connection.

As men, we are conditioned to not feel too much. To plough through and suppress any feelings that could be interpreted as feminine. We are the workers. The aloof charmers. The strong ones.

But that’s a huge and unrealistic expectation to put on us. We feel just as much as anyone. We need love and affection. And we need intimacy.

As men, the only way that that has been apparently available to us is through sex. Sex is the only time we are “allowed” to let down our guard and feel. To let out whatever is inside. To be expressive with our bodies. To be free.

Sex is pleasure.

And men aren’t encouraged to seek pleasure either.

We don’t do baths and we don’t do spa days. We don’t pamper ourselves and the...

http://ikengachronicles.com/why-are-men-preoccupied-with-sex/

The cities of Daura -President Muhammadu Buhari’s home town, Kano – his political base, and Kaduna -where he has a home, and where the aircraft that brought him from London landed early Friday, March 10, as well as other parts of the North saw the people trooping out to jubilate and thank God for his safe return. I noticed that there was no such jubilation in the entire South West, the East, the Middle Belt and the South South. This is understandable.

Too many cynics and mischief-makers in these other parts of the country had expected the worst and they had been busy promoting the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo as a better man in the President’s seat. The manner in which President Buhari’s absence from the country seemed to have divided the country emotionally is perhaps one of the saddest outcomes of that experience. It was the longest period any sitting President in Nigeria would stay away from office. But the really sad news is that it again projected the ethnic differences within the country.

The fact that Buhari’s absence was due to illness raised anxieties on all fronts about the economy and the country’s political prospects. Whereas President Buhari had dutifully and lawfully excused himself and delegated power to Vice President Yemi Osinbajo who became Acting President, this created fresh and troubling problems on the political front. Mischief-makers began to promote Osinbajo: comments appeared in the social and traditional media, praising every step he took while his boss was away.

Meanwhile, his boss received more bashing than was the case at any other time since he assumed office. Whoever managed or instigated that mischievous media messaging process did Osinbajo a bad turn. One of the golden rules of power is this: Never outshine the master! It is in fact the first law of power.

While Buhari was away, Osinbajo did, wittingly or unwittingly, and how serious that was became obvious when a Buhari aide had to inform Nigerians that there is a single Presidency and that Osinbajo, as Acting President took instructions from his boss in London. It was a sorry moment, with the President’s men trying to pull back the Acting President’s men, and struggling so hard to preserve the President’s image and hold on to power.

This is why Sai Baba’s return is a game changer, and it probably explains why his kinsmen trooped onto the streets in joy. I wouldn’t know if he has returned against doctor’s advice, but we all know that he may still have to go to back to London for further tests as he himself has announced in a statement, but coming back at this time is a deft political move. Things were beginning to get so bad, power was beginning to slip out of Buhari’s hands. As the Osinbajo persona gained traction, Buhari’s ratings further nosedived. When Buhari arrived this morning, he changed the narrative. And watch every step that he took: he met with the Executive Council of the Federation: a smart way of re-asserting control. He shook hands with some Governors.

He also issued a statement, which he personally signed. Within a few hours of his return, he took steps that left no one in doubt that he intends to remain in charge. I have seen power-game upfront at the highest level. Nobody should be deceived. If there is any cabal in that Aso Villa at this time, its members must be walking with a special bounce. There was even a smiling competition among Buhari’s men in the Villa today. Look at the photos. Some people smiled so much if their teeth had fallen off in the process, they would have gladly attributed it to occupational hazard.

One of the laws of power is that you don’t take power and then allow other people to seize the advantages. Buhari’s return has served one strong purpose: to hold power and keep it where it belongs. But in another strategic move, the man of power has made it clear that his Vice President will continue to act while he recuperates. That is brilliant: Looks like these guys in the Villa are beginning to learn how to play chess. With Buhari inside the Villa, even for just two weeks, before he returns to London if he does, he would have enough time to change the calculus of power, including the traffic that may have built up in another direction in his absence.

But Sai Baba don spoil business for prayer warriors oh! I am actually wondering why I did not listen to those friends who advised that we should also organize a get-well prayer session for Buhari. You know-you get-you-understand what I mean…that kind of prayer session that is an investment, with a well-thought-out proposal. You get sponsors, make some money on God’s behalf, publicise the prayer programme so well every important Government official will notice.

I thought this was thoroughly opportunistic, making money and enjoying privileges off another man’s illness! But may be when Baba goes back to London, I will weigh the options differently. More so as I can see with my own eyes that those prayers may have worked. Buhari’s return, in this heavily spiritual country, is probably clear evidence that God answers prayers! And let us not blame those who think so, because there are indeed people in this same country who wanted Sai Baba to remain on medical exile. But at least, now that the President is back, the prayer investors and their notice-me sponsors and those whose political careers depended on the-President-phoned-me-from-London moments will get off our back.

President Buhari has told everyone who may be planning a trip to Aso Villa on a welcome-back visit to please stay off. Hi-an! Thank you, sir. Let people stay where they are, I beg, and do their work instead of trooping to Aso Villa to do eye service. And nobody should send gifts: in our tradition, when a man is recuperating, it is normal to send packs of tea (and Baba likes his tea!), cartons of milk and fruit juice and biscuits, to ease the recuperation process. I beg make una keep una tea, and other Greek gifts, Baba no want. And I think people should be told not to place any adverts in the newspapers welcoming President Buhari back to Nigeria.

The man I sympathise with is Professor Yemi Osinbajo. He will now have to tone down, roll back and generally stay in the shadows, even with his boss saying he can carry on while he is still recuperating. How can he carry on when the boss is back and on his feet? Can he possibly bear the title of Acting President when the President is back in the Villa? He and his team would have to do a quick re-set, both inside the


READ MORE: [/b]http://ikengachronicles.com/from-london-to-abuja-in-50-days-buharis-return-reuben-abati/

Aisha Buhari, wife of President Muhammadu Buhari, has endorsed Yemi
Osinbajo presidency following the ailment that has befallen her sick
husband, President Muhamamdu Buhari.


This came as a rude shock as Aisha Buhari said that Acting President Yemi
Osinbajo has developed the ability to lead Nigeria in line with the
manifesto of the All Progressives Congress, APC, and ensure that a better
Nigeria is realized.


She stated this on Wednesday in four consecutives tweets published on her
handle, @aishambuhari, to hail Osinbajo on his 60th birthday.


Mrs. Buhari wrote: “On the occasion of the birthday of Your Excellency,
Prof. Yemi Osinbajo SAN, Ag. President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.


“I wish to extend my congratulations to you and to state that the years you
have spent building your reputation in multiple capacities, have today
resulted in your ability to carry out your duties in line with the
manifesto of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure that a better
Nigeria is realized. Congratulations and Happy Birthday @ProfOsinbajo”


Recall that Aisha caused an uproar last year with an interview with the BBC
Hausa service where....

http://ikengachronicles.com/nigeria-is-now-better-under-osinbajo-aisha-buhari/

It is International Women’s Day, and I am in support of the #WifeNotCook agitation, and I have very valid reasons. I believe that wives shouldn’t cook at all, and we can push it further by cancelling the idea of kitchens in houses. These are not the only things I want thrown away from marriage.

I want ‘introduction’; (you know that process where you have to go to the house of the girl, the same girl whose parents are all aware you’re dating their daughter, and explain to them that you are interested in their daughter) removed. Yes. We don’t need it at all. You start off with an Introduction, then the List Collection, ha! That’s another scary process. Some families insist that the list must be on foolscap sheets, and one uncle will scribble all those items, sometimes in short hand. Pray he isn’t the traditional medical doctor notorious for their hieroglyphs and codes with long necks like some prescription to some unknown ailment, you’re done for. You might even be fined for saying that some words are not clear enough.

We don’t need that too.

And then, the almighty bride price. The break or keep bride price. In some societies, you’ll have to build houses, some might even request for plots of land. All these just to call a girl wife. To take her to your home so you can live together.

That’s not all. The traditional marriage is another energy-sapping, consuming, and showy thing that isn’t necessary. Of all the processes, the woman having to kneel or genuflect to give her husband a drink, to me, is dehumanising. It is rather strange that our women do this, even smiling, and later dance their hearts out in celebration. Shouldn’t we put a stop to this?

There’s the white wedding too. People should be tired na, haba! We should be tired. But we aren’t. The girl wants all these. Her family wants it. It is her pride. It shows she is valued.

After all these, this sweet sister will move into your house, and demand that you live the way of our brothers from the West. The Americans, the Europeans, the fellows whose marriages are so simple that the girl just has to take a ride from her house to a tree, or small chapel where the man will be waiting with a priest, and the act is done. Ah, sister, after introduction, list collection, traditional, and....

http://ikengachronicles.com/lunatics-pad-international-womens-day-can-we-scrap-bride-price-now/

This is about Stephen Nyitse, the young man who on the day of the coronation of the new Tor Tiv managed to beat security and went straight to where the king’s coronation seat, stool, throne had been placed and sat on it. We are told this caused a stir, and not a few in the crowd must have shouted: “abomination!”, Even the President of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria, Benue branch, Bishop Mike Angou considered Nyitse’s action sacrilegious. He went to the seat, to anoint and rededicate it. Bishop Angou’s intervention obviously was meant to cast out whatever demons Nyitse must have inflicted on the already consecrated kingship throne. It is possible also that the ordinary people in attendance and the chiefs of Tivland interpreted it as a bad omen. Africans including the educated live in a world of spirits, demons and magic. Every act or gesture among them, is considered spiritual or religious.

The other side of it has to do with social hierarchy and customs. Our social life is heavily stratified. People are expected to know their place. Young persons are not supposed to disrespect or question elders. Wisdom is necessarily attached to old age, even if that is definitely untrue. Women are expected to submit to men, and that remains the case for all women in many of our communities. The poor are expected to worship the rich. Employees are expected to be loyal obedient servants.

This is the content of our socialization in traditional communities, during the colonial period and even long after colonialism. When we were growing up, there were many things that were taken as normal that would today look absolutely ridiculous to our children. Children were not expected to talk back to their parents: if you did that, you could earn many strokes of the cane. In many families, whenever the father of the house was at home, nobody would try to be assertive, and any news that Daddy was returning from work would send both the children and their mother scampering in all directions.

Thus, in every home, there were boundaries. You were told never to start a meal by eating meat. That had to be the last routine. Children nowadays eat the meat or fish and just pick at the main dish. Parents even take their children to eateries and buy them roasted chickens. In those days, there was Daddy’s cup: you would never be caught drinking out of that cup. Daddy’s chair: you were not allowed to sit on it! Daddy’s Radio: Ha, of course, you would not go near that miserable transistor radio. In those families where they had television sets, a rarity in those days, with the most popular being the black and white Grundig, usually securely locked, nobody was expected to touch that screaming evidence of family wealth!

It was black and white TV of course, but it only came alive whenever the father of the house, special custodian of the key to that box, opened it for viewing. If this was the custom in ordinary homes, imagine what crisis would have erupted in the larger community if a commoner were to sit on a king’s throne!

The times may be changing, but our communities are still governed by many codes and rules into which every family is expected to socialize their children and members. There is also something called protocol. In formal situations, it is considered rude to go and occupy a seat that has been reserved either for elders or special guests not to talk of the king. This can be seen even in the arrangement of official protocol in government. This is why the Vice President, for example would refuse to sit on the President’s seat, even when the President is on leave and he, the Deputy is acting as President.

In many states, nobody would dare sit physically on any seat reserved for the Governor. At the VIP lounge at our various airports, I have seen ordinary VIPs, occupying seats reserved for the President or for a special official of high rank. I have had to ask one or two persons to vacate that seat. How do you know a seat meant for the President? Usually, there would be a flag behind it, usually two flags: the Nigerian flag and the flag of the Commander-in-Chief. Can you imagine a civil servant sitting in front of those two flags? If he is caught, he would be chased out of that seat as if he had committed an abomination.

So, on all fronts, Stephen Nyitse behaved badly. His excuse that he wanted to “anoint” the King’s seat is stupid, because nobody gave him that assignment. Who is he?: A pastor or a demonic agent, driven by the spirits? In these days of Boko Haram and suicide bombing, the security agents did well by arresting him and whisking him away for interrogation. But that is where it should end, more so as the police seem to have confirmed that he is not mentally ill, even if he is, that would be the more reason he should be helped and not punished. Stephen Nyitse has also not committed any offence known to law. He sat on the seat that would become a throne. He did not kill anybody. He did not disrupt the ceremony. Nobody was injured as a result of his action. He did not resist arrest. He could probably have said he acted out of love like that other man who named his dog Buhari!

This is one case that we should all probably have laughed off as a comic relief from Benue State. But it is nothing titillating, because of the final decision taken by the Tiv Traditional Council to banish Stephen Nyitse from Tivland, with strict instructions that no Tiv son or daughter must ever relate with him or help him. He is thus now, officially an outcast among his people. There is no evidence that Nyitse was invited and interrogated by the Traditional Council. For sitting on the King’s chair, the traditional rulers of Tivland have taken away in one fell swoop, Stephen Nyitse’s right to fair hearing and human dignity, and his freedoms of movement, belief, choice, association and assembly. If this was 1840, perhaps the Traditional Council would have ordered his execution. But this is 2017, and under the Nigerian Constitution, no man can be punished except in accordance with the laws of the country. The new Tor Tiv who is a Professor should know that.

The pronouncement that no Tiv indigene should ever relate with Nyitse obviously includes his wife, if he is married to a Tiv, and of course his children, if he has. So, he loses his family, and his property if he has any in Tivland, his identity is taken away from him, he is declared a non-person, just because he sat on someone else’s chair? If at the coronation ceremony in question, one of the Tor Tiv’s grandchildren had been the person who walked across to that chair and sat on it, the crowd would have cheered. They would have proclaimed that kingship runs in the veins of the new Tor Tiv’s sons. This same Tiv Traditional Council would have said with delight that while coronating one Tor Tiv, the gods showed them a future one! What is called African tradition can oftentimes be that hypocritical. The poor are the victims of the world; oppressed by the rich, the privileged and the local gods of our various villages, and the other gods that sit on thrones.

If that seat was so important, there should have been someone guarding it. In some traditional communities in this country, such a special seat would have some local chiefs and cult members protecting it, long before the new king is brought to sit on it. If that is not so, a policeman standing behind that seat would have been enough. For the Tiv Traditional Council to react so harshly, they must have concluded that Stephen Nyitse offended the gods of their land. That was the context in which persons were banished from communities in the past. But I refer the new Tor Tiv, who is a Christian, to Judges 6: 28-31. “If Baal really is a god, he can defend himself when someone breaks down his altar.”

The Tor Tiv, who is obviously the chair of the Tiv Traditional Council should free Stephen Nyitse. If the traditional gods are angry, let them collect goats, kolanuts, and bottles of palm oil. On his coronation day, the Tor Tiv promised to fight injustice, and defend the interest of all sons and daughters of Tivland. He should not begin his reign on a note of harshness and highhanded-ness. He should begin his reign as a king who forgives…
Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo (1960-2017)

Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, thespian, journalist, playwright, administrator, politician and our friend and colleague died on Sunday on one of Nigeria’s impossibly treacherous roads, fleeing from armed robbers. If armed robbers knew who he was, may be they would have spared him.
He was a true man of talent, a gifted professional and a man who will always be remembered for the quality of his art and person.
He was not your ordinary journalist. He was an intellectual. He had gravitas and he deployed his polyvalent understanding with ease without going out of his way to intimidate less gifted persons.

There is so much cant in this country and so much emptiness. But I never caught Onukaba flogging people with his brilliance. He was a very friendly, accommodating and understanding fellow who made many friends because he easily masked his superiority. This was the secret of his success as Managing Director of the Daily Times. In better-organized countries, a man like him will still be alive and not be chased to death by armed robbers. But here we are: another sad story. Nigeria easily kills off its best. Onukaba is probably the best airport correspondent Nigeria ever produced. He made his mark at the airport, hunting for stories, interviewing the prominent and the influential, and it was at the airport that he met General Olusegun Obasanjo who changed his life for good.

When I arrived at the University of Ibadan for graduate studies in Theatre Arts, I found myself in a class that had been carefully selected including smart persons from virtually every part of the country: UNN, ABU, Jos, Calabar, Ibadan, Ilorin, Benin, Port Harcourt. Shuaibu Ojo, as he then was, was one of the three persons from the home department, Ibadan. We all knew each other more or less, because theatre students in Nigeria usually meet at an annual festival called NUTAF. The Ibadan students wouldn’t allow me rest: they told me they had Shuaibu in my class and he would show me that Ibadan’s Second Class Upper was superior to my Calabar First Class. I had my head in the clouds in those days. I told them I was...

http://ikengachronicles.com/the-man-who-sat-on-the-tor-tivs-throne-reuben-abati/

Snap Inc. had its first down day in the stock market since going public on Thursday.

Shares of the parent company of Snapchat fell 12% in trading on Monday to as low as $23.79, below the opening price of $24 a share. They were about 16% lower than their high after the initial public offering.

Even though there was huge demand for Snap’s shares, making it the largest tech IPO since Alibaba in 2014, none of the seven analysts who cover Snap

rate it a “Buy.” Analysts who advise investors to sell are warning about strong competition from Facebook and Twitter and slow user growth.

Over the weekend, Barron’s magazine said the company’s shares could be cut in half.

It’s still very early days for the stock, which may test some early investors’ patience. The drop below $24 effectively erases gains for those who bought as the stock went public. The IPO priced at $17 a share.

The broader stock market was also ...

http://ikengachronicles.com/snapchat-closes-below-its-ipo-opening-price/

Last week,the news came out that former Lagos State governor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu plans to run for the 2019 Presidential elections. About a day later, information came from the camp of the Jagaban that he has no such plans. According to the information, having midwifed the birth of a Buhari presidency,with one of his godsons(Professor Yemi Osinbajo) as Vice President, Tinubu does not wish to suddenly end that.

Well,denials are a part of the strategy of Nigerian politicians, and one is not particularly taken by whatever denials might come from the Tinubu camp.The question one should really be focused on asking is; “what’s the big deal about Bola Tinubu becoming Nigeria’s president?”

Clearly, the present administration, led by Muhammadu Buhari has proven repeatedly that it has no direction. So if Nigeria expects to make any headway,something has to be done to either change the status quo, or find a way to activate the committed and qualified(but suppressed) brains in the administration who have hitherto been stifled by a stubborn,yet clueless leader.

And when one talks about the qualified and committed brains in the present government,one man ranks highest, and that is none other than Tinubu’s own product–Yemi Osinbajo.The fact that a protege of Tinubu’s is one of the best brains(and possibly the nation’s lone hope of getting something out of this administration), brings to the fore a characteristic of Tinubu’s which has seen him excel–his ability to spot and utilize the best qualified at all times. It was this characteristic that helped former president Olusegun Obasanjo, during his time, and it was this characteristic that saw Tinubu oversee Lagos state’s transformation, first as a governor, then as the man who handpicked Babatunde Fashola, and now Akinwunmi Ambode. Needless to say, this is one key character trait that whoever will lead Nigeria out of our current sorry state must possess.

Hence the question again; “What’s the big deal about a Tinubu Presidency?”.

One thing that every objective person will attest to is that if Bola Ahmed Tinubu becomes Nigeria’s president in 2019, the next four years of his administration will see the country make progress in...

http://ikengachronicles.com/why-a-tinubu-presidency-is-a-win-for-nigeria/

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti state is obviously not convinced that President Muhammadu Buhari is hale and hearty, as claimed by the presidency.

Fayose’s statement came as the presidency claimed last night that Buhari had called Former President Olusegun Obasanjo to congratulate him on his 80 th birthday.


The governor has said that rather than shop for outsiders to speak with to prove to Nigerians that Buhari is hale and hearty, the president should be encouraged instead to speak with him (Fayose).

He said he can be reached on 08035024994 since the presidency is keen for Buhari to speak to people; believing this will convince Nigerians that their President is hale and hearty.


“I advised the President to speak with me for the purpose of convincing Nigerians that he is hale and hearty instead of looking for people outside the country to convince Nigerians.”

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Idowu Adelusi, Fayose picked holes in statements that Buhari had spoken in one week, first with the king of Morocco and next with the president of the African Union.


“If their problem is that they are looking for a credible person who can help them convince Nigerians that all is well with our President, Ayo Fayose is their best bet. Let the president speak with me. If I tell Nigerians that the president spoke with me, Nigerians will believe”, he said.

Nigerians, he added, are getting suspicious of all the purported visits to Buhari in London as well as his orchestrated telephone conversations with international figures who Nigerians cannot trust to give a true and unbiased report about the president’s state of health.


“Since they are eager for the president to speak to people; believing in this way to convince Nigerians that their President is hale and hearty, let President Buhari talk to me. I can be reached on 08035024994. I am credible and



http://ikengachronicles.com/to-me-buhari-is-dead-fayose/

Most times, the gait of drift is slow and measured. At times, those who understand the geography of its movement can transform into prophets, with the power to predict the ultimate graph of its descent. But a drift is a drift, a slow slide from the grip of sanity, down through the contours, the abyss of insanity. One feature of it is progressive from one end to the other. It has a spatio-temporal identity and is unique for subverting the very essence of where it begins its onward journey. The drift is a regression. A drift, however, may not descend beyond a level where it could be tamed. For a perspective people, immediately its rolling stone transits from its point of sanity, it is gripped with all the might, held by the neck down and heaved off its destructive course. It thus ceases a geometric slide which it begins and is made to return to its original domicility of sanity. If the rolling stone doesn’t benefit from this rein, it tumbles down the mashy messy path, wriggles itself down the ladder and ends up with a deafening staccato. No calamity wreaks as much havoc as the calamitous crash-land of a drift. Then a phenomenon of sorrow and tears follows its occurrence. Once its beyond control, the larger environment (society) is at risk.

Our society offers a very poignant study of the geography of a drift. Unlike in other societies where, backed up by a very strong and formidable statistical culture, you could view a drift from its point of departure and everyone would be agreed that a downward gravitation is afoot, our society is a Janus-faced example. As situation slides down hill, and maggots outdo one another wriggling their waists inside the conundrum of rot, an accustomed life stuck in a rut; and so, it is legitimated by so big a crowd that you wonder what the matter is. The other crowd, thin I must confess, de-legitimates it, but its voices are shrouded and muffled. The drift nevertheless rolls on, making as much noise as it could, sometimes making none, but most times, warning its perspective audience of its calamitous gravitation.

Nevertheless, the negative multiplier effect is unpredictable, resulting in great wreck and unwarranted loss and damage. It is then, and only then, that our society bemoans and groans aloud in sorrow, tears and blood. But we all failed to address the issue when it started rearing its ugly head. We all looked the other way. Now that wje are all arrested, after running and running, we have nowhere to hide again. We have all forgotten that only diligence sets a fine example and standard. Negligence pays a greater price as much. We often than not waited until when the drift becomes like the greatest trouble of Pythagoras which was that, “the square root of 2 is irrational and therefore, cannot be expressed as a ratio of two integers!”

And so we become helpless when the whole thing becomes hopeless. Our nation, as it is presently, is berthing on the pedestal of juxtaposing of surreal and reality. What tomorrow holds for us remains a mental puzzle. A national dilemma of sort. We need to fast-track on the urgent solutions to our national security challenge, drifting state dirigisme and the rapidly waning social orderliness.

Ayi Kwei Armah, the famous Ghanaian writer, puts the drift in perspective. In his book: “Two Thousand Season”, Armah wrote: “The drift is like a spring water flowing desert ward and such a spring water should know that its future is extinction. The desert never knows how to give, it takes; sucking life out of an otherwise life-filled spring water.”


That’s the truth about the kinds of socio-economic and political drift that we are challenged with today in our nation. The backward kind of drift – the retrogressive kind of. Lack of love, of compassion and of mutual concerns for the betterment of our brothers and sisters debar our progress and cause great problems for ourselves and our society at large..

What we are experiencing and which is taunting and tormenting our society today is the result of our greed, selfishness, covetousness, hate and self-centredness. In an atmosphere of this nature,where there is no true love and compassion, we cannot expect or experience peace of mind, soul and body.

But all hope is not lost.

http://ikengachronicles.com/theory-of-drift-and-the-problems-with-our-society-segun-fadipe/

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress APC in Taraba and Ambassadorial nominee Alhaji Hassan Ardo Jika has called on the Taraba state House of Assembly to urgently impeach governor Darius Ishaku in the interest of the state.

Jika made the call yesterday at a press conference in Jalingo.

He accused the governor of dividing the state along religious and other sectional lines and of abusing his office to favor a section of the society over others.

Jika said that while the governor’s inability to pay the salaries of teachers and local government workers in the state showed his incompetence and insensitivity to the plight of the people, his decision to move official state duties to be conducted in churches was a clear abuse of his oath of office and capable of furthering the divides in the state.

Jika accused the governor of directing that the ongoing verification of teachers and local government workers be conducted in a particular church where he worships so as to make sure the members were promptly paid, ignoring the whole lot of other persons who do not go to the same church.

“Governor Ishaku has directed that staff data capturing for the ongoing staff verification exercise for teachers and local government workers be done exclusively for members of CRCN church where the exercise is currently going on. If he is truly the governor of Taraba state, why didn’t he give equal attention to thousands of others who have not been paid for months? Is it that the members of the CRCN church are more important than others? This is a clear show of favoritism against the rest of the workers who are either Muslims, atheists, traditional religious worshippers, or even Christians in other denominations?

“This is clearly a breach of his oath of office and pose a major challenge and threat to our existence as a state and must be addressed decisively. That is why I am calling on the state assembly to urgently impeach the governor before permanent harm is done to our mutual existence,” Jika said.

He said that failure of the state assembly to initiate impeachment process against the governor immediately would amount to breach of confidence and spell Doom for...

http://ikengachronicles.com/apc-chieftain-calls-for-ishakus-impeachment/

It was shocking as the Acting President; Yemi Osinbajo on Tuesday tactically called his boss President Muhammadu Buhari a liar by exonerating the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), of massive corruption.

Recall that Buhari had over the years blamed the PDP for corruption and for being responsible for the economic recession confronting the nation.

However, Osinbajo heaps the blame of corruption on the civil service as opposed to Buhari who often blamed the PDP.

Osinbajo who made these remarks at an inaugural quarterly civil service lecture series, with the theme: “Civil Service in a Change Environment: The Change is Now” blamed the civil service for being massively corrupt.

He stated despite the modest gains recorded by the Nigerian civil service, it has remained at its lowest ebb owing to corrupt tendencies which has permeated the system.

He said the system which had firmly stood against injustices and high-handedness that characterized the military era, when leadership was mainly by promulgation of decrees, suddenly came crashing when civil servants began to see their functions as means to achieving personal aggrandizement, rather than the common good of the Nigerian state.

“It was the judiciary that told the military then that while it may make laws those laws should still respect the inalienable rights of the people as enshrined in international human right conventions to which the country had voluntarily...

http://ikengachronicles.com/buhari-is-a-liar-osinbajo/

After the publication of my column last week, titled “I want to go to London… to see Buhari”, I received a lot of feedback from persons who were either amused or dead serious that they had been overlooked in my compilation of the list of persons who should go to London. One fellow asked:

“Abati, you left out the Miyetti Allah and the cattle herders of Nigeria.”

“Excuse me?”

“Yes, they too will like to go to London”

“With due respect, to go and herd cattle?”

“No, to visit the President and reassure him about the welfare of his cattle”

“My friend, are we talking about cattle or the health of Mr. President?”

“We are talking about everything and anything that can ensure the President’s speedy recover.”

“Speedy recovery!”

“Speedy recover!”

“My friend, it is speedy recovery, not speedy recover!”

“That is your problem. You spend too much time worrying about grammar and big words you don’t oftentimes know what to do. Look at you, you even left out local government chairmen. You left out an important organization like ALGON, the umbrella body of local government chairmen. You also did not insist that there should be a special resolution of the National Assembly in both chambers authorizing that a formal joint delegation should be sent to London to see the President, instead of the Senate President and the Speaker sneaking to London, behind every one else’s back.”

Candidly, I didn’t know what to say. But just about then, I received a text message and a phone call.

“Abati”

“Yes?”

“I don’t like that your article. An old man is ill, and you are mocking him with your pen.”

“No. You are misreading the article. That is not my message. I understand that a President is a human being. No President has supernatural immunity. It is not unusual for any human being to have a medical challenge.”

“I didn’t get that message. You sounded like you were having fun, with your article dripping with cruel sarcasm. You have to be careful how you come across. You were just busy throwing yabis up and down. Are you Fela?”

“Calm down. My point is that the President’s stay in London should not become an opportunity for eye service, which is the biggest enterprise in Nigeria. Before you know it now, everybody will start trooping to London to see the President, and that will create too many leaking buckets, a lot of waste. I tried to use the vehicle of humour and laughter to ridicule and stop that.”

“I have said my own. Maybe you should re-read the article. When they decide to do something about you, don’t just say your friends abandoned you. If you want to be a stand up comedian, make up your mind. But this one that every time you carry your pen, you’ll start making jest of serious national matters in the name of writing, well, na you sabi oh.”

No writer should be placed under pressure to explain his own message. Language is invariably embodied, iconic, symbolic, semiotic and hence open to interpretations relative to levels of perception. So, I gave up on that conversation. But I was vindicated a few days ago. Another friend called, also anxious to discuss the most important subject in Nigeria today: President Buhari’s health and absence.

“Ore, ki la ri wi, ki l’on sele, ewo lewo, omo boy”

“Abati”

“How are you?”

“Have you noticed something?”

“What?”

“Since you wrote that article on your plan to go to London, people have stopped going to London or they have stopped them. When last did you see anybody posing for a photo opportunity with Sai Baba in front of Abuja house?”

”They are probably still going. London is Nigeria’s new Holy land. It may well just be that they are no longer publicizing the visits.”

“If there is no publicity, then very few people will go. A handshake with the President shown to all Nigerians, while the President is on medical exile, can open many doors for many people.”

“Medical exile. I like that phrase.”

“Forget that. I am not here to discuss grammar. I have a business idea that I think we can discuss. What you don’t know is that some people are already exploiting the business opportunities involved in Sai Baba’s absence.”

“How?”

“I pity you. The only thing you know is to speak and write English and lift your head to the clouds. You can’t smell business. The biggest business in Nigeria today is to be seen to be loyal to President Buhari.”

“I don’t quite get the business angle.”

“This is my proposal, then. We have to do something. In this season of recession, you have to think creatively. That is the best way to beat recession. We also have to organize a solidarity rally or a prayer session for Buhari.”

“How is that a business?”

“Very strategic business”

“How?”

“First things first. Do you think all the people who have been organizing rallies and prayer sessions are doing it for fun, or free of charge, or for love?”

credit: http://ikengachronicles.com/the-nigeria-prays-for-buhari-competition-reuben-abati/

See, the Igbos have been cheated for too long. We have been the most oppressed tribe in this country.

No one doubts this.

After the war, the same thing happened. Other tribes have conspired to make sure the Igbo man never becomes president. All our big men agree, and have therefore decided to make Igboland great again.

As a people, no one doubts our intelligence, our ability to persevere, our creativity, our business sense and our wealth. We are recognised for these abilities in the whole country. Go to all the big cities in Nigeria, and you will feel the presence of the Igbo person.

We must stop this oppression. We must let them see the strength of the Igboman. The nation must feel and recognise us. But how do we go about this?

First, we must dress like the Yorubas and Hausas. Wear Kaftan and Agbada at functions as respected Igbo elders. Even when we go for Igbo meetings, we must wear these other clothes to show how much we hate what they are doing to us. It doesn’t matter that no one, not even our own children know the name of our traditional attire.

Abeg, simple question; ‘why do we have only kaftan and Agbada as the popular clothes yet no one knows the name of any form of Igbo clothing, even when our clothes are easier to wear and move about with than the Agbada and Kaftan?’ But that isn’t important though.

Another thing, we must invest heavily in these tribes. We must be landlords in Lagos, Abuja, all the northern states, and just set up living houses in our home states, and maybe a few shops. You know, when we are big in these cities and foreign states, then they will know that we, the Igbos, are a powerful people. Continuous investment in Igboland will not do us any good. Innocent Chukwuma would have made the Igbo race more respected if Innoson Motors had its factory somewhere else. Just imagine having that factory in Kaduna. Imagine how our respect would have grown as a people.

Some people will tell you that it is better to invest in Igboland, wear Igbo clothes, promote Igbo culture, but these are not patriots. These people are...

Credit: http://ikengachronicles.com/lunatics-pad-overcoming-the-oppression-of-ndi-igbo-dum-syl-aminikpo/

There is something about President Muhammadu Buhari that somehow attracts drama to him. It is difficult to say if it is about him as a person, or about the people whom he has surrounded himself with. But somehow, his administration has given the country the highest dose of comedy!

From statements being made and his spokespersons saying they were taken out of context, to blatant attempts at providing impossible meanings for utterance made by Mr. President in English, it has been a fully packed drama series!

Now we are enjoying the “phone call drama”. First the Senate President, Abubakar Bukola Saraki celebrated the fact that Mr. President called him, then the Kano State governor releases a comic clip of himself talking to the President(even though we never confirmed if the President actually spoke), to the present tussle between two of Buhari’s spokespersons, Garba Shehu, and Femi Adesina to celebrate receiving and missing calls from the President!

While both spokespersons were so elated that the President called them that they had to take to Social Media to declare their undying love for the President who finally decided to talk to his mouthpieces, Femi Adesina let drop one key thing; he had been talking to the President since the man left for London!

Adesina’s admission then raises the question, who has been giving him the statement he has been issuing on behalf of the President? Does a hale and hearty President now have a mouthpiece, through which he issues directives, to his direct mouthpiece? If that is the case, how do we know that such statements were actually from the President? Why is the President being shielded from even talking directly to his own mouthpiece since he has been away? How bad is Muhammadu Buhari’s health?

It is a huge pity that we have come to the stage where a mere phone call(whether that is even true is subject to scrutiny as the elation displayed by both Shehu and Adesina portrays a certain sense of theatrics)from our President to his own spokespersons is now considered a great deal. This seems to be in following with the idea of a Donald Trump call and the belief that saying that the President called would somehow make Nigerians believe the lies about a hale and hearty President. But whatever motivated this...

http://ikengachronicles.com/the-true-state-of-buharis-health/