₦airaland Forum

absoluteSuccess:
Merry Christmas in arrears folks.

Been really busy lately writing a long overdue book, at 130th page on Christmas day, I think of sharing some of the most recent of my findings. I believe you will love it.

I've once claimed that Ijebu isn't Jebusite.

Will love to recant on this position. My wife is an Ijebu and a Sagamite. But I have the Armana letters to thank for this new understanding. Well thanks dear, omo ewusi, isagamu ewa.

Now I agree with metaphysical.

But I disagree that Jerusalem means "Ijebu Isale" as Pst. Omokri would like us believe. Rather, Urrusalim was one of the ways a neighbor vassal-king (of Egypt) pronounced the place name.

The people were Ijebu, but the place bear her own name, Urrusalim. However, in patriarchal time, there are likelihood that Shechem was of earlier import or recorning prior to Salem?

Abraham journeyed from the Sumerian city of Ur, through today Turkey, where the Hittites of Mari have their great empire. One of Hati kings was Lamgi-Mari.

Abraham At Shechem

When Abraham arrived Palestine after traveling through the fertile crescent, he built an altar at a place called "the hill of Mamreh", at the place of Shechem.

This name, "Shechem" is the "Sagamu" of the Yoruba people. An online version of the letter gave Shechem as "Sakmu", (I hope I'm right about that). The founding fathers brought the names.

Mamreh is (the terrebinth) of Moreh. Put more aptly, the English "Mamreh" is Yoruba "Moreh". Words cannot remain the same through the thick and thin of time and space.

Dialect variations and native accent changes the way foreign words are to be pronounced through channels of linguistic exchange that exists in all languages of the world.

An Egyptian Variation

Even at the time, an adjutant of king Sesostris lll of Egypt by name Chu-Sebek chiselled out on war diary that "...Sekmem collapsed together with the whole miserable country of Retenu".

Indeed, proud Egyptians dominated the Levant. The Armana letters is a great deal in understanding the place of the Levant as vassal of the almighty Egypt at the time.

It also help us to understand why Yoruba do "yika" for kings and "yira" for God. It's all about osuba, formalities for kings. Pharaoh was king of kings of Palestine and Syria, called Retenu.

A Place For Yoruba Sagamu

The Yoruba still holds the vestiges of ancient ciphertex of Shechem. The Sagamu of today falls within Remo division. It's easy to see this (Remo) as back formation of Moreh.

By the way, what was Abraham up to with the lad call Isaac for God sake? That's Remo. Oral tradition claimed that this happened at a hill in Jerusalem. Hence the gaze unto Zion.

Uriah the Hittite married a native of Jerusalem, whom David coveted. By this token, Solomon is preferred to be the king of Jerusalem, as a child of Basheba the native.

His era heralds the ancestors' coming to Yorubaland, with the queen of Sheba as regent. However, greater than Solomon is here in the name of Jesus of Nasareth.

Whenever we invoke the spirit of our ancestors, we are meant to say...

K'awo rere maa j'esa ni Moreh.

Compliments of the season dear brother!

Kennitrust:
How I wish it could be possible for the whole world to revolts against Muslims in attempt to wipe out Muslims from the face of the earth




All Muslim are the same. The peaceful ones secretly lean support to the terrorists. They know what they are doing. No Muslims is against Muslims. They are only deceiving us by condemning terrorists' act when in real sense, that is their doctrine.

Somebody earlier said the Sultan is using their normal deceit to fool certain people.

I believe you are one of those people. You have successfully being persuaded by Sultan into seeing this as a muslim vs christian problem.

Is it muslim killing others or is it Northerners killing others?

It is easy for many of you to say Yoruba muslim but I never hear anyone say Northern Muslim, which would be an appropriate target for you to attack.

Remember, there are Muslims in Yoruba, in Bini, in Ijaw, in Ibo even if they are in minority, and Ive never heard of them attacking anyone.

When you band all muslims together in your attack, these Southern muslims will defend their faith and very soon stand on side of protecting Islam. This is what Sultan wants to happen.

Your statement plays foolishly into his agenda.

This issue is ethnic, not religious. If it is religious, only the fulani muslim is guilty of it. So stop saying muslim and start saying fulani muslim in your attacks.

In attendance were the governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu; his Deputy, Obafemi Hamzat; Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi, Chairman of Police Service Commission, Musliu Smith, among others. Sultan’s remarks were coming in the wake of a recent disagreement between NSCIA and the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) over the United States Department of State report listing Nigeria among countries that failed religious tolerance test.

Sultan's statement and the listing of above names is an agenda, a revelation of fear.

Were Yoruba the only ones at the competition? I dont see Northerners in the list. By the way, fulani has a lesson to learn. Babajide Sanwo Olu is Christian and accompanies Muslims from his State to a competition in Quran recitation is testament of unity and tolerance in Yorubaland....a trait that lacks in Sultan and his ethnic stock.


North is panicking over nothing. No one is calling for war. What South is demanding is RESTRUCTURE.

Restructuring is not a threat to any religion at all. RESTRUCTURE and return the country to its previous constitutional formation of 1963. Are they threatened by restructuring?

Look at people that were mute, in fact they defended action of fulani herdsmen and were never heard to call for peace....all of a sudden now are peace marshalls using all kind of tactics to promote and beg for peace.

We must not let off this pressure. Restructure Nigeria.

How many Christian Clergies have lost lives in the hands of fulani herdsmen. In one instance after wiping out a church they dressed in the choir robes and did a mockery service and put the video on internet. It was widely reported. Did Sa'Ad caution his foot soldiers? No.

This tactic is what theyve done in past to douse tension when it does not favor them - by calling for religious tolerance. When it favors them they enjoy religious persecution and shedding others blood.

His next move will be calling a meeting of traditional rulers. Watch....

Adaibeku:
don't mix my name with afamed pls , ihe na ochichi enweghi mmeko nwanna

Adaibeku I of Ibekuland! Innabata!


Nwanyim, kedu ihi mere?

Compliments of season.

MelesZenawi:
[s]You came late.

Try next time because I am already done with the thread.[/s]

Mtttchhheeew...


May the soul of deceased rest in peace!

jimyjames:
Lol why wait , let me and you meet up and settle it once and for all, you representing afonjas me representing Igbo's , let's see who will kill who

Look at your afonja brother being beating by street abokis

Learn to stay within discussion. I know you Ibos very well. You have attention deficit disorder - you cant focus too long on a point without straying off to grab at straws.

When you post Yorubaman beaten by Northerners, you forget multitude of pictures exist on internet, including videos of Ibo being lynched and beheaded by Northerners. Save your brothers the shame. You do so by thinking ahead and refusing to be sucked in by your short attention span.

Osaze007:
Despite seeing videos of Gowon release awolowo your people chose not to believe it so why will any other video do anything

This is a hammer blow!
Very true insight.

May her soul rest in peace!

Truthbites:
How many cases did he won?my Analysis to just this simple line. ..

1.Insensitive- u don't need to win cases to be a renowned lawyer..some lawyers are only in corporate practice all their lives without attending court for a minute.

2. He- the person was a she, meaning u didn't read or don't know the difference between he or she!

3. Won...nor be only won na awon...it's obvious u don't know the difference between past and present tense..

The boy na tout at Onitsha bridge head.

MelesZenawi:
How many case did he won?

RIP Barrister Ojo.

Anytime you use "did" in a sentence the verb behind it must be in present tense.

How many times "did" he WIN?

If i have to tell you this again you will be condemned to go and live in Aso Villa guest house and at a time Aisha needs to clear it out for use.

franchasng:
I don't blame Buhari and his terrorist brothers, I blame Yorubas for all these nonsense being formented by Hausa-Fulani terrorists in Nigeria. If not for Yoruba people and their selfishness and constant betrayal of other Southern tribes, tell me what would have kept backward, barbaric, bloodsucking, archaic, Northern Nigeria with Southern Nigeria to start with

We would have been reading about Northern Nigeria islamic terrorists attacks on news like we do read about Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, Libya, etc wars


Anyway, it won't last forever, its just a matter of time

You cannot claim Yoruba betray you by voting Northerner. You voted Atiku, a Northerner. Did you betray yourself in that?

Kanu told you to boycott, you still voted fulani. Did you betray Kanu?

koyyess:
How the rest of nizoorians agreed to be joined with this disgusting breed of sub humans surprises me till this day.

Little wonder they never take rape and forced marriage seriously. Any thing forced turns them on.
Sick bunch.

Im telling you, the only way fulani know to rule is use of weapon. Terror!!

If they have to rule without terror they will fail.

They succeed doing in Nigeria what they have failed to do in other countries because from onset the weaponry of Military was put under their control. They firmed their grip on power using Army as agent of terror.

Buhari is showing that now, using security agencies to terrorize and then arming Fulani to terrorize security agencies.

So ultimately fulani will become an untouchable specie while the rest of people are killed off like goats and chickens and govt will not even bat an eye.....but any soldier or security agent that touches a fulani will regret his error.

El Rufai already put this in word that anybody, civilian or soldier, that touch a fulani will pay back with a reprisal.

After that a fulani professor came out and said Benue belong to them by virtue of winning the jihad of early 1800.

After him Emir of Kano came out and said himself and Sultan are patrons of Miyetti.

After him Sultan came out and said he is the spiritual and political leader of all fulani in West Africa.

So when you connect the dots....you can see the agenda.

Nowenuse:
This thread was on frontpage yesterday

https://www.nairaland.com/5600225/indigenous-hausa-christians-kano-mark

And from the comments on this thread, it is very very clear that majority of Nigerians especially the Southern Nigerians and shockingly even some Core-northern Hausa fulani muslims do not even know the difference between Hausa Christians and Northern/Middlebelt christians who speak Hausa as 2nd language. I had to correct an uncountable number of people on that thread.
How can Nigeria progress as a nation when people do not even know and understand each other very well?

There is a very big difference between the two for those who don't understand.


FOR STARTERS, If you have a Christian friend from the states of PLATEAU, NASARAWA, FCT, TARABA, ADAMAWA, SOUTHERN KADUNA, SOUTHERN GOMBE, SOUTHERN BORNO, SOUTHERN KEBBI, EASTERN & NORTHERN NIGER, SOUTHERN BAUCHI & SOUTHERN YOBE, he or she is not a Hausa person and can never be a Hausa person no matter how much Hausa he or she speaks or no matter how Hausa their names appear.
These people have their own native languages and cultures which have no relationship whatsoever with Hausa, they only learnt to speak Hausa as a 2nd language.

All the areas mentioned above are predominantly Christian except for Southern Bauchi, Southern Yobe and Niger where the Christians are in a slight minority or a 50/50 indigenously.

So if you have a friend or acquaintance from this area, you can do well to ask him or her what tribe he/she is, rather than ignorantly concluding him to be a Hausa person because he speaks Hausa or has a Hausa name.

But if your friend who is a christian is an indigene of Katsina, Kano, Jigawa, Zamfara, Sokoto or Zaria (northern Kaduna) and Northern Kebbi, then it is most likely that your friend is a real Hausa Christian who has no other ethnicity, culture or language other than Hausa.
(Except in some rare cases when the person may be from these areas and still NOT be a Hausa person, because there are communities of Southern Kaduna and Southern Kebbi tribes that spill over into Northern Kaduna, Kano & Zamfara states.)


Real Hausa Christians are quite few in number but they number at around 2 million or more people and are mostly found in the rural areas of
KATSINA (Kankia, Kafur, Malumfashi, Funtua e.t.c LGAs)
KANO (Sumaila, Bebeji, Garko, Doguwa, Tudunwada LGAs) and
NORTHERN KADUNA/ZARIA (Makarfi, Kudan, Ikara, Zaria & Sabongari LGAs), where they have their largest numbers and fewer numbers in Jigawa, Zamfara & Sokoto states.

These Hausa Christians are almost invisible to the eyes of even their core-northern Hausa-fulani Muslims and neighbouring northern Christians from other tribes because most of them dress like Muslims and use Muslim names in order to avoid discrimination. You can never guess that some of these people are christians unless they tell you themselves (especially in the urban areas). These are some of the reasons why many core-northern muslims even argue of their existence.

These people are the most persecuted minorities in Africa, but in order not to violate certain rules of Nairaland, this thread will not go that direction.

They together with the Fulani & Kanuri Christians of the Core-north (yes you read it right, FULANI CHRISTIANS) have a national association called the MASIHIYAWA COMMUNITY.



The other northern Christians from different tribes who speak Hausa as a 2nd language and most Southern Nigerians tend to address as 'Hausa Christians' run into the tens of millions in population (around 20- 25 million people) and these are the ones who regularly have violent clashes with core-northern muslims in Bauchi, Plateau, Southern Kaduna, FCT, Adamawa, Taraba, Nasarawa, Gombe, Kebbi e.t.c.
This is because most of these tribes never came under Danfodio's jihad, their tribes are predominantly Christian, and they still have a strong sense of ethnic independence unlike the Hausa Christians who see themselves as a helpless minority in the midst of an overwhelmingly Islamic ethnic group.


There is no reputable Hausa Christian in politics or academia for such a population, except Clergymen This is due to the extreme marginalization.

Summary,
ALL HAUSA CHRISTIANS ARE NORTHERN CHRISTIANS BUT MAJORITY (90%) OF NORTHERN CHRISTIANS ARE NOT HAUSA CHRISTIANS.


Lastly, if you are a Southerner and you have a christian friend from Benue, Kogi, Kwara or Nupe (Niger south) and you still think he/she is a Hausa Christian, then you need serious help with your ignorance.
This is because people from these areas have no business or relationship whatsoever with Hausa language. Any of them you see speaking Hausa has traveled to live in the Hausa speaking areas of the north and learnt it there just as you will travel to the north to learn it there.

Look at what US has caused. Just an ordinary letter and for past few days Northerners have started confessing their sins.

I have people here who can bear witness that any Hausa indigene that identifies as Christian in North has automatically signed his or her death warrant.

If an Hausa convert from Islam to Christian they are dead overnight or withing few days after revelation.

Last fasting period some Hausas were lynched for eating in daytime, no question asked!

So I dont understand this sudden romance of Hausa Christians on social media.

So una fear US, eehn

Mazigabriel:
Ohanaeze ndie Igbo has reacted to what the presidential spokesman Garba Shehu who said that cabal are ruling Nigeria. Ohanaeze says that the claim is enough to impeach a president if it was American.Read full details below.

I endorse this message and its attached screenshots.

“We should, under no circumstance, let the terrorists divide us by turning Christians against Muslims because these barbaric killers don’t represent Islam and millions of other law-abiding Muslims around the world.

What does Bubu have to say on Fulani herdsmen? Say something about miyetti allah....

I didnt know Buhari has anybody beside God that he feared.

He is afraid of division because if it happens it will be end of fulani.

Nigeria is only place fulani live on fat. Anywhere else they are despised and low class in society. Here in Nigeria is only place they are elites.

We must grab this opportunity to increase the heat and fire and completely uproot fulani from all seats of power.

They are at the root of problems in Nigeria.

Gandollaar:
That's why I believe Jonathan is weak. Buhari called for a revolution once and nothing happened.

Buhari can still go to prison after his two terms.

yarimo:
You are not making sense at all, so chapter IV, (1) to (3) gives you right of revolution against government or to be a terrorist?

Tell us what gives govt right to disrupt court proceedings and stop sounding like a vinyl record stuck in loop.

Notice to all Onitsha bridge head touts. This bridge is your hangout and source of your income. It must not come down....unless you want your revenue to come down. Find immediate solution.

If you dont know what to do to solve go to nearest APC office and pledge allegiance to Tinubu 2023. Solution will cone.

Rekhina:
We aren't in good terms ,because I love an Amala pauper like u

He is jealous, no mind am.

LZAA:
Bros please reject sai babarism
Cc immhotep GMBuharii Afamed helinues greenback iammo metaphysical

Lzaa,
I cant understand this strange phenomenon but i notice when you cc me you dont include Rekhina my beloved. Why like this?
Watch yasef!

Just thinking out loud...ok

If Niger bridge collapse how will Ibo get back to their Mecca?

This is marginalization.

Has UN already been notified about this imminent issue?

Rekhina:
U cant believe that guy answering metaphysical still stays with his parents ,A smallboy ,if only I give birth in time ,I would have birthed his agemate , nairaland forum is a crime against human..spits in disgust

Aah AAAhhh....
Chei!

One of the best ive seen. Makes sense die!

Congrats to the couple! Very pretty girl. Mr Man, you are a lucky guy.

yarimo:
Stop posting long trash that has no any meaningful contribution to the society, just simple post a section of the Nigeria constitution that gives you right of revolution against government or to be a terrorist.

You are backward.

Go and read Chapter IV, 39 (1) to (3). Particularly pay attention to emphasis on freedom of expression and to assemble and share information without interference.

You have been put on notice....we will restructure this country whether you like or not. We will put a non-sympathetic Yoruba, known for his stance against North, we will put an Ibo pro Biafra and we will put a MiddleBeltan yearning to separate from North.....and return you to your simplistic way of life in your arid land.

People of the coast and of the savannah are tirwd of being infected with your backwardness. You have ruined Nigeria....but you will not ruin us. We will cut you off beforw it gets to that point.

helinues:
The trees we climbed years ago already. The trees we have been harvesting some of its fruits years back..

Those who are naive to politics are feel free to express their opinions.

Yoruba adage says , Bi owo eni Ko ba I Ti kan eku Ida, A Ki n beere iku to pa baba eni

Bro, let me bring something into perspective for you.

Yoruba adage have their applications in a normal and orderly society. Please do not damage the sacredness of our adages and proverbs by using them to rearrange a disorderly and dis-civilized geographical entrapment called Nigeria. Respect our ancestors. Reserve their wisdom to be applied in a civil and orderly society.

Nigeria needs a mentality and instincts of a predator. Thats what we will give to it. If you are discomforted by the confrontations then excuse yourself.

Gandollaar:
It's like you don't agree with the writer. Translate what you wrote in Yoruba so that most can understand your point.

He said ...One does not start out confronting his father's executioner when yet the sword is not within grasp.

By sampling a small commercial or residential area of any LCDA in Lagos one is quick to see that for every 10 okada operator, 7 or more is of Northern origin. This will equate to 70% or better.

If we take that 70% as a reflection of what goes on in other LCDAs, we can say majority okada operators in Lagos are Northerners.

I want you to read the news article on this thread.

https://www.nairaland.com/5599766/ganduje-bans-opposite-sexes-plying#85228431

This is North and the okada riders did not protest or riot when under Shekarau they were banned from transporting women. Neither are the napep drivers protesting the new directive to not mix gender in their payload.

So why do they protest in Lagos when govt give them a directive on what it wants them to do, or not to do?

Lagos State Govt should reflect on this.

US put Nigeria on the list. Why is Abubakar facing CAN?

Abubakar Sa'Ad is head of all Fulani in West Africa. When has he ever intervened to stop his people from invading and wiping out villages?

If persecution of Christians is disturbing to him and Fulani are no just muslims then call it "ethnic cleansing" of indigeneous people by Fulani. Perharps that would sit well to describe their agenda.

If the patronize of Britain to Buhari bother us that much we can simply stop paying Britain exhorbitantly for visa to enter UK.

Trade boycott can speak volume when its used as form of protest.

Find somewhere else to go beside Britain

Premium Times (Abuja)
OPINION

By Festus Adedayo
Sometime in 2015, General Ibrahim Babangida, during a visit to him by General Muhammadu Buhari to seek his support for his dream to become Nigeria's civilian president, urged Buhari to go ahead. IBB cited the closing remarks of General Douglas MacArthur's address at the US Congress' joint session on April 19, 1951. In recognition of his numero uno status as one of America's greatest living military leaders, having spent 52 years in military service, Congress had demanded that MacArthur made the address. In closing, MacArthur cited the old barracks ballad which proclaimed that old soldiers never die; they just fade away.

Again, I remember one of the songs for which Yusuff Olatunji, alias Baba L'Egba, an Egba, Ogun State-born Sakara musician, remains evergreen due to his evergreen number entitled So'gigun. Olatunji was one of those who sustained the links between Yoruba traditional African society of the pre-colonial and the immediate post-colonial eras, in teaching and spreading the eternal values of Yoruba society latent in entertainment, culture, lore and mores of that society. He taught those who were lucky to have witnessed the two eras the need to keep track with their luscious past and those who were not that lucky, to damn the biblical Lot's wife's tragic look at the past, look at their African past for remedy to their existential challenges. Born in 1904, Olatunji died in 1978, ostensibly from acute diabetes which, paradoxically, he and those close to him thought was a spiritual attack from unnamed enemies. His vinyl entitled Yegede, where he thought he had conquered his sore foot arising from this deadly disease, is testimony to this misplaced belief. Olatunji sang his Sakara genre of music with the precision and professional mastery of a surgeon, earning the respects of those who saw beyond his conquest of the dance hall to the loaded cultural nuggets contained in his music.

So'gigun was a number which was directed at emerging despots; indeed, it was a peep into Yoruba African traditional society's warning to whoever occupied the position of leadership to take heed, lest they fall, something in the neighbourhood of another wise-saying which counseled that when the bata drum's irritant and ululating strokes become excessive, the bata is on its way to getting torn into pieces. In So'gigun, Olatunji warned the behemoth Ijimere, chimpanzee/monkey, to jump carefully. Chimpanzee/monkey is the world's first acrobat, with the mesmerizing gift of jumping, with a baffling precision, across multiple trees, in a twinkle of an eye. Her imposing and commandeering size sends jitters to all occupants of the forest. So'gigun warns that, the day the Ijimere carelessly frolics into a gay hibernated by a colony of ants, (igi aladi) in its usual acrobatic dangling jump, is the day the she receives her death letter. With their lacerating tongues, ants in their millions could sting the Ijimere to death. So, whenever I mentally collate all the whooshing noise about the government of President Muhammadu Buhari in recent time, especially the baring of its age-long fangs against the people it swore to protect, Yusuff Olatunji and his So'gigun counsel are what I see.

Nigerians who were old enough to witness the General Sani Abacha era would confess that there is a renaissance of that old modus operandi today, a clone of its governmental desperation, the looking-down at the people, the rise in hypocritical adulations of government aide fawners and government's lowly perception of the rights of the people. Abacha's fawners too said that his government owed the western world no explanation about the internal affairs of Nigeria. In spite of the blaring of Olatunji's So'gigun from juke boxes warning the goggled General to the point of boredom, it was not until its Ijimere acrobatically leapt into a tree full of ants that it realized that So'gigun was more than its blues-like sonorous and rhythmic tune.

Apart from a welter of condemnations of the government from the home front on account of its rights abuses, the international community too has begun to see the image of a rights Dracula in this government. This is not to talk of global bother about the precipice of economic doldrums that the government is pushing the country, even as it seeks to sink Nigeria into the abyss of debt. Already, there is global disdain for the detention of Omowole Sowore, El Zak-Zakky, Ibrahim Dasuki and other unnamed persons under a seeming Decree 4. There is also the growing discourse that the Buhari government is becoming indistinguishable from a military dictatorship.

In the thick of this, the Punch, one of Nigeria's few cubicles where good journalism is warehoused, did a leader entitled Buhari's lawlessness: Our stand which adequately and effectively scrutinized government's familiar but gradual descent into the harbor of authoritarianism. Thenceforth, said Punch, Buhari would be addressed and recognized, on the pages of its newspapers, as Major General (rtd.) and his government, a regime.

"As a symbolic demonstration of our protest against autocracy and military-style repression, PUNCH (all our print newspapers, The PUNCH, Saturday PUNCH, Sunday PUNCH, PUNCH Sports Extra, and digital platforms, most especially Punchng.com) will henceforth prefix Buhari's name with his rank as a military dictator in the 80s, Major General, and refer to his administration as a regime, until they purge themselves of their insufferable contempt for the rule of law," Punch had written in the said leader.

This got the ire of presidential spokesmen who lacerated the foremost media house with their press releases that sought to deny the essence of this editorial. While Femi Adesina, Special Adviser, Media wrote: "Rather than being pejorative, addressing President Buhari by his military rank is another testimony to free speech and freedom of the press, which this administration (or regime, if anyone prefers: it is a matter of semantics) has pledged to uphold and preserve," hours after, Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant, had written, "Punch Newspaper's double standards in cuddling some of our past dictators and their open contempt for President Buhari clearly show that the paper has sinister motives for its current curious editorial judgment. Its personal hatred for and animus towards President Buhari should not be allowed to becloud its good judgment."

So many informed commentators have lent their voices to how apt the Punch editorial was and patently wrong the presidency was, not only on the issue of rights violation in Nigeria, but on the strong stance of the newspaper outfit on these issues. What bothers me most is that, unlike the Abacha regime which was notable for sending its goons to intermix with the public and ferret out information, this government is not feeling the pulse of the people. That was why I once said that if Buhari knew the kind of call-for-revolution comments that are traded in marketplaces on an hourly basis on account of his misrule, he would thank critical voices like Punch that bring him troves of such remarks.

The most tragic offering on the Punch editorial comment was the Daily Trust newspaper's comment on the issue. Dripping with groveling slavishness, you would be tempted to claim that the leader was penned from the Aso Rock Villa. It was an assault on logic and affront on reason. While admitting that Punch had the right to stricture government on "the need for the government to improve its democratic credentials and respect for court orders," - which is puerile because the Buhari government is not known to hold any democratic credential - Trust bent over backwards to sustain the belief that it was a leaflet of autocracy by denouncing the newspaper's tag of "regime" on what Buhari calls a democratic government. If Trust didn't know, a democratic government is not so because it is so called but because it demonstrates it. Having grudgingly agreed that the Buhari government shuns court orders and detains opposition without trial, Trust now deviated from the normal logical conclusion that should flow from its own premise that Buhari's is indeed a regime, which Punch aptly labeled it.

It was not Punch that delegitimized the Buhari government but its undemocratic credentials. When the newspaper made its sanctimonious submission, to wit, that "PUNCH's stand crossed the boundary between journalism and activism and could cause problems for proper journalism practice in the future," it turned its editorial preoccupation into a laughable venture that demonstrates failure to grasp the essence of the media in a democratic society. This is that, the line between the societal role earmarked for the media to communicate reality to the people, is almost indistinguishable from that of a crusader or an activist, especially if the rights of the people are trampled under the jackboots of autocracy or that of a pretentious democracy. This is why men and women of good will in the media should not allow the self-immolating assault on the media by the Trust to go without a stricture.

Now, let me engage a seemingly ribald narrative to bring out the inanity of the Buhari government's beef with the Punch. First, if Buhari and his media minders were students of music or keen listeners to some of the old songs that speak truth to power, they probably would not be running over backwards to have their boss' cup run over. Have they heard Ayinla Omowura, late Yoruba Apala music maestro, warn that it is not all palm trees that the wine-tapper should climb, nor is it every leaf in the field that the one in search of leaves should pluck? In undiluted Yoruba, he had warned, Gbogbo ewe ko l'ojawe nja, gbogbo ope ko l'onigba ngun. There are some leaves that are plucked that lead to disaster. This latch on the old trait of arrest, detention without trial and disrespect for court orders by government will definitely lead to Golgotha.

A couple of weeks ago, I stepped into the Alagbado, Lagos "Garrison" of renowned Yoruba Fuji musician and General Abacha-inducted General Kollington Ayinla. I had gone there to interview the General on a book that I am almost rounding off, based on the lifetime of Omowura, who was fatally attacked in a barroom brawl with his manager, Fatai Bayewu on May 6, 1980. Kollington was Omowura's protégé whose first album, Omo Iya Onipako in 1975 was done in defence of Omowura against his arch-rival, Fatai Olowonyo of the E l'ewure wole fame. I remembered that being prefixed with military titles, with the epaulettes in mind, was a fad among Yoruba musicians of the time. While Sikiru Ayinde Barrister claimed he was "Commander," just as Ebenezer Obey, Dele Abiodun was "Admiral" and Pick Peter was "Emperor." Don't they say that "Old soldiers never die"? So, why are Buhari's aides crying over his being General-ized by Punch? The truth is that, over years, in narratives on the streets and even in his governmental fare, Buhari has been reduced to an effeminate ex-General, the only known General in Aso Rock Villa being his wife, Aisha. Punch merely lent a hand to re-General-ize him.

With the narrative of his not being in charge of the administration of a government he was voted into which is being allegedly run by some funny elements, those who formulated democracy as a government of the people by the people never reckoned that someday, a latter-day convert into this global phenomenon like Nigeria would be saddled with a strange contraption of a government run by some unelected appendages, on behalf of the people.

What would make the MacArthur soldier not to fade away is not the epaulettes on his shoulders but his positive imprints on the battlefield. Buhari's aides should be worried, not about whether he is General again or not, but about the fact that he is rehashing a General's brawns and gruff of 1984. Nobody will clap for him post-presidency for this. Someone needs to tell Buhari this painful truth.

Danjuma's Alarm and Alert

I was at the Tribune newspaper's launch of 70 years of Progressive Journalism, a book which detailed the newspaper's 70-year battles with runners of the Nigerian state and its triumph over many of those forces. The launch took place in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, last Thursday. I indeed did the review of the said book. At the forum which hosted the Who-is-Who of the Nigerian society, General Theophilus Danjuma, former Chief of Army Staff and ex-Minister of Defence, who was one of the awardees, elected to speak after being given the award. His comment has become an issue of dissection in Nigeria, with very many of the commentators arguing, as usual, from the narrow prism of political party and crass naivety.

Danjuma had said: "In Yorubaland, everybody seems to have lost their voice. People appear not to care about what is happening. If I tell you what I know that is happening in Nigeria today, you will no longer sleep."

The above has provoked so many hollow comments that do not seem to track the big dilemma that Nigeria is in today. Among some of the ill-informed comments I have read, many condemned Danjuma as having said this because he allegedly fell out with Buhari over some oil bloc that the latter allegedly withdrew from him. Some also accused him of being part of the Nigerian problem.

We should ask ourselves, as well as Danjuma, some pertinent questions if we are desirous of apprehending the real issues at stake. The first question to ask is, if indeed Nigeria is in a big hole as the Danjuma alarm seems to indicate, who between him and us is likely to be a victim of the "big hole"? If I am not mistaken, Danjuma should be closer to his grave than many of those making the comments. That translates to mean that the number of years that he has to live inside "the hole" is significantly lower than ours. Third is that, for someone whom the Nigerian state has been taking care of since he joined the Nigerian Army, just like Muhammadu Buhari, Olusegun Obasanjo, among others, is Danjuma likely going to be a recipient of the economic crises that could likely follow the effect of "the big hole" he claimed we have sunken into? These put together mirror the vacuity of the arguments of many of those who claim that Danjuma could have made the statement out of frustration.

We have got to a sorry intersection in engagement with the public sphere as a country that many who are genuinely pissed-off by Nigeria's slide in the hands of her runners would elect to keep silent for fear of some urchins spitting saliva on them. Politicians are most probably the highest beneficiaries of the uncharted free information highway of the social media. All they do is hire some jobless hounds with bare knowledge of society and give them the names of victims to descend upon. Pronto, as the Americans say, they begin to let out a whoosh of very illogical arguments that lack substances and deep thinking.

Danjuma, I suspect, was not alarmed because he was a saint who wasn't complicit in the Nigerian problem. Virtually all of us are. He most probably spoke because he was first and foremost a Nigerian and an elder statesman. At the event, you would pity him as he attempted to speak. The words came out of him in measured droves, sometimes taking 20 seconds at intervals to let out. I saw a man whose heart was burning with searing information but which he could let out at his peril. The last time he spoke on his native Taraba's fate in the hands of Buhari's Fulani herdsmen, I would not be too sure he didn't suffer negative riposte for it.

I doubt if there is any one in Nigeria who does not know that the country is in a very deep hole in the hands of the current landlords of power. The extent of this hole is what we may not know. Danjuma's last advice to Nigerians at the Tribune event was that the solution to the Nigerian hole is in the hands of Nigerians themselves. This has gained less currency in the cadence of arguments about his statement. The piece of advice is however the crux of the matter. The choice is ours: Remain in the hole so that the foxes would pick us up for supper one after the other or elect to leave the hole by rescuing ourselves.