They accused the President of inflicting hardship on the country with the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol.
Some Nigerians in Adamawa State have rejected rice distributed by President Bola Tinubu to cushion the effect of hardship.
They accused the President of inflicting hardship on the country with the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as petrol.
They alleged that the rice being distributed was either spoiled or substandard.
They staged a protest on Tuesday, shortly after the Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza, distributed 500kg bags of rice to 1,000 beneficiaries in the state.
Bishop Mamza who is also the Catholic Bishop of Yola Diocese disclosed that the rice palliative was sent from the Presidency to be distributed to indigent CAN members.
He thanked the President for remembering the poor in the rice distribution.
The beneficiaries said the rice which was packaged in sacks bearing President Tinubu's pictures was a mixture of black and brown grains.
"For God’s sake, they're giving us this spoiled rice just because we're poor people, right? No problem, there's God," one of the beneficiaries lamented.
Another beneficiary asked: "You mean these people are callous enough to serve us this rice that looks more like animal feed?"
Another person, Johnson Abana, said, "I don't think the President has seen this rice. I can only suspect that someone within the corridor of power may have short-changed both the President and the people.”
"This is ungodly, wicked and evil! Yes, it is evil to mock people with bad food just because they're poor," he added.
Prophet TB Joshua fake ke?😂 Person wey God use heal me from skin disease at the age of 6, restored my mums hand that was supposed to be amputated due to gunshot wound, or is it my sister that got healed from blindness during her primary school days . So many wonderful deeds!! Which of these are fake or staged? When my family and I were homeless he gave us shelter and fed us. God is not a man. say whatever you like. E no go change God from being God #tbjoshualegacyliveson
A well-meaning policy designed by forum's founder, Seun Osewa, to restore sanity may have been violated by Trutharena. Mr. Seun had declared war on Name Checkers Association, an infamous clique of tribal warlords notorious for drawing attention to the tribes of criminals on threads. But it appears that some of these gangsters have found a way to beat the system.
One of the techniques the trolls invented is known as "conversational implicature".. It's a practice of conveying meaning indirectly. In other words, the speakers mean more than what they say by mentioning a less familiar detail to draw attention to the more recognisable one. That's exactly the technique Trutharena employed by mentioning "Bathlomen" to draw attention to "Onu" as seen in the screenshots attached.
It's now upto Seun to decide whether this too is acceptable or not.
The former director-general of the Obi-Datti campaign, Doyin Okupe, has dumped the Labour Party, saying he and the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, only used it as a “special purpose vehicle” to contest the 2023 general election.
Mr Okupe, who was at the forefront of Mr Obi’s presidential campaign, disclosed this in his resignation letter addressed to the LP on Monday.
“I submit herewith my letter of resignation from the Labour Party with effect from today,” Mr Okupe said. “You will recall that our flagbearer, Mr Peter Obi, myself and others left the PDP abruptly and had to look for a special purpose vehicle in which to contest the 2023 Presidential Elections.”
Mr Okupe said he was dumping the party based on ideological differences, describing himself as a rightist and a liberal democrat and the party as leftist.
“We did contest the election on the platform of the Labour Party and lost. This makes it exceedingly difficult for me to continue to stay in the Labour Party, which is ideologically rooted in the left of the centre.
“I have been a rightist and a liberal democrat all my entire life. It is, therefore, this ideological conflict that makes me seek an exit so that I may continue my political activities with liberalism, sincerity and freedom,” Mr Okupe said.
However, he appreciated the party and its leadership, stating, “I wish to thank you in particular, and other members of the leadership of the party for the cordiality and respect accorded to me as the director-general of the Obi-Datti Presidential Campaign Organisation.”
His resignation comes as lingering internal leadership tussle rocking the LP has split the party into two factions, almost a year after it lost the 2023 presidential race to Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress.
In 2022, Mr Okupe, 70, announced his withdrawal from Mr Obi’s campaign following his conviction for money laundering.
His conviction by the Abuja Division of the Federal High Court followed his prosecution by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for money laundering to the tune of N700 million.
I hereby apologize to northern muslims who feel that I was too harsh in my criticism of their culture on Twitter. It was caused by the painful Deborah lynching and similar incidents. I didn't intend to hurt you with my comments; I was just very upset. You deserve respect.
In 2019, Patience Jonathan claimed her 750 million naira jewelry was stolen at her Otuoeke residence. She arrested all 15 of her domestic staff, both men & women, handed them to police for torture, & sent them to prison till date 💔💔😭😭
Golden Vivian Erama Deborah Precious Kingsley Vincent Olabiyi Ebuka Cosmos Williams Alamo Tamunokuro Abaku Boma Oba. Emmanuel Aginwa Emeka Benson Tamunosiki Achese Frisberesima Wariboko Salome Sahabi Lima Reginald Sunday John Dashe.
I was at Okaka Prison in Bayelsa state, to celebrate this festive season with Prisoners. I shedded tears 😭😭 hearing the stories of innocent people like them languishing in prison for absolutely committing no offense. Patience Jonathan has used her money and connections to ensure those 15 remain in prison custody from 2019 to 2024. She has frustrated and suppressed anything or anyone that questions their illegal detention. Heartless demon of a woman. They are mare victims of circumstance 💔💔😭😭 But if we must ask, how sure is Patience claim?
Because it is so so weird to imagine that the residence of a former president will not have CCTV cameras to help in resolving issues such as this. So the only way to resolving it is to punish everyone that works in that residence, either guilty or not as criminals.
How are we sure Patience Jonathan truly lost any 750 million naira worth of single jewelry. Because some of the domestic staff currently in Okaka Prison are mare gardners at her Otuoeke residence. They don't live with her in one house. They only come to work and leave everyday.
But for a claim that is not verified to be true, the police was invited to arrest everyone working at her residence, bundled them like common criminals, tortured them for days, & eventually sent them to prison to die.
I call on Nigerians with good conscience to speak up.
Between 2020 & 2023, I used Twitter to engage people in debates to promote good ideas & discourage bad ideas. I only attracted insults, bullying, slander, & blocking. No mind was ever changed. I'm done with that now. I've gotten it out of my system. It's time to face Nairaland.
The All Progressives Congress (APC), in Ondo, has enjoined Christians to put behind the ‘hardship and political uncertainty’ being experienced under the current government of President Bola Tinubu and celebrate the festive season with love.
In a statement to celebrate the festive period on Monday, the governing party affirmed that the country witnessed financial and political turbulence in the last few months but praised the people for showing understanding and maintaining stability in the face of hardship.
The party, in the copy of the statement signed by its publicity secretary, Alex Kalejaye, said the people of Ondo state have shown that love, understanding, personal sacrifice and resilience can conquer development in any society as the year round-up.
“No doubt, the system witnessed novel financial and political turbulence in the year, but the resolve of the politically sophisticated people to remain emotionally stable and maintain the peace has opened another chapter in the annals of our history as a people.
“As we retrospect into the activities that bestrode our state, and indeed Nigeria in 2023, let’s celebrate this Christmas with a conviction that we are putting behind the experience of hardship and political uncertainty as we march on to the era of economic prosperity,” the message read.
While appreciating the people for their confidence in the APC-led government, the party assured that it was committed to the welfare of the people and wished Christians, in particular, a happy celebration.
“The Ondo State chapter wishes all its teeming supporters and Christians all over Nigeria a happy celebration of love, forgiveness, sacrifice, team spirit, and greater expectations.”
As Nigerians join the rest of the world to celebrate Christmas, many residents have groaned over the high cost of commodities occasioned by the inflation in the country, with critics blaming Mr Tinubu for the rise following the introduction of some anti-people policies.
FOR THOSE COMING TO MY DM TO ASK...He posted a supposed list of wom€n he claimed he had slEpt with , and bloggers went to his page to gather random pictures of different women he had taken pictures with and posted them along side his supposed list!!! I AND MR FRANCIS NEVER GOT INTIMATE!!!
The Court of Appeal, which has continued to receive backlashes from Nigerians over the controversial orders, brought out the new certified copy – a 68-page document obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday.
The Court of Appeal on Wednesday released another Certified True Copy (CTC) of its ruling on the Kano State Governorship Election barely 24 hours after it brought out the first CTC which contained its Order affirming the election of Governor Kabir Yusuf and awarding N1million against the All Progressives Congress (APC).
The Court of Appeal, which has continued to receive backlashes from Nigerians over the controversial orders, brought out the new certified copy – a 68-page document obtained by SaharaReporters on Wednesday.
In the new ruling, the court has now backtracked and ordered that the Kano governor should rather pay N1million to the APC as costs.
In the new CTC also, the Court of Appeal in the ruling read by Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumen, said Governor Yusuf’s appeal was dismissed.
The justice said, “A person must first be a member of a political party before he can be legally or validly sponsored by that party as a candidate for a general election. Where a political party carelessly sponsors a person who is not its member as a candidate for an election, such an act of sponsorship, like a court or tribunal, which undertakes to exercise jurisdiction, which it does not have or possess, is nothing but a nullity, irrespective of whether such a person performs excellently well in the questioned election.
Sponsorship without membership is like putting something on nothing and it cannot stand.
“The applicable legal maxim is: "Ex nihilo nihil fit" which means: "From nothing nothing comes". In this case, the 3rd respondent shot herself in its foot by undertaking to sponsor the appellant before fishing for his membership of the party after the election.
“By way of a subtle reminder to our political actors and players, this case is a very clear example of a political party or some of its members acting with brazen, imperforate or impervious impunity, as if the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is not binding; by presenting a person as its candidate for a serious general election when, by its own member register, it is ex facie manifest that the person was not its member before the election. And the same political party, or members thereof, would wake up to accuse the Judiciary of sundry wrongdoings, including the infamous allegation of corrupt practices.
“From the facts of this case, I am tempted to think and say that within the collective conscience of the appellant and the 3rd respondent they know the truth of this matterAnd I am reminded of those indelible and evergreen words, credited to the highly revered sage Uthman Dan Fodio, that: "Conscience is like an open wound, only truth can heal it" I will say no more
“I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant. In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed. The judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: EPT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS (APC) vINDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & 2 ORS. delivered on the 20th day of September, 2023 is hereby affirmed.
“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded as costs in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.”
Meanwhile, SaharaReporters had on Tuesday reported that the Court of Appeal actually set aside the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal which sacked Governor Kabir Yusuf and ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay him N1million, according to the certified copy of the ruling, obtained by SaharaReporters.
According to the court document, the appeal court set aside the ruling of the election tribunal in the petition of the APC, PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between the APC and the governor.
According to the certified court document of the Court of Appeal obtained by SaharaReporters on Tuesday, Yusuf Abba Kabir is the appellant while the APC, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) are the first, second and third respondents respectively.
The court ruling read by same Justice Moore Aseimo Abraham Adumen, had said, “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1 respondent and against the appellant. In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the appellant and against the 1 respondent.
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed. The judgment of the tribunal in Petition No.: PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between: ALL PROGRESSIVES CONGRESS APC) v. INDEPENDENT NATIONAL ELECTORAL COMMISSION & 2 RS. delivered on the 20th day of September, 2023 is hereby set aside.
“The sum of N1,000,000.00 (one million naira only) is hereby awarded costs in favour of the appellant and against the 1st respondent.”
Yusuf, who contested on the platform of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), was declared the winner of the election by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) after the poll in March.
The tribunal had deducted 165,663 votes from Yusuf’s total as invalid votes, stating that the affected ballot papers were not stamped or signed and therefore declared invalid.
The ruling came about six months after the APC candidate conceded defeat to Yusuf in the wake of INEC’s presentation of the certificate of return to the NNPP candidate.
Appeal Court Has Asked Lawyers To Return Certified Copy Of Kano Governorship Election Ruling For ‘Correction’ – Prof Odinkalu Raises Alarm
A law professor and former Chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, has said that the Court of Appeal has reportedly reached out to lawyers involved in the Kano State governorship election case to return the Certified True Copy of its judgment.
SaharaReporters on Tuesday reported how the Court of Appeal created confusion in its judgment as it resolved all the issues in the appeal in favour of the appellant, Governor Kabir Yusuf of the New Nigerian People’s Party (NNPP), and set aside the ruling of the Kano Governorship Election Tribunal which sacked the Governor.
The appeal court had also ordered the All Progressives Congress (APC) to pay Governor Yusuf N1million.
According to the court document, the appeal court set aside the ruling of the election tribunal in the petition of the APC, PT/KN/GOV/01/2023 between the APC and the governor, and resolved all the issues in the appeal against the 1st respondent.
In another breath, the court still dismissed the appeal for lacking in merit.
Reacting to the court document on X (formerly Twitter), Odinkalu who lamented the high level decay of the Nigerian judicial system said that the only way to understand the Appeal Court contradiction was probably that the court changed the judgment after the judges had concluded deliberations.
He said, “When we say the judiciary in Nigeria is crooked, people wonder how so. Look: the Court of Appeal in the Kano governorship case resolved all the issues "in favour of the appellant & against the 1st Respondent." Yet it found the appeal lacking in merit & liable to be dismissed. Explain!
“The only way to understand or explain this is that the Court of Appeal changed the judgment after they had concluded deliberations. If this does not persuade people as to how bad things are, I don't know what will.
“I am hearing this evening that the court has been asking the lawyers to return the judgment for "correction". But this does not fall within the ambit of the Slip Rule. This is Judicial Corruption on the face of the record.”
It had been reported on November 17 that the Court of Appeal in Abuja upheld the ruling of the Election Petitions Tribunal sacking Governor Yusuf of Kano State.
The court had said that the Appeal Court agreed with the judgment of the tribunal, ruling that the fielding of Abba Yusuf was in breach of the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that Election.
The verdict comes nearly two months after the Kano Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, on September 20 sacked Yusuf and declared the APC candidate, Nasiru Gawuna, as the winner of the March 18 election.
Part of the Appeal Court ruling according to the CTC read, “I will conclude by stating that the live issues in this appeal are hereby resolved in favour of the 1st respondent and against the appellant.
“In the circumstances, I resolve all the issues in favour of the appellant and against the 1st respondent.
“Therefore, I find no merit in this appeal which is liable to be and is hereby dismissed.”
A Labour Party representative is Bundled Out Of the Imo Collation Centre
A Labour Party (LP) agent in Imo State, Calistus Ihejiagwa, was on Sunday morning beaten and bundled out of the Imo State Collation Centre in Owerri, the state capital.
The agent consistently objected to the results collated from the local government areas, saying the results brought before the state collation centre were at variance with what was on the Result Viewing Portal (IREV).
Ihejiagwa repeatedly said he had a petition to submit before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) but he was shut down by the Returning Officer for the election, Prof Abayomi Fashina, who said it was not in his purview to receive petitions.
Ihejiagwa was viewed as an interruption by his colleagues who subsequently bundled out of the collation centre at 5am while collation continued.
Like Imo, governorship elections were held in Kogi and Bayelsa on November 11, 2023, though the collation of results from the two states has been adjourned to Sunday morning.
The Albino Foundation (TAF) Africa, a non-profit organisation, has scored the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) high in the conduct of the governorship polls in Bayelsa, Imo and Kogi.
The programme’s manager, TAF Africa, George Dominic, made the commendation while briefing journalists in Owerri on the participation of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) in Saturday’s off-cycle governorship polls.
Mr Dominic said TAF Africa deployed 90 trained observers across polling units with registered PWDs in the three states.
He said the focus was to evaluate the compliance of INEC with the provision of assistive tools, as mandated by the Electoral Act, and gauge the overall experience of voters with disabilities at the polls.
He said that in Imo, 58 per cent of the polling units (PUs), which were observed, commenced accreditation and voting at 8:30 a.m., while in Kogi, 78 per cent of the PUs commenced voting between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.
Mr Dominic said in Bayelsa, 54 per cent of the PUs commenced voting between 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.
“Of the 90 observers deployed in 90 PUs, with registered PWDs across the three states, it was reported by our observers that 80 per cent of PWDs were allowed to exercise their priority voting rights in Kogi, 75 per cent in Imo and 67 per cent in Bayelsa.
“As we reach the mid-point of the day, TAF Africa presents its findings from observers in the field, transmitted to TAF Africa’s PWDs’ election hub through our innovative Election Observer App and dashboard.
“In Kogi, 94 per cent of the 30 polling units show that INEC officials arrived earlier than 8.30 a.m. designated for accreditation and voting to commence.
“In Imo, 99 per cent of the 30 PUs registered PWDs display that INEC officials arrived before 8:30 a.m.
“While in Bayelsa, INEC officials arrived earlier than 8:30 a.m. at a percentage of 77 per cent of the 30 PUs observed,” Mr Dominic said.
He also said that assistive tools, such as braille ballot guide, EC30E PWD posters, and magnifying glasses, were deployed in 77 per cent of the 30 PUs, where the group deployed observers in Kogi.
“They were deployed at 67 per cent in Bayelsa, while in Imo, they were deployed at a percentage of 55 of the 30 PUs,” Mr Dominic further said.
He said that by 9:37 a.m. in Primary School Amawo, Atta 1, Ikeduru LGA of Imo, there was a commotion and near-violence scene between party agents due to public canvassing of votes and vote buying.
The group said no PUs with registered PWDs reported any major case of violence.
It urged security agencies, INEC, stakeholders, political parties and their supporters to work together toward ensuring that elections in the country remained credible and peaceful.
Orji is originally from Enugu State, the south-eastern part of Nigeria but lived in Lagos state, the south western part of Nigeria where he originally guised as a razor-blade merchant but would later abandon the trade and proclaim himself to be a shaman and on multiple occasions would feign temporary insanity to dissuade people from coming close to his place of abode.
Orji did not possess a house and lived under a bridge in Oshodi-Isolo In what could be well described as a lair and would later be commonly referred to as 'Clifford's kitchen."
In the dead of the night, he usually blanketed the air around with the meat-like odour from his special barbecue. people merely suspected that this barbecue-loving recluse was not normal; that he was possibly mad but no one was prepared for the horrendous discovery of that haunting Wednesday.
On February 3, 1999 A shrill cry of a famished and emaciated lady, waiting to be slaughtered, was what gave Orji away that Wednesday. The noise attracted passers-by who not only discovered the woman but also stumbled on a collection of human parts in Orji’s make-shift home. Human bones, skulls, legs, hands, freshly cooked soup with human meat, a cheque for ₦80,000, and a mobile phone, at a time when the G.S.M. had not been fully introduced to the Nigerian market, so only wealthy people had mobile phones.
Surrounded, Orji ran but the crowd gave chase, no one noticed a small, emaciated woman imprisoned inside the tyres of Orji’s shack. It was only after he was caught and dragged back to watch the mob demolish his home that Awawu Lawal was discovered awaiting her turn on the menu.
The sight of the filthy, starving woman drove the crowd wild. They beat her captor until the police arrived. Lawal died several days later after falling into a coma. The crowd then turned their attention to a man they knew to be Orji’s friend, Tahiru Aliyu. He lived nearby The mob tore his shack down too, and found a 4m pit underneath where some of the victims were kept before they were killed and cooked.
The cannibal told the police he would entrance women by blowing on their foreheads and they would then follow him back to the underpass. “I will have a sexual affair with her to a state of coma before we slaughter her and roast,” he said.
“I am not alone. I have between four and 10 people. They take their own parts and go while I wait for another `meat’.” Orji’s statement to the police has fuelled speculation that he was butchering his victims for more than his own consumption.
People in the area said they regularly saw upmarket cars stopping beneath the flyover. To some it explains why none of the victims heads have been found. In Nigeria there is a discreet trade in body parts for religious or medicinal ceremonies.
At a news conference organized by the police, Orji confessed to kidnapping, murder and cannibalism, saying that he and his accomplice "had been eating human meat for the past seven years before coming to Lagos. It is our culture to eat human meat." On December 7, 2000, he was remanded for murder in Kirikiri Prison, which is Nigeria's only super-maximum prison.
In April 2012, after approximately 12 years in prison without his case coming to trial, Orji sued the Attorney-General of Lagos State, Ade Ipaye, for unlawful imprisonment. Prison authorities stated that they had been unable to have him treated for mental illness, which had progressed and he could not be tried when insane. He died at the age of 46 on August 17, 2012. An autopsy established that his death was from natural causes.
Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 elections, has defended the purchase of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) for members of the national assembly.
There have been reports that the leadership of the 10th national assembly has bought SUVs for all lawmakers.
Each SUV is said to be valued at N160 million.
The LP had asked members of the party in the national assembly to kick against “wastage”.
While responding to questions during a press conference in Abuja on Monday, the former governor of Anambra said the SUVs are not personal cars of the lawmakers, noting that they are for official use.
“Let me start with the issue of Labour Party members in the house. I have actually discussed this issue with them,” Obi said.
“Surprisingly, I can tell you I heard that these vehicles are official cars. They have to use it. It is meant for office.
“So it is not as if it is their vehicle. They said it is official cars and you are meant to use it while you are in the senate.”
Obi also hinted at contesting for the country’s number one position in 2027, adding that Nigeria deserves dedicated and visionary leaders who will lead the country towards a brighter future.
Journalist: how do you intend to engage members of your party who are members of the house, so that they can stand different.......?
PO: Let me start with the issue of labour party members in the house, have actually discussed this issue with them, surprisingly, I can tell you , I heard that this vehicles are official cars,and are they normally,it is, they have to use it, is meant for official vehicle,so is not as if it is their vehicle, that is meant for official car and everything, because we campaigned for it, and said listen, if it is your car, you return it, or d.... But they said is official car and everybody is meant to uuu, you're meant to use it while you're in the senate, but you know how things work here, it's not going to be like that.
End of interview
I didn't make this up, take a listen
Journalist: how do you intend to engage members of your party who are members of the house, so that they can stand different.......?
PO: Let me start with the issue of labour party members in the house, have actually discussed this issue with them, surprisingly, I can tell you ,… pic.twitter.com/svybrcY4t3
My only regret since coming on Twitter NG, is rating Soludo high. An error on my part, even now. As one of OBJ’s men, I thought he’ll perform. Wike, with all his tyranny & corrupt tendencies, outperformed Soludo by a million stretch. Anambra People should please accept my…
Seriously leadership is far from certification. When i remembered Prof. Ayade and Prof. Charles soludo's track record I give up. Don't allow professors near your state againoo
@OkworiDeco
For context, this is one of the good and usable roads in Anambra. It is that bad. I really don’t know what Soludo is doing? By the end of his tenure, alili. Rufai Elon Musk Dele Momodu Yatch Wike EFCC Naira Dollar #StandingNextToYou #StormCiaran #AppleEvent #1989TaylorsVersion
A viral, contentious dialogic confrontation between Arise TV’s Rufai Oseni and one Jesutega Onokpasa, identified as a lawyer and “APC chieftain,” on November 30 has once again centralized conversations about who a journalist is and what constitutes journalism, which I’d addressed in previous columns.
In the exchange, Oseni asked Onokpasa a legitimate, well-chosen question about the deleterious consequences of the removal of fuel subsidies on ordinary citizens and on the national economy. Onokpasa tried to prevaricate. He said Tinubu didn’t remove fuel subsidies. Buhari did before he left.
That’s technically true, but it was Tinubu’s recklessly precipitous and ill-advised announcement in his inaugural speech that subsidies were gone for good that sparked an instantaneous but totally unjustified spiraling of the cost of petrol, which also touched off a devastating hyperinflationary inferno that’s still consuming Nigeria.
As any journalist invested in the pursuit of the truth should do, Oseni vigorously pushed back against Onokpasa’s equivocation. Unable to defend his position with the resources of evidence, logic, and reason, Onokpasa launched unprovoked ad hominem verbal assaults on Oseni.
He threatened to walk out of the interview, belittled Oseni as a “boy,” a “badly brought up little boy,” and then questioned Oseni’s professional journalistic credentials in order to delegitimize him and his uncomfortable questions.
“Listen, Rufai. This is not animal psychology,” he said in a fit of groundless gerontocratic and professional arrogance. “It is law. If you want to be a journalist, you can be a journalist, and you should learn the ropes ahead of you. You can never be my mate.”
Another APC chieftain by the name of Joe Igbokwe was reported to have said on Friday that he won’t rest until Oseni is fired from Arise TV. “He is not a Journalist. He has no training in journalism,” Igbokwe reportedly wrote on Facebook. “Now if Arise TV still wants Rufai they should send him to the Department of Mass Communication University of Lagos. Journalism is special [sic] profession. It demands tack, smooth and sound engagements, discipline, organization, common sense, commitment, civilization, respect for human dignity.”
The obsession with Oseni’s course of study at the university (some people said he studied animal science or zoology, a reason Onokpasa made the absurdly snarky remark about fuel subsidy removal not being “animal psychology”) and the attempt to delegitimize his journalistic credentials because of this betrays deep-rooted ignorance of journalism.
The practice of journalism preceded its formal study by centuries. The University of Missouri in the United States awarded the world’s first undergraduate degree in journalism in 1909. But there had been journalists and journalism in the world centuries before 1909. So, to say someone isn’t a journalist because they have no formal certification in journalism is actually stupid.
Although journalism is now formally studied all over the world, it has resisted licensing to regulate entry into and exit from it in keeping with the openness that is at its core. In other words, anyone can be a journalist even if they didn’t formally study journalism or mass communication.
More than that, though, as I pointed out in my April 15, 2023, column titled “Partisan Comparisons of Channel TV’s Seun and Arise TV’s Rufai,” some of which I reproduce in the paragraphs that follow, journalism has three broad traditions: advocacy, reporting, and exposé.
The advocacy tradition is the first and oldest. In this tradition, journalists didn’t pretend to be “objective” or ideologically unaffiliated. News, in the sense in which we understand it today, was scarce. Opinion, partisan opinion I might add, was the stuff of journalism. Note, though, that the word “journalism” didn’t exist in English at the time.
The advocacy tradition got a rival in the 1830s in the United States with the advent of what was called the “penny press,” which inaugurated the reporting tradition we recognize as the only form of legitimate journalism in most parts of the world today.
Incidentally, it was in 1833 that the word “journalism” emerged in English for the first time after a reviewer of a book about journalism in French titled Du journalisme translated the French journalisme to “journalism” and remarked that such “a word was sorely wanted” in the English language.
The reporting tradition prioritizes documenting facts, describing the world as reporters see it, ferreting out the “best obtainable version of the truth” incrementally through constant reportage, and recording the thoughts and perspectives of people other than the reporters. That was the time the notion of “objectivity” in journalism was born. It was coterminous with the growth and reification of the scientific method, called positivism in social science scholarship.
Journalists in the reporting tradition “professionalized” journalism by embracing the “scientific” hype of the nineteenth century, which manifested in the notion of “objective journalism,” an unrealizable ideal that journalists have now abandoned in place of fairness, balance, and accuracy.
By the early 1900s, journalism began to be offered as a degree in U.S. universities in furtherance of the professionalization of the field. But not being formally trained in journalism has never been disqualifying in the history of journalism, not only because journalism education itself is relatively recent but also because such an attitude would violate the intrinsic openness of journalism.
The third tradition of journalism is the exposé tradition, known today as investigative journalism, whose goal is to reform, not merely to inform, society. Like advocacy journalism, it doesn’t pretend to be neutral or “objective.” As former Minister of Youth and Sports Sunday Dare said of the guerrilla journalism that he and his colleagues practiced in the 1990s, it is animated by “partisan objectivity in defense of the truth.”
Over the years, these traditions have meshed and overlapped. In many traditional news organizations, views are separated from news. Views are represented by columns and editorials and news by reportage of facts. In other words, peddlers of opinions, even biased opinions, are journalists in the advocacy tradition.
There has never been any expectation in the history of journalism that opinions should be “objective.” In fact, “objective opinion” is a silly oxymoron. If it’s objective, that is, undistorted by personal dispositions, emotions, bias, etc., then it’s not an opinion. Opinions can never be objective. Only facts can. Opinions are, by nature, subjective and idiosyncratic.
Being opinionated doesn’t delegitimize people from being journalists. That’s the first kind of journalism the world knew before the reporting tradition came less than 200 years ago.
In broadcast journalism, moreover, a different tradition emerged in the United States, which has been exported globally, and that tradition is the popularization and lionization of news anchors and leveraging of the star power of news anchors to sell news. The loud discomfort that government officials and APC chieftains evince when they confront Rufai Oseni makes him a highly prized employee that Nduka Obaigbena would be stupid to fire.
Plus, as I wrote when Femi Fani-Kayode lost it because a Daily Trust reporter had asked who was “bankrolling” his tour of PDP states, asking questions that get a politician’s dander up, that inflame a politician’s passions, is a treasured skill in journalism.
Here's why: Politicians reveal the most headline-worthy information when reporters cause them to lose control of their emotions. Loss of emotional control forces them to depart from their scripted, predictable, choreographed, and often mendacious and boring performances. Oseni does a better job of it than most trained journalists.
I, like every journalism teacher worth the name, teach my journalism students the skill to ask politicians trenchant questions that have the capacity to cause the politicians to throw tantrums because politicians, in a state of meltdown, such as we saw in Onokpasa’s histrionics, let their guards down and involuntarily divulge the truth.
Smart politicians know this. Instead of allowing themselves to be immobilized by impotent anger, they respond to high-pressure, “embarrassing” questions with poise, and disarm adversarial reporters with humility, grace, and gentleness.
Finally, why was Onokpasa hung up on Oseni’s age vis-a-vis his? As I once pointed out, one of Nigeria’s enduringly lumbering cultural burdens is that it’s hopelessly trapped in regressive reverse ageism, i.e., the idea that only old age, not youth or knowledge, should confer authority on people.
Everyone who is older than the next person thinks his numerical age bestows some superiority on him over a younger person.
Emotional and intellectual age are immaterial in this culture of reverse ageism, so that even emotionally immature and cognitively empty dimwits trapped in adults’ bodies think of themselves as superior to biologically younger but intellectually superior people because of the accidents of their years of birth.
But if you’re older than someone, someone is also older than you are, and the person you’re older than is also older than someone else. It’s an infinite continuum.
Only backward, lowbrow bumpkins are hung up on age and invoke it to delegitimize valid criticism that they can’t confront with the force of their intellect. Let Oseni breathe!
“The volume of ballots so mishandled is such that it calls the result of the primary election into serious doubt and leaves the court unable to determine the legitimate result of the primary,” Clark wrote in his ruling, adding that the videos “are shocking to the court and should be shocking to all the parties.”
Musk reacts,
Judge orders a new election in Connecticut town after surveillance video showed ballot stuffing in drop boxes!
That this happened here is beyond reasonable doubt. The only question is how common it is.
The Nigerian naira tumbled to a record low of N993.83 against the dollar at the investors’ and exporters’ (I&E) window.
The I&E window is the country’s official foreign exchange (FX) trading platform.
The FX rate represents a 25.81 percent depreciation of the local currency from the N789.94 recorded on the last trading day.
Data from FMDQ Securities Exchange, a platform that oversees FX trading in Nigeria, showed that the official window recorded a low of N475 and a high of N998 to the dollar on Monday.
FMDQ said trading opened at N794.70 and closed at the rate of N993.83; adding that the daily FX market turnover totalled $88.31 million.
Meanwhile, at the parallel section of the market, the naira sustained its recent gains, trading at N1,150 to the greenback.
Taiwo Oyedele, chairman of the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms, had said the federal government plans to introduce new FX rules, including a crackdown on illicit currency trading.
He said the government plans to clear a backlog of dollar demand estimated at about $6.7 billion, bolster the naira forward market, and set transparent rules for the operations of the official market.
On October 23, 2023, Wale Edun, minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, said Nigeria expects $10 billion in foreign currency inflows to ease liquidity in the foreign exchange market.
This is an insult to us as a nation,how on earth will German chancellor be given such honour? Because he's an European,and how many chancellors in Nigerian university has he received to see how we can fix our delapidated accademic system? We have reduced ourselves to nothing
@MynameUkaegbu
A foolery for an ordinary chancellor visiting and it's a big news... Validation is really a big deal...
@IkAlwayscare
A common chancellor? This is what the zoo has been reduced to.. all dis parade for a common chancellor? Dat means ur politician's are jobless, dey dnt know dia left from dia right.. sick old fools
Politics › Adamawa People Reject Tinubu's Giveaway, Say It's Substandard by NLCreator(op): 2:27pm On Jan 11, 2024
