₦airaland Forum

If there is one thing I can do for Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu to let you and your supporters know that I want the best for you, it is to advise you to forget about the 2027 Presidential Election because of your old age and state of health.

There is no one who can cheat the nature and it is obvious that you are not fit following the way you stumbled and fell in Turkey during a ceremonial welcome reception in Ankara, the capital of Turkey.

You took part in a march-past alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the presidential complex and you lost your balance, even though the Presidency has attributed your stumbling to the poorly laid carpet which you were not the only person who matched on. It is really embarrassing.

Meanwhile, no matter how the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Presidency is trying to hide your real age and state of your health to the general public, the nature will keep on revealing what you are hiding.

Remember, this is not the first time President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would stumble or fall. Because on Democracy Day, June 12, 2024 at Eagle Square in Abuja, you fell down and it was during the day but you lied that you "dobale". Who did you "dobale" or prostrate to? Anyone can stumble or fall but it should not be habitual.

However, my candid advice for the Nigerian President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, who is not physically fit for the office you are currently occupying, it is to look for a younger and healthier person from the All Progressives Congress (APC) and southern Nigerian preferably, either Professor Yemi Osinbajo, SAN or Mr. Babatunde Raji Fasola, SAN who you know is capable, competent, people-oriented, and trustworthy to replace you as the party's Presidential flag bearer in the 2027 Presidential Election.

This is in order to rekindle the hope of the good people of Nigeria and for you to take time from politics to look after your health.

Concerned citizen:

OMOTOSHO, Oluwabusuyi Oladotun Emmanuel

Chairman of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, said Turkish officials dismissed the debate in Nigeria over President Bola Tinubu’s brief stumble during his official visit to the country as “silly”.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa stated this Wednesday while reacting to a post on X by a user, Oguntoye Opeyemi, also known as Equityoyo, who criticised the level of attention Nigerian media gave to the incident.

“Exactly. On ground here in Ankara, their officials were shocked to learn that it was an issue in Nigerian media/blogs,” she wrote.

The NIDCOM boss explained that Turkish officials expressed surprise at the controversy, with one describing the focus on the moment as “silly and mischievous,” while emphasising that Tinubu’s visit was being positively received across Türkiye.

“One of them described it as ‘silly and mischievous,’ and reiterated how their country was excited about the incredible success of the visit by @officialABAT, which is all over their media here,” Dabiri-Erewa added.

In his post, Opeyemi also observed that the incident did not feature in Türkiye’s mainstream media. “Not a single Turkish TV station reported the President’s accidental slip because it’s a non-issue. But Naija TV and national newspapers,” he wrote.

President Tinubu had briefly stumbled on Tuesday during a ceremonial march-past organised in his honour at the parade ground in Ankara. The moment occurred as he stepped forward to join the guard of honour, briefly drawing attention before the event proceeded without interruption.

Footage of the incident, first shared by Turkish digital outlet Nefes Gazetesi and later circulated on X, showed Tinubu walking beside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before momentarily losing his balance. He was swiftly supported by security personnel.

Tinubu’s visit, his first official trip to Türkiye, is focused on deepening diplomatic ties and boosting collaboration in areas such as defence, trade, investment, energy, media and scientific research.

On Sunday, January 27, 2002, Lagos, Nigeria’s bustling commercial city was shaken to its core by one of the deadliest peacetime tragedies in the nation’s history.

It began like an ordinary day. Families returned from church, traders closed their stalls, and children played in the streets. But by evening, a fire broke out in a street market near the Ikeja Military Cantonment. At first, residents thought it was just another neighborhood fire. Few could have imagined that the flames were about to ignite the army’s main ammunition depot.

At about 6:00 p.m., the unimaginable happened. The fire reached the armoury. A thunderous explosion ripped through the city, followed by a chain of secondary blasts that lit up the Lagos night sky. Shockwaves shattered windows up to 15 kilometers away, roofs collapsed, and grenades and shells rained across neighborhoods. To terrified residents, it felt like the city was under attack. Many thought war had broken out, others whispered about a coup.

Panic swept through Lagos. Thousands fled in every direction, clutching children and meagre belongings. But in the chaos, tragedy struck. In the Oke Afa and Ejigbo areas, fleeing crowds poured toward a canal, its surface deceptively covered with thick mats of water hyacinth. In the darkness, no one realized the danger until it was too late. One after another, men, women, and children stumbled into the canal. In the stampede that followed, hundreds drowned. Mothers carrying babies, children running barefoot, entire families were swallowed by the waters. Survivors later recalled hearing cries fade into silence beneath the weeds.

By dawn, the devastation was clear. Streets were deserted, homes were abandoned, and the scale of human loss was staggering. Official figures put the death toll at more than 1,000 lives, with about 5,000 injured and at least 20,000 displaced. Independent observers believe the casualties may have been even higher. Mass burials were carried out for the unidentified victims, and today the Oke Afa Memorial Arcade stands as a solemn reminder of that night.

Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu addressed Lagosians in a broadcast on NTA that night, urging calm and announcing emergency shelters at places like the Ikeja Police College. The Red Cross, NEMA, and religious organizations mobilized quickly, opening schools and churches as makeshift camps for survivors. Brigadier-General George Emdin, commander of the 9th Mechanized Brigade, offered a rare military apology, admitting that the blasts were accidental, the result of fire spreading into the depot. (https://www.facebook.com/share/v/16y3GN5HMG/)

The next day, President Olusegun Obasanjo flew to Lagos, declared the cantonment a disaster zone, and promised reforms. But many asked why warnings had been ignored. Just a year earlier, in 2001, a smaller explosion at the same cantonment had raised alarms about the dangers of storing massive quantities of live ammunition in a densely populated city. Residents had protested and demanded relocation of the depot, but nothing was done. Negligence turned a preventable hazard into catastrophe.

International news agencies like the BBC and CNN broadcast images of Lagos in flames, drawing global attention. For days, journalists reported finding unexploded shells, grenades, and shrapnel scattered in residential neighborhoods. Many survivors, left homeless and traumatized, campaigned for years demanding compensation. Some were given token payments, but countless others never received justice.

For Lagosians who lived through that night, the memory remains raw. “I thought the war had started,” one survivor later told reporters. Another mother described losing two children in the Oke Afa canal: “We ran together, but they slipped into the water. I never saw them again.”

The Ikeja bomb blast was not just an accident. It was a failure of responsibility, a lesson written in fire and blood. Every January 27, families of the dead gather at Oke Afa Memorial Arcade to honor loved ones lost. For many, the scars remain fresh, even two decades later.

The night Lagos bled is a reminder that negligence carries a human cost, and that history must never be forgotten.

#history

The National Grid on Tuesday recorded its second collapse in 2026. As of the time of filing this report, data showed zero megawatts of power supply to the 11 electricity distribution companies.

The Grid had recorded its first collapse in the year last Friday, barely weeks after a similar incident on December 29, 2025, which had caused widespread power outages across the country.

Grid collapses have been attributed to a combination of technical faults, inadequate maintenance of transmission lines, and fluctuations in generation capacity.

Electricity generation dropped sharply from over 4,500 megawatts to as low as 0 megawatts as of 11: 00 AM.

Checks showed that all 23 power generation plants connected to the grid reportedly lost output during the incident, resulting in zero power allocation to each of the 11 electricity distribution companies.

The cause of the collapse could not be immediately determined, and officials of the Transmission Company of Nigeria had yet to issue a detailed statement at the time of filing this report. However, the grid added that the recovery process was underway.

Richtaiwo:
Alright, now that the government has officially admitted there was a coup plot, can you kindly retire that broken record? Maybe, just maybe, address the actual message for once, or will you continue humming the same tired tune like a street singer who only knows one chorus?