The CEO of X (formerly known as Twitter), Elon Musk, has announced that all accounts with 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free.

Musk, a billionaire who purchased X in October 2022, also said that accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free.

He made this known in a post on his X handle on Thursday.

“Going forward, all X accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free,” Musk said.

DAILY POST reports that the X Premium subscription gives account owners access to a number of features such as reduced ads, access to apply for revenue sharing and more.

While the X Premium+ subscription comes with some additional benefits such as no ads and reply prioritisation.

Musk had confirmed on Wednesday amid the growing rivalry with OpenAI that the Grok AI chatbot which was only accessible for X Premium+ users before now will now be accessible to all Premium users soon.

The billionaire has focused his efforts on getting users to pay a nominal subscription amount in order to bolster the social media giant’s revenue.

[DailyPost]

Google has said that it has blocked over 5.5 billion adverts and suspended 12.7 million others for violating its policies.

The search engine giant also said in a statement on Wednesday that it had removed adverts from over 2.1 billion pages.

“Billions of people around the world rely on Google products to provide relevant and trustworthy information, including ads. That’s why we have thousands of people working around the clock to safeguard the digital advertising ecosystem. Today, we are releasing our annual Ads Safety Report to share the progress we’ve made in enforcing our advertiser and publisher policies and to hold ourselves accountable in our work of maintaining a healthy ad-supported internet,” it said.

In 2023, it said scams and fraud across all online platforms were on the rise.

It added: “Bad actors are constantly evolving their tactics to manipulate digital advertising in order to scam people and legitimate businesses alike. To counter these ever-shifting threats, we quickly updated policies, deployed rapid-response enforcement teams and sharpened our detection techniques.”

[DailyTrust]

Fortuitously, we now have some discordant voices coming from northern political elite, once united only by their opposition to our independence article of faith – “that each federating unit develops at its own pace without interference from others”. This is however coming after over 50 years of our nation’s nightmare, 15 years of Boko Haram’s mindless killings and devastation, nine years of terrorism by immigrant herdsmen and 10 years of banditry by subsistence farmers and cattle herders. 

For other federating nationalities held down by the conspiracy of the dominant, this was nothing but a betrayal of the ideals of visionary Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and the first Premier of Northern Nigeria who was assassinated in 1966 by misguided young soldiers.

First was the hypocrisy of Ango Abdulahi’s Northern Elders Forum who, after serially betraying the aspirations of the northern masses that look up to them for direction, like the proverbial Ostrich that hides its head in the sand, now turns around to find whipping dog in President Tinubu and his less than one year old administration. Speaking on the abduction and release of the Kuriga school children, it declared: “The Northern Elders Forum firmly declares that enough is enough… Unfortunately, just months into the Tinubu administration, there have already been clear signs of failure in providing the vital aspects of security of life and property to citizens.”

Of course no one should hold brief for President Tinubu. The buck stops at his table. But it is sad that the northern leaders continue to live in denial. Except northern leaders, every discerning person cannot but see the linkage between the self-inflicted crisis in the north and their feudal system which is ideologically opposed to any form of egalitarianism including sending children of the poor that are today on rampage to school.

 But it was just as well that there was the dissenting voice of Dr Shehu Mahdi, President Buhari’s former controversial executive Secretary of NHIS, who chose not to be economical with the truth. For him, northern leaders are the scourge of the north and they alone can find peace for their people. For him, “With northern vice president, northern Speaker, northern head of the military, northern NSC, Northern Secretary etc, it is time for northern leaders to lock themselves up in a room, look at themselves in the mirror and admit they have failed their people and resolve on how to bring peace to our lives”.

But sadly, it has not always been like this. Ahmadu Bello, the great grandson of Sultan Muhammad Bello, the second Sultan of Sokoto after Usmanu Dan Fodio, was proud of his ancestry. Some even described him as arrogant for referring to the Bantus of Benue trough as his great grandfather’s slaves. But he was a decent and selfless leader. His controversial northernisation policy was designed to protect his people. And it “reflects the cotemporary desires for modernization, struggle over who would direct and benefit from such changes and concern over the cultural and moral scaffolding of independence Nigeria”. (Douglas Anthony, Decolonization, Race and Region in Nigeria, Northernisation revisited (International Journal of African historical studies Vop.51, No.1 (2018)

Ahmadu Bello’s policies were never designed to impede the development of Nigeria but to make the north more competitive in an emerging Nigerian state where most of the ethnic nationalities wanted their own nation within the greater Nigerian nation state. If Ahmadu Bello and his northern pathfinders had insisted on 50% of membership of the national assembly in 1950, it was a survival strategy in an emerging Nigeria where the less educated north unlike other nationalities did not have their first doctors and lawyers until mid-fifties. 

He and his group copied what was good from other regions and strived to build a formidable northern bureaucracy and academic institution. We have no evidence that ABU that produced a world-acclaimed intellectual such as the late Professor Ayodele Awojobi, alias ‘the Akoka Giant’, whose PhD thesis from UK University was said to be responsible for off-shore oil mining on the high seas, and the famous architect, Fola Alade, the designer of abandoned Federal Secretariat, Ikoyi could not be said to be inferior to the nation’s other institutions.

 Ahmadu Bello, a man of great vision,  will today be probably troubled in his grave  to discover that beneficiaries of his visionary leadership have become ethnic irredentists collaborating with less endowed military soldiers of fortune who joined the military in order to climb the social ladder (many initial recruits were picked from motor parks in Kaduna while Buhari attested to the magnanimity of Ahmadu Bello who picked him up from his Daura village saving him from remaining a herdsman) to foist disruptive and self-serving policies such as quota system that kills meritocracy and creation of  more LGAs for the north without objective criteria beyond cornering resources of more productive members of the union.

 That the north at the beginning was not as economically endowed as the south, the major incentive for the 1914 British amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates was a settled issue. But there is no evidence that Ahmadu Bello and his northern political elite opposed revenue allocation based on derivation all through the constitutional debate leading to independence. Instead, he went on to supervise the groundnut pyramids, the sources of revenue for building the biggest business conglomerate in Africa as well as other infrastructures including roads, Ahmadu Bello Stadium and Ahmadu Bello University and was still able to provide security for the whole of the north.

The rain started to beat us after the civil war with the emergence of northern soldiers of fortune and self-serving northern politicians who found Bello’s shoe too big. Murtala Muhammed destroyed the academia and bureaucracy without which a nation decays; Shehu Shagari smoked while his NPN wrecked the economic ship of state despite Awo’s warning it was heading for the rocks. Babangida destroyed our budding industries by opening our nation to importation of goods from Europe and its satellite nations. He manipulated the religion sensibilities of the north by illegally taking the country into OIC. Abacha who according to Alli Mazrui was too unintelligent to know fears, stole the country blind while he waged a five-year war against Nigeria’s pro-democracy groups. Abdulsalami Abubakar authored the 1999 constitution derisively referred re to as ‘Decree 24’ by Nigerians. Finally, Buhari, caged by Fulani ethnic irredentists left the country more divided than he met it.

But it is not getting better with only 33% of Boko Haram infested Bornu in school, 70% of Nigerian out-of-school children from the north and with a large expanse of ungoverned territories spanning over 200 kilometres from Kaduna to Zamfara.

The question those who care about our country are asking is whether the northern leaders including NEF, Gowon, Babangida and Abdulsalami Abubakar, herders’ patron such as Lamido Sanusi Lamido, are aware of these ungoverned territories. And if they are, why did they not rein in Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders’ Association before they carried out their threat to make Nigeria ungovernable unless they were given license for open grazing in places like Rivers, Ekiti, Ondo and Oyo?

Why would they not persuade those who killed and confiscated their victims’ land to relocate to Kano following ex-governor, Abdullahi Ganduje’s undertaking to rehabilitate all herdsmen in Kano?  There was similarly not a whimper from northern elders as the battle line over attempt to export armed killer herdsmen from north’s ungoverned territories to Ondo’s reserved forest over which daggers were drawn between President Buhari’s ‘loyal gate keepers’ and the late Governor Akeredolu of Ondo.

Northern leaders not only betrayed Ahmadu Bello, their illustrious forbearer, they remain the nation’s cancer.

The measures introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to rescue the naira have triggered volatility among currency dealers.

A survey yesterday by The Nation showed that inconsistent pricing and cautious optimism characterised the parallel market in Lagos and Abuja where traders grappled with the implications of the apex bank policies.

The triggers are the reduction of dollar sales to Bureau De Change operators from $20,000 by half and the hike in interest rate by the apex bank to 24.75 per cent from 22.75 per cent at the 294th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Tuesday.

According to a CBN circular released on Monday, BDC operators will as from today, be able to buy $10,000 worth of forex at N1, 251 per dollar as against the $20,000 allocation and N1, 301 per dollar rate offered last month.

It was confusion for potential forex buyers yesterday at Wuse Zone 4, a major foreign exchange hub in Abuja, as currency traders offered the dollar at varying rates. Some quoted N1, 250 per dollar and others offered to sell as high as N1, 330 per dollar. The inconsistency created uncertainty for those seeking to exchange the naira for the dollar.

But despite the price disparity, there was a general consensus among traders that holders of foreign currencies were cautiously selling their holdings.

The measured approach suggests a wait-and-see attitude, where market participants gauge the long-term impact of the CBN’s actions.

Traders at the parallel market remain unconvinced that the dollar price will experience a significant drop in the days ahead.

The Nation learnt that the apex bank’s decision to sell $10,000 to BDC operators at N1, 251 per dollar with a 1.5 per cent spread is viewed with skepticism.

Many believe that the price point may not be enough to entice a substantial downward movement in the parallel market.

The MPC decision to raise the interest rate benchmark has instilled a sense of panic in the parallel market with traders anticipating an influx of portfolio investors seeking to capitalize on the higher interest rates offered on naira-denominated assets.

The potential inflow of foreign exchange could theoretically lead to a decrease in the dollar price.

Many forex dealers in Lagos turned down requests by ambitious sellers – mainly speculators – insisting on old dollar rates despite appreciation of the naira against dollar.

At the Central Business District (CBD), in Marina, Lagos, the naira exchanged at N1, 300 per dollar (a N34 appreciation from N1, 334 it exchanged on Tuesday).

Many speculators, who had recorded heavy losses, were forced to sell at the new rate after initial hesitation.

Hassan Abdul, a BDC trader in Central Lagos, said the naira was trading at N1,300 per dollar around 12 noon, and sustained the rally till the close of business yesterday.

He said: “Many currency dealers, who bought on Monday when the rate was higher, were initially not ready to absorb high level of losses based on today’s rates. But they sensed that delay meant more losses, and decided to offload at the new rate.  The improved liquidity in the market makes it even more risky for those holding back dollars,” he said.

Another forex dealer, Abiodun Mohammed, blamed the losses at the parallel market on the CBN policies.

He He said: “The new policies, especially the discounts given to bureau de change operators drastically reduced the rates of the dollar against naira. Many of us that bought when the dollar was high are recording major losses. But, we understand the risks involved in the business”.

Mohammed said he will slow down new purchases to avoid further losses.

“The risk in this business is too high at the moment. I have to slow down until the rates settle at a more market-friendly rate,” he said.

Naira will continue to stabilize, says Shettima

Vice President Kashim Shettima has assured that the naira will continue to stabilise in the coming weeks and months.

Shettima gave the assurance at the inauguration of the National Design and Innovation Competition organised by the Interior Designers Association of Nigeria (IDAN) at the Presidential Villa in Abuja yesterday.

[TheNation]

From the description of the VIP treatment given the two Binance executives abducted by the Nigerian government in a Mohammed bin Salman’s Ritz-Carlton style, one gets the impression that they did not think their tactic through. They detained the men (Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan) deemed economic sabotages, still allowed them several privileges, somehow forgot to put them on a watch list, and one of them managed to escape. Nigeria’s handling of the Binance affair suggests that their detention and proposed trial were half-hearted. So desperate was the government to find a scapegoat that they invited Binance officials, detained them, and demanded $10bn from their employers.

The government alleges that some unscrupulous elements use Binance for money laundering, terrorist financing, currency speculation and market manipulation, thus distorting the Nigerian economy and weakening the Naira against other currencies. Nigeria also accused them of offering taxable services without remitting taxes to the country. The government said over $21.6bn was traded by Nigerians whose identities were concealed by Binance. These accusations are grievous, and I agree that they should be addressed. However, it was foolish to arrest, detain the Binance officials, and demand money. Even the bandits that abduct schoolchildren for a living are far more tactical. By doing that, Nigeria overplayed its hand.

People like to come up with how the United States similarly extracted $4.3bn from Binance to justify the detention of Anjarwalla and Gambaryan, but seem to forget that the US—despite the leverage it has over Binance since the country is their major market— did not resort to abducting company officials and demanding payment. They spent years piling up evidence and going to court. Their prosecutors demonstrated that Binance violated federal anti-money laundering and sanctions laws through lapses in its internal controls. They failed to report more than 100,000 suspicious transactions involving designated terrorist groups including Hamas, al Qaeda, and ISIS. Prosecutors also alleged that Binance’s platform supported the sale of child sexual abuse materials and was among the largest recipients of ransomware proceeds.

Nigeria has relatively little leverage over transnational corporations like the US does, and we would have done far better by addressing the situation through the instrument of the law, diplomacy, policies, technical expertise, and moral suasions. If Binance has not been remitting taxes to Nigeria, we should create a policy framework and technical structure that facilitates it. The fact that they sent two of their workers to Nigeria suggests good faith on their part. We should have worked hand in hand with the company to resolve the issues raised.

But trust Nigerian officials. They like gragra. Thinking through situations can be too tasking for them, so they quickly resort to the sole weapon of their warfare: force. Everything must be remedied through a blatant show of force. What exactly did they think they would achieve by abducting two Binance officials and demanding $10bn?

Think about it: if you were the CEO of Binance and asked to give up information regarding transactions worth $21.6bn in exchange for two company officials, would you? You would consider that paying the ransom might not secure your company officials. Besides, if you allowed yourself to be blackmailed, what would stop other broke countries and individuals from seizing your officials and demanding payment you respond? So, how should you respond?

Well, you will first disconnect the men’s access to any of the company’s operating systems so that they will have no means of giving up valuable information, even under duress. You will make the necessary diplomatic and legal moves to get your officials released, but you will also steady yourself to wait out Nigeria. What you will not do is hand over money or information to the abductor.  Even if those men die in Nigerian custody, it would still be far cheaper to pay their families some compensation than to yield grounds. Even if you pay their families N100m each, it is still not up to one per cent of the sum at stake.

I listened to a television interview where a talking head said Nigeria should extradite Anjarwalla. Why keep escalating errors? It was bad enough that Nigeria started what it had no idea how to finish, it is imprudent to keep expending resources over inanity. Did anyone study the company organogram to determine that these “executives” are central to decision-making in Binance to the point that taking them hostage ever made sense? Even now, it is more than likely that their job with Binance has been terminated. If an abducted employee manages to return in a dramatic escape, you would rightly wonder if it were not a ploy by the abductors to get access to the company by other means. In case the abducted had been brainwashed, you would either place him on an administrative leave or pay him a severance pay. Of what use would further pursuing Anjarwalla be to Nigeria?

The trouble with the Binance affair is the Nigerian tendency to blame spurious factors for its economic woes. Nigeria vs. Binance is a recrudescence of that time when CBN governor Godwin Emefiele blamed abokifx—a website that reports exchange rate figures—for tanking the national currency. I thought that had to be one of the most thoughtless moves ever in the history of national banking until the present administration repeated it with Binance. At some point, they started arresting BDC owners for driving up forex through their speculative activities. There was also a time when the Emefiele clown also blamed the Nigerians who collected Business Travel Allowance and ended up not travelling abroad for driving up the exchange rate. Everything, except the real issues of our mono-economy as administered by our perennially visionless leaders, is to be blamed.

It does not seem these people think through the implication of blaming national woes on singular entities. Not only do you display imprudence by thusly broadcasting your vulnerability, but you also give yourself away as inept and lacking the capability to think through situations other countries face but choose to approach with reasonable solutions.

The Binance charade is another misstep by Nigerian leaders dealing with transnational corporations in the age of the internet. We are so wired into demonstrating forcefulness on issues that require rational judgment that we seem to forget that our local gragra ways go nowhere on the international market. Unlike our local cases where a tomato review gets a poor woman arrested, global capitalism is complex and cannot brook the puerility of the Nigerian extrajudicial methods. We did the same unsophisticated thing with the then Twitter (now X). We even inaugurated a committee of old men to go to Silicon Valley to negotiate with Twitter, but what came out of it? Twitter comfortably neglected Nigeria and their share price did not even drop. They proved that the Nigerian market is negligible in the global scheme of things. Binance too had no problem barring Nigerians from its app and that in itself is quite telling. If we were a profitable market, they would not have walked away from us so easily.

I hope the incident teaches our aged leaders who like to make a show of how much they support youths, digital economy, and global technology that the world is no longer what they know it to be. The internet has changed the world in such drastic ways that countries like Nigeria where lawmakers debate social media regulations waste their time. To succeed in the new world being unfolded, you must drop gragra tactics and commit to learning so you can propose reasonable solutions.

As for Gambaryan, they should let him go his way. That these men were labelled “executives” and sent to Africa does not mean they have any real power in the corporation. Even if you abduct their CEO for $10bn, you will be surprised how the company board of shareholders will rather give him up than give up money. Binance trades capital, not sentiments.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited has denied claims that it has reduced the pump prices of petrol and diesel.

The NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement, described the claims as false, asking Nigerians to disregard same.

Our correspondent reports that some posts on various social media platforms on Tuesday and Wednesday had said that the NNPCL had reduced the pump price of petrol below N600, while that of diesel was adjusted below N900.

Reacting, the firm said: “The NNPC Limited wishes to clarify rumours suggesting a price adjustment for Premium Motor Spirit and Automotive Gas Oil at its retail stations nationwide.

“The company asserts that these reports are false and urges Nigerians to disregard them entirely.

“NNPC Ltd reaffirms its commitment to sustaining the current sufficiency in petroleum products supply across all its retail stations in the country.”

The PUNCH reports that the pump of petrol skyrocketed following the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu on May 29, 2023, rising to over N600 naira from about N200 until the end of the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

[Punch]

THE pan-Yoruba socio-political organisation, Afenifere, yesterday, bemoaned the spate of insecurity in the country, saying that it has negatively affected the welfare and livelihood of ordinary Nigerians.

The group condemned the incessant killing of the indigenous peoples and decimation of communities in the Middle Belt region, especially, the current escalated war on Southern Kaduna.

The Yoruba group said this in a communique at the end of its meeting held at the Isanya-Ogbo residence of its leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo.

The communique, by the National Publicity Secretary, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo, urged the federal, and state governments and the National Assembly to speed up action on the creation of state police, as part of efforts to check the spate of insecurity in the country.

It reads: “The group calls on the Federal Government to take urgent steps to stem the tide of worsening food insecurity, by going after those deliberately, willfully killing farmers and destroying farm produce, crops and groceries.

“The Afenifere General Assembly condemns the attack of terrorists on our roads, farms and villages. It described as worrisome the hasty and dubious conclusion by the federal government that these dastardly acts are being carried out by these non-state actors, the government so prefers to rather loosely call bandits.

“The general assembly condemned the incessant killings of the indigenous peoples and decimation of communities in the Middle Belt region, in particular, the current escalated war on Southern Kaduna, targeting communities and villages and having the audacity to not only take over other people’s ancestral lands but renaming such out of their nativity into names and languages alien to the indigenous people.”

On restructuring, the Afenifere commended the efforts of the restructuring committee set up in November 2023 and charged with the responsibility of producing an inclusive restructuring plan upon which the various nationalities that make up the Nigerian state shall be governed.

We’re working to stabilise economy — Senate Leader

Meanwhile, the Senate Leader, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele, yesterday, declared that the National Assembly remains focused on ensuring that the economy and democracy are stabilized in the country.

Bamidele said this while on an inspection tour of critical projects he initiated in Ekiti Central Senatorial District in Ado-Ekiti.

Projects inspected by the Senate leader in company of Governor Biodun Oyebanji of Ekiti State, included hospital buildings, medical students’ hostels, a library, road infrastructure, Mini-Stadium in Ekameta, among others.

[Vanguard]

Taoreed Lagbaja, chief of army staff (COAS), says three of the 10 widows of the army personnel killed in Okuama community in Delta state are pregnant.

On March 14, about 17 personnel of the Nigerian Army were killed while on a peacekeeping mission in the Delta community.

The federal and state government had vowed that perpetrators of the act would be arrested to face the wrath of the law.

The names of the deceased soldiers were A.H Ali, D.E Obi, S.D. Ashafa, U. Zakari, , Yahaya Saidu, Danbaba Yahaya, Kabir Bashir, Abdullahi Ibrahim, Bulus Haruna, Sole Opeyemi, Bello Anas, Alhaji Isah, Clement Francis, Abubakar Ali, Adamu Ibrahim, Hamman Peter, and Ibrahim Adamu.

Speaking on Wednesday during the burial ceremony of the late soldiers at the military cemetery in Abuja, Lagbaja said it was “highly demoralising” that the soldiers were killed by those they were equipped to protect.

The army chief added that it took over 72 hours of searching to recover the vital organs of some of the deceased soldiers.

He added that the Nigerian Army exercised  “a lot of restraint” in the search for missing arms and body parts of the deceased soldiers.

“The Okuama killing has added to the care of the Nigerian Army and, by extension, the Nigerian state, 10 widows, three of whom are four, five, and eight months pregnant, 21 orphans, and many other dependents, which include parents,” Lagbaja said.

“While commiserating with the families of these gallant soldiers, I assure them that the Nigerian Army and the good people of this country will not leave them in the cold. We shall do all within our power to provide succour to the families.”

The army chief said the Nigerian Army will not be deterred by the incident in Delta in its mandate to defend the country.

[TheCable]

It comes to no surprise to hear the emergence of the popular crossdresser Idris Olarenwaju, popularly called Bobrisky, as the ‘Best Dressed Female’ at Ajakaju - the Beasts of Two Worlds - movie premiere that took place recently at Circle Mall, Lekki, Lagos State. However what is somewhat shocking is the reactions this award has sparked amongst some showbiz celebrities and other Nigerians.

The movie’s producer, Eniola Ajao, awarded ‘Best Dressed Female’ and ‘Best Dressed Male’ to Bobrisky and the ex- BBNaija housemate, Groovy, respectively. Bobrisky, who identifies as a female, was awarded N1 million, while Groovy also got N1 million. Bobrisky wore an all-black regal outfit with a cape and a staff, scintillating the aesthetic perception of the producer, Eniola Ajao and perhaps many others who attended the movie’s premiere.

Ever since this entertainment news filtered out, Nigerians from various strata of lives have taken to the social media to criticize the decision of awarding Bobrisky the ‘Best Female Dresser’ who isn’t ontologically female. Friday Omosola beautifully captures the reactions and criticisms in one of his recent articles in Premium Times, 25^th March, 2024, Beasts of Two Worlds: Reactions as Bobrisky emerges ‘Best Dressed Female’ at movie premiere. According to Omosola, Actress Dayo Amusan, who attended the premiere, walked out after Bobrisky was named the winner. In a video on her Instagram page on Monday, the actress condemned the award. She expressed disappointment in the judges who picked Bobrisky, which she considered disrespectful to the women who attended the event.

 Amusan in her exact words said as reported by Friday Omosola - “I attended the premiere of a colleague yesterday, where they announced that the Best Dressers would be chosen, “one female and one male. Let me clarify: the winner could be anyone, but certainly not a Crossdresser. I mean, what’s the issue here? I don’t understand it’’.  She continues, “I can’t fathom the judges disrespecting every woman present. You had to select a winner, both a female and male, best-dressed, and yet you undermine the effort of all the women, thereby awarding the ‘Best-Dressed Female’ title to a Crossdresser. I don’t understand; what’s wrong with us?”

Expressing shock at Bobrisky’s emergence, actress Toyin Abraham questioned the event organizer’s decision. Abraham, in a video that captured her, Bobrisky, and others at the event, expressed shock that the Crossdresser beats all female celebrities and guests to emerge as the winner. She said, “Bobrisky as the Best-Dressed Female? If I give you an uppercut! Are you all insane that Bobrisky is winning ‘Best Female’? Are you crazy? Well, you better share some of that money with me.”

Similarly, the controversial singer, Habeeb Okikiola, alias portable, condemned Bobrisky’s win. The 30-year-old singer argued that awarding Bobrisky, a male, ‘Best Female Dresser’ meant that the judges were promoting homosexuality. He stated, “Is Bobrisky a woman? Doesn’t he wear an artificial bum and breasts? There were beautiful actresses at the event, but the judges deemed them unworthy, yet a male was awarded ‘Best Dressed Female’. “The Ogun-born singer criticized the judges for awarding Bobrisky, believing it had set a destructive precedent.

He expressed concern that children exposed to such attitudes might emulate the path of cross-dressing. “Our children will now imitate Bobrisky, a man who does not possess feminine features, simply because the judges honoured him with an award. Those who should be in prison or punished for disobeying religious commandments and the country’s laws are being celebrated,” Portable noted. The ‘Zazzu Zeh’ crooner labelled the judges who deemed Bobrisky worthy as a crazy set of people. He warned Bobrisky not to come to Sango-Ota, Ogun State, dressed in female attire because he would be dealt with.

Furthermore, social media influencer Daniel Regha stated that Bobrisky winning the ‘Best Dressed Female’ award insulted every female attendee at the premiere. Regha said the organizers were not the only ones at fault; those who joyfully or playfully acknowledged his win should also be blamed.

An X user, Oluwabunmi Micheal (@Harwolyehmi1), criticized actors Femi Adebayo and Odunlade Adekola for being at an event where Bobrisky won such an award.  He argued that presenting Bobrisky with such an award implies that Nigeria has lost its values. Another X user, Sir Dickson (@Wizarad10), supported actress Dayo’s anger, stating that it was valid. He emphasized that awarding Bobrisky with such an award was detrimental and sent a negative message to society, especially to the women at the event. “A man should not be winning ‘Best-Dressed Female’ for any reason.” (https://twitter.com/Harwohyehmi1/status/17721519)

Why isn’t it a surprise that Bobrisky won the ‘Best Female Dresser Award’? Bobrisky identifies as a female, one of the ‘gifts’ of relativism to our modern world. He has consistently and boldly pitched his tent with the female gender and has used the same energy to denounce muscularity. He announced recently that he has acquired the female genitalia and has successfully transitioned into womanhood. He advertises himself on most social media platforms such as Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. He has bold fashion choices, unapologetic self- expression and a fondness for controversy. ( https://guardian.ng> life> bobrisky) In other words, Bobrisky has worked for who he is today.

Eniola Ajao and all those responsible for the award understood this clearly. One core point those who reacted and criticized his award hinged their dissatisfaction on is his gender and not on the quality and sophistication of his dress and style. Let us not forget, he has the freedom to identify as whatever. Yes, it might not be the best choice or a morally correct choice, but that is his choice and most importantly for him, his brand. Perhaps the movie producer, the organizers and judges at the premiere respected his preferred identity; they focused on his feminine dress sense, which flawed all of the Toyin Abrahams’.

Nigerians shouldn’t forget that this is an event in the circle of entertainment industry where all modern and aberrant live styles are showcased. Why don’t we think it could perhaps be a strategy to advertise Ajakaju? The producer needs to trigger Nigerians to get to the Cinemas to check up this movie. Bobrisky’s award could generate that trigger because he is a controversial celebrity, like it or not. Boom, Portable has released a song, ‘’Brotherhood’’, to shade Bobrisky.  There is no time one would listen to this song without remembering the circumstance of its emergence. At the end of the day Ajakaju goes viral. 

I don’t claim to know the criteria for Bob’s emergency but I think his personality and style of dress for the premiere gave him away for the award. Ajakaju (Beasts of Two Worlds), Eniola Ajao’s debut movie, tells the story of a powerful lady named Ajalara, who lives in two worlds – who is both human and animal. In like manner, Bobrisky in his true self, lives in two worlds, masculinity –  physical strength and will power - feminity, ‘’a quintessential nature of womanhood that is ontologically in all women. It characterizes the finesse with which most women execute their duties.’’ (Timothy Etsenamhe, the Genius of Women, 2009)   Also, his style of dress depicts that of a warrior with mystical power, who slays and plunders like Ajalara, and a king like King Towobola, who ventures into the forest to confront Ajalara.

I am surprised that many Nigerians are batting on-eyelids because of Bobrisky’s award. The world of entertainment, especially Nollywood- a portmanteau of Nigeria and Hollywood, a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigeria film industry, is a make - believe world. It is often imaginary, illusory, and delusional. Eniola Ajao and the judges did their job well, after all said and done,  by awarding a delusional brand like Bobrisky as the ‘Best Female Dresser’ at the premiere of Ajakaju in order to make their product controversial and sensational. Guess what? On Good Friday, 29^th of March 2024, you would find people in cinemas for Ajakaju perhaps in proportionate numbers with those in the halls of Churches for the passion of Christ. 

When Henry Adams, the 19th century American historian, states categorically that “A teacher affects eternity,” he translated his observational experience into what millions of people all across the world today can relate with. According to him, either good or bad, “he can never tell where his influence stops.” Teaching is a vocational calling that radiates through many generations. And this is one grateful member of one generation demonstrating immense gratitude for the gift of many teachers who impacted my coming-of-age. I contend that there should be no memoir that does not dedicate a chapter, at least, to the immense influence of teachers in the formation of anybody that considers their lives worthy of autobiographical projection. I do, and my memoir dedicates such a chapter to the myriad of influences on my intellectual and professional maturation. Prof. Adebayo Okunade—teacher extraordinaire, distinguished professor, erudite academic and astute administrator—is definitely exemplary.

I could almost bet that my old teacher will turn 70 this year. Of course, he is one mentor that I have been looking for the best moment to celebrate for a range of reasons that will be obvious in a moment. It however turned out that his septuagenarian attainment is still one year away, as he clocked 69 and not 70 a few weeks ago. By the time I reached out to him to confirm this fact, I had finished penning this tribute. And why not, he deserves to be celebrated in advance. I am not just celebrating Prof. Okunade’s pre-septuagenarian achievement, I am also wrapping that together with our shared clan affinity. We both hail from Aáwé town in the Afijio local government area of Oyo State. For me, there is a way I read the hands of Providence in my sociocultural evolution, my intellectual maturation, my professional path in life and those that have been put on my paths in life.

It is not surprising that Prof. Okunade came from a teaching parentage. But his parents were not just school teachers, but they were one of those who brought the best of their sociocultural and moral experiences into the molding of their children and the wards under their care. Being an ọmọlúwàbì is the best moral and pedagogical framework that the Yoruba allows for the upbringing of children, and the molding of a good society. I benefitted from such an upbringing too, and I know what it means to see the world through that prism. Add that moral package to a sound pedagogy, and you immediately understand how influential Prof. Okunade was to my intellectual development.

I came into first contact with Prof. Okunade at the Olivet Baptist High School, Oyo, easily one of the best secondary schools (in my time) in the entire Oyo zone, stretching from Oke Ogun to Ogbomoso. I had just resumed for my Higher School Certificate (HSC) in 1978. And he was my Government subject teacher. With him, the study of government became by far one of my very best learning formative moments. It was with him that I first became conscious of the Socratic method of interlocution—a pedagogical engagement that enables students to grasp knowledge without assaulting their minds with facts. Okunade’s pedagogical excellence consisted in transforming our numerous engagements in and outside the classroom into seminal spaces for processing discourses, discussions and debates. Given my growing reputation as a bookworm, it was almost inevitable that I would be noticed by this smart teacher who was well-versed in both national and international politics and governmental processes. And so, it became something of a constant ritual for us to gather around him, especially outside of the classroom, to pick up significant items of public discourse or current affairs touching on government policies, national politics or international incidence.

The 1978/80 years were a most significant period in Nigeria’s political development, and the second republic was about to get underway. The study of government in secondary school was also animated by the prospect of a return to civil rule and the much-awaited Nigeria’s greatness. On the intellectual part, there was an ongoing ideological discussion on the nature of the Nigerian state. Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Prof. Billy Dudley were at the forefront of the attempt to unravel what it means to say that Nigeria, despite political independence, was still “a mere geographical expression.” This furthers our discussions in those upper secondary school seminal engagements around the nature and meaning of federalism and the role it could play in Nigeria’s unfolding political development. On the political part, we were witnessing a reprise of the pre-independence rivalry between the Action Group (AG), the Northern People’s Congress (NPC) and the National Council of Nigeria and the Cameroons (NCNC) in the shape of the Unity Party of Nigeria, the National Party of Nigeria and Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) and others. And Awolowo’s democratic socialism and Azikiwe’s neo-welfarism were already in the public domain as ideological templates.

And we have in the then Mr. Okunade an astute Socratic interlocutor who could play the devil’s advocate with the many contending and contrary political and ideological positions on offer by the different political parties. He would be a Zikist in one session, a robust leftist in the mold of Tunji Braithwaite’s National Advance Party the next, and then go on to defend Awolowo’s democratic socialism thereafter. This capacity to robustly engage with contending ideas and arguments left a very deep impression on me that would come in handy when I made up my mind to study political science at the University of Ibadan, and met him again as my teacher. While engaging us on the subject matter of Government, he had just his first degree in political science, and was already on the academic trajectory, studying for a master’s degree in the same department. By the time I would join the department as an undergraduate student, he was already on his way up the ladder that would eventually lead to his becoming a professor in due season. We did not miss a bit in picking up from where we left off in terms of critical engagement, and even more at an advance stage as an undergraduate student and even at graduate studies. His academic and research profile was already shaping up in terms of public administration scholarship and specifically local government studies, and was further broadened when he went to the University of Essex in the United Kingdom to study for a LLM in International Human Rights Law.

My lifelong relationship from Olivet High to the University of Ibadan means that I would keep drawing on his influence and wisdom all through my professional development. Apart from being critical to shaping my doctoral thesis and my post-doctoral research direction—including facilitating a path-shaping relationship with the late Professor of Philosophy, Olusegun Oladipo—he is also a significant influence and support in the establishment of my pet project, the Ibadan School of Government and Public Policy (ISGPP) in 2016.

Prof. Bayo Okunade’s scholarship must have been taking shape since he began engaging us in discourses around Nigeria’s national political development in the twilight years of the 1970s. There is no political scientist in Nigeria who would not be drawn into Nigeria’s federal-federalism debacle, and especially those who were there from the beginning like Prof. Okunade. He is very emphatic, for instance, and contrary to the outcry, that restructuring does not constitute the expected panacea to Nigeria’s federalism predicament. For example, he argues, restructuring is not an ideological construct with one objective for Nigeria, conceptually speaking. Different power blocks and elite interest want the concept to achieve different things for them. And this speaks to the fact that even if restructuring becomes constitutionally entrenched, its success will be dependent on concessions that those who have the capacity to manipulate the system for their selfish interest give to the delivery of the Nigeria development project and purpose as give and take.

Here, we begin to see the outline of Okunade’s argument—the subject of is celebrated inaugural lecture—about the leadership challenge in Nigeria. According to him, the resolution of Nigeria’s national question is impossible without an antecedent determination through the recalibration of the leadership deficit. The leadership issue, which he calls on fellow political scientist to elevate to the level of curricular program, significantly encapsulates Okunade’s constructivist perspective on social engineering and how this impact the establishment of a well-ordered society founded on public administration, human right, the rule of law and good governance. The relationship between public administration, human rights and democracy therefore situates Okunade’s research portfolio squarely within the context of Nigeria’s political development. And we are able to see clearly why the leadership deficit constitutes, as his inaugural lecture’s title suggest, a big challenge. And for someone steeped in the studies of federalism and democracy, I suspect it was not too radical to opt for a federal system that empowers local governance as a critical arm of democratic governance that empowers the people. I have like him published lots of opinion pieces on how the principles of social capital and subsidiarity could enable the grassroots as the most proactive context for democratic participation and developmental mobilization. The leadership deficit therefore goes right to the very heart of Nigeria’s constitutional anomaly.             

The near-septuagenarian professor has an influence that spans many generation of students each of whom can write pages about the indelible humanity of Adebayo Okunade and his pedagogical direction. I struggle to accept Michael Morpurgo’s words that “It’s the teacher that makes the difference, not the classroom.” This is because a good teacher can be undermined if the classroom or pedagogical dynamics are not right. An Okunade placed within the classrooms of both the Olivet Baptist Hish School and the department of political science, University of Ibadan, significantly to my academic and intellectual endeavors. And as he climbs on to the seventh floor by God’s grace in the months ahead, I can boast that he does not just wear the medal for my teacher for all times he is also my friend, brother and co-conspirator in institutional re-engineering.