Arike Ogunbowale, the American basketball player of Nigerian descent, was voted the most valuable player (MVP) of the 2024 WNBA all-star game following her team WNBA 117 – 109 victory over Team USA at Footprint Center, Phoenix, in the early hours of Sunday.

Ogunbowale had zero points in the first half before posting a record 34 points in the second half of the keenly contested encounter against the Olympics-bound Team USA.

The Dallas Wings sharpshooter converted eight of 13 three-pointers en route to the MVP award; the second after claiming her first honour in 2021.

Her latest MVP award sees her join the trio of Lisa Leslie, Maya Moore, and Swin Cash as the only players with multiple MVPs in the all-star games.

Ogunbowale scored 21 points in the third quarter — which is the most points in a single quarter in WNBA all-star game history.

She also added five assists in a blistering second-half performance.

Speaking after the match, Ogunbowale said an inspiring half-time team talk by coach Cheryl Miller was the catalyst for her record-breaking performance.

“I wasn’t expecting her [coach Miller] to say my name. She just told me to take a deep breath and play my game,” she said.

“I guess you guys saw what happened.”

Ogunbowale has always finished as a top-five shooter in the WNBA since her draft pick to the Dallas Wings in 2019. She has featured in over 180 games in her five-year WNBA history.

WHO IS ARIKE OGUNBOWALE?

Arike was born to Nigerian parents Yolanda and Gregory Ogunbowale on March 2, 1997, in Milwaukee, the United States. The 27-year-old is the youngest of three children.

The basketball star is of Yoruba descent and her name means “a child you treasure, cherish, pamper, and love” in the Yoruba language. Her father served in the Nigerian military.

[TheCable]

DOES Senator Ali Ndume, former Senate Chief Whip, lack table manners, or those he was eating with thought that enjoyment would immunise him against the anger and hunger in the land? Ndume did nothing extraordinary in pointing out that while they feast, compatriots cannot get crumbs.
That he lost his seat as a punishment for drawing the attention of the President to the fact that people were hungry, and that the land was brimming with anger is another indication that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is fully after his welfare alone. His acolytes understand this and run after matters that attend to the needs of a President that many thought had passed the age of scrambling for virtually everything.

Nigerians are hungry. Sending trailer loads of food to the States will not scratch the issues. How many trailer loads of imported grains will we need to feed how many millions of Nigerians? For how long? Does Nigeria even have the money?
Who need the food most? How are we sure that it gets to them? Are we preparing to agonise all over again as we did when billions of Naira voted for palliatives during Covid-19 simply disappeared into private funnels? An identified beneficiary of the Covid-19 pillage has just been nominated to an office where money flows like an ocean.

We need food. We need security. The tangentiality of the notoriously anomalous debates on food and security end up neither addressing food nor security. Our farmers are willing to farm. The land is still fertile but bandits, herdsmen, and kidnappers are keeping farmers off the land. Has government forgotten this?

While thinking about silencing people as solutions to the challenges of Nigeria, I remembered Paul Simon’s 1964 epic folk rock song, Sound Of Silence. Excerpts from the lyrics:
And in the naked light, I saw Ten thousand people, maybe more People talking without speaking People hearing without listening People writing songs that voices never shared And no one dared Disturb the sound of silence “Fools” said I, “You do not know Silence like a cancer grows Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you” But my words, like silent raindrops fell And echoed in the wells of silence And the people bowed and prayed To the neon god they made And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming Then the sign said, “The words on the prophets are written on the subway walls In tenement halls” And whispered in the sound of silence.

The purr of a new jet, the superficiality of the President thinking that a new jet and other luxuries he has immersed himself in are what his presidency is about, produce their own silence that deducts his humanity and makes him think Nigerians cannot possibly be so hungry in the midst of his own vastly improving life. If he had not understood his office only in terms of his well-being, he would dread the sound of silence.

•DAN Bilki Commander, a Kano-based, All Progressives Congress chieftain, has accused Kaduna State Governor, His Excellency, Uba Sani of being behind those who handcuffed and caned him for criticising Uba. “They videoed me while beating and abusing me. I was humiliated to the core,” Commander said. A video of the beating went viral. Governor Sani has denied involvement and ordered an investigation.

•THE parish priest of St. Bartholomew’s Catholic Church, Agbani, Nkanu West Local Government Area of Enugu State, Rev Father Linus Okwu, allegedly flogged choir members including mothers, young men, ladies and teenagers for failing to cut the grass on the church’s field. July could be the month of beating and flogging.

•NO tears, some insist, for impeached Edo State Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu who the Court of Appeal has returned to office. On a television programme, Shaibu was ridiculed about his insistence on Governor Godwin Obaseki obeying the court order. Only the Governor, the arguments run, can decide who his deputy is. Where does that leave the courts and their powers? It is not about Shaibu who is barely likeable. It is about the ability of our courts to protect and secure our rights. Already, a policeman has been gunned down without the campaigns in full gear.

•Isiguzo is a major commentator on minor issues

President Bola Tinubu extends his condolences to the government and the people of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam over the passing of General Secretary Nguyễn Phú Trọng.

Nguyễn Phú Trọng was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. As head of the Politburo and Central Military Commission, he was the leader of Vietnam. He also served as President from 2018 to 2021.

President Tinubu also commiserates with the widow of the late Vietnamese leader, Madam Ngô Thị Mận.

The President expresses his profound sympathy over the loss, noting the huge influence and efforts of the deceased leader in shaping Vietnam.

President Tinubu assures the people of Vietnam of Nigeria's solidarity at this time of grief.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

Senator Ali Ndume was the Chief Whip of the Senate. His party (APC)—being the majority party—has recently received many whips from Ndume whose bluntness on the Nigeria’s state of affairs is well known. Though his bluntness is well received by the suffering masses, the government in which he is a key actor cannot bear Ndume’s whip anymore.

Ndume has been saying the unsayable. He has been discomforting his colleagues at the National Assembly by speaking the hard truth. The Tinubu’s suffering-for-all government is not happy with an insider who behaves like a fifth columnist. He must be cut to size. To do that, Ndume’s whip was taken away from him. The Chief Whip who was assigned to whip was whipped for whipping (doing his job) by those he called kakistocrats and kleptocrats.

What was Ndume’s offence? He said the obvious: “This government is going down.””This government is populated by kakistocrats and kleptocrats.””I don’t believe he (President Tinubu)is in the true picture of what is out there.”He also claimed the President is being shielded to the extent that people like him, and even some ministers, cannot have audience with him (Tinubu).

Aside from shielding Tinubu, according to Ndume, the kakistocrats and kleptocrats around him continue to give him assurance that everything is right out there. These people must be dangerous. But who are these Kakistocrats and kleptocrats? Ndume did not mention them and there is no need to do so since they are many—it is a long list.

But we learnt, through dictionaries, that Kakistocrats are worst and least qualified citizens who control government and make policies. No wonder the masses cannot breathe! The kleptocrats are said to be corrupt and dishonest people in government who can steal anything (stealable or not stealable) due to their greediness which is essentially pathological. It is no surprise the government is going down!

Now that our President is surrounded by clowns (if Ndume is right), what is the way out? Ndume advised that the President needs those who will look into his eyes and tell him the truth. But telling the truth to a government that is populated by kakistocrats and kleptocrats is like committing suicide. That is exactly what Ndume did and the whip slipped off his hand.

Citing some cases to buttress his point, Ndume explained that President Tinubu, whom he had known for many years, has a listening ear and bows to superior argument. I don’t know how to agree with Ndume on this. What kind of superior argument? To inflict more pain or to abate hardship?

Perhaps, the superior argument Ndume had in mind during the interview has to do with how to inflict the most traumatizing pain on the masses. I wonder how and why President Tinubu was/is influenced by the “superior argument” that palliative—which is meant to be a temporary measure—should be a permanent feature of his government to abate sufferings in the land. And this is a government supposedly populated by technocrats, best brains, and best minds.

However, going by what has become the lots of MOST Nigerians under this regime, it is logical to conclude that Tinubu government, despite the sterling credentials of its appointees, is actually populated by kakistocrats and kleptocrats. On this, Ndume is right.

But isn’t Ndume also a kakistocrat and a kleptocrat? I don’t know if he had turned a new leaf. When he was interviewed two months ago on Channels TV, he said: “We politicians (even if you call us anything) if you compare us to all the corruption, our own is a very small one. Our corruption is people driven. You steal all the money, you go and share it to the people.”

From the interview quote above, it is obvious that Ndume fits the definition of kleptocrat. It is possible he is not a kakistocrat. Even as a kleptocrat, he must be a benevolent one. Because the stealing and corruption Ndume engages in is a people-driven one. Don’t laugh! And due to his ability to speak the truth even when that is against his party (the ruling party), shows that Ndume is qualified to be the best among the worst people we elected as leaders but choose to rule us. For speaking on behalf of the masses in this trying time where no one is willing to speak among the ruling class, Ndume deserves our thumbs up. I cannot hide my admiration for him.

As it is, in most cases, with those in government, any criticism against them is considered sponsored criticism. Disturbed about the battered image of this government which many consider worst in Nigerian history, Ndume claimed he asked those in the presidency if they are aware that people are angry and of what the youth are planning to do (to revolt).The response he got, Ndume lamented, was “yes,”—they are aware—”it is the work of opposition.”

If it is true that Tinubu is being told “all is well” and he is oblivious of the hardship in the land, it is better for the youth to tell him that all is not well. I am aware that some Muslim clerics (whether paid by government or not paid) are condemning this youth who want to cry (protest)—which is the natural reaction to being whipped—under the unceasing whip of this government. Rather than condemn the youth, let’s guide them on how to cry (protest). It is both democratic and constitutional to protest.

That said, let’s join Ndume to tell this government that all is not well! This government is going down!

Abdulkadir Salaudeen

Naija News reports that NiMet’s weather forecast, released on Saturday in Abuja, indicates that thunderstorms are likely on Sunday, with showers affecting areas in Adamawa, Taraba, Borno, Kebbi, Kaduna, Gombe, and Yobe States early in the day.

By midday, thunderstorms are expected to spread across the northern areas, and showers are projected for the North Central region in the early morning.

Later in the day, there will be a mix of moderate thunderstorms and rainfall over parts of the Federal Capital Territory, Plateau, Benue, and Kogi States. There will also be scattered showers in the morning across Ondo, Ogun, Edo, Bayelsa, Cross River, Rivers, Akwa Ibom, and Delta States.

By the afternoon and evening, scattered showers are expected over Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Anambra, Enugu, Edo, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, and Bayelsa States.

On Monday, heavy rains are expected in the morning in Kebbi, Sokoto, Bauchi, Kaduna, Borno, Taraba, and Katsina States.

The following day, there will be a mix of moderate thunderstorms and showers in Jigawa, Kebbi, Kaduna, Sokoto, Borno, Zamfara, Yobe, Adamawa, and Katsina States.

Showers are also projected for the Federal Capital Territory and Plateau States in the morning, with more moderate thunderstorms and showers later in the day in the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, and Kogi States. Showers are expected to be scattered in the morning across Edo, Rivers, and Delta States, while the southern regions will see cloudy skies.

On Tuesday, morning thunderstorms with rain are predicted for Yobe, Adamawa, Borno, and Taraba States, while thunderstorms are expected across the northern region later in the day.

Rain is anticipated in the Federal Capital Territory, Niger, and Kwara States in the morning, with cloudy skies in other areas.

In the afternoon or evening, intermittent rain is forecasted in the Federal Capital Territory, Kwara, and Niger States. Morning rain is expected in Edo, Delta, Imo, and Anambra States, with cloudy conditions in the rest of the south.

Later in the day, intermittent rain is predicted in Ondo, Edo, Osun, Ekiti, Oyo, Cross River, Akwa Ibom, Delta, and Bayelsa States.

NiMet advises the public to take precautions as strong winds may precede the rain in areas with thunderstorms.

The agency warns residents to avoid flood-prone areas due to the high risk of urban flooding in major cities.

The public and airline operators are also encouraged to stay informed through NiMet’s weather updates for effective planning.

[NaijaNews]

The United States Homeland Security chief, Alejandro Mayorkas hit back Saturday at misogynistic attacks on the female Secret Service agents who threw themselves into the line of fire to protect Donald Trump from a would-be assassin.

“These assertions are baseless and insulting,” Mayorkas said in a statement after some on the US political right accused the Secret Service of “woke” hiring practices they said nearly had the former president killed.

Mayorkas praised the “highly skilled and trained” women serving in law enforcement across the country for risking “their lives on the front lines for the safety and security of others.”

“They are brave and selfless patriots who deserve our gratitude and respect,” he wrote.

The Department of Homeland Security will “with great pride… continue to recruit, retain and elevate women in our law enforcement ranks,” he continued.

It has been one week since a gunman opened fire during Trump’s campaign rally in Pennsylvania, killing one bystander, wounding two others and leaving the Republican bloodied but alive.

Several women were seen among the Secret Service agents racing to shield Trump with their bodies as the gunshots rang out.

But they, along with their boss Kimberly Cheatle — only the second female director of the federal agency tasked with protecting presidents current, former and would-be — are now caught in the intense scrutiny over the nearly catastrophic attack.

“There should not be any woman in the Secret Service. These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women,” right-wing activist Matt Walsh wrote on X, in one typical far-right post.

Many of the attacks cited Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity — hiring practices that some Republicans have long criticised as discriminating against white people, white men in particular.

“The results of DEI. DEI got someone killed,” read one post on the popular Libs of TikTok account.

The Secret Service has defended itself against such accusations in the past, with a spokesman telling US media just weeks before the assassination attempt that agents “are held to the highest professional standards… at no time has the agency lowered these standards.”

Cheatle, who has so far shrugged off calls to resign, is to appear before Congress on July 22 for a hearing on the assassination attempt.

(https://punchng.com/us-secret-service-agrees-to-review-after-trump-assassination-bid/?amp)

The Secret Service has also agreed to an independent review ordered by President Joe Biden.

Not everyone on the right supported the criticisms.

“I saw two women — one of them with a gun in her hand and the other with her body around him,” top Trump adviser Chris LaCivita told CNN reporter Kate Sullivan, she said in a post on X.

She said he continued, “I know this — a swarm of Secret Service agents put their lives on the line and put their bodies in between President Trump and the bullets, and anybody who has said anything different about those people on the stage is an idiot.”

AFP

The Labour Party (LP) says its supporters are not behind a planned nationwide protest against hunger.

On Saturday, Bayo Onanuga, special adviser on information and strategy to President Bola Tinubu, alleged that supporters of LP and Peter Obi are organising the protest.

Onanuga also claimed that the promoters of the protest are the same individuals who “hijacked” the #ENDSARS protest of 2020.

In a statement, Obiora Ifoh, LP spokesperson, said “there is no truth” in Onanuga’s claim, adding that it is the “figment of his imagination”.

“Labour Party is known for being a very peaceful party and it has on several occasions asked its followers to follow peace at all times,” the statement reads.

“We are not known as a lawless group as was evident in the aftermath of the last general election. It is, therefore, delusional for anyone to link our supporters to the planned protest.

“Labour Party, Peter Obi and our supporters are not planning any protests.”

The opposition party said while its supporters are not organising any nationwide demonstration, protest is the right of every citizen.

“However, peaceful protests all over the world are initiated and executed by the people and not by the opposition,” LP said.

“No opposition has any control over protests. Popular protests such as in Kenya, Egypt and several other places were a direct registration of the people’s frustration against the government.

“The people have the right to protest and it is within their constitutional right.

“It is, therefore, puerile for the government or anyone for that matter to begin to look for who to blame for the bad governance that is being witnessed in Nigeria today.

“Nigeria can still get it right if the right policies are initiated.”

The party said presidential aides should be cautioned against making “incendiary pronouncements capable of combusting the nation”.

[TheCable]

For the better part of the last two decades, I had cause to severally disagree or oppose the viewpoints, statements or actions of Adams Oshiomhole either as President of the Nigerian Labour Congress NLC, or Governor of Edo State or National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC. In order not to belabour the issues of the past, I will only just say we fell apart many times and quite often used the media to put our different positions in the public domain. It is therefore quite likely that many people who knew about our sour relationship would be surprised to read this piece which eulogises Oshiomhole’s commendable contributions to debates in the Senate, especially in the last couple of weeks.

The point to be made and quickly too is that the motivation for this article is the need for a critic to endeavour at all times, to appreciate every good message no matter who the messenger is. In other words, a sound media professional ought to separate a messenger from his message so as to avoid the tendency to be fault-finding. That was precisely what influenced this writer while watching the contributions of Senators to a motion on the unfortunate deaths caused by the attack of insurgents on the town of Gworza in Bornu state three weeks ago. During the debate, many Senators followed the usual pattern of saying the same things over and over ago. While some were calling for more attention such as working on the road networks or prioritizing the use of technology such as drones as well as the need for the military to be more proactive, it was Oshiomhole that hit the nail on its forehead.

The military are better trained than the rest of us on subjects such as warfare and counter-terrorism. The role of the Senate therefore is not to teach the military what to do about those subjects but to appropriate sufficient funding for the recommended military operations. The other fundamental mandate of the military is to undertake oversight to find out how the huge sums appropriated by the legislature are expended. It is for this reason that the legislature has a committee to supervise every public function. But an honest review of events in Nigeria since democracy was restored in 1999 would show that oversight by the legislature is convoluted by corruption. The committees do nothing about investigating how funds were utilized, they only hold courts where they keep threatening to issue warrants of arrest to officials who decline to attend legislative sessions to which they are invited.

No one is ever arrested as the threats are simply a strategy to intimidate public officials into bribing committee members especially their leaders. On the few occasions that legislators tried to do real oversight by carrying supervision to the point of assignment, they ended up briefing the media on how satisfied they were with the organisations visited in addition to their firm resolve to ensure more funds are made available to the concerned agencies in the next budget. But do the huge sums budgeted for the military annually get to them in full? Are monies received by the military used for the exact purposes for which they were appropriated? Having affirmed that the funds are used majorly for non-essentials and ego projects, Oshiomhole called for a more effective oversight of military expenditures.

It is not only Oshiomhole that knows that oversight functions are poorly undertaken in Nigeria; many citizens are also aware. From 2003 -2008, when I served as Chief Executive of the Nigerian Television Authority NTA, I received zero allocation for capital projects because I refused to meet financial demands of legislators of the relevant committees of the National Assembly. This was what first occurred to me when I heard that Oshiomhole’s fellow legislators rejected his call for a thorough investigation of what the military does with its funding. The position of Senators was not surprising because many of them behave as if they are not answerable to anyone. In other climes, citizens would have demanded to know those who voted against such a proactive call.
While commending Oshiomhole for his patriotic call, it is also noted that the Senate President Godswill Akpabio was so disgusted with the reaction of the Senators that he decided to repeat the question which was more loudly answered in the negative. Big pity, Akpabio could do nothing thereafter. In the circumstance, someone needs to tell Nigerian Senators that our citizens are greatly disappointed by their lackadaisical approach towards oversight functions which ought to be used to place an effective check on policy implementation in the country. The media and civil society groups must find a way of holding the legislature accountable.

The other subject for which Oshiomhole deserves commendation is his firm stand against the creation of additional agencies that have duplicated functions. This time, credit must also be given to other Senators such as Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan (PDP, Kogi) and Victor Umeh (Anambra LP) who were reported to have similarly opposed the penchant of their col- leagues for patronising daily bills for creating unviable

agencies. It was as a result of their efforts that the Senate rejected a bill seeking to establish the National Road Transport Council of Nigeria whose anticipated mandate is to regulate road transport and the transportation profession in Nigeria. If a new body is set up for this purpose, should we not abolish the Federal Road Safety Commission FRSC?

It is transparently irrational to have more than one agency performing same task. This is because it amounts to a waste of precious time spent on unhealthy jurisdictional claims. The more annoying of such struggles is the one where agencies exploit Nigerians in subjects like the inspection of vehicle particulars and licences. It also explains why our government has been unable to cut down its unwieldy size despite her several moves to implement the report of the Oronsaye Panel set up during the Jonathan led-government to reduce the size of government. While the executive branch has continued to prevaricate and consistently moved one step forward and three backwards, the legislature which says it is committed to collaborating with the executive has continued to use bills to create new agencies in the country.

What is however inexplicable, is the fact whenever some persuasive contributions are made on a subject, majority of Senators behave as if they are absent minded by producing a voice vote that runs counter to reasoning. Last month, a bill for an Act to Establish the National Institute for Educational Planning and Administration and another bill to Establish the Federal University of Applied Sciences Manchok, Kaduna State were introduced to the Senate. In his contribution, Senator Oshiomhole drew attention to the fact that passing the bills would adversely affect the capacity of government to provide capital allocations to agencies because recurrent expenditure would have exhausted government resources for the sector. Although many members nodded in agreement with the former Edo governor, the bills were still passed for 2nd reading.

It is thus time to call on members of the National Assembly to put a halt to their practice of bringing agencies into existence through the passage of bills. For an agency to be viable and indeed for it to survive over time, there are many other things that ought to be done before a law is passed to bring legitimacy to bear on the concerned agency. For example, the Senate in 2022 sought to introduce six new campuses of the Nigerian Law School without the involvement of the relevant authority- the Council for Legal Education. The six campuses were to be sited in the villages of certain Senators. No feasibility studies were carried out to ascertain the suitability of the locations just as none of the villages had adequate infrastructure to support the birth of the schools.

Now that Adams Oshiomhole has regained his tenacity as an activist, there is doubt if it is fair for us to look forward to when he can boldly tell the nation about the real take-homepay (not just salaries) of our legislators. If he tries it, he may not survive the hammer of the Senate. Another activist, Shehu Sani who tried it some years ago was to later confess that he was lucky to be rescued by some powerful forces.

IN 2022, the United Nations listed five countries threading the infamy path of famine.

They are Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen.

Muhammadu Buhari was the President of Nigeria then and there isn’t on record, definite and definitive policies by his administration to ensure the foretold hunger anarchy did not visit his own, whether his beloved North or despised South. Since 2019 when Audu Innocent Ogbeh was pulled out as Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development for Sabo Nanono, even the hope-stirring anti-hunger rhetoric and optics, first brought onboard by Innocent’s predecessor and now high-flying globalist, Dr Akinwunmi Adesina, had dried up. Less than two years after the warning that Nigeria risked becoming one of the hungriest nations on the earth, it has now happened.

Even for the duo of the politician, Minister Mustapha Baba Shehuri and the technocrat; Permanent Secretary Ernest Afolabi Umakhihe, currently managing the critical ministry, cluelessness will be the most-apt, to describe their response to the existential food crisis and exorbitant costing, confronting Nigerians today.

A partner of the global body and US-based non-profit, Action Against Hunger, wrote recently while soliciting donations to support malnourished nations, “According to the United Nations, right now, an all-time high of as many as 49 million people in 46 countries could be at risk of falling into famine if they do not get urgent assistance. The countries at highest risk of famine in 2022 are Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan, and Yemen. While famine hasn’t been declared – and it may never be – the warning bells are now ringing, and the world must listen. We cannot wait for an official famine designation to take action to save lives.”

The NGO added “To declare a famine, the world turns to the Integrated Phase Classification (IPC) system a framework involving governments, UN agencies, non-profit organizations, civil society, and other relevant partners. Together, using the IPC’s scientific standards and analytical approach, partners classify the severity and magnitude of food crises in a country. The IPC has five phases for hunger crises, ranging from Phase 1 (Minimal/None) to Phase 5 (Catastrophic/Famine), and each has its own set of technical criteria”.

A nation is deemed to be in Phase 1 (Minimal/None) if “More than four in five households (HHs), are able to meet essential food and non-food needs without engaging in atypical, unsustainable strategies to access food and income”.

Phase 2 (known as Stressed) happens to a people when “Even with any humanitarian assistance at least one in five HHs in the area have the following or worse: Minimally adequate food consumption but are unable to afford some essential non-food expenditure without engaging in irreversible coping strategies”.

Anti-hunger stakeholders hold that at the third Phase, tagged the Crisis phase, it would be that “Even with any humanitarian assistance at least one in five HHs in the area have the following or worse: Food consumption gaps with high or above usual acute malnutrition OR are marginally able to meet minimum food needs only accelerated depletion of livelihood assets that will lead to food consumption gaps”.

At Emergency level in Phase 4 “Even with any humanitarian assistance at least one in five HHs in the area have the following or worse: Large food consumption gaps resulting in very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality OR extreme loss of livelihood assets that will lead to food consumption gaps in the short term”.

Famine is finally declared at Phase 5, when “Even with any humanitarian assistance at least one in five HHs in the area have an extreme lack of food and other basic needs where starvation, death and destitution are evident. Evidence for all three criteria (food consumption, acute malnutrition and mortality) is required to classify famine”.

Yoruba will say “ibi to ko oju si enikan, ehin lo ko si elomiran” (people feel and view things differently), which makes it difficult to generalise the Phase the country is today, because some of those joining the hunger chorus concerts across the country, are just lending their voices in what Yoruba will call “oju aye” (joining the bandwagon not to be seen as not participating), considering that they are turbo-comfy even in the middle of the national agony.

But no doubt, majority of the population is reeling, just like the COVID-era, only that now, the hunger in the land, isn’t yet a leveller, because the super-rich still have enough to buy off the available. For everyday Nigerian, the situation is already beyond Phase 5 and in many areas, it is five households out of five, (not one, as structured by UN and other stakeholders) that have “extreme lack of food and other basic needs, where starvation, death and destitution are evident”. It would be good if Action Against Hunger and others anti-famine non-profit organizations can reach them. There is nothing to be ashamed of at this point calling for global help for those who desperately need it.

This is not writing this government off as one that can’t feed its own. It is just the reality on ground. Until people are able to farm in peace, the current ugliness won’t abate. That is why the Tinubu administration should also consider drafting civil defence officers to securing farms. Thankfully, they now bear arms. Let it be fire for fire, for bandits and kidnappers.

In 2 Timothy 3, Apostle Paul foretold of a time like we currently have in Nigeria, but his focus was on those who would get the nation there. He called it Perilous Times of the last days and the monsters that humanity would have bred.

According to him, admonishing Timothy, his protege, “This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.

“For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,

“Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

“For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

“Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.

“But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was. Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.”

What else can one add?

Last Wednesday, Nigeria’s upper parliament became a grammar class where semantics, syntax and structure are examined. His Excellency, the Senate President of Nigeria, Godswill Obot Akpabio, suddenly became an emergency interpreter and lexicographer. Akpabio’s interpreter’s dilemma reminds me of Field Marshal Gerald Templer. A senior British Army officer, Templer was best known for the implementation of strategies that heavily contributed to the defeat of the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) during the Malayan Emergency of 1949 to 1960. On the instruction of Prime Minister Winston Churchill to temper communist insurgency among the Malays, Templer arrived a Malayan village where some communist guerillas were getting assistance from villagers. In anger, Templer burst out, “You are a lot of bastards!” His interpreter reported this to the people in Malay as, “His Excellency informs you that he knows that none of your mothers and fathers were married when you were born.” Templer, still fuming like an angry python, shot another arrow, “You may be bastards but you’ll find out I’m a bigger one!” Missing the point of Templer’s vituperations completely, the interpreter announced to the bemused villagers, “His Excellency does admit however that his father was not married to his mother when he was born”!

In his language surgeon role last week, Akpabio acted like Templer’s interpreter. Cyril Fasuyi, senator representing Ekiti North in the senate, had stirred the hornet’s nest. In the process, he played the role of the wife of Odogo. The whole village had been in turmoil over the theft of a villager’s goat. It necessitated a house-to-house search. When the search party got to Odogo’s house, he was absent. Asked if the family had seen the missing goat, Odogo’s wife told the party to wait for her husband’s arrival; perhaps he might know where the goat was kept? When someone is trying to be clever by half like Fasuyi and in the process causes the escalation of a notorious fact, Yoruba compare such persons to “Adasi’ni l’orun aya Odogo.”

While raising a point of order, Fasuyi alleged that the petrel of the parliament, the voluble Senator Ali Ndume, breached his privilege in a recent comment while granting a Lagos television station an interview. At the interview session, Ndume alleged that the Bola Tinubu government had made life miserable for Nigerians and was, more or less, a Kleptocrats’ Republic. “It happened over the weekend, on the allegation, blanket allegation, by Senator Ali Ndume that everyone of us are (sic) thieves. That is a very blanket statement. I need a lot of explanation to my children and my loved ones. They want an explanation on the inference of what Senator Ali Ndume said about all of us in government… This statement has put me under public ridicule in my constituency,” Fasuyi said.

But Akpabio, the Templer interpreter, worsened the take even more. “He did not say you are a thief, he said all of you in government are kleptocrats. A thief is different,” Akpabio had explained to Fasuyi. This makes one wonder whether the Senate president goes to the parliament with his butler. Or he was plain ignorant of the grammatical connotations of kleptocracy? Akpabio’s persistent Freudian slips may speak to a certain limitation or deeper issue that we may want to look up. Same week, he chided a fellow senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan with a sexist comment. He reminded her that the senate was not a nightclub. Only narrow-minded chauvinists who believe that every beautiful woman must be a slut who frequents pubs make such remarks. Same Akpabio, during a visit to the Nigeria Institute of Legislative and Democratic Studies in Abuja in June, had made the scientifically disjunctive statement that the reintroduced national anthem – “Nigeria, We Hail Thee” – could have prevented banditry if Nigeria had not changed it in 1978. How many of such slips can one remember?

Oh, so Fasuyi was just hearing the allegation for the first time that the parliament of which he is a member, the Nigerian presidency and the Nigerian political class in general, are one colony of rogues and thieves? Wonderful! If Nigerian Senators’ children, like Fasuyi’s, and their said constituencies, compare their financial statuses before they became senators, with their stupendous wealth now, none of them will disagree that they are indeed kleptocrats. Only kleptocracy could make one transform into such stupendous material majesty. Ndume merely stated the obvious that the APC, which currently represents the Nigerian political class, is indeed a republic of kleptocrats. It however doesn’t mean that the PDP, its progenitor in government, and even Labour Party, if it ever gets into office, wouldn’t be one, too. Kleptocracy runs in the gene of the Nigerian political class. The truth of Ndume’s statement is not lost on Nigerians.

We all know that Ndume, being part of the gang of kleptocrats himself, knows the modus operandi of this kleptocracy. He is obviously shackled from revealing the specifics of his allegation by the Nigerian law of defamation. However, as my people say, we may be ignorant of all we do not know but we are certain that three people cannot stand in twos. Statistics has shown that the Nigerian political class has stolen, at a conservative estimate, over 90% of Nigeria’s resources since independence. And it is not about to stop. The pervasiveness of corruption in Nigeria, especially among the political class who occupy governmental positions, has led many to suggest that, perhaps we should stop troubling this troublous genie called corruption, welcome it with open hands as a major component of our blood corpuscles and create a hallowed space for it in our national development.

Two Thursdays ago was the United Nation’s Anti-corruption day. It is a day set aside to campaign against this lumberjack that has cut the plummest of the wealth of developing countries of the world. Chief among these lumberjacks is the political class. About this time, a report was published on the website of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). It showed that, a total of N721 billion ($1.26 billion) was paid as bribes to public officials in 2023, the bulk of whom, I am sure, were members of the political class. The dramatic irony in this is that, Abdullahi Ganduje, the man who wrote the senate for the removal of Ndume from his position as Senate Chief Whip and Deputy Chairman of the Appropriation Committee, is currently embroiled in a kleptocracy allegation, theft of stupendous public fund. The N721 billion theft report came from findings by an NBS partnership with the United Nations office on Drugs and Crimes. In August last year, after concluding ministerial screening, Akpabio allowed slip a tiny speck of how the National Assembly is a major kleptocracy hub. While addressing senators, Akpabio said, “In order to enable all of us to enjoy our holidays, a token has been sent to our various accounts by the clerk of the national assembly.” That token is a euphemism for bribe, details of which can never be found in any books. It will be subsumed under an opaque graft heading.

So, when Fasuyi, like a harlot feigning prudery, claims his children and constituents were shocked that his party had been called kleptocrats, Nigerians must have smothered a rude giggle. The Distinguished kleptocracy-denouncing Senator will first have to prove, as it is said in law, that the Nigerian political class has honour, ab-initio.

More telling in this kleptocratic discourse is a growing atmosphere of despotism and impatience for opposing view in Nigeria’s parliament. When former Senate president Ahmad Lawan made that noxious statement that every bill brought by the Buhari government would be passed in the Green Chambers, Nigerians thought his’ was the height of legislative groveling. Today, we witness a senate that confidently and unashamedly weaves a groveling before the executive with legislative tyranny. The result is a disgraceful national coat-of-many-colours. For saying the obvious, Abdul Ningi was suspended by this same senate and nothing happened.

Similar fate befell Ndume last week for saying what every Nigerian knows about this government. Fasuyi even set up a Ningi-type crucifix for Ndume so that he could be similarly hanged. In the executive last week, a bill seeking the establishment of a Local Government Election Commission found its way into the senate. Perhaps, what will follow is Alpha Beta collecting taxes in councils and all LG funds paid into the Treasury Single Account (TSA). The federal government is already a behemoth controlling 52.68% revenue. States and local governments are left with 26.72% and 20.60% to share. The question then is, who peers searchlight into what FG does with its own money? It is why we periodically throw up the Diezani Maduekes, Godwin Emefieles (who knows who the corruption poster-boy of this government will be). It is also why the humongous corruption at the Humanitarian Affairs ministry will not abate; why a minister could fuel her car from Abuja to Anambra state with a whopping N1.5million and yet arrogantly ask, “what is the big deal?”

All these remind me of Late Chief Adebayo Faleti’s “Òrò yìí ó mà l’éyìn” warning in the famed Yoruba movie, Saworoide. “Òrò yìí ó mà l’éyìn”, literally translated, means, there sure is a repercussion or eventuality to any action. Nigeria has already established the trinity of a kow-towing, lapdog and tyrannical senate. An executive of doubtful probity and accountability pedigree, but with humongous resources, is also a done deal. When mixed with a captive judiciary inside the presidential pouch, we may just be walking down the alley of a scenario predicted by Anthony Enahoro on the floor of the House of Representatives in 1962. Looking into his divinity board, I presume, Enahoro proclaimed that Nigeria was embarking on a journey the end of which no one knew. That end happened four years after. With a Nigerian public whose capacity to dispassionately interrogate the honesty of thoughts of their leaders is yielding space, we are already in trouble. Add this to a Hallelujah chorus group that grows everyday, in spite of the overwhelming hunger in the land, the trouble quadruples. Together, they are leading us to how Germans and Italians clapped on their leaders while busy fiddling with trivialities. Gradually, Hitler and Mussolini cobbled together the wools of dictatorship.

For Olatunji Dare at 80

I have, on countless occasions, told the story of how then 1990 killing of journalists, Kris Imodibie of The Guardian and Tayo Awotunsin of the Champion newspapers by Charles Taylor in the Liberian war tilled the land of my path to journalism. As a retelling, I had been downcast as a student of Philosophy at the University of Lagos on the prospect of a job upon graduation. Yet a sophomore, one day, as I read Imodibie’s profile in the Daily Times inside the library of Unilag, I found out that he graduated from my department in 1984. I was super-excited and told myself that I could be a journalist, too. Beginning from then, I spent every penny of allowances given me by my father on typing articles which I subsequently sent to virtually all Nigerian newspapers. One of those newspapers was The Guardian.

One day, I walked into Rutam House. I had a typed copy of an opinion article I wrote. Directed to the office of the chairman of the editorial board, I met the chair’s secretary who casually waved me into the chair’s office. There sat a man I had idolized over the years in the calmest of miens I had ever seen. Olatunji Dare. Even as a student, his serpentine weave of language and mesmerizing satire stood him out among writers of the time. That unexampled craft, especially his satire, has been aped unsuccessfully, indeed fatally, by many who attempted to patent it.

Dare looked up the young boy before him that day as I thrust a copy of the article in his hands. He apparently read the first paragraph. “Young man, are you sure you wrote the piece?” he asked me. I assured him I did. He then thanked me as I left his office. A few days after, the piece was published. I nearly set my room on fire that day. To be published by the Guardian! I hadn’t finished celebrating meeting my writing idol when the joy of being published in the Guardian came.

I didn’t get to converse with one of Nigeria’s greatest essayists and columnists until many years after. I had been guest of Professor Wale Adebanwi, then of the University of California, Davis, in his house in Sacramento when he engaged in a phone conversation with Prof Dare. He promptly told him I was his guest and Prof sought to speak with me. He wondered why I declined to partake in a festschcrift in his honour and I apologized that a communication breakdown must have been responsible.

Prof Dare has over the years earned his badge as one of Nigeria’s major public sphere assets. On his 80^th birthday, we can only wish him many more fruitful years. And the grace to witness the maturation of the Eldorado he wishfully penned for Nigeria.

Three Gbosas for the god of the gut

Perhaps the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) didn’t know: Since the days of Paschal Bafyau, Nigerians have had a huge trust deficit for so-called labour activists who sell their people at the drop of a hat. So, when on Thursday last week, officials of the NLC walked to the Aso Rock Villa, singing a mimed “three Gbosas” song like kindergarten children just given a pack of noodles, the people suspected that the ancient alimentary consideration had interfered with a laudable activism.

How did the wage construct of N650,000 that the NLC built suddenly collapse to N70,000? If the NLC knew it was heading towards that miserable sum in the face of the daunting existential crises that Nigerian workers face, why shoot up the people’s adrenaline this high? The truth is that the union’s sincerity exemplified by the likes of Michael Imoudu, Wahab Goodluck, Hassan Sunmonu and Ali Chiroma is gone forever. Who will take labour seriously any longer? The NLC wasted the time of Nigerians and took the people for granted.