Terrorists, bandits, and killer herdsmen have since declared war on Nigeria. Coming to terms with this situation is necessary for a better response and more workable strategies. The form of war the country is currently experiencing is asymmetric warfare, which involves deep psychological issues. To begin with, conventional armies of nations are ill-prepared for non-positional, i.e., asymmetric warfare. The military confronting asymmetric wars does more improvising than drawing from foundational training. It is not their forte.

The enemies in asymmetric warfare may even consist of active military personnel of the nation. This is typically observed in its most extreme forms when terrorism is motivated by religious ideology, as is the case with Boko Haram terrorism.

Another significant problem is that even intelligent and patriotic people have sometimes justified terrorism, leading experts to say that “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter.” Therefore, it is tough to persuade those who view terrorists as fighting for freedom in the country to recommend and implement laws that call for the eradication of bandits and terrorists. Negotiations or soft strategies like Operation Safe Corridor—which the military has been pursuing since the Buhari administration—would be preferred by them.

Operation Safe Corridor appears to be a humane policy that gives terrorists who repent of their ways the opportunity to be rehabilitated and reintegrated back into society. However, the reality is that we are dealing with soulless demons that have been completely despiritualised, which calls into question the desirability of such humane policies.

Two main issues should concern everyone: the first is the worrying issue of recidivism—that is, the act of a terrorist or offender who has been pardoned reoffending or going back to the same offence. The second is the fear that these terrorists will falsely claim repentance when they have not.

The latter is far more possible in the case of Boko Haram terrorists because the Nigerian military and ISIS are pressing the sect’s fighters on both sides. Most of them would accept the chance to emerge from the Sambisa forest and receive rehabilitation rather than face certain death.

The fundamental problem is that religion has a way of influencing people’s thoughts when they associate their acts of terrorism with divine forces and their promises. The religious terrorism brainwashing includes the promises of a triumphant entry into heaven and a promised departure from this miserable planet. Some are promised as many as 70 virgins if they die for such a ‘holy’ cause. One wonders how one man would manage 70 virgins, but then, this further confirms that Nigeria is not dealing with a rational situation here.

Youths who are jobless, disenfranchised, and largely illiterate make up a large and lucrative recruiting pool for terrorist groups, especially in the Northeast, where many more are joining terrorism to escape destitution. The protection of people’s lives and property as well as the wellbeing of the populace are the two basic duties of government that successive Nigerian governments have failed to fulfil.

Through the promotion of purposefully wrong policies, crisis entrepreneurs are making the war against terrorism last longer.

Let it be stated: until the Nigerian military seizes control of Sambisa and other Nigerian forests, terrorism will not stop. That’s the reason somewhere else stated that the first stage of the solution is to relocate the villages in and around the Sambisa forest so that the military of the country can focus on positional warfare. The Nigerian military’s piecemeal “hit and run” strategy is ineffective and can last for decades unless asymmetric warfare is converted to a somewhat symmetric one.

If Nigeria is to have any chance of defeating these soulless creatures, it must make long-term plans. The defeat of the Tamil Tigers by the Sri Lankan military offers lessons for our country. After more than 20 years of fighting, Sri Lanka’s military forces decisively defeated the Tamil Tigers, also known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, in 2009, ending the Tigers’ battle against the country.

The prescription may seem like an outlier given that Sambisa forest crosses multiple northeastern states. However, we cannot expect to win the war against terrorism altogether unless the military of the country seizes control of Sambisa and other vital forests where the terrorists and outlaws live in communities, trains, plot, and launch their operations.

Every battle with terrorists and bandits can only result in a fleeting triumph for the Nigerian military, as the terrorists would beat a retreat only to resurface like a simmering fire that was extinguished and then revived by the wind.

Sambisa forest and other forests have to be intentionally taken back and physically occupied by the Nigerian military, step by step, even if it takes a decade or more. With the Tamil Tigers, Sri Lanka proceeded in such a manner. It will always be impossible to vanquish the terrorists as long as they are in control of some land. Therefore, the best course of action is to begin a slow but consistent pushback and retake all swats of land and forests the terrorists have taken and hoisted their flags, renamed, appointed administrators, and collected taxes.

The military ought to form a special combat brigade dedicated to combating terrorism. The special force should be put on live assurance, have unique pay, and be constituted by volunteerism. The majority of the special brigade should consist of retired military and police personnel who feel challenged and capable of serving their country again and are willing to risk their lives for it.

The special pay must be given out free of bureaucracy or politics. In this manner, the country will draw volunteers who will receive specialised training—which might even require two years—to get them ready for this unique operation.

The war against terrorism has become a business for crisis entrepreneurs, and they don’t want it to end. Additionally, there is outside meddling. You can find foreign non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Maiduguri that have been operating for more than a decade. If not for foreign interest in terrorism in Nigeria, then what role do they play?

It is also well known that these villages are the reason the Nigerian military is hesitant to completely assault the forests. For this reason, the villages must be moved outside of the combat zone, allowing for the subsequent elimination of everything that moves.

Additionally, the military wants to rescue the kidnappees. Nigerians have to acknowledge that the country no longer has those. The abductees who are lucky to be rescued in the heat of the operation are lucky. The point is that total military operations should not be hindered because of the abductees the terrorists and bandits are using as human shields.

Furthermore, capturing the forests will push the terrorists and outlaws into positional warfare, an area where the country’s military is well-versed and superior. Then, ‘victoria ascerta’—victory is certain.

Dr Law Mefor, an Abuja-based forensic and social psychologist, is a fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought. You can connect with him via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @Drlawsonmefor.

Commuters on the “Trunk A Road” as it was labelled, traversing Kabba-Aiyetoro Gbedde-Mopa-Isanlu-Egbe communities in Kogi state must have observed frenetic construction activities at the Egbe section of the road abutting Kwara state. I’m told vehicular movement is infrequent these days because of the decrepit condition of the road, its attendant loneliness and its susceptibility to the murderers’ rascality of criminals.

Travellers to parts of Kwara, Oyo and Osun, from parts of the North notably Nasarawa, Benue, Kogi and the Federal Capital Territory, (FCT) these days, prefer the Kabba-Omuo Ekiti road which is marginally less degenerate. Okun-Yoruba people domiciled in their traditional abodes desiring to conduct business in the contemporary Kwara state to which they once belonged, however, are left with no option but to ply the road under discussion. For them, it will be easier to catch glimpses of ongoing construction in the area I previously alluded to.

There is a signpost with the inscription Ido Egbe in the part of the expansive Egbe community where the said development is proceeding. A luminous perimeter fence covers the generous hectarage being developed at the said site. One particular structure rises sky high above the several others all capped with lemon-green aluminium roofing. The buildings vary in shape and size even as they are at various stages of completion. A long vehicle rests around the ongoing development one of many others feeding the project with its needs. You cannot but ask yourself whether the complex is a creation of the federal or state government, or a private investor desirous of doing business in the community. Or could it be a model residential estate?

The project under reference is a Military Foreward Operating Base (FOB) being developed by Sunday Karimi, the senator representing Kogi West Senatorial Zone. Over the years, parts of the district have come under premeditated attack by armed robbers, kidnappers and unfeeling herdsmen. At various times, cold-blooded robbers have attacked banks operating in several communities in the zone. In every instance, they left behind a trail of crimson blood, sorrow and tears. From Kabba to Aiyetoro-Gbedde to Isanlu, to Odo-Ere and Egbe in Kogi West, the pattern of the hoodlums has been pretty much the same. They launch surprise attacks on the police stations in each community. They thus neutralise the capacity of the law enforcement agents to engage them when they eventually swoop on their major targets, the banks.

First Bank, Mainstreet Bank, United Bank for Africa, (UBA) and Access Bank at various times have been robbed by the hoodlums during banking hours. The callousness of the non-essentials was so grave on every occasion that it spiralled down the subsistence economy of the locals. The banks shut down for long spells ostensibly to rethink their continuing operation or not in the district vis-a-vis the losses they incurred. They equally evaluated the costs of rebuilding decimated structures and facilities in each instance relative to whatever fiscal trickles they earned, juxtaposed with the costs of providing services to their predominantly low-income customers. We are talking about farmers, small-scale entrepreneurs, school teachers and local government employees mainly.

More recently, kidnapping for ransom a trend hitherto heard about from very distant ecologies, has become another dimension of criminal pastimes by faceless groups. Sleepy communities in Yagba East and Yagba West local government areas basking in their rustic innocence and quietude, have been rudely violated by harbingers of grief and lachrymose. In January this year, six people were kidnapped within a space of 48 hours, around Isanlu, the headquarters of Yagba East. Three of them lost their lives trying to escape from their abductors. Two women were picked up from Ejiba in Yagba West last May, by a gang of one dozen gun-toting brigands. Okunland, which previously epitomised the purest innocence, calmness, serenity and safety, has been grievously intruded upon. This is not forgetting the impudence and insult of having irreverent Fulani nomads marching their herds through our farmlands destroying the subsistence investments of the people.

As a fairly regular visitor to my home community for sundry events and programmes, I’ve often been very concerned about the inadequacy of the capacity of security operatives at the local levels. I speak here about insufficient personnel and armament wherewithal in our localities. Isanlu for instance is the headquarters of the Yagba federal constituency which aggregates Yagba East, Yagba West and Mopamuro local governments. It is host to the area command of the police and oversees the three local government areas in question. I will be amazed, however, if there are up to 150 officers and men, or half that number of serviceable armaments in the armoury of the area command. I had reason to request police cover for a family event we hosted about six years ago. The police apologetically replied and alluded to the inadequacy of manpower. I resorted to the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, (NSCDC) as a backup plan. I was told straight up that the entirety of my local government area was served by 15 civil defence personnel.

Critically, I was informed that most of the men had indeed been taken up by traditional rulers. The kings as it were desired that their royalty be heralded at every stop, courtesy of state uniform-wearing operatives functioning as human furniture, who sit on the front seats of their vehicles. The royalties resorted to civil defence staff in the absence of police personnel to serve as orderlies. Such are the confounding statistics and realities of the security architecture in our suburban communities. Let’s be reminded that hoodlums perfect their operational strategies before they take on a target, institution or community. This of course includes distilling the prevailing personnel and armament strengths of their targets. This explains why police stations in rural communities are almost always the first targets where security personnel are neutralised and the armouries accessed and looted to strengthen their capacities.

Against the backdrop of such embarrassing and condemnable state failure at the very centre to protect and secure its citizens, this very basic constitutionally non-negotiable responsibility has had to be taken up not by subregionals, but by private individuals. This is the new normal as we find in the example under interrogation. One has heard elsewhere of privileged Nigerians or organisations partnering with security and intelligence services in the provision of operational needs and infrastructure. The Military Forward Operating Base in Egbe, however, is 100% privately funded by Sunday Karimi. He has taken a broader view of the concerns of his people, to assuage their overwhelming security worries. It is a tall and ambitious project daring to conceive and build from foundation, a complex which can probably pass as a modern military barracks, but Karimi has confronted the challenge headlong.

The “Foreward Operating Base” project under review is without doubt a visionary concept. It has the “observatory,” the tall structure which dwarfs the rooftops in the upcoming premises, where soldiers on guard duties will get a good view of the area and sensitise ground troops in the event of a possible threat. There is a security post and a mini-administrative block. There are also two blocks of 12 rooms each all ensuite, which come to 24 rooms for the “rank and file,” the junior officers. Boreholes have been drilled and will pump water to overhead tanks which will service the facilities and premises, downstream. Two units of three-bedroom bungalows are provided for officers, while there is also a rendezvous spot, an “officer’s mess” as is tradition with the military. Hopefully, a skeletal “mammy market” for the junior officers will spawn when the facility in its wholeness is operationalised.

Expectedly, Karimi has either engaged with the military high command for the adequate manning of the facility or has prioritised this now that the Egbe project is nearing completion. This again is part of the systemic dysfunction consuming our nation and we the citizenry. Why should government departments have to be begged and lobbied to do their jobs? This again beggars the question of either unthinkable complacency or pure lack of capacity in statecraft.

On account of his present effort in helping to secure the lives and belongings of his people, Karimi deserves our collective applause. Like Leke Abejide, his colleague in the House of Representatives who has championed impactful causes for his people, Karimi in this instance, has chosen to deviate from the despicable practice by some of our representatives, who have gleefully weaponised poverty. These are the mindless politicians who waylay our hapless rural folks with sachets of salt and packets of pasta on poll day.

Olusunle, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA).

THE Senate, on July 4, 2024, passed for a second reading a bill that seeks to remove police retirees from the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS. Promoters of the bill, which seeks, among other things, to replace the Nigeria Police Force Pensions Limited, NPF Pensions, the pension fund administrator, PFA, charged with the exclusive administration of police pensions, with the Nigeria Police Pensions Board, aver that it will correct the inequality in the pension benefits paid to police retirees vis-à-vis their counterparts in other security agencies.

Let me state from the onset that it will not. Instead, the exit will make the lot of an average police retiree more precarious. I will explain shortly.

Leading the debate, the sponsor of the bill, Senator Binos Yaroe, who represents Adamawa-South in the Red Chamber, lamented the poor pension of retired police officers.

“The inclusion and continuous stay of the NPF in the PenCom has placed them on the wrong end of the post-service emolument life, even though the Nigeria Police is saddled with the responsibility of not only protecting the lives and property of the citizenry but detecting crimes,” Yaroe said.

On the face value, his argument is very seductive but it was all déjà vu because the issues he raised are as old as the CPS itself. Numerous public hearings have been organised by both chambers of the National Assembly on the issue of exemption. For instance, on February 22, 2022, the House of Representatives Committee on Pensions held a public hearing on two bills for the amendment of the Pension Reform Act 2014, with the first bill sponsored by Francis Ejiroghene Waive, seeking “to amend the Pension Reform Act 2014 to provide for the exemption of the Nigeria Police Force from the Contributory Pension Scheme and for related matters.”

To be sure, nothing is wrong in calling for an enhanced retirement package for the police because when it comes to issues of welfare and salaries, they hold the wrong end of Nigeria’s emolument stick.

But the low police pension is neither the making of National Pension Commission, PenCom, nor NPF Pensions Limited. The pension is paltry because historically, police salaries remain embarrassingly measly. Therefore, the solution lies outside the exemption paradigm as canvassed.

Today, NPF Pensions is the most thriving police-affiliated institution because it is run by professionals from outside the police establishment, and not manacled by the asphyxiating police. Not only that, PenCom has carved for itself the niche of being the most efficient regulator in the country’s fiscal space.

When the Pension Reform Act 2004 was enacted, the idea was to have a new scheme that is not only contributory and fully funded but also privately managed, with funds and assets based on individual accounts under third party custody. The overarching goal was to ensure, unlike in the Defined Benefits Scheme, DBS, that everyone who has worked receives retirement benefits as and when due.

But the government, which modelled the country’s CPS after the Chilean scheme that exempted all its armed forces, retained the police while exempting the Army, the Nigeria Intelligence Agency, NIA, and the Department of State Security, DSS.

The subsequent agitation for exit led to the incorporation of NPF Pensions on October 21, 2013, as a mono-clientele PFA exclusively responsible for the pension assets of all police personnel in Nigeria. It started operations a year later, making it the 21st PFA in accordance with the 2014 Pension Reform Act (PRA 2014).

The PFA became a roaring success instantly. Today, not only is it the most successful police investment entity, it has become the measuring rod in the pension industry with Assets under Management, AuM, crossing the N1 trillion threshold, making it the fourth biggest PFA.

Yet, the success has not deterred the exemption protagonists who seek to amend section 5 (1) of the Pension Reform Act of 2014, to include officers of the NPF as part of the categories of persons exempted from contributory pension.

But exiting the CPS will not serve the ultimate goal of enhancing the welfare and well-being of officers and men of the Nigeria Police because that route will lead, once again, to the Defined Benefits Scheme which was abandoned in 2004 because of its impracticability.

Exemption as being canvassed will also ultimately lead to the dismantling of the institutions, systems and processes that government has put in place towards the implementation of the pension reform scheme, in addition to upsetting government’s fiscal policy.

Data from PenCom reveals that as at January 31, 2024, Nigeria’s pension fund assets stands at N19.531 trillion, which represents more than ten per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product, GDP. When contrasted with Federal Government’s budgetary pension deficit, estimated at N2 trillion as at June 2004 under the Defined Benefits Scheme, it will be suicidal to hearken to the exemption calls.

Therefore, since the elephant in the room is the abysmally low pension of police retirees, which has to do with ridiculously low salaries, rather than legislating for exemption, the government should administratively address the issue of low wages through upward salary adjustment, maximizing the opportunity of the ongoing new minimum wage negotiation. As Aisha Dahir-Umar, PenCom director-general, once noted: “Pension is a function of salary, and as long as the salary of officers continues, then there is no need to exit.”

What needs to be done?

At a three-day investigative hearing by the House of Representatives Committee on Pensions in March 2020, measures were articulated by Dr. Sule Wuro Bokki, former Managing Director of NPF Pensions, which if taken, will holistically address the plight of police retirees and mitigate the constant clamour for exit.

The first is a presidential approval of special gratuity for police retirees at the rate of 300 per cent of their last annual gross pay so that the balances in their Retirement Savings Account, RSAs, will be channeled towards their monthly pension payments. This will be in accordance with Section 4 (4) of the Pension Reform Act which provides that an employer, notwithstanding the provisions of the Act, may agree on the payment of additional benefits to the employee upon retirement. The second is treatment of retired police officers from the rank of AIG and above as public officers who should retire with their full benefits, as it is the case with permanent secretaries.

Besides, the major challenge faced by pension managers is the backlog of accrued rights owed by the Federal Government. Pension is made up of the accrued rights, which is the service rendered by policemen to the Federal Government from the time they enrolled in the CPS in 2004 and only payable when the officer serves notice of retirement, and the contributions from both the employee and employer.

But because the accrued rights is so huge, the illiquid Federal Government opted to pay in instalments every year. But the snag is that unless that is received, the PFAs cannot pay the portion that is with them because the account has to be consolidated. Right now, the accrued rights have not been paid in over 15 months, which means that no policeman that retired since then has been paid pension. The government may find a way of paying the accrued rights of retired officers separately to mitigate the delay.

These issues should be addressed administratively by the government. The National Assembly is in a pole position to facilitate the process rather than legislating for the exit of the police from the CPS that will destroy not only the thriving NPF Pensions Limited but also dismantle the entire contributory pension infrastructure by taking Nigeria back to the impracticable Defined Benefits Scheme and the fiscal disaster it entails when the Federal Government, once again, is saddled with the sole responsibility for police pensions. That is unrealistic.

WEST Africans on July 7, 2024, witnessed the tragic split of their region into two opposing blocs. The first time since the 1975 establishment of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS.

Eleven regional Heads of State met in Abuja under the ECOWAS umbrella while three of their counterparts: Presidents Assimi Goita of Mali, Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso and Abdourahamane Tchiani, Niger, met in Niamey for the inaugural Summit of the Alliance of Sahel States, AES.

Given these separate meetings, the matter is no longer a question of recalling those three countries, or their returning to ECOWAS. It became more an issue of how to merge both organisations that are developing different structures and have two diametrically opposed political views.

The ECOWAS, which is set in its old bureaucratic ways, is more conservative with clear pro-West sympathies. In contrast, the AES which is manifesting more radical inclinations, seems impatient with economic and political integration and is manifestly pro-East.

While the latter has made up its mind to move on and may want other countries to join it, ECOWAS is playing an elder brother’s role of urging its siblings to return to the homestead. But in doing so, ECOWAS does not seem to understand that as far as the AES members are concerned, they are fighting a war of survival in which they are in the firing sights of France and the United States. Also, ECOWAS seems oblivious of the fact that the troika have rejected the old model of trade in which the underdeveloped countries are brutally exploited and impoverished by the West. For instance, Niger Republic is irritated that while it is the fourth largest producer of uranium in the world and lights up one third of France, 80 per cent of its populace have no electricity. So it had to rely on neigbouring Nigeria for electricity supply, which was cut off following the July 26, 2023 coup. It is also angry that while additionally, the country is rich in gold, iron ore, phosphate, tin, salt, gypsum and petroleum, Niger is one of the poorest countries in the world. Furthermore, it was unhappy that while its territory had been turned into French and American military bases, terrorists and bandits were freely running around.

Burkina Faso does not see why as one of the largest producers of gold, copper, zinc, manganese, limestone and phosphate, 40 per cent of its populace should live below the poverty line. Similarly, Mali is angry that despite its huge gold, marble, salt and kaolin deposits, 42.5 per cent of Malians are under the poverty line. So, they not only decided that the trade relations with the rest of the world should change, but that they also need an urgent mutual defence pact to jointly tackle the terrorist challenge they face.

ECOWAS seems comfortable with such exploitative trade relations. It also seems at home issuing bland statements and declarations. For instance, its July 7, 2024 communiqué contained flat statements like welcoming “the positive economic outlook for ECOWAS in 2024”, noting “the persistent inflationary pressures and growing public debt ratio” and, asking Member States to continue implementing economic and financial policies “that will lead to compliance with the macroeconomic convergence.”

The ECOWAS lack of seriousness was visible last week on the basic issue of a common currency, the Eco. It had announced its birth in 2000 and, promised to introduce it in 2003. But last week, two dozen years later, it was just directing its Commission to submit a “draft Supplementary Act defining the modalities for the participation of Member States in the Monetary Union at its first Ordinary Session in 2025.”

So, when ECOWAS declares it wants the three countries back, what is it offering them? Security? Economic, political or currency integration? Better economic integration or a common front against exploitation?

Unsurprisingly, ECOWAS is bungling even the issue of setting up a team to negotiate with the AES countries. The basic ECOWAS claim against them and why it decided to sanction them was allegedly because they are military regimes whereas ECOWAS is wedded to constitutional rule.

ECOWAS choice of Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye as its facilitator with the three countries, is brilliant. He symbolises the insistence of the populace to exercise sovereignty over who presides over their affairs. Even after then President Macky Sall had thrown Faye and his pro-democracy comrades into prison in a vain attempt to stop their election, ECOWAS, rather than condemn this, was praising Sall as a fine democrat and encouraging “him to continue to defend and protect Senegal’s long-standing democratic tradition”. Despite these obstacles, Faye moved from prison to the Presidential Palace.

But the ECOWAS choice of two coup plotters: President Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé of Togo, and Guinea Bissau’s General Umaro Sissoco Embaló, as co-facilitators, were blunders.

Faure’s father, General Gnassingbé Eyadema who had on April 14, 1967 overthrown the Togolese government, died in office on February 5, 2005 after 38 years in power. Faure immediately overthrew the government. When some countries denounced his coup, he was forced to step down. But his regime immediately organised elections and he was declared elected. After 19 years in power, Faure in April, 2024, changed his country’s constitution from presidential to parliamentary, a move which extended his stay in office to 2031 after which he could be appointed into the new position of President of the Council of Ministers.

In his own case, retired General Embaló had been elected President on December 20, 2019. In May, 2022, when he had differences with the parliament, he dissolved it and ruled as a dictator. But when new parliamentary elections were conducted, his party lost. A clash in December 2023 between the National Guard and the Presidential Guard in which two persons were killed, provided Embalo an excuse to, again, dissolve the parliament. It was his second coup against the constitution. Unfortunately, ECOWAS has continued to support this civilian coup in Guinea Bissau.

At its meeting last week, rather than demand that the Embalo regime allow the parliament to reconvene and continue its constitutional duties, the ECOWAS Heads of State urged “the Government to accelerate the process of holding new legislative elections to re-establish the Popular National Assembly…”

The choice of Faure and Embalo as part of the three-person ECOWAS team to facilitate negotiations with the AES is an avoidable blunder.

At the AES inauguration, Captain Traoré thundered: “The imperialists see Africa as an empire of slaves (that) Africans belong to them, our land belongs to them, our sub-soils belong to them…this is why we have decided to revolt and to take the fate of our countries in our own hands…we came to break the chains.” Is this a voice ECOWAS recognises and wishes to accommodate?

It is a platitude to restate that Africa has been impacted negatively by colonialism and imperialism. In varying degrees, English has come to supplant Nigerian languages as the dominant mode of communication. Inevitably, this has bred an attendant recession of pre colonial traditional languages. Moreso the Yoruba, who were unarguably the first to receive Western education in Nigeria and had been receiving mass education literacy since 1842. With the legacy of this head start comes a collateral damage. 

Growing up, inability to speak fluently in Yoruba language and concomitant ability to speak fluent English was a trademark of upper class elitism and belonging in the hierarchy of social class perking order. Quite often, in such upper crust families, English was the first language of communication. A cultivated inability to speak Yoruba qualifies you to be complimented as ajẹbota ( those whose family menu substantially tends towards English/continental dishes).The popular comic, Gbenga Adeyinka, is a veteran of the dramatisation of this mockery. 

The bias against Yoruba in primary and secondary schools is illustrated in the classification of Yoruba as vernacular language. Prize awards for the best students in English and other subjects were routine save Yoruba language. Other than Dele Momodu, I don’t know any of our peers who graduated from the University in Yoruba studies. The fact that Nigeria comprises several multilingual cultural groups practically makes English our lingua franca. As an aside, baulking this neutrality and objectivity, President Muhammadu Buhari holds the dubious distinction of the first Nigerian President to address this unfortunate country in Hausa language from his sick bed in London. 

The extent to which we have become sheepishly enchanted with the English language was demonstrated by a friend living in Germany. He referred to Germans as illiterates because they could not speak English! In the spirit of the saying ‘physician heal thyself’ I once considered myself an object of pity. It was at the University of Hamburg where my hosts, all four of them, mischievously chose to converse in the Hausa language, in the full knowledge that I comprehend next to nothing of the language. Yet, I am from Nigeria.

I accept as a personal failure the substantial limitations of my own children to communicate in Yoruba. Moreso, when in the consciousness of a deepening and widespread ignorance of Yoruba tradition, I have dedicated the latter part of my educational and cultural development to proficiency in the propagation of Yoruba tradition and religion. The greater my sadness when I have the anecdotal evidence that relative to other Nigerian cultural groups ie Igbo and Hausa-Fulani, the Yoruba are worse off in the ability of their children to converse in the language of their forefathers. I needed to understand the wherewithal of this dilemma. 

Originally, it was to the Berlin conference (prior to colonialism) that we owe the sociocultural disarticulation of the Yoruba and other African nations. This was the occasion in which ‘African nations were divided and taken over by European nations. The preexisting African groups, tribes, and nations were arbitrarily divided, even if the divisions didn’t make any sense according to the indigenous peoples’. In Nigeria, prior to and after the amalgamation of 1914, colonial rule took the form of indirect rule and the partition of Nigeria into three protectorates namely the Eastern, Western and Northern protectorates.

The language of the majorities in these protectorates were the Igbo, Yoruba and the Hausa-Fulani. The essence of the indirect rule (dual mandate) was the employment of the preexisting traditional administration organs as delegated authorities of governance on behalf of the British colonialists. Of the three protectorates, the Yoruba has been the least successful in the intergenerational transfer of their mother tongue to subsequent successor generations. In the formation of the culture of the colonial and post colonial WAZOBIA the imperialist religions of Christianity and Islam have exerted varying influence on the ability of the language groups to preserve their culture. 

In the Pan Islamic North, (after the colonial military subjugation of the Sokoto Caliphate), the theocratic rulers successfully negotiated the insulation of the region from Christian proselytization and evangelism (and a concomitant preservation of the emirate system) with Lord Lugard. The latter readily granted the concession because it roundly suited the deployment of the indirect rule and his innate bias for the region. This provided the North an ample opportunity to preserve their Pan Arabic culture and language in opposition to Westernization/ Modernisation.

Prior to colonialism and contemporary Nigeria, the Igbo dominated (hitherto) Eastern region had remained impermeable to the jihadist spread of Islam thus ceding the playfield to the monopoly of Christian proliferation and acculturation (Igbos’ sense of common identity as a single people is said to have grown particularly in the last century, in the face of colonialism, and grew even into a national identity when Igbo people tried to declare their independence from Nigeria in 1967. Despite their inability to achieve that independence, Igbo have continued to standardize the language and build a somewhat more shared pan-Igbo identity).

Unlike these two colleagues, the Yoruba were simultaneously rendered prone to the incursion of the two imperialist religions under whose influence they became more culturally diffused and liberal. You will likely find more mixed marriages among the Yoruba than other ethnic groups. Whilst Christianity penetrated through the South West coastal city of Lagos and adjoining provinces of Abeokuta, Islam burst forth from Ilorin and the ruins of the destruction and dislocation of the Oyo empire. Recent data suggests that the Yoruba population are evenly divided between Christian and Muslims thus precluding the cultural enclave mentality. 

The phenomenon of the diaspora returnees equally fostered the unintended consequence of reinforcing the attenuation of intergenerational transfer of the Yoruba language. The returnees were, in the main, culturally English following their Euro-American diaspora acculturation. A byproduct of this cultural background was its instrumentality to socioeconomic upward mobility and assimilation into the ranks of the mid echelon of the colonial elite. This is in contrast and juxtaposition to the self-conscious anti colonialist cultural posture manifested in such variables as the replacement of their European names with Yoruba names. Consciousness of this collateral damage to the preservation of Yoruba culture has manifested in the resurgence of scholarship on Yoruba traditional religion, Ifa.

As elaborated by the he President of the International Council for Ifa Religion, (ICIR), Dr. Fayemi Fatunde Fakayode “The issue of Yoruba Language and Religion can be compared to a Computer whose hardware cannot function without the software. In the case of Yoruba culture, Language and other components are hardware while Yoruba Religion is the software on which other components rely.

“Today, Yoruba Language is an International Language because, all the people who practice Yoruba Religion irrespective of color or race need to be versed in Ifa, the scripture which can only be rendered in Yoruba Language. As Arabic is the language of the holy Quran so is Yoruba the language of Ifá.

“Therefore, as the spread of Islam throughout the world makes Arabic international so is Yoruba Religion makes Yoruba Language international. This is because, once one accepts a religion, one automatically accepts the culture of the source of the religion”.

“The future of Yoruba Language and Culture is promising because it is witnessing a renaissance. Yoruba religion is said to be in the sixth position among the religions of the world today. It is certain that as Yoruba Religion continues to grow, so will the language and culture continue”

It is equally the opinion of this writer that versatility and proficiency in spoken Yoruba language is concomitant with highly informed familiarity with Ifa inspired Yoruba vocabulary and idiom which ‘often convey deep theological or metaphysical meaning.

According to Professor Wande Abimbọla “The decay we are seeing everywhere in Nigeria is the result of the large scale abandonment of the traditional way of our fathers and mothers. We have condemned our way of life and embraced foreign culture. You can be a Christian or Muslim and still see some values in the way of life of our forefathers. Today, parents give their children Mary, Michael, Rasheed or Isiaka. Where are our own names? That kind of life is ruining our culture and our view of the universe in which we live. It leads to hopelessness”

“Professor Bolaji Idowu highlights the significance of the religion of the Yoruba that permeates their lives so much that it expresses itself in multifarious ways. It forms the theme of songs, makes topics more minstrelsy, finds vehicles in myths, folktales, proverbs and saying and it is the basis of philosophy.” (Bolaji Idowu)

It is noteworthy, that as African indigenous religion (the core element and organising principle of Yoruba tradition) was steadily losing adherence, legitimacy and acceptance at home, a contrary trend ensued in the diaspora especially in South America where ‘African descendants in Brazil adopted the Yoruba religious culture (as Afro-Brazilian) and built an all embracing African identity around its universal character’. The phenomenon prompted the remark by Robin Horton on a contemporary ‘Ifa distinctiveness being dramatically revealed, not in Yorubaland itself, but in the Afro- American societies of Brazil’.

A Refresher On Colonialism 

It is often unnoticed for instance that the only non Western nations to have successfully modernised-Japan and China-are those that have not been colonised. Is it an accident that all Asian and African nations formerly colonised by Europeans have a uniform history of failure in attempts to modernise? (Professor Peter Ekeh)

Professor Festus Ade-Ajayi deployed the proclivity of the colonial rulers to employ “as a weapon of domination the demoralization and frustration that came from denying basic humanity to peoples of Africa descent by denying that they had a history”

Jean-Paul Sartre (in wretched of the earth) calls colonialism ‘the sinister strategy of erasing native identities in which the aim is to supplant Indigenous culture with the colonizer’s own, leaving the population in a vacuum of identity’.

“It was not the benevolence of European nations that attracted them to Africa. It was the search for wealth that they could exploit. Indeed, some of the coastal nations of West Africa were once known by the commodities that lay beneath their soils: Gold Coast (now Ghana) was known for its gold; Ivory Coast or Cote D’voire was known for its ivory and Guinea, or Republic of Guinea was known for its gold coins from which the guinea as currency was made” (WalterRodney). 

Indeed, only a person with Nnaji’s faith in Nigeria could insist, for a whole 20 years, on proceeding with the 181Megawatt Geometric Power Plant in Aba and the Aba Power Electric Company; both are valued at $800m. All these investments were in the face of spirited sabotage by top Federal Government officials between 2012 and 2015. The fact that the Aba Independent Power Project was commissioned last February 26, is nothing short of a miracle. It is frequently difficult to comprehend what drives Nnaji’s optimism against all evidence and rationality. This is all the more so because, as the great American thinker, Francis Fukuyama, notes in The End of History and The Last Man, we live in a world where pessimists are considered profound and optimists are regarded as naïve, even in instances where events eventually vindicate optimists.

Embattled Kenyan President William Ruto has dissolved his cabinet in response to lingering youth-led national anger against bad governance characterised by economic hardship, insensitivity and extravagance by government officials and police brutality.

“Upon reflection, listening keenly to what the people of Kenya have said and after a holistic appraisal of the performance of my Cabinet and its achievements and challenges, I have… decided to dismiss with immediate effect all the Cabinet Secretaries and the Attorney-General from the Cabinet of the Republic of Kenya except the Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs,” he said in a four-page statement released by State House on Thursday.

He added: “I will immediately engage in extensive consultations across different sectors and political formations, with the aim of setting up a broad-based government that will assist me in accelerating and expediting the necessary, urgent and irreversible, implementation of radical programmes to deal with the burden of debt, raising domestic resources, expanding job opportunities, eliminate wastage and unnecessary duplication of a multiplicity of government agencies and slay the dragon of corruption consequently making the government lean, inexpensive, effective and efficient.”

The public disaffection against Ruto’s government policies came to a head on June 25, when youths stormed the Kenyan Parliament and chased away MPs who assembled to pass a controversial Financial Bill 2024 that sought to impose more taxes on the long-suffering citizens.

The National Human Rights Commission reported at least 39 deaths, hundreds injured and a score of persons missing from the clashes between the protesters and security forces across the country.

After his initial tough stance, President Ruto backed down. He withdrew the controversial bill and promised to cut drains on the public treasury, such as the office of the First Lady.

In Thursday’s statement, the president said: “During this process (of extensive consultations across different sectors and political formations), the operations of government will continue uninterrupted under the guidance of Principal Secretaries and other relevant officials.”

He also pledged “additional measures in due course,” adding: “Recent events that necessitated the withdrawal of the Finance Bill, which will require a review and reorganisation of our budget and fiscal management, have brought us to an inflexion point.”

Continuing, President Ruto said “… I announced last week barring State and public officers from engaging in Harambee, I want to inform the country that the Public Fundraising Appeals Bill is now ready for publication tomorrow. Even with the progress we have made, I am acutely aware that the people of Kenya have high expectations of me and believe that this administration can undertake the most extensive transformation in our nation’s history.”

When Ruto assumed office in 2022 at age 55, leading an opposition party after resigning as deputy president, there were high hopes that a new sheriff with fresh ideas had arrived in the Kenyan divisive political scene.  

After his recent trips to the U.S. and Asia, the impression created in official quarters was that Ruto had become a darling of the superpowers. He was quoted as saying the “right things” during meetings with his interlocutors.

To reinforce this notion, Kenya recently dispatched a police contingent to assist in the stabilisation of troubled Haiti, America’s neighbour that has known more crisis than peace since its emergence as the first independent nation of freed black slaves in 1804.

The deal for the police deployment was negotiated between Nairobi and Washington under the aegis of the United Nations.

As is usually the case, this played a huge part in the budget support promised to Kenya by the IMF.

This is despite the well-documented unsavoury legacy of the Bretton Woods institution in most developing countries, hence the uncomplimentary saying: “IMF in a country today, riots tomorrow,” due to the anti-people conditionalities attached to their financial support.

Despite warnings by even former senior officials of the IMF and its cousin, the World Bank, it beggars’ belief that African leaders still fall victim.

Otherwise, why did it take the avoidable death of almost 40 Kenyans and the material losses during the protests for President Ruto to realise that his government had to consult extensively before imposing more hardships on the citizens of his country?

Perhaps, it is a credit to him to have engaged a reverse gear. However, Kenyan youth have made it clear that the citizens can no longer be taken for granted.

The same message should not be lost on Ruto’s colleagues in other African countries, who may want to carry on as if governance is about arbitrariness, impunity, self-service and the looting of state treasury for the benefit of themselves and their families at the expense of the majority.

The responsibility of every government is to improve the well-being of the people; and to protect lives and property in an environment of equal opportunity to all inspective of political affiliation, status, tribe, religion or creed.

The vault face of Kenya’s fifth President, who morphed from a PhD in Botany and Zoology into a tough politician, should be a good case study in government subjugation to people power.

It should also encourage the people to demand accountability from the leadership instead of a lukewarm attitude or support for oppressive leaders.

*Ejime is an Author, Global Affairs Analyst, and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has called for prompt action on its earlier decision to remove public universities from the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS) platform.

Naija News reports that the Council has instructed the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) to expedite the implementation of this decision, made several months ago.

This move aims to address a long-standing grievance of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), which has consistently opposed the use of IPPIS for university staff salaries.

ASUU argues that the system fails to accommodate the unique peculiarities of the academic environment.

Additionally, the Council has approved the establishment of a new National University of Science and Technology in Abuja. This decision follows an initial approval granted by former President Muhammadu Buhari on May 28, 2023, during the final days of his administration.

The new university is set to be a pioneering institution, marking the first in a planned network of Pan-African Institutes of Science and Technology.

Its primary mission will be to educate and train African scientists and technologists, thereby boosting the continent’s capacity in these critical fields.

The move to exempt universities from IPPIS and the creation of the new university signal significant steps towards resolving long-standing issues within Nigeria’s higher education system and advancing scientific and technological education in the region.

[NaijaNews]

The federal government has said that it is awaiting the report of the ombudsman, following the complaint it made challenging a report by the Daily Trust on the Samoa Agreement signed by Nigeria.

This was part of the issues discussed at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) Wednesday.

Addressing reporters after Wednesday’s FEC meeting at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris said: “There was also a discussion on the report by Daily Trust and the position of government on that report is that the federal government insisted that the report was misleading, it was false and designed to create confusion in the land.

“We expect that the industry’s ombudsman will look at the government’s complaint dispassionately and FEC will be patient to await the report of the ombudsman,” Idris said.

Idris noted that the present administration “believes in the freedom of expression, believes in the role of the media in ensuring that there is continuous and uninterrupted democracy in our land.

“So, the government is not desirous of doing anything that will harm that freedom of expression. But like we have said, where we feel there is an infringement, where we feel that the media itself or a section of it, in this case, Daily Trust has erred, because the government still believes that the report by Daily Trust is not correct, Nigerians have been misinformed, and in the process, a lot of damage has been done on the psyche of our people.

“We have made a complaint to the ombudsman to look at the report and we have sighted examples of where Daily Trust got it wrong so that Daily Trust can come clean and also mention or apologise to the nation and the government”, he said.

Also speaking, the Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, said: “The disturbing report by Daily Trust is being handled because we are conscious of press freedom, and if you notice this administration has not and will not tamper with press freedom because if you know the President, he has been an ardent supporter and believer in press freedom, in fact that is what got him up to this point.

“He is conscious of that, not only in press freedom but in fundamental human rights as enshrined in the constitution.

“Generally, government MDAs are available if there is any area that members of the Press would like to clear and the Freedom of Information Act is alive and is being rigorously honoured and in operation. So, I will advise that if there is any information that the members of the press require, it should be channelled to the appropriate MDAs before going to press”, he said.

Reps make U-Turn

In a related development, the House of Representatives yesterday made a U-Turn, saying it did not call on the federal government to suspend the implementation of the Samoa Agreement.

The clarification was made by the House spokesman, Akin Rotimi.

Rotimi, who represents Ikole/Oye Federal Constituency, Ekiti State, said that contrary to media reports, lawmakers resolved to investigate controversial clauses in the agreement to ensure that they do not violate the provisions of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

The All Progressives Congress (APC) lawmaker noted that the House urged the government to engage in widespread consultations and stakeholder engagement concerning the agreement.

He said, “During the debate, concerns were raised regarding alleged clauses purportedly mandating support for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community as a prerequisite for financial and other aid from developed nations.

“Additionally, apprehensions were expressed about several specific articles within the agreement, including Articles 2.5, 29.5, 36.2, and 88, which some lawmakers believe may not align with Nigeria’s national interests and values, especially in the absence of a reservation clause.

“Rep Aliyu Sani Madaki had argued that Article 97 of the agreement, which asserts the supremacy of the agreement over any conflicting treaties involving European Union member states or the Organisation of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States, potentially infringes upon Nigeria’s sovereignty.

“In response, House Leader, Julius Ihonvbere (APC, Edo) clarified that the agreement, as officially presented, does not include provisions related to a $150bn fund or any clauses promoting LGBT rights in Nigeria, contrary to public speculation.

“Emphasising the importance of parliamentary oversight, House Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers) underscored the need for transparency in treaty negotiations, citing Section 12 of the Nigerian Constitution (1999, as amended), which mandates parliamentary involvement in such matters.

“It is important to clarify that the House of Representatives did not resolve to call for the suspension of the agreement nor the suspension of its implementation, as has been erroneously reported by some media houses.

“Instead, the House resolved to thoroughly scrutinise the Samoa Partnership Agreement for all contentious clauses through legislative hearings,” he said.