Those who bear the name Valentine dread the month of February like a plague. Besides close friends who always demand that you celebrate your name in grand style, most confront you with all manner of questions bordering on the concept that your name is supposed to embody. Thus, you are asked whether you were born on the 14th of February or whether you were a by-product of a love affair that took place in the month of February. One fact I have come to discover over the years is that people take those who bear the name of Valentine as experts in all known techniques of love, starting with its fundamentals to its metaphysics.

Despite much research, we cannot tell unequivocally the exact date the feast started, nor the route by which it entered into history. Perhaps it is connected to the life of a certain St. Valentine who was said to have suffered martyrdom in Rome as the Church hagiography would want us to believe. Perhaps, as the legend of the saint’s heroic faith says, it grew out of the love shown to prisoners by the saintly Valentine. Perhaps it has to do with the period in the year when birds of the earth look for mates. Perhaps it is another case of substitution of a pagan feast by Christian feast as a subtle way of blighting paganism at the bud. We do not know. Valentine’s Day is part of history whose beginning has been forgotten, and whose end we shall never reach.

The popularity of Valentine’s Day could be linked to the nature of the theme it celebrates – love. Writing about love, Archbishop Fulton Sheen called it “the most used, and the most misunderstood word.” The misunderstanding inherent in the nature of love often provokes people to ask questions such as: How much of what we claim as love is love indeed? Does love have different levels and spheres? Is it possible to love our neighbor as ourselves, as the Holy writ prescribes? What is love? These are the questions with which the most comprehensive theories, treatises, and analyses of love find it necessary to begin.

To the Greeks, love could be Eros, Philia, and agape. Plato’s ladder of love in the “Symposium” has different loves for its rungs, up to what we commonly call “Platonic Love”. St Thomas Aquinas distinguishes between love in the sphere of passion and love as an act of will. The former he assigns to what he calls the “concupiscible faculty” of the sensitive appetite; the latter, to the rational or “intellectual appetite”. Sometimes, people talk about metaphysical, contemplative, material, and acquisitive love, etc.

Whatever form love takes, it implies a complex psychical experience of strong attraction to, intense desire for, vivid appreciation of, a profound interest in, one's object of love. The object of love could be a fellow being, institution, cause, or even nature. It involves tender affection, sympathetic understanding, admiration, and loyalty, with reference to its object.

But apart from a few people who recognize the fact of plurality of love in their analyses, most of us, especially the youth, talk abundantly of love, commonly in the sense of amorous appetite. These are people who confess their loving the object of their love more than their own mothers. Recall the “sugar in my tea” and similar stuff. Our elders consider this form of love to be a form of “possession” or “madness”, and would frown at anyone who would propose it as a fit guide in the choice of a marriage mate. They do this, knowing that once the erotic side of love diminishes or fades away altogether, the disinterested element fades too; interest in the other’s happiness evaporates, all tender feeling is eroded, and the one desire is to get away. This is what Lucretius called “erotic befuddlement”. What Dedriot deridedly described as “the voluptuous loss of a few drops of liquid.” It is a spark thrown off by the contact or nearness of two opposite bodies.

In pursuit of this type of love, there is nothing that human beings have not done, or are not capable of doing. The love potion that some ladies brew for men they suspect of unrequited love has no platonic aim. It is not out of generosity, rather to get the object of their longing, that men spend lots of money in wooing women. Women themselves do as much. To attract men, they dress in manners to arouse precipitate passion. Eyelashes are darkened with gum ammonia. Cheeks and lips are painted with sticks of minium or alkanet roots. Adjustable eyebrows are used and often pencilled with lampblack or pulverized or sulphuret of antimony, sometimes it is thinned to diverse shapes or shaved off entirely and painted “crescent moons” or other forms. Eyelids are shaded with kohl. All sorts of things are rubbed on the face, in the hope that it will make them look beautiful. Some in the villages still wrap their fingernails overnight with henna leaves to make them purple. Padded brassieres are used to make the breast look poised and … Breast enhancement has since become part of beauty regimen. There is no part of the woman’s body, in pursuit of men, that has not been perfected, decorated, refined, stretched and squeezed, bleached, reformed, compacted, and shortened.

Higher than the afore-described love is what is often called genuine friendship. In this type of love, there is often the predominance of altruistic motives. It springs from mutual admiration. Here, love is thought to precede desire and to determine its wishes. Marriages built upon this type of love are often successful. Mature lovers discover that marriage transcends the act of multiplication of the species or the fantasy of sexual acts. There are some men who think that all a woman appreciates in a man is when he brandishes the erectile organ to her satisfaction. No. Marriage is more than that. It demands deep understanding and maturity from both partners.

All the foregoing classifications and distinctions, inexhaustible though, belong to the theory of human love. But the fact of love’s diversity extends to the Christian theory of love. Christianity brought about a basic shift in man’s thinking about love. Christianity sees love not in the emotion or passion, but from the infinite perfection and creativity of God. Writing to the Corinthians (2 Cor 13: 6) St Paul said that “love takes no pleasure in other people’s sins but delights in the truth...” God Himself is love (I John 4: 4). “Love ye one another”. In this profound sentence, God summarized all the commandments. Love rules the world and was, perhaps, as Parmenides thought, “the very first thing created by the gods to rule the world”.

The key to peace in the world is for men to embrace the ethics of Christ – love. Confucius taught a version of it in his rule of reciprocity (golden rule). Immanuel Kant espoused it in his book, The Metaphysics of Morals in what he called the “Maxims of Categorical Imperative”. All great religions teach it. Until we start to imbibe this golden rule (love), the battle to re-make the world can as well be labelled a utopia.

The sooner we use the day of Valentine to promote this type of love, the better the world will become.

There is no denying the fact that Prof. Farooq Kperogi is as engaging as he is informed about Nigeria that he discusses with passion and flair. He writes with conviction and leaves no one in doubt he wants the best for his country, Nigeria. Many Nigerians have shed the toga of patriotism that Kperogi still wears like a badge. Nigeria, to many, is a lost cause already.

 A professor of dentistry compared Nigeria to a cancer patient whose cancer can no longer be isolated for treatment because the virus has metastasized to other vital organs of the body. Even advocates of restructuring have since moved away from that prescription, believing that events have overtaken it. But no matter what we may say, Nigeria hopping on one leg is still a pot of delicious soup for those in the kitchen where the food is prepared. 

How much of the suffering of the people do our leaders in all honesty feel? They are too far removed from the suffering to feel the pain. It’s like a fairy tale or Alice in Wonderland when you describe the deprivation that hapless Nigerians have to put up with. How people who do not feel the pinch will solve a problem they know little or nothing about remains to be seen.

Yes, Tinubu cannot and must not attempt to govern like Muhammadu Buhari did. Buhari’s administration was the most ruinous ever in the history of this country. He destroyed the present and mortgaged the future. He piled up mountains of debts for this and coming generations with nothing to show for it. 

Like Fela's crooning, misery, sorrow and tears were Buhari’s regular trademark. His administration met us with only the scourge of Boko Haram but left those of Fulani herdsmen and bandits in addition. Blood flowed freely all over the country. Historians record that King Nero fiddled while Rome burned. 

One carton I saw pictured Buhari picking his teeth while herdsmen, bandits and other sundry criminals ran rings around hapless Nigerians killing, maiming, destroying life and property and walking away free. Kidnappers strolled to the bank to collect ransom money. Yes, Kperogi is right: Tinubu cannot – and should not – govern like Buhari did. No country can survive two Buharis in a row!

Kperogi followed the mainstream narrative of the twin policy of fuel subsidy removal and one-window foreign exchange policy being the cause of the unmitigated suffering in the land and the recent protests over high cost of living, especially of foodstuffs, in some parts of the country. There is no denying the fact that these policies have contributed but they are not the real cause of the problems we face today. They may have acted as catalysts but the problems have been knocking on our door for decades.

 The colonial masters diverted our attention from growing what we need (food crops) to growing what they need (cash crops). That was the beginning. Growing up in the late fifties, my father was a merchant-cum-farmer. He had sprawling cocoa farms with food crops like yams, maize, cassava and what-have-you interspersed in them. My mother was a petty trader and food vendor who also engaged in subsistence farming. On holidays, most children followed their parents to the farm, to return only a day or two before the resumption date. No more!

We are now all in the cities engaged in white- or blue-collar jobs! The farms are abandoned. Where will the foodstuffs come from? The problem of insecurity that has driven the remaining hands off the farm has accentuated the problem. That is why the food protests which, ordinarily, should have started in the big cities where the cost of living is more biting, have started from so-to-say agrarian backwoods. Why? Because agriculture is the mainstay of their sustenance. 

There is little commerce that takes place there. So, with the dislocation of agriculture caused by insecurity, they are left high and dry. It may not be politics at work; hunger is what is inciting the people. Agrarian societies, where hunger, suffering and deprivation are more pronounced, are less able to survive in today’s Nigeria than the commercial centres.

Were we not aware that rural-urban migration that has been on for ages, draining the rural areas of the needed energy and manpower, would have deleterious consequences on food production? What did we do to stem the tide? Were we also not aware that uncontrolled population explosion (Malthus theory), where population growth outstrips the resources available, would also lead to undesirable consequences? 

Think also of the three curses, nay four, that we have allowed to befall this country: The first is the resource curse where we depended, and still depend, on one resource – crude oil – and have failed to leverage on it to develop our agricultural and industrial sectors. Instead, we squandered our riches. One-time military Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, said the problem of Nigeria was not money but how to spend it! And not knowing how to spend the oil windfall, we squandered it again and again! And we think we will not pay a steep price for that down the line?

Growing up, we ate rice only during festive periods. Bread was not on the menu those days. Today, our taste buds are no longer for the foods we grow but for foreign foods and goods. We waste billions of dollars on food imports. Rice curse and wheat curse combined drain us of billions of dollars yearly! We are a country of net importers and we wonder why our Naira is weak! 

In those days, foreigners came here to school; no more! Instead, we now spend billions of dollars yearly to send our children to schools abroad. In those days, our hospitals were, perhaps, the best in Africa, especially the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan. No more! Today, led by our shameless leaders, we spend billions of dollars on medical tourism yearly. Industries that used to be here have voted with their feet. We produce nothing but consume everything foreign – and we think there would be no consequences?

In one of my recent columns, I proffered reasons why I think Nigeria was not moving forward. My editor, Comrade Nojeem Jimoh, called and said we should stop asking that Nigeria move forward! Instead, we should advocate that it goes backward! Yes, because our best days and years are in the past! May you not know better yesterday! But Nigeria has known better yesterday! Each government that comes appears worse than the one before it!

 Nzeogwu and his colleagues who plotted the first coup described the politicians of the First Republic as “ten-percenters…who make this country look big-for-nothing” Today, our leaders not only take 100 percent after they have mindlessly inflated the contract sum, they also end up only signing papers and doing no job! Where any job is done at all, it is shoddy! Revelations coming out of the tour of duty of the Minister of Works, Dave Umahi, confirms that. What Nzeogwu called corruption in his own days is like comparing a mere headache with today’s cancer that has eaten deep into every fabric of Nigerian society. And we think there would be no consequence regardless who is the president?

My own thoughts, dear Kperogi, is not Tinubu’s removal of subsidy and trying to stop forex round-tripping but what he has failed to do. Everyone agreed on the policies - but how and what should replace them? And what should we subsidize instead?

Tinubu was hasty in his announcement. It appears he did not have a plan of action on ground before making the announcements. He leaped before he looked. He acted before he had a full picture of what he was coming in to meet. Most importantly, Tinubu, surprisingly, has not engaged with the Nigerian people enough. He appears more intent on defending Buhari/APC than acting on the side of Nigerians. He seems more prepared to make himself the sacrificial lamb than haul Buhari and his henchmen into the public domain to give account of their stewardship, which many Nigerians would have preferred. 

It is not that Tinubu, like Buhari, does not command his own cult-hero image but it appears he is reluctant to activate it. Wasn’t the same Buhari stoned in the North? Tinubu has what it takes to match any anti-Tinubu protests with his own pro-Tinubu protests. He can turn the tables and have the people in his corner - but will he?

Is it also not preposterous to hint that the South-west will abandon Tinubu where the feudal North did not abandon clueless and incompetent Buhari? The South-west is politically savvy enough to see through the trick and refuse to fall into the trap. Why is Tinubu unpopular in Christian Northern Nigeria, according to Kperogi, when Muslims in the same North accuse him of surrendering his government to Christians? 

Christians have the very powerful offices of First Lady, SGF, Minister of FCT, Minister of Works, Minister of the money-guzzling Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, among others. What more does Christian Northern Nigeria want from Tinubu? His blood?

One advantage of subsidy removal has been the humongous amount that state and local governments now collect every month from the Federation account. What are they doing with this money? Food protests will achieve better results if the heat is turned on state and local governments rather than chasing after Abuja. After all, every politics, they say, is local! 

President Bola Tinubu will, on Thursday, February 15, depart Abuja for Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to participate in the 37th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU). 

The theme of this year’s summit is ‘‘Educate an African fit for the 21st Century: Building resilient education systems for increased access to inclusive, lifelong, quality, and relevant learning in Africa.’’ 

The President will join other African leaders in high-level meetings on institutional reforms of the African Union; peace and security; specific thematic issues such as climate change, as well as modalities of participation and priorities of the continental body in the G20. 

On the margins of the summit, President Tinubu will also attend an extraordinary summit of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS in his capacity as the Chairman of the regional body.

President Tinubu will be accompanied on the trip by some ministers and other top government officials, and he is expected to return to Abuja following the conclusion of the summit.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

February 14, 2024

The Federal Government has made a U-turn on its earlier statement indicating that United Kingdom, UK, lawyers are allowed to practice in Nigeria.

Nigerian Minister for Trade and Investment Doris Uzoka-Anite, in a statement, highlighted that the UK-trained lawyers can practice in Nigeria following an Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership signed by Nigeria and the UK on Tuesday.

However, after fierce criticism, particularly by the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, Uzoka-Anite retracted her earlier statement.

In a series of posts on her X account, Uzoka-Anite said: “Earlier today, Nigeria signed a far-reaching MoU with the United Kingdom for Enhanced Trade and Investment Partnership.

“Regrettably, our earlier report erroneously suggests that Nigeria has signed a Memorandum of Understanding that allows lawyers licensed in the United Kingdom to practise in Nigeria. We wish to state emphatically that there is no such provision or agreement in the MoU.”

The minister explained that Nigeria does not have a Mutual Recognition Agreement with the UK and made no commitment under the MoU or elsewhere to allow UK-licensed lawyers to practise in Nigeria.

“As it currently stands, foreign licensed lawyers (including those licensed in the UK) cannot practise in Nigeria, as categorically stated in the MoU.
“We recognise that cross-jurisdictional practice between Nigeria and the United Kingdom is still an ongoing conversation amongst relevant stakeholders within the legal practitioners community in Nigeria, and this was reflected in the MoU,” she added.

Recall that the NBA President, Yakubu Maikyau, had condemned the purported agreement in a statement on Tuesday, stating that the statement credited to the Minister was “ridiculous, unpatriotic, and uninformed”.

The Nigerian Senate has disclosed plans to make registration of Nigerians compulsory in a bid to address insecurity in the country.

Speaking on the outcome of a closed door meeting between senators and security chiefs that lasted nine hours on Tuesday, Senate Committee Chairman on Media and Publicity, Yemi Adaramodu, said the plan to make the registration of Nigerians compulsory is aimed at preventing the infiltration of foreign criminals into the country.

According to him, senators listened to a presentation by the security chiefs, particularly on efforts they have put in so far to address insecurity.

This, he said, led to passing a vote of confidence on the security chiefs for what they have been doing.

Adaramodu added that the efforts of the security agencies were yielding massive results as many criminals have been eliminated and arrested in the last few days.

He said: “Senate is particularly impressed with arrest of about 90 per cent of those who perpetrated heinous crime across the country in recent times.

“We however urged the various security agencies to do more by ensuring synergy in their operations for total security of lives and property in the country.”

He said the upper and lower legislative chambers will continue to offer support with a view to stem the menace of insecurity.

The Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, Minister of Police Affairs, Ibrahim Gaidam and Minister of Interior, Hon Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, attended the meeting with the senators.

The Ondo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has described as devastating, the sudden demise of the state chairman of the party, Fatai Adams.

While describing the development as traumatic, the State Publicity Secretary, Kennedy Peretei, disclosed that the secretariat of the party in the state will be shut down in order to mourn the deceased.

Peretei, in a statement issued shortly after Adams demise was announced, added that the flags of the party across the three senatorial districts would be flown at half mast.

The late Adams was a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly between 2007 and 2011.

He was elected state chairman in August 2020. He had also served as Deputy State Chairman of the PDP.

“Our party commiserates with his family and the Ondo State PDP at large,” the statement added.

Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, has confirmed he will return to Chippa United after the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON.

There have been speculations linking the 27-year-old away from the South African club.

Added to that, Nwabali has been the subject of threats from fans in the country, after Nigeria beat Bafana Bafana at the tournament.

Nwabali saved two spot-kicks during the shoot-out as South Africa were eliminated in the semi-final.

But the goalkeeper has insisted he will be back at the Chilli Boys.

“I must go back to my club, but talking about the threats, this is football,” Nwabali said according to BluePrint as reported by KickOff.

“You can’t threaten someone because they also won some other teams too.

“How about if those they beat decided to keep threatening your players, would it make sense?

“It’s football, I don’t think there’s anything attached to it. Maybe it was just someone writing on social media.

“It’s cool to me because I spoke to my [Chippa United] chairman three days ago, but he didn’t say anything like all that stuff.

“So, he felt like, ‘No, it’s cool, you can come back’. I must go back to my club because they own me.”

Following the report of his contract expiration with the Super Eagles after the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), Jose Peseiro has emerged as a potential candidate for the coaching position of the Algeria national team.

Reports from Algeria suggest that the Portuguese coach is being seriously considered to lead the Desert Foxes.

Alongside Peseiro, former coaches Carlos Queiroz and others have also been associated with the job.

Naija News understands that the Algeria Football Federation is actively searching for a new coach after the team’s disappointing performance in Cote d’Ivoire, where they were eliminated in the group stage.

It is worth noting that Peseiro has previously been linked with a prominent Egyptian club, Zamalek.

Recall that Peseiro led Nigeria to the 2023 AFCON final but failed to secure the title for the Super Eagles after suffering a 2-1 defeat to Ivory Coast.

The Confederation of African Football (CAF) has released the list of players included in the official XI for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) team of the tournament.

Three Super Eagles of Nigeria players were included in the list released by CAF. They are captain William Troost-Ekong, Ademola Lookman, and Ola Aina.

South Africa has two representatives in the team, DR Congo has two, Equatorial Guinea has one, while the host nation, Ivory Coast, has three players in the team of the tournament.

The team is coached by Ivory Coast manager, Emerse Fae.

Here’s a full list of the team

Goalkeeper – Ronwen Williams (South Africa)

Defender – William Troost-Ekong (Nigeria)

Defender – Chancel Mbemba (DR Congo)

Left Back – Ghislain Konan (Ivory Coast)

Right back – Ola Aina (Nigeria)

Midfielder – Teboho Mokoena (South Africa)

Midfielder – Jean Michael Seri (Ivory Coast)

Midfielder – Franck Kessie (Ivory Coast)

Left Winger – Ademola Lookman (Nigeria)

Right Winger – Yoane Wissa (DR Congo)

Striker – Emilio Nsue (Equatorial Guinea)