A Nigerian couple based in the United States has been convicted of forced labour by a federal jury in New Jersey and faces 20 years imprisonment.

Isiaka Bolarinwa, 67, and Bolaji Bolarinwa, 50 — who are both US citizens were also found guilty of operating a coercive scheme to compel two victims to perform domestic labour and childcare in their home.

Speaking at the end of the trial on April 24, Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general, said the husband and wife lured the victims to the US with promises of a better life and an education but instead subjected them to hours of physical and psychological abuse.

“The defendants confiscated the victims’ passports, threatened them, degraded them, physically abused them and kept them under constant surveillance, all to coerce the victims’ labor and ruthlessly exploit them for the defendants’ own profit,” Clarke said.

“Human trafficking is a heinous crime, and this verdict should send the very clear message that the justice department will investigate and vigorously prosecute these cases to hold human traffickers accountable and bring justice to their victims.”

According to the evidence presented at trial, including the testimony of two victims, the incident happened between December 2015 and October 2016.

“Once Victim 1 arrived in the United States in December 2015, Bolaji Bolarinwa confiscated her passport and coerced her through threats of physical harm to her and her daughter, verbal abuse, isolation and constant surveillance to compel her to work every day, around the clock for nearly a year,” the court heard.

“Isiaka was aware of his wife’s threats and abusive behavior toward Victim 1 and directly benefited from Victim 1’s cooking, cleaning and childcare.

“The defendants then recruited Victim 2 to come to the United States on a student visa.

“When Victim 2 arrived in the United States in April 2016, Bolaji Bolarinwa similarly confiscated her passport and coerced her to perform household work and childcare but relied more heavily on physical abuse.

“On at least one occasion, Isiaka Bolarinwa also physically abused Vitim 2, and he was aware of his wife’s coercive, abusive behavior toward Victim 2 and directly benefited from her cleaning and childcare.”

The US department of justice (DOJ) said both victims endured the abuse until October 2016, when one of them (victim 1) summoned the courage to outcry to a professor at her college, who in turn, reported the targets to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Both defendants face a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for each forced labour count and a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for the alien harbouring count.

The DOJ added that they will also be required to pay mandatory restitution to the victims and each faces a fine on each count of up to $250,000 or twice the gross gain or gross loss from the offence, whichever is greatest.

A sentencing hearing will be scheduled at a later date.

[TheCable]

There is a medication I buy for my 79-year-old mum every month. It was going for less than N10,000 per pack at this time last year. Today, it is N31,000. Although I consider it pretty expensive, I can still afford it. But each time I buy it, my heart goes to Nigerians living on the minimum wage and those surviving on pensions. How are they coping? My mum is fairly healthy for her age and uses only one prescribed medication. But what about the less privileged and less lucky Nigerians who have to treat hypertension, diabetes and organ-related ailments? How are they coping with the costs? Will they not become vulnerable to fake drugs and harmful options? Will some not simply ignore medications?

I was deep in this thought when Dr Henry Ewunonu, a physician and health advocate, asked me if TheCable — the online newspaper I founded in 2014 — would consider convening a public forum to discuss the escalating costs of medicines and medical consumables in Nigeria. He suggested that the diagnostic evaluation of the causes of escalating costs should lead to a prescription of actionable proposals by the forum. That was music to my ears. TheCable’s 10th anniversary was approaching and our mandate is “to deliver knowledge-driven journalism in the pursuit of Nigeria’s progress”. We just don’t want to be saying there is a problem — we also want to be part of providing solutions.

We immediately set sail. On first dial, Prince Julius Adelusi-Adeluyi, founder & chairman, Juli Pharmacy Plc and former minister of health, graciously agreed to chair the event. Prof Ali Pate, coordinating minister of health and social welfare, instantly accepted our invitation. Dr Stella Okoli, founder of Emzor Pharmaceutical, did not respond, but we still formed a solid panel: Prof Moji Adeyeye, NAFDAC DG; Dr Uche Ojinmah, president, Nigerian Medical Association (NMA); Mrs Chisom Uchem, ES, Anambra Primary Healthcare Development Agency (APHDA); and Mr Frank Muonemeh, ES of the Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Group of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN).

I had plenty take-aways from the webinar, which was held on April 30. Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi set the ball rolling by pointing out how India moved from being an importer of medicines to becoming a global industrial giant in pharmaceuticals. “Industrialisation is the way,” he said, emphatically. This is more loaded than it appears. Nigeria imports about 70 percent of its drugs. Even the locally manufactured drugs rely 100 percent on imported active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). As Prof Adeyeye put it, the only thing our pharmaceutical companies don’t import is water. In one word, Nigeria relies entirely on imported medicines or APIs. We are at the mercy of the forex volality.

The dependency on imported drugs comes with several issues. The forex challenge is probably the most obvious and impactful, but there is also the cost of patent payments which contribute in no little way to the price at which patients buy drugs. Let us return to India briefly. In the 1970s, they started preparing to solve problems associated with drug importation. They came up with the revolutionary Indian Patents Act (1970) and Drug Policy (1978) which stimulated local production of generic drugs, compared to the costly Western patents. In the 1980s, India had graduated from the sick position Nigeria is today to that of a leading exporter of drugs. Vision. Tenacity of purpose.

Preparations also met opportunity. In 1984, the US enacted the Hatch-Waxman Act to facilitate the production of generic medicines. Indian companies became perhaps the biggest beneficiaries. As Prince Adelusi-Adeluyi highlighted, they are now the leading exporters of generic medicines. They supply 20 percent of global demand. More than half of the world’s vaccines are produced in India. Drugs produced in India account for about 40 percent of generics used in the US and 25 percent of medicines sold in the UK. There are over 3,000 Indian pharmaceutical companies and they earned about $25 billion from exports in 2023 alone. Industrialisation. Why can’t we seize this opportunity?

Mr Muonemeh, the voice of Nigerian drug manufacturers at the webinar, listed the obstacles they face — from various regulators to revenue-collecting agencies. Things are not always as simple as you would think they should be. You would think that government would take as priority anything that has to do with health — especially given the critical role medications play in wellbeing. Nigeria is complicated. Muonemeh pointed the myriad of obstacles faced by local producers and proposed that local production of medicines be treated as a national security issue. I agree with him. The COVID-19 experience opened the eyes of many countries to this vulnerability, but did it really open ours?

Prof Adeyeye listed a number of policy measures being adopted by NAFDAC to ease the crisis, including fast-tracking the licensing process for imported drugs in order to address shortages. She also spoke about the Five + Five (5+5) Policy which is designed to migrate imported products to local production. This policy stipulates a timeline during which an importer/manufacturer must show plans to produce locally or partner with local producers. “If we do not focus on local manufacturing, we will continue to have drug insecurity,” she said, adding that there is nothing the multinationals produce that we cannot make in Nigeria — apart from the inhalers used to manage asthma.

Local manufacturing is a long-lasting solution that should kick in at some point in the future if the right policies are adopted and implemented. Dr Ojinmah, however, wants the adoption of both short-term and long-term strategies and measures. I find his suggestion that tariffs on imported drugs be reduced very fascinating. I thought that this should be the first policy reaction of the government when prices started going through the roof. We grant waivers on many imports but medicines that save lives are not considered worthy. There is a place for revenue for government, I won’t argue against that, but have we considered the dangers of Nigerians being unable to buy life-saving drugs?

The NMA president made a number of proposals. He wants things kick-started with the declaration of a state of emergency on the health sector, which I believe is a way of saying government should pay extraordinary attention to the challenges. He wonders why there are government banks for many sectors without any for health, specifically to help the pharmaceutical industry. “Nigeria should inaugurate a health sector development bank that will have different facilities for all the health care contributors and stakeholders, such that they can go to this bank and fulfil conditions which should not be as stringent as the fund at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN),” the dermatologist said.

“This will encourage pharmaceutical companies to go into production of drugs like antibiotics, anti-hypertensives and anti-diabetes. Government should reduce import levy on importation, equipment and production of these drugs to enable people bring in drugs into the country. We would be the greatest beneficiary as economic productivity will rise. Government should also bridge the gap between the rich and the poor in terms of access to medicines,” Ojinmah further suggested, while also emphasising the need for government to improve the health insurance scheme so that millions of ordinary Nigerians can have access to treatment without having to pay out of pocket.

An interesting proposal was put on the table by Mrs Chisom Uchem, the executive secretary of the Anambra Primary Health Development Agency (ASPHDA): encourage research into local herbs. The pharmacist oversees an agency that attends to medical needs at the grassroots and testifies that many people suffering from common ailments often come back to say they have used herbs and are back on their feet. Uchem wants the federal government to mandate the Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NIMR) to play a lead role in that endeavour. China has done well in promoting use of herbs, even exporting them. Our own NIMR is one of the most poorly funded federal agencies.

“I’m looking at policies of government that will promote research enterprise,” Uchem said. “I’m thinking that if government will encourage clinical research, essential drugs will be affordable to the grassroots because this is the basic level of care. We can have our local brands, our local products. It will cut down on the prices of essential medicines. So, I’m thinking that amongst other things that we’ll do to cut the high cost of medication in Nigeria is that emphasis and premium should be paid on government supporting and promoting research enterprise… All of these lemon grasses, all of the guava leaves, all of the quinine, you know, this quinine, most of them are anti-malaria.” Fascinating.

I have always respected Prof Pate and I found his contributions reassuring. He said President Bola Tinubu was working on a comprehensive plan to address the issues affecting local manufacturing. He acknowledged the challenges: naira devaluation, power supply, technical know-how, supply chain and regulatory landscape. He said the government has been having a series of engagements with industry players, practitioners, and stakeholders on the escalating costs and hinted that an executive order was in the offing. While I was happy, a part of me was quietly praying fervently that MDAs will not frustrate the plan. As we know, they are always working at cross purposes. It is a Nigerian thing.

There were so many take-aways to curate and synthesize. TheCable plans to produce a comprehensive report and send to the appropriate authorities in the lawmaking, policy and regulatory chain as its modest contribution to the discourse on improving the state of the nation’s health care. One theme that rings through contributions is “medicine security”. We need to ramp up local manufacturing with tenacity. Who knows, we may even become net exporters. Didn’t India do it? It took vision and tenacity of purpose. In Nigeria, we are not short of good ideas. What we need is honest commitment to them. Implementation is where the devil always shows up in the details.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

WAGE WAR

On Tuesday, federal government announced a pay rise of between 25 and 35 percent for its civil servants across salary structures. This has been rejected by the labour unions. The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is insisting on a minimum of N615,000/month — more than 20 times higher the current N30,000. I think we can have a scientific solution to this perennial controversy over the minimum wage. There should be a mechanism agreed by all parties involved. Can we have certain benchmarks to create this mechanism? The simplest one that comes to my head straightaway is a proportional relationship between the wage and inflation rate. That can minimise the rift. Hopefully.

EFCC’S BELLOW

Nigerians have been treated to a spectacular face-off between the EFCC and Mr Yahaya Bello, former Kogi governor — quite similar to what they saw between the commission and Mr Ayo Fayose, former Ekiti governor, as well as Owelle Rochas Okorocha, former Imo governor, in recent years. Bello, who has mindboggling allegations lined up against him, needs to be a man and turn himself in. He can run but he can’t hide. It is a matter of time before he is captured. But am I the only one thinking the EFCC chairman, Mr Ola Olukoyede, went overboard with his press conference and threats? He needs to be calming down. I think this media drama is too much and not good for the commission. Caution.

BY CHOICE

The publicity-crazy Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has threatened to review the subscription rates announced by Multichoice for its DStv and GOtv packages. The FCCPC did not review the FX rate when it fell from N460/$ to N1400/$. Those guys don’t know that rights for foreign contents, such as the English Premier League, are paid for in FX. The FCCPC did not review Band A tariff when it was tripled despite power poor supply. They didn’t review the prices of life-saving drugs. But we hear “monopoly” when it comes to Multichoice. Is Pay TV a fundamental human right? Or are we just obsessed with South African businesses? Bullies.

NO COMMENT

You must have heard about the “housing estate” under the Dolphin estate bridge,  Lagos. Each room was either 10×10 or 10×12 and the tenants were paying N250,000 per annum, according to Mr Tokunbo Wahab, commissioner for environment and water resources. There were no amenities such as power and water.  Lagos state officials have made a public show of how they cracked down on the squatters and arrested some of them. Somehow, they do not know that the joke is on them. There is a serious housing crisis in Lagos state and what officials should be showcasing is what they are doing to address the issue, but they were busy shaming hapless squatters who were being exploited. Sad.

I really do wonder whether those great patriots that fought a long and bloody war against 

British colonial rule and founded the United States of America (US) in 1776 like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and so many others envisaged what has happened to their beloved country today? 

I wonder whether the Pilgrim Fathers and great and wise men of old who, by faith in the Living God, left the Old World, crossed the Atlantic ocean in hazardous conditions and went to the New to establish a new beginning and build a new nation founded on freedom, equality, the fear of God and solid good old fashioned Christian virtues and values, would believe what the beloved nation they toiled, prayed for, established and worked so hard to build has turned into today? 

Would they not all be turning in their graves?

A nation that was once referred to by both friend and foe as the “land of the free and the home of the brave” is now neither free nor brave. 

A mighty nation that delivered itself from its own internal prejudices, contradictions and demons by fighting a brutal civil war to free the slaves and that presented a great hope for those that dreamt of a world where all men and women could have equal opportunities, regardless of class, history, color, race or creed, has now lost its sense of decency, equity, honor and morality and turned into a corrupt, power drunk, morally bankrupt, blood-lusting, war-loving, terror-funding, egocentric and idiosyncratic collection of self-serving, self-seeking, cowardly and deluded individuals who serve the interests of not their own people but that of AIPAC, the Jewish lobby and the State of Israel. 

A rich and powerful nation of over 300 million people that delivered the world from evil in both the First and Second World Wars, that defeated and dismantled the curse of Soviet Communism, that entrenched democracy throughout much of the world and that literally rules the waves today as the greatest super power in the history of humanity in a unipolar world, is now nothing but the lap dog of little Israel? 

It seems so hard to believe. Yet true it is!

Like Lucifer fell from heaven, so you, O mighty America, has fallen from grace! 

I weep for you. 

Apart from your internal decay where the family system has been destroyed and traditional religious beliefs have been replaced by humanism and a godless philosophy in which the Lord is no longer revered, where men marry men, where abortions are encouraged, where homosexuality is adored, where Satanism is practised, where money is worshipped, where God has been banned from the schools and indeed every sphere of human endeavour and where the establishment of a New World Order is your ultimate objective, you have also, with the help of your servile and fawning vassals like the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Holland and others, debased and destroyed the fortunes and vision of many countries with your reckless and self-serving foreign policy and your insatiable thirst for power and world domination. 

The number are legion but to mention a few, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Lebanon, Iraq, Sudan, Palestine, Ukraine and a number of others stand out. 

You have literally left each of them in rubbles and turned them into a shell of their former selves simply because you insisted on misleading them, controlling them and imposing your values and will on them. 

You are also attempting to undermine and destroy Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Turkey, Pakistan, India, South Africa, the Arab Gulf States, Brazil, Niger, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Senegal, Guinea, Egypt, Algeria and many others. 

You wish to exploit them, enslave them, milk them, destroy them, bend them to your will and turn them into your pliant little acolytes and colonies but, thankfully so far, you have failed. 

Slave master

 Yet what exposes your monstrous, dark, evil and gluttonous degeneration more than anything else is the way in which you nurture, protect, feed, arm and support your little baby Israel and how that baby has now become your slave master!

You quiver and bow at her every command and you seek to justify and rationalise her barbaric behaviour even when she operates what is undoubtedly a racist apartheid state and seeks to exterminate and occupy ALL the land of those she considers to be a lesser people with a lesser faith from a lesser nation like the Palestinians. 

For the last seven months, the entire world has witnessed with shock the way and manner in which you have not only allowed but openly encouraged her to commit mass murder, genocide, ethnic cleansing, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, violating every rule and norm of international law and subjecting the Palestinian people to a modern day holocaust. 

This is unacceptable and you have as much blood on your hands as a consequence of your shameless complicity as the Israelis themselves. 

The truth is they could not and would not have dared to indulge in this monstrous and cruel display of depravity and in this bloodfest and killing spree without your tacit approval and support. 

This is bad enough but the worst aspect of it all is that when the world boils in anger, weeps and wails and attempts to bring your baby to justice for her wanton and willful display of utter madness whether at the International Court of Justice or the International Criminal Court, you bare your ugly fangs and growl like a wounded lion and you boldly tell us that we should know and MUST accept that your little Israel and the fascist right wing white and non-semitic European colonial settlers and Zionists that own and lead her are God’s chosen people, are above the law and are entitled to do ANYTHING they deem fit, including wiping out the Palestinians! 

This disposition and open endorsement of pure and unadulterated evil is nauseating and sickening and it is a graphic reflection of the unconscionable beast that you have now become. 

 No fear of God

 You do not fear God, you do not fear world opinion, you do not fear even those from your own nation that are protesting your madness and you do not fear your conscience! 

The only thing you fear is your Lord and master Israel! 

I am constrained to ask, who on earth has bewitched you and which invocations and spells of occult sorcery from the ancient Kabbala did the Jews invoke to capture and bind your spirit and soul and to make you behave in this slavish manner? 

You are no longer the mighty giant that we once knew and revered but rather you are now what the Nigerian people would describe as a “woman wrappa” to your beloved Israel. 

At the mention of her name your strength fails you, your knees bend, your heart beats faster, your soul melts, your emotions overwhelm you and you bow, genuflect, crawl and quiver before her like a young man before his first love. 

 Arrest warrant

 Truly this is Satan’s work: you can no longer control your own will, you have been cursed, charmed and reduced to nothing and you are under a powerful spell.

I cry for you! 

When the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague issues a warrant of arrest for other world leaders you rejoice but when they consider issuing the same for @netanyahu, the Israeli PM, you wet your pants, soil your diapers & threaten brimstone & fire! 

Through one of your jittery officials at the State Department you went as far as to proclaim that ”the ICC has no jurisdiction over Israeli officials” and, therefore, has no right to even issue any arrest warrant on Netanyahu. 

Putin

  You forget that you were amongst those who clapped the loudest when a similar and active arrest warrant was issued on Russian President Vladimer Putin. 

For that you believed that the ICC acted within its powers and in fact did a great job yet you believe it is “unacceptable” for them to issue such a warrant on Bibi Netanyahu. 

Your hypocrisy and double standards beggars belief!

Again, you have just passed a law which violates your own Constitution, known as the Anti-Semitism Awareness Act, which outright bans free speech & which seeks to jail anyone that opposes, condemns or criticises the Jews, the Zionists or the State of Israel or that accuses them of being a racist, apartheid state or of committing genocide in Gaza or at any other place or time in their long 5000 year history including during the days of the Holy Bible! 

Your Congress just voted to make it ILLEGAL to compare Israel’s genocidal actions to Nazi Germany and they have effectively banned the Holy Bible in a supposedly “Christian” nation.

Is this not evidence of a diseased mind? 

To be clear, the new law makes it illegal to criticise, protest against or boycott Israel.

It also makes it ILLEGAL to preach or quote the portions of the GOSPEL & the Holy Bible where the countless & horrendous atrocities that were committed by the Jews against other nations thousands of years ago were listed!

The House of Representatives just voted to make preaching the FULL GOSPEL of the Christian faith ILLEGAL in America! 

Let that sink in!

Megatron_ron captured it well when he wrote the following on X:  ”The US House has passed an Act that totally bans speaking and protesting against Israel. “Even if you preach parts of the Bible that clearly states the days the Jews killed Christ you will be arrested.

“In response to campus anti-Israel protests, the House is rushing to vote on a new bill, HR 6090.

“This new Bill would officially define “Antisemitism”, so the Federal Government can sue, prosecute, or sanction more people, businesses, and universities for supposed violations of civil rights law.

“This Bill would make it illegal to compare Israeli policies to Nazi policies. It would make it illegal to describe Israel as racist. It would make it illegal to accuse an American citizen of being more loyal to Israel than to the United States”.

Is this not sad and amazing? 

Is it not a tragedy of Shakespearean proportions? 

Does it not make your blood boil and your skin crawl?

Are we not entering the Orwellian world that the British author George Orwell wrote about and predicted in his celebrated book many decades ago and that the writer and great visionary and intellectual @davidicke often refers to today? 

Is America, a once great country that exalted justice, freedom and righteousness, not turned into a big fat turd that is now in the process of flushing herself down the Israeli toilet!

 ‘United States of Zion’

 Surely she can no longer be referred to as the ‘United States of America’ but rather the ‘United States of Zion!’

On his part @Jakeshieldsajj, a highly respected American public affairs commentator and social media influencer, wrote the following on X: ”In the past two weeks, Congress has made anti-semitism illegal, demanded that anti-Israel protesters must be arrested, banned TikTok at Israel’s request, given $100 billion to Israel and Ukraine for war, approved warrantless spying on Americans, approved $3.5 billion aid for illegal immigrants and done nothing for the American people! It’s become clear they are not here to serve us.”

Jake has spoken the bitter truth. 

Perhaps the most asinine and chilling contribution of all came from American Senator Ted Cruz, a one-time presidential aspirant, a ranking Senator and a man who, up until recently, I had immense respect for. 

He said, “I condemn NOTHING that the Israelis are doing!”

Is this not evidence of mental illness! 

People are slaughtering thousands of children on a monthly basis with weapons supplied by the American taxpayer which you as a Senator approved in your budget and you say you cannot condemn it? 

Does that not make Cruz and those that think like him accomplices in the crime of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity? 

People like him should tell me why I should condemn Hamas for what they did on October 7th if he refuses to condemn the Jews for the 1948 Nakba in which they murdered almost one million Palestinians! 

They should tell me why I should condemn Hamas if they refuse to condemn the Israeli Army for the 2024 genocide in Gaza in which 40,000 civilians have been murdered in seven months and still counting?

Again Senator Cruz and indeed the entire American Congress claim that the phrase which the pro-Palestinian protesters and forces have come to regard as their signature tune and battle cry which boldly proclaims that “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” connotes the intention of the Palestinians to eliminate every single Jew in Israel yet they fail to apply the same standard, connotation and sinister intention when the Zionists themselves use the same slogan in respect of the same land and when they scream “from the river to the sea, Israel shall have sovereignty”. 

 Double standards

 Permit me to ask, why the double standards? 

When the Palestinians say it you claim that they want to kill every Jew in the nation but when the Jews say it you claim that they have no evil intentions for the Palestinians! 

Is this not another example of the self-serving, infantile and puerile reasoning that most Americans and Europeans suffer from and have been afflicted with when it comes to the Gaza issue and does it not prove the fact that, as far as the majority of Americans are concerned, the Palestinians do not have the right to exist or to be treated like human beings whilst the Jews are treated like gods? 

Is this fair? Is it rational? Does it make sense?

The Jews constitute only 2% of the American population and yet they have been singled out for such preferential treatment and protection whilst the State of Israel, a distant nation of only 9 million people, has been accorded the special status of being “God’s chosen people” and well above the law and is entitled to commit the most grievous and heinous acts of genocide, ethnic and religious cleansing and mass murder without criticism or consequence.

All this you have done for a people and a nation which comprises of a deluded and sociopathic horde of genocidal psychopaths that not only murdered Jesus Christ 2000 years ago, that not only wiped out the Amalekites 5000 years ago, that not ethnically cleansed the Midianites 4000 years ago, that not only exterminated the Agagites 3000 years ago, that not only butchered 1 million Palestinians during the Nakba in 1948, that not only eliminated millions of Arabs all over the Middle East in the last 75 years but that has also killed 40,000 innocent and defenceless civilians, including 20,000 children, in the last seven months in Gaza and are set to kill even more in Raffa!

Is this not madness? Pray tell us, I ask again, who has bewitched you? 

I say woe unto you! 

Your awesome power and mind-boggling wealth has driven you insane and far from God! 

From being perceived as the leader of the free world you can now be best described as the fawning and pliant pit bull terrier of the Zionist state and the world’s leading genocide supporter and enabler! 

The truth is that there can be no defence or justification for anyone or any nation, no matter how rich and powerful, that supports a country of genocidal maniacs and psychopathic child killers. 

The Zionist state of Israel is the greatest evil that we have seen since Nazi Germany. 

 Apartheid entity

 It is a vicious, savage, bloodthirsty, racist, apartheid entity that is led by a group of desperate and deluded European settlers and land grabbing colonialists and that has lost its right to exist.

The sooner it is wiped off the face of the earth the better!

Yet for America there is still hope and that hope lies in people like the Christian protesters who barricaded themselves at the cafeteria of the American Congress last week and who said that, as long as the people of Gaza could not eat, they would not allow the members of the House to enter the cafeteria to eat! 

Again that hope lies in the courageous and gallant students, lecturers and academics who have demonstrated their commitment to justice, decency and humanity by vigorously protesting in university campuses all over the country. 

As a former American presidential candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders, rightly said those young demonstrators are “out there for the right reasons!

“They are out there not because they are pro-Hamas. They are out there because they are outraged by what the Israeli government is doing in Gaza!”

Sanders is right and permit me to add that those protesting students are indeed the saving grace of America. 

Despite the fact that they have been subjected to the most brutal repression by the security forces who have raided the campuses injuring many in an attempt to disperse them and in spite of the fact that as at the time of writing this piece over 2000 of them have been arrested and detained in various police stations across the nation, they continue to come out in their thousands and stand for the people of Gaza. 

They represent America’s pride and joy and the brightest and best of American youth and they are now all fired up and are marching the streets and university campuses for the Palestinians!  

This is a truly remarkable moment in world history and it represents a seismic and monumental shift in the perception, hearts and minds of the younger people in a nation that has been in the pocket and under the control of the Jews and the Zionists since the end of World War 11. 

Permit me to end this contribution with the following: Nothing symbolises the renewed hope that we are witnessing more than the beautiful and moving words of Professor Rashid Khalidi, who has been a Professor of Modern Arabic Studies at New York’s Columbia University for the last 22 years. 

In an inspiring address to the students and in a speech that will reverberate throughout history he said, inter alia, the following: ”This is about a genocide being carried on with American money and with American weapons, against a people enduring generations of occupation. The students of Columbia fought against the Vietnam war when I was a student here many years ago. We protested against that war then and today we honor the memories of those who took part in that great struggle by doing the same for the Palestinians and the people of Gaza!”

May God guide and protect them all and may He grant the people of Gaza and Palestine victory! 

•Femi Fani-Kayode, the Sadaukin Shinkafi and the Wakilin Doka Potiskum, is a lawyer, a former Minister of Culture and Tourism and a former Minister of Aviation.

City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI

Time: 12:00pm

Topic: "The Challenge of Fuel Scarcity"

Date: 4th May, 2024

Join Zoom Meeting
https://zoom.us/j/92877141732?pwd=VEJWb29OL2VVekZUTHRpdWYxK0xxZz09

Meeting ID: 928 7714 1732
Passcode: 600206

Among the responses to last week’s column on Bobrisky was the surprise by one of the readers that there is so much difference between man and woman beyond the physical and the physiological. In the physical, the most obvious being in the reproductive features. A reader asked: “You mean there is so much that is disparate in the total make-up of women and that of men beyond the obvious?” From this reaction, one can see why we all encore the sing-song: What a man can do, a woman can do, indeed, even better”. We say this with such gusto and without reflection largely because we do not know enough about ourselves. From the enlightenment available on earth in these times, we can see there is so much we do not know about ourselves.

The ignorance has led man for centuries to wrongly conclude that woman is the weaker sex whereas man is only stronger, woman is the more powerful as she is closer to Nature and therewith the more connected with the power of the Almighty Creator, than man is. This is because she bears a peculiar endowment that makes her the bridge between the power of the Creator and man. The abundance of spiritual power she carries is lacking in man. Her special attributes enable her to draw virtues from On High which she uses to beautify and ennoble her community. By constituting the bridge, and mediator of sustained power, she forms the support, holding the balance in the family.
According to the ordinance of the Creator, with her intuition manifesting in the sharpness of her sixth sense the woman it is to make decisions and the man to execute them. This places the man in a situation that he is the more visible while the woman is quiet and gentle. All that has been altered by men as well as by women who, when their attention to their gifts is drawn, dismiss the hint as patronising. Once the bridge that the woman is collapses and the ordinance of the Creator is set aside, the world must be upside, a situation we can all witness has overtaken the entire world today. In the confusion, not a few women want to be men and quite a number of men are driven to wish to be women, as is the case with Bobrisky. Not only did Idris Okuneye express the wish to be a woman, he took practical steps to actualise his dream. He flew down to Dubai and went under the knives to transform himself into a woman.

With the intensification of thoughts in that direction by either the men or women their souls get distorted. The question may predictably be asked: How? Thoughts that we generate go out in radiation threads. The ethereal threads are woven into forms by invisible servants of the Most High that are called nature beings by those who are aware of their activities. They man the loom of life and weave forms in accordance with the content of the thoughts. These beings who are also called forces of nature set to work where procreation has taken place. From a single cell, as the body of the child develops, other cells begin to precipitate, differentiating as it were from one another to form different and individual organs of the body, such as the heart, the lung, the liver and kidney. At work are the said nature beings; they regulate them. Out of the cells are also formed the brain, the solar plexus and the lymphatic system concerned with corpuses.

They first construct the person’s astral body, the prototype of the garment the soul in the last wrapping puts on close to the earthly plane called World of Gross Matter. It is the astral design that the forming of the body in the womb of an expectant mother eventually follows. Indeed, we learn that it is part of lost knowledge to the modern man that for every child’s body developing in the womb, there is an astral model, that is to say a model of finer material invisible to the physical eye on which the gross material earthly body is formed. The astral prototype body takes account of the threads of fate of the waiting soul, its credit and debit balance. It is after the nature beings who attend to such matters have fashioned the astral form that the fertilized egg begins to divide, forming tissues and organs, systems and so on I referred to earlier. It is in their working that bodies are woven correspondent with what a person had wished for himself and his deserved karmic harvest. It should be made plain that soul is consisted of fine coverings around the spirit. It is these wrappings with the spirit as the core that make the spirit to be known as soul. It is, therefore, the soul that can be distorted and not the spirit which bears the burden of wrong volition. The choice of the spirit to be either man or woman upon setting out at the beginning on its journey to the earth even in its state as an unconscious spirit germ in quest of development in the school that the earth is, cannot be altered. It is a choice made for its entire existence.

It cannot, therefore, be for nothing that we are admonished to be wary of the thoughts we stimulate and send out. Speeches also take on forms. We live in a wonderful world, in the world of thoughts. All around us is a surge of activities. Even when we do not utter a word, all is living and active around us. Researchers who pre-occupy themselves with the study have revealed that thoughts have contents and they contain energy and measurable energy for that matter. Thoughts outflowing from us have no barriers and can be active, influencing at the other end of the world. They move from the physical to the unseen reaches of the Beyond where they take on form to uplift us and adorn us with beauty and nobleness of effulgent dignity, or drag down its authors to menacing demonic entities.

Back to the enquiry about the difference between man and woman beyond the obvious physical features, I feel obliged to recall my earlier publication on who woman is, captioned “The Mystery of Woman”, for those who might have missed it when it was published in 2017 and to refresh memories of those of us who might have seen it. As I said at the time, we can have a glimpse of the mystery of woman and her roles from what science seeks to elucidate despite its limitations. Science teaches us that two molecules of hydrogen and one of oxygen unite to give us water in the same way that sodium and chlorine, both splitting of a species, unite to form sodium chloride, the common table salt. I am not talking about the denatured salt but the typical one gotten from Himalaya Rocks or from the bed of the sea.
As I sought to explain, man and woman, like hydrogen and oxygen, are split species, each party seeking complementarity for balance and harmonious swinging. For batteries in our vehicles to work we have positive and negative charges. What science has validated is a union of elements to give fuller value of existence. Since the same law pervades and governs the universe, man and woman also being split species—man factor, positive and woman factor, negative—they drift as if by a pull, towards each other for a union in their search for complementarity. Spirit is magnetic. But why is it that it is the woman that pulls the man? That goes to give us a glimpse into what a woman is, a glimpse of which last week intrigued the enquirer. The woman does the pulling because she is endowed with richer spiritual make-up and everyone can feel the pervasive influence around him. In her power, and the man encircled in her grip, she gets the man to do whatever she wants!

It is the same power that uplifts her to the heights that presses her down to the depth when she falls. This, it is said, can be likened to the tragedy of a woman dropping from a 25-storey building and the man from the ground floor. While that of the woman can better be imagined than witnessed, the man merely bruises his knees, suffers some pains and he gets up. Such is the gap. Who then is woman? That Nature distinguishes a woman from a man is not a biological accident. The nature of each gender is a reflection of what each carries inside. The science of radiations has proved, at least, that every tangibility is a coarse manifestation of finer essence. In other words, the outward physical differentiation of man and woman merely reflects what must be substantial differences in the nature of their core, their being, their nature and their roles. Is it not instructive to note that, simply from the differences in words which in any case express meaning, woman cannot be the same as man? For that reason, also, the roles of a woman must have a purpose distinguishable from those of man and subversion or abandonment of which can bring only grave consequences. Neither man nor woman created himself or herself. As such neither created and assigned the roles, implying that the gender question goes beyond the wish or will of man or woman. For her roles, the woman is tender, fine, gentle, sensitive and perceptive. The man on the other hand is dense, rugged, coarse and aggressive.

Contrary to the widely held notion and conception in modern times, women are not men, not just in biological differences or connotation, but in the nature of the gender of each group of the human family. Similarly, contrary to generally-held belief, especially in modern times, it is not society that assigns roles to woman or man, but Nature. In most mobile creatures, we see male and female. And in plants to which I once drew attention, each part has its own roles which are akin to the different roles the genders of human race perform. The root of a plant, for example, is coarse, like man and like him provides the materials, the ingredients and water for the plant’s sustenance. The leaves, because of their fine and tender nature, prepare them to feed the whole, to nourish the whole, to beautify the whole. The leaves, because of their finer nature, collect rays of the sun which provides energy. They also collect carbon dioxide and turn them into oxygen through photosynthesis. These are fine activities. Fine as a woman’s caring and tending. But the root battles with tough, coarse, not fine activity; with rocks under the ground while at the same time, together with the stem, protects the leaves, the delicate part of a plant.
As I already stated in the foregoing men are closer to Nature than men are. This is as a result of her inner make-up which contains a part of higher spiritual essence which is lacking in men. With the higher spiritual make-up, she is put in a situation that she is a firm link and channel of radiations and influences from higher and purer Light Realm, that is Paradise. She is thus blessed with richer intuitive and perceptive faculties to sense the Will of God at all times and in every situation so that she can guide. She is put in the position to readily distinguish between right and wrong, between good and evil. Thus in women are converged the rays of love and the rays of purity. Woman, therefore, becomes the storehouse of power. Standing half a step higher than man, she is able to absorb the rays of power and mediate them to the dense man, thus passing strength to him for use in his coarse activity. Man senses some power emanating from woman, and he feels drawn to protect this inexplicable treasure. He also feels overwhelmed by woman. Man has encountered this overwhelming power in nature but has been unable to relate it to the nature of female species in whatever form in all levels of being. I said this much last week, which I sense must have prompted the response to last week’s column.

It is obvious that deliberately Nature has endowed woman with a finer essence which her body mirrors so that in the ensuing homogeneity with the finer and purer currents of life she may easily link up with these forces, and absorbing them, mediate strength to her menfolk, who being coarse and alien to these forces, cannot reach out to them on their own. On the other hand, the studier man is to reciprocate, for balance, with her protection and sustenance through the facility of his own coarser gifts. Where either forsakes its role and duty to the other, this structure inevitably collapses. Could the distress in the world today not have arisen from such imbalance in the weaving of the human species?

Through her sharp sixth sense, she is able to sense dangers readily even before they approach, and she alerts the man who gets ready to ward them off. She is able to notice fine spots in a child as well as anything untoward in his dress or his breathing, or even notice cobwebs or water on the floor or on the table which man in his obtuseness may not see readily if he sees it at all. With the gift of effortlessly knowing right from wrong, her sense of judgment is striking, direct and correct. She is in a position to guide her husband in business, who his business partners should be, in government his ministers, and senior functionaries.
In love and care, she can be absorbed in the care of others, her husband and children to the exclusion of her own comfort. In selfless love, she throws herself on the right of right with absolute disregard to personal consequences. To know a woman is when her child faces a threat of danger. Like mother hen she will throw herself completely into the danger with total disregard for her own safety, regardless of her level of education, her exposure or social standing. The leading role of Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti cannot be easily forgotten in the history of Abeokuta or in the defence of her son, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti.
The woman is a life-long educator, the teacher, a moulder of character, the guide and the pace-setter. She begins to educate her offspring from cradle, indeed, from the womb until they are old enough to go their own way. Even then there is still a tie! Where she does it well there is no anxiety in life for her family or the entire community. If she sets the right agenda and tone, her society will not go astray but prosper. Where a woman stands aright, the society has ennobling and uplifting practices and cultures. In the Elizabethan Age, through the instrumentality of Queen Elizabeth 1 (the First), Great Britain reached the zenith of her cultural flourish; and at the time of Queen Victoria, it was the age of etiquette, propriety and prosperity.
Soothing words from a woman have healed wounds and ended hostilities between nations in the same way nations, communities have fought wars over woman. Cultured men instinctively open doors for women and heads turn in gatherings at their approach, paying homage. Indeed, men begin to adjust their ties, their dresses to appear to be correct and approved by the woman who may not even be aware of the fuss over her. Before an upright woman, a man must bow—whoever he may be.

If women have fallen and become oppressed, it is a consequence of lack of understanding of who women are and the perversion of their own roles. So is it that women divert their energies to wrong and harmful pursuits such as footballing, weight lifting, wrestling, crane driving, emulating men, excessive intellectual cultivation there is imbalance between the brains, the frontal known as cerebrum and the hind brain cerebellum. The hind brain is the spiritually receptive part. Thus with the paralysis of the hind brain, the over cultivation constrains, indeed, blocks the outflowing of the prompting of the intuition. There is the craving by women for political power whether as president, governor or minister manifesting today in cries for affirmative action. That is, to place women in governmental power and kindred executive activities which distort a woman’s nature, steeling it and thus causing imbalance in the order of life. By moving to a different sphere of activity, her volition changes and the womanly nature accordingly becomes dulled…the bridge breaks and the natural structure collapses. Evidence of the creaking or collapsing structure which serious-minded people may wish to ponder is the gynaecological difficulties more and more women encounter today. Do we wonder? Once the volition changes and the fine womanly radiations turn coarse, why will the reproductive system, the hormonal orchestra, no longer maintain radiations or response as they should.

When a river deviates from its course, it ends up forming a stagnant lake, giving its environment filth and fouled air. Eventually it dries up, unable to reach its destination, its goal for development. Nature has abandoned women to the disobedience of the laws that stipulate their roles. The penalty for this includes confusion in homes, in the society, in the world at large, in individuals and in failure of men to achieve enduring really great things. The penalty shows in the abandonment of children on refuse dumps, on the streets and rail lines. It shows in the emergence of child soldiers and the unbelievable aberrations we are all witnessing. It shows in brutalised man and lack of respect for women by men and for men by women!

He said he was fed up with life. He also said that the adult population was a fraternity of fraudsters living in denial. Religion and the spiritual did not mean anything to him anymore. “I have seen it all, Sir”, he said with an air of finality. Then he added: “It has to be greener pasture for me outside the country, or death”. 

Chuckling, I assured him that suicide wasn’t such a difficult thing to carry out, if he was serious about it. Then I added: “Should you need assistance, I can use my knowledge of the martial arts to dispatch you to your ancestors with not more than two good blows; administered to where they would do maximum damage and make your demise a sure banker”. He burst out laughing, but quickly pulled himself together.

“I am dead serious, sir”, he said. “I know. It’s just that there are a few things you may wish to take into consideration before you take a final decision”, I replied.

As the discussion progressed, I said that since he was sure of his conclusions about life, and was also sure about the fact that he had nothing new to learn, discover, or live for, he could do what he liked and not bother talking to anyone about it. He stared at me for a while, and was about to say something, but I continued.

“I was once in the same situation as you are at the moment. That was in my time as a youth. At that time, I was sure of how much I understood the world. I was also sure that I had seen it all and did not need to listen to anyone. The only problem was that I had this nagging suspicion that I just might have something more to learn if I looked around me hard enough.

My conclusions about life at any moment may change in the face of new experiences. So, I advised myself to seek more knowledge first. But then it had to be such comprehensive knowledge as would enable me answer most of the very important questions of life”.

He was silent for a while. Then he asked: “What are these important questions of life?

I told him that it all depended on who was asking the questions and what answers he was looking for. For me back then, I was concerned about the meaning of life and similar things. Someone else may have been concerned about how to make as much money as possible, or even how to become the most popular person in his neighbourhood, or his social circles.

It was different for me and I was forced to move from my initial cynicism when it dawned on me that I was still too ignorant, too inexperienced and too insufficiently exposed to conclude with certainty that the world, religion and everything else could go to hell. It was a truly confusing and confounding time: that stage and situation in life that is described by the ancients as the Dark Night of the Soul.

I told the young man that my resolve changed from going about and saying that life was meaningless to quietly seeking insight and personal spiritual deepening. I told him of how I initially loved this statement of Waldo Emerson: “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment”, and how I also found it confusing.

Then he asked me what I found confusing about the statement. I explained that my resolve and desire to become my own person did not, at the same time, show me what was right or wrong to do in life. In other words, I still needed to resolve the question of truth and falsehood, based on true knowledge.

There is a difference between wanting to have one’s own values and convictions and being sure that those values and beliefs are correct, or true. That was my dilemma at the time. I can say “This is my authentic self”, but without interrogating that “self”. One is not necessarily right because one has said: “Look I want to be myself and do only what I believe in”.  What if one’s beliefs are wrong and only driven by inherited opinions, peer exposure, and one’s cultural background?

The young man was pensive for a while, after the above observations. Then he asked: “What does it mean to be authentic and real?

In response, I referred him to a section of an article which appeared on this page two years ago, under the title, “The Call for Authenticity”; wherein it was said: “The simple issue here is about reality and illusion, truth and falsehood. criminality and good behaviour. To be authentic is to be real. An authentic wooden chair is different from a fake plastic chair that is given a coat of paint in order to pass it off as a wooden chair. A person is said to be authentic when he is what he claims to be at any particular time, and completely so. To be inauthentic, on the other hand, is to have your identity, values, statements and avowed beliefs contrived to present “what is not” as “what is”. It boils down to the absence of any true identity. A chimerical being. The “Not this” that claims to be a “this”.

He paused for a while and then asked: “So, what are the essential attributes of an inauthentic person?

Again, I read from another section of the aforementioned article, thus: “The inauthentic person will rather strive to create an illusion and present same as truth, than take steps to remedy a perceived lack. It is all a question of doing everything possible to ensure that popular opinion and made-up reality create a shroud for the non-being to hide inside and masquerade an identity”.

“But my worries, as well as my decision to do something about my life, must be seen and taken as clear signs of Authenticity. Don’t you agree? He asked me.

“In a manner of speaking, yes” I replied. Then I drew his attention to yet another section of the two-year old article under reference here. “When an inauthentic person makes statements, or claims, about right, wrong, etc., it is all likely to be grounded on assumptions, expectations, views and ideas whose prevalence is mistaken for indubitability. Personal conviction is rarely ever part of the equation. Such a person will say ‘I know’, but will not bother to ask what it means ‘to know’. While one person will say ‘I know’ and mean ‘Mr. X told me…’, another will say he knows while he means ‘It is generally said and believed that…’, or even ‘I have the impression that.. ’. See?

“Tell me, sir,  is it possible for one to know if one is the victim of an inauthentic life? He queried. “Listen to this”, I said; as I read out once again: “The victim of an inauthentic life may not be aware of his predicament at all. He will be absorbed in his everyday concerns, feeling quite important and indispensable amidst it all. Yet he is dispensable in every sense of the word, without the world being the worse for it”.

I continued: “What the inauthentic person takes himself to be is very often the agglomeration of claims, conjectures, flatteries and opinions put out by himself and his ‘factory workers’; as he sits in the conventional boat of his environment, his financial status and what is generally called public opinion”. And that is why  what is said by a misguided person or public can never habour the truth?

“So, an inauthentic person cannot really speak of truth or know, as such?” He asked, almost inaudibly. I replied, quoting a paragraph in the article I mentioned earlier , where it was pointed out that the inauthentic person will rather be saying “What will my people think of such a thing”. His nakedness is there beneath the perfectly imaginary clothing of artifice. But it is precisely this artifice that is being marketed as reality, in the firm belief that all will be well in the end”.

“But this your inauthentic person is not under any visible compulsion, so where is the fear coming from? He queried, looking quite perplexed.

The response came thus: “Yet he seems to be the victim of some kind of ethereal tyranny, as he falters and stabilizes involuntarily. He is always afraid of what people would say if he did this, or failed to do that. He is worried that they may consider him foolish, unserious, etc.

“Yes! But who is this “they”? The young man asked.

I replied that this amorphous “they” cannot be individualized, since it does not really refer to this person, or to that person. “It does not even refer to all the people put together; or to everyone except me. It is not something like a universal subject from which the individual can be abstracted, no! But there it is! “They” want this and not that!

“And I ask again, sir, how does this differ remarkably from the reflexes of your authentic person?” Was the next question.

This was the reponse, as drawn from three paragraphs in the article: “Unlike the authentic self which has taken hold of itself, and which consciously determines its own possibilities, a “they” self is not localized. That is why it is true to say that to have your day-to-day life defined by the ‘they’ is to have all your genuine possibilities annulled; because your life is dispersed into undefined channels, as you wallow in the anonymity of collectivism. When an inauthentic person says “I”, he actually means “the others, whose ways prescribe mine”. Pitiful, is it not? That the amorphous group, the self-enclosed homogenous group, with its unthinking rhetoric, buries personal volition.

If you doubt that the inauthentic person unconsciously, and often totally, depends on the “they”, watch out for the constant care he takes to see how he differs from others; and whether that difference is one that should be maintained or evened out; whether he is lagging and needs to catch up, and whether he has some advantages he must strive to maintain. It is a desperate struggle for a life defined by average everydayness. A life lived with very little self-possession. 

This is how the tyranny of the “they” unobtrusively robs people of their individuality. The choices about pleasure and displeasure are dictated by the prevailing preferences. It just happens to be “the done thing”. Thus, does true knowledge get undermined and undervalued. Nobody then needs to justify anything he says or believes, other than by saying that everyone is in the same boat. Thus, you find people strutting about as leaders, statesmen, chieftains, influencers, on air personalities, etc., either after they have held public office, or because they have read a few books and talked a lot”.

“But it will all ruin any form of genuineness”, he said in dismay.

I answered in the affirmative, and continued thus: “It is sometimes in this way that the impetus to free thinking and independent enquiry is either dampened, or extinguished completely for many people. That is because ‘they’ articulate the referential context of the significance of everything. Thus, it gets spread around that there is no need to be different. Evasion of self and ignorant presumption become the norm. “Just drift along”. Do not make a nuisance of yourself, by raking up issues that will make people think, reflect, or ask questions. As Martin Buber said: “Having become uneager and inept for such living intercourse that opens up a world, they have imprisoned the person in history and his speech in a library”.

“Hmmm”, he heaved; his shoulders sinking a little lower. Then he seemed to straighten up a bit from within. I said nothing. He heaved again and then said he had a lot to think about. I nodded in agreement.

I ended my exchange with the young man thus: “Anyone who thinks, or says, that many Nigerians are not either confused, suffering or simply not sure whether they are sane or not is living with his eyes closed. Anyone who is not aware that every step, and decision, he makes in life could aid or abort his purpose in a particular earth life should wake up to that fact. Look at the life of many great men and women, and also look at history, before you decide your next steps in life”.

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Anyone who thinks, or says, that many Nigerians are not either confused, suffering or simply not sure whether they are sane or not is living with his eyes closed. Anyone who is not aware that every step, and decision, he makes in life could aid or abort his purpose in a particular earth life should wake up to that fact..

Ahead of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, political parties and their candidates have intensified campaigns across the nooks and crannies of the state to woo voters, Daily Trust Saturday reports

The political atmosphere in Edo State is that of scheming, horse-trading and jostling, as political parties and their candidates are not leaving any stone unturned ahead of the September 21, 2024 governorship election. 

Seventeen political parties have fielded candidates for the election. They are the Action Alliance (AA); Social Democratic Party (SDP); New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP); All Progressives Grand Alliance  (APGA); All People’s Movement (APM) and  the All Peoples Party (APP).

Others are the Action Democratic Party (ADP); African Action Congress (AAC); Zenith Labour Party (ZLP); Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Boot Party  (BP); Accord Party (AP); African Democratic Congress (ADC); Labour Party (LP); All Progressives Congress (APC); People Redemption Party (PRP) and  Young Progressive Party (YPP).

But pundits say the election is likely to be a three-horse race despite the fact that the APC, PDP and the LP are suffering from internal crises. 

Daily Trust Saturday reports that although the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has lifted the ban on public campaigns, political parties and their candidates are yet to commence official campaigns.  

Daily Trust Saturday reports that there were controversies and protests surrounding the emergence of candidates of the three big parties. 

There was disquiet in the APC as three governorship candidates emerged from parallel primary polls held in Benin ahead of the Edo State governorship election slated for September 21.

While a member of the House of Representatives, Dennis Idahosa, was earlier announced winner by the chairman of the APC Primary Election Committee, Governor Hope Uzodimma, at Protea Hotel in Benin City, Senator Monday Okpebholo was declared winner by the returning officer for the election, Dr Stanley Ugboaja, at the residence of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Similarly, the local government returning officers for the APC governorship primary election declared Anamero Sunday Dekeri the winner of the contest.

The spokesman of the local government returning officers, Ojo Babatunde, who announced the result in the night, said Dekeri, a member representing Etsako federal constituency at the House of Representatives, polled a total number of 25,384 votes to defeat his closest rival, Dennis Idahosa, who scored 14,127 votes.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the party was, therefore, forced to conduct another primary election, which produced Senator Okpebholo as the party’s candidate. 

The emergence of Okpebholo also came with its own protests and fears as some party leaders said he was not the preferred candidate of a former governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole, who is said to be APC god-father in the state. However, the party later picked Idahosa as its deputy governorship candidate for the election to settle Oshiomhole.  

The PDP primary election was also characterised by drama as Governor Godwin Obaseki, the then deputy governor, Philip Shaibu and other aspirants engaged in supremacy battle.

There were 10 governorship aspirants in the race—Shaibu; Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama; Anselm Ojezua; Felix Akhabue; Martin Uhomoibhi; Hafia Hadizat Umoru; Omosede Igbinedion; Earl Osaro Onaiwu; Arthur Esene and Asue Ihgodalo.

For the party, which hopes to retain the governorship seat, crisis started during the ward and local government congresses supervised by a three-man committee led by Governor Peter Mba of Enugu State. After the congress, 9 aspirants, excluding Ighodalo, petitioned the appeal panel, alleging irregularities.

Although Governor Obaseki didn’t deny or confirm Ighodalo as his preferred candidate, observers said his actions and body language told the story. For instance, during the ward and local government congresses, party members loyal to Obaseki emerged as delegates for the primary.

On February 22, the party conducted two parallel primary elections. One was held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, while the second primary took place at the deputy governor’s lodge, also in Benin.

Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, who served as committee chairman and chief electoral officer, declared Ighodalo winner of the PDP primary at the Ogbemudia Stadium with 577 votes, while Shaibu was declared winner of the primary by the local government returning officer, Bartholomew Moses at the deputy governor’s lodge with 300 votes.

Observers said members of the party loyal to the deputy governor, who form the major block of PDP leaders that have been at war with Governor Obaseki for the control of the party, after they were denied entry into the Ogbemudia venue of the primary, moved to another venue and elected Shaibu at a parallel primary.

But the deputy national publicity secretary of the PDP, Ibrahim Abdullahi, had in a telephone interview with Daily Trust Saturday said the party recognised Asue Ighodalo as its only candidate for the election.

But according to pundits, Godwin Obaseki, in his determination to ensure that he produced a successor, picked a new deputy governor, Godwin Omobayo, an engineer, from Akoko-Edo Local Government Area, which is the second in terms of voting population in Edo North, the stronghold of the APC.

Meanwhile, the impeached deputy governor, Philip Shaibu and the former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Kabir Ajoto, with their loyalists, who were staunch supporters of Obaseki, have pitched tent with the Chief Orbih Legacy Group after the new deputy governor was announced. 

Daily Trust Saturday reports that the PDP has unveiled its campaign council for the governor election, but some party members, including the South South national vice chairman, Chief Dan Orbih, declined its membership, saying the party’s candidate can’t tackle the challenges bedeviling the state if he eventually wins. Pundits said there were issues and threats to the chances of the party.

The process leading to the emergence of the LP candidate was not in any way better than that of the APC and the PDP, in terms of intrigues and drama.

The party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, the state chairman, Kelly Ogbalu and the senator representing Edo South, Neda Imasuen, were rooting for different aspirants.

The aspirants were Olumide Akapta, Kenneth Imansuangbon, Professor Sunday Eromosele and Sergius Ogun. But following the intrigues, two venues—Uyi Hotel and Bishop Kelly Centre—were announced for the primary election.

Imasuagbon and his supporters, it was learnt, went to Uyi Hotel for the election while the party executive and primary election committee from the NWC went to the Bishop Kelly Centre to conduct the primary.

Imasuagbon later made his way to the Bishop Kelly centre venue, where Akpata emerged as the candidate of the party after polling 316 votes.

Meanwhile, the Lamidi Apapa faction of the national leadership of the party had submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Anderson Uwadiae Asemota and Monday Ojore Mawah as governorship and deputy governorship candidates of the party for the September 21 election. But the leadership of the Labour Party (LP) has said a letter to INEC by a “dissident group and former members” of the party led by one Lamidi Apapa to recognise Anderson Asemote and Monday Mawa as the governorship and deputy governorship candidates does not emanate from the party.”

A resident of the state, Dada Ayokhai, noted that the issue at stake as INEC has lifted the ban on campaign is how the parties would manage ‘self-inflicted’ crises and participate in the election actively. 

It is left to be seen, how the parties would slug it out come September 21.

 [DailyTrust]

Following Chelsea’s commanding 2-0 victory over Tottenham Hotspur on Thursday, manager Mauricio Pochettino showered praise on Noni Madueke for his exceptional performance, particularly highlighting his support for youngster Alfie Gilchrist on the right flank.

Goals from Trevoh Chalobah and Nicolas Jackson secured a comfortable win for the hosts, with Pochettino emphasising the significance of a strong response after a string of disappointing results.

In contrast, Spurs endured a lacklustre display, prompting frustrations from manager Ange Postecoglou, who was visibly irked with Cristian Romero and Pape Matar Sarr during the first half.

Amidst the action, Gilchrist, making only his second Premier League start, showcased his talent on the right side of Pochettino’s defence, effectively neutralising the threat of Son Heung-min.

Reflecting on the match in his post-match interview, Pochettino commended Madueke’s impact, stating: “If you see today, Noni Madueke was amazing in the way, the effort that he helped the full-back. The midfielders and the whole team in both phases were connected.”

His words underscored the collective effort that propelled Chelsea to victory and showcased Madueke’s pivotal role in supporting the defensive line.

[DailyPost]

• Fixes hearing of application for May 20

• HEDA drags Kogi judge to NJC

The Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, yesterday suspended moves by the Kogi State High Court to commit the Executive Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Ola Olukoyede for contempt.

The Appeal Court granted an ex parte motion for stay of proceedings of contempt application filed against the EFCC Chairman by the immediate past governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello.

The Court of Appeal, presided over by Justice Joseph O.K. Oyewole, also granted EFCC prayers to serve the processes in the appeal by substituted means on the former governor.

With Oyewole were Justices P. C. Obiora and Okon Abang.

The EFCC boss  had been  summoned by Justice Isa Abdullahi Jamil of the Kogi State High Court to appear on May 13, 2024  to show cause why he should not be committed to prison for disobeying the orders of the court.

The EFCC, however, appealed the ruling of the trial court and sought a stay of the proceeding of the court.

The EFCC boss is accused of carrying out “some acts upon which they (the EFCC) have been restrained” by the Court on February 9, 2024, pending the determination of the substantive Originating Motion.

But the Court of Appeal yesterday gave the orders for the stay of contempt proceedings after hearing Chief J.S.Okutepa (SAN) leading Eko Ejembi Eko  (SAN), Abdulkareem Musa and David Ojogbane Akogu.

The court ordered for substituted service of all the processes in the case to be pasted at No 9 Bengazi Steet Wuse Zone 4 Abuja being the last known address of Yahaya Bello.

In granting the orders, the Appeal Court held that the motion ex-parte had merit and adjourned the hearing of the Motion on Notice to May 20, 2024.

The first Motion, which was moved by Okutepa sought an ex parte   order staying the execution of the Orders made Ex-parte in Motion No. HCL/190M/2024 on the 25th day of April 2024, in the case of Alhaji Yahaya Bello vs. EFCC.

The second motion was for an order to serve the respondent Yahaya Bello all the processes in the appeal by substituted means through the mode stated on the face of the motion.

Ruling in Suit No: HCL/68M/2024 and Motion No: HCL/190M/2024, Justice I. A. Jamil had ordered that “the said act was carried out by the Respondent (EFCC) in violation of the order, which was valid and subsisting when it carried out the act.

The court said the EFCC action amounted to contempt of the court.

EFCC operatives had laid siege to the residence of the former Governor on April 17, 2024 to arrest him, despite a court order restraining them from taking such action, pending the determination of the Originating Motion.

Justice Jamil’s order was based on a motion ex-parte filed by Yahaya Bello through his lawyer, M.S. Yusuf in which he prayed the court for an order to issue and serve the Respondent (EFCC Chairman) with Form 49 Notice to show cause why Order of committal should not be made on Olukoyede.

Meanwhile, the Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA Resource Centre) has dragged Justice Jamil to the National Judicial Council (NJC) for issuing the  order of contempt against the EFCC chairman.

Although HEDA dated its petition April 29th, 2024, it was acknowledged by the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria on May 2nd, 2024.

The Chief Justice of Nigeria is also the chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC).

The NGO, in the petition, accused  Jamil for  granting an order which sought to enforce “a non-existence and sundry misconduct.”

It described the action of the judge as gross abuse of his judicial powers “in a suit that not only the Kogi State High Court has become functus officio but the order sought to be enforced is non-existence at the time the ‘order to show cause’ was made.”

It added: “”We are of the view that the order to show cause granted as per Motion HCL/190M/2024 are designed to annoy, irritate, and portray the commission in bad light.

“The order to show cause was granted in a very disturbing and unnecessary circumstance. The order was granted by his Lordship in the above suit on the 25th day of April, 2024 in very questionable circumstances.

“The SUIT NO: HCL/68M/2023 BETWEEN ALHAJI YAHAYA BELLO v. ECONOMIC AND FINANCIAL CRIMES COMMISSION was filed on the 8th day of February, 2024 by Alhaji Yahaya Bello (“The Applicant”) for the enforcement of his fundamental rights seeking certain declaratory orders against the Commission.

“The crux/ objective of his claim as constituted in the originating motion was for the court’s enforcement of his fundamental rights particularly by restraining the commission from inviting, detaining, arresting and/or prosecuting the Applicant. The Originating Motion is herein attached and marked as “Exhibit HEDA 1.”

The litigation is a fallout of the N80 billion money laundering case against Bello by EFCC.

[Thenation]

Nigerian fintech companies have warned their customers against trading in cryptocurrency or any virtual currency on their apps, threatening to block any accounts found engaging in such activities.

At least four fintechs—Opay, Moniepoint, PalmPay, and Paga—have communicated this development to their customers on Friday.

Last week, the Central Bank of Nigeria stopped major fintech firms like Kuda, Opay, PalmPay and Moniepoint from onboarding new customers.

The CBN’s move was linked to an ongoing audit of the Know-Your-Customer process of the fintechs, which have been under scrutiny in recent months over concerns around money laundering and terrorism financing.

Before the CBN’s directive, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission had obtained a court order to freeze at least 1,146 bank accounts owned by various individuals and companies allegedly involved in illegal foreign exchange transactions.

In a notice issued on Friday, OPay said it would take strict measures against customers who violate its policy, which aligns with the Central Bank of Nigeria’s stance on cryptocurrency trading.

“In compliance with the CBN directive, please note that OPay prohibits any cryptocurrency and all virtual currency trading. Any account engaging in such activities will be closed, and customer information will be shared with regulatory authorities.

“Please ensure that your account does not involve any cryptocurrency or any other virtual currency transaction,” the fintech firm warned.

In a similar move, Paga, a fintech firm that has processed transactions worth $32bn in 15 years of operation, said in an email to its customers,  “As a Paga account holder, please ensure that your account is not used for crypto and virtual currency transactions. Paga accounts in violation of this regulation will be blocked.”

PalmPay, another major player in an emailed statement said, “We strongly advise against using your PalmPay account for transactions involving cryptocurrencies or any other virtual assets. Please be advised that failure to comply with these regulations may result in the suspension of your account.

On Thursday in Lagos, the founder and CEO of Moniepoint, Tosin Eniolorunda, called on cryptocurrency peer-to-peer (P2P) participants to halt their activities, citing the financial sector’s prohibition on such transactions.

[Punch]