Former Minister of Women Affairs, Uju-Kennedy Ohanenye, disclosed on Wednesday that she was sacked less than two weeks after some Nigerians donated money for some projects she wanted to implement in the Ministry.

She explained that as a minister, there were some projects she wanted to implement that were not in the current budget.

According to her, she made an appeal to raise funds for some categories of vulnerable Nigerians and was surprised that people gathered at the Aso Rock Villa and donated over ₦200 million naira.

Speaking during an interview with Channels Television, Kennedy-Ohanenye disclosed that she was however sacked less than two weeks after the donations and before the donated funds could be utilized.

The former Minister said she was, therefore forced to ask the secretary in charge to write to the bank to do a reversal of the funds to the donors.

“The programmes I initiated like the mobile courts, going to rescue small girls hawking on the streets, I did not have money for that because it wasn’t part of what was budgeted for.

“When I called on Nigerians, I was so surprised a lot of them gathered at the villa and donated money to this effect. They were very happy to support it.

Unfortunately, not up to two weeks after the donations, I was sacked. When that happened, there was no way I could use that money. I asked the secretary in charge to write to the bank to do a reversal of the funds,” she narrated.

Also speaking during the interview, Kennedy-Ohanenye said she has no regrets over some actions she took as minister.

Naija News reports that Kennedy-Ohanenye was one of the Ministers sacked by President Bola Tinubu in October 2023 during a cabinet reshuffle.

She was fired alongside four other ministers at the time – Lola Ade-John (Tourism), Jamila Bio Ibrahim (Youth Development), Tahir Mamman (Education) and Abdullahi Muhammad Gwarzo (Housing and Urban
Development).

Speaking on the incident during her interview, she however disclosed she handled matters related to her office to the best of her knowledge and has no regrets.

“I have a responsibility given to me to man that place and make sure things go right. I wouldn’t have tolerated anybody trying to rubbish deceit given to me.

“There must be an impact on people. I’m glad that I didn’t give such chance and I have no regret in the way I did my job. That was the highest way I would have done that,” she said.

[NaijaNews]

Telecom operators may get approval to increase call and data tariffs before the end of first quarter of 2025, a top official of one of the four big telecom companies said.  

The top official who pleaded anonymity stated that the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) might give the telcos approval to increase rates of calls, SMS, and internet bundles.

If the approval is given, it will mark the end of over a decade of lobbying by telecom giants like MTN Nigeria, Airtel, and 9Mobile, who have been consistently calling for price adjustments to reflect economic realities. 

Daily Trust reports that despite soaring operational costs driven by inflation, telecom operators have not been allowed to raise prices in the last 11 years. 

“We strongly hope that our approval to increase tariffs has been granted by the federal government. We hear they will allow us to do some upward review of tariffs by the first quarter of 2025. This sector is seriously bleeding; no new investment because of soaring operating costs. Some of us are already making losses. We just hope the sector will not be allowed to die”, the top official who pleaded anonymity told journalists in Lagos. 

Industry sources said the telecoms tariffs could rise by up to 40%.

This means to make a one minute call may cost N15.40 up from N11 and SMS charges will rise from N4 to N5.60. For data plans, the price of a 1GB bundle will increase from N1,000 to at least N1,400.

In a December 20 interview, the minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr Bosun Tijani, acknowledged the need for price adjustments, stating: “We think there may be a need for that”. 

The NCC is responsible for reviewing and approving tariff adjustments in the telecommunications industry. 

Daily Trust reports that MTN Nigeria reported a N137 billion loss in 2023, with losses expanding to N514.9 billion in the first nine months of 2024. Airtel Africa also reported losses of $89 million in Financial Year 2024, largely driven by challenges in Nigeria.

Despite the grim outlook in the telecoms sector for much of the year, President of the Association of Licenced Telecommunication Operators of Nigeria (ALTON) Gbenga Adebayo argues that cost-reflective prices will incentivise investment and help improve quality in the long run. s

The spokesperson for the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Reuben Mouka could not be reached for confirmation of proposed tariff increase approval as of filing this report yesterday.

Technical of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Augustine Eguavoen, has asked for a decision to be taken quickly on the appointment of a substantive head coach for the Super Eagles.

Eguavoen assumed the role of interim head coach in September and guided the Super Eagles to 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification.

The NFF are, however, still looking to appoint an expatriate to tinker the three-time African champions.

The former defender has tasked the soccer house to hasten up the process ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers which will resume in March 2025.

“All hands must be on deck, we want to try and qualify for the World Cup,” Eguavoen told Kennis FM.

“March is just around the corner. If we have to do something (about the team), we need to do it quick.

“That person should come in as quickly as possible, settle down, so that we could speak, tweak things, exchange ideas and talk about the way forward. The earlier the better.”

[DailyPost]

Crisis is brewing between Ondo State Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa and widow of his predecessor, Betty Akeredolu, over plans by t to organise a memorial lecture in honour of the deceased governor.

Former Governor Rotimi Akeredolu passed on December 28 last year, following a protracted illness.

Aiyedatiwa, his deputy, was immediately sworn in as governor in accordance with constitutional provisions.

To honour the legacy of the former governor, the state government plans to organise a memorial lecture on Friday, December 27.

However, Mrs Akeredolu, has chided  Aiyedatiwa for allegedly organising a memorial lecture for her late hisband without informing the family.

In a statement posted on her verified X account, the former First Lady said the lecture being organised was not for her late husband.

She said it was an “entry point to chop money on Aketi’s head.”

According to her, “Lucky can’t be serious! Which legacy? Mtcheew. Lecture, my foot!  This is not for Aketi because I and my family are not aware. Damn it!

“As the saying goes, you and your co-travellers cannot shave Aketi’s head in his absence. You cannot weep more than the bereaved. This is an insidious propaganda carried too far!

“Lucky, you are preoccupied with rubbishing Aketi’s legacy; you can’t succeed, anyway. Anybody close to Aketi and Arabinrin becomes your enemy. Your minions are scared to get close otherwise they lose their appointments.

“Now, you want to pretend by organising one yeye lecture for Aketi’s memorial as an entry point to chop money on Aketi’s head. You are on your own o! If this is not #yahoo #419 lecture, tell me what it is!”

However, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Aiyedatiwa, Ebenezer Adeniyan, said the planned lecture was an exclusive event of the state government.

He clarified that the organisers extended invitation to the late Akeredolu’s family.

[TheNation]

Within a mere four days, an estimated 70 people were recorded dead from three different instances of stampedes that occurred in Ibadan, Oyo State; Okija, Anambra State; and Abuja. In the case of Ibadan, the organisers had promised to give several gifts to as many as 5,000 children, but so many people turned up that the event went out of their control. Funny, when I heard the chief organiser, Olori Naomi Silekunola, promoting that event and saying they expect as many as 5,000 children, I briefly thought, “There we go again, the Nigerian penchant for stating figures without thinking of their import!”

In Nigeria, we have this habit of seeing figures as little more than zeroes on paper rather than an illuminative source of logical planning. Innumeracy—that is what they call it. While the term has been used for describing quantitatively incompetent individuals, it is hardly ever applied to a culture. But when you think about it, Nigeria variously suffers from this; it shows up when disasters like stampedes occur. Any event that involves 5,000 children will involve at least 2,500 parents if one parent brings two children. To Silekunola who kept announcing the number of expected guests and induced a hunger-driven public to attend her event, the idea of 5,000 children in a confined space probably never struck her as unwieldy. I doubt she can adequately visualise what 5,000 people would truly look like in space. Or she did not think so many people would respond to her invitation?

A statement attributed to Oriyomi Hamzat, one of the organisers of the carnival, stated that when he went to inspect the venue a day before the incident, she met Silekunola there, and “she said the place was more spacious than the place they wanted to use (earlier)”. But by what metrics did either she or Hamzat arrive at the logical conclusion that the place would be sufficient for the number of people they were expecting? Did they measure and calculate the space according to the number of people per square meter or simply use their eyes to judge? Did they factor in the number of exits and entrances necessary for a crowd that huge even if there were no gatecrashers?

Ideally, it should not be an individual event organiser’s job to work out the mathematics. It is the government’s responsibility to provide guidelines for every space where more than 50 people will gather. Every event centre should have safety protocols limiting the number of people who can occupy available space. You should also not be allowed to claim that you have a space that can contain, say 5,000, until you demonstrate the capacity to handle emergencies that can occur because of that many people staying within a confined space.

Not to exonerate the organisers of the event, but what was the Oyo State Government doing when they heard repeated announcements that 5,000 children were being invited to a carnival that would take place within a school compound? Now, they have arrested the event organisers, but are they taking responsibility for their own failures?

Our lack of quantitative sophistication is why we are a society where anyone can get away with anything. There is a reason we build a massive event centre to host large gatherings but forget to add parking spaces commensurate with the number of people we say can occupy the building. Hardly anyone even thinks of an evacuation plan as they design such buildings. God help you if a disaster breaks out.

An innumerate society does not count to plan; they plan and then count later. When they eventually count, they tamper with the figures because they are not looking for the truth; they just want to score some goals. That infidelity with numbers routinely shows up in every aspect of our lives. To date, nobody can definitively state the population of Nigeria. We go by exaggerated estimates. We plan in darkness.

Underlying the drama that followed the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics’ release of figures of kidnapping across the country is still the problem of our inability to count (and account for ourselves) properly. According to the 2024 NBS Crime Experience and Security Perception Report, 2.23 million kidnapping incidents reportedly occurred during the year, with 63.5 per cent of these occurring in the North-West geopolitical zone alone. The report stated that N2.2tn was paid as ransom, an average amount of N2.7m per incident. Not long after the report was published on their website, they rescinded it and claimed their website was hacked. And this is the organisation that is supposed to supply the government figures with the data with which they will plan our lives? I find their lack of institutional integrity more worrisome than their curious figures.

 Tinubu and his friend

One of the remarkable moments in the otherwise dull presidential chat that President Bola Tinubu had on Monday was when he referenced his friend. He said, “People are learning management. A friend used to brag to me that he had five Rolls Royce. The other day I saw him in his Honda Accord. He said that’s where you put me. I told him, ‘I did not put you there.’ But he said it was because of fuel prices that he could no longer maintain five limousine-type vehicles. It is not negative to learn to manage. Switch off the light to control your electricity bill. Let us learn to manage.”

Please file this under the list of things that never happened. Tinubu has no such friend. It is easy to tell he cooked up the story. Note that he did not say he actually ever saw the five Rolls Royce but only knew about it because the friend bragged about it. Yet, the same Tinubu who knew of his friend’s stupendous wealth through reported speech somehow saw him in a Honda Accord (and probably driving himself too)! Where and when did he manage to see this friend in a Honda? In Aso Rock or on the streets of Bourdillon?

In any case, stories like this one are not parsed for their truth value. We scrutinise them for what they say about the person telling them. Around this time in 2022, then-President, Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), revealed how a friend had begged him to speak to the FCT Minister, Mohammed Bello, to allocate him a parcel of land to sell so he could use the proceeds to marry another wife. As I said in an article then, the kind of conversations presidents have (or they say they do) with their friends is telling of their character and the quality of the company they keep. If you get a chance to talk to the president, even if he is your friend, you should be asking for a favour of land allocation to build an industry and not your sagged libido.

For Tinubu, whose “friend” is at best imaginary, this supposed conversation is telling of his sadism. If truly he had a friend who was stupendously wealthy enough to have five Rolls Royce and the person now drives a lesser-valued car, he should be seriously worried about that kind of misfortune under his administration. Even if the person were a political opponent, such a fate befalling them should be a loud indication to Tinubu that the country is not prospering. If a person who boasted five Rolls Royce can downgrade so much, that means the person who started with a Honda Accord is now crawling. If you were a humane leader, that would be an epiphanic moment. The revelation should have prompted you to vow to change the course of your nation’s fortunes, not dismiss such a staggering tale of oríburúkú as needful asceticism.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Former Kano State Governor and leader of the Kwankwasiyya Movement, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, on Wednesday pledged, “to significantly reduce the All Progressives Congress’ votes in Kano State during the 2027 elections.”

Kwankwaso made the declaration while receiving former councillors and senior special advisers,  who served under the previous administration during a meeting at his residence in Kano, with stakeholders from Tsanyawa Local Government Area.

He credited the hard work of his team during the 2023 elections, which sidelined the Peoples Democratic Party to struggle to secure only 15,000 votes in Kano.

He noted that his party, the New Nigeria People’s Party “achieved this remarkable feat despite being a new political platform coupled with the late start of its campaign.”

“Now, it’s our turn to diminish APC’s influence. We will work tirelessly to ensure their votes are reduced to less than 15,000 in Kano come  2027”, Kwankwaso added.

The former governor emphasised the need for dedication and grassroots mobilisation to solidify the NNPP’s position as a dominant political force in Kano and beyond.

He encouraged his supporters to remain focused on delivering results that would secure the party’s success in future elections.

[Punch]

The 1 Division of the Nigerian Army in Kaduna was a beehive of activities on Wednesday, as veteran Nigerian Dancehall musician, Daddy Showkey, serenaded wounded soldiers and their families with good music.

The performance by the veteran gala singer was in commemoration of the Christmas celebration and organised by Tribute to Our Troops Foundation in collaboration with the Office of the Chief of Defense Staff and Chiefs of the tri-service – Army, Navy and Air Force.

Showkey, who wore a military regalia, told newsmen that he had been performing for years to honour Nigerian military troops who sacrificed their lives for all Nigerians.

He added that performing for the wounded soldiers was a form of therapy for them to feel relaxed and ease stress amidst their medical conditions. 

Showkey, also known as the Ghetto Soldier, said a lot of good things would come from him, adding: “It is not about music alone, it is about changing people’s lives which is the most important thing for me.”

The founder of Tribute to Our Troops Foundation, Ms Olivia Adom, said the event, which brought the barrack community and outsiders together, was to emphasise the need for respect and honour to the Armed Forces of Nigeria.

She added that the gathering was to reinvigorate and improve civil-military relationships while calling on Nigerians to embrace the path of creating a sustainable healthy relationship with the armed forces.

“The armed forces have given up their freedom and homes. They signed off their human rights to protect the country’s integrity,” she said.

Adom said the Foundation was designed for the armed forces under the purview of the Department of civil-military Cooperation to honour fallen heroes and celebrate the serving men and women who fight endlessly to keep the country’s territorial integrity intact.

Earlier, the Chief of Civil-Military Relations, Defence Headquarters, Rear Adm. Idi Abass, said the performance was another non-kinetic line of operations.

Abass stated that the Chief of Defence Staff’s ambition was to have people-centric armed forces.

He, therefore, said the event was one of the ways that could project the military in the eyes of the civil population.

The News Agency of Nigeria reports that present at the event included the Corps Commander Artillery, Maj.-Gen. Marcus Kangye and the General Officer Commanding (GOC) 1 Division Nigeria Army, Maj.-Gen. Mayirenso Saraso, among other senior officers and soldiers.

NAN

Uju Kennedy-Ohanenye, the former minister of women affairs, says she did not regret her actions as a cabinet member in President Bola Tinubu’s administration.

The former minister spoke on Wednesday during an interview on Channels Television.

Kennedy-Ohanenye, who was among the five ministers sacked by Tinubu in October, said she could not have acted better than the way she did while in office.

Her time as the minister was characterised by controversy, including issuing a threat to sue the United Nations (UN) for allegedly mismanaging funds meant for Nigeria.

Responding to why the president relieved her as a minister, Kennedy-Ohanenye said she was not a “witch” to have known the reason.

“I’m not a witch to know why I was sacked, and I have decided not to think about it,” the former minister said.

“The important thing is that I have been sacked, and I have refocused on what I was doing before.”

However, she noted that her commitment to defending vulnerable individuals in society remains unchanged.

On why some Nigerians think she was not diplomatic as a minister in handling some issues, Kennedy-Ohanenye said she was handling sensitive cases that involved a lot of human sympathy.

Kennedy-Ohanenye argued that she was appointed as a minister to serve the people and not to act as someone bigger than the people.

“Being a minister of women affairs as at that time, I was handling sensitive cases,” she said.

“You can be in the office, and they will show you a girl who was raped. You will see the substance from the man in her. I wonder what you expect me to do.

“Some of them said, ‘she does not carry herself as a minister. She goes to the police station herself. Why can’t she be in her office and call the IGP?’.

“I’m sorry for some people, the way they think. As a minister, you are supposed to be a servant; you listen to the people and respond quickly before things go wrong.

“I don’t know what people think about being diplomatic when things are damaging.

“I have no regrets in the way I did my job. I don’t have regrets. I don’t think I could have done it better.

“That was the highest way I could have done it. That issue of being diplomatic is what I don’t understand.”

[TheCable]

An airstrike in two Sokoto communities, Gidan Bisa and Runtuwa, has left 10 civilians dead, sparking conflicting accounts between local authorities and the military.

The incident, which occurred at 6 a.m. on Wednesday, saw bombs dropped by military jets reportedly pursuing bandits in Silame Local Government Area. 

The council chairman, Hon. Abubakar Gitta Rana, disclosed that the airstrike also killed livestock, describing it as an “erroneous” attack on innocent villagers.

In contrast, the Joint Task Force (JTF) North West, Operation Fasan Yamma, insisted the operation targeted Lakurawa terrorists and denied hitting civilian structures. A statement by Lt. Col. Abdullahi Abubakar emphasized that the airstrike was justified, cautioning against misinformation spread by terrorist groups and collaborators.

Governor Ahmed Aliyu, accompanied by state APC leader Sen. Aliyu Magatakarda Wamakko and Labour Minister Muhammadu Maigari Dingyadi, visited the affected communities to condole with victims’ families.

He participated in funeral prayers for the deceased and described the incident as a tragic mistake.

“The jets were on a mission to eliminate criminal groups but mistakenly bombed innocent civilians. This is unfortunate, and a thorough investigation will be conducted to prevent future occurrences,” Aliyu stated.

The state government announced a donation of ₦20 million and 100 bags of foodstuffs to assist the bereaved families. It also pledged to cover the medical expenses of those injured in the airstrike.

The tragedy highlights the challenges of precision in military operations and raises questions about accountability in counterterrorism efforts.

[Vanguard]

I commiserate with the families who lost loved ones to the stampedes of recent days in Ibadan, Oyo State, Okija, Anambra State and Abuja, Federal Capital Territory (FCT). There can be no greater tragedy than for anybody to die while looking for something to eat, especially during a festive season like this. So, for those in authority at all levels, the message should be clear. But from what I have been reading in recent days, it appears some may simply be looking for scapegoats while others are playing politics with a problem that has always been with us. In the process, important lessons are ignored. If only to honour the memories of the dead, we must not waste this moment.

While ordering a probe into the tragedies, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Kayode Egbetokun “warned groups and organizers of similar events to ensure the involvement of security agencies as negligence on their part is criminal and would not be overlooked…” These incidents, according to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Director General, Zubaida Umar, who also waded in, “undermine the goodwill behind charity events, turning acts of kindness into sources of grief due to poor planning and crowd control.” The impression being unwittingly created is that these tragedies would not have occurred if the police and other security agencies as well as NEMA ‘experts’ had been involved in planning and execution. Even President Bola Tinubu seems to have bought into that narrative considering what he said during his media chat on Monday night. But is the blame game supported by empirical fact?

On 23 February this year, seven people died following a stampede during the distribution of 25kg bags of rice at a discounted price of N10,000 by the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) in Lagos. Aside the fact that the NCS is a quango whose personnel bear arms, policemen were also at their zonal headquarters in Yaba when the stampede occurred. “Unforeseen challenges arose when we ran out of stock and announced the continuation of the exercise the following day, leading to a regrettable outcome,” spokesperson for the service, Abdullahi Maiwada, explained after the incident. “The crowd became desperate and charged through our barricades in search of rice bags inside emptied containers. In the stampede that ensued, some fatalities and injuries were regrettably recorded.”

A month later, two female students at the Nasarawa State University in Keffi, also died while 17 other students were injured following a stampede inside a hall where bags of rice were kept. Security personnel at the scene were reportedly ‘overpowered’. At the instance of Governor Abdullahi Sule, each tertiary school student in the State was to receive two 7.5kg bags of rice and N5,000 to cushion the effect of the difficult times in the country. “After our arrangement for the distribution of palliatives to the students that was to be held at the university’s convocation square, they (students) suddenly arrived at the venue in their numbers and overpowered security,” the Nasarawa State Students Association national president, Yunusa Yusuf Baduku, explained. “They (the students) broke through the gate into the hall where the bags of rice were to be shared. Unfortunately, most of our female students sustained injuries. We rushed several students to the school clinic and Federal Medical Centre Keffi. I learned that two female students died from suffocation.”

Given the foregoing, the self-righteous fixation about ‘criminal negligence’ on the part of organisers of these events may not be accurate. And it could be counterproductive. Since I arrived Ilorin last Saturday for the Christmas holiday, I have found it difficult to sleep well as I reflect on where I would probably be now if God had not intervened on behalf of our church three weeks ago when we organised a similar programme. Therefore, as much as I share in the grieve of the bereaved families, I also sympathise with the organisers of these events who must now be going through trauma. So, before I conclude with my take on these tragedies, I seek the indulgence of readers to share a personal experience.

The Everlasting Arms Parish (TEAP) of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), where I worship in Abuja, features an annual programme that supports the less fortunate with gifts of food items and household wares during the Christmas period. Called ‘Tabitha Tent’, it was initiated by Pastor Chinedu Ezekwesili in 2007 and continues with his successor, Evaristus Azodoh. Dependent on donations from church members (with some members also using their networks to get external support), the event is held on the first Saturday in December every year. While my wife and I had been actively involved from the beginning, Pastor Azodoh raised the stakes in 2019 by appointing me chairman of the organising committee. Our responsibilities include raising funds, procuring essential foodstuffs and coordinating the programme. I have able lieutenants in Modupe Ogundimu, the Lagos Zonal Director, National Health Insurance Authority (NHIA), Elizabeth Ekpenyong, Director of Strategic Programmes, Debt Management Office (DMO) Abuja, Funke Abegunde, a teacher at the American International School, Abuja and Bello Bissalla, Managing Director/CEO, Beltina Printing Press.

Being both a retired army Colonel and a medical doctor (with his wife also a medical doctor), Pastor Azodoh ensured we had security and medical teams in place for the programme every year. Despite that, we have had situations of some participants going home with bruises and other minor injuries after being treated by our team of medical personal led by Dr Rosemary Nwokorie, a consultant anaesthesiologist and Chairman Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), Asokoro General Hospital and Bayo Olakareem, a pharmacist. Last year, a woman broke her arm in the struggle at the gate. After the preliminary intervention by our medical team, I asked my driver to take her to the hospital with N50,000 as a deposit. Before they left the church premises, the woman asked to be given the money and just taken home. When all entreaties for her to be taken to the hospital proved futile, we acted as she demanded. She was around three weeks ago for this year’s edition and told us she had spent a fraction of the money to heal the arm through traditional methods. That is the kind of poverty you deal with at these charity programmes.

On Saturday, 7th December, our medical team was on ground and for security, we had ten policemen and another ten men from the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to support them. These 20 official security people were joined by our 13 in-house security personnel (we have an expansive compound that also hosts both primary and secondary schools) and several Ministers/Workers. In the days preceding the event, as it was the practice every year, we (in the organising committee) also fasted and prayed together. On D-Day, we believed we were well covered despite the thousands who had camped outside our church premises from Friday 6th December—24 hours before the programme.

The programme started by 8am with beneficiaries (the number we could cater for) allowed entrance into the premises through a guided process once they collected the accreditation tags. Everything went well and by 10.30am we had concluded the sharing of foodstuffs to as many as 1,300 people – only clothing materials and shoes were left. By our arrangement, beneficiaries had to remain inside the church premises so that they could all leave at the same time since the number of people outside was almost three times the number inside. When we felt our assignment was completed, we asked the security personnel to open the two gates to allow beneficiaries to exit with their packs. That was when all hell broke loose.

The moment the gates were opened, the thousands of people outside rushed in. And that was the point of divine intervention. For some inexplicable reason, the people inside practically froze. Likewise with all the security men who became mere onlookers. That was how we were saved from what could have been a tragedy. If those inside had attempted moving out while those outside rushed in, as it almost always happens on such occasions, many lives would have been lost. Although Pastor Azodoh was evidently shaken by what we witnessed, I had a delayed reaction. It was only after the Ibadan tragedy that I began to ruminate on what could have happened at Tabitha Tent 2024!

The first lesson I take from ‘Tabitha Tent’ every year is how the level of desperation in our society continues to rise and the need for concerted efforts to deal with food insecurity for millions of our people. This is a programme that we do not advertise yet huge crowds turn up every year. Packs contain little more than rice, beans and garri (vegetable oil has disappeared from our list in the last two years) that would last no more than two weeks at most. Yet people come from as far as Nasarawa and Plateau States. Since they are mostly women, another story on its own, many come with their children. They sleep on bare ground outside the church premises and endure the scorching sun the next day. Meanwhile, some still go home empty-handed because the turn-out almost always exceeded our provision—even when we were catering for about 5,000 people.

Now to the critical issues. If you remove his usual divisive slant, the Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) Executive Director, Prof Ishaq Akintola, is right to demand the immediate and unconditional release of those arrested over the Ibadan disaster. “Queen Naomi Silekunola in particular is well known for her philanthropic activities and nobody in his or her right mind will assume that she deliberately planned a massacre,” Akintola wrote following her arraignment along with two others on a four-count charge of conspiracy, acceleration of death, negligent acts causing harm, and failure to provide adequate security and medical facilities. “By the same token, the arrest of the principal of Islamic High School, Orita Bashorun, Ibadan, was quite unnecessary because the alumni of that school have confirmed that the venue was approved by the Oyo State Ministry of Education and not by the principal acting unilaterally.”

The point for me is that in a nation where there is no safety net for the poor by the government at any level, criminalising charity work is unconscionable. How the programmes should be organized can be debated but it would be catastrophic if public-spirited individuals and corporate bodies were discouraged from supporting such programmes. That can easily happen with the way some officials are carrying on about seeking government permits bla bla bla. But there are also lessons that organisers of these charity programmes should take onboard going forward. As I wrote in my March column, ‘The Stampede for Food to Eat’ (https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2024/03/28/the-stampede-for-food-to-eat/), there is a lot we can all learn from the ‘Al-Habibiyyah Society Food Programme’ through which Imam Fuad Adeyemi has, for almost two decades, been feeding thousands of people every day in Abuja during Ramadan, in a flawless manner. The secret is that the Imam deploys several unarmed volunteers from the elite of our society because they can attest to his integrity. If you unleash too many arms-bearing security personnel to confront an army of hungry and desperate people where food is being shared, as is being suggested, you are inviting trouble. But we must also rethink the idea of a safety net for the poor beyond ‘palliatives’ that do not address the challenge of hunger in a sustainable manner.

Many have suggested that empowering the people through vocational training and providing funds for small scale businesses is the way to go for philanthropic organisations. I subscribe to the idea. But it is also not as easy as they imagine in a nation where not only are many people lazy but also have an entitled mentality. Four years ago, Pastor Azodoh expanded the mandate of ‘Tabitha Tent’ to include empowerment. We were to organize training programmes and give out loans to support small businesses. The church provided a tidy amount as seed money. I delegated Bissalla to handle that assignment. We would spend a lot of money to organize training programmes, invite resource people and at the end, only a few people would turn up. But when we ask for proposals on viable ideas that could be supported with soft loans, we would receive hundreds of applications, each requesting for millions of Naira “to do business”!

While investigations continue on the stampedes that claimed dozens of lives in Ibadan, Okija and Abuja, government agencies must be ready to provide the support needed to individuals and organizations carrying out acts of charity. They should not scare them away. Based on the demography of the casualties in the three recent tragedies, it is evident that victims are mostly women and children—the most vulnerable of any society. Considering that Nigeria’s population is predominantly youth based, there must be a deliberate policy to identify and implement empowerment initiatives that directly impact their lives and communities. But as a matter of urgency, the government must also address the root causes of the kind of poverty that pushes our people to the point of animalistic desperation.

I wish all my readers the compliment of this glorious season.