In Nigerian political speak, there are many words and phrases, or many expressions so to say, whose usage does violence to the grandeur of English lexis and grammar. One such expression is the application of ‘platform’ as a metaphorical symbol of the importance of political parties in Nigeria’s electoral process. Daily, in the media, print or electronic, you are bound to read or hear the expression about one politician or the other contesting or not contesting for an office, public or party, “UNDER the platform” of party A, B, or Z. This expression appears in newspaper reports or headlines, and in the articles of respected columnists; it features in the commentaries of popular TV anchors, just as politicians mouth it on different campaign grounds. It’s been so repeatedly used that many do not seem to know that the phrase violates some basic English language rules.

Literally, a platform is a raised ground; it is what Oxford Languages, said to be the world’s leading dictionary publishers for more than 150 years, defines as “a raised level surface ON which people or things can stand.” In a second definition, Oxford Languages also describes platform as “the declared policy of a political party or group.” For clarity, the publishers of this leading English dictionary give an example of the usage of that word in this sentence: “seeking election ON a platform of low taxes”. From both definitions, ON is the only preposition that is used before ‘platform’ when it functions as a noun in a sentence. The preposition, UNDER, did not feature in any shape or form in both definitions aforesaid. In any case, the purpose of a platform is to allow whoever stands ON it to stand out and be seen by many people around, or for that person to see far into the distance.

Since every expression must be literally meaningful before its metaphorical application could be sensible, I couldn’t understand how Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara could have directed his supporters, as reported by one columnist, “to contest (the controversial local government elections in the state) UNDER the platform of the almost unheard-of Action People’s Party (APP).” Of course, the “almost unheard-of” APP handsomely won almost all the chairmanship and councillorship seats in the state, just as the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in Benue State as well as the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Akwa Ibom State respectively won all the seats in contest during the council polls in those states. Significantly, the winners in the council polls in both Benue and Akwa Ibom States, as it happened in other council elections in other states, were mostly reported to have contested UNDER the platform of the ruling APC and PDP in the respective states. 

In the 2023 general elections, many of the candidates who contested UNDER the platform of their various parties, particularly in the governorship and National Assembly polls, won the elections with what the media loved to call “a wide margin.” Although I do not know if the situation was similar in previous polls, particularly the 2007 election in which the then President Olusegun Obasanjo had described was a do or die affair for the then ruling PDP, or even the 1983 election in which the then ruling National Party of Nigeria (NPN) recorded what was then described as a landslide victory in many states across the country; I want to believe there is a nexus between the nature of a candidate contesting for an office UNDER a political party and the “sweeping victory” (apology to the media) of that candidate in the polls. This would, of course, require further study by political researchers who understand the dark arts of Nigeria’s political and electoral process.

I, however, suspect, indeed would like to believe, that there is some dishonesty or fraud or danger or deviousness in any activity taking place UNDER something rather than in an open space. Why do Nigerian politicians prefer to contest election UNDER, rather than ON, the platform of a political party? Could it be because of the endless possibilities of winning elections UNDER the table, sorry platform? Could it be where ghost voters are conjured, where every INEC (Independent National Electoral Commission) innovation to improve the electoral process is perverted, where electoral thugs are procured, where stolen and damaged voting materials are hidden, where vote-buying money is minted, where the security agents used for harassing political opponents or chasing voters away are quartered? Could it even be where those funny judges issue strange ex parte orders even in cases their courts have no jurisdiction, or where favourable judgments could be easily bought by the highest bidder? Is that the oven where those hot election victories are baked? Could that also be the reason why the (political) platform, in the words of a colleague, “shifts like a thermometer”; where a politician belongs to one party in the morning and another in the evening, or contests election UNDER the platform of the PDP in 2019 and the APC in 2023?

Should that be the situation, we should collectively collapse the platform, literally and metaphorically, as to leave no space UNDER for political parties to carry out unwholesome operations. That way, politicians would be left with no choice but contest for elections ON a party platform or whatever remains of it.

THE world commemorated the first year of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel with no clear vision to end the on-going carnage. In the First World War, there were about 22 million deaths. Humanity vowed: “Never again!” Never again will we allow such mass scale slaughter. To ensure this, the League of Nations was created in 1920 to preserve world peace and promote international cooperation. Nineteen years later, the Second World War began on September 1, 1939. This time, the slaughter was so horrendous that Russia alone lost over 22 million people, that is a higher figure than the combined slaughter in the First World War.

This time, we created the United Nations, UN, for the maintenance of international peace and security, well-being of the people of the world and international cooperation. These, 79 years later, are precisely the things that are missing in the world.

However, while in the past wars, we shouted “Never again!” These times, we have lost our collective voices and resolve. We accept genocide, even when the footages are brought right into our bedrooms. Admittedly, there are differences. In the past wars, there were some restraints, especially when it came to children, women and the elderly. For instance, young men were so disproportionately killed in the Second World War that there was a severe shortage of men to begin families.

Many men who returned from the war, were traumatised. But in the on-going conflict in the Middle East it is children and women that are the main targets. In the first year of the so-called War in Gaza, over 42,000 have been killed with about 70 per cent of these victims being women and children. An indication that those carrying out the slaughter in today’s world do not care about the target; all they want is to exterminate the populace.

Some make the mistake of assuming that the ‘Gaza War’ which is actually an Israeli-Palestinian war, began on October 7, 2023. No. Even months before that attack, Israel had killed over 250 Palestinians.

This war, is also, not a matter of disagreements between two neighbours. The issue is one of a settler colony where a people migrate from one part of the world to seize or colonise another part, militarily dominate and settle in it at the expense of the indigenes. To be able to do so in a sustainable way, the indigenous population has to either be subjugated or exterminated.

The United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are such settler colonies where Europeans pacified the indigenes. There were bloody attempts in Kenya and Algeria by Britain and France to achieve the same aims. Uprisings by the Mau Mau in Kenya and heroic resistance by the Algerians who lost two million people, stopped these unholy plans.

The Germans wiped out two thirds of the Namibian people in a failed attempt to make it a settler colony. In the case of Zimbabwe, British businessman, Cecil Rhodes, seized it and made it a settler colony until the people won the war of independence in 1980. In South Africa, the Europeans established their first settlement in 1652 and the indigenous people did not regain control until 342 years later.

But the Israeli case is unique. First, the European settlers claim to have been indigenous to the territory thousands of years earlier before going into exile in the 6th Century. Secondly, their leading lights did not regard the indigenous peoples they were going to meet as nationalities with equal rights. Rather, they regarded them as dispensable barbarians. Thirdly, they regarded themselves as Europeans going to establish a new European country as was done in Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada, and was being done in South Africa and Zimbabawe, then called Rhodesia.

In fact, Theodor Herzl, the Austro-Hungarian journalist who founded the Zionist Movement  and is regarded as “The Spiritual Father of the Jews”, wanted to create Israel in the image of colonial Rhodesia. In 1902, he wrote Rhodes: “You are being invited to help make history. It doesn’t involve Africa, but a piece of Asia Minor; not Englishmen but Jews… it is something colonial.”

One of the arguments of Herzl was that Europeans of Jewish ancestry or who had adopted Judaism, were being discriminated against and profiled as unscrupulous. This was depicted in the “Merchant of Venice”, a play written in 1596-97 by William Shakespeare. In it, an unscrupulous businessman of Jewish origin, Shylock, wanted a pound of flesh from a Christian, Antonio.

Herzl proposed a solution to rid Europe of the Jewish problem by securing lands for them in Palestine, and simultaneously, building a new European country in Asia. This way, the Jews will also have a homeland and simultaneously, help Europe to police the Middle East.

But what would happen to the indigenous Palestinian People? Herzl has a simple solution: “We must expropriate gently the private property (Palestinians) on the state assigned to us. We shall try to spirit the penniless population across the border by procuring employment for it in the transit countries, while denying it employment in our country. The property owners will come over to our side. Both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discretely and circumspectly.”

The Palestine was then under the Ottoman Empire and Herzl, in 1901, met Sultan Abdul Hamid II. He offered Jewish assistance and £150 million for Jewish settlement. He said: “If His Majesty the Sultan were to give us Palestine… we should there form a portion of a rampart of Europe against Asia, an outpost of civilisation as opposed to barbarism.” But the Sultan refused.

However, the Ottoman Empire was in decline and Britain, the new emergent power, offered the Zionist Federation, Palestinian lands. In a November 2, 1917 letter, then British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour, wrote: “His Majesty’s Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.”

Armed conflicts ensued between the new settlers and indigenous peoples. In 1948, the former won the first war, seized 77.9 per cent of the lands and expelled the indigenes. Following another victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israelis seized East Jerusalem, Gaza, the West Bank and Syria’s Golan Heights.

A two-state solution agreed under the 1993 Oslo Accords have now been rejected by Israel which wants the entire Palestine with an eye on Lebanon and Syria, and possibly Jordan.

A crew of DStv sports journalists traveling to cover the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifier match in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, were attacked and kidnapped.

The Anambra State Police Command confirmed that six of the crew members have been rescued.

According to a statement from the Public Relations Officer of the Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, the media crew was abducted along the Isseke-Orlu Road in Ihiala Local Government Area while they were traveling from Lagos to Uyo.

Joint security forces launched a rescue operation following the incident, which led to the safe recovery of six kidnapped journalists.

“Joint security forces have successfully rescued six members of the media crew who were abducted while traveling from Lagos to Uyo along Isseke-Orlu Road in Ihiala,” Ikenga said as quoted by Sahara Reporters.

The police spokesperson added, “Meanwhile, operations are still ongoing for the possible rescue of the seventh crew member. Further development shall be communicated.”

Meanwhile, a prominent journalist and former staff of the broadcast station, Colin Udoh confirmed that one of the crew members is dead.

He tweeted, “A journalist, one of my former SuperSport colleagues, was killed yesterday when members of the production crew for Friday’s game against Libya were kidnapped on their way to Uyo. Some of the crew have been freed, while at least 2 others are still unaccounted for.”

Vanguard News

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the PDP has extensively considered the series of complaints raised against the Acting National Chairman, Amb. Illiya Damagum and National Secretary, Sen. Samuel Anyanwu particularly with regard to the letter addressed by them to the Court of Appeal in Appeal No:CA/PH/307/2024 against the Party’s position in the case involving the 27 former members of the Rivers State House of Assembly who vacated their seats upon decamping from the PDP to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The NWC condemned this anti-party activity of the Acting National Chairman and the National Secretary which is in gross violation of the provisions of the PDP Constitution (as amended in 2017) and their Oath of Office.

Consequently, the NWC, pursuant to Sections 57, 58 and 59 of the PDP Constitution, has suspended Amb. Illiya Damagum and Sen. Samuel Anyanwu as Acting National Chairman and National Secretary of the Party respectively and referred them to the National Disciplinary Committee for further action.

In the meantime, the two officials are suspended from all meetings, activities and programs of the NWC pending the conclusion of investigation by the National Disciplinary Committee.

Signed:

Hon. Debo Ologunagba
National Publicity Secretary

Fulham star, Alex Iwobi has named his four best ever Super Eagles players of all-time.

Iwobi spoke ahead of Nigeria’s 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, qualifier with Libya on Friday in Uyo.

In a recent interview with PoojaDissects, Iwobi was asked to name his four best ever Super Eagles players.

The former Arsenal player simply said: “[Austin] Jay-Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, Joseph Yobo and Victor Osimhen.”

Okocha, Kanu and Yobo have all retired from football.

Osimhen, meanwhile, is currently playing for Galatasaray on loan from Napoli.

When one of the Afenifere chieftains who had gone to commiserate with Pastor Enoch Adeboye over the death of the son reported that the man showed them a video of Sunday Igboho insulting him, it occurred to me how much this big man of God is affected by public opinion. Otherwise, why would someone like Adeboye care about the opinion of someone like Igboho that he would justify his politics? Some people’s criticism of you should always fly beneath the radar of your notice. For Adeboye to pay attention to critics, to the point of even singling out an acerbic individual, something has shifted in the social culture.

For a society that lacks a culture of accountability, the internet has made imperviousness to the critics harder. So much has the internet shrunk the social distance that the influential class must now deal with a plebian public whose existence they would not have been aware of before the age of Web 2.0. From the political class who will send the police after you over social media comments, to Nobel Laureates and even megachurch pastors, the internet has bent the hierarchical relations of power between the big man and the small fries. The radicalism the internet allows is both the anarchist’s ideal universe and the conservative’s nightmare. No one is spared criticism or ridicule in the internet’s court of public opinion.

Someone like Adeboye has greatly suffered on the internet and in many cases, his own words were parsed to convict him. Things pastors used to say within the confines of their churches now hit the internet and make them sound unreasonable.

Take, for example, the story Adeboye told of the billionaires in his church who paid “hefty” tithes and demanded a monthly account of how the money was being spent. He said he did not find a biblical justification for their request, and those people suffered severe repercussions for daring to challenge him. A story like that tells you so much about Nigeria’s culture of underdevelopment. The RCCG churches in the USA, do they not give regular account to their congregation? If the IRS demands to see their accounts, will Adeboye tell them there is no basis for giving in to such request? Their society is organised, and their God is not so shady that he would destroy people for making reasonable requests.

Adeboye’s recent admission of doctrinal error over tithes is another victory for the internet. Daddy Freeze (Ifedayo Olarinde), who galvanised other disgruntled elements over the issue of tithes should be proud of what he has achieved. When he began to claim the doctrine of tithe as preached in the contemporary Pentecostal church was unbiblical, hardly any famous Pentecostal pastor did not demystify himself just to attack him—a mere individual. Yet, no matter how much they spun it, nobody who has read the Bible or history books properly would ever agree that tithes can buy you eternity or a good life. That is a transactional gospel, tantamount to the Catholic Church’s selling indulgences in the Middle Ages.

By publicly apologising, Adeboye joins the league of famous prosperity gospel preachers like Benny Hinn and Creflo Dollar who have also admitted their errors over tithes. Except that Adeboye’s apology came across as a non-apology. He could have stopped at saying he was wrong, but no, he still dug further by saying “ten percent was for beginners” and people should “give violently” (what does that even mean?). He could have stayed focused and stopped putting percentages on people’s money.

It would be setting the bar too low to applaud Adeboye for making the minimum effort of apologising. Merely saying “sorry” is the easy part. The real test of Adeboye’s remorse and integrity on this matter would be him dedicating himself to undoing the structures that the wrong doctrines have created within the RCCG and across denominations where people have looked up to him. The doctrinal and administrative mechanisms for milking people of their money must also be systematically dismantled. He must actively preach against a religion where the things of God have become commodities to be purchased, and where worship means nothing without money.

Through the legitimacy tithe sermons like Adeboye’s provide, some preachers have run amok with a transactional gospel that sometimes even puts Adeboye up as the quintessence of the truth of such theology. Even some preachers whose sons have become ministers actively carry on with the same doctrine of give! give! give! as if that is all there is to religion.

Things are so bad in some Pentecostal churches that preachers now claim that Adam was sent out of the garden because he did not pay tithes, or that Job faced tribulations because of tithes. By what theological permutation does one even arrive at such a twisted conclusion? Some of these preachers forget that some of us can read the Bible for ourselves, and we have access to a wide variety of literature written by erudite people against which we can crosscheck their preaching. Like the Berean church, we can study to discern and reject nonsense. Thanks to social media, we can also broadcast our dissent.

Let me preempt those about to tell us to mind our business because tithe and Adeboye’s doctrinal errancy are a family affair. First, you are mistaken because there is something called “a matter of public interest.” Look it up on Google. A society where your preachers teach that God punishes people for asking a pastor to give account is one where politicians too will adopt the same standard. Second, tithes and the religious relationship they spawn are transactions of faith. The people who seek refuge from a troubled world in the church give in good faith; the tithe-hustling pastors who manipulate them into giving what they cannot legitimately afford confront them with bad faith. Society itself is built on the infrastructure of faith; whether you are a believer or not, we all have the collective responsibility to ensure that people’s faith in certain institutions are not abused. Looking away from the abuse of faith in religious institution is one step away from looking away from similar abuses in the integrity of healthcare, banking, educational, and other social systems.

Finally, I must restate that the issue at stake is not whether people should give to churches. Worldwide, non-profit organizations rely on public donations to run. Personally, I would not mind giving to my former university, but nobody has ever asked. As far as I know, no Vice Chancellor has taken the initiative to create a scheme that allows regular donations from alumni. The result is that outside churches that have created such a structure, our part of the world hardly makes public donations. What we do is more at a personal level rather than institutional. It is a culture that has both its good sides and its shortcomings.

If you belong to a church or similar community, you should give to support them. Churches need regular donations to operate. Many local churches have social welfare projects, and their efforts are why society has not broken down entirely in this Tinubu economy. Their efforts might be invisible to the public, but they have helped families pay house rent and school fees, sent food items, and even paid hospital bills. All these they do in addition to other moral support they provide. Initiatives like that deserve support, and whoever is led to give to support should do so. What is unacceptable is making exaggerated promises to get more money out of people. No, God will not make you billionaires because you paid tithe. And no, your life is not guaranteed because you paid tithe. Pastors who espouse that logic are no different from money ritualists.

AS a journalist, I admire cartoonists, the visual artists who draw and create engaging captions, for their genius. They are not only creative and original, but also investigative, often incorporating humour, wit and satire in their works. When they are in their element, they graphically capture the imagination of the audience, as the trending cartoon in the BUSINESSDAY newspaper showing President Bola Tinubu having his day in the sun with his four ‘dogs’ – agbero, judiciary, INEC, police – has done.

“I will not be running in 2027 election… I can walk comfortably,” Tinubu crowed. It was simply ingenious, such that a senior journalist who forwarded it to me gushed: “I have never seen a more meaningful cartoon.”

It aptly illustrated the phenomenon of “state capture,” and why many Nigerians believe that 2027 is already a done deal for Tinubu. The cartoon also illustrates what it means to have capacity in Nigerian politics, a euphemism for political brigandage. The idea of having political structure, which is what the absolute control of the umpire, judiciary, state and non-state actors typifies, is nothing other than the criminalisation of the democratic space. 

Our democracy has become a game not birthed in the rule of law and the value of decency but a game where the rule of strong men has become the norm. Anyone who is in doubt should dispassionately analyse what happened in Rivers State before, during and after last Saturday’s local government poll.

The judiciary and police – the primary law enforcement agencies – have aided INEC in making a complete mess of Nigeria’s democracy. Under President Tinubu’s watch, a Nigerian judge ordered the Nigeria Police Force to abdicate its constitutional responsibility as the principal law enforcement and lead security agency in Nigeria and violate Section 4 of the Police Act and Regulations by shirking its responsibilities of prevention and detection of crime, apprehension of offenders and preservation of law and order.

And the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, a man with a PhD in Peace and Security Studies, did the unthinkable – ordered his men off the streets. And when to his mortification, the election was conducted in a relatively peaceful atmosphere, he disingenuously ordered that the 23 local government secretariats which they had occupied since July be unsealed even when there was ample intelligence that hoodlums intended to attack.

And they struck, maiming, killing and destroying public property. As I write, despite the fact that the hoodlums struck in broad daylight, nobody has been arrested and none will be arrested because democracy in Nigeria has become a criminal enterprise. It is about having the capacity to visit terrorism and violence on the people and properties of government. Capacity in Nigeria’s democracy means ability to build structures of criminality.

Penultimate week, I gave an unsolicited advice to Dr. Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate in the September 21 Edo governorship election, thusly: If I were him, I will not go to court to seek redress. The matter will be settled in the streets.

Some people accused me of calling for anarchy. Far from it. Those promoting anarchy are people who work against free, fair and credible polls. In any case, what can be more anarchic than the events that unfolded in Rivers State on Monday?   

Besides, as Frederick Douglass, the escapee slave, who later became the most important leader of the movement for African-American civil rights in the 19th century, once noted: “Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Douglass further opined that “the limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” In other words, power yields nothing until it encounters superior force.

So, as long as the onus is on Ighodalo to prove that the result declared by INEC was not a true reflection of the wishes of the electorate, rather than the responsibility being on the umpire, going to court is an exercise in futility, because he will depend on the benevolence of the same institution that committed the unconscionable electoral heist to prove his case.

Now, INEC under the chairmanship of Professor Mahmoud Yakubu is not known to be charitable. Predictably, it has refused, even when ordered by the Edo State Governorship Election Tribunal, to grant the PDP and Ighodalo access to the materials used for the election.

The enrolled order given in the suit marked EPT/ED/GOV/01M/2024 between Ighodalo Asuerinme and PDP as applicants and INEC, Okpebholo Monday and the APC as respondents and dated September 29, 2024, was unambiguous.

Signed by the tribunal secretary, Mu’azu Ibrahim Bagudu, and chairman, Justice W. I. Kpochi, it ordered INEC to grant the PDP and its candidate “unfettered access to and open up for inspection all electoral documents or any document in the custody of the National Chief Electoral Commissioner or any officer of the Commission/1st Respondent, particularly the Voter Registers, Ballot papers, the BVAS machines, Forms EC25B, EC25B(i) Forms EC40A and Forms EC40C which were utilized for the conduct of the Edo State Governorship election.”

Armed with the order, Ighodalo’s team led by Olusegun Jolaawo, SAN, on Monday, visited the INEC headquarters in Benin City, to access the materials but met a brick wall. The Resident Electoral Commissioner, REC, Anugbum Onuoha refused to see them. After waiting for several hours, they were directed to come back on Tuesday. Unfortunately the same condescending treatment was meted out to them when they returned.

But I doubt if any discerning Nigerian is surprised that despite the explicitness of the enrolled order, it was only going to be observed in the breach. INEC, like the police, judges and, of course, thugs are on the leash as depicted in the sublime cartoon and only hearken to the voice of their master, the man whose time has come to rule Nigeria.

Meanwhile, even as INEC was playing hide and seek, APC supporters, also on Monday, besieged its headquarters in Benin City to ensure that the documents were not released. How lawless can a society get?

The tragedy in all this is that if INEC refuses to release those materials as ordered by the Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal, nothing will happen. Nothing happened in 2023 when such malfeasance was exhibited. Why will it happen now?

But even if Ighodalo surmounts the INEC hurdle, the judiciary which appears, according to Mr. Jibrin Okutepa, SAN, “to have taken a stand and seems to be siding with the people who have no regard and respect for the sovereignty of the people,” will do maximum damage because the requirement that no subpoenaed witness can testify unless his or her frontloaded statements on oath are filed along with the petitions within 21 days is tantamount to leading the petitioner to a judicial guillotine.

This is where Nigeria’s democracy is right now. Conscienceless men and women, playing god, wilfully subvert the electoral will of the people and ask those handed the short end of the stick to go to court, only to lay ambush at the temple of justice.

But when it is their turn, rather than swallowing the same pill of going to court to ventilate their grievances, if any, they call out their dogs of war, as it was the case in Rivers State on Monday, plundering the commonwealth, maiming and killing.

Perhaps, IGP Egbetokun does not yet realise the enormous damage he has done to the reputation of the Nigeria Police Force in the last one week with his unseemly disposition to duty and appalling subservience to the powers that be. Now, Nigerians know that they don’t need 35,000 police men to have a peaceful election. 

They also know as a matter of fact that the police only provide cover to government-sanctioned heavies rather than guaranteeing the integrity of polls. Egbetokun’s anti-democratic reflexes is a proof that the concept of democracy in Nigeria has become a farce.

The wanton display of sophisticated weapons in Rivers State by non-state actors in the past week is scary. Nigeria is in a bad place. If only Tinubu can read the axiomatic handwriting on the wall and unleash his four dogs to serve common good rather than selfish political ends.

What Israel is doing in the Middle East is more than just fighting to stay alive. It has passed that peak. What Israel is doing is showing them nkali. The trouble with nkali is that it has limitations. If you defeat an enemy, they typically walk away and lick their wounds. But if you show your enemy nkali, they always return to fight again. But that is not what is dangerous about it. Because of the nkali, today’s enemy vows to measure up not just to fight and win but to wipe away the shame that nkali splashes on the face of its victims.

Before Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu went to the UN to speak, I assessed what he was doing in Gaza, the West Bank, and the surrounding environment as not different from what Moses and Joshua and other prophets of Judaism did in the Bible. When in his speech, he referred to Moses in his UN General Assembly speech; I knew he knew what he was doing. The Bible depicted God as the power behind the Israeli wars. In our time, God is the United States of America. It makes the law, changes it, and enforces it at will. As it did to God in the beginning, Israel still chooses when to obey and ignore America.

Netanyahu is doing what his forbearers did. In the last 2000 years, what dividend has this nkali brought to Israelis besides wars, expulsions, and exoduses? And the worst characteristic of nkali is that it is not a permanent state. No empire has maintained a state of nkali forever. Eventually, the inferior one today becomes superior tomorrow. And when he remembers the nkali, it triggers revenge. And the circle of violence continues.

The way nature does not accept a vacuum, it does not entertain a lopsided power structure forever. It balances it. That is why nkali does not last forever. Nkali ultimately withers like the penis in a refractory period.

Nothing justified the terror Hamas rained on innocent Israelis on October 7, 2023. At the same time, nothing justifies what Israel is doing in retaliation. October 7 is not a justification for the use of starvation as a weapon of war, the disregard of the Geneva Convention and all the international treaties as it regards prosecuting a war.

If you must reply evil with evil, be bold enough to say you are just as evil as your enemy. Own it. Don’t rationalise or justify it. It is okay to be as evil as your enemy. You can even surpass them in evil. It is within your rights. But don’t insult our intelligence by making it appear as if your evil is less cruel. Don’t invoke a higher moral ground or claim that you are fighting for our civilization when you are deploying the primitive tools humans have used all through history.

Nietzsche noted, “He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.” Human development has never followed a straight line. We often go in a zigzag form. We understand. Now and then, we have enough of our humankind ready to reopen the gates of hell we thought we had closed.

I never fail to remind myself that if Israel can do it, so can Russia. If Israel can do it and justify it, so can Nigeria. Who knows how long it will take before Nigeria does the same thing Israel is doing in the Middle East to those who are fighting for a Yoruba nation? If I cannot defend what Nigeria did during the Biafran-Nigerian Civil War, I cannot defend what Israel is doing now in the Middle East.

Nkali is sweet to the benefactors. It sparks cheers and wanton justification. Luckily for us, time surpasses nkali.

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo teaches post-colonial African history, Afrodiasporan Literature, and African folktales at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is also the host of Dr Damages Show. His books include “This American Life Sef” and “Children of a Retired God,” among others. His upcoming book is called “Why I’m Disappointed in Jesus.”

When the Israeli-Hamas war started one year ago, it didn’t look like it would last long. 

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s promise to avenge the deaths of over 364 Israelis killed and dozens taken hostage by Hamas on October 7 at a music concert left little doubt it was going to be a bloody phase. But how long, ugly or bloody, it would take for Netanyahu to kill the last Hamas, which was his minimum condition for peace, was hard to tell.

Unfortunately, with over 42,000 killed in Gaza, including women, children, UN workers and journalists, over 1500 Israelis killed and the fate of 101 hostages unknown, the last Hamas is still at large. The war has spread to Lebanon, and Iran is enmeshed.

War coming?

The regional conflict the world had tried to prevent is upon us, and with less restraint and increasing provocation, talk about another world war that sounded farfetched only months ago now seems probable. 

The war may not yet be on Africa’s doorstep, but the continent has not been an onlooker. There have been widespread pro-Palestinian protests in South Africa, increasing domestic pressure on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s government. Art was weaponised in Cape Town flats, with some residents deploying murals and graffiti in Palestinian flag colours. 

South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) has been perhaps one of the most audacious jurisprudential efforts to hold Israel to account. Since South Africa dragged Israel to the ICJ last December and obtained a ruling to stop Israel from potentially genocidal acts, Africa’s involvement in the war by other means has become more salient.

By deciding to drag Israel, South Africa risked bilateral relations of R876 billion in trade. Still, it counted it as a fair price not just to assuage domestic pressure but also as a matter of conviction for ties that run deep and to honour its own historical experience.

Beyond South Africa

Israel has managed to ignore the court and taken advantage of the U.S., blindsided by weak leadership and the November 4 presidential election, to ramp up attacks in the region. With no let-up in the Russia-Ukraine war and the supply chain problems it has created, the escalation in the Israel-Hamas war has forced African countries to brace up.

Egypt has been on edge because of the impact refugee spillover and possible military action could have on its fragile economy, never mind the potential influx of militant Palestinian jihadists. It has resisted suggestions for refugees to camp in Sinai. 

In August, Algerian President Abdelmajid Tebboune promised to send troops to Gaza. Yet, the president and Hamas leaders knew that was only a political statement – Cairo would never grant passage that could potentially bring the war home.

In Ghana, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and Kenya, the sentiment is pro-Israel, particularly in Kenya. Shortly after the outbreak of the war, President William Ruto tweeted that Kenya stood side by side with Israel and condemned the October 7 attack outright. 

One year later, Kenya’s position has not changed, which some have argued is partly informed by the robust economic ties with Tel Aviv, especially in agriculture and the security challenge that al-Shabaab poses to Kenya. 

The authorities believe whatever weakens Hamas weakens al-Shabaab, a terror group that staged more than 10 attacks last June/July alone in eastern Kenya, killing 30 security officers. In Israel’s pursuit of the last Hamas, Kenya feels obliged to take more than a passing interest because a defeated Hamas means less oxygen for its radical sympathisers elsewhere, including al-Shabaab.  

Giant asleep

Nigeria, the continent’s largest economy and its most populous, has offered a muted, somewhat confused response to the Israeli-Hamas war. The official line, worn for use after decades of lip service and repeated at this year’s UNGA, is a two-state solution. That’s also the official position of the African Union (AU). However, the precarious, almost 50-50 Muslim-Christian population leaves the Nigerian government walking on eggshells in Israeli-Palestinian matters. 

It is cautious not to offend the predominantly Muslim North and potentially spark deadly pro-Palestinian sectarian protests. It is also careful not to offend Christian sensibilities in the South, especially a growing evangelical population that considers itself a part of New Testament Israel. 

Over the years, Nigeria has cooled from a radical supporter of liberation struggles on the continent and elsewhere to a somewhat insular patron. It has been subdued by its internal problems of insecurity and economic hardship.

It’s not certain how the Nigerian government would respond to Israel’s current two-pronged war in pursuit of Hamas and Hezbollah, with Iran in the mix. But an escalation might, among other things, affect oil prices, Nigeria’s mainstay, and complicate the already fraught domestic petrol product market. 

Experts have said a repeat of the oil market chaos caused by the Middle East crisis of 1973-74 is unlikely. However, with a far larger population and a barely competitive economy, today’s Nigeria is far from the conditions that made it benefit from the Middle East chaos five decades ago. 

More migration headache

Yet, the price Africa is paying is beyond the reading of its vital economic signs. Of the thousands caught up in Lebanon, the new epicentre of the conflict, many are African migrant workers. Following the escalation of the conflict, the Kenyan government has asked approximately 26,000 nationals in Lebanon to get help if they need to evacuate. 

The governments of Ethiopia (another African country with a significant migrant population in Lebanon), Uganda, Nigeria and South Africa are watching closely in a phase that may worsen the already complicated global migration and humanitarian crisis.

What started as the hunt for the last Hamas a year ago has grown into the pursuit of the last Hezbollah, and now, it seems, to their last supporters as well. However, as I wrote in a previous article, history teaches that war against an idea is unwinnable. Israel’s existence is proof enough if Netanyahu and the remnant hardliners in his cabinet cared to learn.

Untested leverage

Unlike in the 1970s, when few African countries had diplomatic ties with Israel, the country’s footprint on the continent has grown to the point where 44 of 54 countries have recognised Israel’s statehood. 

It’s fair to argue that Netanyahu only listens to Netanyahu. Yet, for whatever it is worth, the continent does not have to wait to pay a much higher price for this war before closing ranks and leveraging its closer ties to pressure Israel to accept a ceasefire. Except, of course, if the closer relationship means nothing. 

The National Orientation Agency (NOA) has dismissed as untrue reports insinuating that the Agency must give permision to citizens before they can use the National Anthem.

The correct submissions of NOA's Director-General, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, during an interview with Radio Kwara is that the Agency as the custodian of national symbols, will issue correct melodies of the National Anthem. He also advocated that those who produce national flags or use them for commercial advertisement purposes should obtain the correct versions from NOA.

As a matter of fact, all state offices of the Agency are currently undertaking programmes aimed at enlightening Nigerians on the lyrics of the reintroduced National Anthem.

For the avoidance of doubt, the new approvals given by the Federal Executive Council (FEC) prescribe that the first stanza of the National Anthem will be sung at all official government programmes, while the entire three stanzas will be used only at special events such as the Democracy Day, opening of parliament et cetera. The third stanza has been designated as national prayer.

In line with this mandate, NOA has released the correct and authentic lyrics of the National Anthem, reintroducing it as part of its initiative to promote the new National Anthem Act signed by the President.

The correct lyrics of the National Anthem are as follows:

Stanza 1
Nigeria, we hail thee
Our own dear native land
Though tribes and tongues may differ
In brotherhood, we stand
Nigerians all, are proud to serve
Our sovereign Motherland.

Stanza 2
Our flag shall be a symbol
That truth and justice reign
In peace or battle, honour’d,
And this we count as gain,
To hand on to our children
A banner without stain.

Stanza 3
O God of all creation
Grant this our one request.
Help us to build a nation
Where no man is oppressed
And so with peace and plenty
Nigeria may be blessed.

NOA therefore calls on all citizens to ignore such misleading reports and freely use the National Anthem, and simultaneously respect and honour the national symbols, which embody our nation’s aspirations and unity.

Paul Odenyi
Deputy Director Press
The National Orientation Agency
Date: Oct 9,2024
Lanre Issa-Onilu